How I Turned an Upside Down House Into a Luxe Mediterranean Sanctuary

When I first walked through this Northern Beaches home, the potential was immediately obvious. But it was buried under decades of disjointed decisions.

Originally built in the 1980s, the house had been added to and extended multiple times over the years with very little thought given to flow or cohesion. Red brick walls throughout. A kitchen inexplicably positioned upstairs. Bedrooms scattered across both levels without any logic. Multiple additions that felt disconnected from each other and from the original structure.

It was, in every sense, a house that had lost its way.

The brief was clear from the beginning. The clients wanted a modern Mediterranean sanctuary warm, considered and built for family life. Arches. Natural materials. A home that finally made sense to live in.

The Decision That Changed Everything

The single most transformative decision in this project wasn't a material choice or a colour palette. It was moving the kitchen downstairs.

It sounds simple but the implications were enormous. Suddenly the entire ground floor became a connected, flowing living space kitchen, dining, living, fireplace, media room all working together the way a family home should. Upstairs became a dedicated private retreat with four bedrooms and renovated bathrooms.

The house finally had a logic to it. A sense of arrival downstairs and sanctuary upstairs. That clarity of purpose changed how every room felt, even before a single finish was specified.

The Palette

From the beginning I knew the palette needed to be warm, layered and enduring. Nothing cool. Nothing trend-driven. Every material chosen with the next twenty years in mind.

French oak herringbone flooring runs throughout the ground floor warm, timeless and immediately grounding. Taj Mahal quartzite was specified for the kitchen, laundry and bathrooms. It's a stone with extraordinary movement and warmth, sitting somewhere between marble and sandstone, and it became the quiet hero of the whole project.

Handmade Moroccan tiles were used throughout the bathrooms adding texture, soul and a handcrafted quality that no manufactured tile can replicate.

The paint colour throughout Dulux White Dunne Quarter was chosen for its warmth. It reads differently at different times of day, shifting from a soft warm white in the morning light to something almost sandy by late afternoon.

The Details

The arch detailing was central to the Mediterranean brief from day one. I introduced arches into the doorways, the cabinetry and the fluted shower screens throughout.

It's a detail that does something quite specific to a home it softens it. Straight lines and sharp corners create a certain tension. Arches release it. The house felt more relaxed and more considered the moment they went in.

The Splurges and the Bargains

Every renovation involves decisions about where to invest and where to be resourceful. On this project the splurges were the flooring and the stone both chosen for their longevity and their ability to elevate everything around them.

The biggest bargain? The original windows were kept throughout and simply spray painted black. It's a decision that cost a fraction of what replacement windows would have and delivered something replacement windows rarely do character. The black frames anchor the facade and give the interiors a crispness that feels intentional rather than incidental.

The Result

What was once a confusing, dated and disjointed house is now a home that makes complete sense to live in, to move through and to come back to at the end of the day.

Warm. Considered. Unmistakably Mediterranean. And finally, after years of additions and extensions pulling it in different directions, a home that feels whole.