Built as a sister to our Rymill Street One project, this generous family home is complementary but distinctly different from its sibling next door. Tied together by shared materials and colours, the forms and the second storey setback of the party wall reinforce the individuality of each home.

This home has been designed for a growing young family that required all bedrooms to be upstairs, with the family wanting good connections between the kids’ rooms, wide passageways and lots of storage. A private master suite uses its spacious walk-in-robe and ensuite to maintain a separation in plan but not level.

Passive design elements are a key to the home’s liveability and were fully embraced by the client. Natural light and airflow were particularly important in the brief, with each bedroom receiving its own Velux skylight and louvre windows.

Environmental sustainability

Like all Finesse Built homes passive design elements play an important part of day-to-day comfort.

Cross-flow ventilation using automated skylights and louvre windows increases airflow throughout the changing beachside seasons, with the raked ceiling and highlight windows in the ground floor living area allowing winter sun well into the home’s open plan living area.

Highly insulated double-stud walls act as thermal breaks, slowing the travel of heat from one side to the other, further supported by double glazed windows on the upper level.

Rainwater collection has been maximised with the home’s foundation designed to allow a 3.6m deep hole to be dug in the compact front yard for an underground 22,000 litre rainwater tank which services irrigation, the auto pool filler, and all 3 toilets in the home.

Simple low-maintenance but fresh landscaping uses light and bright hard-wearing materials coupled with colourful plantings of sculptural and interesting plants.

The full-height entrance door opens into an oversized corridor where two small but strategic skylights mean the entry and corridor are never dark. Open stair risers allow access to light and the view all the way to the back of the home, drawing the eye, and acting as subtle wayfinding.

A bench seat nook provides a practical space to put on or take off shoes, or to drop shopping bags when your arms need a rest.

The fully cantilevered stairs feel more like a piece of furniture than an imposing structural element. They incorporate the white of the surrounding walls and ceiling to elevate the timber through contrast, with a simple balustrade floating up the white wall to lead the way.

The first flight before the landing uses a cantilevered glass panel to keep the line of sight and access to light, and the timber balustrade and vaulted skylights further increase the volume of the area.

A sense of space in the landing upstairs was just as important to the family who wanted private living space, and all bedrooms coming off a central family friendly landing.

Timber endcaps at the end of each step hide the glass fixings and add a subtle design detail, as does the timber returns on the slats at their ceiling as they delineate the scale of the stairwell.

The kitchen expands the materials palette with some statement finishes for statement pieces like the island and the almost reverse tile splashback taking the traditional place of overhead cupboards. Exhaust flues clad in the same tiles add a sculptural element, bringing interesting shadows to what could otherwise have been too big an area of colour.

The simpler surrounding materials allow the stone of the island bench to take centre stage, with a heavy white edge below that highlights the cut-through of the veins in the stone, while balancing the heavier features of the island’s curve detail.

The butler’s pantry is designed to intuitively invite further exploration. Continuing the full width behind the main kitchen you will never be short on space, whether it’s for sinks, cupboards, or fridge freezers. Here too, the skylights bring in extra light.

Pantry cabinets use a protruding solid timber edge to frame the door fronts. While the cabinets of the main kitchen and island are white and simple, purposefully blending into the building form to let the island top and overhead tiles shine.

The open plan living and dining space is efficient in plan, offering many pathways and views to the pool and backyard, and to quickly access all the main areas of this large home.

The off-form concrete plinth and its recessed hearth in the floor offer a minimalist and practical home for the feature fireplace or impromptu seating for large get-togethers.

The ceiling in the living and dining area lifts to the north to allow more light and important warming solar gains in winter.

The house and pool footing have been integrated so that the water is ‘just there’ when sitting at the dining table.

The three-panel natural timber stacking sliding doors span the full width of the back of the home. When open, they give maximum access to the backyard and alfresco dining area, with the remaining door stack acting as one side of the pool enclosure.

The outdoor area showcases how the combination of natural timbers and stone with steelwork are used to soften this family home.

Referring to the custom-built charcoal BBQ area as ‘just a BBQ’ is an understatement. It represents a lifestyle choice, centred around how you spend time. Designed for big family cook-ups and entertaining long weekends with friends where you must decide between whatever is the next amazing dish to land on the table, or the increasingly frustrating ’20 minute’ swimming rule.

The direction of the operable louvres in the alfresco dining area has been designed to give perfect control over the amount of sun coming into the back of the home across the seasons. Rain won’t ruin any outdoor get-togethers here as the press of a button closes the roof so the party can continue.

The open pergola over the pool maintains a clean line across the back of the structures and is carefully detailed and specified to deal with the high-splash environment of the pool. It also offers future shade sail opportunities, or even a climbing-plant for the particularly keen pool cleaner.

The pool is the full-stop on the end of the corridor, drawing you into the main living areas at the back of the home. With our clients wanting as large a pool as possible we maximised its length by engineering it with the home’s foundation.

This allows the pool tiles to continue up and under the drip edge of the sliding doors and required the meticulous design detailing and construction that Finesse Built are known for.

Careful positioning of the supporting posts in the pergola gives neat options for the minimalist pool fence to land on and hang the pool gate from.

Luxury bathrooms are unified with a rich material palette and interesting patterns and shapes. Industrial bronze tapware gives a rawness to the design aesthetic while rich timbers, some with a woven detail, round mirrors, and stone tiles soften it. Wall-hung vanity units, large format floor tiles, and walk-in single panel glass showers make cleaning a breeze.