Salute To The Sun A thoughtful renovation brought this 100-year-old Sydney home into the 21st century.
A 100-year-old Sydney home has been rejuvenated with a thoughtful renovation that delivers lashings of light, privacy and views into the treetops.
When an anonymous note was left in the letterbox of this house congratulating the occupants on their clever renovation, they were understandably chuffed. It arrived just days after they’d moved into their restored beauty on a corner block near Sydney’s Centennial Park, earlier this year. “The note said they’d watched the renovation every day and they love what we’ve done,” says the owner. “It was so nice. We’ve kept it pinned to the fridge.”
There is a lot to admire about this beautiful home, which is now gleaming after a full-scale revival and extension. Originally built in 1914, the rendered brick residence had only changed hands a couple of times before the current owners purchased it in 2017. But by that time, the house had seen better days. It
“THE DESIGN INTENTION WAS TO FLOOD THIS LIVING AREA WITH AS MUCH NATURAL LIGHT AS POSSIBLE.” Carla Middleton, architect
needed rewiring, new plumbing, a new kitchen, the ceiling was collapsing in a front room… the maintenance list was huge. The owners, a young professional couple who’d just returned from London, had plans to start a family and aspirations to create their forever home.
“Rather than moving in and trying to make it live able, we decided to bite the bullet and look for an architect straight away,” says the owner. She reached out to an old school friend, architect Carla Middleton. “The house was very dilapidated and needed a lot of work – but what an amazing blank canvas it was,” says Carla of her first impressions of the place.
In its original state, the home had six bedrooms and two bathrooms, with beautifully proportioned rooms at the front and a more higgledy-piggledy layout at the rear. The plan was to reduce the number of bedrooms to three (to be accommodated in a new second storey) and create four bathrooms plus a powder room. “We did the opposite of what most people do when they renovate,” says the owner. “We made the house bigger, but we didn’t make more bedrooms.”
The ground level was to be dedicated to generous living spaces. The original front rooms were retained – converted into family rooms, a study and a sitting room – and all original skirtings, cornices, fireplaces and stained-glass windows were restored.
The owners had previously lived in a home with small, separated living rooms – but didn’t like it much.
“THE FIRST FLOOR HAS THREE ZONES – THE PARENTS’ RETREAT, KIDS’ BEDROOMS AND HALLWAY. EACH IS REPRESENTED BY A GABLED ROOFLINE.” Carla Middleton
Their focus was on creating spacious open-plan living with big-hearted entertaining spaces: “It was our must-have.” This wish has been more than met with the new, light-filled extension, which features an 11x8-metre rear living space that flows onto a sundrenched deck. The home has a north-south orientation (the rear being north-facing) so Carla was keen to harness the sun. “The main design intention was to flood that living/dining space with as much natural light as possible,” she says.
She did this by designing a void space that soars to 6.7 metres high at its tallest point, and by specifying extensive glazing upstairs and down. “Voids are a feature of my projects,” says Carla. “They help to draw in that northern light and give a greater sense of space.” Upstairs, the home’s bedrooms overlook the void, ensuring those rooms are also bathed in glorious light.
The extension, clad in James Hardie Scyon cement-composite boards, clearly contrasts with the original house in terms of materiality. Yet, the new structure also subtly echoes the older one. “The original house really informed the design,” says Carla. The new roofline, for example, was inspired by the shape of the roof at the front. Carla designed it as a series of three gables, each corresponding with the three distinct zones – kitchen, dining and living – of the downstairs floor plan.
The original hallway, too, plays a pivotal role. It’s the central axis around which all the other spaces extend. “I wanted to set up a vista so that from the front door you could see right through to the rear of the site,” says Carla. “This accentuates the length of the site, and it means you look through to the northfacing living space as it glows with light.”
To help create a style and palette for the interiors, Carla and the owners searched Pinterest together. “My style is neutral and soft, with a love of natural
materials,” says Carla. “The owner has a crisp, contemporary style and a love of darker tones.” The result isa lovely blending of the two: there’ s an inter play of black, white and mid-grey tones, plus lots of stone, throughout. The kitchen is the perfect illustration of this, with black and white cabinetry (by Holtz Joinery) offset by benchtops and splashback in Elba marble. It’s a kitchen made for entertaining, with a whopping 4x1.3-metre island bench.
The owners welcomed their first baby, a boy, at the commencement of the renovations and a second son in February, just after they moved in. So, suddenly, their home is busy with the sounds of two babies under two. “We’re so thankful we moved in when we did and we’ve had this beautiful space to live in during Covid,” says the owner. “We love it all.”