NORTHCOTE RAMBLER

This grand old dame is an original Victorian mansion farm house that, once upon a time, sat on ten acres of Northcote farmland stretching down the hill to the Merri creek. Now she resides on a built up Northcote street and is the beautiful quirky home of a creative family - full of nooks and crannies, stairwells, attics, light-wells, alcoves and beautiful art and objects.  

The clients engaged Brave New Eco to help them create a Kitchen-to-Garden design, including a productive permaculture garden, as they wanted to feel more connected to their outdoors spaces. The Victorian design faced inwards on itself and lacked connection to the outdoors. Landscaping is underway and in the meantime the kitchen refurbishment has been completed. 

The country-style kitchen with a beautiful original cream AGA stove and big central table was charming and is the centre of the family life. Unfortunately the tired early 80's 'country style' kitchen had become totally dysfunctional for a family whose kitchen activities include sprouting, baking, socialising and working.
The family wanted "...to keep the essence of our country style kitchen but bring the look and functionality into the 21st century, to declutter and use space better, and to create more pantry space." They were keen not to just rip it all out and start again, but wanted to retain the overall atmosphere and make it functional for the task of family life for another 30 years. The home is full of diverse influences and the family's love of Japanese ceramics and objects was used as in influence to create a unique kitchen design - warm, inviting and full of deep earthy tones all with splashes of bright colour. 

The kitchen cabinetry was falling apart in places, cluttered and non- intuitive. A lack of pantry space meant food items were stacking up on every shelf and surface plus the old oven and range-hood were not keeping up with this family's' cooking habits.
However the existing cabinets and open shelving were good quality - made from Australian hardwood. So rather than throwing them away completely we decided to rejuvenate the shelving and cabinets. We removed and repainted the lower cabinets with a hand brushed Porters paint, allowing the texture of the woodgrain to show through. We removed fussy cornicing details and added Japanese-style slatted timber doors to create more pantry storage out of sight to the timber box shelving. We kept the old AGA as the centrepiece of the kitchen and added a new in-built steel steam oven and Smeg cooktop.  A new rangehood was concealed in a cabinet and new hardwood shelves run the length of the bench. We re-made the water-damaged cabinetry around the sink - adding waste-sorting systems, a recessed compost bin and integrating the dishwasher. A new pantry was added housing a bright grass green interior and handmade timber door-mounted shelves.  

An antique Japanese tea chest was found in which to keep stationary and all those bits and bobs. We upgraded all the lighting adding LED spot and strip lights and chose hand-glazed tiles, beautiful utilitarian aged brass tapware, and a big ceramic butlers sink. The result is a truly beautiful kitchen, that is integrated well in the style of the older building, but filled with the owners personalities and interests.  We have retained everything that was wonderful about the original kitchen, solved elements that were not working and added some more stories to the long narrative of the beautiful home. 

"We chose to work with Megan because of (her) aesthetic and principles around sustainability and resourcefulness. We wanted to keep the bones of our kitchen & use what we had but refresh and update the space. Megan was committed to using most things that still had life in them and did not pressure us to buy all new things. I like Megan's style of communication, she has a genuine interest in how we want to live, she listens and is persistent about finding solutions or products that suit the client" Ali - owner.

Photographs by Emma Byrnes.

peacock st project

This gorgeous home was completed at the end of 2015 and we have finally found the time to take some pictures.
The lovely young family who live here wanted to upgrade the efficiency of their Californian bungalow and create better spaces for family life. Central to our design approach is a philosophy that believes a home should be an authentic expression of it's inhabitants' values. We were guided by the clients' tastes and preference for classic early to mid 20th century style and design. The clients were trusting in our interpretation of this and a rich palette of burnt oranges, deep teal blues and soft greens was used.
The original house was poky, dark, lacked any visual connection to the garden and as avid gardeners, the clients were keen to open the home to the productive vegie gardens and northern sunlight.  The home had many wonderful, pre-existing art deco-style features however previous renovations had added poorly configured small rooms onto the back; resulting in a house that lacked natural light, felt closed in, and cost a fortune to heat in the winter. We sought to remove the sense of being enclosed by opening the whole house up internally through the centre. This was achieved by turning a small dark bedroom into a centralised study/play area that leads on to a new kitchen and dining. In collaboration with Geometrica building design we revised the layout and added a tiny 32m2 extension into which a new kitchen, walk-in pantry, bathroom, laundry and dining-room went. This area was opened up to a large outdoor deck and pergola to the north and made to feel wider and more expansive than it really was with a high pitched ceiling and a deep window seat running along the north side of the room.

