After spending decades as a holiday rental, this Austinmer beach house has been given a new purpose, as a Sydney family’s multi-generational forever home.

The three-storey house hadn’t been touched since its last renovation in the early 2000s, which left it with an inefficient layout and sun-damaged interiors that were showing the home’s age, according to BASE director Jessica Bradley.

‘They were moving to join their extended family on the South Coast,’ BASE director Jessica Bradley says of the clients. ‘We were engaged to renovate the property on a rapid timeline, before they moved down in early 2022.’

In addition to completely reimagining the floorplan for the family of four, an existing studio over the garage was converted into a two-storey dwelling dubbed ‘the cottage’ for the owner’s mother.

All of the renovations occurred within the existing building footprint, retaining as many existing walls and windows as possible to reduce waste. And instead of transforming the ‘stark white’ exterior and altering the facade, they introduced subtle warmer hues that have given the home a new softer, sandy coastal aesthetic.

‘The dwelling receives strong morning and afternoon light due to its orientation. We wanted to use a palette that softened the light internally, particularly the harsh summer sunlight,’ Jessica says.

‘We worked together with the clients to finesse the brief, coined ‘elevated Mediterranean’, with whites, terracotta, neutrals, and deep greens being priority references.’

The owners had their hearts set on either a pastel yellow or green kitchen, and once the creamy quartzite slab for the benchtop was confirmed, they settled on soft green cabinetry that complements the eucalypt greens and ribbons of rust through the stone.

An almost ‘industrial’ black steel staircase was transformed with a coat of white paint, and a wire balustrade was replaced with a perforated aluminium mesh that makes the entrance (behind the bright yellow door) feel warm and welcoming.

The existing Victorian ash floorboards were also refinished in a light wash to align with the new natural material palette, instead focusing on tiling as a way to incorporate ‘muted splashes of colour’. In the bathrooms, tumbled stone tiles are playfully arranged into custom patterns, with hints of red and mustard yellow.

‘The natural materials will age gracefully, with gentle wear continuing to add character to the spaces,’ Jessica adds.

She says while the project was largely interiors-focused, it demonstrates the capacity for strategic design to optimise an existing dwelling layout in order to minimise demolition. The new layout optimises flow, function, and natural light — in addition to capturing the warmth of its dreamy coastal location.