House Eighteen in TH Brown’s In Residence series
Nearly eighteen years ago, Kathryn saw the view from this Holland Park West home and made up her mind.
At the time, she and Al were living with their young daughters, Dom and Charlotte, in a much smaller cottage nearby. Al was still midway through extending it when Kathryn found this house.
“It was the view that, once I saw the view, I was like, yeah, we’ll get the house. Didn’t matter.”
Al remembers leaving his unfinished project behind with good humour.
“I left my masterpiece back over there and we came to this house.”
The move gave the family more space, but they never lost the habit of being together.
Over the years, the kitchen, dining area, living room and deck became the heart of family life. For Dom, the house also became the place her friends gravitated towards for sleepovers, parties and long afternoons together.
“This is kind of the house everyone always came to,” she says.
Almost two decades later, that sense of family still shapes the home.
When Kathryn and Al renovated the kitchen around three years ago, Charlotte, now studying architecture and civil engineering, became part of the design process. Kathryn found the green tiles first, while Charlotte helped develop the palette and pushed for a long island that would draw the eye towards the trees outside and create more room to cook and sit.
“It’s nice when everyone gets involved and has their say and gives ideas,” Kathryn says.
It was through one of Charlotte’s architecture magazines that Kathryn first discovered the TH Brown Danish Bar Stool.
The Calypso orange caught her eye immediately.
“I fell in love and I was like, oh, I've got to have those bar stools.”
Kathryn and Al initially ordered two in dark ash black.
Then they began living with them.
The long island was being used, people were sitting there, and two quickly stopped feeling like enough.
Kathryn suggested waiting.
Al and Dom had other ideas.
“Me and Dad don’t have a lot of patience,” Dom admits.
So father and daughter secretly ordered another pair as a surprise.
When they arrived, Al lined all four stools along the island before Kathryn walked into the kitchen. She did not notice. The family eventually had to point out that two extra stools had appeared.
Looking at the room now, it is easy to understand why. The four look as though they were always meant to be there.
The stools have already become part of the family story.
Charlotte’s magazine introduced Kathryn to them. Kathryn chose the first pair. Al and Dom secretly added the next two. And now all four sit along the kitchen bench in the part of the house where everyone still gathers.
Dom may now live in Toowoomba, but she admits she still spends plenty of time back home.
Kathryn and Al have no plans to leave either.
Asked whether she can imagine another twenty years here, Kathryn answers immediately:
“Definitely.”
Dom still calls it “the house everyone always came to.”
The lovely thing is that they still do.
Photographer - Louise Roche - The Design Villa
