Ray White’s boutique in Rose Bay was designed to feel like a luxurious home, not a display office. Smac Studio transformed the original retail shell into a relaxed, opulent space. However designing the entrance lobby was not without challenges. Measuring only 24 square metres with an internal width of 3.2 metres, the brief called for Smac Studio to incorporate large screens so artists’ impressions of developments could be displayed.

McElroy zoned the space into three sections and designed it as a journey. Clients arrive and introduce themselves at the reception desk, which features large slabs of viola marble.“It feels like a brutal cutting of a huge marble block, heavy and luxe,”says McElroy.“The way it’s carved creates the illusion of different slabs floating on top of each other.”

After reception clients wait by a semi-circular window on a soft curved couch, custom designed by Smac Studio. Finally they move to a dark timber meeting table flanked by a viola marble bench and splashback, or upstairs to a large private presentation space.