Newtown terrace renovation
for a musical family
Better results at a fraction of the cost.
Before we interacted with INSIDESIGN, we were considering demolishing our house. It felt “big but small”, e.g. boxy, disconnected, cluttered, un-streamlined, dark.
When we first met Sari, she really focused on learning about our daily lives in the building, what we loved, what we hated, what kinds of styles and colours we liked, and what we wished for in a home.
Sari developed a beautiful and elegant concept that met our desire for a calm yet colourful home that could be achieved as efficiently as possible (e.g. not demolishing or discarding anything unnecessarily).
We are so thrilled by everything that Sari developed, from the built-in furniture to the choices of materials and the subtle yet wonderful colour palette. It’s our forever house now.
-Luke & Catherine, Newtown
Thoughtful joinery, improved flow and carefully planned storage transformed this dark terrace
into a calm and functional forever home for a young family – without the need for demolition.
This project came to me through my friend, architect Jennifer Crawford. The clients had
considered demolishing the house and rebuilding, because they were so unhappy with it. It is a great example of why it’s not always necessary to demolish and rebuild, with
thoughtful joinery and space planning often delivering better results at a fraction of the cost.
The Newtown terrace felt dark and boxy. The previous owners had already extended the home with a large open living and dining area at the rear, along with an upstairs bedroom and ensuite. Although generous in size, the living spaces still felt cluttered, disconnected and dark. Access through the kitchen was also narrow and awkward. The clients were a family with two young children, and they desperately needed more storage and organisation in their daily lives.
Design Brief
The scope of the project was:
Living / dining room:
The clients asked for a complete rethink of the room and for a full wall of flexible joinery toconceal everyday clutter. The aim was to create zones for studying, music practice andeveryday family living, while maintaining a calm, consistent aesthetic. We needed to address the darkness of the room.
BEFORE
BEFORE
Kitchen:
The current kitchen was dated and dull and had impractical storage. It felt dark and oppressive.The clients wanted to upgrade the appliances and add colour and warmth to the kitchen. Oneparticular request was to install a hanging pot rack above the window.
BEFORE
BEFORE
The kitchen was the main thoroughfare from the hallway to the living room and the access onboth sides was very narrow. The benchtop towards the living room had a raised back, whichfurther boxed in the sight lines and access. This layout created significant limitations on whatcould be done in the kitchen.
Hallway:
There was a tiny laundry under the stairs, but it took up valuable space from the already narrowentrance, especially when the door was open. The hallway had an uninspiring tiled floor. Therewas not enough room for shoes or clothes and the hallway felt tiny and crowded – overall not agreat impression to enter the house.The clients wanted to keep the laundry in the current location but find a solution to includemore storage in the entrance, especially shoe / hat / console space for all family members.
BEFORE
BEFORE
Kids room:
The two girls currently had a bunk bed, but they wished to have their own separate beds andown areas in the room. The clients wanted to keep the front of the window clear for playing, to remove the existing built-in wardrobe and replace it with a smaller wardrobe. The room is L-shaped and fairly small, so adding two beds and a wardrobe wasn’t straightforward
BEFORE
BEFORE
Our Design Solution
Kitchen
Since the kitchen limited access to the living room, we started with it.
The layout of the kitchen was kept close to the original: U-shaped bench cabinetry on one side, tall cabinets on thestraight wall.
The opening to the living room was widenedand increasedin height to betterconnect the two spaces.
The flooring was changed to timber so that it would better tie in with the living room.
The cooktop was swapped with a Bora cooktop with built-in downdraft rangehood ducted through the wall to the lightwell. This allowed the wall cabinetry above to be fully utilised for storage.
The sink stayed in front of the window. The Zip tap was moved to the corner closest to the livingroom, with the maintenance access from the other side, freeing up additional under-benchstorage. We simplified the layout by retaining one blind corner and introducing deep drawers forbetter everyday usability
On the tall cabinet wall we designed a new functional pantry, that followed the shape of thestairs. Oven and microwave were relocated to this wall. Fridge was originally designed to beintegrated, but during construction we ran into wall issues that forced us to cancel it andchange to a freestanding fridge. A small appliance nook was added on the side.
