Contemporary family home

 

Take a house tour around this stylish Sydney home

Simon Hansen and wife Paris have lovingly reworked two small terraced houses into one big family home.

The couple had been living in a pretty but tiny (three and a half meters wide) terraced house in Paddington, Sydney, with their children Sunday, 9, and Jock, 7, when the house next door came up for sale.

Desperate for more space, they saw the opportunity to expand. 'Our third child (Saxon, now 5) was on the way and we had a chronic shortage of space,' says architect Simon. 'It had reached the point where I just wanted to be able to stretch my arms out and not hit someone or something.'

After three planning applications and a year's hard work, they were rewarded with a spacious family home, furnished with vintage finds, bright pops of color and a plunge pool in the back garden.

 

 

And if the interior now feels even bigger than it actually is, that's down to Simon's space-saving tricks such as a wall of floor-to-ceiling cupboards, an under-bench bar fridge and wall-mounted lights.