An Expression of Personality – Pops Travertine by Sally Caroline

As a renovation of an existing Georgian-era home, Pops Travertine is the rejuvenation and opening-up of a period home to reflect its young family. Sally Caroline brings a contemporary freshness to a tired home, injecting a clean and refreshing sensibility that nurtures the expression of personality.

Located in its coastal setting of Mt Eliza, Pops Travertine responds to its context as well as embracing its history and existing narrative within its site through a revised lens of clarity, expressed through clean lines. In order to ensure the Georgian-era home remain relevant and align with the contemporary brief of its current owners, a partial renovation sees a series of spaces that have purpose and connect to the modern lifestyle. Home to its young family and two boys, finding the right balance between detail and personality was the main challenge, and resultingly, one of the more defining elements of this home. Sally Caroline adopts a fresh and clean approach that creates a modern foundational palette onto which rich layers of interest and connection between client and space are added.

Sally Caroline adopts a fresh and clean approach that creates a modern foundational palette onto which rich layers of interest and connection between client and space are added.

Built by Connect Building Group, Pops Travertine focuses on the injection of a neutral and warming base from which all other introduced elements are added. The reconfiguration of the floor plan to reflect an open and connected home provides pivotal spatial change. While elements of the original home are retained and celebrated, their detail is secondary to the added personality afforded through furniture, artwork and objects dotted throughout. The balancing between the old and the new, the narrative of the past and ensuring an appropriate foundation for the future are key.

Accompanying the warm base palette is a bed of muted limewashed oak flooring throughout, generating a sense of consistency and cohesiveness internally. The removal of an existing dividing wall in the main living space both allows for a connection of zones and allows natural light to reach further into the space. Inspiring its name sake, pops of colour are used throughout to further add to the depth of personality, and their occasional and curated nature creates interesting moments. While the colour offers interesting contrast, the minimal formal nature of the introduced pieces creates a welcomed balance and further emphasises the home as a contemporary gathering space.

The balancing between the old and the new, the narrative of the past and ensuring an appropriate foundation for the future are key.

Pops Travertine offers a nod to the past, while simultaneously bringing the home into a relevant contemporary present, while carefully fusing charm and individuality. Sally Caroline has brought together eras through an enlivening spirit, colour and deliberate gestures, conjuring a home with its own unique identity.