LIVING
The Living areas of this house were boxed in, dull and had no natural light. So it was paramount that the floorplan was changed to make it light, bright and modern, without losing the modern farmhouse feel. We opened up several internal walls in the lounge and kitchen area to create a U shaped living space which accommodated the kitchen, lounge, a new laundry/pantry and dining area with an office insert too. The dining and laundry area were converted in the 1990's by closing in the old wrap around verandah, so it had a step down onto a new slab, from the existing house floor level.
When engineering the floor plan and opening the spaces up, we needed to add support to the long span of ceiling, so working with Nick from Lonsdale Building Group and Ben from Frameworks Carpentry, we knocked walls through and added the required engineering to support the ceilings. This created an unsightly support column of construction timber and then an open step down to the lower level. Unable to match the baltic pine floor boards, Walt's idea was to dress the column and the step down with rustic, reclaimed old timber and make it look like an old farm support.
Due to budget and time restraints it was decided that the original floors would be kept as is, without sanding or re-staining them. Whilst not ideal, that's the cards dealt so we worked with that. It meant that something stunning had to be delivered in the living area to tie it all in. This was done by a french pattern Travertine paver floor, along the entire lower level step-down living area - including the laundry and pantry. The Oyster Grey Travertine Floor from National Tiles flows across the entire span and continues outside to the patio area to offer a tantilising inside/outside flow.
We also created a new chimney area, painted it Western Myall to match the kitchen, plus continued the Natural White paint throughout.
