Secret Garden
“We liked this idea of – in the middle of Darlinghust, in Sydney’s bustle heart – providing this place that would bring peace and quiet and calm to our client’s life”, architect Jennifer McMaster of TRIAS told Never Too Small. Taking inspiration from Japanese temples and hidden gardens, McMaster and her team transformed this small, dark, and run-down Sydney terrace house into a peaceful, refined retreat for a pair of creatives, Laura and Aman, and their pet cat and dog.
Built in the 1860s as workers’ accommodation, Laura and Aman’s 47sqm/506sqft terrace house was not at peak functionality, with a staircase severing the bottom floor and a large second-story deck that was a little too on-view amidst the neighbours’ homes. The first thing McMaster did to help fix this was relocate the stairs over to one side of the house – opening up the lower level while creating a niche to hide the laundry and some bulk storage at the same time. Access to the outdoors was moved to a small courtyard on the lower level, allowing enough space on the second story for it to be transformed into a private suite.
First Floor Flow
The effect of these changes is apparent from the moment you enter the front door, with a view of the courtyard drawing you into the space. A long, L-shaped bench conducts a natural feeling flow throughout the narrow space; the wood surface begins at the entry as a shelf for the living room, and continues into the dining area as a seat for the table before wrapping around to serve as a step into the raised kitchen. Victorian ash floorboards in the living and dining area bring some warmth to the space and complement the organic greens encased within the ornamental, Japanese inspired courtyard, which provides ventilation, natural light, and a feeling of spaciousness. “It’s somewhat counterintuitive”, noted McMaster, “but we often find that if you have less house and more garden, our homes end up feeling more spacious”
Bespoke Benefits
Personal touches abound throughout the space to give it a more relaxed and intimate feel. This is perhaps best illustrated in the transition from the stone step, made from a piece of the home’s original foundation, to the kitchen floor, composed entirely of terracotta tiles made by Laura herself. In fact, Laura, who is a ceramicist by trade, crafted much of the tiling found around the lower level, including the white glazed tiles in the courtyard that help bounce the light around. Other bespoke furnishings include the custom sofa, dining table, and daybed – all designed to be perfectly proportioned to their respective rooms.
Personal Places
Up the winding Victorian ash timber stairs, bathed in soft natural light from a small window, is an open-concept bedroom–bathroom suite. To one side is a serene and spacious bathroom lined with Japanese Sugie tiles, which McMaster actually retrieved as a wastage product from a favoured supplier. The room itself does not have a door and instead cleverly hides the privacy-demanding elements within it: the toilet, for example, is enclosed within a timber block, while the shower is tucked into a niche in the far corner of the room, beside a window opening onto a rooftop garden. One of our favourite features is the push-to-open medicine cabinet that appears like a part of the wall until it’s opened, where it reveals a hidden mirror and a good amount of storage. To the other side of the second story is the bedroom, where they stayed true to their “simplicity is key” mantra with an uncluttered layout of built-in storage units, a low lying bed frame, and beautiful wall-mounted bedside lights.
Hidden Garden House offers a thoughtful reimagining of a heritage space, illustrating the potential that lives all around us. “There’s a saying we like to paraphrase at Trias, which is that ‘the greenest building is the one that already exists.’” said McMaster. “When we’re working with existing homes, we have the opportunity to reimagine and reinvent them, we can keep the character of the places that already exist and it’s almost like we’re adding a new chapter in that building’s history.”
