How changing lives required the shift to a family home
Sorting out a pair of staircases was about a lot more than getting from A to B.
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OWNERS: A professional couple
THE PROBLEM: Two staircases that impeded the flow of the space
THE SITE: Three-bedroom Paddington terrace on a sloped black
DESIGN SOLUTION: Reworking both staircases to make the transition from one space to the next seamless
INTERIOR DESIGN: Peter Reeve from CRD Design, crdesign.com.au
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE? Eight weeks
WHILE houses are static structures, our lives are not and a home’s spaces need to shift and expand as the lives of its inhabitants change.
This Paddington terrace was originally a great inner-city home for a professional couple so that when interior designer Peter Reeve first renovated it 14 years ago it was all about sprucing it up.
Fast forward to the present day and the owners’ needs have shifted to a family home, with separate spaces required for the couple and their 10-year-old daughter.
“The original renovation was more ‘let’s make it my home’ as opposed to ‘let’s reconceive the house’,” Peter says.
“It was a very successful interior but this time the work was structural. We reworked the staircases and reconsidered the living areas and balance of kitchen to meet the family’s needs. It had to become a place the family could love and spend time in.”
NOW WE’RE COOKING
The original galley kitchen didn’t have enough storage and wasn’t large enough for big scale entertaining so Peter created a C-shaped cooking area.
“We wanted to make the kitchen powerful and thrust it forward into the living room,” Peter says. “Also, we didn’t want to be looking into the kitchen from the upper level.”
The key to achieving both these aims was custom step joinery.
Not only does it create a sense of space but it also works as a platform to display the owners’ extensive glass collection. The bright colours and organic shapes of the glass vases pop against the white joinery.
“From the living room all you see is lots of white, there’s lots of bench space and places to put out drinks when entertaining,” Peter says.
“The storage issues are gone — the sink, stove and fridge are in a triangle shape so it’s functional and there’s a lot of bench space.”
STAIRCASE TO HOME HEAVEN
The biggest issue with the house — which also proved to be the most expensive — was the staircases.
“The staircase to the upper level had a complex intrusion. It was going to be the biggest part of the renovation, no matter what we did,” Peter says. “We had to spend money on the staircases, nothing was going to work while they were there.”
The intrusion was just 1.6m from the floor so it meant that most guests had to duck to get under the staircase which separated the ground floor living room from the kitchen below. It blocked the view of the two levels, so that everything looked dark and closed in.
By reworking the staircase and rebuilding the laundry under the stairs, the 5m wide terrace opened up.
“Now from the front door looking in, you get a greater sense of space,” Peter says.
The second brushbox timber staircase was a bulky, semicircular 1.2m wide corridor with metal railing that separated the top living area from the bottom level.
“The staircase curved into the kitchen. What’s a huge staircase doing in the middle of the room? All those transitional points are really important,” Peter says.
He solved the problem by cutting the original staircase and straightening it.
The metal railing was replaced by a lightbox handle that was built into the
kitchen joinery.
“The lightbox handle is a nice detail. It means that at night you can still see the staircase but it’s a soft light that doesn’t affect the living room,” Peter says.
TERRACE APART
Renovating a terrace is more like working on an apartment than a house, Peter says.
“At 280-300sq m, the space is concentrated — it’s tantamount to an apartment.”
Peter used colour to open up the space, changing the walls in the upstairs living rooms from white to a smoky grey.
“A lot of the owners’ art had white backgrounds so the walls makes the art pop. It creates a negative effect, so that we notice the art, not a lot of walls,” Peter says.
While the upstairs flows to the bottom level, they are two distinct spaces.
“It was important to have that separation of child and friends, not duplicating the use of space,” he says. “While the parents are entertaining downstairs, their daughter can be in the living room upstairs.”
An outdoor cabana also works as an additional living area.
“The slope of the land was an advantage,” Peter says. “It means there’s a subterranean garage and what’s above the garage becomes an outdoor room.”
Pictures Brianne Makin
THE SOURCE
● Paint: Dulux Warm Grey by A1 Painting Group, a1paintinggroup.com.au
● Kitchen benchtops: Caesarstone Clamshell, caesarstone.com.au
● Custom step joinery: From the dining room to the kitchen, DMC/Rossmore, sydneystairs.com.au
● Carpentry: Matt Butler
● Staircases: DMC/Rossmore Carpentry, sydneystairs.com.au