Unit Renovation Heidelberg Heights

What do you do when your home faces the wrong way, with both the bedrooms getting all of the glorious sunshine and views of the garden, while the living areas feel overlooked, cramped, and hemmed in?

This is the kind of problem that paint and decor cannot solve. Investing in strategic structural changes to your home is the only way to solve these fundamental issues, but the rewards are numerous: an increased sense of space (even without adding extra floor area), improved access to natural light and views, an increased sense of privacy, and importantly, a physical connection to the garden for a young couple who enjoy gardening. And that's not to mention a home and lifestyle with a connection to nature's rhythms backed by growing evidence of the mental and physical health benefits of access to natural light, breezes and outlook.

The clients love the character and history of their home, so we were careful to conserve as much of the existing home as possible while finding creative ways to improve the layout and flow. The design diagnosis and masterplan process found a way to reorient the home towards the north and the garden, replace the dysfunctional kitchen with had less than an arm's length of bench space, create a clear distinction between social spaces, and private spaces, retain the recently renovated bathroom to save on cost and waste, all with minimal structural works. In fact, it only requires the removal of one non-structural wall and a new 1-metre opening in an internal structural wall: how's that for efficiency?

The new semi-open-plan kitchen, dining, and lounge space are all oriented towards the garden while turning the existing window into french doors opening onto a deck creates a new outdoor living space. A large sliding door integrated into built-in joinery allows the clients to create separation between the lounge and kitchen/dining when desired, or leave it open to enjoy the light and views throughout.

The existing study/guest bedroom remains where it is, but the addition of french doors onto the new deck within the existing window opening gives it a direct connection to the garden and makes it a far more pleasant workspace.

The main bedroom is shifted to the darkest, most private corner of the house (where the kitchen was previously languishing), making it the perfect place for rest. The clients will also take this opportunity to insulate the new walls and replace the existing window with a double-glazed unit to improve the thermal properties of the bedroom as well as making it a quieter, more peaceful space.

The slightest alteration to the existing bathroom - swapping the basin with a toilet and relocating the basin to the hall - makes it a full bathroom with a dedicated zone for more privacy meaning two people can use the bathroom at once. This makes the space more flexible and allows someone to brush their teeth or dry their hair while the other is showering, for example.

With a character-filled street frontage, planning restrictions, and a significant easement, the opportunities to extend the home were limited, but we were able to gain an additional work-from-home space to the side of the home. While this is a future ambition for the client, having the masterplan means they are able to make changes progressively as their budget and means allow with the long-term goal in mind, so they can stage their project with confidence.