Marine themed
Venerable architectural details and parquetry floors sourced from an 18th-century French chateau nod to this verdurous harbourside home’s storied past.
Painted in Resene’s ‘Firefly’, a decadent teal, the front door proudly announces the rest of the home’s colour scheme. Complete with a solid-brass Adelphi doorhandle by Joseph Giles from The English Tapware Company,
the door is new, however the stained glass above is an original feature. The restored chequerboard tiles and turquoise chandelier in the entrance were also existing. The console is an antique from Manyara Home; the artwork is by Julian Meagher. In the living area, cushions in lively shades of blue embellish an MCM House ’Joe’
sofa and a Manyara Home coffee table. White linen curtains filter the sun streaming into this naturally lit space.
“When you open the front doors you realise how unique the property is. It’s a special moment,” Dominique says of her home’s theatrical tiled entrance, which ends where the French parquetry floor begins. One of the property’s priceless features, the historic floor was protected by Sandlik Constructions, hired by Dominique for the duration of the renovation. Of the two downstairs living areas, this space is the more casual. Family dog Gertie’s favourite spot to nap is on the sofa by the fire, which the family use during winter. They had the marble mantelpiece restored but installed a more powerful fire in place of the existing one. The lantern pendants came with the house. “During the reno, we took them down, serviced them and replaced the leather straps with chains to
keep them all consistent,” Dominique says. The Molteni ‘Piroscafo’ cabinet holds all sorts of treasures from Etsy, Guaxs and Cire Trudon.
Dress circle views of Sydney Harbour. A national park next door. The meditative sounds of a nearby beach rippling in with the tide. When it comes to locations of this sort you’d expect a “love at first sight” story, but love was the last thing on Dominique Hird’s mind the day she inspected this three-level eastern suburbs residence. “There was absolutely no way,” she recalls telling her accountant on the drive over, “that she would move to Watsons Bay.”
Dominique, husband Justin and their children, Layton and Halley, were living in Mosman with their weimaraner, Gertie. They were ready to renovate a house in Balmoral Beach when Justin chanced upon this four-bedroom property in the newspaper and scheduled a viewing that day. Dominique had reservations – for one, it felt too far away from the lives they’d established. But its handsome five metre-high ceilings, classical archways and pious pillars inspired a change of heart. “I’d never seen a house like it in Sydney,” she says. “With birds chirping in the background, it felt like we were in a European villa miles away from the city. We knew we had to have it.”
In its former life, this private family home was a Masonic lodge. Built in 1924 and remodelled in the 2000s, its original grandeur remained intact – the marble chequerboard entrance, the terrazzo staircase and the parquetry »
« flooring, which was sourced from an 18th-century French chateau in the Loire Valley. Seduced by the property’s worldly features and sea-girt surrounds, Dominique says they moved right in: “We lived in it for a year and realised we needed to make it more functional as a family home.”
Dominique and Justin wanted to make this a place where they could “create family memories” and engaged Weir Phillips Architects to steer the ensuing renovations, which “needed to work for now, when the kids were young, and in the future when they were tweens and teens.” This required rearranging the floor plan, building a new study upstairs and a garage with basement storage below, replacing all the wooden French doors with arched glass ones to let in natural light and installing more windows in the master bedroom, “to ensure we could see the city views from our bed”.
The yard received the same family-oriented overhaul – an undercover entertaining area was added, the swimming pool was rebuilt with bench seating and Will Dangar of Dangar Barin Smith landscaped the garden. This particular task involved the use of a crane to lift a forest of mature plants over the fence and into the backyard. The manicured mass of olive trees, towering palms, monsteras, bromeliads, vines, white birds of paradise and cacti more than fits Dominique’s request for a lush jungle with lots of privacy. “We love being able to see the city,” she says, “but now we feel like we’re on holiday whenever we arrive home.”
While the structural changes were left to the experts, Dominique took care of the interior decorating. She gathered inspiration from two key elements – an existing turquoise stone chandelier in the entrance and the tropical gardens »
This outdoor enclave was originally an indoor kitchen. It felt too removed from the living areas so the couple had it turned into an entertaining area. Like the plants brought into the garden, this bluestone Parterre table was so heavy it was moved in with a crane. The Royal Botania ‘Jive’ dining chairs are also from Parterre. The new kitchen is defined by the Euro Marble island and custom joinery by Madison Turner. Topos ‘Curve’ stools from Hub provide seating around the island. The sink features Perrin & Rowe tapware from The English Tapware Company as well as Zip taps for hot, chilled and sparkling water. The Joseph Giles solid-brass hardware is a combination of ‘Gibbons’
pulls and ‘Ashworth’ handles. On the wall is a line drawing of Gertie by Julian Meagher. The whale artwork is by Jonathan Delafield Cook.