RETRO REVIVAL COLOUR CLUES
THE HOUSE RULES TEAMS DITCH THIS WESTERN AUSTRALIAN HOME’S ‘STUDENT PAD’ IMAGE FOR A MORE PULLED-TOGETHER LOOK
THE RUNDOWN When their mother suggested it was time to leave the nest in 2011, identical twins Andrew and Jono, now 27, scrambled together their savings to move out of home. The Western Australian brothers, who were then both at university, took their first step on the property ladder in the form of a 1970s has-been in the centre of Mandurah, about 70 kilometres south of Perth – close to the beach and within reach of the train to university. “It was pretty rough, but we bought it because it was a good price and location,” says Jono, who is now a primary schoolteacher. Andrew, who is a community AFL coordinator adds, “It wasn’t so much a dream home but a good home.” With a kitchen and bathroom that had been untouched since the ’70s, and a closed-in balcony the brothers dubbed “the Swedish sauna”, the student house needed to come of age. “It was never great when we bought it and it hadn’t got any better with time,” says Andrew, who no longer lives there but still treats it as a holiday crash pad. “We tried to fix it up, but it was like holding back the floodgates before it all fell apart.” Handing over the old place to the House Rules teams for a seven-day renovation, the twins asked for retro with a side of geek-chic and bright bursts of colour. The result is a haven of cool, ’70s style with exposed details bringing the house bang up to date. Andrew lists the master bedroom as his favourite new space, while Jono nominates the steampunk-style bathroom. From front to back, every centimetre of this house is now far more befitting of a functional adult. “The renovation has made the house feel a lot more welcoming to be in,” says Jono. “I might even be able to convince my girlfriend to move in with me now.” A burst of deep blue and orange, plus the ‘Indi’ king-sized bed from The Furniture Gallery and the ‘Misty’ pendant lights from Beacon Lighting, bring the main bedroom (top, left & opposite) to life. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen says the two opposite hues bring out the best in each other. “It’s such sophisticated colour technology,” he says. “The orange is so vibrant – like biting into an orange segment – but there is enough blue to provide a cool, calm and strong framework.”
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