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 Burgess Waite House

20 Inkerman Street

Mosman

Dear Kerri and Andrew,

Thank you for inviting me to see your home and for sharing something of your design shake-up ideas!

The house is in possibly one of the most divine locations in the country; filled with sunshine and views to die for, now is the time to really make it sing. With kids moving out and life moving on, often our houses lag in that transition and then suddenly, we look through a different lens at the place that means the most to us - and a revival is born. Hallelujah to that!

The following is a scope of the work as we discussed it late last year. The purpose of this is to check point those discussions and to add or subtract where needed. This is a wholistic account of the project and it may include extra detail you didn’t specifically mention, but its inclusion lets you see that that is the way I’m viewing the scope - in its comprehensive and cohesive entirety. If there is more here than you’d planned, remember always, it’s your house and you decide the extent and the staging of any of the work to be done - but I’m here to challenge you and to help you shape and navigate the change.

And so we begin….

Henrietta xx

The Front:

Nothing like starting off with advice you didn’t ask for!!! But I would ask you to consider this - the entrance to your home is super important because first impressions, for better or for worse, are lasting. I love the deep verandah here and the lush green garden adds a softness to the area which really works. But the pots are working to close down the openness it would otherwise enjoy. I have some ideas for this area that could really improve that initial view of the property and could also make tis area more serviceable for you.

The Hall:

Once we have wowed all and sundry with the improvements to the front, inside they come. The hallway is an important mood setter too and yet it’s a space that is often overlooked as purely an access way to the rest of the house. There are no structural changes, obviously, but there are a ton of stylistic changes that can make this area, this central line of you house, much more dynamic and fabulous. It’s about colour, lighting, art hang and rugs. It’s about starting off from the threshold into a new and charismatic interior that far better reflects the spectacular humans who live here.

It’s not some radical change I’m talking about, but it is a change in line with the palette suggested for the rest of the house. It’s inviting the hallway to join the party of the new believers. The Style Council!!!

The Library:

Love this monicker - so bloody posh. Sounds so much better that the TV room, or the front room…

I love this space - it is a fabulous size and the light is lovely. My suggestion is that it may be a little unused if you only ever watch tv in here at night. Giving the less well lit room in the house the tv is far better for so many reasons.

Drum roll please….. I propose this room be Kerri’s new office!!!! Given it is situated at the front of the house (not sure if you conduct any interviews or have in-person meetings at home??), it makes good sense to make this move and get her out of the bedroom. Ideally, we would either modify the shelving unit, or better still, replace it with a custom designed new desk set-up, and add other furniture that to give you the functionality that you need and that would look fabulous. My motto is - take the best spaces in the house for yourselves!!!!

My strong suggestion is not to waste this lovely room on the box, but rather, make it a beautiful work space for Kerri that frees up needed real estate upstairs, but more importantly, gives Kerrie a fresh new office that is bigger, better, more convenient and utterly divine.

Go on….

The Girls’ Rooms:

I would hate for the girls to feel like I’m urging you to push them out of the nest - I do know how this goes and it is rather wrenching.

If you’re not ready to call Kennards… we can work around them.

But here goes - both the girls’ rooms need gutting! This won’t thrill them. However, when they see the result, they’re going to feel proud of you for taking this leap and I’d say the only risk is that they might like the new digs so much, they’ll wanna move back home.

By removing all the built-ins in this room, I would propose creating a tv room here with a smaller modular lounge suite and new shelving for books and the tv, this would be a cosy room for evening and a good use of the room that is closest to the action end of the house.

The photos above may not be the most flattering angle… but this room really does feel like it has been vacated and of course, our kids come first and so it may well function as a bedroom for a while longer. But my challenge to you is, why waste prime real estate on kids who are if not fully moved out, in the process of? They’ll leave all that mess there just as long as you let them!!

This bedroom, with it’s walk-in robe and ensuite, is the obvious choice as a guest room for when the girls stay over, or you have guests to stay. The purple wall is a fabulous reminder of those teenage years… good thing we’re all through that phase! This room needs to be spruced up with a new scheme altogether, removing the old homework desks and imbuing it with some sophistication and style.

Being situated at the front of the house, extra care needs to be taken to really connect the scheme to the house more generally, because it is readily visible if the door is open and it’s good to make a strong start. It’s a lovely, graciously proportioned room and with very little effort and expense, we can make it look utterly fabulous.

The walk-in wardrobe (currently more like a walk-out wardrobe!!) can be cleared out, lighting improved (?) and it can then provide storage either for the girls, or for coats, or left empty. It needs attention.

Ideally, the bathroom would be renovated in the same style and at the same time as the main bathroom, a comprehensive scheme for which will be included in the plan.

The ‘Other’ room:

Interesting…. this room is having a major identity crisis and doesn’t know if it’s Arthur or Martha. So some suggestions incoming! Would you consider turning this room into a gym? We could install cupboards right down one side for linen, storage, etc and then put the gym equipment currently messing up the feng shui in the bedroom, here! Maybe you are groaning Andrew….

I’m guessing no-one sleeps in the single bed in here? Getting rid of it will be the first step towards making the room functional - and I also spied two very nice chests of drawers that could be reconditioned and redeployed - in the guest bedroom, for example, where the built-ins are possibly removed.

