Half Windsor The latest project for a pair of passionate owner-renovators.
Heritage-loving renovators transformed a classic Victorian home in Melbourne, tying old and new together perfectly.
Sarah and Ben Harris had just wrapped up a heritage renovation when they found themselves bidding on yet another period home. “We hadn’t expected to buy again this quickly. We hadn’t even settled on our other place and this was the first auction we had been to since selling,” says Ben. But for this Melbourne couple, the opportunity to get their hands on a double-fronted Victorian in the inner suburb of Windsor was just too good to pass up. “Usually, by the time we sell, we’ve forgotten all the pain and stress,” says Ben. “It’s always hard to leave, but we start designing ASAP, so there’s something new to focus on.”
This time around, they were hell bent on transforming a dilapidated old rental into a beautiful home for themselves and their toddler, Louis, to enjoy. “There were vines everywhere and the carpet was pretty much the only thing holding the floorboards together,” says Ben, who undertook his first renovation with Sarah, a graphic and interior designer, in 2012. “It looked much better online. The vendors had spent about $30,000 trying to fix it up for sale but it clearly needed to be gutted, which I think put a lot of people off. But that worked well for us!”
They began documenting some of their personal renovation projects on social media and eventually launched their company, Resident House, in 2017, aimed at bridging the gap between design and construction. The couple’s experience with older homes left them with a ‘hope for the best, plan for the worst’ mentality, but despite all the work involved it was pretty smooth sailing aside from some inclement Melbourne weather and manageable flooding.
The heritage part of the house was in decent condition, but the rear had to be demolished and rebuilt: it was in a state of complete disrepair. On the day of settlement, the couple ripped the house apart, essentially taking it back to its dirt foundations. Nothing was left untouched. They laid new stumps, re plastered, restored fireplaces, removed smoke stains, rendered walls and replaced verandah tiles.
“THERE’ S A LOT WE PULLED OUT AND PUT TOGETHER AGAIN. WE JUST REALLY WANTED TO DO IT PROPERLY .” BEN HARRIS, OWNER AND BUILDER
And while this was happening, Sarah and Ben lived in the front half of the house, using one of the original bedrooms as a kitchen.
Key to the brief was replacing a 1980s lean-to with a new extension and reviving the tired period rooms. The house had a typical Victorian floor plan, with a central corridor and rooms branching off either side.
Moving through the house, the office/spare bedroom and Louis’ bedroom share back-toback marble fire places. In each of these rooms the decorative skirtings and cornices were kept to retain the home’s character.
Across the hall there was a bedroom so generous that Sarah and Ben think it may have been two rooms at one point. It was left in place, but its size enabled them to create an arch way and divide the space to incorporate a walk-in wardrobe, ensuite and bathroom that can be accessed from the hallway.
The existing house stopped at the end of the hallway, so they extended it slightly to create a transitionary walkway with two new courtyards on either side. These pockets of nature are wedged between the old house and the new extension.
Over the threshold of the addition, there’s a powder room immediately to the left. On the right is a study with double-glazed doors that provides an enclosed space to work in but with an unobstructed view through to the