Description:

A new-build that welcomes in the light. Whether bright pools of sunshine or a dappled and filtered glow, it’s the warmth of the afternoon sun that makes this house a home.

There’s nothing like creating a cosy, peaceful feeling at the end of the day, so the house has been designed to perfectly catch, and control, the sun.

In the open kitchen-living area, large glass doors and soaring gable windows let in the northwestern sunlight. This great room is the congregation point of the home – so important to a family that values regular gatherings and get-togethers.

Soft linen curtains create a welcoming glow, and earthy tones and warm finishes accentuate the balmy atmosphere. The cedar-clad ceilings wrap into a band around the tops of the walls to really accentuate the stud height and those gable windows.

Throughout the house, colours are rich and deep: toasty reds and terracottas and mossy forest greens. Dark marbles have an elemental feel. Artworks are a key part of the aesthetic, so hangs were planned for in the early design stages.

Timber features repeat throughout the house, including oak flooring and an oak screen on the stairwell especially designed to filter the sunlight. Oak features in the kitchen too, with grooved oak cabinetry on the island.

Food, family and entertaining is a way of life, so the kitchen is a hardy white steel, and the flow through the house and living areas incorporates easy connection to the decks.

With young children and plenty of extended family, outdoor living includes an eating and barbecuing area, an outdoor fire and a grassy courtyard. There’s a louvred roof, a pergola structure, and perforated metal screening for filtered light, shelter and privacy. A garden curves around to give a soft, organic edge.

The site is on a corner, in a busy family neighbourhood on the city fringe. Among a mixture of heritage homes and contemporary insertions, this house manages to reflect both. It comprises two two-storey gables and the exterior cladding is timber. One form has Abodo timber installed horizontally and painted grey, and vertically and stained on the other.

The modern gables continue the rhythm of houses along the street, and step down the sloped site at a scale that fits right in.
In one form is the laundry, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a snug with acoustic ceiling. Upstairs is the master suite, a home office and a spare bedroom.

The other gable holds the double-height great room, and the kitchen connects the two forms. Every inch of functionality has been carved from the site: underneath the house is a garage, there’s a service courtyard, a deck by the laundry and a gated area for the dog. For the youngest members of the family, there’s even a fairy garden.

As always, environmental factors were a serious consideration, and the house incorporates high levels of insulation, thermally broken aluminum joinery and heat pumps for ducted heating, water heating and dryers.