We wanted the kitchen to be bright and light. New skylight helped by adding sunlight – and italso makes the kitchen feel taller. The tall cabinetry and wall cabinets are finished in crisp whiteto maintain an open feel, but for the rest of the kitchen we wanted colour. We chose splashbacktiles based on the bathroom tiles that the clients had previously chosen and liked, just in adiƯerent colourway. The blue cabinetry was thencolour-matched to complement the tiles. Tap, sink and handles are understated gunmetal. The benchtop is Laminam in a fresh white finish –highly durable and easy to maintain.
We changed the lighting in the kitchen, including concealed switches for under-cabinet lightingand LED strips inside the pantry and the appliance nook.
Living Room
The first thing to address in the living room was to introduce large skylights to bring natural lightinto the room. With the widened opening to the kitchen the connection between the spaces wasalready improved.Given the size of the room, we divided it into distinct zones.
The dining zone is defined with banquette seating and timber veneer cabinetry at each end. Thebanquette seat height was matched to the existing (re-upholstered) dining chairs, and theremovable backrest conceals access to the kitchen Zip tap control unit in a hidden cabinetbehind. The curved edges make the banquette more comfortable and easier to access, andadditionally we modified the existing dining table legs to allow more legroom – the clientswanted to keep their existing table to preserve precious memories.
One side of the dining cabinetry provides storage for wine, glassware and crockery, and isdetailed with fluted glass doors and internal drawers. The opposite side houses the children’sstudy areas, with two flip-down desks and lift-up doors to fully hide the workspaces when not inuse. The cabinetry depth was reduced due to the patio doors.
The family is very musical and needed a solution to store a keyboard, saxophone, guitar andseveral clarinets. The music cabinet was the most complex element of the design. Itaccommodates all the instruments now, while also functioning as an active practice space. A pull-out lockable shelf allows the keyboard to be played comfortably and the piano stool fitsbelow. It was essential that the cabinetry remains open but out of the way during use, so thatone person can practise without blocking circulation in the room. The Blum REVEGO pocketsliding door system was specified with a pull-out shelf, later substituted by the joiner with a Häfele system. The double doors slide neatly into a side cavity when opened and hideeverything when closed. Additional instruments and music sheets are stored on shelving andwall-mounted displays. Both the music and desk areas are lined with acoustic panels, doublingas pinboards.
The living zone includes open shelving for books and the television, with drawers and a flip-down cabinet for media equipment. All deeper cabinetry is finished in clean white polyurethaneto lighten and simplify the room and to further define the zones. All joinery includes integrated Häfele Loox5 LED strip lighting with touchless switches.
For the furniture and accessories, we drew the colour palette from the client’s Sydney 2000flags, now proudly framed and hanging on the wall. We used burgundy, tan and blue with smallaccents of warm yellow. The music cabinet and desks have a calming touch of green in theacoustic felt. Curtains and rug are off-white to balance the colours.
The result is a calm yet colourful, well-resolved living room, tailored perfectly to this family’s way of living. We kept as much of the existing furniture and structures as possible.
Kids' room:
The room had some spatial challenges, but we managed to accommodate two single beds, asmall wardrobe with pull-down hanging rails and a shallow bookcase.Both girls now have their own storage and display spaces above their beds, along with individualbedside tables.To give the room a more personality we used a playful floral wallpaper on the lower part of thewalls and the existing beds were painted to match.
Hallway and Laundry:
The hallway used to be an uninspiring entrance. We removed the tiles and replaced them with timberflooring.
We made the laundry smaller by removing a nib wall that poked too far into the entrance. Thisallowed us to incorporate a broom cabinet, overhead skateboard storage, along with shoedrawers, shelving and additional concealed storage. We added a shelf for hats, a bench and afew hooks, and the hallway became a functional and welcoming entrance.
The staircase balustrade was painted green that matches the green used in the living roomacoustic panels and it creates a beautiful contrast against the timber floor and white walls. Withproper lighting, the hallway is now inviting and bright.
Cashmere
Conker
Celery
Tsunami
Cello
Metal Finish
The Newtown Home Now
The result is a home that now feels calm, functional and deeply personal to the family.
Instead of moving, or demolishing the house, they now consider it their forever home.
The living room of this home, is my entry to 2026 KBDI Design Awards, in Design Spaces category. Wish me luck.
What do you think – how did we do?
Looking for smarter storage solutions and better flow in your home? We’d love to help.
Sari
Photos by Sam McAdam-Cooper. Styling by Melanie Andriolo.