Cloud Nine Though its footprint hasn’t changed, the interior of this Sydney home is now a step above.
A Sydney couple are in heaven after an interior designer took them on a life-changing journey with bold colour and lively prints.
After 10 years of living in the same home in Sydney’s inner west, Angela Balafas and Victor Carey decided to make some changes. The couple’s offspring had all moved beyond the demanding years of childhood, and the way the family used the house had changed. What they really wanted at that point was a home more suitable for entertaining friends and hosting great feasts.
“Everyone thought I was crazy, but I knew our house could be transformed without knocking out walls,” says Angela, who felt that good design might be the key.
The couple originally purchased the property in the late 1980s and rented out the tired fibro residence until 2003, after which they knocked down the old house and replaced it with a twostorey project home. The new build included both casual and formal living and dining spaces on the ground level, along with a kitchen, laundry, powder room and study; upstairs offered four bedrooms (the main with ensuite), a media/living room and bathroom. Daughter Sofia, now aged 13, has one of the rooms and Alexander and Mia, Victor’s twenty-something children from a previous relationship, have their own spaces when visiting.
While Angela knew what she wanted to achieve with the renovation, she felt that pulling it all together required some help. “I had never used an interior designer before and, to be honest, I was nervous,” she says. “This was not an architectural masterpiece; it was just a nice house in a nice suburb.”
In the end, Angela hired Karen Akers, based on her portfolio of successful home transformations. “What I loved was Karen’s use of colour in ways that were unexpected, and how all her homes were different, unique to their owners,” says Angela.
They first met in 2012, Angela armed with a short wish list: paint over feature walls, refinish floorboards and update furniture. The work was quickly put on hold, however, when the couple decided to put in a swimming pool first. By the time Karen’s company was contacted again in 2015, Angela had bigger plans. She was now keen to update the kitchen and adjoining laundry and powder room, allocate more space to entertaining, and make changes to the main ensuite. “The spa bathtub in the corner had to go!” she says with a laugh.
“Angela had an idea of what she wanted her home to convey,” says Karen. “We wanted the house to represent her and the family in personality and feel.”
In April 2016, Karen began work on the project, right at the threshold. She widened the opening and installed a new front door “to create the illusion of more space and open living”. Then, to accommodate the owners’ love of entertaining, she swapped the formal dining and living areas to fit in an extension table capable of seating 14 people.
The kitchen and ensuite were renovated and every corner of the house transformed with well-considered furnishings, textiles, wallpaper and paint. Karen is known for her creative use of colour, so the family was excited about the green palette she proposed to run through the home, starting with the kitchen’s emerald-coloured cabinetry. Green pops up in accents throughout the living room, and as substantial highlights in the main bedroom (large rug) and Sofia’s room (entire ceiling) .
Despite a few stops and starts – most notably when the floorboards weren’t up to scratch and had to be refinished a second time – the work went smoothly and the result has revitalised the house. It’s made everyday living and socialising much more enjoyable, and changed Angela’s view of designers.
“I think most people would benefit from using an interior designer,” she says. “They really work magic and push you to do things you would never imagine. And your house doesn’t have to be a mansion to justify it.”