After two decades in her single-brick Victorian home in Fitzroy North, art curator Bernie Alibrando was ready to give it a thoughtful refresh, setting it up for the next twenty years.

It took just five months for Cantilever Interiors to revamp the home — from concept to completion — injecting it with contrasting texture and colour.

‘Bernie’s brief included minimal site intervention with little disruption made to the existing service pathways, captured in her concrete floor,’ says Kylie Forbes, creative director for Cantilever Interiors.

Bernie’s extensive travels to Japan and the Mediterranean became the main inspiration for the renovation.

‘Both cultures influenced her appreciation of form, colour and presence,’ Kylie explains.

‘In practice, Bernie takes great care of her home and belongings, with each drawer, surface and material meticulously appreciated. Designing with a view of needing “only the essential”, Bernie shared a great appreciation of design for longevity.’

The colours chosen for each room were carefully selected to tell a story of contrast as one moves through the home.

A sweet apricot fills the terrazzo-tiled bathroom while the bedroom adopts a warm, honey yellow. The kitchen — the centre of the renovation — features cooler tones that ground the space, while dark green marmoleum complements the resin flooring.

Rearranging the layout of the kitchen around the concrete floor and the existing green resin coat proved to be the most difficult part of this project.

‘In the previous design, the sink sat adjacent to the window. The windowsill was low, conflicting with the relationship between it and the bench height, blocking light and making it difficult to open the window,’ explains Kylie.

This, combined with the awkward positioning of the bulky fridge, meant a thoughtful design was required to optimise functionality.

In response, Cantilever Interiors moved the sink to the back wall and installed a lower, terrazzo-tiled benchtop under the fluted window — an ideal spot for Bernie to sit and prepare food. They also added a tall block of joinery, which doubles as a living room bookcase and cleverly conceals the fridge.

‘[The integrated fridge joinery] maximises its functionality on three sides, shielding elements of the kitchen from view, creating a sense of intrigue as you walk in the door, with light wrapping in the surround,’ explains Kylie.

This refurbishment has given Bernie’s home splashes of warm colour and a functional kitchen to take her through the next twenty years.

For garden designer Tim Pilgrim, the biggest thing standing between you and your dream garden is simple: analysis paralysis.

‘Some people can be so terrified to make the wrong moves that they don’t get started at all,’ he says.

To help you actually make some progress in your backyard, courtyard, or balcony this spring, we asked Tim for his advice on designing your outdoor space, tips for picking the right plants, and more, so you can create an outdoor space that will thrive in the years to come.

Be realistic about what you can achieve

For Tim, every project starts with the client brief. Even if you are designing the garden for yourself, it’s important to consider your goals and be realistic about how you’ll make it happen: ‘We always ask, who is going to look after this garden, and how much time are they willing to put into the care and management of it?’

‘We don’t want to design a composition that needs too much intervention if they can’t maintain it because the garden won’t succeed, but if they are keen gardeners, or willing to hire a good gardener, we can have a bit more fun with the planting,’ Tim says.

Create a clear (and practical) layout

Then, it’s a matter of deciding on the layout, including the key ‘zones’ you want to shape the landscaping around. For example, do you want a fire pit, or an outdoor dining area? Are there any messy, utilitarian spaces like a vegetable garden or a shed you want to screen off?

‘It might be a place with a good view, or where the light is just right in the afternoon or a sunny spot in the morning for a cup of coffee,’ Tim says.

‘Once you have identified these zones, link them together with paths, making sure there is good flow between them, and fill the rest with plants.’

How to select the right plants

Tim suggests starting with the plants you are familiar with, and then any new species you are drawn to. A local nursery will be able to give you personalised guidance on the best Indigenous plants that will work for the climate, which are often also relatively low maintenance.

‘The plants you know will be the safe start you need before pairing them with the pretty plants you see growing in other gardens, or in pots in nurseries. These plants need to suit similar growing conditions to the plant you know,’ Tim says.

‘Contrast in colour, shape and timing will be important here. When in doubt, start with one plant, and if it works for a season, double down and buy or propagate more.’

Going for a walk around your neighbourhood is also a good place to find inspiration: ‘What you see growing in the front gardens of your neighbours will likely work in yours. Make note and take pics of the ones you like and build from there.’

