Brief

What a great restoration project.  Tucked away an area fondly known as “Little Italy” in Sydney’s inner west, is a suburb called Leichhardt. Only 5kms west of Sydney’s CBD this leafy suburb during early settlement to Australia was home to large numbers of Italian-migrant fishermen, trades people and artists.  It is well known for its buzzing community, fabulous restaurants and convenient location.

This Victorian Terrace had been subjected to many renovations over the decades by past owners.  Original features had been damaged,  the home like many houses of this era had  structural issues, termite damage and moisture problems.  

The client, a working professional  was incredibly time poor with limited availability to source what was needed for a renovation and not in a position to make swfit decisions as needed by the builder.

Real Living Interiors services were recognised after immediately responding to an urgent call for external colour design support. The palette had to be sympathetic to the era of the home and, of course fall within council requirements.

The brief expanded into the sourcing of internal and external  fixtures, fittings, and finishes throughout, redesign of the kitchen and living area to make into an open plan space, and the  clear directive to repurpose/restore particular features that depict original features of the Victorian Terrace. Given the client’s passion for art, the internal palette was what I would call  “transitional”.  Not a cold stark palette, yet not a palette of strong hues, allowing artworks to hang proudly from the restored picture rails throughout the house.

Whilst the builder, McRae Construction  had their work cut from resolving structural issues, Real Living Interiors worked to provide an updated home that paid homage to the original features of this Victorian Terrace.