Having received a commendation in the most recent Australian Interior Design Awards, one could be forgiven for assuming John Wardle Architects’ Freshwater Place Apartment project is some elaborate and obscure exhibit of avant-garde design.

However, what you see is in fact an apartment that, whilst thoroughly modern and unquestionably sophisticated, has a welcoming and familiar atmosphere and is all about balancing family areas with more private, intimate rooms.

As JWA, one of Melbourne’s most lauded architecture and design studios and a proud Lovelight partner, explain: “Spaces for family engagement must be balanced with others for retreat.” The result is a city-front apartment that’s open and inviting, but where intimacy is always a drag or push away.

Just look at the floor-to-ceiling windows, which saturate each room with natural light and frame one-of-a-kind vistas of the Melbourne cityscape, and are complimented with sweeping pencil pleat curtains—sheer fabrics for the living area, blockout for the bedrooms.

A sofa and Eames-style chairs for comfortable viewing of the Melbourne CBD skyline.

Of course, there are plenty of moments where JWA’s award-winning ambition are plainly evident. Oversized columns throughout the living area, now artfully adorned in sheer fabric, required a collaboration between the Collingwood designers and Lovelight.

The result was a custom circular design which gracefully weaved our alabaster pencil pleat curtains around the columns to trace the perimeter of the room, effectively taking an open space and transforming it into a closed shelter.

When it came to furnishings and colour motifs, JWA juxtaposed the marble-like greys and whites of custom timber linings with unique pops of colour, including retro-style wallpaper in the nursery and swathes of red and blood orange in the study area.

The same was done in a partitioned nook of the living room, where JWA cleverly arranged a sofa and Eames-style chairs not around a television, but a sweeping view of the Melbourne skyline. What better way to compliment such a unique and breathtaking space?

Custom timber lining combines with swirling alabaster pencil pleat curtains.

JWA weaved subtle pops of colour throughout each space, like the retro-style wallpaper in the nursery.

The luxurious timber lining follows you every where you go, even out onto the balcony.

Floor-to-ceiling windows flood each room with natural light.

Sprawling Melbourne vistas in every window.

Waking up with the sun beaming between Lovelight blockout curtains.

Studying has never been so stylish.