Interior designer Perth: limestone, western light and salt air

The western sun runs the room

Most good Perth blocks put the living space on the west side, because that is where the water is. You pay for that view after four o'clock in summer. Glare comes off the Indian Ocean at eye level and lands on the floor, the joinery doors and the wall behind the television.

Heavier curtains are not the fix. We plan the room around the light instead. Sheers go on the west face with a block out layer behind them. Floor finishes get a low sheen so the reflection breaks up, and joinery stays matte rather than gloss. In Cottesloe and City Beach we usually push the deeper colours onto the east wall, so the room still has weight once the sun drops.

Fabric is where people get caught. A dark cotton sofa on a west window fades in about two summers. Solution dyed fibres and paler grounds last much longer. Applecross is a different problem again, since it faces the river rather than the ocean, so the glare off Melville Water hits through the middle of the day.

Limestone sets the palette before you do

Perth is built on limestone and you see it everywhere: front fences, retaining walls, whole facades in the older streets of Dalkeith. It reads honey in the morning and goes close to white by noon. That colour comes through the windows and bounces around the room, so it is part of the scheme whether you planned it or not.

Cool grey whites go dirty next to it. Warm off whites, oatmeal and soft clay tones hold up. Brass and aged bronze sit well with limestone, while chrome tends to look cold beside it. If you are choosing stone for a kitchen island, we look at it outside against the wall, not under a showroom light.

Salt gets into everything

The sea breeze that arrives most summer afternoons carries salt a long way inland. It works on door hardware, tap spouts, window tracks and light fittings, and it does the damage quietly. Owners often notice the pitting a year after it started.

Any interior designer Perth coastal homes rely on has to specify for corrosion, not only for looks. Near the water we use 316 grade stainless for external and semi external hardware, and marine grade powder coat on aluminium. Unlacquered brass stays in the rooms that are closed to the breeze. A house three streets back from the beach gets a different answer to one on the front row, so we ask where you sit before we specify a thing.

A Gold Coast studio working on Perth time

Most people looking for an interior designer Perth wide start with studios inside the city, which is fair enough. We are honest about the model: Luxxe designs from the Gold Coast and delivers to Perth through drawings, 3D renders and virtual reality walkthroughs. You walk the kitchen at full size before a cabinetmaker prices it.

The time gap helps more than it hurts. Perth runs two hours behind the east coast in winter and three in summer. Work we issue at the end of our day is sitting in your inbox before you start yours. Your afternoon calls land in our evening instead of a squeezed lunch hour. Samples go over in boxes by courier. We fly in when the job needs eyes on site, usually at documentation and again at install.

The studio has completed four residences on the Sovereign Islands, among them homes of more than 4,000 square metres internal floor area and valued at more than $20 million. Luxxe delivered the interiors of Duddingston House, the Category A listed Palladian mansion in Edinburgh designed by Sir William Chambers in the 1760s. Work away from the Gold Coast is normal for us: Lindfield and Blakehurst in Sydney, a Melbourne Georgian, a renovation in Brisbane, and a project in Mackay.

What an interior designer Perth project covers

Fees are quoted per project once the scope is settled, because a full home in Dalkeith and a laundry rework in Applecross are not the same piece of work. Send a floor plan, a few photos, and the direction your main living room faces. Tammy will tell you what the house needs and what it does not.

• Full home interior design, from spatial planning through to installation
• Kitchen, bathroom and laundry design with joinery drawings for the cabinetmaker
• 3D renders and virtual reality walkthroughs before anything is built
• Home cinema and bar design
• Renovations of existing homes, working alongside your builder
• Drafting, documentation, and collaboration with your architect on a new build
• Decoration, furniture and styling