The best varieties for beginners

If you’re just getting into gardening for the first time, perennials and annual varieties are a great place to start.

‘Seed for annuals is cheap, and they grow fast; they can be great placeholders in the gaps in your garden while you wait for other plants to be established,’ he adds.

‘Perennials are good for the impatient gardener who wants to see results fast. A lot of common herbaceous perennials are easy to propagate by root cutting over winter as well if you want more of the same.’

Mistakes to avoid

Whether your garden is big or small, Tim says you want to ensure the planting palette feels cohesive. Don’t overcomplicate your design with 10 different materials and too many different plants with no connection in colour, shape, or species.

Another big mistake is just planning one of everything: ‘It’s much better to repeat plants, working off a rhythm to a planting by using more of the same and pairing back the amount of different species. Once you have this established, a bit of this and that everywhere scattered throughout works, as you have a solid backbone holding it all together.’

Water frequently, then let nature do its thing

When establishing a new garden, regular watering is important for the first 18 months or so to help protect your investment and give plants the best chance of settling in. But, according to Tim, the ultimate goal is to choose plants suited to their location, so they can eventually thrive on rainfall alone.

‘At home, I water each plant by hand for 20 seconds and usually never again! But you don’t have to be that militant: the aim is occasional deep watering. This helps a plant take its roots deep, rather than constant short watering that promotes shallow feeder roots, and therefore weaker plants.’

Don’t be afraid to experiment, fail, and try again

Tim says trial and error is a big part of gardening. Start small by planting in a small patch or even in a few pots where you can experiment before committing to a full garden bed.

‘You can learn an incredible amount over a single season in a small plot that’s easy to observe and manage, and it really takes the pressure off a nervous gardener,’ he adds.

‘Just have a go. The worst thing that can happen is a plant doesn’t make it, and you can always try again next spring!’

When interior stylist and illustrator Kelly Thompson arrived at the viewing of this 1940s California bungalow in Heidelberg Heights, she was the only person there. But where others saw a house in need of attention, Kelly saw potential — and a canvas ready for colour.

‘The house was completely whitewashed and boring,’ she says. ‘I loved some of the old features like the stained glass windows and ceiling roses in the original part of the house… The bones were nice and it wasn’t anything a bit of paint couldn’t fix!’

Armed with her instinct for colour and an eye for detail, Kelly set about slowly breathing new life into the renovated weatherboard. Original art deco ceilings, Baltic pine floors and a dreamy bay window provided the foundations for a home that now feels both characterful and considered.

‘Much love has been put into the home,’ she says.

The transformation began with paint. Soft shades of blue now flow throughout much of the interior, creating a sense of calm and continuity, while carefully chosen accents of ochre bring warmth to the office and spare room. Kelly also introduced new joinery, added carpet to the bedrooms and office, and installed a mirrored wall in the main bedroom.

‘The house unintentionally became quite blue; once I painted the hallway, I found the soft blues so relaxing they ended up unfolding into other rooms in various tones,’ she says.

‘I had fun adding some ochre tones in the office and spare room, and find the overall addition of colour throughout the house to have made it so much more cosy!’

Beyond the interiors, the garden was another opportunity for Kelly to make her mark.

‘I like having plenty of greenery around me and not sitting in my neighbour’s back pocket,’ she says.

The covered alfresco deck has become a natural gathering place for family and friends on warm evenings, framed by gardens Kelly has landscaped herself.

‘The backyard had layers of old concrete that was hiding layers of old bricks, and the front yard was covered in gravel with so many layers of plastic underneath. I decided to remove it all and start over, which involved a bit of prep,’ she says.

The home has been an ever-evolving labour of love: ‘I’ve chipped away a lot over time; the main change is that it’s all colourful now instead of white, and it has a lush garden instead of concrete and weeds!’

Still, having brought so much character and life to the property, she’s excited to see someone else make it their own.

390 Waterdale Road, Heidelberg Heights, VIC, 3081, is listed for sale with Nelson Alexander Ivanhoe.

An early-2000s rear extension connected this South Yarra weatherboard cottage to its vine-covered courtyard. From the outside, there seemed to be no need for a renovation.

But a closer look inside revealed lacklustre plain white joinery and cabinetry — a far cry from the romantic cottage style interior envisioned by homeowner and artist Chantel de Latour, her partner Nick and young daughter Cressida.

