Coming to you with another new recently completed project of ours – The Southport House!
Set in the seaside neighbourhood of Southport on the Gold Coast, this home is a large two-storey home featuring a 6-car basement garage, multiple large living and dining areas, 6 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms and a generous master suite including walk-in robe and ensuite. Built about 10 years ago by BGD Architects, the Cape Cod style home has been a signature property in that area for quite some time.
After living overseas in both Asia and America for the past 22 years, the clients had decided to relocate their family back to the Gold Coast permanently in 2021. The couple purchased the substantial property, keeping it as a luxury rental until they made the big move later that year. They wanted to update many areas in the house to suit their needs whilst creating a modern timeless home they can enjoy as their busy family grows up in their new Australian lifestyle.
From the beginning we knew this project was going to be a big one – with full concrete basement conversion, new mudroom, kitchen w/ scullery, family room, rumpus, sports bar, study and overall update to the paint, carpet + window coverings throughout. All while still paying homage to the original architecture and style of the home. One of the biggest areas of scope for the construction was definitely the basement conversion – we transformed the existing concrete block dark basement space into a fully functioning gym, laundry, surfboard racking, work bench + car parks with plenty of storage.
The existing concrete block garage located at the basement level of the property was transformed from a dark dingy car garage to a fully functional part of the house. This space was originally designed to accommodate 6 cars; however the Clients only required enough area for 2-3 cars and wanted to maximise the remaining space for their active family. As this area is the primary entry point into the home it was important that it felt like part of the interior rather than the disjointed parking space which it was.
The existing space felt like somewhat of a cold concrete jungle and so we knew we wanted to create a functional and inviting entry that felt like an extension of the interior home. To begin the transformation the exposed concrete block walls were refinished with negative waterproofing due to its basement position set into the side of the earth. This ensured we wouldn’t run into moisture issues behind the new plaster work. We then framed out all the walls and dropped the ceiling to form our new shell set off from the newly waterproofed blockwork. The space was then fully plastered and painted in a fresh white from Porters Paint’s to visually open up the space. To add to the transformation we specified an epoxy flake flooring in a light colourway which was laid throughout.
SURFBOARD RACKING
Working our way around the newly completed space, you are first met with the large surfboard racking area. As the clients are avid surfers with a large collection of 20+ surfboards and stand up paddleboards in a variety of styles and sizes, this part of the design was crucial! Designing a space which would comfortably house their full collection did prove to be a fun little challenge – playing a form of surf board jigsaw when laying out the racking and each boards horizontal or vertical position.
The surfboard racking features floor to ceiling timber veneer cladding in a white washed American oak which adds a nice warmth and texture to the large alley space. This custom cladding hosts a vertical rebated detail between each panel to house the new protec neoprene board racking systems. The custom timber clad surfboard racking became a design feature within the basement, creating a fun innovative solution that also appealed to the aesthetic of the home.
At the end of the surfboard racking space we designed a custom work bench in a matching oak veneer to function as a board repair area with slat wall racking above for tool storage.
STORAGE
Energy efficient ceiling lighting was added, in addition to a full wall of joinery which houses shelving, drawers, bench and hanging space to create a basement that caters to everyday working zones and ample storage. The storage integrated into the garage needed to accommodate for the clients large list of items including suitcases, bikes, golf clubs, tennis racquets, ski gear, towels, and standard garage gear like ladders, cleaning equipment and car essentials. A Liebherr integrated fridge was also added to service as a pitstop for cool drinks when running in and out from the beach, school and sporting activities.
The joinery was designed to work back in with the overall palette and style of the other renovated spaces within the home, so a profile door from Farmers Doors was specified in Porters Paints ‘Popcorn’ 2pac. This was complimented by the polished nickel hardware sourced from Restoration Hardware over in the US.
At one end of the joinery wall we designed a ‘furniture style’ piece to act as a put down space for hats and keys, and to visually aid in blending the full height joinery to the entry doorway. To finish off this console unit we added some Linear Standard oak hooks and single oak shelf above.
LAUNDRY
A full laundry area was designed into the other end of the joinery wall to allow for overflow from the main quarters of the house. The laundry space incorporates a tub and mixer, front loading washer and dryer as well as an area for hanging towels and beachwear, as it is the primary entry when coming or going from the beach, school, etc.
The new laundry was added where there wasn’t one already, so after discussions with our plumber we were able to come up with solutions to make this new wet area possible for the clients. The laundry materiality was intend to be highly functional yet beautifully simple so we opted for a Staron solid surface benchtop with upstand in ‘Bright White’, handmade Moroccan Zellige tiles from Tiles of Ezra for the splashback and custom white powder coated hanging rail.
GYM
Another addition the clients wanted to make to the garage was a ‘smart’ home gym. The new gym space was created by separating a corner of the large basement off with custom white powder coated framed glazing and hi impact rubber flooring. This new workout space is perfect for the whole family with its floor to ceiling mirrors, an internet enabled Peloton bike, interactive wall mirror, weights racks, ballet bar and new air conditioning. This home really has become a space you could live in forever and never leave!
MUDROOM
As you enter from the garage you are met with the central staircase up into the home, which connects you through to both the ground and first floors. The existing lower entry space consisted of a large void space beneath the stairwell and long blank wall beside the entry door. We wanted to make use of this unused area with a new mudroom design – creating storage for miscellaneous goods such as school bags, shoes, dog leads and hats. This was achieved through the addition of a new joinery unit, framing off the void under the stairs and adding shiplap cladding to the ceiling and staircase to tie in with that around the property.
The custom joinery was designed to also include integrating bench seating, concealed storage, basket nooks and wall hooks, crafting a space for the family to make organised chaos.
Materiality in all the basement areas was specified to suit the rest of the home, ensuring a cohesive look and feel was achieved. Exploring the use of light timbers, bright white colours, nickel hardware and traditional profiles. New feature wallpaper was also added to this space. We picked out the beautiful Elkhorn wallpaper by Louise Jones in ‘stone’ from Style Revolutionary which added such a lovely character to this entry space. To compliment this we selected the ‘Cabanas White’ woven fabric by Bruder Co for the bench seat cushion.
Stay tuned to see the rest of this special home! Next up – the kitchen + scullery
