A Private Family Office in East Melbourne by Studio May.

Most workplaces are built to perform. There’s a client to impress, talent to attract, a brand to broadcast somewhere behind the reception desk. A family office carries none of those obligations, which makes it one of the more revealing briefs in commercial interiors. When nobody is watching, what does a workplace actually want to be?

Studio May’s answer, on a floor overlooking East Melbourne’s parklands, sits closer to a private members’ club than an office. Naomi Webster and Martine Bonich have planned the space around a large central lounge, with private offices, collaborative settings and quiet rooms fanning out from it, and a generous terrace extending the whole thing outdoors. Panoramic glazing does most of the heavy lifting—the parkland outlook shifts through the day and the seasons, and no feature wall was ever going to compete with that.

The palette leans hard into permanence. Basket weave marble flooring meets textured carpet, finely crafted joinery and stone detailing carrying an embossed maker’s mark. Bespoke timber and cork tables absorb the AV connections that usually litter a boardroom, and acoustically treated ceilings with integrated lighting keep the volume down across the floor.

What lifts this above members’-club pastiche—a look that stalks a lot of high-end workplace design right now—is the furniture. Studio May has combined pieces the client already owned with new lighting, art and objects selected to sit alongside them. Inherited things can’t be styled into a scheme after the fact, and their presence gives the interior a domestic looseness that a purely specified fit-out never quite manages.

Webster and Bonich have proven form in boutique commercial workplaces. Studio May keeps a deliberately small book of active projects at any one time, and the level of customisation here explains why. The studio describes the East Melbourne office as an enduring legacy, designed to be appreciated across generations. Big words for a fit-out—although in a family office, unusually, they’re a reasonable ambition rather than a line of marketing. The tenant isn’t going anywhere.

Inside Cinderella Deep, Geller Studio's Raw and Ritualistic Redfern Workspace.

Off-form concrete, oxidising clay render and reclaimed heritage brick set an industrial, tactile tone, while Judd-inspired walnut joinery and a mix of vintage furniture bring warmth to the 200sqm space.

[Images courtesy of Studio May. Photography by Lillie Thompson.]