This Home Was Made More Spacious—Without Changing the Original Footprint
Photo by Jonathan van der Knaap
By the time designers Kate Harry and Emily Rogers received a phone call, the strangers on the other end of the line were already big fans of their work. As the duo behind the studio Fabrikate, Kate and Emily were at the helm of eye-catching projects popping up around Australia, and these prospective clients had taken notice. Luckily for everyone involved, they happened to be calling about a rundown home in their shared city of Adelaide. “Paul and Mark had been following our social media and extensively reviewed our website,” Kate says. “They felt we matched their aesthetic perfectly, and they were keen to preserve the feel of their heritage architecture.”
As creatives in charge of their own business called Jetty Films—Paul is a film and television producer and Mark is a publicist and media consultant—the pairs seemed to get on the same page immediately. “It was a case of instantly finishing each other's sentences,” Kate jokes. Once they got to work, everyone agreed that their Victorian villa’s location in the coastal suburb of Largs Bay was ideal. But the kitchen, living area, and adjoining bathroom, which were originally built in the early 20th century, had nothing that spoke to the couple’s warmth. If they wanted somewhere to gather and unwind, this would have to change.