We softened potential bottle necks in the kitchen by using a curved floating bench clad in recycled hardwood. The kitchen joinery was custom made out of recycled messmate timbers, EO laminate and oiled in natural oils. In contrast to the labyrinth of rooms one previously had to walk through to get outside, we sought to place the outdoor spaces as the focus, so that the building and the garden are mutually beneficial to one another. Taking a holistic view of the living envrionment, landscaping was resolved concurrently with the building design and interiors, and we used the renovation as an opportunity to resolve garden storage and neighbouring over-looking issues. In an Brave new eco home- any established tree is considered an asset and we configured the interior layout so that the huge mature gum tree deep in the back yard is visible as soon as the front door is opened. The kitchen is visible from nearly everywhere in the house so we hid the work spaces behind an island bench return. A cold-store walk in pantry large enough for a workbench and the fridge to go in was designed and in order to keep this room cool, a long ventilation pipe was run through the length of the slab and opened to the cool under-house air (air drawn in is cooled by the slab). A sliding door shuts this area off from the rest of the kitchen when it is not in use and keeps the busy mess out of sight. We refurbished vintage copper pendant lights for the kitchen and handmade Manuka honey-coloured tiles add a touch of warmth.

A new living room was created and a gas space heater installed to zone the heating into the highly insulated extension. Recycled deco double doors were used in the lounge room so it could be closed off when watching TV and a new sliding door with beautiful fluted glass was used to separate the extension from the original house (that includes the bedrooms and primary bathroom.)

The main original house was separated from the extension for the purpose of space heating. The main bathroom was also renovated, made larger by extending into the hall space. We recycled the existing bathtub and chose a soft pewter finish for the tap-ware to avoid the use of chrome. Hand made fish-scale tiles were chosen for over the bath and an art deco drinks trolley was repurposed as a bathroom vanity. 

As often happens on our larger renovations we establish a long standing relationship with the client and are therefore still adding furnishings to this project over time and as they are ready. We have recovered vintage chairs and had linen curtains, lamps and cushions made with custom printed fabrics from Ink and Spindle. Driven by the concept of finding items that the clients connect to on a personal level - we have sourced a second-hand Jardan couch, a vintage blackbean sideboard and artwork from various Australian artists. It gives us such pleasure to see our clients feel a sense of belonging in; being expressed by; and feeling connected to the story of creating their home. 

Photographs by Emma Byrnes.

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.

renovate, retrofit, re-imagine: a permaculture approach to a suburban home renovation

Recently I have revisited the process I went through when we renovated our own home, in an article written for Australian permaculture magazine Pip - the Design issue. 
Eight years ago we bought a dilapidated 1940’s Californian bungalow in Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs. It was in a semi-derelict state and had a heritage overlay, flood level restrictions and a long narrow bloc. However the site was extremely special as it backed onto the Merri creek wildlife corridor. The real value for us was not in the bricks and mortar but in the proximity of the majestic, mature gum trees, running water and the deep buffer of native vegetation on either side of the creek, creating a peaceful sanctuary in an urban environment. We began the process of retrofitting and renovating the home by thinking of it as part of a permaculture system that would integrate the built, interior and biological environments and in turn create an urban existence for our family that allowed us to connect to nature and our local community on a daily basis. There are some key ways of thinking about design from a permaculture perspective based on the ethics and principles as defined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren - and below I have outlined how I applied some of these principles in our process. 

OBSERVATION: As we designed the renovation it was important to observe the building over a full seasonal year by spending time on the site and noticing the patterns of the elements - sun, water, wind - in order to harness them for use in our home. 

CAPTURING ENERGY: All buildings have some potential for passive function that can be realised. In order to make the 1940’s weatherboard home thermally efficient we took the whole building apart piece-by-piece and back to its structural frames. We then wrapped it in insulation and put it all back together again, sealing every little gap as we went. The process has a sense of the loving act of mending the holes in your favourite coat. The extension was built on a suspended concrete slab that allowed us to introduce a thermal mass capacity into the home. We located new windows to open up the home to the winter sun, shade ourselves from the summer heat and to capture cooling breezes. We re-oriented the room layout so that all living areas faced north, flooding the spaces with natural light and allowing the winter sun to reach its long fingers inside. 

PATTERNS OF USE: By reconfiguring the layout of the existing home and extending it, we resolved the spatial design around patterns of use. This design solution creates healthy and resourceful living so that the home functions with the ‘path of least resistance’. Our common utility areas butt up against the social areas so that no one feels like they are in purgatory while doing washing in the laundry. When it’s raining, we can walk barefoot in the house under a clear roof off the deck to hang washing outside. Living in the new home our daily tasks and rituals are now performed in an ergonomic, logical and enjoyable fashion. The best ‘storage vessel’ for the heat and energy of the sun is the human body. Ideally we can wake up to the sun, eat breakfast with it streaming through the window and then relax at the end of the day while watching it set.

