When Haydn Green, director of Momentum Building Group, and his partner Lucinda McKimm went searching for a house to buy, they looked for homes with character and the option to renovate.
This brick house in Tootgarook, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, was humble but brimming with potential and a ‘happy’ feel.
‘I think when you are in the throes of going to countless open for inspections, you start to notice that some homes and blocks of land feel a bit sad, and you feel that as soon as you step inside, but this home just felt happy,’ says Lucinda. ‘We loved the original features, the timber ceilings, and the big fig tree out the back.’
The potential of the property was immediately obvious to the couple, especially the beautiful backyard, which at the time had no connection to the interiors. ‘The house literally had no relationship to it, with a brick wall running along the rear of the home and cutting off any potential views to the leafy yard,’ explains Lucinda.
The couple approach their friend, architect Victoria Merrett of Pleysier Perkins, for a design solution that would extend the home and connect it better to the garden, whilst celebrating its existing mid century character.
‘Overly modern renovations on mid-century, ‘70s, and ‘80s beach shacks make me a little sad, so the main thing was to keep a retro feel throughout through the use of plenty of timber, textured tiles and mostly second hand furniture,’ says Lucinda.
Overall, Lucinda, Haydn and Victoria have converted what was a ‘gorgeous, but bizarrely oriented’ three-bedroom, and one-bathroom ‘70s brick home into a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home with plenty of character, that embraces its sunny backyard.
‘What we wanted was a cute, no-fuss beach house that we could build on a budget, and that’s exactly what Victoria and Pleysier Perkins designed for us’ says Lucinda. Most importantly, though, the home’s original character and charm has been preserved. ‘For me, the home has maintained it’s shack-like quality’ Lucinda muses. ‘We didn’t lose that feeling, and I think as a result, the space feels easy, light, and happy.’
