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Monday, February 15, 2010
During our Melbourne trip, MOTH & I enjoyed the most wonderful evening at the home of our dear friends L.& B. L. & I have been close since we worked together in the late '70's in Melbourne & our lives have mirrored each other in lots of ways. We both went through messy divorces, became single Mum's juggling demanding full-time work with young children & found love & happiness the second time around (although in L.'s case, it was third time lucky!). Her gorgeous husband is one of Melbourne best-known antique dealer's & what doesn't live in his shop, resides in their magnificent home. A 2 storey listed Victorian Gothic mansion built in 1872, B. bought it nearly 35 years ago when you could pick up these buildings for a song. When L. appeared on the scene it was in desperate need of TLC. Over the past 25 years she has waved her magic wand & has transformed the house into quite the most amazing home I have ever been in. MOTH always says its like walking onto a movie set & he's exactly right!
Since our last visit, they have completed a huge project, adding a grand Conservatory to an unused concrete deck area above their kitchen/family room & reworking an existing bedroom & bathroom to form a self-contained apartment for L's. daughter. The Conservatory is reached via the grand main staircase & then across the first floor landing. We took our pre-Dinner drinks there & stepping through the new doorway, this spectacular space just took my breath away. The designers have cleverly created a twin ridge roof structure with central box gutter which mimmicks the Gothic roof contours of the existing house. Ornate solid bottom panels to the wall areas and decorative internal mouldings on the rafters and beams also follow on the incricate detailing found in the rest of the house. L. found some huge sandstone slabs for the floor & added motorized thermal roof blinds. Then she had great fun furnishing it with unusual antique pieces from their eccentric collection & voila, total perfection! The only hiccough was the 3 matching chandeliers B. had purchased on a buying trip to Prague. On the day of installation, they were too big to even go through the front door, so back to the shop they went to await new Owners & other smaller ones were found.
I've included images of the Conservatory, apologies for the grainy quality, but the only ones L. had were ones the Conservatory Company had sent her. Still working full-time, she says she's always too busy cleaning the house & caring for all their treasures to take pics at the weekend!!
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