Interior design duo Handelsmann + Khaw designed the Elizabeth Bay Apartment, which is home to a cohesive, Belgian-inspired ambience imbued with a cozy, silken luster. Overlooking Sydney Harbour, Elizabeth Bay Apartment is a residence sheathed in a suffused golden light and dreamy ambience. Balancing contemporary livability with domestic nostalgia, the home is a culmination of textures, greenery, bespoke furniture, joyously unpredictable styling and tranquil schematics.
Belgian charm has informed a subdued palette of soft edges and velvety surfaces; each alteration placing the integrity of the user at the core.  The yellow has been bleached out of floorboards, marble cladding was torn from the fireplace, and all surfaces – floors, walls and ceilings – brought into a unified scheme Tania Handelsmann and Gillian Khaw define as ‘dusty plaster.’ An Otsumigaki finish — a clay and lime premixed plaster — brings a textural quality to walls.
Once divided by a frameless glass separation, an exterior garden language has been introduced through the incorporation of steel-framed doors and sparse furnishing. The winter garden, with its abiding retro beauty, serves to also draw the eye out to the exterior foliage in a reserve across the street, connecting the apartment with its streetscape.
Adjacent to the interior garden, a space has been converted into a library, complete with a rolling ladder and an eclectic charm that seamlessly continues the intrepid styling throughout. Elizabeth Bay Apartment channels both the nostalgic charm that distinguishes the work of Handelsmann + Khaw and an entirely unique set of client-driven intents