“I STEPPED INTO THE APARTMENT FOR THE FIRST TIME, AND IT ALREADY FELT LIKE HOME.”

They were relocating from Europe to Melbourne for work and had already found the apartment, a Chapel Street warehouse conversion with exposed brick, timber boards and windows tall enough to make the place feel closer to New York than to Prahran.

What they had not found was anyone to run it. Their Scandinavian furniture was already on a ship, their work had them travelling right up until the move, and the apartment needed to be a functioning home on the day they walked in rather than a project waiting to be started. There were several conversations and a number of emails before they were satisfied that we could take all of that on, and would.

The design itself was a matter of blending what was arriving with what we bought here, so the finished rooms read as one home rather than two continents sharing a floor. The Danish pieces set the tone, the Australian furniture, lighting and artwork were chosen around them, and trade supplier access kept the cost of the additions down.

The part most people do not picture is everything else. Bed linen and a doona, towels, a laundry basket, an iron, containers for the kitchen and basic groceries so the first morning did not begin with a shop. None of that is design. All of it is the difference between arriving at a home and arriving at a room full of boxes.