brunswick east- colour pop!

This was a fun project for a creative family - taking an already renovated home and adding the finishing touches whilst resolving a few things that weren't working. We created a new section of kitchen floor-to-ceiling cabinets - replacing previous cabinets that were too deep to be functional and very heavy in the space, and integrating it into the existing fit out (we found a new home for the original ones too).  A beautiful nectre wood-burner was installed for the living room so that the central heating did not need to be used so much.
The house has been completely transformed through a complete lighting re-design. By adding carefully placed wall lights around the extensive art collection and fitting task spot lighting in the kitchen we made the whole house come alive at night and zoned each area's lighting needs. Vintage pendants and a new handmade pendant by Pop and Scott  were placed in each of the three living/dining spaces. Existing pendants were also rearranged.

New double glass doors were installed at the end of a dark hallway to open up the space, and the hallway painted a deep mandarin colour for warmth and a little punch of happiness every time you pass down it. We added beautiful new tiles, and rearranged the furniture, restored and recovered couches with durable eco wool fabric and had a recycled timber coffee table made to create a focal point in the room, and had custom rugs made for the hallways and living. This was a very happy project, with plenty of input from parents and kids - lots of playing with tiles, fabric and paint samples over cups of tea, and taking all the potential of an already lovely home and pulling it all together.
Here is what our happy clients said: "Megan's approach was incredibly sensible, thoughtful, creative and tuned in to the everyday bustle of a family home."

All photographs by Emma Byrnes.

clifton hill cabinet party

Just before Christmas last year, we finished this modest living/dining-room cabinetry fit-out in a Clifton Hill townhouse. The brief was for a cabinet design to fulfil everyone's needs in this creative family - part DJ console; part TV alcove; part book and art object display; part play-nook for the children. We designed this wrap-around unit, complete with a floating turntable platform on sound absorption pads to stop the speaker jumping and it was beautifully made with care in Victorian ash hardwood and veneer by Auld designs. The brick home, designed in the 1980s, had some period style additions that were not true to it's late modernist design so they were stripped back and the simple quality of exposed brick and long garden views maximised. 

One of the highlights of this project was the new baby girl born into the family on the day their cabinetry was installed! A very productive time for all involved, and we felt very pleased that the family could come home to their new space and settle in for the summer. These types of jobs are why we love residential work at Brave New Eco. The owners are looking forward to hosting some fun parties in this space - just as soon as they get some sleep!

All photographs by Emma Byrnes

yin and yang wet rooms

The owners of this lovely, modest Yarraville home were tripping over the washing baskets (and each other) in a dim, dysfunctional laundry and old bathroom. Their bulk household supplies were stacked on shelving in front of windows in the laundry, making it feel dark and crowded. They came to Brave New Eco wanting to harness the best layout from the two spaces, whilst allowing for a second shower and toilet.
To provide this solution, two L-shaped spaces were created, locking together in a yin and yang fashion. In the the bathroom a luxuriously large shower nook and wide custom made timber vanity unit ensure that, what is essentially a small room, is easy for more than one person to use at a time. Meanwhile the laundry and extra ensuite were created in the other space, side-tucked neatly into the corner of the complimentary "L", with a shared laboratory-style basin. 

Beautiful custom-designed mirrors, a vanity cabinet and towel racks were made by Auld Design combined with some warm details such as locally-made turned timber lights and cabinet handles. The wet areas are now functional, light and lovely. 

And how do the owners feel about their new bathroom/laundry solution?

"I love the way you designed the new layout so that there is maximum useful space and lots of light. The combination of timber and grey and white tiles is very peaceful and beautiful and the custom design of the vanity and mirror is spot on. It has lots of nooks and storage. We also love the quirky light fittings. The space is much more functional now, and the surfaces and textures are perfectly suited to their uses like the laundry bench and the smooth floor tiles. I just like to go in and gaze at how beautiful it all is!"- Lucy, Yarraville. 

Despite having added an ensuite into the space it seems larger overall, with plenty of full height storage in the laundry for linen and bulk supplies. 

All photographs by Emma Byrnes

oh' rosanna!