RESOURCEFULNESS: During the construction process, we sought to produce the minimum amount of waste possible by first looking at what we had around us, and making the most of existing and discarded materials. Demolished materials such as cabinetry and architectural features were collected and stored for reuse, resold, or collected for further recycling. We repaired or partially replaced what we could - salvaging undamaged weatherboards; collecting the old hardwood skirtings and architraves; and sourcing additional salvaged timbers, doors, and fixtures. We consistently placed value on the marginal - the little details and elements of a design that brought character and resourcefulness to our family home. Every cupboard handle, every window winder, every material junction is where you have the opportunity for the greatest change.

salvaged brass door handles and timber doors were used

TIME: The design process requires great consideration, testing and evolution over time. For every week we spent in design consideration the project continued to improve. This also allowed for a nuanced design solution in direct response to our community relationships and collaborations. Clear and honest communication between the whole team was so important to ensure we shared our vision and considered everyone’s concerns. This slow and evolving approach to design reprioritises the experience and connection between people over the goal of a rushed completion date. Our home has been allowed to beautifully ‘cure’ over time, retaining the potential for future adaptations . By using materials that are only fully realized when their natural patinas show up over time, it is then that our home starts to come alive. In our house, I try to choose special pieces that are worth keeping, appreciating the skill and materiality of highly-crafted objects that ultimately create heirlooms.

Secondhand light fitting and furnishings have been used throughout

BREVITY: I had to curb my enthusiasm for collecting stuff and taking up more space. Our cupboards were intentionally designed not to be too deep in order to avoid things disappearing into the dark zone of being too far away. We created one large central space that opened up to the same amount of outdoor decking. It has become a home where we can welcome our extended community, it can be used as a shared resource and has allowed us to host community groups and events. We also welcome help-exchangers and the neighbourhood children at spontaneous hours of the day. Our bedrooms and utility rooms are modestly sized and shaped for their intended use. Bathrooms and the laundry are long and thin to maximise wall space, access to light and minimise unnecessary circulation space. High loft beds in the kids bedrooms create more floor space for them to play. The hallway was made just wide enough to run a desk along its length and create an office area without dedicating a room to that purpose. The roof space has been lined and fitted out with pull down ladders to store seasonal gear. We also have cupboards that run to the ceilings above normal head height so desks and beds can fit underneath. These design outcomes maximize the use of our precious vertical space.

LIVING ON THE EDGE: Typically, the edges in nature contain the most dense diversity and activity and this includes human inhabited spaces. We paid special attention to articulating the spaces on the edge, from the outside to in, from public to private, from down to up. These transition spaces are where people interact the most with one another, and blurring these boundaries can create opportunities for dynamic relationships and communication. We removed any high fences from the front yard so we could talk to our neighbours and passers-by on the street whilst working in the garden. We created a small door in the back garden fence so that the younger children next door could come and go without needing to be walked along the street. Our delight never ceases when our littlest and most curious neighbours pop up in our garden and kitchen. We created a pergola structure to reach the boundary. It provides both summer shade to the north-facing windows but also houses a vertical recycled hardwood screen, creating some privacy and a vertical surface to grow grapes, berries and honeysuckles. Between the backyard and the creek we took down the tall paling fence and replaced it with a low open wire fence. This allows us to observe the creek beds' native vegetation and wildlife. Another two houses in the area have since followed suit, and now our chickens forage periodically on the creek-side saving us cutting back grasses and weeds and providing them (and us) an abundant source of food.

STACKING FUNCTION: We sought to integrate diverse design problems into one solution, maximising the use of the available space. We created play-nooks under the loft and in the fireplace alcoves (these will later become study nooks and book shelves when the kids get older). We use the laundry as an indoor drying room as well as a bulk-goods store. We have located our solar hot water tank inside an otherwise useless space at the top of the stairs so we can dry wet boots, make yogurt and maybe even hatch eggs in the warm cupboard. 

INTEGRATION: I sought out ‘responsive’ materials, finishes and furnishings, by selecting items with a tangible context that relate to the region or have a historical or emotional relationship to us. This enabled me to explore an authentic regional and personal design vernacular. Our home is lovingly filled with hand-me-downs from our family and objects that we have collected, made, salvaged, and found over the years. This means our home does not have a particular look, but is more an accidental collection of personally significant things, gently curated into a pleasing combination of usefulness and decoration.  

