Peak Season

This light-filled residence is always in a sunny mood with its newly spacious interiors and a lofty perch looking over glittering Sydney harbour.

- Chris Pearson

With its soaring cathedral ceilings, this threelevel home overlooking the harbour in Sydney’s inner east takes light-filled, airy living to lofty new heights. Sky and water are constant companions in a spectacular house that boldly defies its boundaries by exploiting its sloping site to its full potential. Miraculously, that celestial openness has been achieved within a street frontage a mere eight metres wide.

When the owners bought the property in 2016, it was monopolised by a 100-year-old duplex with a maze of poky rooms, many starved of light. “Location and potential attracted us. The original house was divided into two apartments, one above the other, with both in need of TLC. We wanted to combine them into a single home,” says the owner, understating what the couple had in mind.

On a family recommendation, they hired Stafford architects to effect the transformation. And, fittingly, they gave project architect Bronwyn Litera a breezy, open brief. “We gave her a free hand to design the spaces while maximising light,” says the owner. “We purely specified the amount of bedrooms and living space required that would suit our family and lifestyle.”