Determined to inject some colour into their home, the family enlisted Anouska Milstein, founder and director of Studio A.mi, to bring it to life.

‘The existing bedroom joinery, kitchen and bathroom/laundry left a lot to be desired; it was your classic cheap white-faced cabinetry with white composite stone benches, stainless steel handles… you know it, you’ve seen it hundreds of times,’ explains Anouska.

‘So all of that felt “fine” but also completely devoid of personality and charm.’

The homeowners’ colourful and eclectic brief centred on maintaining a cottage aesthetic while still giving the home a contemporary feel.

‘We wanted there to be a softness and fun to it all… but it was also important that the clients wouldn’t feel they’d outgrown it in a few years — the playfulness still had to feel mature,’ she says.

‘For cost-saving purposes, we knew we wanted to keep things where they were on the most part,’ explains Anouska.

The kitchen was transformed from a single-wall layout with an island bench into a U-shaped design, enveloped in butter yellow and textural natural stone — colours inspired by Chantal’s art practice.

‘I love the way the kitchen feels like a gorgeous vignette, like it could be a painting,’ Anouska says.

‘We knew we wanted to use a striking natural stone from the beginning, and the one we first selected became unavailable everywhere right when we needed it — a classic tale in a design process. But we found a stunning substitute, which worked so beautifully with the yellow and blues.’

Traditional cottage features are scattered through the kitchen; heritage-style tapware, shaker-style joinery, and an under-bench curtain all pay homage to the original weatherboard home.

To maximise space, the previously small laundry and bathroom were joined to create one luxurious bathroom-laundry with an added bathtub. The homeowners were set on lining the walls with dark green glazed tiles, which Anouska balanced with pale green hues.

‘Following completion, [the homeowners] kindly invited me, my former staff member, who’d worked on it with me, and the builder over for a very long lunch that went well into the night,’ Anouska says.

‘That was just brilliant because we got to experience it ourselves and see their enjoyment of it first-hand.’

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home, and this is especially true in the Northcote family home of CIBI co-founders Meg and Zenta Tanaka.

‘At CIBI, we bring food, design and people together, and that’s very much how we live at home too,’ says Meg.

Having previously lived in Collingwood, not far from their popular concept store and cafe, Meg and Zenta found themselves in need of a bigger home after their twin boys, Haru and Shun (now 11) joined older brother Uta (16), taking their family from three to five.

That’s when they came across an older, two-bedroom house with a large backyard that had plenty of potential for an extension.

Zenta, who is also a trained architect, worked on the redesign. The existing property was adapted to make way for three bedrooms and bathrooms, while the new addition contains the open kitchen, a spacious living area with a void above, and a studio upstairs.

‘We started with how we wanted to live: an open space, high ceilings, northern sunlight and a bright atmosphere that makes us feel good,’ Meg adds.

‘Zenta often said that a house could simply be a box, but a generous, airy space. For us, that meant keeping the space simple and allowing our life — cooking, furniture, objects and people — to fill it.’

The resulting renovation exudes an air of minimalism, without feeling overly precious. Concrete floors and expansive windows allow their collection of iconic Japanese designs to take centre stage, including Tendo Mokko timber furniture, Isamu Noguchi’s Akari light sculptures, and delicate, hand-crafted ceramics.

The simple, hardworking, but warm kitchen is another highlight for Meg, who has spent the last few years compiling the recipes for her second cookbook, OSOZAI.

‘We wanted the kitchen to be somewhere people could spend time together,’ she says.

‘The boys have quick breakfasts at the counter on school mornings, and friends might sit there for a late-afternoon drink and something to eat. Sometimes I cook while they eat at the counter, and we keep chatting.’

While the first book brought together the ‘original CIBI recipes’ — in other words, contemporary dishes inspired by Japanese cooking — OSOZAI is filled with the meals that Meg cooks for her family, and the style of food people eat at home in Japan.

I’m so excited to finally share these recipes and encourage people to try them at home,’ she says.

‘They’re part of our daily life, so knowing that another family might enjoy making and eating them together feels very special.’

A few months after interior designer Britt Ross took a break from hunting for the perfect Sydney home, a real estate newsletter listing this one-bedroom apartment appeared in her inbox. She had the keys within the week.

