PROJECT OVERVIEW Designed by Scarlett Designs, A Home Grown Whole is an exercise in continuity, quiet luxury, and the architecture of belonging. Rather than building anew, the design absorbs an extension seamlessly into an existing home, modifying the facade until the joint disappears and the addition feels as though it was always there. The work reflects a deep understanding of how families grow, where privacy and togetherness must be held within the same envelope. Warm teak, honest stone, and a restrained palette of beige and grey form the foundation.
Colour arrives selectively, in upholstery, in planters, in an emerald mosaic pool that carries its vivacious yet soothing presence. With this residence, Scarlett Designs moves away from addition as interruption, embracing instead a design language rooted in wholeness, sensory calm, and the conviction that a home should feel inevitable, as though it could never have been any other way. PROJECT STORY Client Brief A family sought to extend their existing residence to accommodate a growing household. Their son was moving in, requiring a self-contained living floor. The ground level was to be reimagined as a dedicated entertainment zone for hosting guests.
Additional requirements included a private indoor heated pool for the client's personal aquatic exercise routine, a gym, and outdoor courtyards for casual gatherings. Our Response The primary design challenge was continuity. The extension had to merge with the existing building without visible disruption. The facade was modified across both structures to create a seamless join. The ground floor was reorganised entirely around the entertainment brief, while the first floor became a private residential apartment for the son. Every material and spatial decision was made in service of a single outcome: a home that feels whole. Spatial Experience Ground Floor: Recreational Zone The ground floor is designed for generosity. Arrival places you within a lounge and dining area that opens in multiple directions toward the kitchen, toward the courtyards, and toward the pool. Movement feels unhurried. The lounge anchors the social zone, with the dining area sitting adjacent and in easy conversation with the kitchen behind it. Front and rear courtyards extend the floor outward, bringing the entertainment programme into the open air for informal gatherings and barbecues. The boundary between inside and outside is managed through large sliding glass doors, so the floor breathes rather than contains. Indoor Heated Pool Off the lounge, the pool occupies its own enclosed world. The emerald mosaic lining and bohemian floral detailing mark it immediately as a different register.
Chandeliers overhead introduce a luxe quality, ensuring the space feels considered rather than purely functional. It is private, immersive, and complete in itself. First Floor: Private Apartment The upper level separates cleanly from the social energy below. The son's apartment functions independently, with its own character and rhythm. The floor holds the gym alongside the private living quarters, keeping active and domestic functions close without overlap. The overall movement through the home follows a natural logic: from shared to private, from open to enclosed, from social to personal. Each level has a clear identity. Together they form a single, coherent household. Courtyard In the courtyard, a Buddha statue set against a blue mosaic backsplash creates a moment of deliberate stillness within what is otherwise an active social zone. The placement is considered: the statue is visible but not imposing, present without demanding attention. The blue mosaic behind it introduces the only cool tone in an otherwise warm courtyard palette, drawing the eye and providing a quiet counterpoint to the surrounding energy.
Underfoot, Moroccan tiles add visual rhythm to the courtyard floor, grounding the space with a pattern that is bold enough to register but restrained enough to recede once the eye has settled. Materials The material palette was chosen to create warmth without heaviness. Teak runs consistently across ceiling cladding, furniture frames, and joinery, giving the interior a unified character that reads as considered rather than accumulated. Stone surfaces such as the dining table top, the staircase, the flooring introduce weight and permanence where the programme calls for it. Cane brings texture and lightness to the dining chairs, preventing the heavier elements from dominating. The consistency of material across both the original structure and the extension was deliberate: it is one of the primary ways the two buildings read as one.
Colour The base palette of beige and grey was chosen to keep the interior calm and recessive, allowing materials and form to carry the experience. Upholstery brings warmth into the lounge seating without disrupting the overall restraint. Planters distribute life and softness through space. The emerald mosaic of the pool enclosure is the most saturated moment in the home, and intentionally so: it marks a shift in programme from recreation to activity.
Notable Elements: Lighting as Luxury Across the entertainment level, lighting does consistent work. Contemporary chandeliers introduce a luxe quality without competing with the material warmth of the interiors. In the dining area, sculptural wave-form glass pendants become the focal point of the ceiling, its organic form offering a deliberate contrast to the teak and stone beneath it. At the pool, waterfall chandeliers descend into the enclosed space, reinforcing the sense that this is not simply a functional amenity but a room with its own atmosphere and intention.
