Front Door Blues

This is a fabulous external colour scheme I worked on last year where the client was brave enough to go with the bold blue colour I suggested for the front door. You can see more pics from this project on my Houzz folio. 

Canberra Colour Cookoff

Recently Ive been working on a kitchen renovation in Canberra. The house is a fabulous 1960's Bill Batt designed home, largely in original condition. I wasn't familiar with Bill Batt prior to taking this job and there is little about him online, but he was the University Architect at ANU sometime around 1959 (please do shoot me an email if you have any additional info about Bill Batt as myself and the clients would be keen to learn more about him). The clients were keen to rework the kitchen to retain several of the key characteristics of the original interior design such as the beautiful timber lined ceilings and timber paneling in the entry, which I was more than enthusiastic about. As we were working remotely (i.e. me in Melbourne, the clients in Canberra) I used photoshop to render up my ideas for design and finishes. This is a great tool to communicate your 'vision' for a space and makes it easy to tweek the layout and materials as the design process unfolds. We did lots of options on this job and even though we were just working with freehand sketches, the clients found it really easy to picture the suggested colours and materials in their space. 

Stay tuned for completed pics in the next month or two...

Laundry & Bathroom Renovation Elwood

A client recently emailed some photos (thanks PH!) of a completed laundry and bathroom renovation I worked on late last year so I thought I would share them on the blog.

The client's brief was to turn the pokey laundry/toilet into a powder room & secondary bathroom as well as a laundry space - a tall order from a room measuring just 2200mm x 2400mm!! They also wished to extend their existing family bathroom into the hallway to give them enough space to have a separate bath & shower as well as a toilet & vanity. I've included some plans to show how we reworked the spaces. The house is late Edwardian and the joinery style, colours and materials were chosen to give a nod to the era of the house but with some contemporary flavour.

LAUNDRY / POWDER ROOM 

This room had some very shallow impractical storage and for guest using the facilities, it really did feel like the toilet had been plonked in the corner of the laundry. The clients were keen to give the room more of a 'powder room' feeling also incorporating a shower so it could be used in conjunction with the family bathroom.

Powder & Bathroom facilities in Laundry

Beautiful & Functional - Powder Basin / Laundry Trough

 FAMILY BATHROOM

The bathroom had an existing pedestal basin and medicine cabinet on the side wall - no bench space and no where near enough storage for a family of four! It also had a tiny 1200mm bath with a shower over the top - compromising both the ability to relax in the bath or enjoy the shower. We overcame this by having a shower open to the bath on one side, making the room feel much more open and allowing both a full sized bath and a walk in shower. 

Bathroom BEFORE SHOT

Walk in Shower & Hob Bath

Bathroom Vanity with Medicine Cabinets Above

Bathroom Before & After

Well its taken about 6 months but our 50's bathroom renovation is finally complete!  As I previously mentioned on the blog, I decided to keep the original lilac bath tub as it's the perfect size for a small person and keeps some of the homes original personality.  I contrasted it with charcoal and chalk porcelain tiles, shiny new chrome tapware and an Oak Timber vanity unit to bring it up to date.  I also added a mega-sized mirror to the right hand wall to make the room feel larger and to reflect the beautiful embossed feature tiles on the left hand wall.

Oak Vanity Unit & Sleek Black Towel Rails - Mega Mirror on the right

Original lilac bath set in new hob - charcoal floor tiles & embossed chalk wall tiles bring the colour up to date.

Bath hob extends into shower to become a shelf

BEFORE shot - Ugh!

Sophisticated Update

Magazine article from Australian Home Beautiful Essential Bathroom Guide 2010

lime tonic

Coming up to the end of the year its always nice to visit projects that are winding up to completion. Last week I was invited along to a renovation & extension project I worked on while at ADA. It is now finally getting towards completion and looking fantastic. A great result for clients that have an eye for detail and are a little brave with colour...

A few days before moving back in - pictures to hang, bookshelves to fill...

View of recycled brick wall through kitchen 'slot' window

 This project will hopefully be published in a magazine next year, stay tuned!

Kitchen Before & After

I was thrilled to hear from some clients in Canberra recently who have completed their kitchen & library renovation. M&A sent through some great 'After' photos and while I work on my elusive website, I thought it would be a great opportunity to post the happy snaps here.

BEFORE - Tired Kitchen

BEFORE - Kitchen Chimney & Canberra Cooker

BEFORE - Dining Room

BEFORE - Existing Wall Unit

The clients came to me wanting a kitchen renovation and rather than just re-fit the existing kitchen layout, I analyzed the layout of the internal rooms and how the clients use these spaces. They had a makeshift study tucked away in a third bedroom and a small dining room that often got used for the laptop of an evening. The kitchen was a separate room which felt disconnected from the living spaces and they also had a living room with an awkward unused section at the rear. It became clear that we needed to open the kitchen up and re-purpose some of these areas. We removed the original chimney and Canberra Cooker and opened up the adjacent wall by creating a sort of island bench framed by pantry & appliance cupboard. We also created a study/library space where the dining room once was - a space for the computer, lots of book storage and a comfy chair to curl up and read in the sun without feeling disconnected from the rest of the house. The awkward space behind the family room furniture became the new meals area. We used a restrained palette of marble, dark grey & white to offset the timber floorboards. We also gave the existing wall unit a lick of dark grey paint to give it a new lease of life.
 

AFTER - View through new opening from dining room to new Kitchen

AFTER - New Appliance cupboard and re-rejuvenated wall unit

AFTER - New Library & Study area