‘[It] sounds cliché, but when I walked in I knew that I loved it. It had the perfect amount of quirky features that it immediately stood out from the sea of beige I was used to viewing,’ she says.

The original blue bathroom and etched glass doors were the main selling points, along with its location down a quiet cul-de-sac — an enviable five-minute walk from the beach.

‘I showed the listing to a friend who said she could imagine me living there in a vintage kimono, listening to Fleetwood Mac,’ says Britt. ‘I think subconsciously this stayed in my mind when I was designing it.’

Over the next four years, Britt slowly transformed the apartment, leaning into the building’s ’60s aesthetic by retaining the original parquet timber floors and injecting colour, texture and patterns at every possible turn.

Soft pastel hues flow through the home, with the peach bedroom leading into a baby blue ensuite. Initially hesitant to wrap these colours from the walls to the popcorn ceiling, Britt soon loved the intimate atmosphere they bring to the room.

‘You’re pretty much colour-drenched as soon as you walk in, and it also creates a little blue pocket that you catch out of the corner of your eye when you’re in the bedroom,’ she says.

The original dolphin-shaped bath spout — a charming feature unique to all the one-bedroom apartments in Britt’s building (‘next door’s is a lion’) — is perfectly at home in this sea of blue.

But colour isn’t the only show-stopper in this apartment. Texture and pattern pop in every space, from the animal print armchair to the psychedelic kitchen bench seat, vintage floral pantry curtain and into the bedroom, where zig-zag carpet runs from the floor to the bedhead.

‘Creating a bespoke rug for the bedroom, then using matching carpet panels to create the headboard, was another way of bringing in an unexpected material… I am in love with the rug-to-headboard flame stitch moment; it was a long process of designing, sampling and waiting, so when it all came together it was very exciting,’ Britt explains.

‘It really gives the room a fun retro vibe — and we can vacuum the headboard to clean, which is such a win!’

This apartment’s charm doesn’t end with its character; it’s also functional — a nonnegotiable considering its 40 square-metre size.

‘[As someone with] A LOT of clothes, storage was a key priority,’ says Britt.

She reconfigured the kitchen to improve functionality, swapping the existing mini fridge for a full-sized integrated fridge-freezer and creating a custom banquette seat with in-built storage for shoes. Another bespoke piece, the pill-shaped dining table, makes the most of the limited footprint, while allowing easy circulation from one space to the next.

In the living room, Britt designed joinery to work hard without making the apartment feel cluttered.

‘I have a severe pet peeve of TVs taking centre stage in a room, but also have the conundrum of loving to watch them,’ says Britt.

She solved this problem by concealing the TV behind pocket doors in the joinery separating the kitchen from the bedroom.

‘Inside, it’s mounted on a bracket that allows us to extend and pivot the TV either way to watch from the banquette or the sofa,’ she explains.

After four years of slowly working away on her one-bedroom abode, Britt says it finally feels like a home.

‘I’m really happy with what we were able to achieve on a small budget,’ she says. ‘Working with the existing layout and being selective about where to spend money meant that relatively small changes could make a huge difference.’

When it comes to working on a home with a storied past, sometimes it’s best to call in the professionals.

This was the case for Bob Beriotto and Rose Antoun, the owners of a unique Petersham apartment within a converted Victorian mansion. The couple had already renovated the bathroom, but with the quirky kitchen and dining room also in need of a makeover, the couple reached out to Without Studio for guidance.

‘This building, Buena Vista, has seen a few different eras,’ Without Studio co-director Mel Hasic says.

‘Originally, it was a late Victorian mansion, which has over time been altered and ultimately repurposed as nine separate apartments.’

The kitchen in Bob and Rose’s apartment is especially unusual, as it sits in place of the mansion’s verandah, complete with grand openings, pillars, and moulding, while the floors reveal an eye-catching geometric pattern of tessellated tiles.

While it’s unclear if the tiles were original or part of the 1920s conversion, this feature played a big part in the home’s old-world charm — something the owners and designers alike were keen to preserve.

The renovation focused on improving the kitchen’s functionality for the family, without drastically altering the existing U-shaped layout.

‘Rose loves to cook, and her freestanding cooktop and oven took pride of place centrally in the kitchen — so this was to remain’, Without Studio co-director Sarah Shinners says.

