COLOUR story

The reimagining of this heritage home in Sydney gives a blended family of five space to hang out and spread out as needed.

- Stephanie Hope

Based on location alone, this grand dame heritage-listed of a home in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs ticked a lot of boxes when owners Bethany and Tim bought her in 2014. With large parklands nearby, they have access to numerous playgrounds for their young daughter, Ellie, and plenty of convenient walking tracks for rescue pup, Nala. Bronte beach, the CBD and Sydney airport are all a quick car trip away and Tim, an anaesthetist, enjoys a short commute to the nearby Prince of Wales public and private hospitals.

The large backyard was an even bigger drawcard for the couple, who love to entertain. "There's enough space for Tim's extended Greek family and my family to come together to eat, laugh and relax," says Bethany. "It's a well-used and loved space."

However, the home's layout didn't quite meet expectations. "Following a fairly ordinary back extension in the 1990s, it was a warren of little rooms despite being a large, older house, and it had little connection to the back garden," says architect and interior designer Brooke Aitken, who was entrusted to right the home's wrongs. "In short, it had great bones but the dress it was wearing was not showing them off well."

Keeping the original heritage features at the front, Brooke worked with builder Grosser Constructions to remove the old rear extension and build a contemporary black steel and glass addition in its place, digging down into the block to give the family, which includes Tim's older children Olivia, 17, and George, 16, three levels of space to spread out in. "These extensions extrude out of the old building, almost extending as new butterflies from the old shells," says Brooke.