This week’s blog post is a walk through Killara (a ‘mini-post’, as I’ve come to call them). There are two key reasons for this. The first is that I haven’t had much time and I live in the suburb. The second is that I am most likely moving soon and would like to celebrate the place, since its housing stock is pretty amazing. Unfortunately, some of my favourite houses in the area aren’t here as I only walked along a few streets (which took longer than you’d imagine), but the one above is a place I’m totally in love with. It’s light pink, which suits it well … but I’m into the black and white vibe of the photos today.

If you don’t know much about Killara, it’s an upper north shore (or mid north shore, if you divide the north shore into three segments … I don’t, but see the reasoning) suburb about 14 kilometres from the CBD. I seem to recall mentioning this before on the blog (maybe I didn’t? Who’s to say?), but it’s one of the two upper north shore suburbs without a village (the other being Warrawee). Both of those suburbs, incidentally, command higher prices than their neighbours. From my recollection, a recent edition of Title Deeds in Domain (SMH… I can now only stomach its Saturday paper, as an aside) recorded Killara as having the highest sale price of any upper north shore suburb in 2012 (I believe it was around $5.5m, but I’m not confident).

People like Killara because it’s leafy, has nice, wide streets, has grand heritage housing (and gargantuan modern housing…), is close to good schools and has a train station. It is actually pretty central, from my experience, and it’s been a relaxing break from living in suburbs that are dominated by concrete.

If you’re ever in the mood to ogle some houses, Killara is a good suburb to do it in – head to the side east of the Pacific Highway (or the part near the golf course on the west side) and you’re sure to see some places you’ll be impressed by. You could make a day of it, if you really wanted to – there are a couple of good places to eat at nearby-ish Wahroonga and St Ives (they even have a bar now, with decent drinks, plus there’s Pattison’s – always a win), a gelato bar at Lindfield and the trusty Greengate Hotel … schnitzels and cheap drinks, not bad for a Sunday afternoon.

As you can probably tell, since they demonstrate a level of photographic skill I haven’t quite yet attained (still waiting for someone to shout me a DSLR and a photography lesson…), these photos are not mine. But no matter. The house is pretty, and belongs to Ellie Bradley, who heads up Xavier & Me.

So today’s post takes the form of another Q&A-with-a-professional. Below is my interview with Ellie, who takes us through her design inspirations and provides some tips for anyone hoping to pretty up their own place. It’s a bit unique insofar as the family decided to move into an already-renovated home; a rarity for design professionals.

How much did your work influence the design of your own home?
We moved into our home in October 2012 and it was already renovated. Our decision to move into a home already renovated was motivated by a year long struggle to get a DA through on another home. It was a very stressful year, so we decided to keep our home, put it on the rental market and go in search of something we can move straight into.

Rugs are used in the home to create contrast in streamlined, modern rooms.

The home was renovated back in 2010, and mixes the traditional features of the home with modern features. The home has loads of storage which was a must and we now also have that crucial extra room which I have turned into my studio. In terms of the style of home, it really was a blank canvas which enable me to fill up the home with my treasures – from porcelain tea pots, to aboriginal artworks, to loads of my cushions and rugs.

Who lives in the house?
I live here with my husband, Richard and my little boy Xavier, who is nearly 5.

How did you decide on the home itself? What was its background?
We needed more space and storage. As I work from home, I really needed (and so did my family) a separate room that I could make into my studio. It’s one of the bedrooms at the front of the house and looks out onto the street with some city glimpses through a beautiful Frangipani tree. We are slightly elevated from the street level, so it’s lovely being able to take in the day without feeling like I am in a fish bowl.

Can you take us through your approach to colour and pattern?
My approach to colour and pattern is constantly changing, as I think this is something I’m still discovering myself as I grow as a designer, but on the whole I am a big lover of bright colours and bold patterns. I love using contrasts in my designs between different materials and media or by fusing bold strong colours with complementary muted tones. I love the modernist art movement Bauhaus’ main objective to unify art, craft and technology. Their rational designs are based on simple geometric shapes and primary colours, which you see a lot of in my work.

 It’s lovely being able to take in the day without feeling like I am in a fish bowl.

 
How heavily styled is your home on a day-to-day basis?

Ellie's office.

On a day-to-day basis my home is pared back on the styling, however I do love showing my treasures and tend to mix it up. I don’t have everything out at once as I like to more curate the spaces in my home. I tend to pick up things here and there, and they don’t all work together, so I have tended towards creating a mini gallery where I change things around, move pieces from room to room. I like the fluidity of styling my home.

Do you have any favourite stores to pick up homewares from?
Planet on Commonwealth, in Surry Hills. I am good friends with the owner Ross Longmuir and he has a wonderful curated mix of artists and his own furniture and fabrics. Another favourite shop is actually one of my online retailers, Everything Beings. Amy searches far and wide for the most interesting new artwork and objects, made by independent and emerging artists, designers and makers all over the world, which she brings to us online. A recent addition to the site was a series of artworks by Australian illustrator Letitia Buchan.

