Time TRAVELLER

A Sydney family gives their heritage home the garden it deserves, with help from a dream team of experts.

- Victoria Baker

The red front gate gives a clue that all is not what it first seems in this traditional home, set in a heritage conservation area in Sydney’s Inner West. As you travel up the long, herringbone paved limestone path, past the blooming foxgloves in the front garden, then through the richly coloured Arent&Pyke-designed interiors, a modern extension by Carter Williamson Architects reveals itself, along with a back garden and pool that feel distinctly contemporary.

The challenge for landscape architect Hugh Burnett was to create a garden to complement the old and the new. The owners, a couple with three young daughters, understood the need for a horticultural transition from front to back garden. “In the front, we wanted to hero the heritage of the existing building and create a beautiful garden that is a gift to the street,” says one of the owners. At the rear, lifestyle was key. “As it is a family home, it was important to have a truly functional garden that enhances the way we use the house as a whole.”

At the front, Hugh worked with the existing jacaranda and weeping maple tree and added an oval lawn surrounded by layers of foliage, texture and blooms, all installed by landscaper, Outside Signatures. “The owners were interested in seasonality in the garden and flowers for cutting,” he says, and he delivered with foxgloves, gardenias, hydrangeas, salvia and iris, drawing the palette from the interior colours of the front rooms and the original stained-glass windows. “It was important that the path was framed and softened with planting so it really felt like you were walking through the garden, calming and settling the approach to the front door,” he adds.