The Brass House is multi-layered and nuanced, just like its owner and designer Melanie Strathdee. Her creative spirit and passion for purpose-led design has imbued spaces with unique character, making a walk through the home a discovery tour. “I see a home as a stage,” Melanie explained, “each doorway framing the next room like an unfolding scene.”
Clients of Leo & Lotus, the in-demand design studio she founded in 2008, benefit from Melanie’s creative magic. “The Brass House is a living canvas for everything Leo & Lotus stands for. Every piece here has been tested in my own space before finding its way into a collection. The brass kitchen – raw, unsealed, and aged by my own hands with chains, a hammer, and white vinegar – is the heart of the home, marrying functionality and creativity. The bathrooms blend heritage and modernity, like the vintage chest of drawers I transformed into a marble-topped vanity.
“I love how it reveals itself slowly, guiding you with colour and texture rather than shouting everything at once. A red vase leads you to a red chair, which shifts into a deeper tone just around the corner.”
Melanie’s consideration of design from a theatrical viewpoint echoes her parents’ past creative pursuits. Her dad built theatre sets, made puppets, and even worked as a circus ringmaster, while her mum produced musicals for the theatre.
Compassion was likewise modelled in the family home. “My parents were both schoolteachers and had a gift for reaching children the system would otherwise lose. Mum would have fruit in her bag to share. Dad would teach the more rambunctious ones anything to spark their curiosity and give them a sense of possibility. They believed it was their responsibility to give every child hope and belief in themselves.”
Fusing design with purpose, Melanie now brings hope and self-belief to disadvantaged artistic communities, working with craftspeople from across the globe. One of her most enduring connections began after the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal. Amid the rubble and through local connections, Melanie discovered an ashram, a home for deaf non-verbal women at extreme risk of trafficking because they could not call for help. “We began working with them, and over the years I’ve seen them marry, raise children, and run their own businesses. Today they create and hand-stitch our bedcovers, each one unique.” Every sale from Leo & Lotus supports the ashram and educational programs for children excluded under the caste system.
Draped over a bed in The Brass House, one of these Nepalese bedcovers “carries the warmth of a human story from the woman who stitched it to the home it now lives in”. In another room, a Buddhist singing bowl threaded with strands from a monk’s robe holds its own story.
“A home without meaning or emotional connection never feels complete,” Melanie said. “A home should be beautiful; yes, it should capture the essence of the people who live there. But most importantly it should have kindness attached. Every Leo & Lotus home gives back to the community.”
Raised in a world where “colour and storytelling were a part of life”, The Brass House captures Melanie’s own essence perfectly.
