TRUE COLOURS

The white exterior of this inner-city art-deco gem belies the luxurious jewel box of colour and textures of the interiors by Flack Studio.

- DAVID MEAGHER

When David Flack was approached to design this house in Princes Hill his firm, Flack Studio, was a fledgling business with just a handful of projects to its name. That was in early 2016. One of those projects, however, was an apartment development for a property developer who just happens to be the owner of this house. The owner was determined, he says, that when the time came to renovate the rundown art deco duplex he’d recently purchased it would be David who would design it.

“This was a very early commission for us,” says David. “I was really excited about it and thought it would be built really quickly but here we are in 2023 and it’s just finished.” Covid delays, heritage issues and building costs made the project somewhat of a slow burn.

Originally two apartments, the building was in disrepair when it was bought by Michael who wanted to turn it into a freestanding family home. “We moved in and rented out the top unit for a number of years while we saved up to do the renovation,” he says. When they bought the house he and his wife had no children but on the day they moved in they welcomed their second child.

“Whenever I start a project, I always want to honour the original architecture and the existing building, but obviously play around with them as well,” says David. “What I love about this house is that it’s got a weight to it. It just feels so permanent.”

One of the biggest tasks he faced in transforming the two apartments into a single three-bedroom home was getting as much light as possible into the interiors. A double-height window at the rear of the house, which is part of a new extension, floods the dining area and kitchen with natural light.