Inside a Clovelly Home Transformation — Designing a Soft Luxury Coastal Sactuary
By Deanna Michael | Elm & Ember Interiors | Interior Design Consultant Sydney
There's a moment in every custom build when the excitement shifts.
The plans are approved. The framework goes up. And suddenly — every decision that felt abstract on paper becomes very, very real.
That's exactly where this client was when she first reached out.
A busy professional with two kids, a full life, and a beautiful home taking shape in Clovelly in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. She had inspiration images saved everywhere. She knew the feeling she was after. But with work, school runs, sport, and family life filling every hour — she simply didn't have the time to visit showrooms, research materials, or piece together how it would all work cohesively.
And she didn't want to get it wrong.
So she handed me the plans. And we got to work.
Organic Textures + Refine Materials - Visual Noise = The New Coastal Sanctuary
The Brief: Warm Coastal. Quiet Luxury. A Home That Grows With the Family.
This client had a clear vision — she just needed someone to translate it into decisions.
Warm coastal but soft. Organic and considered. The kind of quiet luxury that doesn't shout — it simply feels right the moment you walk in. A home that was moving away from stark. traditional house tropes toward a refined “coastal soft luxury”. And with her kids now slightly older, she was ready to move beyond the purely practical. She wanted materials and finishes that felt elevated, not just durable.
That brief became the filter for every single decision we made together.
The Foundation: Polished Concrete With a Soft Sateen Finish
The starting point for any home is the floor. It runs through every space, connects every room, and sets the tonal foundation everything else responds to.
For this Clovelly home we specified polished concrete — but not the cold industrial version most people picture. This concrete has a soft sateen finish that catches the light warmly and feels almost silky underfoot. It reads luxurious rather than raw. Coastal rather than industrial. It’s softer underfoot and diffuses Sydney’s bright coastal sunlight beautifully.
That one decision anchored the entire palette. Warm. Organic. Quietly considered.
Every other material selection flowed from there.
The Kitchen: Where the Whole Home Comes Together
The kitchen was the heart of this project — and the space that carried the most weight emotionally for the client.
She wanted it to feel like the true centre of the home. A space where the family gathered, where guests were entertained, and where one very specific feature could shine.
The wine rack.
From the very beginning this was non-negotiable. A beautiful wine rack feature integrated into the kitchen — not an afterthought, not a standard joinery insert, but a genuine architectural moment.
Here's how we solved it.
Behind the custom metal wine racks we used a venetian plaster finish in a concrete-look tone that mirrors the polished concrete floor. The connection between floor and feature wall is subtle but intentional — it grounds the wine rack as part of the home's material story rather than something imported from a different brief. It adds movement, and artisanal, old-world texture to a highly functional, modern entertaining zone.
The racks themselves are custom metalwork. Elegant, considered, and completely bespoke. In the client's words — it's something everyone comments on when they walk in.
For the kitchen benchtops and island we specified Statuarietto Marble. The soft white ground and elegant fluid veining brought a classic European warmth to the space without overpowering the organic coastal palette. It elevated the kitchen from standard modern to high-end luxury. Paired with Polytec Coastal Oak cabinetry throughout — warm, consistent, and beautifully textural — the kitchen became exactly what it needed to be.
The heart of the home. Completely and undeniably.
The Bathroom & Laundry: Travertine, Fluted Glass, and the Details That Elevate
Throughout the bathroom, laundry, and WIR benchtops we specified Travertine Classic Vein Cut.
Travertine was the natural choice for this brief. Its warm ivory tones and subtle natural movement speak the same language as the concrete floor and the oak cabinetry — organic, warm, timeless. It doesn't compete. It connects. The Linear grain of the Coastal Oak grounds the space, while the chalky, textured warmth of travertine evokes a sophisticated, tactile coastal cliffside feel.
In the laundry — a space that's often purely functional — we made a considered decision that transformed the room entirely.
The overhead cabinetry is substantial. Heavy. In a smaller laundry space that can feel oppressive. So we specified fluted glass door inserts to break up the visual weight of those upper cabinets. The glass allows light to move through. The fluted texture adds a tactile detail that feels intentional rather than decorative. The result is a laundry that feels considered and elevated — not just organised.
Small decisions. Significant impact.
The Master Bedroom & WIR: Displaying What's Beautiful, Hiding What's Not
The master bedroom brief was simple — luxurious, calm, and deeply personal.
The fluted wall panel behind the bed head brought warmth and texture to the room without requiring colour. In a palette this quiet and considered, texture is everything. The vertical lines draw the eye upward, making the ceiling feel higher and the room feel more generous.
The WIR was where we made a decision I'm particularly proud of.
Rather than treating the entire wardrobe as storage to be hidden, we created a distinction between what's beautiful and what's functional. The glass wardrobe doors — elegant, bronzed, considered — are positioned to display the client's beautiful items. Handbags. Accessories. The things worth seeing.
Behind the solid infilled doors — the everyday. Hidden, organised, practical.
It's a wardrobe that feels like a moment rather than a necessity. And it completely transforms how the bedroom reads.
The Ensuite: Solving a Problem That Wasn't in the Brief
This is one of my favourite parts of this project — and it almost didn't happen.
The original brief didn't include the ensuite wall solution. But when I looked at the plans I noticed something. A large blank wall in the ensuite — the kind of space that typically gets a piece of artwork and nothing more.
I couldn't let it go to waste.
Instead we designed a custom storage cabinet — floor to ceiling, warm oak, considered in every detail — that turned a dead wall into one of the most functional and beautiful moments in the home. Extra storage in a space where storage is always needed. A design decision that will be used and appreciated every single day.
It doesn't always work out this way. Sometimes a large artwork is the right answer. But when the opportunity is there to add something genuinely useful and beautiful — that's what full home direction looks like.
Seeing the whole picture. Even the parts that weren't in the original brief.
The Result: Beyond Anything They Could Have Imagined
In the client's own words:
"Working with Deanna from Elm & Ember Interiors was honestly the best decision we made during our build. From the beginning, Deanna just got it. What could have easily become stressful and disjointed instead felt considered, calm and exciting because we had someone we trusted leading the vision.
The final result is beyond anything we could have imagined. The kitchen is truly the heart of our home and the wine rack feature is something everyone comments on. Every room flows beautifully together and feels luxurious, warm and timeless all at once.
Deanna has an incredible eye for detail and a real talent for creating homes that not only look beautiful but genuinely feel beautiful to live in."
This Is What Full Home Direction Looks Like
A cohesive material palette developed from a single anchoring decision. A kitchen that became the true heart of the home. A wine rack feature that nobody else could see — until it was built. A laundry that feels considered rather than purely functional. A wardrobe that celebrates what's beautiful. An ensuite solution that wasn't even in the brief.
Every decision made deliberately. Every space considered as part of a whole.
This is a Clovelly home in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. And this is what happens when every decision is guided by someone who can see the full picture.
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Deanna Michael is an interior design consultant and founder of Elm & Ember Interiors, based in Sydney. She works with homeowners across the Eastern Suburbs, Sutherland Shire, Wollongong, and the South Coast on full home direction, selections, colour, joinery, and styling.