“The house works really well for us, especially as we’re spending so much time there at the moment. I really love our big backyard, and being able to see what the girls are up to out there while I’m cooking”
After “spending far too much money” buying their first home at the height of the market in 2007, Julia Cauchi and her husband Dane were determined not to make the same mistake twice. So, in 2012, when Melbourne property prices had cooled, the couple saw it as an opportunity to upgrade their small two-bedroom cottage to a family home. “We were determined to be a bit more savvy second time around and even though we didn’t have any children at that stage, we knew we were heading in that direction,” says Julia.
They struck gold when they got “a really good deal” on a beautiful Edwardian weatherboard in the leafy inner southern suburb of Elsternwick. As well as being chock-a-block with period features, the four-bedroom house had a great layout with an open-plan living/kitchen/dining area at the rear, which had been added twenty-plus years earlier. There was only one problem. Although the house was in good condition, its decor was also stuck in the 1990s. “It was just a little bland, with lots of cream, beige and brown – not really our taste at all,” says Julia.
It wasn’t until three years later when the couple finally moved in with their then baby daughter Remy that Julia was able to start the process of banishing the beige and bringing some personality into their new family home. “Aesthetically, I just didn’t love it,” Julia admits, “and even though we were planning to extend and possibly put on a second storey down the track, I wanted to freshen it up and make it feel more like our home.”
Help from Suzanne Cunningham of One Girl Interiors was sought to pull the couple’s vision of a “beautiful yet liveable, relaxed and warm” home together. “Moving from a smaller house into a larger one meant we needed more furniture as well, but I really didn’t trust myself to make those choices,” says Julia. “I know what I like, but I also like things from lots of different eras and styles so I needed someone who had that eye and could pull it all together.”
Although the makeover kept to the existing layout, Suzanne said an important part of the project was to consider future structural renovations and focus on spaces that wouldn’t need to be extensively redone down the track. “For example, Julia and Dane may eventually extend the living/dining/kitchen area,” says Suzanne, “so we kept the existing kitchen and focused on painting the creamy walls a fresher white (Dulux Natural White), sanding the orange floorboards, changing the pendant lights and adding new furniture, which still had a huge impact.”
The biggest transformation is in the main bedroom and formal sitting room in the original part of the house, which both now feature a dramatic dark palette. “Although we all agreed that we wanted the main living area at the back to feel