Home Tours

Aesthete and cultural connoisseur Amanda Love possesses a passion, vision and an inner circle that elevate her long-standing independent art advisory business, LoveArt, from expertise to art-world icon. Over 20 years of sourcing exceptional contemporary art across the globe and advising the sharpest private collectors and corporations, LoveArt has developed some of the most covetable collections in the world. You can only imagine what her personal collection and private haven are like. Until now.

This standout, six-floor terrace – one of only 11 residences in the Grande Pyrmont Bay Estate – presents a new level of ultra-luxury living in Sydney's historic city fringe.

The richness of oak panelling and painstakingly book-matched noce travertine floors sets off frameless floor-to-ceiling glass and endless green views. In the formal lounge, two JBL Everest speakers share the stage with a Balinese oil painting, The Monkey God Fire Dance. The statement dining suite features Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s classic ‘Hill House’ chairs by Cassina and a local adaptation of the accompanying table, with an artwork by French-born impressionist painter Viviane Cisinski.

“The last thing I turn to for inspiration is architecture,” says Rene Tan. “I turn to music, or to football. If I hadn’t been an architect, I’d be a football historian. Football has taught me a lot of things – organising a team, organising space. There is an approach to football that emphasises what you do when you don’t have the ball – rather than what you do when you do have the ball. To mark space, to occupy and manage the space.”

“I love the way the English decorate their homes. They’ll pick out some fabric swatches and come back and pin them on the sofa, and then live with them for two weeks. And they drink their tea and look out at the garden, and finally when they feel a connection they’ll choose the fabric that is dear to them, and then they move on to the next thing, and the whole process takes two years,” shares Roy Teo, co-founder of design firm Evocateurs. “Whereas Singapore is very fast paced, so we need to replicate that entire process, but we need to get it done by yesterday.”

“My style is eclectic. I’m an avid collector, and I’m always adding coups de coeur from my travels, as I encounter beautiful pieces. Designing a home is about creating and revisiting your own memories... I love setting eyes on these pieces and recollecting a person or a place. And then I can’t help but collect the artists I represent – such as Isabelle Van Zeijl.”

The owners gave Tan free reign, including the choice of materials, finishes and colour palette. And the layers of granite, light grey and ash warrant a closer look: starting with the natural veins in the stone and sensory finishes. “The use of tactile materials was intentional,” he says. “We explored sandblasted oak doors, serrated and chiselled marble in the kitchen, and blackened stainless steel trims in a hairline brushed finish.”

“I’m not into minimalism,” says Anna Layard. As an art historian, consultant and founder of Layard Interiors, it would be almost criminal if she were to pare back the artefacts, paintings and sculptures in her home.