This designer’s holistic approach helps provide a link between homeowners and their builders. Gabrielle Chariton reports.
Angela Gianakis is absolutely passionate about housing. ‘I love the industry and I believe that we all need to be very passionate about delivering the right solution to the client,’ she says. ‘Homes should reflect the needs of the people in the home rather than the builder.’
This philosophy is epitomised in one of Angela’s recent design projects – a stunning bathroom that won HIA SA Bathroom Design of the Year in 2014 and ran as a finalist at this year’s national awards.
Rosalie Homes contracted Angela’s interior design company, Outside Square, to create a bathroom for a display home that would ‘address a lot of the queries that I get when designing bathrooms,’ Angela says. ‘Essentially they wanted it to fulfil the home buyers’ expectations of everything a bathroom should be.’
This suited Angela’s unique design approach perfectly: ‘I often ask my clients what they don’t like about their current bathrooms, and the most common complaint is that they’re tripping over each other; it’s too small. People want the feeling of more space in their bathrooms, and – particularly for ensuites – they want extras like double vanities so two people can be in there at the same time.’ Other priorities, she adds, are the desire for luxury, privacy, and storage. ‘People want somewhere to escape.’
So Angela created the collective ‘dream bathroom’: a light, airy space, finished in elegant shades of caramel, white and ivory, with a ‘pop’ of timber veneer.
The layout incorporates the essential requirements of privacy, function and style. Cleverly utilising the ‘dead’ space under the stairs for a discreet toilet nook, Angela maximised the room’s functionality with a his-and-hers vanity unit, which includes full-length mirrors, personal mirrored cabinets and concealed powerpoint. Wide niches provide hidden storage space and lead through to the adjacent dressing area.
Reproduced from the article ‘outside [the] square’ in Housing Magazine September 2015.