Retaining the position of the stove, sink, and fridge, the designers introduced new cabinetry that stretches further into the long, narrow room, creating almost two metres of additional marble benchtop space.

The disconnected cabinets along the dividing wall were also replaced with custom, double-sided joinery between the kitchen and dining room. Crafted from durable walnut laminate, the new unit forms a generous pantry, storage and a practical drop zone for shoes, keys and dog leads.

At the client’s request, a sliding door was integrated into this addition, allowing the kitchen to be closed off from the dining area when required.

The new palette offers a beautiful combination of past and present. Vixel tiles from Artedomus line the splashback in a textural mosaic that feels like a contemporary counterpart to the original tiled floors, as the delightful croissant-shaped handles and a brass utility rail add extra character and charm.

After the renovation was complete, Rose and Bob reached out to Without Studio for the final detail: a custom dining table made from oak, and a banquette seat with a tessellated pattern — another subtle nod to the apartment’s tiled flooring.

‘One of the things we love most is that the kitchen feels as though it was always part of the original house. The same is true of the dining area,’ Rose says.

‘We feel that we have created something that will stand the test of time, and hopefully last for another 100 years.’

When Helen and Jack Halliday first saw this 1934 Art Deco home in Balaclava in the late ’90s, they just missed out at auction. Six years later, when the house came back on the market, they didn’t hesitate.

‘We were very disappointed and kicked ourselves for losing such a beautiful house,’ says Helen. ‘When the house came back on the market, we decided to bid for it come hell or high water.’

The couple — former owners of Acland Street institutions Cosmos and Metropolis Bookshop — have now spent the past 20 years making a home here.

‘When we came here, our neighbours on both sides were descendants of the original families, making its history very real to us,’ says Helen.

‘We found an original photo of the family under the floorboards… Still intact, no problems with damp.’

While the previous owners had lovingly restored many of the home’s period features in the early ’90s, adding a new kitchen and bathroom, Helen and Jack also put their own mark on the house: painting the walls in soft tones of limestone green and lilac; upgrading window coverings to ensure they were draught-proof; sealing air vents; and installing an underground water tank.

Although the home has been around for nearly a century, comfort was never compromised. There’s central hydronic panel heating, reverse-cycle air conditioning in the kitchen, a ceiling fan in the hallway, a separate laundry and a security system — all the practicalities of modern life tucked quietly into a home with plenty of old-world charm.

The sense of arrival in this old dame is immediate. A wide entrance opens to a timber-panelled hallway, leading through to generous living spaces punctuated by striking tiled fireplaces in the living, dining and family rooms.

Ample light enters the home from the living room bay windows and the dining room’s glass doors, which open to the backyard garden — a perfect place to spend long summer evenings.

Outside, Helen and Jack also revamped the front garden, planting native grasses, pygmy date palms, sages, eremophila and sedums that bring colour and texture throughout the seasons.

This beloved house has given the couple an enviable combination of history and gardens, as well as easy access to shops and public transport. Now, after two decades, they’ve decided it’s time to downsize, and this beautifully preserved slice of Melbourne history is looking for its next custodian.

2 Albion Street, Balaclava, VIC, 3183 is listed for sale with Skye Jefferys and Sam Paynter from Woodards Elsternwick.

You can learn a lot about an architect from their own family home.

As the new South Yarra residence of Lande Architects co-founding director Lachlan McArdle, Hawksburn House reveals a dialogue between heritage and modernity — a gap the Melbourne-based studio often masterfully bridges in their work.

Situated in a quiet cul‐de‐sac of single‐fronted terraces, the original home was a double-fronted timber block cottage they had initially intended to keep, before retention proved unfeasible.

While making the ‘hard call’ to demolish the existing house left them with a workable blank canvas, it also offered 20 metres of street frontage to fill.

The challenge was deciding how to design the new build in way that still felt at ease within its existing streetscape.

‘A new house in a heritage street can mimic its neighbours or ignore them,’ Lachlan says.

‘We wanted neither. We took the materials of the area, brick, timber and steel, and used them in a contemporary way, so the house feels both new and familiar.’

To avoid creating an imposing block, the new facade is deliberately broken down with varied set backs and curves, featuring cream-coloured Krause Bricks, customised for the sculptural articulation.

