Little charmer This Sydney home punches well above its weight

THIS PETITE SYDNEY HOME PUNCHES WELL ABOVE ITS WEIGHT IN CHARM AND FUNCTIONALITY, MAKING IT JUST THE RIGHT FIT FOR A YOUNG FAMILY

If walls could talk, Liz and Rob’s home, an adorable terrace in Sydney’s inner-west, could pen quite the novel on the evolution of life. Bought by Liz when she was single and fresh from flat-sharing, the home has seen her meet and marry Rob, and the pair expand their family to four with the arrival of Rupert, now two, and baby Polly. Bedrooms have evolved from study spaces and wardrobe storage to children’s rooms, and the pretty back garden has gone from dinner party central to play space. Liz, an interior decorator, took the leap into the property market 10 years ago, seduced by both the area and the irresistible charm of the home itself. “I just loved that the house had character,” she says. “I’ve always loved older homes and their period details. A square box doesn’t have the same appeal to me.” Liz and Rob, who came on the scene soon after her purchase, spent four years dreaming and scheming on how to make the most of the home’s assets. “Over that time, I would tear things out of magazines and collect ideas from different sources,” recalls Liz. “I had quite the wish list by the time we came to renovate. Of course budgets needed to be kept, so some of the wish list was put to the side for future dream homes, but everything else was the result of years of planning.” The home was perfectly liveable as it was, and the previous owners had redone the bathroom and made the whole house tidy, but a 1950s extension at the back was not making the most of the space: the kitchen was separate and the brick rear wall was begging to be knocked through, while a second floor addition needed work. Architect-turned-builder Ole Kjaer was brought in to tackle the renovation, which proceeded with all the joys and perils you would expect of a period home. “As is so often the case with old homes, we hit a lot of curve balls along the way with the renovation,” says Liz. “The foundations all needed to be redone and there was absolutely no structural support for the upstairs – it was a complete tack-on in the ’50s, so it was lucky it lasted that long. Sadly, a lot of the budget went into things you can’t see.” Still, the dramatically transformed rear space caught the eye of Home Beautiful, and it was a finalist in our 2017 Beautiful Rooms competition. Renovation complete, Liz has kitted out the home in contemporary classic furnishings, pieced together over the years. Designer splurges (as the budget allowed) are matched with high-street steals and quirky objets. Although Liz, through her work, has an eye for the perfect piece, the house is far from a show home; the overwhelming feeling is one of warmth and welcome. “This is where we live – we have friends and their children here all the time,” she says. “We were never going to have a house where you can’t wear shoes inside or eat on the sofa. This is a house to live in, not to look at.”

HALLWAY The entrance sets the tone for the rest of the home: fresh, bright and classic, with hits of black. “Before we renovated, the house was a lot more colourful; the front door was red and we had a lot of red accents throughout,” says Liz, who splashed out on a pair of pendants from Laura Kincade. “Then my husband said he wanted a black door like 10 Downing Street, and that started it – we decided to carry the black elements all the way through.”