Jazz Up Residence

by SWG Studio

Restoration of an existing Victorian residence converted into an open, yet cosy space filled with natural light.

These original single fronted Victorian terraces in the neighbourhood of Brunswick while different in style, are otherwise similar in their scale, materials, and setback. This street, comprises an attached row of five Victorian brick single storey houses.

The original front part of our client’s house consists of a corridor on the Northern side with access to the two bedrooms on the opposite side. The rear part houses the living and dining room and was believed to have been an extension added at a later stage.

Designers SWG Studio were briefed by the owners to renovate the existing property and extend the footprint of the entire house, from laundry to kitchen, to create an open home which still plays homage to the original house design of Victorian heritage.

Extensions to this house consisted the upgrade of an existing outbuilding laundry and WC, and enlarging the kitchen to more functional space, which also included the substantial addition of extra storage space.

Then the kitchen and bathroom under the skillion roof including the rear detached metal cladded garage were added after a period of time. The original layout of the main dwelling did not include any internal WC and laundry when it was originally built as the existing original outbuilding WC and laundry are still standing proud today.

The existing kitchen was exceptionally narrow with a raked ceiling towards the rear wall which was facing to the rear courtyard. The existing splashback was lined with pine wooden panelling laid diagonally above the laminated narrow “U” shaped kitchen bench top.

There wasn’t any indoor-outdoor living space. The opened walkway along the Southern boundary was the link to connect the front to rear part of the property.

As with many old properties, there were some challenges during the construction stage of the new design to this house, as builders were installing a new extension wall along the boundary line of the property of the house, and the neighbour’s external weatherboard cladding wall; which was along this boundary, was terribly deteriorated due to the lack of proper footing – making it difficult for the external wall to be erected, without causing the cladding to fall.

To rectify this problem, builders were required to securely prop the existing wall, whilst trenching to accommodate for the new footing, to the new extension wall.

Photography by Sarah Anderson.

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