Mission accomplished

A Melbourne home with great bones has been sensitively tweaked to enhance its Spanish-inspired beauty – no reinvention of the wheel required.

- Sarah Pickette

Because it was built in 2007, this Melbourne residence was in good shape when its current owners, a family of four, bought it in 2017. Structurally, nothing major needed to be done, but they wanted to freshen its look and tone down some of the home’s more over-the-top Mediterranean flourishes.

They were, however, conscious that ripping out perfectly good fixtures just because they weren’t quite to their taste was wasteful. Katie Sargent, an interior designer whose values very much aligned with the family’s, was engaged to help them navigate the renovation process.

Katie’s style – “sophistication without shouty statements” is how one of the owners describes it – appealed to them, as did her approach. “It’s very satisfying to discover the inherent beauty in things by stripping them back and revealing what others may not have been able to see at first,” he says. “Katie is an expert in recognising what can be transformed.”

She ensured the expanses of marble in the kitchen were retained. “It would have been a crime to remove it; it had aged beautifully,” says the owner.

“This is where we really reaped the benefits of working with Katie. The marble stayed and the tired white-gloss cabinetry was replaced with rich walnut doors and dark overhead shelving. The resulting kitchen is far more sophisticated.”