The Design Files: Inside Bruce and Chyka Keebaugh's Richmond penthouse

Who: Events supremos Bruce and Chyka Keebaugh, who recently opened dining mecca The Commons at Ormond Collective in Melbourne

What: A lovingly renovated, now luxurious penthouse

Where: Richmond, Melbourne

The Big Group co-founders Chyka and Bruce Keebaugh were looking for investment properties when they came across this new apartment development in Richmond eight months ago.

The apartment is their city base, dividing their time between metro life and their sprawling weekender on the Mornington Peninsula.

Originally two separate apartments, the couple merged them into a single penthouse, allowing ample room for parties on the 35-metre terrace, and a huge dressing room.

Chyka reimagined the standard interiors in the design phase, replacing nearly all of the sinks, joinery, taps and handles in the process. “Our powder room now has a chinoiserie armoire bought in Boston, a gold sink we found in Morocco, a black toilet [from Bunnings] and houses one of our best paintings by Gaston La Touche,” Bruce says.

The floor plan has also been significantly altered by Bruce, in collaboration with MAArchitects who designed the building, to include fewer internal walls.

They decided to retain only two bedrooms and instead focused on creating multiple living spaces for entertaining.

“We used glass french doors throughout to ensure the spaces were open and seen, but could be closed off if required,” Bruce says.

The couple are big art and decor collectors, which Bruce credits to Chyka’s eye for unique pieces.

Several of their acquisitions have informed the wider interior design scheme, such as the green-toned Nicholas Harding painting that inspired the lettuce shade on study walls.

In addition, a “custom rug from Morocco aligns all the colours of this area into the hallway and works with the soft green and pinks in the 1896 Cuban tea chest from Graham Geddes,” Bruce says.

How to collect

The key to collecting anything – from art to books or trinkets – is not so much what you collect, but how you choose to display it. Consider the following to make the most of your collecting.

• A collection must be consistent. Unrelated objects can look untidy and cluttered. A safe bet is to choose all one type of object, or all one colour/material.
• When displaying a collection, volume and repetition are key. Aim to amass a significant group of similar objects (at least 10), and display in a uniform or “grid-like” arrangement for maximum impact.
• Collections should be seen, not archived. There is no point in hiding your treasured pieces away, the enjoyment is in the viewing and admiration of each item, and recalling the stories they tell. If you can’t display it, don’t own it!