In Barwon Heads, Australia, a rundown weatherboard cottage has been transformed by Adam Kane Architects into a contemporary home with beautiful textural tones and a sensitive approach to space. The entire existing cottage façade and roof are painted deep black, delineating the existing from the deliberately weathered ‘barn style’ extension.
The black façade of the cottage blends subtly with its coastal surroundings. Contrasting from the deep black, the light interior includes restored lining board ceilings, period skirting and architraves, alongside new charcoal floorboards. Glimpses to the garden are revealed as one passes through the existing home towards the extension via a glazed link, forming a graceful connection between old and new.
Access to the extension is via an enclosed corridor, lined with black mottled joinery panels on walls and ceilings, and is used to conceal doorways into the rumpus, laundry and storage areas. As described by Adam Kane, the ‘journey’ through this dark corridor, with 2.4-meter ceilings (to facilitate the main bedroom mezzanine above), creates a sense of compression, before a sense of release upon entering the living room where the gable roof opens up into the main space.
The main space features a double-height 6.5-meter American Oak-lined ceiling with the same timber v-grooved lining as the rest of the home, which wraps from internal ceilings through to the external cladding. Natural light floods into the area through 4.5-meter high glass sliding doors, further embracing a sense of connection with the coastal landscape.
In the main room, a large island bench takes centre stage and is lined in travertine. The island transforms seamlessly from a kitchen bench into a dining table through a discrete floor level change within the kitchen area. This results in an informal area to entertain and gather.
Alongside the desaturated timber ceiling and joinery, slabs of silver travertine and burnished concrete floors are supplemented with hand-scratched solid plaster walls, in a soft, warm ‘bone’ colour. Linen sheer curtains softly balance the space.
