Before & After: Renovation of our 1956 red-brick triple-fronted home
Here are some images of the new kitchen to start things off:
BEFORE (old dining room location now the kitchen):
BEFORE (old kitchen location now the dining room):
AFTER:
The space where the microwave is will fit a steam oven (gotta wait for the very empty coffers to fill up a bit!)
You can see the little galley-style walk-in pantry at the far right. This is the back wall. It can be seen from the living areas, so I opted for drawers and upper cupboards so everything is neatly tucked away from view:
And this is the front, with open shelving and room for appliances (plus the shelf under the bench will fit the MW when I get that steam oven):
My tiled backsplash, which I love. These are 300x600 tiles but they look like individual hexagons, some matt, some gloss, some etched in a lacy-leafy pattern. Really lovely - photo doesn't do it justice.
And my pendant lights. I wanted something a little different than the standard 3 matching pendants over the island:
A huge thank you to the Houzz community for all your advice and input, especially the amazingly talented and incredibly generous siriuskey and oklouise.
I am thrilled with the outcome! I'll try to post pics of the rest of the house soon :)
Comments (37)
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Help Modernising our 1970's Brick Home Exterior
Comments (36)This is just like our Mediterranean house in Canberra. It was rendered white which never cracked or got mould on it, though I would prefer it to be done in a modern colour like our current home on the Gold Coast which is a rich sand colour with a heavy bagged appearance that has faded from a strong dark sand. With beautiful dark patterned orangey tiles all outside that reflect their colour on the walls during the day it is quite magical. Roof tiles also spray painted after being re pointed. I suggest you amplify the lovely quality of arches and don't go for what is trendy. But go with colour scheme for the house design. At our entrance there is a built up garden courtyard feature with wonderful iron gates and a large water feature in the courtyard that the lounge room looks out to and has the French doors that also opened onto the courtyard garden. Commence the courtyard wall to the left side of the steps and create a flat area at the gated entrance where we had a north single gate and a west double gate. The Pines were planted on the outside of this courtyard wall and gave extra privacy and blocked the westerly afternoon sun. The house always looked impressive, yet was just a simple presentation....See MoreIdeas to renovate the floorplan of our new home
Comments (44)Hey All. I've been thinking about the 3rd bedroom which will become a childs bedroom one day, and whether I can eat into that space to make an ensuite. Take a look at these designs compared to the original and let me know what you think? (It pretty much removes 1m from the length of the room from 4 to 3m. Then there is still a wardrobe inside this, so pretty much 2.5m) Also keen on your thoughts as to what I've done with the wardrobe in the master. I've pushed it ~60cm into the room (making the room go from 4m wide to ~3.3m wide) to turn it into a walk in wardrobe. The current planned wardrobe is around 2.6m wide, but this would add another 60cm to the ends, so would turn it into around 3.8m of Wardrobe space. Does this make the room too cramped, or do you think that the left over space would be easy to work with?...See MoreAdobe on how to update front facade of 1950s double brick house
Comments (9)You have a classic post-war cream brick home, and the cream brick is the feature with its subtle variation in colour. The dark brown accent colours, which are not original, were probably added in the early 1970's. With your tight budget I would not be rendering the brick. You may like to read my blog post about why you should NOT render a classic home. https://secretdesignstudio.com/render-brick-home-tribute-triple-fronted-blonde-brick-veneer-home/ I would be looking at removing the "feature" awning and replacing it with something more appropriate to the home such as vertical black and white stripe which I suggested to these clients who have a similar brick and tile combination to yours. I would then look at repainting the gutters and fascias to co-ordinate with the awning. Introduce some landscaping to soften the look, and consider painting or rendering the dark brown base brickwork (but never the cream brickwork). Finish all of the timber window frames in the original Dulux Vivid White. I would not be adding the fake Victorian-style verandah to the home as you have proposed with its ornate iron lace. It will just look so wrong mixing these elements from different centuries from homes with very different proportions. I don't think I have actually seen a new renovation with fake decorative iron lace since the 1970s! At the end of the day, you won't be able to "modernise" or change the style of the existing home with your budget. What you can do is to celebrate the 1960's character that you already have and build on the original parts of your home which will be more cost-effective. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls....See MoreComplete Home Renovation - Before & After
Comments (10)Just focussing on the outside , I love what you've done with the front part . Were the dark bricks already there , or were they added ? Here's what I dislike though . Firstly , the tiles all match , except the black caps -- that grates with me . The gable on the original cottage is great , but 2 things irk me . Firstly , why not do a gable on the new addition too , instead of the sloping tiles on the front part of the new addition ? Pretty easy to do , it would reference the 2 parts IMO . And then there is the paint -- an offwhite on the gable , a greyer tone on the upper half of the new build . I realise it is not meant to be a reproduction , but surely you would reference the 2 parts -- I know I would . Which brings me to the lower part of the new build , done in a darker taupe colour -- I would have gone darker still , again to reference the bricks . Maybe just me , but I can't see the point in doing something that sort of refences , but doesn't . And then there are the windows too -- it would be so easy to add a wider frame to reference the existing cottage windows . You and the clients may disagree , but I like details like that to be obviously new , but referencing the old . And 1 final little niggle -- I would have done a crisp white feature rail attached to the wall , between the 2 colours 'upstairs' -- the 2 colours which I would have matched to the existing 'downstairs' ....See More- 6 years ago
Hi JE C,
Thank you for your positive feedback. Soooo much thought went into the design (as siriuskey can attest to, I spent many months with a tape measure in my hand ;)
Here is the final design with measurements for the pantry.
I LOVE my little pantry! It does so much in such a small space. Pantries these days are often like a second kitchen, and are so large that you have to walk miles to get anything. With this design, everything is at my fingertips like a cupboard-style pantry, but it has the benchtops for all my appliances, and drawers for convenience.
The tile is Hexion Snowflake, from Southern Cross Ceramics: - 6 years ago
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- PRO6 years agoLol! We can see the beach from our block so can walk to the ocean & smell the sea air... the sea breezes are gorgeous :) only the block in front of us just sold so we’ll soon lose this incredible view ... but that’s ok... we’re very lucky :)
Here’s the view from the rear boundary & the road Nic.... though with a build in front of us imminent, I’m thinking we might have to print this photo on a large banner & strap it to the fence so we know what we’re missing lol. Great job again hun... you guys should be so very proud of yourselves. It’s magic :) I bet your tape measure is enjoying a holiday huh?! Lol
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oklouise