REVELATIONS

H&G ADVICE
RENOVATOR’S NOTEBOOK
GO WITH
THE FLOW
Reconfiguring the small rooms of
a Victorian terrace has delivered
breathing space and natural flow
to this inner-city treasure.
TEXT BY ELIZABETH WILSON ❖ PHOTOGRAPHY TOM FERGUSON
When Matthew Taylor bought a cute twobedroom,
three-storey Victorian terrace
house in an inner suburb of Sydney, it had
rising damp, a leaking roof and a dated 1980s rear
addition. In other words, nothing serious enough to
deter this former architect.
On the positive side, there were lavish amounts of
natural light flowing through the home – a rarity in a
narrow terrace – thanks largely to a frontage set back
from the property boundary and a pop-up skylight at
the rear. It also had two lovely living areas, front and
back, each with its own character.
“It had the best of both worlds: a cosy, traditional
room with a fireplace at the front and the newer, airy
living room at the back that flowed out to the garden,”
says Taylor. “I wanted to keep that contrast of the
traditional and the modern.”
The key problem was the lack of any harmonious
flow. “The circulation through the house was
convoluted,” says Taylor. “You had to zigzag across the
house to get from the front door to the back garden,
with the dining room buried in the centre where there
was no natural light.”
Taylor turned to friend and architect Tom Ferguson
of Sydney’s TFAD. Ferguson improved the flow by
creating an open-plan living/dining/kitchen space at
the rear, with maximum access to light and to the
garden. To do this, he relocated the bathroom and
laundry to the centre of the house. The new kitchen
layout is configured as a neat row of cabinetry along
the side wall. “Since the kitchen was going to be an
integral part of the living space, we wanted the joinery
to appear like furniture,” says Taylor. The
transformation has delivered exactly what he desired:
streamlined spaces, better circulation and a breezy
indoor-outdoor connection. >
238 Australian House & Garden