Cosentino surfaces in different colours were specified by the interior designer to add a contemporary edge to a new family home while providing a low maintenance finish.

Working on a brief for an elegant home that’s also robust enough for the needs of a busy family of four, Kylie Petrou, interior designer at Axon Homes employed a clever mix of colours, materials and techniques to achieve the desired design objectives.

Taking her design cues from the home’s expansive views across Lake Monger in Western Australia, Petrou layered tones of deep blue, green and blue-grey with punches of walnut timber throughout, visually connecting the interior to the landscape and imbuing it with a sense of drama and luxury.

“This house gave us an opportunity to use a combination of materials and building techniques that we love, but that are not commonly used together, including Sensa and several Dekton colours from Cosentino, plus glass mosaic tiles, old-school stucco plastering in the bathrooms and a Tyrolean [textured render] finish outside,” says Petrou.

As the hub of the home, the open-plan kitchen was a key focus of the design. “Our architect Michael Cardinale suggested that the house should feel like a contemporary interpretation of an old-world European villa, so marble was our first thought,” she says. “But it’s not a practical option for our clients who love to cook and entertain.”

Instead, she chose Cosentino’s Sensa in White Macaubas for the kitchen island cladding and curved benchtop – a stunning, low-maintenance natural stone that is specially treated to resist stains. “Its beautiful pattern and colour informed the rest of the interior palette, plus as a material, it’s incredibly robust,” says Petrou.

Sensa White Macaubas comes in both 20mm and 30mm thicknesses, which allowed the designer to use it in endlessly creative ways elsewhere in the home. “We used it on the dining buffet, the fireplace plinth and walls, the bedside tables in the main bedroom, and even the staircase risers,” says Petrou. “This intricate architectural element gives the appearance of linked stone forms.”

Petrou complemented the soft grey pattern of the natural stone with Cosentino’s Dekton ultra-compact surface in a variety of hues. This high-performance, easy-care material comes in huge slabs of up to 320x144cm in size so you can achieve visual continuity and minimal joints, while the choice of several thicknesses (8mm, 12mm, 20mm, 30mm and 4mm-thick Dekton Slim) allows you to apply it to everything from benchtops and custom furniture to walls and flooring. Its durable, fade- and water-resistant surface means you can use it outdoors too.

“As this house has a complex but complementary mix of materials, the large colour range and impressive properties of Dekton gave us great flexibility and choice,” says Petrou. “The heat-resistant properties of Dekton as a kitchen material and its superior durability and UV stability outdoors were other key factors in choosing it.”

Dekton Domoos on the kitchen joinery and rear benchtops creates a bold contrast against the pale natural stone of the island. Dekton Domoos was then carried through to the bathrooms where it was used to create seamless, integrated sinks, shelves and frame walls. In the dining area, a bespoke tabletop was crafted from Dekton Uyuni and the same finish was used on the worktops in the study. Outside, Petrou crafted a one-of-a-kind outdoor table in Dekton Bromo and complemented it with exterior joinery and cladding in Dekton Domoos, creating a pleasing visual connection between indoors and out.

The result is a home that feels both characterful and cohesive, while being robust enough to cope with the rigours of family life.

Explore Cosentino’s extensive colour range across Sensa and Dekton surfaces.