RESTORED DAIRY
A meticulous approach to colour, teamed with carefully curated furniture, has imbued Belinda Hall’s Melbourne home with style and soul
A deep blue colour scheme and carefully curated furniture imbue this Melbourne home with style and soul.
The unwritten rules of home ownership decree that successfully renovating one property behoves you to take on a more challenging project. Stylist Belinda Hall had no qualms about ignoring this custom when she plumped for a former Victorian dairy in one of Melbourne’s oldest suburbs that had already undergone modernisation. This meant that she, husband Patrick and their two children – Charles, then aged two, and babe-in-arms Ted – could settle straight into the double-fronted home with its modern open-plan rear extension.
TAKING THE PLUNGE
Eight years on and the interior has now been transformed. “The back extension was a vast, white, boxy space with no atmosphere, which was di∞cult to make feel homely,” says Belinda. “I was thinking of adding personality by choosing a dark shade for the walls and mentioned it to Fiona Richardson, a mum from my sons’ kindergarten, who is now my business partner. She immediately showed me her home, which had a deep charcoal scheme.”
Galvanised, Belinda began researching the perfect shade. “I thought about grey, but I wanted something intense that wouldn’t be too cold. I eventually singled out Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue and took the paint chart to a specialist, who mixed it for me. This colour has an earthiness to it, with green and ochre tones, so it’s not stark. At night, it’s very vibrant and during the day it feels cool.”
Breaking with convention again, Belinda extended the rich cerulean hue over skirting boards and window frames throughout the property. “Painting out all woodwork makes the depth of the colour feels endless,” she says. This, and the later decision to paint