decus
Heavy Metal travertine staircase with a sculptural blackened steel balustrade curving down the stairwell, alongside a slim vertical wall light in a concrete-toned stairwell

Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal Powder room with a floating travertine vanity and integrated stone step, a tall rectangular mirror above, and cove lighting along the ceiling and floor, styled with a branch arrangement and a small framed artwork
Heavy Metal Living room with a large boucle sectional sofa around a sculptural stepped timber coffee table, a stone side table and travertine fireplace, timber-framed armchair, and a bold abstract sculptural artwork on the wall, opening to a garden through folding glass doors
Heavy Metal Kitchen with a fluted travertine island bench and matching splashback, dark bronzed upper cabinetry with under-lighting, timber joinery, three timber and black-metal bar stools, and a trailing potted plant on the benchtop.
Heavy Metal Living room with a built-in study nook, textured boucle sofa and camel armchairs around an organic-shaped timber coffee table, a linear gas fireplace, and a large textured abstract painting above stone panelling
Heavy Metal Bedroom with a wide upholstered bedhead flanked by brass wall lights, sculptural timber side table, framed artwork above, and floor-to-ceiling glass doors opening to a courtyard with a potted olive tree
Heavy Metal_Master ensuite
Heavy Metal Timber-lined hallway leading to a glass-enclosed wine cellar with backlit shelving of stored bottles, alongside a curved staircase and a sculptural bronze wall light

Built into a natural east-west slope in Sydney's eastern suburbs, Heavy Metal is a family home shaped around light, space and a considered connection between indoors and out. Where the architecture holds a certain rigour, Decus was engaged to soften it from within. "A study of proportion and materiality," is how lead designer Charlene Cong describes it. The brief: contemporary with a classic twist, restrained to a minimalist palette of render, timber, travertine, and blackened metal, deployed with precision.

In the kitchen, a monolithic travertine island anchors the room in quiet sculptural weight, while in the family room, render walls and timber joinery frame a slatted skylight that draws soft, filtered light overhead. At the heart of the plan, a sculptural, curving steel balustrade anchors the staircase, its patinaed form threading between travertine treads and rendered walls with quiet authority. Countless internal junctions, from the stone-carved basin and floating travertine steps of the powder room to the steel framing of the windows, required intricate alignment, every detail resolved so the finish reads as inevitable rather than laboured.

Materials were chosen for durability as much as beauty, built to age well and last for the family who would come to inhabit it, from the private stone courtyard beyond the main bedroom's sliding doors, to the timber and steel wine cellar tucked next to the stair. Texture and finish, chosen in concert, ground daily life in warmth, materiality, and quiet confidence.

Heavy Metal is built on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.

Architects Sumich Chaplin
Build Innovative Building Services
Landscape Wyer & Co
Visualisation NOAS

These images are visualisations of a recently built project. All architectural finishes, joinery and most lighting accurately reflect the built outcome. The furnishings, decor and decorative objects are a conceptual interior scheme conceived by Decus and are shown for illustrative purposes only.

Collaborators on this project include Atelier Furniture Simple Studio Tim Noone Euroluce Volker Haug Whitecliffe Imports Worldstone Granite Marble Works Galerie-Philia Cosh Living Criteria Collection Cult Design District Dunlin EStudio Orth Studio Henry Wilson Jardan Lighting Collective Nomi Snelling Studio Space Furniture Tanika Jellis The Makery Club Studio Elliott Clarke Textiles James Dunlop Textiles Salbini Milgate South Pacific Fabrics