My favourite part of the house: its facade. Interestingly, it doesn't have a proper front door.

Vaucluse House is one of The Historic Houses Trust‘s ‘living museums’; you can be toured through it, and have afternoon tea in the teahouse afterwards, if that kind of thing takes your fancy (it does take mine). So that’s exactly what I did. I won’t regale you with the house’s extensive history as the HHT’s website does a pretty nifty job of that, and, besides, I wouldn’t want to ruin the whole point of the tour in case you’re keen to go. But I will show you some photos and mention some details I found interesting. So here we go.

Nursery.

The house was bought and remodelled by William Charles Wentworth in the early nineteenth century, “a gifted but restless lawyer and politician”, according to the HHT. He had a fair number of achievements under his belt. His family was pretty rebellious for the time; his wife had two children before they were married and he was born to an unwed mother. Oh, the scandal. As a result, the family was left a little isolated from colonial society. But they had a pretty opulent drawing room, which might have made things easier to cope with.

I found this small bed in the nursery terrifically amusing.

The house isn’t especially expansive, but its facade is something else – the Gothic look to it is the home’s most confronting feature, and is my favourite part. The inner courtyard is also pretty special; it feels like a walled city when you’re standing inside it, and it serves as the connecting point between the main house and the servants’ areas, including the kitchen.

The dining room, typically a male-dominated space, according to our tourguide, had a portrait of Wentworth’s favourite daughter hanging in it – a fairly controversial move for the time, apparently. The tiles used in the room were handcrafted in Italy. The drawing room boasts wall-to-wall carpet when rugs were typically used, and blue pigment at a time when blue was not synthetically produced, making it a rarity. An interesting point noted by the tourguide was the need for symmetry in keeping with the time’s conventions; one door in the drawing room leads nowhere, its only purpose being to mirror the door on the other side of the room. I’m a little strange myself, so can see how that would be appealing (especially with my OCD), but tend to prefer the design school that favours thoughtful functionality.

The famed dining room. Breaking with convention.

Master bedroom. Mattresses were piled high to stave off infestation by bed bugs.

The house was bought by the NSW government in the early twentieth century and has been on show since then. The layouts have been recreated by curators – some of the pieces are original, others have been sourced. It’s reminiscent of Como House, a Melbourne mansion I blogged about early last year, except Vaucluse House is smaller in scale. They both have their intrigue – Como House’s riches-to-rags background, Vaucluse House’s eccentric owner – and the hallmarks of colonial wealth (including servant bells, one of my favourite oddities).

The all-important chandelier.

Servant's bell. Does what it says on the tin.

Drawing room (the fanciest room – for entertainment).

Walls of the inner courtyard.

Kitchen. Atmospheric.

I really like Watsons Bay. That isn’t too controversial a statement, I guess, since it bleeds affluence/aspiration. I know I’ve been a bit crazy about apartments lately, but this one provides a decent feel for the suburb as its view encapsulates the feeling you have when you’re there – like you could be at the end of the earth, and it’s very pleasant and there’s no reason to leave. You’re not at the end of the earth, though; you’re in the eastern suburbs, and it’s a cruisy ferry ride back into the city. Or you can hop into your Merc. Whichever.

This apartment’s focal point is its views. The windows are accordingly large and wide, and since there are windows across three walls the apartment is lighter than many.

Another design feature adds to the lightness of the apartment  - the use of whites, creams and golds, which is very consistent across the living space. This achieves two effects – it keeps your eyes on the water outside while also creating a sumptuous and inviting living room (because white-on-white in interior design is pretty much always awesome). 

The floorplan is fairly tight, with a long hallway and two bedrooms. The kitchen is a separate room, which is a step away from the ubiquity of open plan living. You can decide whether a separate kitchen is up your alley or not. I tend to prefer open plan in this respect, but the kitchen here was attractive enough that I didn’t think about it.

Speaking of which, the kitchen is interesting as it adds a northern beaches vibe to the place – blues and whites with beach signs. As in the living room, the consistent colour palette in the kitchen adds appeal and interest. Interesting point – although stainless steel appliances are de rigueur at this point, the whitegoods here blend in with the colour scheme and just seem right. 

The beachiness extends out onto the balcony, which is another place to soak in the views. The bedrooms are built at the front of the apartment, leaving the entertaining spaces with the best vantage points. The owners have dotted the apartment with  artefacts, so most rooms have a point of interest.

Beachy.

This apartment, like the last one, is on the market (my next one won’t be, need to mix it up). Offers over $1.65m are being sought. It’s hard to measure up the value as there aren’t many statistics on sale prices in the area – but a renovated apartment with fantastic views in this type of suburb is always going to set you back. It’s marketed towards certain types of buyer; they might prefer the view and the exclusive location over a comparatively priced terrace farther in, or want a pretty fancy entry point into the suburb. Maybe they’re a downsizer.

The interiors contrast fairly starkly with the exterior of the building. It seems to be a late mid-century block, but it’s been renovated and has a modern security system and gated entrance. Many of the apartment blocks dotting the shore on both sides of the harbour were built around this time, and executive committees have had to work out an approach for working with these older blocks, which are now seriously expensive real estate. It’s a complex scenario in an apartment complex as there’s always the risk that some owners will oppose change, or will have a different idea about the changes that should be implemented.

