FLOUR POWER

A lush, generous central garden surrounded by an elegantly converted bakery factory make for a rare find in creating this spacious inner-city home.

- JANE ALBERT

There is a reason locals refer to The Bakery in Sydney’s inner-city Newtown as ‘the secret garden’. Behind the unassuming two-storey rendered facade with its lettering ‘1909 W Dibble’ – the date this former award-winning bakery was built and the original owner’s name – is a lush, rambling garden and pool that forms the centrepiece of a soaring, light-filled two-storey warehouse conversion that surrounds it. Given its generous internal size of 800 square metres it is a rare find in a buzzy suburb better known for its petite terraces, cafes, laneway bars and artisanal boutiques than spacious homes and gardens.

Interior designer Anna-Carin McNamara of Anna Carin Design Studio and the owners had been searching for an industrial warehouse to convert but with no luck. “The brief was to find and create something that felt as if it had always been there, not a sleek modern take on a warehouse but a bit rustic and old world, industrial but warm,” says Anna-Carin. “The owner had identified a few but none of them were saying ‘this is it’ until we came to this one. It was immediate, extraordinary, this quirky combination of an old shopfront and warehouse so it had beautiful detailing to work with and was right within an urban setting.”

With grown-up children who no longer lived with them the owners had sold the family home in suburban Vaucluse and were after a house big enough to welcome friends and family – they have five adult children and a grandchild in their blended family – that was close to nightlife and parklands.