This residential project with Fisher & Paykel appliances features dark and moody interiors and a striking all-black kitchen.
Located on a steep hill in the waterfront city of Hobart, Australia, Slow Beam offers guests a highly curated experience of design, architecture, and place at the intersection of urban life and rugged native bushland.
Following several stays in her husband’s childhood bedroom, the idea for Slow Beam was born out of photographer Lauren Bamford’s desire for a place to call home when visiting family in Hobart. The couple joined forces with long-term friend and collaborator Sarah Trotter of Hearth Studio to complete a dramatic and impressive rental property that could be enjoyed by all.
Slow Beam is a unique experience, mostly because of its dark interior in which you feel completely enveloped, allowing you to focus on the stunning exterior views through the many floor-to-ceiling windows that flank the property. In no room is this more true than the all black kitchen, kept simple, low and streamlined with the help of Fisher & Paykel’s sleek appliances.
“I really wanted this project to be as minimal as possible with the kitchen reading more as furniture than as a full working day-to-day kitchen,” Sarah Trotter explains. “The under-counter fridge really made that possible. The fridge and freezer are integrated seamlessly under the benchtop. Fisher and Paykel really engaged with the design intent of the project making sure we could use black fixtures and deliver the seamless look to the kitchen.”
Lauren Bamford agrees, emphasising that the appliances give equal weight to aesthetics and functionality.
“They aren’t the type of appliances where you have to design around them and you can create highly customised spaces, both in terms of layout and materials,” she says. “So much of the design in the house has been about combining aesthetics with functionality and these products allowed us to continue this approach with the Henry Wilson brass handles and stained timber surfaces across the cabinetry, where the DishDrawer, fridge and freezer are placed.”
While the project was years in the making, Bamford reflects that;
“the brand was always really responsive and understanding of the process we were going through. Even as months and years went by, we never had to go back over things and explain who we were and what it was we were looking for. Fisher & Paykel were one of our best suppliers in that regard.”
Photo Credit: Lauren Bamford
