Rose Bay by Stafford Architecture

In recent years, Australian designers have taken advantage of Poliform’s extensive offering to create seamless transitions from one part of a house to another. The Rose Bay House by Stafford Architecture is a project that has made full use of Poliform’s collection of architectural systems and furniture pieces. The house’s facade features a series of fluted concrete curves echoing in the beautiful kitchen island, albeit in a sophisticated shade of grey-green. “We treated the kitchen as a central element of the home. We wanted to translate the solid, robust material found on the exterior into something delicate and soft,” Stafford Architecture project lead Erik Smithson says.

The flow of the house stems from the pivotal location of the kitchen and the transition of joinery and furniture that extends from it. “The kitchen is visually connected to adjacent internal living spaces as well as to the external patio and rear garden,” Erik adds. “The curved walls, glazing, and joinery soften the interior spaces.”

In the lounge room, with its expansive views over Rose Bay to the city skyline beyond, a Poliform Saint-Germain sofa and Nara and Orbit side tables continue the emphasis on the arc and extend this playful design language throughout the home. Materials constantly refer to a core palette of Carrara and Calacatta marble, black elm timber, bronze, brass, and glass to create a sense of effortless continuity.

Melbourne Penthouse by Amelia Barry Interiors and Poliform

A Poliform kitchen sets the tone for an extensive renovation of a penthouse on the 27th floor of an early 2000s tower in Melbourne’s CBD. The apartment has incredible views across the city skyline, but the interior was tired and uninspiring before Poliform senior design consultant Alessandro Spina kickstarted the transformation with a sophisticated kitchen and butler’s pantry. Steel-framed doors, lacquered cabinets, and porcelain benchtops in a leathered stone finish stamped a definite New York City aesthetic on the space.

This sense of modern, refined, inner-city luxury was the springboard for Amelia Barry Interiors to fold more of Poliform’s exquisite materiality through the rest of the apartment. “I find this to be the case in many of our projects,” Amelia says. “The kitchen is the heart of the home and should exert influence on the house as a whole. We took the pared-back palate and let the materials and fittings do the talking in the rest of the space. The craftsmanship, the attention to detail, and the quality of the materials make these kitchens incredibly appealing. There is a synergy between Poliform’s kitchen, wardrobe, and furniture items that is subtle and refined, making them a joy to work with.”

St Martins by Kestie Lane Studio and Matt Gibson

In the St Martins House by Matt Gibson Architects + Design, with interiors by Kestie Lane Studio, the use of a common design language provided by Poliform helped the seamless transition from the surface-heavy areas, such as the kitchen, to the more textile-based rooms in a house. “Our concept for this renovation was to design an open-style kitchen that would serve as a hub for entertaining whilst making a bold design statement. We developed a richly textured palette where the sleek Artex kitchen from Poliform juxtaposed the white bagged brickwork,” Kestie Lane says. 

Treating the kitchen as furniture allowed the high ceilings of the Victorian house to remain uninterrupted, creating a sense of space and enhancing the dramatic black-and-white scheme. The Damasca marble bench tops, use of tinted glass, and dark stained timber for cupboard doors add an element of moody restraint that fits with the building’s heritage and dovetails with the designer’s vision for the project. “While the clients were committed to preserving the house’s distinct character, ” Kestie says, “their brief was to infuse a modern European aesthetic into the design. Poliform’s selection of refined materials, timber veneers, interesting finishes, metal details, and glass enabled a successful fusion of their pieces into our design palette. It was a harmonious collaboration between Poliform, the project builders, and our local joiner with a flawless installation process”. 

The kitchen includes a dedicated appliance pantry with dual-pocket doors that open to activate concealed lighting and reveal a sleek stainless-steel workstation that can also perform as a convenient breakfast bar. The inclusion of an extendable stainless-steel bench was another clever addition that created more bench space for the clients and enhanced the functionality of the kitchen at key preparation times.