gemini duet
ARCHITECTURE
Ewert Leaf
INTERIOR DECORATION
Alessandra Smith Design
PHOTOGRAPHY
Dylan James
EDITORIAL STYLING
Ethan Wairau
Named for the twin sisters who call this apartment home, Gemini Duet is a playful and elegant ode to duality, connection, and individuality. Located in leafy Hawthorn, the project reimagines a modern apartment through a lens of softness, sophistication and symmetry - qualities that speak not only to the design, but to Sam and Amber themselves, who, fittingly, are Geminis.
The name draws on multiple layers of meaning. “Gemini” reflects their astrological sign and the dual nature of the brief: two sisters, two rooms, two personalities. “Duet” speaks to their harmony, their shared vision, and the visual rhythm of the interiors, where geometry, contrast and balance play defining roles. The project finds its symbolic centrepiece in ‘Duet’, a bold, geometric painting by Charlotte Swiden that anchors the living room and sets the emotional tone at the home’s entrance.
Though the apartment is shared, the design was never about duplication. Instead, we explored cohesion without uniformity, creating a shared language between spaces while still allowing each its own voice.
In the living room, the Nina sofa by Jardan, upholstered in ochre boucle, sets the tone. Sculptural, warm and deeply comfortable, its soft, rounded form is echoed throughout the space: in the curved lines of the custom blue timber side table by local maker Zachary Frankel, the scalloped pattern of the two-toned rug, and the iconic Pipistrello lamp.
The rug itself becomes a subtle design link between rooms. At the point where the coloured forms meet, a negative space emerges in the shape of a diamond - an exact geometry that quietly reappears in the patterned velvet of the custom bedhead in Sam’s bedroom. The USM Haller console, an enduring icon of 1960s modular design by Fritz Haller, is finished in beige and chrome, grounding the space with timeless precision.
In Sam’s bedroom, the design takes on a cocooning, contemplative mood. A custom bedhead upholstered in Clarke & Clarke fabric becomes the room’s visual centrepiece, its raised velvet geometry creating subtle movement and tactility against a woven neutral ground. Though bold in pattern, the palette is soothing, making it unexpectedly perfect for a bedroom. The striped burlwood bedside tables mirror the pattern logic of the bedhead while introducing a playful clash, and their circular shape continues the curved motif carried throughout the home. An Akari pendant by Isamu Noguchi, a timeless piece of Japanese design, floats overhead and casts a soft, ambient glow.
