A Lovingly Restored Neville Guzman-Designed, Mid-Century Home

Park Lane by PW Studio.

The home was originally designed by late Australian architect, Neville Guzman.

The original plans for the house were drawn up for the Carlington Homes Fair in 1962.

The original home was listed in the Women’s Weekly of the time as ‘plan no. 205 “House linked by pergolas”’.

[We had] a real sense of responsibility to do the project justice and retain the elements of the plan and materials as they were intended,’ says director of PW Studio, Paddy Williams.

The outdoor area was one part of the home that really captured Paddy’s eye!

He’s transformed the area into a space ripe for outdoor entertaining.

Still maintaining a connection to the house!

The timber-look vinyl planks have been replaced with micro-cement.

Fantastic indoor-outdoor flow!

PW Studio restored the old floorboards in the living and dining room space!

The double-sided fireplace has been placed to help delineate the dining and living areas.

The walls are clad in wood wool acoustic/thermal panels to create a feeling not too dissimilar to a ‘warm hug’.

The rusty red square tiles feature all-throughout the home.

‘We love the house for its original architecture and the way the pergolas and gardens frame your approach and experience of the different exterior spaces,’ says Paddy.

Much like the familiar saying — ‘you’ll find love when you’re not looking for it’ — Paddy Williams, director of PW Studio, found himself falling for, and purchasing, this mid-century gem in Orange, NSW, without any pre-conceived intention to do so.

‘We inspected this property… purely as sticky beakers,’ he says. ‘But we then fell in love with it, after being blown away by the plans and gardens’.

Later, Paddy discovered the home was originally designed by late Australian architect Neville Gruzman for the 1962 Carlington Homes Fair. At the time it was also listed in the Women’s Weekly as ‘plan no. 205, “House Linked by Pergolas”’.

‘This gave us a real sense of responsibility to retain the elements of the plan and materials as they were intended,’ he says.

As he soon discovered, there was plenty more to do than met the eye. ‘It was meant to be a small renovation,’ Paddy explains. ‘However, at every corner of the process an opportunity to improve and restore presented itself, and we couldn’t help but spend everything we had to do it justice.’

PW Studio left the plan of the house untouched, as it was ‘perfect’, but the ‘tired’ and ‘unsympathetically renovated’ inside desperately needed attention.

They removed the false ceilings to expose Oregon beams in the living room and replaced the timber-look vinyl flooring with micro-cement; original floorboards in the living room were revealed when the carpet was pulled up, and have since been sanded and polished; and the sagging horse-hair ceilings were fixed and square set cornices added in.

Paddy and his team have also re-introduced a beautiful palette of burnt red, rich brown and soft white to pay homage to the home’s past.

‘We love the house for its original architecture and the way the pergolas and gardens frame your approach and experience of the different exterior spaces,’ Paddy says. ‘We hope we have added a little excitement back into the mid-century marvel as it would have done when it was first built.’