ARTISTIC IMPRESSION

SYDNEY HOMEOWNER SYLVIA MCEWAN HAS CREATED A WARM AND GENEROUS ABODE THAT ALLOWS HER STUNNING ARTWORKS TO TAKE CENTRE STAGE

Aclean and considered courtyard leads the way into the welcoming Sydney eastern suburbs home of artist Sylvia and her husband, Ian. It’s an entree into a property that is both calm and thoughtful, much like the beautiful artworks Sylvia has been creating for more than 20 years. When the couple bought this semi-detached cottage in 2012, it was the proximity to their daughter Danielle – who then lived just 500 metres away – as well as the surrounding reserves boasting views to the Pacific Ocean, Sydney skyline and Blue Mountains beyond that first captured their hearts. “It just blew us away,” recalls Sylvia. The pair, who had recently moved across from Canberra, were in search of a home that was spacious enough to accommodate visiting family members, but also easy enough to lock up and walk away from if they were to head off on holiday. “As we now have the freedom to travel a lot more, we really enjoy the low maintenance that our home affords us,” explains Sylvia. Unsurprisingly, they were also drawn to its roomy, light-filled rooms. “The most critical feature was a suitable studio space, and enough wall space to hang my paintings,” she adds. The previous owners had added another storey to the home – which is thought to date back to 1916 – and extended out the back in 2004. However, the couple were shocked when they viewed the property after finding it online. “It had been rented for a year and was badly run down and in a poor state of repair,” says Sylvia. Yet they weren’t deterred and, having committed, they decided to rent for eight weeks while they supervised work on the home’s interior. Walls were opened up to create a formal living and dining space adjacent to the kitchen, which Sylvia says is the heart of the house. “People will always gravitate to it when we are entertaining – generally because I am still cooking!” she says. They also sanded and stained the floorboards downstairs, and laid new grey carpet upstairs. The garden was given an overhaul and a new terrace and plantings added, with the total renovation taking about a year. As experienced renovators, Ian and Sylvia were confident about managing the project, but there was also a lot of unforeseen structural work that required their urgent attention. “You have to make split-second decisions that can be very expensive if you don’t get it right,” explains Sylvia. “The most challenging lesson is co-ordinating all of the trades: the overlapping of sub-contractors requires experience and building know-how, and it can be very stressful.” The decorating process, however, was a joy to tackle. “In a way my design approach is a balance between creating a comfortable home and enough of a blank canvas to hang my art,” says Sylvia, who also used an eclectic collection of rugs to inject warmth throughout the interior of the house. “My instinct has always been to create a home that is calm, welcoming and contemporary, not too fussy or over-designed. But I do naturally lean towards clean lines and solid colour blocking, a lot like my art.”