The Kinfolk Home by Nathan Williams

Author:Nathan Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Artisan
Published: 2015-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

Jonathan and Annabel bought this armchair on Golborne Road and had it reupholstered by Pat Giddens, and the stool was found at a market in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Melbourne, Australia

Dan Honey & Paul Marcus Fuog

Dan Honey and Paul Marcus Fuog seem to have cracked the code to making the most efficient use of a small home. They live with their young daughter, Eike, in an apartment designed by architect Clare Cousins in one of Melbourne’s bustling laneways. “Although we both work in design, we felt really strongly about getting Clare involved,” Dan says. “She has an unfussy but warm approach and understood the space and how to occupy it in a way we didn’t.” Dan and Paul, who are both entrepreneurs, collaborated with Clare to incorporate elements of Japanese, modern Californian and Scandinavian design into their home. “Our place is a strange mongrel of the three with a little bit of Australia thrown in,” Dan says. Determined to maximize the amount of space in the small inner-city apartment, the pair sacrificed a sprawling private bedroom in favor of a more modest approach. “Our bed is now just a cozy sleeping nook that opens into the living room and is wonderfully connected to the rest of the house,” Dan says. “It’s become one of our favorite things about the apartment: Eike plays in it during the day, and I spend evenings lying there and chatting with Paul, who might be hanging out on the couch.” They employed strategic design decisions to open up the apartment and create the illusion of space, including outfitting the house with large pull-out drawers under Eike’s bed and in the dividing joinery between the couple’s bedroom and living areas. “A limited color and material palette is important to create a sense of space, openness and fluidity where one space seamlessly flows into another,” Dan says. While living in such close quarters can make it difficult to separate business and leisure when working from home, they respect the importance of switching off and devoting time to each other. “We have a rule of no digital devices during the first hour of the morning and the last hour before bed,” Dan says. “It helps us both feel more in control and allows us to enjoy the quiet.” Mornings often begin with a wake-up call from Eike, who jumps into their bed with a rousing request for muesli. They then open the blinds—a symbolic gesture that happens only when they’re ready to let in the day and the chaos of the city below. Dan and Paul travel a lot for work, but they’ve grown to appreciate the stability and solidity that comes with owning a home. “With travel comes transience,” Dan says. “It’s romantic and filled with wonder, but it can also feel unstable and unsafe at times. We feel very lucky to be able to experiment with how and where we live, but it’s reassuring to know that if we go too far or if things get out of control, then we can always come back to our base.

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