Decorating with a wide array of different patterns and contrasting colours is no small feat, but Australian interior and textile designer Anna Spiro has pulled it off with aplomb.
Known for her wild and vibrant aesthetics – a fantastical cocktail of Jungalow, Cottagecore, new bohemian, and shabby chic – Australian interior and textile designer Anna Spiro’s latest project is her own satellite office with a showroom apartment.
Set within a two-storey Spanish Mission, art deco building, in the suburb of New Farm in Brisbane, Australia, with the office on the ground level and the showroom apartment on the second floor, the project was a wonderful opportunity for Spiro and her team to go a little wild and show their clients how they can create a fabulous atmosphere using colour and pattern.
“I wanted to create a space that felt both exciting and relaxing. We also wanted the rooms to flow into each other and that has been achieved by linking colours throughout with the use of paint colour, wallpaper and patterned fabrics,” Spiro says.
“The building is located on a very busy street in New Farm and when you walk inside here you would never expect to see or feel the way you do inside. I love that from the outside nobody would ever think we would have something so unique and special happening up here in this space.
“It’s a lovely space to stop and rest, and breathe. There is so much to take in up here you could spend days just sitting and looking.”
Because Spiro’s five-person team at Anna Spiro Design work from Brisbane, North Queensland, and Melbourne, the ground floor of the apartment serves as its satellite office where they gather once a month for team meetings.
On the second floor is an apartment that serves as a showroom where Spiro and her team can take clients to view examples of their furniture, and to give them the experience of walking through rooms designed and decorated by Anna Spiro Design. In the near future, the apartment will be available for people to rent for luxury stays or events.
“The apartment needed to be a showcase for how we layer pattern on pattern, and how we curate collections of beautiful antiques and art into our work,” she says.
“It also needed to have examples of the custom-made and designed sofas, armchairs and other furniture items that we use in our projects, so our clients can sit on them and try them out before going ahead with ordering the furniture we suggest.”
The office and meeting rooms for the satellite office are located on the ground floor of the building. The second level originally contained three one-bedroom apartments, but these were transformed into a single, large three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment, with a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, and lounge room, with each section connected by hand-painted glazed mullion doors.
“The three distinct communal areas can be closed off or opened up with the use of glass and timber mullion doors.”
When standing at one end of the apartment, one can look through the two sets of glazed doors to the other end, while the eyes are teased by the myriad colourful fabrics, wallpapers, collections, and art, curated by Spiro.
The project’s pièce de résistance is the front sitting room, which is clad in the dreamy “Island Garden” wallpaper – a product collaboration between Spiro and world-renowned hand painted wallpaper company de Gournay. Together, they have created a truly special mural wallpaper that has been hand-painted on very beautiful, textural tea-stained rice paper.
Inspired by Spiro’s love for the Great Barrier Reef and Stradbroke Island – an island about 30 kilometres southeast of Brisbane that she calls home – “Island Garden” is composed of colourful fish, coral, sand, shells, and trees.
“Our de Gournay and Anna Spiro Design custom hand-painted Island Garden wallpaper is the absolute showstopping ingredient in this space and everything branches off it to create a feeling of absolute wonderment,” she says.
“Being in this room is like being at the beach every day, and every day you see something you didn’t notice yesterday – an absolute thrill for the senses.”
Complementing the wallpaper in this room is a green-painted timber floorboard; chartreuse trims; a pale sea foam custom-made armless sofa with frilled skirt; a collection of mismatched armchairs; an old French gilt sofa; and a painted Georgian bookcase filled with a collection of old books and quirky little artefacts Spiro has collected over the years.
Each of the rooms are adorned with gorgeous fabrics from brands such as Brunschwig & Fils, Pierre Frey, de Gournay, Ottoline, Morris & Co, Art by Sally Gabori, Bronte Leighton-Dore, Jane Guthleben, and of course, Anna Spiro Textiles, while English Tapware products were used in all the bathrooms.
“In this apartment, our clients can experience the wonderful, comfortable feeling of being wrapped in colour and pattern which is often so hard to imagine when a scheme on paper is presented to them,” she says.
“It also offers our clients the opportunity to sit in the custom-made furniture and witness all the fine details that go into the customisation of everything from the window coverings right down to the bed linen.”
Photo: Tim Salisbury
