Extensive renovation for family living in Inner Melbourne 

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A beautiful period feature home on a prominent corner in East St. Kilda was undergoing a renovation to the front 1/2 of the home. The owner and Architect parted ways, and I was engaged to take over the design process and documentation for the remainder of the property.

 

My scope was addressing the significant lack of natural light in the Kitchen & Living spaces to the rear of the home, provide access to and incorporate a custom in ground swimming pool with associated infrastructure, create alfresco dining & landscaping decks, car park & boundary fences - all in a very tight inner suburban block. 

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Opening the rear of the home to natural light was a primary focus along with tying in all the various outdoor functional requirements of the owners. Cantilevering an external passage and stairs over the swimming pool created an increased feeling of depth and accessibility to the living space whilst providing connection from the Alfresco dining. The Pool fencing was carefully designed for compliance and enabled the pool to be squeezed between the house and side boundary fence for maximum use of space whilst still providing adequate off street car parking and a sunbathing deck.

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It is the little details that matter on a project like this - continuing the same timber deck nosing detail from the previous designer into the alfresco and balcony - gave the continuity required for a seamless feel to the property. Cor-ten weathering steel previously used for garden bed containment was used to great effect in the swimming pool fence gates and additional landscaping to the rear Alfresco. 

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This was a challenging project but one which gave the owners maximum amenity on a small lot.

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Some of the notable feature materials use in this transformation are:

• 'New York' marble to the kitchen island bench

• Solid Vic Ash pivot door to match the floors throughout.

• Aged copper hexagonal penny tiles to the kitchen splash back

• Silver top ash decking 32mm thick bull nose edging

• Custom designed concrete in ground swimming pool

• French linen drapes 

• Anodised Aluminium Sunshade louvres