In a landmark 1960s block moments from the beach, interior designer Britt Ross brings her bold, retro eye to a compact apartment layered with colour, pattern and flea market treasures.
Words HANDE RENSHAW Photos PRUE RUSCOE Interior Design & Styling BRITT ROSS
Local craftsmanship features throughout, including bespoke candelabras by ceramic artist Alana Beveridge, which sit either side of a scalloped-edge mirror and add a playful, tactile touch.
Vintage orange lucite handles add a pop of colour to the joinery, paired with a tap by ABI Interiors and the Marigold Bowl from Mesa by Tony.
Facing west, the apartment called for a considered mix of colour and pattern.
Britt Ross set out to preserve the apartment’s original character while layering in her signature maximalist, retro style.
A vintage Mario Bellini for Cassina coffee table, in chrome with a mirrored top, sourced from Curated Spaces.
“Sounds cliché but when I walked in I knew that I loved it. It had the perfect amount of quirky features that it immediately stood out from the sea of beige I was used to viewing.”
A bespoke bullion fringed tassel valance designed by Britt sits above the bed, styled with the Pippa Cotton Pillowcase Set by SUKU Home and a Varmblixt table lamp by Sabine Marcelis for IKEA.
In the bedroom, a Czechoslovakian glass chandelier, a coat hook sourced at a Paris flea market and a reframed signed Rodriguez artwork add to Britt’s collection of vintage pieces.
‘The bedroom rug to headboard moment is my favourite, probably because this was what took me the longest to decide on,’ says Britt Ross.
‘The original blue bathroom and etched glass doors were the main selling points along with its location down a really quite cul-de-sac that’s about a 5 minute walk to both Bronte and Tamarama beaches.’
In the retro blue bathroom, a Sun Shower Curtain from Oliver Thom.
Gypsy, the one-bedroom home of interior designer Britt Ross, holds on to its original character while making room for a lifetime of collected pieces.
Britt had stopped house hunting altogether when the apartment appeared in an emailed real estate newsletter months later. She went to see it and had bought it within days. After six years overseas in a city without a beach, being a five-minute walk from Bronte and Tamarama was a dream.
‘Sounds cliché but when I walked in I knew that I loved it. It had the perfect amount of quirky features that it immediately stood out from the sea of beige I was used to viewing.’
The original blue bathroom and etched glass doors were the main draw, and rather than strip them back, Britt embraced them. Every apartment in the building has a bathroom in a different colour, and Britt made the most of hers, carrying the blue across the walls and ceiling.
With the apartment facing west, colour and pattern were layered through every room to catch the warmth of the afternoon light. Flea market finds from Paris and Belgium share space with an original 1960s modular sofa and vintage Murano glass lighting, while bespoke candelabras by ceramic artist Alana Beveridge flank a scalloped-edge mirror.
The bedroom took the longest to resolve. After a year of deliberating, Britt designed a flamestitch rug that runs up the wall as a headboard, its pattern matching perfectly at the corner, with checkerboard carpet panels in chocolate and vanilla framing the top and sides.
‘At night they give off the most epic peachy glow,’ she says of the Sabine Marcelis lamps alongside, ‘which really leans into that retro, 70s-lounge vibe.’
At under 40 square metres, every inch needed a purpose. A banquette with hidden shoe storage and a pill-shaped table make room for dinner for two, the television tucks away behind pocket doors and sculptural multi-bulb fixtures turn a single ceiling outlet per room into a feature.
For Britt, it’s the collected pieces, or ‘trinkets’ as her partner calls them, that make the apartment feel like home.
‘All of them have a story behind them and their own little history.’
Location: Bronte/ Gadigal Country
Interior Design & Styling: Britt Ross
Build: Rosato Projects
