Old Meets New

A contemporary home springs forth from tired roots.

- Alexandra Longstaff

 For homeowners Rowan and Kate Pollard — a professional married couple with two young boys — reviving a heritage home on a modest plot, within a limited time frame, was a project that turned out to be well worth the effort. This is especially true for Rowan, who was the developer for his own home.

“The driving purpose of the renovation was to take a cramped and cellular Victorian home and somehow transform it into a modern and spacious family abode with room for guests to come and stay, and zoning to allow for comfortable extended family living under one roof,” explains Kate McMahon of McMahon and Nerlich, the architects behind this south Melbourne rejuvenation.

The original home was modest with separate living and dining spaces, some of which were retained in the new build. It also featured a powder room and kitchen, which were replaced. On the first floor, there were just two bedrooms and a bathroom, which were also in need of some TLC.

The homeowners embarked on an overhaul of the space with a view to expanding as a family and to creating nooks and crannies where the home’s inhabitants could retreat to, relax in and come together as a family in. The body of work included building a powder room, a large walk-in pantry, European laundry, large open-plan kitchen and informal living space, master suite with freestanding timber-veneer bedhead, walk-in-robe and ensuite, two children’s bedrooms, a family bathroom, a generous study/guest bedroom/informal living space with its own bathroom and north-facing second-floor roof terrace. Also part of the brief was a revival of the existing formal living and dining rooms.