Sunny Side Up

There’s nothing like creating a cosy, peaceful feeling at the end of the day, so this house has been designed to perfectly catch, and control, the sun. In the open kitchen-living area, large glass doors and soaring gable windows let in the northwestern sunlight. Soft linen curtains create a welcoming glow, and earthy tones and warm finishes accentuate the balmy atmosphere. The cedar-clad ceilings wrap into a band around the tops of the walls to really accentuate the stud height and those gable windows.

Throughout the house, colours are rich and deep: toasty reds and terracottas and mossy forest greens, and dark marbles have an elemental feel. Timber features repeat throughout the house, including oak flooring and an oak screen on the stairwell especially designed to filter the sunlight. Food, family and entertaining is a way of life, so the kitchen is a hardy white steel, and the flow through the house and living areas incorporates easy connection to the decks.

With young children and plenty of extended family, outdoor living includes an eating and barbecuing area, an outdoor fire and a grassy courtyard. There’s a louvred roof, a pergola structure, and perforated metal screening for filtered light, shelter and privacy. A garden curves around to give a soft, organic edge and, for the youngest members of the family, there’s even a fairy garden.

The site is on a corner, in a busy family neighbourhood on the city fringe. Among a mixture of heritage homes and contemporary insertions, this house manages to reflect both. The modern gables continue the rhythm of houses along the street, and step down the sloped site at a scale that fits right in.