Calacatta Lusso infuses luxury in apartment living

With a smaller footprint, apartment living often leads to conservative design choices that prioritise efficient use of space and minimalistic design aesthetics to create a sense of openness and airiness.  

While keeping these crucial considerations in mind for the renovation of this apartment, designer Claudia Poppi recognised the need and importance of infusing character into the design.  

Located in the heart of Brisbane city’s vibrant West End, a lively inner-city community with an eclectic mix of cafes, restaurants, bars and nightlife, the renovation sought to balance practicality with a distinctive luxurious flair, ensuring that the apartment not only serves its purpose but also reflects the personality of its residents. 

A warm neutral colour palette was the starting point for the design and an ideal base for this ground-floor apartment with its abundance of natural light and leafy courtyard. Earthy tones, raw materials and plenty of wood were layered with moments of refined luxury creating a unique space.  

Upon entry, the kitchen island in Calacatta Lusso takes centre stage and forms the first impression of the unit. One of the newly released Smartstone surfaces, Calacatta Lusso perfectly recreates the drama, colour and movement of Calacatta marble in sintered stone. Its stunning combination of gold, amber and grey veins across a white background provides visual impact in any interior or exterior space. Just like its name “Lusso”, which means luxury in Italian, the elegant surface was a key element in delivering a luxe and sophisticated open-plan home. 

With the impressive result, the Calacatta Lusso surface choice for this apartment clearly illustrates that heavy and bold vein designs are not exclusive to palatial homes and can look as aesthetically pleasing even in limited spaces.  

“I chose Calacatta Lusso for its dramatic veining and its unique colour palette which ties in beautifully with the other materials we selected”, explains Claudia. “To achieve our design goals, it was important that the product we chose was 20mm thick and had a through-body vein”. 

Apart from a dramatic waterfall edge in the kitchen, a simple 20mm polished edge profile features throughout the entire apartment.

Smartstone’s advanced print technology results in incredibly natural-looking veined patterns and colours, replicated through the body of the slab. This new level of textural beauty becomes an important design feature in benchtops with exposed edges and applications such as waterfall edges and undermount sinks. 

Both visual and tactile, textures enhance depth and interest, making a design more engaging and unifying areas for a cohesive flow. Travertine crazy pave flooring in the kitchen ties into the nearby outdoor area while the combination of oak joinery and white concave panelling with brushed copper accents is repeated throughout. 

In the bathrooms, Calacatta Lusso was used as an accent running along the top of ledges, shelves and steps into a shower. This continuous border along with the careful selection of similar-toned materials come together to make these rooms feel both special and luxurious.  

The interior choices flow seamlessly outdoors to the large North-east facing courtyard, requiring selected materials to be suitable for exterior application. Calacatta Lusso also served as the hardwearing, surface and cladding for the outdoor barbecue.  

“I chose the Sintered Collection for its durability and maintenance-free qualities,” Claudia explained. She added that its UV resistance and weather-proof properties are a must-have in Queensland. Perfect for fireplaces, barbeque and surrounds, Sintered Collection surfaces can endure intense temperatures and are also highly resistant to stains, chemicals, scratches, mould and bacteria. 

Calacatta Lusso is one of 10 colours in the deluxe range of incredibly precise recreation of rare and visually striking veined stones made from 100% natural materials with no metal compounds or resins as binders.  

The West End Project was a full renovation of a two-bedroom, 2 bath apartment by Poppi Property Group, a design and property development business based in Brisbane. 

__________

Featured project: West End 
Stone featured: Calacatta Lusso 
Design and build: Poppi Property Group  
Stone fabrication: Made of Stone