Motel Bones, Ibiza Spirit: Inside The Whale Narooma on the NSW Far South Coast.

Some hotels are designed to be photographed. The Whale has been designed for the slower business of sitting still, and every material decision inside it follows from there. Natural, earthy finishes. The spirit of 1970s Ibiza pulled up against the knowing traces of a coastal motel. A retro pool overlooking Wagonga Inlet, refinished and converted to magnesium with its original shape left intact. A former carpark now thick with palms, frangipani and hibiscus. Opened this June in Narooma on the NSW far South Coast, it landed after just under three years in development, having begun modestly before growing far more ambitious.

“We like to create a bit of escapism with Merivale,” says Design Director Nasim Koerting, who led the project through the group’s in-house Design Studio. “We’ve held onto the soul of the motel while building something that feels transportive—somewhere you can disappear into for a weekend and forget the world exists.”

That’s a pretty big claim that could read as standard-issue hospitality gloss, except the detailing backs it up. The logic holds room by room, each furnished differently with pieces gathered from across the world. The Palm Room, on the lower level with direct pool access, pairs Japanese tiles with a custom tapestry and bespoke lighting by Lana Launay. The Double Sea Grass Rooms are layered with rugs hand-woven in India. The Mountain View Rooms bring together knitted lights made in Morocco, classic Italian terrazzo underfoot, bed heads woven in Indonesia and art sourced from Papua New Guinea.

A Sydney RSL Institution Reimagined Without Losing Its Soul.

After more than 75 years of service to veterans and the Rose Bay community, Club Rose Bay has reopened following its first major transformation since 1979.

At the top, the Ocean View Penthouse opens onto a rooftop garden anchored by a wall-hanging tapestry, a light crocheted by hand in Canada and a curved vintage Featherston sofa. The best moment sits in its bathroom—a custom lava stone basin, hexagonal, framed beneath a circular skylight.

The maker-by-maker approach is the real through-line here, and it’s what separates The Whale from the plug-and-play hotel interior. Dozens of artists and craftspeople have left their mark across furniture, textiles, ceramics, murals and custom finishes—weavers in Papua New Guinea, textile makers on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, ceramicists across the region. Handmade ceramic lamps, woven headboards, wall-mounted ceramics and commissioned artworks accumulate into something that reads as assembled over years rather than specified in a single order.

Beyond the rooms, the site does its own work. Wellness threads through without shouting about it, a sauna and ice bath set into a dedicated space where a circular porthole window frames the water. Inside restaurant Queen Chow, a sunroom invites lingering over board games, while a sunken lounge uncovered during the build—refitted with new seating and a record player—opens to full ocean views.

Studio Manifold & Simone Haag Transform a Yarra Valley Farmhouse with Mid-Century Soul.

Material choices ground the project in place, while the colour palette pulls straight from the valley landscape. It's a home that feels grounded in the Yarra Valley and quietly refined in its details.

For Merivale CEO Justin Hemmes, who conceived the project with his sister Bettina, the shift into accommodation was a different exercise altogether. “This is our first resort-style accommodation that we’ve created at Merivale, and it’s a very different skill to creating a hospitality venue, there are so many more layers to it,” he says. “You need to cover the 24/7 experience of the guest, and there are a lot of intricacies and complexities to get that right.”

The ambition, though, is pointed outward. “Narooma is one of those rare places that leaves a lasting impression,” Koerting says. “We wanted to create a destination to give people a reason to discover this extraordinary part of the world.” Sydney hospitality groups have spent two decades consolidating inside the city, so watching one wager on the far South Coast is the more interesting story.

Koerting isn’t coy about what comes next. “There’s a lot to do, and the design is built to let you do nothing at all,” she adds. “Keep your eye on Narooma—we aren’t done yet.”

Studio Loho's Jonojé is Strange, Sculptural & Impossible to Forget.

Is it beautiful? Is it ugly? Jonojé refuses to settle the question—and that's what makes it so compelling.

[Images courtesy of The Whale Narooma. Photography by Sean Fennessy.]