Some homes feel carefully decorated.

This one feels cast.

The home of decorator and stylist Lysa Fina and graphic artist Lou Peluso has the glamour, drama and confidence of an old Hollywood production, but none of the usual distinction between leading roles and background players. Everything has presence.

They bought the three-storey Victorian in 2010, after it had spent years as a neglected rooming house. What it became is the opposite of a blank canvas: dark, theatrical, funny and completely committed. There is no neutral corner quietly waiting off-camera. And I mean that as a compliment.

Photographing it felt a bit like arriving on a film set after the entire cast had been told they were the lead.

Every room had its own atmosphere. Every shift in position revealed another composition. The wide views mattered, but so did all the smaller decisions within them - the objects, patterns and unexpected combinations that made the home unmistakably theirs.

The problem was not finding something to photograph. It was accepting that I couldn’t photograph everything.

That feeling of being visually overwhelmed was part of what made the assignment so much fun. The house kept offering more: another angle, another detail, another photograph hiding inside the one I was already making.

And then there was Lysa.

After photographing rooms filled with so much personality, it felt right to make portraits that matched their energy. Nothing quiet or overly restrained - just strong, dramatic frames that gave her the same presence as the home she created.