Houzz Tours
My Houzz: A Worker's Cottage Embraces History and Efficiency
An artist blends existing spaces and new additions into a cohesive home design
Rejecting shiny and new and instead embracing the past, Dr. Terri Brooks stripped back her Northcote worker’s cottage to its original style to reveal beautiful original floorboards and spaces that welcome in the natural light. Brooks uses her keen eye as an artist to curate her space and many of her own paintings adorn the walls of her home. She creates her works of art in a detached backyard shed which is conveniently located just a brief stroll away across the garden. It’s a happy abode that Brooks can relax in and let creativity unleash when it strikes.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Dr. Terri Brooks
Location: Northcote, Victoria
Size: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Dr. Terri Brooks
Location: Northcote, Victoria
Size: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
Brooks designed the wood security doors for her house and studio. When she couldn’t find anything she liked, she gave a security door company a sketch, they fabricated them, and then added her design to their collection. She also added a walkway and a mosaic design to the entrance.
In 2006, after returning from an artist’s residency in Germany, Brooks reconfigured the interior spaces to free the circulation from the confines of the hallway, converted one of the bedrooms into her living room, and allowed more light into the spaces. She also removed the eyesore carpets and, to her surprise, discovered five layers of flooring between the carpet and the original pine floors. Despite their poor condition, she retained and restored them.
Brooks wrote The History Of Making Do for her PhD at university, and the influence of this philosophy is apparent in her decorating style – minimal and natural finishes, self-made artworks, heirlooms and relics are displayed throughout her house. Upcycling is also important to her and the base of her coffee table was once part of a washing machine.
By getting rid of the apricot-coloured walls and painting them white, light now seems to bounce throughout the living room. Before the shed was built in 2010, this space was used as her studio.
By getting rid of the apricot-coloured walls and painting them white, light now seems to bounce throughout the living room. Before the shed was built in 2010, this space was used as her studio.
The original wood floors are Kauri pine from WA.
Brooks remembers watching a film on Jackson Pollock’s home design, and loving the French doors and windows, the simplicity of the found objects from the beach he hung on the walls, and how he had created a meditative flowing space to inspire his art.
The interior reconfiguration of her own home opened up the floor plan to light and continuous sight lines.
The interior reconfiguration of her own home opened up the floor plan to light and continuous sight lines.
The front room was converted into an art storage space and office, to save Brooks the costs of renting storage for her paintings. She built in racks where she can easily rummage through piles of works looking for stock or specific pieces for gallery owners, without potentially damaging the work in the process.
Brooks painted the floors in the bedroom ‘Japan Black’ by Feast Watson to eliminate the need for sanding and refinishing them. She likes the low maintenance and the contrast.
In the kitchen, access was closed off through the back wall and redirected through the living room. The kitchen had an island that Brooks removed to create more space, and the original aluminium window was replaced with a wooden one. While she was in Germany, she had the idea to install wood shutters on the windows making them secure and keeping the warmth inside. In the winter she can close off the spaces and the heat is retained.
The rest of the windows in the house were replaced one by one as she retrofitted each space.
The rest of the windows in the house were replaced one by one as she retrofitted each space.
Most of the doors, windows, and fittings in the home are from a restoration warehouse store that was located in the area, until the owner retired. Brooks’ handyman reconfigured the shutter for a tight fit inside the window frame. When he started to strip the paint, she had him stop. She liked the shabby chic look of the lightly sanded paint.
Brooks discovered she liked the patina of the existing concrete floor found underneath the floor tiles too, and decided to leave it exposed in the kitchen.
Brooks discovered she liked the patina of the existing concrete floor found underneath the floor tiles too, and decided to leave it exposed in the kitchen.
A lot of Brooks’ furnishings belonged to her grandparents, whom she grew up with. She was affected by their stories of the Depression, their resourcefulness, and the need for thrifty living. She was fascinated by the beautiful salvaged pieces that turned one thing into another in a make-do economy, when there were limited resources and finances.
On the table are some of her cherished examples; “People would use hessian sacks and turn them into tea towels and a beautiful apron in the 1930s,” she says.
On the table are some of her cherished examples; “People would use hessian sacks and turn them into tea towels and a beautiful apron in the 1930s,” she says.
The laundry and the bathroom had rainforest wallpaper when Brooks first bought the house. She rebuilt the wall, installed the tiling and the taps and took down the wallpaper. A future renovation may include moving the laundry into the bathroom and turning this space into a guest room or home office.
The bathroom door is one of the original slab doors that were standard throughout the house. Brooks watched a period drama set in a big English house with wallpaper on the walls and the doors, and decided to cover the original door in a floral print to contrast with the stark concrete and black and white finishes.
The garden was quite beautiful when Brooks moved in, with an abundance of plants and a beautiful fuchsia. The tree by the shed was covering the garden and growing over the house, so she had it trimmed back before Christmas. All the plantings that were used to shade, and were then suddenly exposed to sunlight, died back. The patio mosaic is the artist’s creation and is set up in concentric circle details based on indigenous symbols from central Australia.
Her backyard studio is made of corrugated iron and painted green to blend into its surroundings.
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What do you think about this artist’s retreat? Share your thoughts with us in the Comments.
Her backyard studio is made of corrugated iron and painted green to blend into its surroundings.
TELL US
What do you think about this artist’s retreat? Share your thoughts with us in the Comments.
Previous inhabitants included a Greek family, who converted the house from a three-room worker’s cottage into a family home in the ’70s, adding a new kitchen, bathroom and the hallway. Brooks says she loves the history of her neighbourhood, the centralised location and the close proximity to the city centre, parks, and rivers.