Let’s Talk Interiors: ArchiPro meets the interior design duo behind Arent&Pyke

In ArchiPro’s Let’s Talk Interiors film series, standout Australian architects, stylists and designers share how they create beautiful spaces, find inspiration, and design homes tailored to their clients’ wants and needs.

In Episode 2, Steve Cordony talks to Juliette Arent and Sarah-Jane Pyke from Sydney-based interior architecture and design practice Arent&Pyke. Filmed at Garden House on Sydney’s North Shore, one of Arent&Pyke’s recent projects, Steve delves into their style DNA, tools for inspiration and design process – and asks how homeowners can best approach an interior designer to develop their own vision.

The Arent&Pyke team has developed its own signature style since Juliette and Sarah-Jane joined forces back in 2007, fine-tuning what it means to make a space sing along the way.

“We have different styles, we’re different people, but it's the collision of those styles; I think that's where the magic lies,” Juliette tells Steve.

That magic has earned the pair multiple awards for their work, most recently being named Winner Residential Interior Decoration for Garden House, at the Australian Interior Design Awards 2021.

Juliette and Sarah-Jane were drawn to timelessness, tranquility and escape for the Garden House interiors, a home they say embodies the client’s passion for art, gardens and colour.

Sarah-Jane says the architecture of any project is always one of the big inspirations for them, along with a home’s surroundings.

“This home we’re in is an amazing example because it has the most incredible connection to the garden,” she tells Steve. “So between the garden and the strength of the architecture in the original house, that really gave us the formation for the design principles, but then it was the personality of the clients that was actually the driving force of how it feels.”

Arent&Pyke’s projects are a balanced study of colour, form, texture and materiality, combined with the lifestyle and style preferences of the client.

“I think something that's largely misunderstood is that we just have a vision and the vision gets executed,” Juliette says. “It's always a process of discovery and building on the things you're learning on the journey with the client.”

While she and Sarah-Jane may start with materiality and planning, then it’s time to move beyond the basics. “Then really, you have to use your intuition as well, as a designer, and really kind of move through that process and then adapt along the way,” says Juliette.

ArchiPro’s design boards are a brilliant way to gather ideas and share them with your interior designer, architect or family and friends. Professionals themselves find tools like these useful too, as Sarah-Jane reveals in Let’s Talk Interiors.

Although the Arent&Pyke duo loves the touch and feel of materials as they imagine how a space might come together, gathering images is a vital part of their process.

“We do go to online platforms because we're trying to remember to look at things in their context,” Sarah-Jane explains. While social media is full of beautiful individual images, being able to look at their own selection of gathered images in one place provides that big-picture perspective.

“When you're looking at a project and you're looking at its context, I think that's always more interesting,” Sarah-Jane says.

Whether you’re renovating, redecorating, or building a home from the ground up, browsing the work of interior designers is a good place to start when you’re imagining how the home might look and feel.

“It's really good to start with looking at various designers and their styles, because there will always be someone or a few that you feel an affinity with,” says Juliette. The Arent&Pyke team takes on a range of projects that are at different stages in their journey; during the planning phase of a new build or renovation, or at the point of furnishing and decorating.

“I think all of those different stages can have a lasting impact but for us it's always about creating something timeless and long lasting and not trends driven,” says Juliette.

The next step is meeting designers in person to determine whether there’s a rapport, and to make sure you feel listened to.

Juliette and Sarah-Jane usually meet potential clients at their house not just because people tend to be more comfortable in their own home, but also so the designers can talk to them about how they like using the space and how they want to feel in that space.

“We're always talking about functionality and how spaces can interact between one another … and then we are able to talk about things that inspire them or they are drawn to or images that they've collected along the way,” Juliette says. “We get a very good sense about a person just by seeing them in their home.”

Sarah-Jane says it’s all about finding a designer who is really going to listen to you. When you do, your input will be welcomed.

“So come with your ideas, come and talk about how you want your house to feel and what you want it to be like and then hopefully the creative process will evolve to deliver you something you never even dreamt of,” she says “It should be even better than that!”

If you loved this episode of Let's Talk Interiors, watch Episode 1 and stay tuned for Episode 3 coming in September 2022.