Deco Delight

Charting a new course for a vintage P&O-style home on Sydney’s north shore.

There’s something majestic about P&O architecture. Inspired by cruise liners, it’s a 1930s style that is clean and minimalist yet oozes luxury, and is as appealing today as in its heyday. This elegant home on Sydney’s lower north shore is one of many fine examples dotted around the city. But it wasn’t always in such good form.

Katie and James McElvogue bought the single-storey home, a deceased estate, in 2010. “We had moved 12 times in 15 years, and as our children [Charlie, now 15, Lucy, 13, and Tom, 11] were heading towards their teens it was time to put down roots,” says Katie. “James and I have always admired P&O architecture and we fell in love with the character of the house, especially the curved front room.” Inside was a treasure trove of Art Deco design details – crisply rendered fireplaces, geometric wallpaper, steel-framed windows, even a lion’s head-shaped bath spout.

The pitfalls soon outweighed the charms, however. Despite a large (715m2) site, the home was a mere 153m2, and not easy to live in. The layout was “a bit of a rabbit warren”, with awkwardly shaped rooms that were more like corridors than living spaces. The children had to share bedrooms and there was only one bathroom. The windows leaked, there was no connection to the location and, curiously, the previous owners had replaced the P&O-style flat roof with a pitched one in terracotta tile.

“The house was what you’d politely describe as a ‘renovator’s dream’,” says architect and interior designer Brooke Aitken, who began working with the McElvogues in 2012. “It would have