At Home with Michelle and Marty Taupau

The living room is a period Sydney home, original cornicing, ornate iron balustrade, stained glass front door. The front door out of the home needed something that sat comfortably alongside that rather than clashing with it. The answer was roller blinds in Linesque Almond on the front window layered with Rejuvenate Linen curtains hanging either side. The blinds handle light and privacy. The curtains beautifully filter light through during the day. The dining room is a different problem: a full-width sliding glass wall that’s bright during the day and a fishbowl at night. Sheer curtains in Rejuvenate Linen, hung in a soft wave fold, run the full width in one clean run. The room stays light and open during the day. In the evening, they draw across and the room is its own. The same fabric runs through the rest of the home, that’s what keeps the open-plan floor feeling like one space. In the kitchen nook, a honeycomb blind filters morning light without glare. The cellular structure traps air between the layers, reducing heat transfer through the glass, a practical difference you notice in a kitchen facing the morning sun. The bench top is Travertino Ivory from Stone Ambassador and the tapware is Fienza chosen to sit quietly alongside the timber cabinetry without competing with it. On the sliding door to the garden, a retractable flyscreen pulls across the full width of the opening when needed and disappears completely when it’s not. No hardware across the glass. No permanent screen cluttering the entry. Insects out, fresh air in and when you’re done, it’s gone.