The Yarra House located at Melbourne, Australia provides a beautiful source for interior design ideas. Often used interchangeably (and mistakenly) with interior decorating, interior design draws on several other disciplines in addition to interior decorating such as: environmental psychology, architecture and product design.

Designed by Leeton Pointon architects, Susi Leeton architects and Allison Pye Interiors, the Yarra House was the recent winner of the 2009 Australian Interior Design Awards in the category of ‘Colour in Residential Interiors’.

A carefully considered response to a very steep site with understated ‘mute’, gently sloping, roughly rendered walls and a curved concrete roof. Celebrating modern Australian family life, a generosity of space without ostentation that is practical and serviceable.

A fluidity of surfaces is witnessed in the Yarra House. Floors become walls; walls become ceilings; and ceiling opens up to sky. Light cascades down oak and white plastered surfaces. It washes over limestone and marble, illuminating art, furniture and every handcrafted and natural surface throughout the house.

The focal point and central pivot of the house is a sculptural circular stair. This transitional element divides the entire double-storey space as it stretches out under a steep exterior site. Curved surfaces play against rigid lines in a style that the architects describe as ‘archaic’ – an effortless blend of both the primitive and artistic. Materiality was the primary factor in the selection of timbers, stone and every other interior feature. [Photograph by Peter Bennetts]

[Source: Idea Award]