ASK THE OWNER: DESIGN DETAILS
Hannah, what were some ways in which you saved money during the renovation
process? We saved money by reselling many of the fixtures and materials we were removing from the house on Gumtree and Facebook. We shopped around for materials and finishes to ensure we were getting the best price, and found that having friends with trades was also very handy! Our tradie friends would often come by after work and help out for a few hours at a discounted rate.
So tell us a little more about that fire pit. It came from the BBQ Factory and the log [seats] were a very fortuitous by-product of a huge storm that hit Sydney in May 2016. Just days after we’d bought the fire pit, I found them cut up and left in a heap of storm debris on the road below our house. I couldn’t believe my eyes, so we quickly borrowed our friend’s ute so we could transport them back up to the house.
How do you like to decorate? Does your décor evolve over time or did you tackle it in one
go? We like to decorate slowly and meaningfully. Before we moved in here, we’d been living in a two-bedroom unit, so we didn’t have very much furniture. We added pieces gradually as we got to know the house and were able to make better choices. We picked up a lot of the soft furnishings, decorative pieces and artworks on our travels, others have come from our grandparents’ homes, and some of them we chose because they represent a memory or a place that means something to us.