LIGHT & EASY
Despite a lengthy approval process, transforming this 1950s house was well worth the wait for a Sydney family
For the views alone, it’s not hard to see why Aimee McKechnie and her husband Blair fell in love with their home on Sydney’s North Shore. From amber sunrises glimpsed from the open master bedroom – the bush gully behind the house provides complete privacy – to the springtime vision of jacarandas in bloom from almost every window, this renovation has been achieved in complete sympathy with its surrounds and the needs of a young family. Aimee and Blair are veterans of two previous renos, which ensured that this epic project ran to budget and on time. “Obtaining the DA was probably the only issue,” says Aimee. “As we’re in a conservation area, we had to ensure our plans were sympathetic to the suburb’s Walter Burley Griffin heritage so that meant it took almost two years. But DA dramas aside, the build – when it commenced - went smoothly and we achieved the home we wanted.”
Aimee, what was the house like previously? It was a ’50s build in its original condition. It was architecturally designed so the house was oriented on the block to capture the north-facing light and included lots of little terraces everywhere to catch the sun. During the renovation, we expanded on these terraces so that there are sunny outdoor spaces throughout the day.
What significant work did you do and how did you survive the renovation? The reno was pretty huge. It involved taking the entire roof off, pulling up the floor and stripping the house back to its concrete block and brick walls. We didn’t move any external walls, but we added the dining and living area extension wing onto the western side of the house.We added an ensuite to the master bedroom and a full bathroom for the kids upstairs. We installed steel-framed louvre windows and sliding doors throughout the home to capture cross breezes. We designed the house so we hardly have to use the air-conditioning. Blair project-managed the build and both of us were here at some point every day during the five-month fit-out. We survived by moving out to a tiny rental nearby for five months!
What hoops did you have to jump through to get DA approval? It was a really intense process because we’re in a conservation area so we had to get a historical architect – we engaged Heritage 21 – to check the plans to make sure they were in keeping with the area’s look. We had to have a flood study done, too. The heritage impact statement and flood study were put together with architectural plans by Paul Godsell from Crawford Architects and submitted to council. The original house, while it was architectural, wasn’t of historical significance, so we could make changes but we
had to respect the area’s overall design and feel. That meant complying with the allowed exterior paint colours and having no fence out at the front; instead, we had to have trees on the boundary. But we were fine with the conditions as we wanted to build somewhere with a great community and to create a home that was also connected to its surrounds and the suburb’s history.
Were you and Blair on the same page when it came to the reno? Blair was pretty keen on this place from day one and he is a doer. He had some really fundamental ideas about what he envisaged – for example, the soaring pitched roof over the extension - but we were generally on the same page and still are. It took me a little longer to get my head around the big structural stuff like what the new extension would look like with the exposed-steel beams and how the space would integrate with the existing house. That’s where living here for a while before we started the build helped, just seeing where the sun came in and thinking about where I wanted the kitchen and all that sort of stuff. But ultimately Blair’s original vision didn’t change dramatically.
What was the trickiest job? We needed to reuse some of the old bricks in other parts of the home. So, for a couple weeks, we chipped concrete and mortar off all of the old bricks. That was a fun job!
Did you drive the interior styling? Yes, the design was all mine but Blair and I are pretty much in agreement on it. Probably the biggest discussion we had was about the flooring. Apart from the carpeted bedrooms, we have oak floorboards throughout. The paint colour was a big decision, too. We’ve gone with Dulux White On White and it is beautiful in the space – but we’ve repainted every year since we moved in!
What’s your interiors ethos? In the home, it’s a mix of one-off design pieces combined with more high-street stuff. I have a huge love of Australian furniture designers - I cannot walk past Mark Tuckey - and I’m keen to support the Australian design market. I love finding the most unique pieces – I don’t want to walk into a store and say ‘I’ll have the package, thanks’. That’s what inspired me to set up my online homewares store, Curated And Made.
Is this your forever home? This is definitely the bringing-up-the-kids home. We’re lucky enough to live in one of those streets where on the weekend we go out to do some gardening, end up talking to the neighbours then it’s 9pm and everyone’s come in for dinner. We’re very happy. It’s the home we’ve always wanted.