Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Alexandar Journal. For years, our work has spoken through the spaces themselves: through the warmth of a handcrafted dining table, the glow of a pendant light designed to echo the first moments of dawn, or the quiet confidence of an interior that feels both entirely new and deeply familiar. But behind every beautiful space lies a story worth telling. This journal is where those stories live.
My journey into design began with observation. Growing up between cultures, I became fascinated by how different traditions approached the same fundamental human need — the need for shelter, for beauty, for a place to call one’s own. A Japanese tea room could quiet the mind with nothing more than proportion and natural light. Mediterranean architecture embraced the outdoors as though the boundary between inside and outside was merely a suggestion. These early impressions shaped everything.
An interior is not a static thing. It is a living environment that shifts with the seasons, changes with the light, and evolves with the people who inhabit it. At Alexandar, we do not create rooms to be photographed once and admired from a distance. We create rooms to be lived in.
Our interior design process begins long before we consider colours or materials. It begins with understanding. We spend extensive time with our clients, learning not just their aesthetic preferences but the rhythms of their daily lives. How do they use their mornings? Where do they gravitate when they want to relax? Do they entertain frequently, or do they prefer intimate gatherings? How does natural light move through the existing structure?
This deep listening phase is what allows us to create interiors that feel intuitively right. When a client walks into their completed home for the first time and says, “This is exactly what I wanted, even though I couldn’t have described it,” we know we have succeeded. That response is not accidental. It is the result of a design process that prioritises emotional intelligence alongside technical expertise.
For years, I channelled that into business. I co-founded a construction company that has been building homes in Toorak for the past eight years.
Through that work, I have been inside some of the most extraordinary residences in Melbourne, and I kept noticing the same thing: when it came to truly significant objects, the pieces that elevated a home from beautiful to unforgettable, everything came from Europe. There was nothing being designed and manufactured here at that level.
That is why I started Alexandar. It is his name. Every piece I create is, in some way, a conversation with someone I never got the chance to truly know, but who laid the foundations of who I am.
Of all the elements that shape our experience of a space, light is perhaps the most powerful and the least understood. It can make a room feel expansive or intimate, energising or restful, welcoming or austere.
At Alexandar, we consider lighting to be one of the primary design materials — as fundamental as the walls, floors, and furniture. Our bespoke lighting programme exists because we recognised early on that the lighting fixtures available through standard channels, no matter how beautifully designed, are inherently generic. They are not made for your room, your ceiling height, your view, your daily rhythms.
Our lighting design process begins with what we call “lighting choreography.” Before we design a single fixture, we map the intended light levels and qualities for every space throughout the day. We consider how morning light enters the bedroom, how midday sun interacts with the kitchen, how the transition from afternoon to evening should feel in the living areas, and how the home should appear at night.
For me, design isn’t just a profession, it’s a way to transform ideas into reality and breathe life into dreams. From the first spark of inspiration through to the finished result, I pour my heart into every detail.
Lucas Petrovich · Creative Director