Bridge for Design Summer 201462

Thomas HamelInspired By

‘It’s all about the structure and getting the architecture of a room correct, the door and window heights’Text KELLY WENHAM | Photographs MATT LOWDEN

Bridge for Design Summer 2014 63

Thomas Hamel

ward-winning interior designer, Thomas Hamel, has called Australia home for the last 25 years but he grew up surrounded by the Colonial houses of Virginia in the US. He says that he always knew that he wanted to be a designer

and created his first ‘residence’ at the age of ten. “I took a tiny bookcase, removed the doors and carefully wallpapered each division to create a series of room. There was a library with porticoes and a study with a Tiffany desk lamp made from a ping-pong ball,” he said. He now has one of the largest interior design practices in Australia, Thomas Hamel and Associates designing interiors for clients from Sydney to Palm Beach. ►

ATOP: This entrance contains a series of seventeenth-century Dutch colour images of New Guinea coast line. Below them stand two Moroccan lanterns

LEFT: An over-scale limestone hearth dominates the sitting room, together with a Spanish stud-lined leather trunk.

All photographs for this Inspired By feature are taken from Thomas Hamel’s book ‘Residence’

Bridge for Design Summer 201464

His early efforts at interior design were encouraged by his marine father, he went to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in the ‘80s, and then gained a degree in fine art at the American College in London before moving back to New York where he landed the opportunity of working with world-renowned designers, Sister Parish and Albert Hadley. It was there that he says he learned his main creative lesson: the importance of looking at the architecture of the room first. “It’s about the structure and getting the architecture of a room correct, the door and window heights, much earlier on than worrying about what kind of chair you are going to have,” he says. A Christmas spent in Sydney in 1990 led to him relocating to Australia and setting up his own company. “I thought ‘why not? I think I do have the vision that I could start my own company and do my own thing’. So that’s how I first got here and it’s been an amazing evolution to watch Sydney and Australia grow in that time.” His reputation grew quickly due to the success of his first major project in Melbourne, finding himself “passed around friends and relatives”.►

LEFT: At the base of a sweeping staircase stands a Lorrken by Aboriginal artist John MawurndjulRIGHT: A terrace, with original nineteenth-century tiles, opens from the dining room. The chocolate-coloured outdoor furnishings sit well with Fletcher, the family Labrador.

Bridge for Design Summer 2014 65

Bridge for Design Summer 201466

While this was great for business it also created challenges. As most of his clients know each other, he needed to re-invent ‘the wheel’ with each new project. “That’s how they all have the confidence to suggest me to their friends and family because they know that they’re not going to see a version of their home when they visit on weekends,” he laughs. Over the years, Thomas has worked with many of the who’s who of Australian society, including actor Russell Crowe, often designing their Australian residences as well as their far flung holiday homes. Living and designing in Australia has helped him simplify his style over the years. “I still look at most American magazines and think they need to have someone come in and take away half. Everything is just too overbaked. There’s a wonderful southern phrase ‘that person didn’t have quittin’ sense’. And you can see that.” Thomas is proud that Australian designers are now starting to teach Americans about indoor-outdoor living. “I’m doing some work in Los Angeles at the moment and they don’t have all these Australian products that we take for granted, like the Vergola ceilings that go back and forth and then these metal louvres on the outside of buildings. I keep showing pictures from here and none of the architects know them. They typically think that they’re the centre of the universe and everything comes from their world, and it’s been really fun to be able to show them there are some exciting things happening elsewhere.” Thomas’ own home, Broughton House in Sydney, is the perfect homage to his design aesthetic. Thomas feels that Australians can sometimes be afraid to embrace interior design 100 percent in case they intimidate their friends. “I’m trying to bring clients here for lunch or dinner parties as an education because I’m trying to teach that it’s beyond just interior design and building a great house. I want them to understand how to live and the details that go into that - it’s the napkins and the plants and the care that goes into creating a home,” explains Thomas. ►

TOP: A George II gilt-wood and bracket clock by Hindley of York, c.1765, sit above a Louis XV style marble fireplace LEFT: An old limestone staircase integrates harmoniously with older finishes. A favourite metal lantern, acquired in San Francisco and housed in Sydney, found a home in ProvenceBELOW: A city view from the formal living room of a Sydney penthouse

Bridge for Design Summer 2014 67

TOP: Poolside dining area, with brushed teak dining-table top and Indian coloured-glass lanterns. The adjustable pool chaises are by David Sutherland, Los AngelesBOTTOM LEFT: An 18th century Portuguese mahogany bureau bookcase with serpentine top is flanked by Jansen tole potted plants, Anglo-Ceylonese armchairs and Timorese bronzed fertility drumsBOTTOM RIGHT: The fireplace in this familiy living room is finished in bronze and timber wall paneling

To celebrate his 20 years of interior design in Australia, Thomas published his first book called `Residence` from where images on these pages are taken. It shows in detail how his style has evolved over time to meet the more reserved tastes of his Australian clients while still putting the Thomas Hamel stamp on all his projects. “My thought was to take this and show the world what Australia has been up to, because I consider myself Australian now, and I wanted to show with pride what we’re up to.”

Now celebrated as one of the design world’s leading tastemakers, Thomas has just unveiled his first furniture collection. Four years in the making, Thomas designed the collection with fellow designer, and his design director, Dylan Farrell. The initial collection of ten sideboards and tables is inspired by Australia and based on bespoke pieces Thomas has previously designed for clients, “because it’s very difficult to source intriguing and exciting pieces here,” he explains. “Each item has its own fingerprint, whether it is the distinctiveness of hand-carved ►

Bridge for Design Summer 201468

and hammered patterns, matchless three-dimensional forms, or unique timbers. The pieces are meant to engage the viewer thoughtfully as part of a considered and personalised interior.” The collection is being manufactured and sold by Los Angeles furniture design company, Jean de Merry. Thomas’ next step is to complete his collection of customisable fabric designs. “These fabrics have that ethnic background but they can still be next to a brocade or a velvet, and it’s that yin and yang of being glamorous and rich but bringing it back down, and it suits our Australian life.”

Thomas HamelT: +612 9699 3688

www.thomashamel.com

■B

TOP: Two similar Chinese antique desks flank a carved stone fireplace by Jamb, London, in an upstairs limed-oak study