Houzz Tours
My Houzz: First-Time Homeowner Gets Friends' Seal of Approval
A young person's first home in Sydney's inner-east benefits from Mum's green thumb and a handful of creative friends
Like any young new homeowner will know, the excitement of decorating your first home can be quickly eclipsed by the need to accumulate household essentials such as furniture items and appliances. But for Charmaine Viscayno, a public relations and youth engagement specialist for ANDPEOPLE, the rush to furnish her new home didn’t stop her from creating a unique space that best represents her personality, and the lifestyle in which she leads. Space-savvy furniture pieces are the backbone to the space, while the works of creative friends – from illustrations to ceramics and photographs – create a gallery of sorts.
Viscayno never had a specific scheme in mind when she began decorating her home. “I didn’t want it to feel contrived, so I never made a forced purchase,” she says. Being in such a small space, she did, however, have to carefully consider practicalities such as storage; and so she opted for furniture pieces that would display rather than conceal the many personal objects she has collected over the years. Prints, books, records and magazines decorate the home in various ways – atop a table, on a step ladder, or underneath a leafy pot plant. “I’ve collected them for so long and can’t bear to part with them,” Viscayno says.
Viscayno, pictured, admits that a lot of her friends prefer lounging on the floor when they visit. “We just gravitate towards it!” she says.
Magazines are one item in particular that are a staple in the home. Viscayno’s passion for glossy reads stems from her interest in writing and photography. She also uses them as visual references for work and inspiration for styling her home. Some of Viscayno’s closest friends produce independent magazines – NORTH Journal and MUSEUM – and she herself has contributed to them. They take pride of place in the home because Viscayno has been able to see the evolution of both titles.
The apartment sits on an angle, and so some rooms are unusually shaped. In the living room, Viscayno distracts the eye from the irregularity with an oversized frame and greenery. “I’ve had to work around how to best use this corner but, truth is, not a lot of people notice the shape, anyway,” she says.
The living room, which leads to the balcony, benefits from lots of natural sunlight. “It’s great in the afternoon,” she says. “The sun filters in nicely, and it’s a great spot for reading. I treat it like a second bedroom.”
The artwork on the walls was given to Viscayno by a friend who had just completed her art degree at the time. The housewarming gift was the first piece of art to line the walls of the new apartment, and sets the tone for the rest of the living room.
The artwork on the walls was given to Viscayno by a friend who had just completed her art degree at the time. The housewarming gift was the first piece of art to line the walls of the new apartment, and sets the tone for the rest of the living room.
The hand-woven rug was a bargain find at Rozelle Markets.
This corner of the living room is a temporary set-up until Viscayno finds the perfect armchair. “I want it to be a reading nook,” she says. Faux sheepskin from Ikea covers an Eiffel chair, and is embellished with dried king protea, which continues the apartment’s plant theme. “I didn’t actually realise they turned white when you dried them, but it has worked in my favour because I wanted this space to be neutral,” she adds.
Leaning against the wall is a framed picture of Viscayno’s first article in NORTH Journal.
Leaning against the wall is a framed picture of Viscayno’s first article in NORTH Journal.
The open living space is shared with a single-wall kitchen. Viscayno wanted to keep the space to a minimum but has personalised the sleek design with ceramics made by her long-time designer friends Andrew and Hannah from Kai-ba Ceramics. “I think what makes my place so special to me is that I get to showcase a lot of my friends’ works,” adds Viscayno.
“Every corner in my home is different,” she adds, but it is also forever evolving. “Quite often, I get inspiration from something or someone, which makes me look at my space in a different way and want to change certain things.”
While she may have compromised on overall size, a spacious balcony was a must-have feature of Viscayno’s first home. The living room seamlessly flows out onto the balcony and reveals the interesting exterior of the building. The whole exterior of the building block is cloaked in perforated, pressed metal screens in varying shades of gold, which create a warp and weft effect. “I like that it’s not your typical brown high-rise apartment and that the light that filters through always creates a different pattern on the wall,” says Viscayno.
