Help with exterior design: Early Victorian

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

I am renovating an Early Victorian Farm house and am stuck on the frontage. The veranda was enclosed about 60years ago to house the 7 kids that lived here. After moving in, I originally altered the doorway on the enclosed veranda section and turned it into a walk-in robe. I now feel that I can't live without a walk-in robe.

The rear of the house has a fairly modern addition in corrugated horizontal tin.

Does anyone have any ideas to finish the renovation and keep the walk-in robe?

Modern or traditional? (no heritage overlay/listing)

Pic 1 - Current front

pic 2 - new idea?

pic 3 -3 ideas?

pic 4 - new rear (corrugate)

Featured Answer

PRO

Dr Retro House Calls

5 years ago

I think that your home has the potential to be completely charming with the right treatment to the front. I would be removing the sad little enclosed verandah, and re-instating the full length, bull nose verandah keeping it close to the original as possible.

Look at extending to the side for a walk-in-robe, or taking up space somewhere else. A walk-in-robe does not need to go at the front of the house, and with your home it is really hiding the potential. Celebrate the existing character, and don't try to make it something else.

Best of luck,

Dr Retro

of Dr Retro House Calls

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

oklouise
5 years ago
love the back of the house with the zincaluum and timber and, subject to space and orientation, i think extending the verandahs around both sides could provide useful additional indoor and outdoor space and also help broaden the frontage and balance the existing built in sections of veranda and, unless you can't live without the bullnose roof the combination of skillion roofs and highlight windows in pic 2 is especially appealing and would allow much easier extension around the sides
siriuskey
5 years ago
You absolutely must keep the Bullnose verandah and work with it, do you have a floor plan to share, Love love your Farm House
Related Discussions
Help with Master Bedroom/Ensuite design
Q
Comments (17)
I don't think I could cope with an open plan bathroom, I like wet areas to be totally separate, the steam entering the bedroom would be of concern and I would not want to even think about a toilet. We did not even like the idea of having the ensuite opening directly off the bedroom, instead have the dressing room opening off it with the ensuite opening off that. Having the dressing room between the ensuite and bedroom totally minimises noise. I find it far more convenient to walk from the shower directly to the dressing room to dress without even going into the bedroom.
...See More
Old Victorian look
Q
Comments (8)
Hi I have a Victorian, Jarrah floor in Satin finish. Skirts dado picture rail and wood in An off white. Colour under the Dado is a burgundy. Used about a dozen or more sample pots looking for the right shade.. So many came out brown or purple. I settled on Dulux Forest Fruits Berry. Really happy with it. Solver paints have a heritage colour card.. There are lots of choices of reproduction colours giving you heritage style and build decade range so you can be colour authentic to the build. Hope this helps!
...See More
Help help help! What to do with our 1988 home and it's GREEN WINDOWS!
Q
Comments (27)
I think if you replace front door and glass panels as well as the old fashioned lights with something more contemporary it will make a huge improvement. I'd also remove the ironwork and as you cannot re-glaze place some pots and plants on the sides of the large windows to draw the eye away from all the green cross pieces on the windows. Eventually paint the gutters fascia in a light grey/green.
...See More
Farm house exterior colour scheme - colorbond cladding
Q
Comments (62)
apennameandthata i don't know... vertical is more shed like style, while we still have a colonial style base and veranda. Dust will be an issue here (although its not so bad in that particular spot on a river, good protection from trees) but pressure wash will be regular practice anyway. Thanks for all your suggestions and I will take all on board, especially sandstone ideas. I don't this I want this house to look pretentious, but how can I describe that, I am after some subtle "wow" factor or something a bit different, but it must look like we knew what we are doing and YES, I want it to look like high quality build and not a transportable house or kit home. The house rectangle is so simple that I worry it may have that boring factor in its looks and that is why I am looking for some ideas. My problem is a tendency to overthink but I hope I will find a balance at some point :) At this stage I think: galvanised tin everywhere (or that zincalum), rusty steel posts, aluminum windows with timber look, sandstone features around main door and sandstone chimney. We had a big flood last year and the spot never goes under water, its on high grounds even though it is only meters from the river.
...See More
siriuskey
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
You can certainly marry modern and old by keeping the charm of the building in the front of the house, Ie; Bull Nose, and adding contemporary features to the rear and sides. You house looks like a lot of the beautiful old cottages around Port Fairy.

