SENSE OF STYLE
With their relocation to Perth, a Sydney family morphed classic bones and a leafy setting into their perfect home
A Sydney family took a leap of faith to morph classic bones and a leafy setting into their perfect Perth home
Veronique Willing and her husband Tim are no strangers to interior styling. Tim, a former head of residential development for Multiplex, now runs his own Perth-based development company and Veronique is a classical singer who not only performs, but also works alongside her husband to style their projects. The couple were living in a typically long, narrow terrace in Sydney’s Paddington when they made the decision to return home to Perth in 2012. The move saw them upscale their lifestyle for both themselves and their kids – “I had three children in three and a half years!” says Veronique – and shift closer to family and the area in which they had lived previously: Mount Lawley. And while it was family that prompted the change, it was also family that helped them with the move, from checking out the home to renovating it. Your home-buying process seems a little back-to-front? Yes! We actually found the house online while we were living in Sydney. My brother-in-law and father-in-law went to look at it for us. They reported back, we okayed it, bought it, then went to have a look through it. What did you think of it when you finally saw it?
Our first walk-through was a May afternoon, so we could see the sun come through the rear. That was a big tick for me. While I said, ‘I’ll get rid of this, change this and move that’, there was a lot to love.
What were those great elements? It was structurally sound, it had plenty of natural light, classic features and the location was perfect. We were living near Centennial Park in Sydney, so moving back to Perth, we wanted to live near a park but also have a big garden.
What changes did you want to make? Our family sent us the plans and I actually started redesigning before I even walked through it! The layout of the house didn’t flow – you had to backtrack in areas to move into different parts of the house. I really wanted to give the house that flow and separate the private and public areas.
How did you do that? I moved the bedrooms to the left side and the living areas to the right side of the house. The front room has remained unchanged, but the rear has had a lot of work. Originally, the kitchen was a sunroom/main living area and the kitchen was tucked in where the living space is now. The dining room is in the same place and the back area has opened up. We put in a door off the main living area to our bedroom zone, where all the rooms are now accessed from a hallway that runs the length of the house.
Do you use the room at the front of the home? The front room was intended to be a music room and I should practise my singing in there. However, we don’t use it as much as we thought we would. When I have time to myself I do tend to use the space – it’s particularly great in winter.
So where do you practise your singing? I do that in the kitchen area when I’m with the kids. I’ll listen to something with my earphones on and the kids will be like: “Mum, will you be quiet!” When I get to a certain tone, the dog starts howling.
The kitchen seems like the hub… Yes, everyone hangs out there. The kids eat and do homework at the bench. We also entertain quite a bit – I put food on the island and everyone sits around the long bench, at the dining table and outside. It’s easy to entertain in. What can you tell us about the big, beautiful window at the end of the dining table? I love big windows! It was intended as a seat and the kids do often sit up there, but I also put vases of flowers there. In winter, the sun comes through to warm us up in the mornings and we can see the moon rise through it in the evenings.
Did you have any help with the renovation? Leon House did our last kitchen, so we had him do this one, too. He had just returned from EuroCucina [a major European kitchen fair] in Italy, and said it was all about having a preparation bench and an entertaining bench. So we incorporated that. It means when I’m cooking, no-one else is in my space. However, the prep bench is packed with storage: a snack drawer for the kids, a pantry, water filter… Everything others need is on one side and I work on the other. Timber is a big feature of your home – how has that evolved? In the rear section we had some parquetry in one room and tiles in another, so we ripped it all up and my brother-in-law laid the entire house in a Tasmanian oak herringbone. We reused leftover timber from the floor in a feature wall in the entryway and in the bookcases in the living area. The original jarrah boards in the kids’ rooms remain, plus there’s blackbutt in the kitchen, and walnut and other timbers in furniture. Timber brings a lot of character to a house. We’ve used different shades and the light falling on it gives off even more colours. I love that it’s natural and if it gets scuffed that’s fine, too, as it gives that lived-in look.
How would you describe your home? I wouldn’t call it eclectic, but the variation in finishes adds character and doesn’t look boring or monotonous. I think it has the element of surprise.