Rehab Diary: A Revived Manse in Melbourne - Gardenista
Photography by Shannon McGrath via Clare Cousins Architects. Hired by a young family to revive a double-fronted Victorian house in the St. Kilda East suburb of Melbourne, Clare Cousins Architects didn’t do the usual tearing down of interior walls and building out. The owners wanted to better integrate the house and garden, which had been obscured by tall, sloping brick additions. These wings stand in the footprint of the old additions; one of the wings contains the living quarters, and the other, the sleeping zones. The front of the house retains its original multicolored Victorian brickwork. The living area now has a direct link to the garden via a pop-out window and window seat. Landscape designer Fiona Brockhoff created the layered perimeter with an eye toward family-friendly plantings. What Cousins calls the “threshold space” between the house’s wings forms an indoor/outdoor dining area with pivoting glass doors. The living area, with window seat and portholes. The wood-framed sofa is the Wilfred by Jardan of Melbourne. Classic bentwood chairs and, on the floor, the Block 2 Light by Sydney designer Henry Pilcher. The dining room “introduces northern light deep into the plan and creates new opportunities for passive cross-ventilation,” Cousins says. Open to the living room, the space has a floor of concrete pavers laid in a herringbone pattern. A lounge off the kitchen is paneled with discreet storage cabinets. For flexibility, the architects introduced sliding partitions between rooms in place of doors. A reminder of the house’s historic roots: an old-fashioned study for reading and playing music. A narrow space between the house and the property boundary was claimed to create a dressing area–a “walk-in robe” in Aussie speak–off the master bedroom. The dressing room and master bath are linked by Honeycomb Hex cement tiles made in Marrakech from Popham Design. A floor plan of the remodeled house details the masterful weaving of existing and new elements, and the integration of interior and exterior.