JFORM warehouse: fit-out for a friend

Jonathan is best known for his work in the retail, hospitality and public spaces, including The Shop and Wine Bar in Bondi, Fella Swim in Paddington’s fashionable William Street, as well as works for the Australian Museum.

If this residential renovation is to be his personal expression, it does convey a strong sense identity, along with welcoming familiarity. A thread runs through all of these projects that says they are more about creating tangible moments, something to be shared, to be enjoyed.

“The Shop in Bondi was one of our favourite projects, an amazing family-owned-and-run business,” Jonathan says. “We’ve all become super close after the fit-out and it’s inspired me to be working with great creative people. I want to be able to achieve and build thoughtful (and hopefully inspiring) furniture, structures and things. The collection of works in all of my previous projects is what has brought me to where I am now, and have learnt something from every one of them.”

Timber is a compelling feature in the warehouse home, with the shelving and joinery all handmade, from the ribbed doors on the kitchen cabinets in American oak, to the mahogany display racks.

In what Jonathan says was a ‘right of passage’, the journey for such pieces started with leaving school at a young age to complete a carpentry apprenticeship. “Growing up in an old farm house in Berry on the south coast saw me helping out fixing fences and, of course, anything that fell apart on our home that was more than a Century old,” he says. “And honestly, the ideas in this home just developed as it went along. I didn’t feel the need to rush anything.”

For something that unfolded so organically, the final result is incredibly cohesive, as if the floorplan, sight-lines and foot corridors were always pre-planned to the last millimetre.

Underneath those preserved warehouse openings and 5m-high ceilings, obvious opportunities exist for other more extravagant details to shine, including the green-and-black slab benchtops that continue along the dine-in island centrepiece to the sideboard, complemented with the handmade tiling of the vertical feature column.

The most memorable takeaway could be the Vitoria Regia marble slab, imported from Italy, with its sage hues and imperfect flecks shimmering out of the surfaces. A piece of art on its own.