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.

If you’ve been a casual reader (or, even better, an obsessive, voracious reader) of this blog, you’d know that I have a big thing for heritage architecture. So I was pretty pleased to find this house when I was at Armidale, which is one of the most substantial Victorian (well, it was built in 1888, so it’s looking quite like a Federation) manors I’ve seen.

The link above provides some all-important historical details, which I’ll share a brief run-down of here. It’s also worth noting that the mansion has its own Wikipedia page, which, as I’m sure you’re aware, few houses do. The home was commissioned for a wealthy grazier in the late nineteenth century and designed by prominent architect John Horbury Hunt. It was eventually given by the family to the University of Sydney, and now forms part of the University of New England’s campus. It’s (rightfully) heritage listed.

The property and its sprawling grounds have been immaculately cared for. It’s currently used by the university as a cafe, which inspires significant jealousy in me as I don’t recall ever being able to eat lunch in a heritage mansion overlooking a breathtaking rural view while studying in Ultimo.

The two elements that stand out most prominently are its inimitable condition and its immense size. The house shows none of the usual signs of wear and tear that accompany such a long history; its intricate brick and tilework are still show-stoppers. The size of the home belies the fact it was ever a residential structure; the sheer scale and grandness of the place is something to marvel at.

The St George region is home to a reasonable amount of character homes – unfortunately, not as many as it once was, given residents’ penchant for bulldozing them, which is what makes this Victorian sandstone a real gem. It’s been modernised but its best features remain intact – patterned tiles, ornate ceilings, elaborate fireplaces. Good stuff!

Unfortunately, I can’t find much heritage information about the home – but hopefully the pictures give you a sufficient idea of its charm. The living area has polished hard wood floors, stained glass windows looking out into the garden and looking through to the kitchen, a sandstone feature wall, a tiled fireplace and an ornate ceiling. The furniture is classic and complementary.

Original ceiling

The high ceilings are benefited by the design choices the owner has made, particularly the large mirror in the drawing room (which, incidentally, is my favourite room).

The home is currently on the market for offers over $1.15 million. For those wanting a character home with plenty of space, it provides good value for money 14km out of the CBD – just south of the inner-west.

Thomas the Tank Engine!

I have some eye-candy for you – and it’s heritage eye-candy, which is usually preferable. This development at Camperdown has just about reached completion, and hopefully it’ll add to the cool-trendy-warehouse-conversion vibe that Camperdown has been cultivating over the past few years. This particular development is, as the name suggests, a re-working of an old sugar warehouse.

The original site.

Camperdown is a well-positioned area – very close to the city, Sydney Uni, UTS and Annandale, which is one of my favourite suburbs and as such deserves a mention. It still has a bit of a creepy vibe (in my opinion), but young professional hispters seem to enjoy a bit of ‘grittiness’ (but not too much!). It’s a suburb that’s ideal for developers due to its industrial heritage – there are plenty of character-filled warehouses to redesign.

It’s a good combination for the burgeoning population – which tends to be a combination of students and fairly well-off young professionals who want to be close to the action.

I particularly like the outdoor spaces here – you’ll find that I’m a sucker for indoor/outdoor spaces, and these seem particularly seamless (a bedroom with pretty sliding door access to a courtyard is my idea of heaven).

Another thing I’m crazy about – which you might know if you’re a regular reader – is floorboards. Most apartment complexes opt for carpets for noise reasons, so it’s nice to see this development breaking the mould (presumably with soundproof insulation). Floorboards add timeless appeal to a space, so they’re always an appealing design choice.

I’m a sucker for Victorian renovators, so when I was contacted about this house in Melbourne I had to feature it, even though I didn’t get a chance to fly down there and scope it out. Fortunately, the owners were willing to do an interview with me, and their words pair well with the images in presenting the from-heritage-to-modern story of this abode.

It’s a pretty, renovated place that has a bit of a Sydney vibe to it (or is that just my Sydney bias coming into the frame?). The void in the living area, seen above, draws me in – light and airiness are essential elements of spaces, for me. It has a dash of Victorian charm with some contemporary-industrial sleekness from a new extension.

My favourite space in the house.

The owners, Cathy and Matt De Carolis (a builder who managed the extension himself), were keen to shape the property to their young family without detracting from its character. The house was built in the nineteenth century and still has some awesome original features, including servants’ quarters (major lust!). It was bought unrenovated in 2006. “The house was very rundown when we bought it and it was in need of much TLC,” the couple say.

“The first challenge came when … the whole back of the house had fallen in!”

Due perhaps to their expertise in the construction industry, the couple has the presence of mind to preserve what they could of the house’s charm, while still adapting it to their present-day needs. “Although we wanted to keep as much of the original house as possible, we also wanted room to grow and therefore decided to put a very modern extension on the back, only taking out the original kitchen and bathrooms, and putting the children’s  living area up in the roof.” This fits in nicely with the current trend of building into roof spaces, which seems to be a pretty happening idea in apartment blocks and terraces where the owners are seeking more room to breathe.

The extension took twelve months – which, in the scheme of things, and given how complex renovations can be, seems like a good timeline. “The first challenge came when Matt sent me away for a week with the children to knock out the kitchen … only to ring me to let me know that I needed to find a rental quick as the whole back of the house had fallen in!” Cathy says.

The couple were very selective in the materials chosen, which is crucial to a good quality renovation; too many renovators try to save cash by using cheap materials, with the result often being that the end result looks poorly executed and kind of pointless. Their search for materials included sourcing marble from Ottario De Carolis’ village in Rome.

The couple capture one of the most rewarding aspects of renovating a stately, historic home; “I think the most satisfying part of the renovation is seeing the house come to life again … since renovating the house, there is a real sense of old meets new.”

But there’s always more to do. Thankfully, Cathy only has one small remaining niggle; “The laundry! At the time the house [extension] was designed I had just had baby number four and was not paying too much attention to the interiors of the house. Our laundry cupboards are very narrow so to fold up a sheet and fit it in there is a nightmare. I would actually like to totally gut the laundry in a couple of years and put really big, deep floor-to-ceiling cupboards in there.”