Here is a little project we worked on this year in the lovely Melbourne suburb of Rosanna that is full of large post-war brick houses on elevated blocks with established trees. It is the home of a keen gardener and every room looks out onto beautifully maintained native and productive gardens. The house has modestly proportioned rooms in a great existing layout that flows from one room to another. Sadly, the 1970's bright yellow laminate kitchen was beyond repair and and the owner was keen to replace it with both the uber-functionality and clean lines of a Cantilever designed kitchen, but combined with some handcrafted and vintage touches in keeping with the rest of the home.

A local 'wood genius' and friend of the owner, known as Chubb, sourced recycled spotted gum and lovingly turned it into a large island bench at one end of Cantilever's kitchen. At the other end a wall dividing the kitchen and dining was opened up and spotted gum shelves, also made by Chubb, were suspended from copper pipe rods found in the attic space. Hand-turned handles were fashioned from the left over timber offcuts.

Compact and highly efficient appliances were selected including an induction cooktop. Stainless steel tap-ware was chosen for the kitchen and laundry to avoid using chrome.  Japanese tiles that echoed the original stonework around the fireplace in the living room were selected. Vintage mid century lighting was sourced from Australia and Europe to add a touch of the owner's personality and the homes inherent style.  The result is highly cohesive, earthy and inviting low-maintenance spaces in a very enjoyable collaborative project.

All photographs by Emma Byrnes

the tiny kitchen with a big heart

This is one of those projects I affectionately call a 'LOVE' job.
The inspiring clients - live at The Plummery in Northcote, an impressively productive 280sqm urban block. They are the type of home-owners I respect as they have finished all of the "less-glamourous-but-sensible-jobs" first - adding solar panels; setting up a nectre wood heater; installing home-made double glazing (bubble wrap); and building a wonderful sun-trap conservatory out of reclaimed materials that shelters seedlings, warms the house and even grows tropical fruit! They have also spent many years developing every square inch of The Plummery permaculture garden hence creating an abundance of produce in a self-sustaining nutrient cycle. This cycle includes composting waste; nourishing soils and organic matter; and growing fruits and vegetables from which seeds are then saved for planting the following year. At certain times of each season there will be a glut of produce - with kilos of feijoas, blackberries, grapes, persimmons and plums passing through their tiny lean-to kitchen to be preserved, fermented, dried, bottled and baked.
After years of using this old dysfunctional kitchen Kat and Nik were ready to create a purpose-built kitchen to do all the busy work. In an agreement with Brave New Eco that was part barter-exchange (I've had all my seedlings hand-raised at The Plummery for the past year) we set about designing the ultimate hard-working tiny kitchen in the same six square metre space as the original kitchen but replaced it with high-quality efficient appliances, no hard-to-clean surfaces or fiddly deep cupboards, and with everything they need within arms reach.

"The kitchen is the heart of our permaculture system. We grow most of our fresh produce and make meals from scratch and so the kitchen needed to be able to handle heavy use and lots of dishes! It has a tiny footprint of only a few square metres so we needed bench space and storage solutions. Using local, recycled and sustainable materials was paramount for ethical reasons, but we also wanted a bit of a modern twist. Looking back there are certainly conflicts in our brief - recycled and rustic yet modern, tiny floor plan but with lots of space, heavy duty but with a light footprint - but Megan has somehow delivered on each one of them", says Kat.

For all of the utilitarian function desired by the owners we wanted to steer clear of a cold and minimalist outcome in a home that truly embodies "cosy". To avoid this from happening Brave New Eco merged industrial functionality with an organic, homemade charm. One side of the kitchen became the utility bench with all of the appliances required to make a small kitchen hum. An induction cooktop; a built-in oven; an efficient 450mm wide dishwasher and a tiny 1.25m sink were included under a stainless bench-top making a seamless junction between wet and hot areas that is less likely to get damaged and easy to clean. Terrazzo floor tiles give the splashback a lovely natural stone palette and minimal grout reduces the amount of cleaning needed. In collaboration with the owners we designed a reclaimed Blackbutt drying/shelving plate rack that was made by a local craftsperson, Sam Joddie. It was thoughtfully designed for plates and cups to drip over the sink area.  Kat had the idea to line the shelf trays with the cut-outs of recycled plastic bread crates- this solution worked an absolute treat.

