A Home That Seamlessly Blends Two Distinct Design Styles | Homes To Love (2024)

Renovation and restoration were key protagonists in this tale of two architectural styles spanning more than a century. Interweaving the past and the future, this home in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs draws on dual narratives, but they share the same attention to detail, craftsmanship and earthy material selection.

The result is a harmonious whole that’s punctuated with delightful twists and surprises at every turn, thanks to an inspired collaboration between architect Madeleine Blanchfield and heritage architect Zoltan Kovacs.

Madeleine was already working on a project for the family, when this 1907 pile came on the market six years ago.

“This was our favourite house in the area and we had always wanted to buy it,” says the owner. “Before we bought our previous house back in 2001, we had reached out to the owners. We loved the fact it was a large block to house our family of seven, as well as the building’s heritage, including the 110-year-old oak at the back.”

“A hybrid between Victorian and Federation, it was a quirky local icon,” explains Madeleine. “Being owner-built, it had idiosyncrasies.” But one of its strongest virtues was the site. “It had presence but also humility. It didn’t take over the street frontage, leaving half the block empty for a north-facing garden.”

But, despite its noble bearing, it was dilapidated, with rusty pressed-metal ceilings and rotten timberwork, together with clumsy ad-hoc additions on the back and ill-matched front windows, casualties of awkward mid-century makeovers.

“We had to make use of the spaces without damaging the existing fabric and rebuild what was lost,” says Madeleine, who shared the task with Zoltan of Zoltan Kovacs Architect.

“The brief was to create an open, spacious and light-filled home connected to the garden, able to accommodate a large family,” she says. “The owners had a strong sense of style and wanted a spacious, flowing home, with space to be together but also apart,” she says. “And it had to be unique, a legacy they would be proud of.”

“Most important was a big dining room for our Shabbat dinners and holidays,” adds the owner, “together with a kitchen that could easily cater for lots of hungry mouths. And it had to be liveable and durable, with nothing precious.”

While the downwards sloping site could have been a challenge, Madeleine turned that constraint into an inspired plus. Over its two levels, the heritage home became five bedrooms for the five children, together with a study.

“We made discreet structural changes. All rooms were repurposed but remain intact and true to their past, with the front windows and painstakingly restored detailing such as pressed-metal ceilings and carved timberwork,” she says. “With Zoltan, we worked through old photographs and replicated the original detailing.”

The back, by contrast, is a light-soaked revelation. A jumble of additions yielded to a brand-new wing, says Madeleine. Over two levels it drops down the site but belying its size, from the street it reads as a humble single-storey pavilion in a garden.

In a dramatic juxtaposition to the old section, in form and detailing it is unashamedly contemporary, delineated by a crisp black shadowline and flat roof. It houses the entry, with the main bedroom suite and family room sharing that level.

From there, the extension magically expands – a broad spiral stair sweeps down into a voluminous open plan flooded with light and opening to the rear garden. “Slightly visible from the street, the extension breaches the level change in an epic, but discreet, way,” says Madeleine.

Here “double brick” takes on a fresh meaning. The heritage building sported brick detailing, which Madeleine adopted as the primary material in the addition, internally and externally.

The red brick allows the addition to be “robust andpowerful while recessive from the street”, but it also provides decorative detail, inside and out.

Used extensively on the internal walls, it’s periodically punched out to create screening and filtered light. Judicious curves in the spiral staircase and selected walls and doorways provide counterpoints to the material’s linearity. “And the rich brick walls create the perfect backdrop for the owners’ warm and eclectic art and furniture,” she explains.

Terracotta marble in the powder room and bar, walnut beams and richly veined marble in the kitchen complement the brick. Terrazzo flooring on the lower level “picks up on all the other materials in its flecks but is a calmer, more subdued finish,” says Madeleine. “In this earthy, heavy palette, brass tapware was also the natural choice.”

Madeleine, the owners and stylist Kirsten Bookallil collaborated on the furniture selection. “I love the Edra sofa and how versatile it makes the living space, but the real standouts are custom pieces, designed and made by Khai Liew. His walnut dining table and pendant light are works of art,” says Madeleine.

That dining area served up a surprise for her, too. “It’s an unusual, brief space. We thought it might be a letdown relative to other rooms, which were dramatic and had more natural light,” she says. “But it became a wonderful exercise in curation, a gallery-like space with dramatic curves and a skylight to the entry garden above. The 20-seat dining table in a skylit space is hard to beat.”

And the owner is besotted with the light and loftiness of her new home. “I love that the whole house is designed around the beautiful oak tree,” she says. “Even when lying down in our bedroom, you see it. I feel I’m in a treehouse. And the vast sky beyond is so calming.”

Madeleine, meanwhile, is justly proud of the smooth flow and cohesion between what could have been disparate spaces. “But there’s not too much consistency, which maintains excitement and surprise,” she says. “And it allows both old and new to be appreciated to the full.”

madeleineblanchfield.com
Zoltan Kovacs Architect, 0418 607 952