Lay of the land At this Brisbane home, connections to gardens make for delightful suburban living.
SP Studio
Blurring the boundaries between inside and out, the tangible connections to verdant landscaped gardens at this Brisbane home make for a delightful reimagining of suburban living.
Architect Scott Petherick, director of SP Studio, was living in Melbourne with his partner and two children when he began redesigning their Brisbane abode. The renovation of the early-twentieth-century Queenslander in the city’s inner-west materialized when they relocated to Scott’s home state a couple of years ago. On the home’s upper level, the kitchen is the key extension, providing a grand finale of sorts as the last room to be revealed on the journey from the entry. It presents as a clear contemporary addition and, by playing on the notion of a traditional deck, it’s become a striking indoor/outdoor room that opens up onto a grassed “platform.” The original house suffered from a lack of space, but this new rear addition resolves the issue with intelligent planning and a strong connection to its natural surrounds.
Scott spent a great deal of time designing the kitchen in section to make sure its north-eastfacing interior took full advantage of the prevailing winds, while also receiving adequate shade. Instead of installing the downward-sloping eaves typical of the Queenslander house style, he designed a filigree, upward-sloping eve. Along with the rear garden’s impressive jacaranda tree, which provides a particularly pretty outlook when in bloom, the battened eave screens the kitchen during the summer months and gently filters winter sun.
The new upstairs ensuite and downstairs bathroom are likewise well connected to the outdoors. Both are compact in footprint, yet a white palette and American oak joinery lend them a streamlined, uncluttered appearance and adds to the functionality of each space. The ground-level bathroom feels as though it is nestled in the leafy rear garden, with a sliding timber door providing easy access and clerestory windows letting the natural light spill inside. It almost goes without saying that climatic considerations were important to the home’s overall design and certainly, Queensland is one of those places where good design needs to be environmentally responsive to deliver results.
Ensuring the detailing was of a high quality was a priority for Scott, as the house has stood for more than a hundred years and he wants it to be around for at least a century more. The kitchen’s joinery is particularly well articulated and Scott is happiest with the clarity of the integration between old and new. “I like that it’s obvious the kitchen joinery signifies the new part of the house, but also looks like it clearly belongs,” he says. “This is achieved with materiality and a simple design language that’s consistent throughout the whole house, so everything feels very much a part of the architecture.”
Kitchen products
Internal walls: Painted plasterboard and James Hardie HardieGroove lining in Dulux ‘Whisper White’
Flooring: Geostone Tilga exposed polished concrete
Joinery: Carrara marble island benchtop with honed finish and clear sealer; Maximum Marmi Taxos benchtop and splashback from Artedomus; custom joinery with Briggs Veneers American oak veneer in 2-pac finish and Blum hardware; custom primed pine batten open shelving in Dulux ‘Whisper White’
Lighting: Rakumba Highline pendant from Cafe Culture and Insitu; hidden custom strip lighting
Sinks and tapware: Oliveri Brushed Mito Square Gooseneck tap; Puri undermount sink
Appliances: Electrolux gas cooktop, fully integrated dishwasher, sideby-side fridge, under-cupboard range hood and electric wall oven
Doors and windows: Sliding doors and shiplap cladding pivot doors in Sikkens Cetol Ebony finish, and custom James Hardie HardieGroove lining windows in Dulux ‘Whisper White’ from Allkind Joinery
Furniture: Custom American oak table by Allkind Joinery; custom American oak bench seat with Lavelle Saddle leather top by Mivis Joinery
Bathroom products
Internal walls: Plasterboard ceiling; Inax Sugie Series ceramic tile (bathroom) and Inax Yuki Border wall tile (ensuite) from Artedomus; James Hardie HardieGroove lining (ensuite)
Flooring: Just Cementi White tile from Artedomus
Joinery: Custom joinery with Briggs Veneers American oak veneer in 2-pac finish and Blum hardware; solid American oak benchtop by Mivis Joinery (bathroom); Maximum Marmi Taxos benchtop from Artedomus (ensuite)
Lighting: LED downlights from Beacon Lighting
Tapware and fittings: Phoenix Gen X taps in chrome finish from Reece; Caroma Titan stainless steel showerheads in chrome finish (bathroom); Rossto shower set
Sanitaryware: Caroma Luna Wall Faced toilet suites and Cube under-counter basins
Doors and windows: Custom solid spotted gum sliding door in Sikkens Cetol Ebony finish (bathroom) and custom American oak veneer pivot door in 2-pac finish from Allkind Joinery (ensuite)
Other: Euroglass Australia frameless shower screen