There is a huge amount of hanging clothes in here - if they belong to either if you, then I’d refer you to my comments further in to this document!!!!,

The Living Room and Dining Room:

So this is the beating heart of the house - the spectacular views, the open, light feel, the casual connection to the kitchen and then outside to the pool - it has it all. But some of the ‘all’ needs more all. New all.

Re-furnishing, repainting and rethinking the overall look of this space will be so exciting because the backdrop is so jaw dropping. It’s a great size and the indoor / outdoor vibes work so well. I’ve got loads of ideas for this area and I look forward to sharing them.

I note that you don’t have rugs… is that because you have an aversion to them or because you got fed up with ones you had that might have been biffed? I am not an advocate for a series of fussy rugs - but I do think that well chosen, they add enormously to the style of a space and especially on a tiled floor.

The best part of this is that we don’t have to waste budget on a new kitchen! The laundry is also in good nick and we can leave that alone, too. There will be loads of changes we will make that will really transform your home and we can enjoy that process without having the inconvenience and substantial budget guzzler of re-doing the kitchen on top.

I so much look forward to designing this space with you because the difference it will make to your enjoyment of it will pay you back in spades.

The Master Suite:

This area is the most challenging, not just because it’s where you rest your weary heads every night, but because this is most important room in every house. This is where you are at your most vulnerable - it’s the space that needs to reward you most! And my god, your bedroom has the potential to be the best you can imagine.

I would like to work up a couple of options for you - one will be a remodelling of the entire space, enlarging the bathroom and creating a decent sized walk-in robe which will definitely mean evicting Kerri and her office space to downstairs. The second option will not be so drastic.

The split floor level is an irritation… but the pay-off for what I am thinking is massive. The daybed area is hands down, the absolute best view of the harbour in the house, currently exclusively being enjoyed by a piece of gym equipment, Even if said equipment is used every single day (do you like my faith??), it’s still only one hour out of 24 that either of you are bathing in the beauty of that view.

I have many early ideas I’d like to explore for upstairs - but again, I reiterate that I am happy to scale up or scale down the scope according to your appetite.

Privacy in this area is another major factor that needs to be addressed and we talked about ways to rectify. I have been studying the floor plan and I hope that my suggestions will appeal. Rather than install a door at the bottom of the stairs, I would propose that in line with the layout changes, the door will be at the top of the stairs instead.This will avoid the awkwardness of a door opening into the hallway on the ground floor in circumstances where there will be more than adequate space for it to be at the top. All will be revealed!!!!

This is a big house, but it appears you guys are cramped in certain spaces - your bed is a case in point! There is poor circulation around the bed, almost as though it were placed there as an after thought in the design of the room. There is an opportunity here to change that - and at the same time, to give you more wardrobe space. By opening up and expanding in to the dimensions, you will enjoy a sense of lightness and a more relaxed overall tone.

The ensuite…. how will you feel with beautiful new bathrooms downstairs if yours is not spruced up too? By doing them simultaneously, you not only add significant commercial value to the property, but you also get to enjoy the continuity of design and far better functionality. The ensuite is another of those MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS in my design ethic - I believe that as the owners of the house, the bread winners, the ones on whom the full responsibility for every aspect of the house falls, you should enjoy the best parts the house can deliver. No compromise. You deserve this! Rant over. you need a bigger ensuite (in my humble opinion!!).

You’re squished in here. You need a bigger, better designed wardrobe and I propose a walk-in that is well thought out and spacious. And then maybe you also need a chuck out of clothes - not a person alive needs all the clobber we own and crowd into racks exactly like this. If you have more rack room, you can see what you have and what you’d forgotten you have, and what you decide you don’t need to have! Space is the answer and you have the floor space for a better deal.

This is one of two engine rooms - Andrew’s space on the lower level is great as it is away from the rest of the house and so enjoys the tranquility that comes from isolation! But Kerri, you have a huge role and yet your office space is a meter or two from your bed - no real separation between your intimate living space and your corporate work space.

This room would be better subsumed into the new floor plan design and if I may say so, you would be far better off in the front room of the house behind a newly installed and better sound-proofed (I heard you Andrew) door. On the ground floor you have all the conveniences of easy access to the front door when ducking in and out during the day, the bathroom, kitchen and outdoor area are all right there, and at the end of the day, you get to close the door and walk away upstairs to an entirely private zone free of all the worky vibes you’ve been busy with all day long.

The Garden:

How could anyone improve on this? Simply stunning.

Finally, Andrew’s study is dreamy - but the Bunnings trestle could possibly be improved on - just saying!!

Discussions about connecting the lower level internally were a little brief, but it would be interesting to explore the possibility of sacrificing the ‘other’ room in this pursuit, if that were a thing. Food for thought.

Conclusion:

So concludes the scope!

Take your time pondering the above, and let’s meet for further talks as soon as you are ready.

You have a really fabulous home filled with potential for a refresh. I would love to help you with every aspect of achieving this and I very much look forward to developing the Creative Interior Plan (CIP) as the next step.

Henrietta x