Alistair McLean

I have a mid 70's cream brick home which is a little tired and dated. I want to update the kitchen, family/meals, outdoor living, and laundry. I contacted Secret Design Studios to arrange a Dr Retro home visit. I provided Alistair some photos, and a plan of the house and a list of what I hoped to achieve beforehand. Alistair noted that the family room had 5 entry/exit points and made suggestions to improve the flow of the room. His suggestions will increased storage space and provide significantly more bench space. The laundry currently opens into a living room and he suggested some changes that will allow both internal and external access bypassing the living area. The rear deck is dated and poorly designed and he made suggestions to improve this area. Alistair came up with some 'out of the box' suggestions that I hadn't even considered, ideas that will improve movement around the living area, provide more storage and modernize the look without detracting from it's character, which is what I wanted. Alistair also researched home values in my area and tailored his suggestions to ensure that I avoid overcapitalizing.

Our company has worked with Shawn and his team at New Century design on many projects. His depth of knowledge and detail is experienced in each project that he completes. If you're looking for experience, you've come to the right place. We have nothing but great things to say about New Century Design. You'll be happy you called them first.

We have been talking about ideas for years and not settled on a plan for what to do with our 1950s home. The process of working through our questions and settling on the top 10 questions was very useful. Alistair researched the questions and presented thorough responses at the home visit. He had a good rationale for why some options should not be pursued and what was worth exploring further. He has has given us information and recommendations for the next steps in developing a plan for improving our house. Alistair is very professional and knowledgeable. We enjoyed the visit and it has helped us get on with planning a renovation. I highly recommend this service.

After our initial Dr Retro house call we engaged Alistair to undertake the 2D and 3D models for our house renovations. It took over 9 months (and many follow up calls, emails and messages) to finally receive a PDF copy of our 3D design. On good faith and the promise to send through the finalised 2D/3D plans in a format our draftsman could use, we paid our bill. At this point, we have not received the plans we paid for and he has also stopped answering my calls and emails. This means, we will be out of pocket for the draftsman to re-measure and produce plans we can use for the build. Needless to say we are so disappointed and frustrated by this experience.

We called in Dr Retro (Alistair) to confirm that our beloved 1982 one-off architecturally designed bespoke house could be adapted relatively easily if needs be to more modern expectations and lifestyles. We wish we had called him in a year earlier, well before embarking on our sales campaign. We had insufficient time to follow up on Alistair's very practical major proposals before going to market in a few weeks. However, the simpler ideas gained from his consultation should give the house appeal to a broad range of buyers, from the devoted "retro" market to those who can see the potential for modern adaption. Improving the light within gloomier areas, removing some blinds, a smaller desk to create more study space, bringing viewers more directly to the front door are just some of his many ideas easily implemented. His grander proposals will be passed to prospective buyers to help them see that the design can be adapted without loss of era or quality, if that is their desire, rather than have a Real Estate agent make amateur suggestions. The cost of the "Dr Retro House Call' is more than compensated for by our increased confidence that our special house will now present more appealingly to potential buyers. Time will tell! Pam and Allan

With an upcoming extension and renovation planned for our 1970's split level home in Charlestown NSW, I contacted Alistair for some advice. He has a very professional and pleasant disposition with passion and knowledge regarding mid-century homes. What I think Alistair really excels at are concepts, being able to take an outsiders look at the property from both that of an investment angle and also on an emotional one. My experience is that before the consultation it pays to tell the entire story about your home and what the requirements placed on it will be. This will allow Alistair to do his background research prior to the consultation and understand how best to make things work. Personally, after speaking over Zoom which was excellent, I probably felt the need to comeback a week later for a second shorter follow up consult as the first raised so many ideas I hadn't even thought of beforehand. Excellent service!

Alistair assisted us with our plan to install 'interesting lighting' at a budget cost, using a mixture of track lighting, wall lights and pendant lights. We are still building but are plans are now firmly in place. We had a number of goals in mind, regarding 'mood lighting' and lighting of our modest but much loved collection of 'art'... Using Zoom for consultations was a breeze and Alistair came up with numerous ideas that inspired us, followed up diligently with the detail we need to implement - including precise distances, light wattages etc. We are most appreciative of Alistair's ability to address our changing needs, as we became more aware of cost and other implications. In addition, Alistair pointed out a number of changes we could make to our house at planning stage that will give great improvements in the future. A value-add we hadn't expected. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend Alistair.

I have recently purchased a mid century house on Phillip Island and was pleasantly surprised to find this unique service when I was looking for renovation ideas. Alistair was able to make a house call to me when he was visiting another one of his projects on Phillip island. He brought along his "doctor's bag" of excellent resources which he had prepared specifically for my house visit. I was very impressed with his professionalism and knowledge and look forward to making use of the design service in the future.

Overwhelmed with our ‘renovators delight’ we had just purchased we found Dr Retro’s website and prayed he could give us some guidance. After just 2 hours with Alistair, his thoughts, knowledge, suggestions and contacts were just what we needed to give us the confidence to move forward without breaking the bank. We now have a spring in our step as we walk around our home to be. Thanks Alistair.

We engaged Alistair's services as we needed guidance in how to move forward in restoring the warmth and character of our mid century home. Dr. Retro arrived loaded with reference, and samples of materials appropriate for our home. He also opened up his extensive book of contacts which was invaluable. Having him over was the perfect action we needed to clear up any confusion, and point us in the right direction of where we knew we wanted to go, but needed an experts eye. We would highly recommend Dr. Retro to any body who is unsure of what direction to go with, or who is unsure of professional trades to engage for work on their home. Thank you Dr. Retro.

We recently had Alistair visit for a Dr Retro house call. It was such a valuable experience - reinforcing some of the ideas we already had for a future renovation and suggesting some new ideas we wouldn’t have even thought of. It was fantastic to be able to spend a couple of hours picking Alistair’s brain and drawing on all his experience with mid century homes. We would highly recommend his service.

We appreciated Alistair's time and generosity with his knowledge. Having a consultation with Alistair gave us lots of ideas to work towards, which was very beneficial to us both - particularly because we had no idea where to start with our house!