This is our third project with these clients, and we worked with them throughout the purchasing process through to design and construction. The property, when bought, was used as a Bed and Breakfast, which meant that its interior had been altered to suit that purpose; a series of temporary walls divided the home into cellular rooms. Our clients asked us to reorganise, restore, and reinvigorate the space to become their modern family home while retaining and celebrating details from it’s history as a grand Victorian terrace.
As a family of four, there was a need to maximise space and storage for use by their two younger children. By removing the old stair and many partition walls we revealed a large and generous home, and from there we began to rationalise circulation and create a new division between communal spaces on the ground floor and private spaces on the first floor.
The existing backyard was organised inefficiently, occupied by curved terraced garden beds, paving and limited usable space. We liberated the space by splitting the garden into three distinct sections; an outdoor dining patio and equal parts lawn and pool, our clients ideal backyard.
High Victorian ideas have inspired the palette and interior detailing, every detail is considered and custom. The earthy peach painted above the tile datum in the kitchen helps to centre and hold the space. We designed the dining space around a circular marble dining table, loved by our client and the only piece of existing furniture, it is embraced by the curved wall of timber panelled joinery. The kitchen island, hand-crafted with a scalloped timber base, topped with marble, holding court like those that sit around the island might. The threshold between new and old, a steel reveal, was made deep, arched and asked you to step up and through, leaving you in no doubt that you have just entered the heart of the home.
Our clients wanted a warm, light-filled home, and we landed on a palette of natural materials early in the design process to fulfil this; the terrazzo floor anchoring the palette, marble and brass features and custom timber furniture and joinery. These materials are complimented by a palette of earth tones like Dulux Kangaroo Pouch, and cooler contrasts found in the Ming green marble fan tiles in all bathrooms.
Pompei was entirely an internal exercise of reorganisation, with a few little structural and exterior changes to open the home to the garden and bring in more light; a beautiful and successful reunification of spaces, representative of the home it once was.
Material Used :
1. Dulux - Kangaroo Pouch S11D4
2. South Drawn - Hat Pendant - rust top + satin white painted bottom
3. Living Edge - LT07 Span Pendant Light - aluminium, powder-coated signal white
4. Living Edge - Saucer Bubble Lamp Medium
5. Jardan - Valley sofa - 2.5 seater cnr L + 2.0 seater R - American Oak Oil Raw, Fully Upholstered Fabric - Jardan Luna Oregano - Modular H
6. Teranova Ceramics - Ming Green Fishscale - bathroom tiles
7. Flooring- Acier Venetian Terrazzo from Concrete Collaborative
8. Interior furniture- Joinery is House by Hart
