Wedded Bliss Winning a homemakeover competition marked a new era for this Sydney cottage and its owners.
When the owners of this outer-Sydney home said ‘we will’ to participating in an exciting home makeover experiment, they paved the way to the perfect backdrop for them to say ‘I do’.
Sometimes, it pays to throw caution to the wind, according to Sydney couple Sarah and Cath Jordan de Souza. And they would know. They recently surrendered their home to the dynamos at Three Birds Renovations, giving them total free rein to transform it. And they couldn’t be happier with the gleaming result. The radical renovation began when Sarah and Cath responded to a Three Birds Renovations call-out on Instagram.The proposal was an exciting one–with a major caveat: “We asked if there was anyone who’d like us to renovate and furnish their home,” says Three Birds’ cofounder, Erin Cayless. “But they needed to be prepared to hand over their house keys, their budget and to give us 100 per cent creative control – that was the catch.”
For Sarah and Cath, the proposition was a timely one. The couple lives in the historic town of Windsor, 55 kilometres north-west of Sydney, with their sons Chaise, 11, and Addison, nine. Their home, a cute early 1950s cottage, was in near-original condition when they bought it six years ago. Clad in pale yellow timber battens, the three-bedroom home was characterful and cosy but needed work. And with two growing boys, Sarah and Cath knew they needed to rethink their floor plan. They had considered going up and going out, and were still weighing their options when the Three Birds proposal came along.
The team from Three Birds was seeking a project of a manageable scope and budget that could be completed in eight weeks, and Sarah and Cath’s home fitted the bill. It was selected from more than 800 projects. Thrilled to be the chosen ones, Sarah and Cath handed over their bank-approved funds, along with their full blessings to “go for it”. Sarah admits it was difficult to relinquish control and “some friends told us we were nuts” but over a bottle of wine, and Cath’s assurances, she decided to
embrace the adventure. The Three Birds team asked the couple for a renovation wish list. “They said ‘no’ to most things on that list,” says Sarah, laughing. “But they took in the fact that we like entertaining, that we needed a study space and we wanted a family home, not a show piece. They kept saying ‘just trust us’ – and we did.”
For Three Birds’ creative director and co-founder, Bonnie Hindmarsh, the cottage was an exciting blank canvas. “I wanted to make it more contemporary but with a subtle nod to its origins,” says Bonnie. Outside, this meant replacing the old horizontal battens with new James Hardie ‘Stria’ cladding, laid vertically, and painted Dulux Pozieres, a muted green. “The vertical cladding immediately made it feel more modern,” says Erin. The concrete roof tiles were cleaned and sprayed in Dulux Surfmist to match the fresh new look.
Internally, the cottage underwent a complete overhaul. In its original state, the home’s kitchen, dining and living rooms were all separate. “We removed the hallway wall and two smaller walls to create one open-plan space,” says Erin. In doing this, the original bathroom became part of the new main bedroom suite and a new family bathroom was created. Then, to enhance the indooroutdoor connection, they pushed out a section of the rear wall, creating space for a dreamy new kitchen with cafe-style bench seating and servery bifold windows onto a new deck. They moved the laundry facilities (previously at the rear of the property) into the kitchen, where they are concealed behind a wall of joinery. The backyard has been converted into a heavenly entertaining zone with the back shed morphed into a glamorous bar.
It remains a three-bedroom home but now has two bathrooms and feels more spacious overall. There’s a requisite study nook, plus a variety of newly-created sitting spaces for Sarah and Cath to work from home.
Colour-wise, Bonnie adopted a “warm, cosy, textural and organic,” palette of soft and earthy tones. Drawing inspiration from an original 1950s curved built-in cupboard in one of the bedrooms, she designed a series of archways and curvilinear shapes througout the home. “The curves complement the soft colours and help accentuate the height of the ceilings,” says Erin.
On the day of the final reveal, Sarah, Cath and the boys waited around the corner before being escorted up the driveway. “All we could say was ‘wow’. It was sensory overload,” says Sarah. “The moment we stepped inside, all our ‘what ifs’ disappeared,” says Cath. “We all loved it – it felt like home. It’s a home to live in and grow in.”
The completion of the renovation became a double celebration: before the family moved in, Sarah and Cath were married in the backyard, with Chaise and Addison as attendants. “It was perfect,” says Sarah. “Forever we will look out to the garden and say ‘that’s where we got married’,” says Cath. “And each year, we’ll stand on that very spot where we said ‘I do’, with a glass of Champagne, and say ‘cheers to us’. We’ll always look back on this year and marvel at what we went through as a family.”