A floating shelf over the island bench houses anything fermenting, soaking, rising, drying or otherwise needing passive observation without cluttering the workbench. This shelf had to be such a height that one shorter and one very tall house-holder (read: Kat and Nik) could both reach it and see under it, so much detailed measuring ensued.  
Knowing the owners had many friends on country properties I set them with the task of finding a dry fallen branch of the right proportions to use as a semi-structural vertical element for the floating shelf unit. They soon returned with a beautiful Redbox branch not too curvy, not too straight. They whittled the bark off themselves to show the beautiful surface below and Sam incorporated the branch into the shelving thus completing our marriage of utilitarian and organic elements. 

"We especially love our dish draining rack which combines drying and storage to cut the chore of putting away dishes. The overhead shelf to store our ferments, cultures and produce which is out of the way but visible so we can keep an eye on what needs to be used up is also fantastic and so beautiful that it has become a real feature in our living room" observes Kat.

The walls were painted in Murobond paints and energy-efficient LED strip lighting is recessed under the open shelving. Kat hand-felted the 'wolf back' pendant light using natural wool.
"We always spent a lot of time in the kitchen but now we relish that time. Jobs like cooking, cleaning, washing up and preserving produce have become so much easier and more enjoyable. So the irony is that we now need to spend less time in the kitchen but we're wanting to spend more time in there", says Kat.

All photographs by Emma Byrnes

westgarth house renovation

In Melbourne's inner-city Westgarth area, this grand old home is the definition of good bones with it's lofty ceilings, multiple bay windows and impressively wide proportions. Despite this, a previous renovation had created a kitchen and laundry that felt pokey, dysfunctional and was falling apart faster than the original home! And like many older homes - especially those with high ceilings, old windows and gappy floorboards - it was proving costly and inefficient to run.
Brave New Eco was engaged to design an interior renovation that would provide a better quality kitchen, family bathroom and laundry; feature generous storage throughout; and make energy efficient retrofit changes. Most importantly, the result needed to sit with the original features and be of the quality that a beautiful family home like this deserves. 

The kitchen cabinets were created with a mix of EO (zero emission) - rated laminate, hoop pine plywood and recycled Australian hardwoods. All of the timbers and plywoods were oiled using natural oils and tints.  Custom fabricated slim-line brass handles were created for all of the cabinets.

New locally-made brass and ceramic pendant lighting and high efficiency LED lighting were installed throughout. The entire interior was painted in low VOC paints and all timber finishes are recycled and oiled in naturally based oils. A graphic colour palette was used to create cohesion between the original and newer parts of the home and to provide a good base for the family's colourful collection of artwork and curiosities. 

We maximised the available space for the kitchen and laundry by reconfiguring the rooms. We removed a dividing wall separating the rooms and replaced it with a space saving double-sided cabinetry unit, then flipped the kitchen and laundry to give the kitchen direct outdoor access and installed a new glass door to allow more light in. The kitchen was opened up to the dining room, allowing better connection between the two spaces and a sightline from the dining to the garden.

Into the dining room went a new cosy window seat, with record storage underneath. Heavy backed 100% linen curtains throughout help keep the heat inside the house as the weather grows colder. Wall and ceiling insulation were added and efficient space heating was installed in the open-plan living area.

To reduce the waste involved in upgrading the kitchen, the old kitchen cabinets were re-purposed in another client's laundry fit-out. Appliances were re-used, and pull-out metal pantry shelves were re-used in the new cabinetry.
The kitchen is divided into two zones: the cooking and washing (wet/hot work) zone and the snacking/ drinking/ socialising zone where family members can make drinks and snacks without disturbing the person at the stove of sink. 

The long thin bathroom was reconfigured to create more circulation space and better functionality. A new shelf was added along the entire length of the bathroom to place useful things in easy reach. Handmade lighting, recycled timbers and vintage mirrors were chosen for their enduring details. 

And finally a few words about the project from our client, Rebecca Burdon:

"We wanted to transform our crafty old house into a much more comfortable and workable home. It is a Victorian house that had been renovated about 15 years ago by a builder/developer. The house had not been insulated and many shortcuts had been taken in the original renovation. Brave New Eco provided sustainable, practical, well designed solutions. (They have) excellent problem solving skills; great knowledge about options, suppliers and quality of different products; great relationships with tradesmen and great attention to detail and advice regarding finishes.
We're enjoying all aspects of our home more. It is far more comfortable to live in. Everything looks and works better. It's a pleasure just to be at home now."