A Student Rental Becomes an Elegant Home

This South Yarra home is one of impeccable personalised details, unified with a consistent black and white palette and views of the neighbouring treetops and gardens

Among tree-lined streets and 19th-century parklands sits a Victorian townhouse in the South Yarra neighbourhood, one of Melbourne’s oldest, most affluent inner suburbs. When the house changed hands from a group of students to a couple with two children, the tired-looking six-bedroom rental space was in need of a revamp — a task given to a local design studio Andrew Child Architect. In order to transform the existing structure into a welcoming building with calm, ordered and varied interiors, Child, explains, he and his team looked to ‘create spaces that enhance the owners’ lives without being too fussy or overpowering’, while incorporating their art and quirky collectables.

To lighten the originally ‘bedroom-heavy’ space, Child’s team demolished the upper bedroom, also removing part of the ground level’s uncomfortably low ceiling. While decreasing the floor area slightly, the result was a double-height dining space that gives the home a new focal point and creates interaction with the upper level, from where it also opened views over the rear yard and across nearby treetops.

Major intervention achieved, the clients largely maintained the remainder of the structure while focusing on the finishes. However, a few additional custom features were designed to accommodate the family’s lifestyle, such as a kitchen window box for plants, the desk in the study with a curved cut-out that allows easy access to the high window above, and a low-height partition wall that hides mirrored bathroom cupboards and retains the generous proportions of the original space. The porch needed to be rebuilt, but its original columns and frieze were restored and painted in dramatic black.

Inside, the black and white palette continues. Solid brick walls were highlighted with two shades of crisp white paint to subtly differentiate the 19th-century front of the house and the 1970s rear, while new elements such as the framing of the double-glazed windows were realised in black metal. The black horizontal beam halfway up the brick wall of the dining area is a structural support converted into an elegant feature whose smoothness contrasts the textured brick. Natural timber flooring and joinery evoke warmth and harmony throughout, while brass tapware and marble benchtops provide a touch of refinement.

Text / Nicole Chim
Images / Tatjana Plitt