Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

An Art Deco–Inspired Extension Graces a 1930s Cottage in Melbourne

An Art Deco–Inspired Extension Graces a 1930s Cottage in Melbourne

Navigating a tricky site, Mihaly Slocombe turns a lackluster cottage into a luminous, eco-friendly family home.

Newlyweds Frank and Amy fell in love with a gorgeously detailed, Art Deco–style home from the 1930s in the coveted backstreets of Melbourne’s leafy Kew, but they knew a renovation was in the cards to turn the dark, camped cottage into a comfortable home for their future children. So, they turned to the architects at Mihaly Slocombe.



Deco House is one of six mirrored Art Deco cottages in the neighborhood. Although the historic building is not protected by a heritage overlay, Mihaly Slocombe thoughtfully preserved the front half of the original and added a sympathetic red-brick extension in the rear with space for a garage.

The original 1,120-square-foot house had three bedrooms and a bath, but its inefficient layout rendered one of the bedrooms unusable. Central elements of the redesign were an improved floor plan, greater access to light, and a extension that divided the home into three zones: the adult retreat within the original cottage, the family living areas on the ground floor of the addition, and the two kids’ bedrooms and a bath on the floor above.



The new and old parts of Deco House meet at the hidden side entry-now the main entrance-on the shared driveway. It opens to the home’s sole double-height space with the living areas in the new extension to the left and the main bedroom in the original 1930s cottage on the right.

"The layout for Deco House came to us very easily, but finding the right three-dimensional form was a huge challenge," say the architects, who nearly doubled the footprint of the home to 2,142 square feet. "We sought to simultaneously imbue the home with its Art Deco–inspired character, address passive solar design principles, resolve unusual siting requirements, and comply with difficult town planning conditions."

Siting was a challenge due to tight setbacks from a neighbor to the south, while a shared driveway to the north necessitated a careful balancing act between privacy and outlook.

Negotiating these realities and meeting maximum building envelope permissions, Mihaly Slocombe created a stepped, bullnose roof and curved forms that help ground the light-filled, two-story addition in the Art Deco era.



"As an interesting note, if we had squared off the building form, we wouldn’t have been able to comply with the setbacks," note the architects. "So the curved roofs were both contextual and tactical!"

A contemporary interpretation of the Art Deco period, the new extension inverts the material palette of the original house—a white building with red-brick detailing-with its red-brick form and white metal detailing. An arch motif and metallic highlights are also carried out throughout the interior.



The perforated white metal screens help offset the heaviness of the brickwork while filtering sunlight during the day and giving the home a lantern-like glow at night.



The entry at Deco House opens to the home’s sole double-height void. The brick detailing frames the living areas beyond. The stairs on the right lead up to the kids' bedrooms.



The architects moved the front door from behind the main bedroom to the side entry and converted the old entrance into a new walk-in wardrobe and en suite bedroom.

A sense of timelessness pervades the updated four-bed, two-and-a-half-bath Deco House. Concrete, timber, and white marble in the extension take cues from the original timber floors and decorative white plaster ceilings from the 1930s period cottage.



The curved ceiling was built from layered Austral Plywoods hoop pine plywood sourced from Queensland plantation forests. The flooring is blackbutt timber.



The living areas in the rear extension connect to the garden, which features a terrace sheltered by cross-laminated timber pergola clad in translucent fiberglass.

The architects also drew inspiration for Deco House’s strong form and beautiful brickwork from contemporary Melbourne projects such as Jackson Clements Burrows Architects’ Harold Street Residence and the MRTN Architects’ Carlton Cloister project.



"The luscious double curves of Deco House, a gesture that navigates thorny planning guidelines, connects the project to the era of its namesake and introduces some Hollywood razzle dazzle to leafy Kew," say the architects.

Sustainability was also a key design tenet. Informed by passive solar design principles, the extension mitigates unwanted solar gain in summer with perforated screens to the north and a translucent canopy to the east. The walls and roof have been fortified with high-performance insulation, and the timber-framed windows are fitted with double glazing.



Polished concrete floors harness solar energy through the use of thermal mass. Masson For Light Mort timber-top pendants hang above the kitchen island, which is topped with Carrara marble.



The architects created built-in storage to show off Frank and Amy’s extensive LEGO collection. A glimpse of the couple’s collection can be seen on the left.

The home also includes a low-energy heat pump for water, a 10,500-liter underground rainwater tank that feeds into the irrigation system, as well as a green switch at the front door that shuts off all non-essential circuits.



The new en suite bath features two-tone, gray-and-white tiles to match the two-tone paintwork in the original house and the two-tone plasterboard on the extension. Metal detailing wraps around the arched mirror above the timber vanity.



A secret door to the right of the kitchen connects to the garage.

"We’re super proud of how serene and beautiful Deco House is to inhabit, how it captures the changing quality of light across the seasons and each day, and how the natural material palette imbues each room with a sense of warmth and welcome," say the architects.



Deco House site plan



Deco House ground floor plan



Deco House first floor plan



Deco House elevations

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×