Soft pink walls, white marble and cabinetry, terrazzo flooring and warm timber are enough to make this Sydney house renovation distinctive, contemporary and welcoming. This understated warm aesthetic continues with soft green marble fan tiles in the bathroom and beautiful original stained glass in the hall. But it is the curves that really set this home apart. They are everywhere – arches in doorways, a large semi-circle cut into the kitchen bench, curves to bookshelves, undulating vertical timber battens forming the kitchen island, curved edges to the bathroom mirror.
Even the furniture has curves, from the plump cushions of the green Valley sofa by Jardan in the living room, to the spherical Flos wall lights designed by Michael Anastassiades, to the Hat pendant over the dining table, designed by Melbourne designer Luke Mills for Catapult. These curves are complemented by vertical lines to the cabinetry in the kitchen / dining room, vertical-patterned tiles that line the splashback and vertical timber battens to the kitchen island and bathroom cabinet.
The combination of curved and vertical elements along with the use of soft pink and green is reminiscent of 1960s interiors, but updated to a contemporary sensibility, with the addition of timber and indoor planting. And also, THE architect’s material of choice right now: terrazzo flooring, appropriately in grey and white with a hint of peach.
When architecture studio Carter Williamson began work on the project, their challenge was how to turn a Victorian Terrace, previously used as a B&B and containing a collection of dark uninspiring rooms, into a light, open and airy modern home. Demolition was an option, but Carter Williamson saw the potential of a renovation: “in the spirit of creating sustainable architecture, we adopted the concept of adaptive reuse; maintaining the bones of the home and modernising it.”
In order to create the chic modern home you see in the photographs, the architects had to remove a selection of walls, rationalising the space and allowing the rooms flow into one another. “The removal of a selection of walls has opened the house to enable spacious living where rooms flow into each other; gone are the tight rabbit warren-like spaces,” reads the architecture statement.
The open-plan kitchen, living and dining area features a curved kitchen island that enables movement through the space: “the kitchen’s scalloped bench is shaped as such to allow free passage through the home, avoiding the constricting feel of the original terrace house and creating as much space as possible.”
This home disproves the fallacy that small homes must be white plain boxes – here soft colours bring warmth and character, while curves facilitate movement through the space.
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