Repeat Performance

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday July 27, 2000

Babette Hayes

A second attempt at renovation provided a more practical solution for this rambling bungalow, writes Babette Hayes.

WHEN Greg Loveday came back from a two-year stint in Brisbane he did not expect to have to reassess the renovations he'd carried out on his home before going.

"It was a surprise. I had bought this 1920s bungalow a few years back and eventually had a builder add on an extra level. He opened up the rabbit warren below and did an excellent job because I needed more space and wanted to get some light into the house. Then I hardly had time to live in it before my work took me to Brisbane and I leased it out."

Coming back with a fresh eye allowed him to re-consider what he had and what he needed.

"I realised that it did not work for me. The layout was back to front with the dining area squashed into a tiny space next to the kitchen, and the living room was in the middle of the house. I wanted more light, more space, no clutter, just simple, clean lines.

"I went through a process of looking around. I even considered selling and finding something else, but it was a great location. I decided to stay put and engaged the services of Colin Brown of Arena Design."

Loveday liked his ideas and the way Brown approached the process of design. "He was good to work with," says Loveday. "He got me to write down, room by room, four or five things that were important in each room. I particularly wanted a better living arrangement."

Brown is strong on simple, sleek contemporary design and passionate about detail and refinements. "Our brief was to redesign and refurnish from top to toe. It meant that we could think about interior and furnishing as one, there was the opportunity to have a completely integrated treatment of the house."

In the end, though, the structural changes were minimal, but significant enough to affect the whole. Pivotal to transforming the feel of the place was the opening up of the point of arrival into the house. "We got rid of the narrow, dark, poky entry by removing a wall, which opened up the space to the central room and made all the difference," says Brown.

"Now you come straight into the vestibule, you're in a light-filled area straight away. We also redesigned the external approach to the front door which was hidden away in a recessed porch down the side of the house. Friends visiting for the first time would hunt desperately for the entrance. We moved the steps out to connect with a deck/pathway which can be seen from the frontyard."

Brown worked with a colleague, architect Danielle Lowy, on the project. "Once we had the overall plan of what would work strategically, we used joinery to define volumes and spaces, looking at each room to see what would work, defining the functions."

One of the more notable design features is the simplest. The pivoting door does several things. Made of European ash, duplicating the proportions of the dining table in the same timber, it brings a vertical, textural, welcoming focal point opposite the front door.

"It provides direction, diverts you towards the house because it looks more like a wall than a door," says Brown. It also provides privacy for the downstairs guest bedroom, which has the guest bathroom alongside, turning it into a separate unit.

Loveday wanted the upper level of the house to be his private domain, with his own office/sitting room and bedroom. The front bedroom was turned into an informal sitting room with a large sofa where he could stretch out and watch television.

A new skylight over the staircase captures more of the northern sun, drawing light into the centre of the house. The main bedroom was also lightened up.

It used to have a dressing room behind the bed, "as dark as the black hole of Calcutta" says Brown.

"Taking out the wall enlarged the room. Building the storage, which steps down to the window seat, made the room that much bigger as did the larger windows which now offer a magnificent view of the water.

"The biggest challenge was to balance the whole to achieve consistency throughout. In some ways we achieved this by simplifying the detailing and designing the joinery so that there was a link in volume, form and textural interest."

Although most of the joinery is finished in the same warm white gloss polyurethane, the joinery in the dining room is in a figured veneer which adds a subtle texture, matching the same figured timber of the white Fritz Hansen dining chairs.

"The key to the successful outcome was that Greg trusted us, and that as we came up with our proposal there was an exchange of dialogue. He'd ask why, we'd explain, and he would agree."

Sounds easy, but how often does it happen?

How to do it

A Velux skylight and row of hanging lights custom made by Function, 9974 1509, now lights up the staircase.

New Cypress pine floor carries through from the original flooring. Frosta stool from IKEA, Moore Park, 9313 6400.

The kitchen features a range of pull-out larders, deep drawers, shallow and deep cupboards made by Abode Cabinet Making, Dee Why, 9971 2055.

Caroma basin sits in granite benchtop, wall and floor tiles Bisazza pale grey glass mosaic tiles from Pazotti, 9327 1850.

THE AIM

To turn the house into a stylish contemporary home in a style compatible with the renovation.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE?

Twelve weeks.

WHAT THE OWNER WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY

I'd carefully research the architect/designer I would use. This is the second time round and I was fortunate to find Colin Brown who has given me the high standard of design I was looking for.

FEATURE OWNER IS HAPPIEST WITH

The entrance, because the whole house immediately opens up from the front door. Having the pivoting door is brilliant as I can come and go to work without disturbing my guests.

INSIDER TIPS

Start off with as big a vision as possible and then think laterally.

ARCHITECTS

Colin Brown and Danielle Lowy of Arena Design, 9310 3436.