Living greenery is a significant design feature both inside the apartment and on the balcony. “I started with a few outdoor plants and was given a few succulents as gifts. Since then, I’ve enjoyed propagating and giving them as gifts to friends,” she says. “I enjoy playing with the aesthetic of plants and incorporating them into more of a styled design as opposed to just having plants for the sake of it.” They also help connect the inside and outside zones.
Growing up, Viscayno remembers her mum always trying to instil her love of gardening onto her. “I hated helping in the garden – now my mum laughs at my sudden passion for plants,” she says. “The framed image of plants in the living room is a cheeky nod to her.”
A skateboard is propped up against the wall, amongst the greenery. There is, in fact, a skateboard in every room of the house – a collection she has attributed from working at ANDPEOPLE and alongside people in the skateboarding industry. “I like to have art in every room of the house, but I had trouble integrating some onto the balcony,” says Viscayno. “A skateboard seemed like the perfect solution. It adds a little something and breaks up the space.”
A skateboard is propped up against the wall, amongst the greenery. There is, in fact, a skateboard in every room of the house – a collection she has attributed from working at ANDPEOPLE and alongside people in the skateboarding industry. “I like to have art in every room of the house, but I had trouble integrating some onto the balcony,” says Viscayno. “A skateboard seemed like the perfect solution. It adds a little something and breaks up the space.”
Viscayno’s bedroom doesn’t get much light, so she turned a negative into a positive; intentionally styling it with dark woods and black accents to accentuate the moody tones in the room. Another collection of artworks, some by close friends, line the dead space under the window.
Another close friend of Viscayno’s, Daniel Gurton, is a fashion photographer whose work takes centre stage in the bedroom – it’s the largest frame pictured. “His work is beautiful and so arresting, and as soon as I moved in I knew I wanted to decorate the space with one of his prints,” she says.
The two smaller black-framed original artworks are by a friend Viscayno met at university, Matt Whiteley. “I asked him for this piece specifically as a way to encourage him to do more work, because I think he’s got great potential and I’d love to see more of what he can do,” she says.
The two smaller black-framed original artworks are by a friend Viscayno met at university, Matt Whiteley. “I asked him for this piece specifically as a way to encourage him to do more work, because I think he’s got great potential and I’d love to see more of what he can do,” she says.
The bathroom was initially Viscayno’s least favourite space in the apartment, mostly due to its tiny quarters and the lack of a window. The walls were painted in off-white and downlights cast a harsh clinical light. Knowing she couldn’t change its size, Viscayno decided to, again, turn a negative into a positive by accentuating the cosiness of the space. She painted the walls in ‘Forest Blues’ by Dulux and replaced the downlights with a cage pendant that uses a vintage bulb to emit a warm light. “I thought the whole industrial light thing had been done to death, but it ended up working better with the colours I had chosen,” she says.
Pendant: Bunnings
Pendant: Bunnings
To make some extra money, Viscayno rents out the second bedroom. The spare room basks in natural sunlight and leads directly out to the balcony via a sliding door.
Chair and throw: Ikea
Chair and throw: Ikea
My Houzz is an ongoing series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes in Australia and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more inspiring projects.
Who lives here: Charmaine Viscayno, a public relations and youth engagement specialist, and her flatmate
Location: Zetland, Sydney, Australia
Size: 76 square metres; 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
Acquiring the basics to set up a home was, admittedly, “quite daunting at first,” says Viscayno. The small living area made shopping for a dining table near impossible. Viscayno recalls, “Some of the tables I was looking at were bigger than the living room itself!” However, while it may not have seemed it at the time, the lack of options was a blessing in disguise. The first item she bought specifically for the apartment, a restored vintage dining table, imported from France, is now her favourite piece in the entire home. “It was the colours that drew me in,” she says.
Dinner parties are always memorable in the apartment. “There are always way too many people in the kitchen [which runs along an adjacent wall], but it just works,” says Viscayno. “Wine gets passed around and we crowd around the table. In fact, some of the best conversations have been had around that table.”
Dining table: Mitchell Road