Mullaloo Coastal Home Transformation

At Distinct Renovations we are all about making your home functional and building you a home that is suited to your lifestyle.
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We recently finished a project in Mullaloo where we transformed the whole place from a tired old red brick 1990s home that was not so functional and turned it into a super functional and modern coastal delight.  The homes exterior now suits its beachy location and is very functional for the homeowners.

The location of this house was perfect for the homeowners, and they did not want to risk losing out on such a great spot.  Therefore, they bought the house knowing that a lot of work was required on the home to get it to where they would like it.
 
The owners ran the numbers roughly on the cost comparison between demo and rebuild and renovate and extend. The numbers for demo and rebuild just did not stack up and would have resulted in over capitalisation on their home.
 
 So, it was a renovation and extension that was required.
 
Unfortunately given the era of the home there was a lot of wall removal involved to get the spaces they desired. In the 1990’s in Perth there was a lot of unnecessary brick work and sectioning off, of the different rooms to make studies, lounge rooms and unnecessary and costly curved walls and plant holders made from bricks!
The first step to the renovation of this home was to demolish all those unwanted bricks, 4 skip bins later and most of the unwanted walls had being removed.
 
The home had 4 bedrooms and due to the family’s size, there was no intention of adding on any bedrooms, however the kitchen, living and dining was much smaller than they had hoped for and the master ensuite was not large enough for their needs. The garage was also not very functional or secure.   As this was their “forever home”, they had decided that they would love to add on a home gym and a scullery also.
 

The works involved

The works involved in this home renovation and extension were very extensive and left not one drop of paint on the walls from the old home. Every square millimeter had been touched, including the brick walls on the exterior of the home.
 
Bedrooms

The Bedrooms were quite an easy fix, with new carpets, replacing all the old windows and window treatments with new and painting the walls. Job done!
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Although the master had a feature VJ panel nib wall built in and a few electrical changes to allow for some feature wall lights. 

Bathrooms

Both bathrooms as they were, were too small and did not have enough storage. The bath in the main bathroom was exceedingly small and low to the ground and just took up too much space.
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So, the decision was made to take out the bath and create a walk-in shower in that space, this freed up the old shower area to then put in a larger vanity and create the feeling of a more spacious bathroom that flowed better for the occupants.

​The ensuite bathroom was too small and had a separate toilet, therefore, to make the ensuite bigger the wall between the study and the existing ensuite was removed to make way for a larger ensuite. Also the wall between the toilet and bathroom was removed to create more space in the ensuite.

​The large study area that was no longer required was made into a combined smaller office/study and laundry space.  

The new ensuite was now a large and functioning space with ample storage and a double luxury walk in shower with double vanity and built-in bath with a larger new window overlooking the outdoor garden. 

Theatre Room
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The front room was an open lounge so we simply replaced the window to bring it off up front the ground so furniture could be placed in front of the window, then new carpets were laid, and a modern look VJ panelled TV wall was built.
The room was then closed off with stud frame and double doors to create a new theatre room.

The Kitchen and Scullery
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The kitchen was the biggest problem in the house and the only way to make this better and more functional for the homeowners was to increase the size.  Therefore, this is where the homes extension came into play. 

​The roof was taken back a little from the existing roof line in the kitchen area to make way for a new skillion roof which stretched out over the larger open plan kitchen, scullery, living and dining as well as the new two car garage, the custom-built home gym and under cover alfresco area.

The existing roof tiles were all replaced with one new Colourbond roof to al tie in.
 
The kitchen ceiling was quite low and required more natural light. To remedy this, two fixed Velux windows were installed in the raking ceiling over the dining space. 

​​The kitchen was completely re vamped all cabinetry  removed to make way for a new 3-meter island bench and 3.5-meter back bench to make a galley style kitchen by First Class Kitchens here in Perth, with a scullery off to the side which lead out conveniently through a shopper’s door to the garage.
 
The Home Gym

We think it is important that you shape your home to your lifestyle, after all you spend hours and hours of you day there. The mother of this home loved to work out and it was on her Must Have list to have a purpose-built home gym in the home.

​As a working mum the ability to drive to and from a gym is almost unheard of, so a home gym is the best solution! 

The custom-built gym was located on the other side off the scullery with easy access out on to the alfresco but private enough, so the neighbours do not get an insight into the homeowner’s daily workout routines!

The Outdoor Entertaining

Living in the sunny state of Perth we are lucky enough to get plenty of sunshine and warm weather however we are also blessed with it being one of the windiest cities in the world.

Therefore, it was number one, important to have an outdoor area that easily connected and flowed in with the kitchen inside, but equally important to ensure the alfresco was protected from the hot hot sun in summer and the windy weather we get most year-round in Perth.

 The alfresco had a raking ceiling which made the space feel much larger than it was, and to protect from the harsh sun, the roof was insulated and then lined with vertical boards to give a nice modern feel and to further accentuate the height and make the space seem larger again.
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There were three sides to the alfresco with the northern side only half protected via a breeze block screen wall and a large opening this allowing just enough weather in to make the alfresco a pleasant place to sit and chill and watch the kids in the back yard.
 

Exterior and Back yard

Now, I mentioned that not one millimeter of this place had been untouched, I also meant the back garden and the front garden too!
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The entire back garden was re landscaped, turfed and retained and Distinct Renovations EVEN made a kids play ground in the yard for the kids to play on too.

The front yard was landscaped using low maintenance native plants, limestone rocks and pine bark mulch to give it a real coastal look. The homeowners were time poor and did not want to spend too much time gardening, one lawn in the back garden was enough and there was no need to turf the front yard.  
 
The coastal look was finished off perfectly by cladding over all the redbrick with a horizontal cladding named Nuline, by BGC Innova systems to the front of the home which was painted a crisp Casper Quarter (White) by Dulux.
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The garage had a contrasting cladding board using Duragroove Board by BGC Innova systems, Duragroove is a vertical board, this board was painted Black by Dulux.

Conclusion

Sometimes it is hard to decide whether to demo and rebuild or to renovate and extend. The owners of this home now have an extra 113m2 of under roof space that is better suited their family and lifestyle the home is super functional and very nicely renovated to their personal style.
 
The cost to rebuild this same sized home with the same level of specification would have been at least 50% more than they had paid for the renovation and extension.

As a result of the renovation the owners now have extra equity in their home!
The renovations on the home were so extensive that most people walking past wonder if it is a new home!
 
 If you are interested in renovated your home and not sure where to start, feel free to reach out to us and we can assist with the next step! Contact us here. 
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Photography Code Lime Photography, Serena Pearce