Do you have any tips for others trying to improve the appearance of their home?
Here are my top ten tips for breathing new life into your home:

1. De-clutter – Even if your have created a beautiful room, clutter can detract from the overall look. Make sure those usual suspects of kids’ toys, stationery, magazines, pile of different electronic plugs for different devices (I have one of these on my kitchen bench) have their own place so they are easy to find but not scattered or piled up.
2. Lighting – A great way to update your room is to add lighting. Draping some string lights over a bookshelf or updating your boring ceiling light to something a bit more stylish could change the whole look of a room.
3. Rugs – rugs add texture and warmth to a room. It can also add character to a neutral décor, soften a busy scheme or tie together key colours in a room. It’s also a great way to aid in room planning and acoustics if you live with a large open plan space.
4. Cushions – another great way to add colour and pattern, breathing new life into your room. Mix pattern, colour and textures to create a statement.
5. Wallpaper – There are some beautiful wallpapers out there – whether you want something busy, loud, muted or kitsch. Be brave and completely cover the walls of a small room or make a statement in a larger room by papering just one wall.
6. Reupholster – Old dining chairs, headboards and sofas can be reinvented to refresh a room’s look. Find a contemporary patterned fabric and get your old furniture reupholstered for a brand new sense of style and comfort.
7. Colour scheme – You don’t need to go overboard when finding a colour scheme for a room – unless, of course, you really want to make a statement. Pick out the pre-existing key colours of your room or choose a specific object which you wish to use as the colour inspiration and add complementary coloured ornaments or soft furnishings. If your room has a neutral décor, inject a few really bright shades.
8. Make a statement – If you’ve got a bit of cash set aside, consider splashing it on a statement item which will give your room the ‘wow factor’. Depending on budget, room type and your personal taste, this can range from a designer ornament to a framed canvas or flash contemporary fireplace.
9. Flowers – Okay, so it’s not quite going to restyle the room, but displaying flowers is a wonderful way of breathing life into a room, adding colour and making a style statement. Commit to a regular change of bouquets and vases to keep your room alive and create a feast for the eyes.
10. Mirrors – If you don’t have a feature mirror in at least one room of your house – why not? As well as creating the feeling of space and reflecting light, a mirror says you are proud of your home, it is vanity for your interior and a wonderful way to add perspective.

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.

As the (out-of-character) title indicates, this post is a bit of an aberration from my usual posts (you could call it a dalliance, if you really wanted to). But it’s totally necessary as it’s on tiny houses, and tiny houses are pretty awesome. Below is an interview with Mark from Tiny House UK. 

To use a turn of phrase my grandad employs regularly, a tiny house is ‘exactly what it says on the tin’. That is, it’s a small house. Depending on whether you’re claustrophobic, they’re both efficient and cute; they load up everything in a conventional house into a neat north-European inspired (…maybe. I don’t really have a clue, but it seems a bit IKEA design-ish, doesn’t it?) compartment. Like a studio, but usually portable.

When did you start building tiny houses?
I started building my first tiny house in August 2011. Unfortunately, the first one suffered a broken axle due to the weight of the structure when I was towing it down the highway. Not a great start! The second house was built on a caravan chassis, which again did not cope with the sheer weight and bowed at front and back, causing the roof to part in a few areas. Back to the drawing board!

The third house, after a lot of re-calcs and structural re-thinking, turned out very well and solid as a rock.

What was your inspiration?
I first saw tiny houses on the Internet –  Jay Shaffer’s blog (Tumbleweed Tiny House) – and loved what he had accomplished.

Are there any unique challenges associated with designing and constructing a tiny house?
The weight was the main problem to overcome. Tiny houses [originated] from the USA. Vehicles in the USA are a lot bigger and heavier, which means conventional trailers are designed to cope with … much more weight. It seems trailers in the UK are made [more cheaply] (save as to cost), which is why my first [two] tiny houses were not successful. The rainfall in the UK is far higher and, as we all know, timber can weigh two and a half times its dry weight once it has been exposed to the good old British weather.

Do you think tiny houses will become a viable alternative to traditional dwellings in the future?
Property [values have] risen over the last 10 years at an astonishing rate and [have] effectively priced the younger generation out of the market. … Living in a tiny house for a few years gives people the opportunity to live cheaply and save money.

What do your customers most commonly use the tiny houses for?
Most enquiries seem to come from guest houses, B&Bs and homeowners looking to use one as an extra room or to rent out. … Rather than living cheaply, extra income seems to be the area that attracts customers.

What are the costs associated with tiny houses?
Apart from the initial payment, the cost of living is very low. Our tiny houses can be installed with low voltage lighting [and] solar power is a viable option. We insulate our houses with Celotex, Kingspan or Super Quilt, which have very high insulation values. The bed area is elevated, and because heat rises, the sleeping area stays warm for longer.