From your ideas book, you can use paint colours to marry the old and new together.
Bovina House · More Info

Toro Canyon Residence · More Info
Jen Osborne
5 years ago
I think this option works better in keeping with the style of the home
lilith_envy
Original Author
5 years ago
floor plan.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
PRO
Mcmahon and Nerlich
5 years ago
Hi Lilith - your cottage has lovely charm - and a fascinating past! I can see you are seeking to introduce some contemporary elements - but my strong suggestion as per some of the above is to keep the heritage front and reinstate the bull-nose verandah. The verandah and front 2 rooms are 'the face of the house' - it's how people understand the style/period of a home, and helps place a house in context, and belong to a neighbourhood, even in country areas. The traditional design of the bull-nose verandah across Victorian cottages is not only an identifying period element, It also has practical purposes like providing an appropriate entry point, cover from rain as you arrive home, a threshold for greeting guests, as well as providing shade from the hot summer sun. Trust me - keeping and reinstating the bull-nose verandah will maximise the eventual resale value in your home especially as time goes on.

I thus have several comments and a few big-picture suggestions for you! And I am deliberately not asking what your budget is; think of these as masterplan suggestions!

1. Don't just keep the verandah as is - reinstate it for its full length by removing the entry portico and built-in wardrobe. Tile it for the full width with your lovely tile pattern, and a selection of plant pots of lavender and succulents, or balls of lily-pily etc. Source a second-hand victorian doorway with stained glass above to let light into the corridor, and reinstate the north-facing window into your main bedroom - you won't regret it!

2. Ahh but that means you've lost your walk-in? The current walk-in actually blocks the north light, and removing the walk-in will radically transform how this room feels..........Building a built-in robe along one wall would be the cheapest option, for only the cost of the robe itself. However if you MUST have a walk-in, it will cost about $3-4K/m2 to add in a small new area of walk-in to the side. HOWEVER....

3. Radical suggestion.....I observe that the contemporary addition at the back of the house reflects a large, modern-sized open-plan space, and yet 2 big chunks of it are taken up by bathroom and laundry. In fact the bathroom corner, poking out from the side of the house, actually looks like it gets north sunlight throughout the afternoon. SO.....

4. You could plan for a renovation that moves the bathroom, laundry and walk-in robe (accessed from the main bedroom) into the living-room zone, extending the corridor through it. Then you have created a large open-plan kitchen-living-dining at the back for the entire room, which has access to a north-facing wall in the corner perfect for afternoon entertaining which you could link with an extended deck! Just add big double-glazed doors to this corner. (I know I know - it will be looking straight at the water tank, but you could relocate this to the other side OR just landscape in front of it). You could modernise the back verandah to look more like the verandah images you posted above. All of the above can be done without adding any new floor area, just the relocated bathroom and laundry/robe, plus the cost of new floors, plaster repair and painting to the rear space..

Anyway hopefully I have given you some ideas about the possibilities over the longer term!

Good Luck!
sally wastie
5 years ago
Hi love your house very cute similar to mine i would get rid of that entry porch and maybe look into a new verandah i dont think your house had bullnose originally send you a pic of ours good luck we know what you're going through. Sally&mark.

new roof new cladding and new windows · More Info
sarah_eddy6
5 years ago
I'm sorry but your cottage is gorgeous, and to do anything but return it to it's original look would be such a shame!!! The old add ons on the front look truly terrible, and whilst I know you're wedded to your WIR, imagine how amazing it could look with the porch and closed in room removed.

I love your rear extension, could you potentially go out the side... anything, but please don't meddle with the front! : D

If you need inspo to fall in love with how lovely it could look, there's lots around ...

https://www.insideout.com.au/renovations/house/a-renovated-country-cottage-with-a-modern-interior/news-story/0654ac562a5e12589e4ee70ffe93e28a

And your bullnose roof is extra special!