Sweet Digs Australia: Alyce Tran’s Paddington Terrace Is An Ode To Australian Design

Welcome to Sweet Digs Australia, where we take a look inside the sometimes small, sometimes spacious, and always unique homes of women and gender-diverse people across the country. This week, we tour the luxurious three-storey terrace of professional slashie (and In The Roundhouse founder) Alyce Tran in Paddington, Sydney.

The leafy suburb of Paddington in Sydney’s Inner East is known for its old-world charm and modern luxury. Historic terrace houses line the streets, with pubs and cafés dotted amongst the back streets, while up on Oxford Street, there are endless designer labels selling everything from jewellery to furniture and plenty of fashion in between. 

Tucked away from the main road is Alyce Tran’s light and airy house — worth roughly $4.5 million in today's housing market — where the In The Roundhouse founder combines work with play thanks to the sprawling entertaining areas and a freestanding home office beyond the garden. 

The three-storey terrace, which Tran describes as “pared back”, was designed by local architect Adam Hamden. Thanks to the home’s “blank canvas” appeal, Tran has been able to put her own stamp on the house with predominantly Australian designer homewares and furniture that offer pops of muted-yet-colourful tones.

Tran describes the style in her home as “hodge-podge”, with a pastel pink concrete dining table — made by local designer and friend Lucy Kluver — paired with mint green custom dining chairs from Daniel Emma (and plates from In The Roundhouse, of course, which feature a design hand-painted by Tran herself). This theme is carried all the way up to the lighting choices in each room. For example, the unique glass chandelier from 1stDibs offers a soft light feature in the living room, and a fluorescent strip light hanging over the kitchen island adds interest to what could be an otherwise mundane space. It was designed by Netherlands-based designer Sabine Marcellis (who you may recognise from her recent viral collection with IKEA). 

Upstairs, the central focus (at least for us), is Tran’s walk-in wardrobe, which boasts an enviable collection of designer pieces. She describes her personal style as feminine, then quickly proves it by showing us her mini Chanel lunchbox bag (a gift from friend and designer, Michael Lo Sordo) and a cropped, sleeveless Prada shirt that features a sweet (and removable!) frill. 

Though we’d like to spend more time snooping through Tran’s wardrobe, she admits that she spends the most time out in her freestanding office space, which is accessible via the garden. “It’s so great because there is actually a major separation between this space and the rest of the house,” she tells Refinery29 Australia, adding that this makes it easier to detach from work after a long day. “I probably work seven days a week . . . for me, work is very integrated into my life. There’s no kind of stop, start; I’m available all the time to everyone. Other people might find that exhausting but I find it’s a real privilege to be able to work in the fields that I find interesting — and do well in them.”

Tran explains that in her previous home (a two-bedroom, one-bathroom terrace in the neighbouring suburb of Woollahra), she felt cramped, which certainly isn’t the case here. She loves how comfortable her new home is, and how her friends can visit and feel like they can sit wherever they choose, without worrying about anything being off-limits. 

Get the look of Alyce Tran's home below: