This North Perth Townhouse Takes Colour Blocking To A New Level

We like to show you plenty of remarkable, beautiful, or even puzzling houses around Perth – but this one has a special place in our hearts. First coming onto our radar way back in 2016 when it was first completed (and this writer was a young, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed design student), its striking design always remained at the back of our minds.

Designed by architect Simon Pendal, the townhouse is found within a Georgian-style North Perth mews that was originally built in the ’90s. The economical renovations elegantly reimagined the home’s spaces, transforming it from drab and dated into something almost fantastical.

Practically glowing in emerald, the kitchen is dramatically sliced in two, indicating the cooking area versus a seating area. Each wash of colour throughout the house signifies a different use, with the kitchen’s hue originally stemming from the owner liking the idea of a green kitchen.

Bedrooms are kept an immaculate white, giving the effect of being within a cloud – a feeling which is heightened by ethereal linen curtains diffusing Perth’s harsh sunlight. In contrast, the dressing room is entirely black, creating a crisp delineation between spaces and a void between bedrooms. Downstairs, the crisp white walls and timber floors enhance the townhouse’s mouldings, lending a sense of period authenticity.

But the bit that really makes our heart sing? The image that has really stayed with us..? It’s got to be that dramatic Prussian blue sitting room.

Emphasised by the crisp white lines of the neighbouring rooms and the boldly contrasting furnishings, the room is designed to evoke chiaroscuro artwork – a style of highly contrasting paintings, with dark shadows that are emphasised by harsh light, it was popularised by painters like Rembrandt, Vermeer and Caravaggio.

The result of this dramatic colour treatment is that the townhouse seems outside of time or place – with ornate details like ceiling roses or cornicing flooded with colour, and offset by contemporary light fittings, the home is at once both historic and contemporary.

If you’d like to read more about the home, you can check out architect Simon Pendal’s website HERE.

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All photos by @robfrith