California dream

Tucked behind this heritage home in Sydney is an ingenious extension that serves its owners just perfectly.

- Sarah Pickette

FACADE The heritage-protected front of this California bungalow is painted Dulux Lexicon Quarter with trims in Dulux American Mahogany. The slate on the original roof was updated and the roof on the rear extension is Colorbond in Dulux Manor Red to complement it. Built around 1923, the house retains much of its original glazing.

There are many benefits to knowing a good architect, and one of them is that you can seek their expert advice on a property before you buy. That’s exactly what Jacqui and Daniel, the owners of this beautiful California bungalow in Sydney’s inner west, did.

The couple and their three children – Charlotte, 13, Chiara, 11, and Isaac, seven – were living in a part of Sydney governed by some of the nation’s strictest conservation rules. They wanted to stay in the area, but were on the lookout for a house they could transform into their ideal family home.

“Any property they were considering, they’d run past us so we could let them know what the achievable scope of work would be,” says architect Eva-Marie Prineas, who worked closely on this project with architect Jacqueline Lindeman, her colleague at Studio Prineas. “When this house came up for sale, we said ‘grab it’ because it had a reasonably dramatic level change from the front of the house to the back. We could see that there was potential to tuck a new addition in behind the existing house.”