'A whole new level': Extravagant riverside Brisbane home hits the market
Amid a sea of serene minimalism and neutral palettes, 29 Laidlaw Parade, East Brisbane, truly stands out.
But to merely label the five-bedroom, six-bathroom riverfront property a home is a vast understatement.
It’s an artwork, where no two rooms are similar, each weaving a unique visual narrative, yet all working harmoniously.
The property sits on the Brisbane River, with a private jetty and ideal city skyline views.
But why look outside? Inside is a blend of black, white and gold accents, opulent Italian marble, intricately adorned archways, custom tiles, vaulted ceilings, Venetian glass tapware, and hand-painted wallpaper, while Venetian plaster and brass also feature heavily.
The eye-catching design is the artistic creation of Australian designer Greg Natale.
He’s internationally renowned for creating sophisticated glamour using bold patterns and colour, and it was this aesthetic that caught the attention of the home’s owners, Steve and Leticia.
They bought the block and its original home in 2017, with the view to knock down and rebuild.
They developed the new floor plan and basic exterior design themselves, and while researching custom tiles they fell in love with Natale’s designs, so reached out to ask if he would be interested in helping them bring their ideas to life.
“He rang us within about a minute of sending him an email,” laughs Leticia.
“He fell in love with the exterior design, and from there he just took control and actually took over the architectural side of the planning as well.”
Completed in 2020, the final home is spread over three levels.
The middle level is for entertaining, with a kitchen, library, living and bar area, and a dining room wrapped in custom de Gournay wallpaper.
Up the concrete formed curved staircase are the en suite main bedrooms, each intricately designed with unique detail.
The master bedroom is adorned with Gucci wallpaper and features a 10-metre walk-in wardrobe complete with floor-to-ceiling shoe and bag storage.
The ground floor features a wellness wing, where you can have a sauna or steam, before retiring to the striking marble bath with scalloped edges.
Use it for a warm soak, or a heart-pumping ice recovery bath. From there, step out onto the pool deck.
The pool itself was inspired by a hotel pool in Morocco, and features custom tiles.
It’s a pool that draws regular requests from Instagrammers to use as a photoshoot location, although all have been turned down.
Elsewhere in the home is a theatre, office, butler’s kitchen, and space for a wine cellar.
All levels are serviced by an elevator.
One consistency throughout the house is marble, inspired by Steve and Leticia’s many trips to Italy.
“We spend a lot of our summers in Forte dei Marmi, which is near the Carrara Mountains and we loved a particular type of marble called Paonazzetto. We were able to be introduced to a man who owns quite a few quarries there, and actually chose a lot of our stone pieces from inside the cave, which was amazing,” says Leticia.
The marble on the kitchen splashback, bench, bar and fireplace comes from the same cave in Carrara as the floor of the Pantheon in Rome. Builder Corey Stone from CHS Builders says the 18-month build went to plan thanks to Natale’s meticulous plans, but the marble provided a nervous wait.
On arrival, it had to be specially craned in.
“Within the two weeks before handing over we had to put in all the benchtops and both bathtubs. It was about six tonnes’ worth of marble to install in a week and a half,” he says.
The driver behind every decision in the build was never to take shortcuts but meticulously create a superior product.
“Cutting corners wasn’t allowed in this house,” says Steve.
“There is nothing that’s been done to be cost effective, on principle. It wasn’t from a point of being extravagant but just wanting to create something of quality.”
Sales agent Henry Hodge from Henry Hodge Real Estate is well accustomed to luxury properties, but says the house is unlike anything he’s seen in the region.
“Walking through the home the thing that stood out to me more than anything was just the level of detail and the quality of craftsmanship by the builder,” he says.
“I’ve followed Greg Natale over the years, and his work’s brilliant, but to be able to actually see something that was brand new designed by him in Brisbane obviously takes the real estate landscape to a whole new level here.”
Hodge is selling the home and is looking for offers over $13 million.
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