Staniland House

Malvern

A grand Victorian in Malvern, heritage to its bones — and every one of those bones worth keeping. Soaring ceilings, ornate roses and cornices, marble fireplaces, leadlight windows: a house with nothing to prove and everything to preserve. What it needed was not reinvention but renewal.

The new kitchen in full — grey-washed timber cabinetry, sage stone benchtops, aged brass hardware and the curved fluted-tile rangehood — Fig I.The new kitchen — grey-washed timber, sage tiles, dark concrete benchtops, aged brass hardware

Black steel-framed glass doors at the end of the hallway, opening to the garden — Fig II.Black steel to the garden, at the end of the hall

Close detail of the curved rangehood — pale fluted tile following the curve — Fig III.The rangehood — custom built to accommodate the tile

The work

Nothing structural moved. Everything else was renewed.

So we took it back to those bones. Over a year, with the family moved out and the house entirely ours, every surface was stripped and remade — new kitchen, new bathrooms, new flooring throughout, custom joinery built into every room, a new three-way fireplace, new heating and cooling. The grand old rooms kept their proportions, restored original plasterwork, and gained a quiet, contemporary calm.

The palette

Cool by request. Warmed by design.

The brief called for cool — greys and whites, calm and consistent, a world away from warmer tones. We honoured it, and then coaxed it warmer wherever we could: soft greens and blues threaded through the scheme in sage stone, honed pale tile and natural linen, grey-washed timber joinery, aged brass to catch the light. A considered, restful palette carried across the whole home — the clients’ desire, listened to closely, and drawn a few degrees warmer by a designer’s hand.

The Staniland material palette — sage stone, natural linens, wool carpet, aged brass and pale fluted tile, laid out together — Fig IV.The palette — sage stone, linen, wool, brass and handmade organic sage tiles

Palette detail — cool greens and greys in stone, linen and tile with aged brass — Fig V.Cool greens and greys, warmed by brass

Palette detail — layered linens and wool against sage stone and patterned fabric — Fig VI.Layers of linen and wool against the stone

The green rooms

Stone with a past life.

The scheme finds its deepest note in the bathrooms. The bath and vanities are Apaiser — each piece handcrafted from apaiserMarble®, reclaimed marble enriched with minerals drawn from the soils of the Barossa. Stone with a history and an Australian accent, cast in soft green: a sculpted bath beneath the ensuite window with a double vanity to match, and in the powder room the same green returned as a single basin. The greens we threaded through the house, at their most committed.

The ensuite — a green Apaiser stone bath beneath the window, double apaiserMarble vanity beyond — Fig VII.The ensuite — an Apaiser bath in ‘Saltbush’

The powder room — a green Apaiser stone basin on timber joinery — Fig VIII.The powder room — the same Apaiser ‘Saltbush’, made small

The lounge

Where the old house and the new one shake hands.

The formal lounge holds the whole project in one room. Overhead, the original rose and cornices, restored; on the wall, the original mantel, kept. Beneath them, everything renewed — custom joinery in the same grey-washed timber as the kitchen, built for the television on one wall and folded into the bay as a window seat on the other, over restored original timber floors that run throughout the house.

The formal lounge — original ceiling rose and mantel restored, new grey-washed timber joinery and pale floors — Fig IX.The lounge — the original mantel, the new joinery

The bay window — a window seat built into new grey-washed timber joinery beneath the restored bay — Fig X.The bay, with a seat built into it

The garden

The scheme walks outside.

The renewal didn’t stop at the glass. The pool was remade in the language of the house — water the soft green of the stone inside, a dark-clad wall behind, timber underfoot — with a spa alongside and frameless glass keeping the whole garden in view. Restoring and repurposing existing structures wherever we can is our speciality.

The pool garden in full — timber deck and frameless glass fencing giving onto the pool and spa in soft green, lawn and dark timber boundary — Fig XI.The pool and spa, in the palette of the house

Before & after

The same rooms. Every surface, remade.

Not a wall moved in this house — a deliberate choice, out of reverence for rooms that were already right. The renewal happened surface by surface: floors, joinery, stone, tile, paint and plaster, one room at a time, until the whole home had quietly changed underfoot and overhead.

The original kitchen before the work — The kitchen, as it was

The new kitchen — grey-washed timber, sage stone and the curved fluted rangehood — The kitchen, renewed

The living area before the work — the wall where the new fireplace now sits — The living room, as it was

The new three-way fireplace — a black-framed firebox set into the wall between hall and living rooms — The new three-way fire, set into the wall

The original ensuite before the work — The ensuite, as it was

The new ensuite — green Apaiser stone bath and double vanity — The ensuite, renewed

The original powder room before the work — The powder room, as it was

The new powder room — green Apaiser stone basin on timber joinery — The powder room, renewed

The laundry before the work — a cramped white room with stacked machines — The laundry, as it was

The laundry renewed — grey-washed joinery, dark benchtop and a fluted tile splashback lit from beneath the overhead cabinets — The laundry, renewed — the fluted tile, lit from above

The formal lounge before the work — dark walls, the mantel and rose beneath — The lounge, as it was

The formal lounge renewed — restored rose and mantel, new grey-washed joinery — The lounge, renewed

The bay window before the work — the room in its previous life — The bay, as it was

The bay renewed — window seat joinery beneath the restored bay window — The bay, renewed

The rear living area before — timber bifold doors and fixed glazing to the garden — The back doors, as they were

The renewed rear — black steel-framed glass opening to the garden — The back doors, renewed in black steel

The garden and pool before the work — blue-tiled pool and worn paving — The garden, as it was

The garden renewed — timber deck, frameless glass and the pool in soft green — The garden, renewed

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