Ainslie Cottage

Ainslie Cottage brings colour and texture into an established family home, a mid-century post-war government build that captured the suburban dream of its era. The renovation keeps those mid-century roots while reorienting the home around its outlook, opening a conversation between the spaces that share it.

Level access leads to a new timber deck, open to the sky, that gives the home the indoor-outdoor feel central to mid-century living. Polished timber flooring runs throughout and ties together the natural timber of the windows, picture rails, benches and joinery. A soft palette of green and white takes its cue from the setting, and every window is framed to look out onto the native Australian landscape around the house.

New windows draw cross ventilation and indirect daylight through the plan, improving comfort and cutting the home's reliance on active systems for a more environmentally sensitive result. Playful tile selections and robust fixtures make the bathrooms and laundry genuinely family-friendly, while carefully chosen indoor planting lifts air quality, softens the acoustics and adds to the calm of the interior. The fit-out is styled with timber pieces including the Nore Lounge Chair, ottoman and side tables, Alfred Christensen dining chairs and Danish spun-brass pendant lights.

The home is 120 square metres on a 1050 square metre site and completed in 2020.

Architecture by buck&simple. Interior design by Texture Studio. Builder WQM Building Group. Photography by Anne Stroud.