Earlier than its current renovation, the construction of this Nineteen Sixties Mitcham house had stood the take a look at of time. However inside, a few of its greatest mid-century options had been lined up by a sequence of beauty updates through the years.

The unique proprietor, designer Margaret Meyler, labored with a German builder to create the house for her household of six.

The construct used a novel number of textural supplies — assume uncovered brick, frames made out of western purple cedar, slate flooring, and ceilings lined in a ‘notably lovely’ compressed straw. Nearly each floor featured pure finishes, filling the interiors with heat.

‘You possibly can think about my dismay years later once I noticed the window frames painted turquoise, to not point out all of the bricks and straw lined with Gyprock!’ Margaret says.

Fortunately, the house’s latest homeowners have been followers of its mid-century roots and engaged design agency Northern Edge Studio for a extra sympathetic, two-part renovation.

In 2021, director and architect Paul Cooksey designed a brand new pergola that mirrored the present low-slung roof. The purchasers approached him once more in 2022 for a change of the kitchen and laundry. They needed to enhance the kitchen’s connection to the residing areas, along with updating sensible components just like the joinery, which was coming ‘to the top of its usable life’.

‘Our design course of is all the time to minimise our architectural footprint, and to enhance the present house with small and exquisite touches,’ Paul says.

Easy modifications like opening the kitchen as much as the curtain wall on the rear of the property helped maximise house, whereas the brand new materials palette was curated as a house to the unique construct.

They prolonged the unique slate flooring into the renovated areas, even going to the hassle to supply the Wistow slate stone from the identical quarry. ‘Equally, the timber wall lining was a reference to the straw-panel ceiling that was initially there,’ Paul provides.

The pure Australian blackbutt timber cladding contrasts with the wealthy walnut-toned options, and small splashes of blue on the joinery additionally nod to the mid-century period. Every little thing has been fastidiously thought of to create a seamless mix of outdated and new, constructing on the house’s enduring retro character.

‘Anytime we work on present houses, we try to delay and improve the lifetime of that house in order that it could function a cultural touchstone for the following technology and past,’ Paul provides. And on this venture they’ve performed precisely that, a lot to the delight of the homeowners of the previous and current.

‘The purchasers love the brand new kitchen,’ Paul says. ‘They discover the house purposeful, lovely, and it renews their love of the house. Even the unique homeowners [Margaret] has reached out to say how a lot she enjoys the renovation.’