This Sydney home, located in a Heritage Conservation Area in Malvern Hill in the Inner-West suburb of Croydon, has been updated with an extension and new interiors, while also making the most of its heritage features.
Owner Caitlin Parker-Brown of interior design studio Parker Studio appointed Sydney architecture studio Potter and Wilson to work together on the heritage restoration, new interiors and a contemporary addition at the back of the site.
The heritage details of the house were carefully restored, including a historic Federation-era front facade, Art Nouveau stained-glass windows and decorative ceiling plasters. And pulling up the old carpet, beautiful hardwood floors were discovered.
But the real hero is the rear addition in brick, a gable-roofed volume that is expansive in proportions, housing a new kitchen, living and dining room. The architecture and interiors are in perfect harmony here, with stone floors, new timber joinery and a green quartzite used for the kitchen benchtops and as a detail around the fireplace in the living room.
“[This is the] primary communal area of the home, opening to expansive views across the rear garden and swimming pool,” says Imogene Potter of Potter and Wilson.
“Large glazed openings create a strong visual and physical connection between the interior and the landscape, while the elevated roof form enhances the sense of volume, natural light and ventilation within the space.”
From the outside, the new extension carries the same material language as the original house, in brick and terracotta tiles on the roof, however, the form is unmistakably contemporary in its design and execution, with an asymmetry, integrated chimney and hit and miss decorative brick applied to the side facade.
“Potter & Wilson, the architectural team, focused on designing the rear extension, alongside the creation of a striking steel-glazed facade that breathes modernity into the structure,” says Caitlin Parker-Brown.
“Our role was to reimagine the interior, the contrast between the home’s heritage Victorian features and the contemporary European-inspired extension creates a warm, inviting atmosphere.”
The balancing of 21st century interiors with Federation detailing is deftly handled in this home, restoring and updating the older rooms, while creating an extension that is totally contemporary in design without jarring uncomfortably with the rest of the house.
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