A YEILD:  Our home has produced outcomes far beyond aesthetic and economic results. We have fresh healthy food, happy children, meaningful friendships and connection with our community. There isn’t a person that worked on this house that didn’t speak warmly of their experience, despite having to carry everything in down steep muddy paths. We would sometimes stop work to gently relocate wildlife that kept moving into the building site, such as the little ring-tail possum found asleep in the middle of a cloud of bulky insulation one morning. The peripheral yields have been the learning received from and between everyone involved in the project, the guests we have hosted in our home and through the open days and tours I have run. Our home design has fundamentally changed the way we all live and contribute to the community. We thankfully get to live, work and go to school all within walking distance. We are very privileged to live here and to have access to abundant nature within the cultural amenities of the urban life. We experience diverse wildlife daily; we are visited by kookaburras, blue tongue lizards, tawny-frogmouths and the odd tiger snake.
This home has reiterated the importance of urban wild life corridors and shared productive space. We have an opportunity to re-design our suburbs in a context of neighbourhood scale resilience and autonomy, creating homes and landscapes that contribute to this end.

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

sweet dreams are made of this

If you consider the total amount of hours we spend in various parts of the home, bedrooms are by far our most frequently inhabited spaces. Good bedroom design contributes to our psychological and physical health and wellbeing, and with careful planning need not be difficult or expensive to achieve.
The first question to ask is what is a bedroom for? Bedrooms can be spaces for rest, work, storage and play. For all of their potential uses bedrooms needn’t be very large.

East facing windows are ideal in a bedroom.  Morning sun, and having a view out a window from the bed are good for the spirit. Locating the bed so you are not looking out the doorway or out windows into the street will increase the sense of privacy.

The location of bedrooms is crucial, upstairs can be beneficial in cool climates as the interior heat will collect on the upper floor. In warmer climates placing bedrooms to the south and near thermal mass will help keep them cool. Good bedding can solve most heating problems. Radiant heat can be absorbed and stored by the human body so taking a hot water bottle or another human being to bed is a good old fashioned and highly-effective way to stay warm.

Sealing up wall vents, fireplaces and other gaps will reduce both winter draughts and summer heat. Windows that can be locked securely and that open at night, will help to passively ventilate the bedroom and improve indoor air quality. Insect screens are useful to keep mosquitoes at bay. A ceiling-fan will circulate air reducing the need for air-conditioning.

North or west facing windows will benefit from exterior shading in summer to keep a bedroom cool. Adjustable exterior blinds or deciduous plantings allow a high degree of adaptability to provide shade as needed. Thermally-effective window treatments are especially important in bedrooms. Heavy lined curtains that have pelmets and run to the floor will effectively trap a pocket of warm air inside. If curtain are impractical or the heaters are under the window then recess mounted honeycomb blinds or face fixed heavy backed roman blinds are the best option. Roman blinds use less material than curtains so can be a good opportunity to using organic and or locally printed fabrics.

Preserve limited floor space by running storage cupboards above head height. The alcove underneath can be used to tuck a bed or desk into. Capitalize on high ceilings by creating a sleeping loft, utilising the space under to fit a wardrobe, desk or another bed. Wardrobes are a cost-intensive part of a renovation, so rather than using mass produced storage solutions, look for creative ways to reuse second-hand cabinets, or hide shelves and racks behind a lightweight ceiling mounted curtain.

Keeping furnishings simple will reduce dust build up, that can contribute to allergies, respiratory problems and asthma. Rugs rather than carpet are useful for warmth and softness underfoot, as they can be aired and cleaned regularly. Painted surfaces and composite timber products off-gas volatile organic compounds into the indoor environment so choose VOC free paints and oils for your bedroom walls and furniture, and EO rated timbers for your cabinetry.

Leave new upholstery or furniture outside to off-gas for a few days, to get rid of the ‘factory fresh’ smell.  Slatted bed bases provide good ventilation around the mattress reducing the occurrence of mould and dust mites. Mattresses are commonly constructed and treated with chemicals in the fabrics and foams containing volatile organic compounds such as antibacterial agents, flame-retardants, PVC’s, bleaches, pesticides and dyes. These chemicals can contribute to allergies, respiratory problems, chemical sensitivities and asthma. Mattresses made of plant-based materials such as organic wool, cotton, hemp, natural latex and bamboo are a safer option. Bamboo and latex are naturally hypoallergenic and dust-mite resistant. If you are replacing a mattress divert it from landfill by sending it for recycling.

Ideally use natural fibre bed linens and covers made from organic and ethically produced sources of bamboo, linen, silk or cotton. Wash and line dry new bedding before using it to get rid of any chemical residue from production, or buy second hand sheets and blankets. Try dying old bedding and blankets to give them a new lease of life.

Keep digital clock radios and phone chargers away from where you are sleeping and avoid positioning a bed on the opposite side of a wall to a smart meter, refrigerator or other appliance, as these will emit electro magnetic fields most strongly within 1-2 meters.

Poorly designed and furnished bedrooms can make us sick while we sleep. By applying a few simple design and retrofitting ideas and carefully selecting the materials that we bring inside a bedroom area, we can create a space that is not just somewhere to sleep, but a place to retreat for relaxation and rejuvenation.

This article content was originally published in Sanctuary magazine.

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