An Original Bluestone Beauty – Bremen Cottage by One Wolf Design
Bluestone buildings are considered treasures of Melbourne’s architectural history, the deep blue-grey chiselled masonry blocks illustrating an important part of the city’s vernacular. Tucked away in East Melbourne, Bremen Cottage is one such gem. Originally built in 1862 and sympathetically updated by Monique Vuk of One Wolf Design, this 19th-century building has edged its way into the ether of now.
Featuring a flat roof, extensive bluestone masonry and a simple straight-edged form, Bremen Cottage is unquestionably charming. While partially concealed behind a high brick fence, the entrance is elevated a few steps up from street level, accentuating its quiet presence. A canopy with a pitched roof and intricately carved timber pillars protrudes from the front door, and an original tiled floor extends across the threshold to the hallway inside. The junction between this coloured tessellated tile floor and the newly-laid Made by Storey timber floorboards is the first indication of the level of detail and artisanship throughout the home. As Monique says, “dealing with an old house – walls aren’t plumb, things are a bit irregular, and floors aren’t always perfectly flush.” She adds, “we spent a lot of time on site figuring out these minute details, and the Made by Storey installers worked really hard with that particular transition.”
Some significant changes were made to the layout, and Monique employed deft spatial planning in reimagining the internal spaces to respond to her clients’ needs while working with the existing footprint. “I do a lot of heritage homes, and I quite like having those definitive parameters to work within – in this case, the bluestone walls – but from the get-go, the layout was wrong.” As such, Monique turned what was one large bathroom into two, allowing for a compact powder room alongside a light-filled main bathroom. She also divided the single eight-metre-long bedroom into two, creating a main bedroom at the front with an existing south-facing bay window and a guest bedroom that doubles as a study. Here, an original leadlight door leading to the kitchen has been restored and reworked, allowing the guest bedroom to borrow natural light from the north-facing kitchen, which also features skylights. Cleverly, Monique has added a concealed sliding door behind the leadlight frame, offering privacy to guests when desired.
Pleasingly, additional original features reveal themselves as one moves through the cottage. “This is one of the oldest homes in East Melbourne,” Monique notes. “Some of the details are so well considered, which you don’t see as often anymore, so we didn’t want to get rid of that.” She cites a vent with intricate plaster mouldings of birds on its surface, original cornicing and an archway in the hall that now has a striking black steel inlay. At the rear of the home, a timber-lined turret rises above the sunroom, adding to Bremen Cottage’s rich history.
Featuring a flat roof, extensive bluestone masonry and a simple straight-edged form, Bremen Cottage is unquestionably charming.
The Made by Storey timber floorboards stretch from front to back, creating welcomed continuity. “Being herringbone, the way the flooring guides you into the space is quite special,” Monique explains. Due to the nuances of the old building, the Made by Storey team used a small format, laid with extreme precision and care. Opting for Ground from the Tonal Collection, these select grade boards are wire brushed and finished with a matte lacquer, emanating nutty tones that bring warmth to south-facing rooms and softness to those bathed in morning and afternoon sun.
Particular attention was paid to ensuring symmetry in the herringbone pattern, as well as creating seamless junctions between the timber boards and tiled or carpeted surfaces. While the intricate pattern complements the heritage character of the home – signalling the grandeur and opulence linked to its origins – the meticulous finish and fresh hue are suggestive of a crisp minimalism. As well as this, contemporary lighting by Volker Haug Studio and Giffin Design and the custom timber cabinetry throughout bring an understated elegance. This consistent palette creates an elevated yet easy to digest language, allowing both old and new elements to easily coexist.
In respecting the building’s heritage and striving to futureproof it, Monique and Scott Bros. Design Construction Co. addressed Bremen Cottage from a structural perspective too, replacing the entire roof and ensuring the building will be fit for purpose for another lifetime. “There was something really lovely about the way the builders and I worked through this job, really respecting those elements from 1862,” she says. She recalls discovering centuries old objects and artefacts beneath the floors during construction – a small reminder of this cottage’s lifetime and of those who have called it home over the years. “It’s such a privilege to work with a space like this – it’s not an everyday building.”
Bremen Cottage has stories buried in its foundations and hidden in its bluestone walls. This somewhat poetic quality, paired with the building’s architectural significance, is why respectful restorations are fundamental to the future of our cities. Armed with its defining 160-year-old features and some clever new additions, this 19th-century cottage is ready for another epoch.
