Interior designer Thomas Hamel buys South Yarra bolthole

The international interior designer Thomas Hamel has bought a South Yarra bolthole.

The Hawksburn Road home cost $2.06 million.

Hamel retains a $2.9 million Illawarra coastal retreat outside Sydney. The Otford coastal property was bought from the former Premier of NSW Nick Grenier and his ex-wife, and former Mayor of Sydney, Kathryn Grenier.

His former Sydney weekend was recently onsold by the former managing director of Goldman Sachs Australia Robert Tsenin and wife Estelle at Killcare Heights.

The couple secured $1.45 million having paid $1.47 million in 2003 when it was bought from Hamel and the antique dealer Martyn Cook.

In 2015 Hamel has sold his flat in the Sydney CBD block, Broughton House to financier Simon Mordant and his wife Catriona - bought fully furnished through Christies International.

He lists New York - his home up until 30 years ago - London, Paris and Istanbul as the best cities in the world in which to discover treasures.

But he also has had a soft spot for Melbourne.

Since setting up Thomas Hamel & Associates in Sydney in 1993, he has worked with a who’s who of Australian society, designing interiors for clients in Melbourne, Sydney, Palm Beach and Portsea and, even their holiday houses in glamorous locales such as the south of France, London, Florida, Hawaii and Colorado. One of his first clients were Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull. 

This article first appeared in The Weekend Australian Mansions Australia section.