The Harvey family chose the concrete overlay system from Covet International during the refurbishment of their flagship Balgowlah gallery on Sydney’s lower Northern Beaches. The Covet flooring system helped the Harveys realise their long-held vision for a white envelope gallery.

Trevor Harvey, who heads his family’s three galleries in Sydney and Melbourne, said they wanted the new space to appear ‘like an igloo’, luminescent on all sides, from the floors up. “White ceilings and walls [would] meet a white floor.” The floor of their imagination would reflect the “light sparkle of polished terrazzo with marble aggregate”.

Harvey appreciates the role a floor plays in creating a unique gallery space. It’s the fifth wall, holding and reflecting a gallery's many varied exhibits. As Harvey notes, “a gallery floor is totally exposed... It’s not covered over with furniture or rugs.”

The Challenge

However, there were physical constraints to achieving the Harveys’ exciting aesthetic quest. Having already installed ‘elaborate’ doors that left gaps of just 12mm to lay a floor, the selected flooring needed to be extraordinarily thin. It also needed to be extraordinarily strong, supporting heavy static loads and the routine wheeled passage of sculptures weighing 400-500kg or more.

The Options

The Harveys’ quest led them to Covet in Melbourne, designers and suppliers of contemporary polished concrete and terrazzo overlay flooring. The Harveys saw that Covet’s concrete overlay system offered them a wide selection of concrete colour bases including a coveted natural, white real concrete. The creative possibilities multiplied when combining the various mixes of stone and marble aggregates, and finishing lustres. The innovative concrete formulation also easily met the Harveys’ exacting requirements for an exceptionally strong, yet thin floor.

Seeing the possibilities, the Harveys considered their options. Covet’s team happily assists asset owners, architects, and interior designers create their own singularly distinctive floors. The Harveys considered such a genuinely bespoke solution until they viewed a sample of Covet’s new white on white terrazzo design.

What they saw was a white concrete terrazzo floor of exceptionally light purity. It seemed to have the quiet integrity of original artwork while supporting and reflecting the other exhibited works. The Harveys' search was over. They knew this was the floor that would animate their white envelope vision.

The Installation

Decision made, Covet referred the Harveys to Diamondshine Polished Concrete, their trusted installation partner in New South Wales. Covet's thin profile concrete overlay system is installed by their network of approved installation specialists located around the country. These installation specialists work with builders and asset owners to confirm site specific installation and scheduling details.

Diamondshine’s principal Barton Dowe says, “Covet’s service and delivery processes give me great flexibility when planning an installation. Unlike traditional wet concrete, the Covet concrete is made to order and delivered in bags of premixed dry concrete and aggregate, giving enormous transport and storage benefits. The dry delivery frees my jobs and crew from time and distance limitations of my wet-cement jobs.”

The installation crew mixed and cast the concrete materials at the gallery, hand trowelling and raking the concrete overlay to ensure even placement and level surface. Within 24 hours, the concrete hardens enough for tradespeople to traffic the surface and continue their refurbishment work causing minimum disruption to site progress.

The floor is left for approximately seven days to cure fully, at which point the installation team returns to grind a 2mm layer off the top to expose the intended surface texture. Then they complete the installation by polishing and applying a final seal.

The Distinguishing Feature

The Harveys launched their refurbished gallery with a dazzling reception in early February 2022. For Trevor Harvey, the floor “completes the space. It is exactly what we envisaged”.

The luminescent floor has become the distinguishing physical feature of their new creative space. Harvey considers it to be the “proprietorial Harvey Gallery floor”! He wishes he “had a dollar for every comment received about how amazing and wonderful the floor looks”.

And as for the artists, Harvey says that exhibiting artist Johnny Romero, a particularly vivid exponent of contemporary pop art observed “his colours have never been shown off better".

“In a way,” concludes Harvey, the “flooring combines with the lighting to create the essential gallery experience and process. Without great lighting, you can't show great art." The Harveys have created a feature of their long imagined "light sparkle of polished terrazzo”. No rugs on this floor.

Want to see the real thing? Head over to Harvey Galleries, 515 Sydney Road, Seaforth, NSW 2092.

Project Credits & Product Details

Concrete surface: Concrete Overlay 10mm

Concrete Colour: Brilliant White

Aggregate Colour: 6mm White Marble

Surface Finish: Terrazzo - exposed aggregate

Client: Harvey Galleries

Builder: BR Building Services

Photography: Robert McGrath