This richly textured home embraces its nostalgic past with modern inclusions and improved comfort. Melissa Bright, principal and design director of Studio Bright, describes the residence as a quintessential offering from its time. “It was deserving of retention for its time marking contribution to a richly textured city that values its past,” she says. However, spatial arrangements and configurations, and poor connection to parkland and streetscape left ample room to ponder ways to transform it into a beautiful forever home for the older homeowners and their dog.
They loved their home and were looking for a comfortable abode that would take into account their future requirements. The house had good bones, but needed to be internally reconfigured, and modern amenities added, as well as re-levelling and detailing. Melissa says Studio Bright saw an opportunity to renovate rather that design something new. The clients happily agreed. “Our clients intend ageing at home and wished for the house to throw its arms out to extended family as well as providing amenity for features such as a gym, lift, bike storage room and sewing room,” she explains. Cramped interiors were opened up to welcome in light and maximise views to neighbouring parkland. The clients also wanted a new stair and lift to improve accessibility across both levels.
The ground floor has living, dining and kitchen spaces, as well as the master suite. Guests are well catered for with a lounge, two bedrooms and an ensuite. There’s also a bathroom, powder room, laundry and terraces on this level. The lower ground floor has a gym, sewing room and storage. Generous room sizes were the order of the day, with a rich and sophisticated material palette. Divider elements were added to open-plan living spaces to respect the unique quality of each area. Remnants of an existing brick wall between kitchen and dining and a floating joinery piece helped to offer a degree of separation.
The interiors are warm and welcoming. “The stairwell opens up like a secret passage bathed with light, the metallic bronze walls and warm walnut veneer providing a warm cocoon and reflecting the light through to the rooms below,” says Melissa. The deep-green marble and metallic paints that add a feeling of opulence. The floors are bluestone, the ceilings and soffits a Victorian ash timber lining board. Steel-framed windows complement the slate and brick.
Outside, a new balustrade lightens and refines the way the mansard roof appears. “It gains elegance and a floating quality that redefines the way the mass sits in the landscape,” shares Melissa. The home has street appeal in spades. It has an astute presence, with ample visual allure. Melissa says the adjoining brick garden walls are cut and modulated to share glimpses of lemon-scented gums around the entry in an offering of civic generosity to pedestrians. “This is a gesture that is invisible to the visitor but demonstrates the power of architecture in the aggregate of many small, considered gestures that give back to the public,” she explains.
The home is sustainable in that it seeks to improve comfort without adding floor space. New heat pumps for hot water, hydronic heating and air-conditioning and solar were also added. This project is distinctive in that it challenges the notion that starting with a clean slate should be the go-to for homes of this era. “Typically, houses like these are demolished for the next big thing. So we were delighted by the opportunity to renovate this one,” says Melissa.
