Check In to The Lobby, Ellison Studios’ Hotel-Inspired Showroom on Chapel Street.

If you’ve ever lingered too long in a beautiful hotel lobby—nursing a drink, watching the room, not quite ready to leave—then Ellison Studios’ latest residency will feel immediately familiar.

The Lobby is the Australian-based design brand’s newest physical environment, and it’s currently taking up residence inside Chapel Street’s landmark Conways Buildings in Prahran. Built in 1914 by Tompkins and Tompkins, the site was once a department store. This autumn, Ellison Studios has reimagined its historic first floor as a contemporary hotel lobby—a space built around the art of quiet observation, the theatre of arrivals and departures, and the very human pleasure of being somewhere that’s neither quite public nor quite private.

Following the success of The Rental installation in Sydney’s Surry Hills during the summer of 2024/25, The Lobby marks the brand’s first physical foray into Melbourne/Naarm.

“I would probably consider myself a hotel junkie,” explains Leigh McKeown, CEO and founder of Ellison Studios. “There’s something universally relatable about that in-between, transitional space of a hotel. It’s where people arrive, wait, observe, meet, and pass through. There’s also a voyeuristic nature to it that I’ve always loved. They are melting pots of people from all walks of life, and the lobby is the heartbeat of any hotel.”

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Across the floor, the collection is laid out with the considered ease of a space that actually gets used. The centrepiece is a 15-seat configuration of the brand’s iconic Float sofa—the largest modular arrangement of the piece to date—anchoring the room with the kind of scale that makes you want to sink in and stay. Intimate nooks framed by accent chairs and thoughtful lighting offer quieter moments within the larger composition, while dining installs double as desk space—functional, but never clinical. Artworks are curated by Sydney’s Hake House, and a rare book selection has been assembled by Melbourne’s Selected Objects.

By day, The Lobby operates as a working environment for interior designers and trade partners—somewhere to host clients, review finishes, and work through upcoming projects in a setting that inspires. Come evening, the mood shifts. The record collection comes out, drinks are poured, and the space takes on a different kind of energy altogether.

Over the duration of the residency, Ellison Studios will host a series of talks, performances, and gatherings—and we’re thrilled to share that Yellowtrace will be partnering with the team on an event there in May. Details to come, but mark it in the diary now. It’s going to be a good one.

The Lobby by Ellison Studios is open now at 1/249 Chapel Street, Prahran.

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[Images courtesy of Ellison Studios. Creative direction by Joseph Gardner. Photography by Anson Smart.]