Kensington Victorian terrace’s amazing lockdown transformation
A cute Victorian terrace in Kensington has come out of lockdown looking better than ever.
The single-fronted two-bedder at 242 Bellair Street is almost unrecognisable from its before shots full of confronting cracks, ragged carpets and mustard walls after weekends spent under stage four restrictions were used wisely to transform the pad into an inner suburban dream.
Ella Keddie and her partner Dean Tuckey had a productive 2020 turning the almost unliveable property into a stylish modern pad centred on entertaining over about five-and-a-half months.
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An update was in dire need.
Calming tones.
CoreLogic records show the property last sold for $865,000 in June 2019. It’s now for sale for $1-$1.1m with a February 6 auction date through Greg Hocking’s Simon Gowling.
Ms Keddie’s parents flipped houses as she grew up, and Mr Tuckey is a builder and construction manager at LVL Group, but it was the couple’s first project of their own.
“Dean and I wanted to buy something that we could add value to, and he’s really handy and very talented so it felt like kind of a waste to buy something finished, and we wanted to buy a single-fronted house close to the city,” Ms Keddie said.
“We looked at Richmond and a few other areas and couldn’t really afford it, but as soon as we saw this one it had everything: the beautiful bones of a nice house, a beautiful spot, nice street; it ticked all the boxes”.
Watch the pot boil from the bath.
Or don’t.
Skylights were added throughout the floorplan to brighten dark spaces.
And here we are.
The keen entertainers created the schmick pad for themselves, removing a dining room in favour of a larger kitchen with indoor-outdoor flow centred on good times with friends and family, and planned to stay longer but will move closer to family post-COVID.
“We built it how we would want to live, and think we’re very similar to the couple who will buy it: young professionals who don’t want to do a renovation, maybe have a baby and enjoy entertaining,” Ms Keddie said.
Now expecting their own first child, the couple drew on tradie friends of Mr Tuckey’s and Ms Keddie’s mother Lisa’s experience as an interior designer at InDesign Company as they felt their way “getting inspiration from Pinterest and what we’ve seen out and about”.
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Indoor-outdoor flow with a brand-new deck.
A very Insta-worthy bathroom.
The cracks were severe, but structure was sound.
The intimidating cracks seen in the before shots were in the plaster, so the bones of the house were “actually pretty good”, but they “ultimately rebuilt the whole house” as their vision evolved, including replacing the plaster, plumbing and electrical work, installing a slab at the back, a deck, steps at the front, and skylights to let light permeate the once dim floorplan.
They stayed true to the Victorian style, recreating the architraves and skirting boards and retaining fretwork and lacework at the front of the house.
“It definitely helped all those weekends not being able to leave the house — we didn’t have to make an excuse not to attend things — and we managed to get a lot of work done.
“It was tiring but we were really lucky to have had a distraction project every weekend, so it was great.”
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