Danielle Ogrisetti has learnt a thing or two about renovating homes through her work at Laminex. So when it came time to update her family beach house on the Mornington Peninsula, she knew she wanted to be hands on, and took on the role as the project manager and designer.

‘I have designed for many projects before and I have helped other people renovate, but this was my first personal project,’ Danielle says.

The original house was very old, suspected to be built in the 1970s. And despite being in good condition, it wasn’t suited her family’s lifestyle and ‘really needed some love’.

‘It had no plaster, and all exposed brick,’ she adds. ‘It’s never been touched… like ever!’

Having been a frequent visitor the Mornington Peninsula since she was a kid, her vision was to modernise the home with a palette that fit into the region’s light and bright coastal aesthetic. Safe to say, the house’s original dark timber kitchen and joinery, alongside the dated tile flooring and retro splashback didn’t quite fit the brief.

‘I wanted to arrive and feel like I’m somewhere different and on holidays,’ Danielle says. She gave herself just six months to revamp almost every room, but the pandemic’s Covid lockdowns stretched it out into a 10-month-renovation.

The kitchen was completely transformed with the help new cabinets by Laminex, bringing in light-washed timber joinery. Wall panels from Surround By Laminex and engineered oak timber floors throughout also round out the home’s contemporary, beachy feel with subtle textures.

Functionality and low-maintenance materials were Danielle’s other key considerations for the interiors. ‘I love concrete, but it wouldn’t have been a very durable product for a holiday home, so we achieved the look of concrete with Essastone benchtops in the kitchen,’ she explains.

And through ‘savvy’ marketplace shopping online, she found brand-new Astra Walker fittings for all bathrooms ‘at a quarter of the price’, which freed up space in the budget for floor-to-ceiling terrazzo tiles in the bathrooms!

‘It feels like a new home,’ Danielle adds. ‘It’s unrecognisable, but in a good way because it’s so perfect for us.’