Named after the racehorse whose winnings paid for the Edwardian red-brick home, Melbourne-based interior decorator Alessandra Smith’s Kazoo vision spans both modernity and heritage.

Following significant renovations in 2014, the sunlit Caulfield East home – fittingly located opposite the Caulfield Racecourse – was in need of a fresh aesthetic identity that more closely served the tastes of its new owners.

Melbourne-based interior designers Architects EAT performed the initial structural changes to the home over a decade ago, maintaining a strong link to Kazoo the racehorse – even installing a spiral staircase which emulated the one found at the Caulfield Racecourse.

“His presence is very much felt in this home,” interior decorator Alessandra Smith says of the initial renovations. “Kazoo’s original stable is in the courtyard at the back and they’ve got the original timber slats that were there back in the 1920s.” 

Gentle blue and brown shades reflect the light of the large windows in the living room, balancing the exterior vibrance of the surrounding trees

Putting their own stamp on the property

The challenge presented to Smith was to take an extensively renovated property and assist the new owners in putting their own unique stamp on it, but without making further structural changes. 

Incorporating the living room, main hallway, the two children’s bedrooms at the front of the house – and the primary suite upstairs, a major part of the 2014 extension – the new renovations left the home largely devoid of colour, and presented Smith with the perfect opportunity to revitalise the space. 

“They wanted to make it feel more bold,” Smith says of the design brief. “To make it feel like it was more reflective of their personalities, and bring some of their travel experience into the home.”

Delicate lavender and sand pastel shades in the master bedroom continue the mellow visual accents of the invitational living room

Smith recalls how, in their first meeting in August 2023, her clients presented images of a Florence hotel they had stayed in, called Velona’s Jungle. She recalls the bold complementing shades and extravagant graphic prints on the wallpaper, and how they wanted to bring some of this vibrancy into their own home. 

“The brief from them was purely decorative,” Smith explains. “Apart from the extension upstairs, every other room was an original room of the house as it was built in the 1920s. It was all about bringing colour, bringing texture, pattern – but the focus was predominantly on the living room. The only piece that remained in the living room was that sky blue velvet sofa that I had to work with. Other than that, I had free rein.” 

Where colour plays an integral role

A vital cohesive agent throughout the entire project was the considered use of colour. While infusing the specific spaces with an impactful volume of richness and depth, it afforded each room its own unique personality. 

Cool sand hues in the main hallway reflect the natural light that spills through the superb stained glass of the ornate entryway

The process, Smith reveals, involved intensive discussions with the client in order to determine the desired look and feel of each individual space. These conversations would then guide the creative approach to selecting materials and surface shades, ensuring the resulting assembly of hues remained complementary and invitational. 

Smith cites the living room as a noteworthy example. “My clients wanted to feel transported, like they had entered another world,” she explains. “We decided to drench the room in a deep, slate-green hue, which creates this enveloping and cocooning effect. That sets a striking backdrop for the furniture, art and objects.”

Another key source of inspiration came from the vibrant silks worn by race jockeys, again maintaining the equestrian influence of the overall design. This is where the jewel-toned palette of the living room found its visual touchstone, particularly evident in the sculptural Wave Sofa by Daniel Boddham. 

Green hues of the Daniel Boddham Wave Sofa gently complement the wider green and pink hues of the living room

“Upholstered in this very textural green boucle, the sofa references the turf of the Caulfield Racecourse,” Smith elaborates.

This sense of the outdoors is evoked across the entire project, with consistent echoes of natural hues and materials. The goal in doing so, Smith asserts, was to charge the space with currents of eclecticism and curiosity that guide visitors throughout the property. 

She refers to the sharp, brooding Rosso Levanto coffee table in the living room, an anchor point in the centre of the space. The solidity of this bold marble piece is contrasted by the plush sofas and textured carpeting across the rest of the room, indicative of the wider mixture of hard and soft materials that Smith exercised throughout the rest of the house.

Aged steel, brass and Murano glass – alongside bamboo, bouclé and velvet – bring material depth to the living room. “It’s the interplay of materials, colour and the unique curation of objects that makes this room feel memorable and emotionally resonant,” Smith says.

Dramatic Rosso Levanto marble coffee table presents exquisite visual detail at the centre of the room

A hit for the whole family 

The difficulty of realising a bespoke interior project is always a multi-channel experience, with input from numerous individual parties. That only becomes more difficult when the project in question is a family home, in use every day with tenants who vary broadly in age and taste. 

For the two teenagers who would be moving into the revitalised iteration of Kazoo, there was no kickback to contend with. “The kids were really receptive,” Smith reveals. “I remember, I asked the son – he was 12 or 13 at the time – what colour would he want to paint his bedroom and he said orange. The mum was like, ‘Absolutely not!’ So we did have to come to some sort of compromise there, but they were really easy to work with.” 

Interior decorator Alessandra Smith in the completed Kazoo project

With the final order of pieces arriving in mid-2024, including an exquisite custom-made Murano chandelier from Italy, the project’s final styling took place over the following months. 

The project is one Smith proudly regards as a strong reflection of her aesthetic principles. “I’m really happy all the rooms came together,” she says of the finished product. “My design philosophy is very much trying to get into the minds of my clients and making sure that their home is a really strong reflection of them. It’s about leaning into what my clients want, but taking it that bit further than they could do on their own.”

Photography by Kryssia Agius (Hunting Utopia). Editorial stylist: Mikhaela Chiara.

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