There are a few reasons I was keen to look at this studio in Potts Point. It’s a renovated studio, for starters, and I like seeing how a small space can be redesigned to be interesting and liveable. Then, there’s the fact that it’s just plain pretty. Lastly, though, I haven’t looked at a home in Potts Point on the blog yet, and I think that a renovated studio in a character building is a pretty perfect place to start.

Potts Point’s story is pretty well-known, but here’s a brief top-of-the-head rehash. It’s one of the suburbs that ‘binds’ Kings Cross, which is a locality that borrows off Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay and Darlinghurst. It’s probably the most ‘Kings Crossy’ of those three suburbs. This apartment is about 200 metres from the centre of the action, but it’s in the suburb’s more peaceful, leafy pocket – which is quite a sweet spot to be in. Pulsating nightlife, nice street, footsteps to the city and to the harbour … I’ll take it. You could call it a ‘gentrified’ suburb, I guess, but I don’t think that paints a full picture; it’s been expensive for decades, and part of its appeal is the schism between wealth and red light district.

The studio has been renovated well. What was left of the studio’s best character features has been preserved (ornate light fitting, bay window – is there anything in life better than a bay window, by the way?). The space is effectively broken up by stairs, which separates the studio into three distinct areas. This makes a studio feel far larger, and creates interest, which is all-important in a small space that can too easily give everything away at once.

I can fairly safely say this is one of the better studio renovations in the area, as I spent the rest of my weekend looking at studios and one bedders to rent. This is the first apartment I saw on the day, and I found myself pining for it as the rental inspections continued to disappoint. It may attract an investor, but could just as easily draw in young professionals looking to live in a stylish little place that’s walking distance to almost everything. When done well, a studio apartment can minimise wastage of space and demonstrate the versatility of home design. That’s what I like about this one – it incorporates a fantastic kitchen into an open plan living area, boasts a foyer of sorts and has a distinct living area/study by the window. It has everything you need – all in a tight package.

An apartment! You’re not missing out, though; this three bedroom, three bathroom penthouse has the proportions of a house (and a private elevator, to boot). It’s located in one of Australia’s most celebrated spots – North Bondi, just up the road from Bondi Beach, which is squarely in view.

The apartment is brand new, and it’s clearly intended for the higher end of town; it combines excellent design with luxury fittings. The kind of fittings that make you think ‘Hm, if I were rich, I’d totally buy this!’ Although my true love will always be heritage properties (and rectangular modernist masterpieces – love those places!), I want this. Let me tell you why.

Study in the master.

The master bedroom was the first element that sprung out at me; it’s very large, incorporating its own study, has a fantastic view of the beach, and boasts in-built, white storage units that serve to create a type of walk-through robe that is incorporated into the room itself. Like the rest of the apartment, it’s extremely light – and good natural light is one of the features I find most important in apartments.

View from the master bedroom.

The two other bedrooms are both of good sizes, with one of them possessing a balcony with louvres, which is fitting given the penthouse design prizes outdoor spaces. The thick floorboards act as a fantastic base – classic, ageless, and complementary of any decor. The bathrooms are lined with contemporary grey tiles (big tick from me there as grey is one of my favourite colours for interiors), and the en suite boasts a space age bath.

The stairwell provides some design interest in itself, with a circular break in the wall serving to ensure that the stairs are well-lit. The kitchen is, predictably, very slick and modern, but the surprise is its size and the bonus add-ons it has, such as the circular section at its end with wine fridges. Um, yes please.

The second level shows off the benefits of open plan design; the kitchen flows onto the living and dining areas, ensuring that the entertaining space has a front-row seat to the beach view. This is also true of the rooftop terrace. Basically, I’d like to have a party here.

Open plan.

I needed to include this shot, as it has the elevator.

This penthouse is perfect for North Bondi – it has the views, the good looks, the walkability. The area is an interesting combination of Art Deco apartment blocks, federation semis and new, looming apartment blocks. Plus … there is stuff to do there. This carves out a new space as it’s a small block that doesn’t come with the potential headaches of larger developments; it’s private, well-located, and a bit special.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to venture out to Rouse Hill house and farm, which was the property I wanted to scope out this week. I was in Rose Bay recently, though, and thought I’d take some snaps of the houses there. I wasn’t in Rose Bay’s most ridiculously salubrious precinct (although everywhere in Rose Bay is salubrious), which enabled me to capture the diversity of housing that is in the eastern suburb.

Aside from its old-school prestige, Rose Bay is coveted for a number of reasons – its bay, the fact it has a beach, the ferry commute to the city (and the proximity to the CBD – it’s seven kilometres away) and its closeness to equally high-end suburbs Double Bay, Dover Heights, Vaucluse and Point Piper. It sits in one of Sydney’s richest spots, which is evident in the top twenty most expensive sales in the last twelve months dating back from April. Rose Bay took out the top spot on that list with a $21.5 million deal.

Pretty brickwork.

Around Rose Bay’s New South Head Road village is an assortment of housing styles, as can be seen here – art deco apartment blocks, sizeable Victorians, family-sized federations, and lots of semis, many of which have been vertically extended.

Love the vintage green and white chair on the porch.

Excellent colour.

Love these old school pathway signs in the east and north.