The front fence also stretches across only part of the boundary, leaving room for existing birch trees and foliage that softens the home’s interaction with the street.

This sophisticated conversation between past and present continues inside. Timber lined-windows adds warmth to the robust brickwork, serving as a ‘filter’ between inside and out, as sliding glass doors frame garden views across the open-plan living space.

Lachlan says the focus was on using a small number of quality materials that will develop a beautiful patina over time, rather than date.

Natural stone is a reoccurring motif throughout the interiors, uniting the kitchen, pantry, laundry and bathrooms; Manetti tobacco terracotta tiles feature underfoot; as timber flooring transitions to green carpet in the upstairs spaces.

It’s a forward-thinking house in more ways than one. It has room for the family to grow into, with spaces that accomodate young children now and teenagers later. And for all its contemporary appeal, the building still feels like it ‘belongs’ in the street.

Archterra lead architect Paul O’Reilly had long dreamed of a client who shared his vision for a thoughtfully detailed, compact, energy-efficient home with clever passive solar design, all for the price of a project home.

But when that dream client failed to materialise, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

‘As I’ve got older, I’ve become hyper aware of the waste and excess that humans seem so attached to and felt a bit driven to express my thoughts on how to address this in a small way.’

In 2019, Paul purchased a parcel of land just a stone’s throw from the centre of Margaret River. The site, uniquely positioned between a landscaped reserve tracing the route of an old logging railway line and a protected bushland reserve, offered an enviable balance of proximity to both nature and amenities.

Today, the corner block is home to his sustainable-meets-accessible design vision, dubbed Sibling Houses: one is Paul’s own residence, and the other a testing ground for small-home design.

Built side by side, the two 98-square-metre dwellings share the same pared-back, boxy floor plan. Repeating the same footprint helped streamline the build, bringing the construction cost of each dwelling to $294,000 (pre-COVID price increases).

Their differences lie in the finer details, with variations in elevation and materiality giving each home its own distinct character.

‘Where it’s normal to just cookie-cut the same elevations, we’ve treated these differently in roof pitch and exterior materials selections,’ Paul says of the differences between the houses.

While House 1 is wrapped in galvanised custom orb (corrugated tin) — which reflects dancing blue, green and pink hues at different times of the day — House 2 features an organic mottled look thanks to its durable and cost-effective grey cement sheet cladding.

‘The flatness of the sheet is articulated with a spotted gum batten at the vertical joints and at random centres so that as the sun tracks across the sky the shadow formed at the battens grows and shrinks and makes the elevations appear dynamic,’ Paul explains.

Inside, the homes are predominantly painted plasterboard for cost efficiency, but each dwelling also features a unique material palette for warmth and texture: plywood ceilings in House 1, and rammed earth walls in House 2.

‘In terms of cost-driven compromises, I had initially wanted to have rammed earth in both houses but had to drop this back to just House 2, where it forms a fire-rated and acoustic wall on the boundary, so it’s performing a few roles and maximising my investment there,’ he says.

The property also sits alongside the Wadandi Track, creating opportunities for Paul to chat with passing locals about more sustainable ways of building.

While features such as LED lighting, heat-pump hot water systems and solar panels are, in his view, becoming standard practice, Paul believes a home’s greatest sustainability measure comes down to its size. For him, building smaller is one of the most meaningful ways to reduce a home’s environmental footprint.

‘I think we still miss the mark on the whole, with houses that are way too large for what we actually need,’ he explains.

‘If you can get your head around building a house that is half the size of what you think you need, then you’ve potentially saved half of those carbon-intensive resources from being mined, cut down, manufactured, transported and so on. I believe that’s where true sustainability starts to take shape nowadays.’

Paul is optimistic about the potential to make everyday homes more energy efficient without adding significantly to the cost of construction. While there’s no shortage of high-tech solutions promising better performance, he believes the fundamentals of good design are what make the biggest difference.

‘There is a lot of hype about technology to make your house energy efficient these days, and the reality is that correct solar orientation, thermal mass, insulation, glazing location and size, ventilation and appropriate shading are the key principles to address,’ he explains.

‘With those nailed, you’ll be fine, and there’s no reason for them to add any cost to the price of a house.’

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