RESTORED TO LIFE
IT TOOK TIME, BUT THIS TWO-STAGE RENOVATION OF A HUMBLE BEACHSIDE COTTAGE IN SYDNEY HONOURS THE BEST FEATURES OF ITS PAST
This Sydney family’s relaxed beach house has a fresh update while staying true to its humble origins.
According to Michael Bruno, real estate expert and founder of online furniture emporium 1stdibs, people with the means and inclination have a responsibility to find and restore old houses in order to ensure their survival. Interior designer Kate Manning’s purse may not be as full as Michael’s, but she may just be his match regarding passion and determination. And when she and husband David found a crumbling cottage on a hill in Dee Why – a classic Sydney knockdown with a view of the water – a unique opportunity presented itself. Kate, this seems to be one of the last original homes on the street. Did you contemplate pulling it down to build a big new house? Never! I knew I wanted to retain the history – and, besides, sustainability is important to me. I love the idea of a weatherboard beach house. We had a holiday house on North Stradbroke Island in south-east Queensland growing up, so it brings back memories of childhood and a simpler life. What drew you to this particular property?
I saw huge potential for a relaxed, humble but beautiful beach house, and I knew we wouldn’t have to blow the budget to get it right. It was built in the 1930s by a timber merchant for his two spinster daughters – and despite a 1950s fibro extension, I knew the bones would be good. For the Sydney climate, the aspect is perfect – it’s on the north-eastern side of a headland with ocean views through to Long Reef and all the way up to the northern peninsula.
What state was it in when you bought it? The extension wasn’t great and included some scary external vinyl cladding, but the original 1930s home was so well built. Once we started stripping back, we discovered tongue-and-groove cathedral ceilings and floorboards, and part of the walls still had the hardwood timber cladding behind them. That was really exciting.
What was the biggest challenge? Underpinning the house to remove 70 tonnes of earth in stage two, in order to create the lower-ground floor and properly support the upper level. Our budget dictated leaving this until stage two – but if I did it again, I’d definitely do it the other way around. Without the constraints of the designer-client relationship, did you have a bank of ideas in your mind for your own project? It’s less di cult designing for myself than for a client. I like to work intuitively and there was a lot less paperwork! Apart from childhood memories, my main inspiration was French interior designer Jacques Grange’s house in Portugal. The architecture and building materials are di erent, but our exposed, white-painted cathedral ceilings, the painted timber lattice in the joinery and the Tuareg mats on the floor were cues from that house. I’ve held back on buying anything really ‘good’ until the boys are older. The home’s exterior has been re-clad in silvered-o f timber. What inspired you to do this?
We needed to maintain the larger 1950s footprint, as the 1930s original on its own was too small. I had discovered the work of Horace Gi ord, who designed a lot of the amazing 1960s and ’70s beach houses on Fire Island near New York in the US. He was ahead of his time regarding sustainability and the fragility of coastal landscapes. I loved the silvered-o timber his houses were clad in and, with a bit of research, found an Australian supplier of the exact timber. It’s Cupressus macrocarpa and is also known as golden or Monterey cypress, not to be confused with cypress pine. It’s a native of North America but grown in southern Australia, and much of it is salvaged or rescued. For what must have been an extensive renovation, how did you achieve such an ‘unrenovated’ feel?
We kept as much of the original house as possible and restored it. Most of the windows, for example, are original. We used recycled timbers for the structural work and a lot of natural finishes in the interior. But most of all, it was working with good people such as painter-decorator Rudi Rivetti in stage one, and Stratton Thomas from Pro-Worx Building & Construction in stage two. They were amazing and happy to think outside the box, like me, when it came to maintaining as much as possible of the original house and adding to it in a sympathetic way.
What does the future hold for your family? We’re now building a house in the Byron hinterland, which will be our main family home until the boys are ready for high school, at which stage we’ll move back to Sydney. David uses this house for work each week and the boys and I join him whenever we can. It feels like we’re on holiday, which is exactly what I wanted for this house. See more of Kate’s work at katemanning.com.au. To view further projects by Pro-Worx Building & Construction, visit pro-worx.com.au.