Sitting Pretty

One Melbourne family’s space mission led to a simply spectacular renovation.

- Sarah Pickette ​​​​​​​

Not everyone gets a second bite of the cherry when it comes to renovating, but Terri Shannon did: she’s had the good fortune to have renovated her bayside Melbourne home twice now, with the most recent project seeing an open-plan extension added. “Our house is a 1912 double-fronted home we bought in 2011 and initially renovated to restore it and make it comfortable,” says Terri, director of Bloom Interior Design & Decoration, “but we always intended to live in the house for a while and then extend.”

At the time they bought the home, Terri and her husband Luke were parents to two daughters, Charlie, now 13, and Chloe, 11. The arrival of Sam, now three, instigated renovations that would allow the house to grow alongside the family.

Luke took on the role of owner/builder and project manager, and set about bringing Terri’s vision for the extension to life. “We lived in the front section of the house while building work was going on,” says Terri, “and while that certainly had its moments, the experience of collaborating with Luke to extend the house was great.” For Terri, the flexibility to make last-minute decisions as the house took shape was a godsend. “As issues came up, we were able to adapt and change things. We could make decisions like ‘let’s take that door a bit higher’ or ‘let’s put a skylight in there’. It’s a luxury you don’t always have when renovating.”