Lilyfield Home and Garden

In Lilyfield, an older house keeps its period rooms at the front, while the back opens out to light, open-plan living, a deck, a pool and a garden.

The front of the house still has its original character: a long hall with timber floorboards and an arch, and bedrooms with high ceilings, picture rails and fireplaces with carved mantels. [Greg: is it Victorian or Federation, and is it in a heritage conservation area?] Behind it, the house now steps up to two storeys and out to the garden. [Greg: what did the owners ask for, and what wasn’t working in the old house?]

At the back, the ground floor is one open room for kitchen, dining and living, on a polished concrete floor, with built-in shelving around a gas fireplace. Wide folding doors open the dining end to a timber deck, which runs past a long pool lined in green mosaic tiles. Upstairs, a sitting room under a raked ceiling opens to a deck in the tree canopy. [Greg: which parts did you design – the two-storey rear wing, the pool and garden, the studio at the back of the block?] [Greg: was this a Development Application (DA) or a Complying Development Certificate (CDC)?]

The period rooms at the front are kept for sleeping, and everyday life happens at the back, where the kitchen, dining and living spaces open straight to the deck, the pool and the garden. Upstairs and down, the rear rooms look out into the trees. [Greg: is there a line from the owners we could use?]