The Little Darling
Design
AlphaMade
Build
AlphaMade
Photography
Ling & Jace
Location
Inner-city, Sydney
Year
2023
The Little Darling involved the re-imagination of a charming terrace in Sydney’s inner-East. The original home was a myriad of small and disconnected spaces that were inefficient and ill-considered. The brief was to overhaul the home to create a sophisticated city oasis that married distinctive original details with a sleek and masculine new aesthetic.
Welcome to The Little Darling - a small inner-city terrace transformed into a treasure box of wonder and surprise. The original structure had all the classic hallmarks of an early 1900’s colonial worker’s cottage. Its already-small footprint felt even smaller with its single bathroom and pokey living space. Working within the confines of the building, we overhauled the floor plan by knocking through the small laundry and bathroom to make one big open-plan kitchen/dining area, whilst adding a personality-filled downstairs powder room centrally located under the stairwell. The footprint of the only upstairs bathroom was also readjusted to make room for a well-proportioned ensuite to the primary bedroom that has been cleverly concealed behind joinery. Layering of various colours, textures and finishes was key in bringing the home together - respecting and enhancing its character whilst injecting modern masculine charm. Stone selection was particularly important in this regard. Verde Alpi marble was used heavily throughout the bathrooms, kitchen and dining room to bring a sense of luxury and cohesion across the terrace. Wallpaper also provided another layer of old-world glamour to the space, with the use of a joyous marigold-coloured wallpaper in the powder room, coupled with a more period-appropriate tweed wallpaper by Missoni Home in the adjacent dining room. On the fringe of Sydney’s King Cross, the terrace is now a grown-up and refined entertainer’s home that provides its owners the perfect place to retreat from the noise and bustle that surrounds it.
