Homes

Peter Curnow and Gavin Brown

MAN WEEK is a celebration of some of the cleverest and coolest creative MEN we know, so it seemed fitting today to share this truly audacious Melbourne home, belonging to two remarkable local gents – artist Gavin Brown and his partner, interior designer Peter Curnow.  It is spectacular, non!?  When the front door opened, Eve, Nat and I actually GASPED IN UNISON. (I hope some of you may perhaps be gasping now).

Written
by
Lucy Feagins

Living room detail.  Blue & Gold Keith Haring plate from a New York flea market. Large Japanese vase with wooden temple flowers. Mark Douglas mirror glass bulb sculpture. Gilded Spanish colonial mirror one of a pair. Bought in upstate New York and originally owned by Dominick Dunne. English 18th century commode with brass fittings. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

The incredible St Kilda Home of Peter Curnow and Gavin Brown!  Painting on back wall by Gavin Brown, William Eicholtz sculpture sits on carved Chinese table.  Pink, red and black large floor rug is a limited edition art rug found in the storeroom of the old Georges Department store. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Living room details. Goat is an Indian temple sculpture. Chair is high Victorian papier mache and mother of pearl. Silver bust is a Baroque Italian religious reliquary. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Living room. Carved chair is 18th century French with silk damask covering and collection of 18th century tapestry cushions. Damian Hirst diamond dust scull print bought at Hong Kong Art fair. William Scott lithograph print rescued from a dumpster. White Rosenthal vase in neon display case. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Peter Curnow and Gavin Brown at home. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

The view into Gavin’s kitchen. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Gavin’s Chinese Opium bed. Custom African mudcloth & suede cushion. Depression furniture bedside tables, hand painted in mud cloth pattern. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Bedside details with Peter’s amazing Yohji Yamamoto jacket! Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Bathroom details. Hand painted bathroom walls in Chinoiserie style by Gavin, Chinese mirror bought in Macau.  Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Peter’s timber panelled entrance hall, with a portrait of him painted by Gavin 15 years ago. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Peter’s living / dining room. Parisian mansard window fitting used as a feature mirror. Collection of Fornasetti plates. Wallpaper on chimney is handprinted. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Gavin Brown painting and framed prints. ‘Thomas Chippendale Junior’ lamp fitting on sake bottle by Martin Allen. Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Custom bed cover with Margo Selby and Sequana cushions from Tigger Hall. Framed Gavin Brown gauche & collage artworks. Wall colour is accurately titled ‘Really Orange’! Photo – Eve Wilson. Production – Lucy Feagins. Assistant Styling – Nat Turnbull.

Writer
Lucy Feagins
3rd of September 2014

In fact, this home is unique in more ways than one.  For one thing, it’s not actually one home.  It’s two adjacent one bedroom apartments, sitting side by side within a distinctive 1920’s apartment block in St Kilda.  Gavin has been in his apartment at the front of the building for 22 years (!), whilst his partner Peter has been next door for the past 8 years.  Their front doors are just metres apart, joined by a shared balcony / landing.  After so long living alongside one another, the distinction between each apartment has blurred a little, and these days Peter and Gavin treat the space very much as one rambling home – their much loved ‘cabinet of curiosities’.

I probably don’t need to tell you that Peter and Gavin are avid collectors.  Of everything!  Their home presents as a museum of antiquities, an ever-evolving space to showcase their incredible collection of art, antiques, textiles and ephemera.  The apartments have been endearingly dubbed ‘Nic-Nak Castle’ by friends – a name that has stuck!  It’s also the name of Gavin and Peter’s wonderfully entertaining blog, in which they document their various creating musings and endless enthusiasm for art, interiors, travel and fashion.  The pair travel regularly and are always collecting more and more brilliant and bizarre pieces… ‘our Nic-Nak Castle motto is Out with the old, and in with the older!’ Gavin says proudly!

My inkling is that Gavin is probably the most dedicated collector of the two.  In fact, it’s clear that Gavin’s maximalist approach to home decoration in some ways mirrors his dynamic art practice. Gavin’s paintings are busy, buzzing scenes often incorporating photography and collaged elements.  ‘In my own chaotic vision, busyness only works with good composition’ he says, in a statement that rings true, too, for the eclectic world he and Peter have created at home. ‘The rhythm of an image should allow your eye to travel around a painting, acknowledging fragments, while reading the work as a whole’.

Having been here 22 years, there is a rich layering of colour, texture and pattern here that you just don’t see in ‘new’ homes.  Incredibly, though, in all those years, neither Gavin’s not Peter’s apartment has undergone any structural changes. They have, of course, made up for this with surface decoration (!), incorporating various paint colours, custom wallpapers and hand painted murals. Gavin had parquet flooring laid before he moved in, whilst Peter stripped his blonde wood floors, staining them with glossy Black Japan to maximum effect. In the entrance foyer, the pair stripped back many layers of paint to reveal richly stained dark timber panelling.  ‘We prefer things that are old and original, even if they are imperfect, rather than reproductions’ Gavin explains.

During a visit to this remarkable home, you really can’t help but be swept up in Gavin and Peter’s world.  It’s a space that speaks to the power of decoration, and demonstrates how an interior can totally change your mood, or even transport you to another time or place.  This feeling is echoed by Gavin when describing a most treasured piece, his Chinese Opium bed – ‘I like to wake up every morning feeling like I’m somewhere exotic’.

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