Rapt IN COLOUR

LAYERS OF PATTERNS AND TEXTURES SOFTLY EMBRACE VISITORS OF THIS SOUTHERN TABLELANDS GUESTHOUSE

- BRITTANY SMITH

Tucked in among layers of rolling hills in the Southern Tablelands of NSW sits Moorabinda Guest House. Built in 1954, the cottage looks out onto quintessential Australian vistas of gumtrees and sun-drenched paddocks but, while the position is enviable, the interiors needed some love. That’s when Penny Sheehan, senior designer at Anna Spiro Design, stepped in. After her fiancé Simon bought the parcel of land and original homestead from his parents, they decided to renovate in the hopes of creating a guest house.

“It was charming and had these beautiful old features, these lovely decorative cornices and scalloping that you don’t really see in modern builds,” says Penny. “But it was so run down. We could kind of envision the whole place in a way, bringing the character and the glory back to that little cottage.” So with that goal in mind, Penny got started.

The renovation began in April 2020 with the help of Jack Scoles from Nomad Built. While Queensland locals Penny and Simon were unable to give feedback in person due to the border closure, Jack found a delicate balance between maintaining the integrity of the character-filled build and making the floor plan functional. One of the biggest changes was to open up the rooms. The kitchen was small and dark, with just one peep-hole window, while another room, smack bang in the middle of the structure, didn’t have any windows at all. Thankfully, the walls enclosing that space were not structural so they were knocked down, creating a large, open space. A skylight was then installed above the now sizeable kitchen and new windows were also added.