Colour blind

Jane Goldsmith has a problem with colour. Her Mid-Levels home is a vision in black and white, from the cool marble floor to the rows of framed photographs on the walls. Glamorous and elegant, with squashy white sofas and vintage trunks anchored by a few dark-wood pieces, the monochrome palette is enlivened by gleaming silver, polished mirrors and lots of sparkling crystal. Even the pets – a glossy black Labrador and seal-point cat – are colour co-ordinated. It’s no surprise to learn that Goldsmith runs a diamond wholesale business.

“I have tried using more colour in the past,” Goldsmith says, “but I always end up coming back to black and white through a process of elimination. I can never quite make colour work. I’m the same with artwork – I’m not good at choosing paintings – so I used things we already had.”

And therein lies the secret to this chic apartment. For this is not the carefully co-ordinated work of an interior designer, but an intensely personal home. Instead of art, the walls are lined with photographs, most of which are not art shots but family snaps. On the study shelves are a much-loved teddy bear, a baseball, an old violin (Goldsmith played as a child and attended the Sydney Conservatorium of Music) and a pair of worn-out satin pointe shoes signed by New York City Ballet prima ballerina Sara Mearns.

It’s stylish and beautiful but, more importantly, every item is meaningful to Goldsmith or her financier husband, Rob, both of whom hail from Australia.

“Living so far away from home, it’s important that the things you live with mean something,” Goldsmith says. “Every family has these things. It’s all lying around forgotten in the back of cupboards or in drawers. I’ve just had the family photos reprinted and reframed.”