Staley Apartment

The fact that once barely-functional spaces now perform very well in such a small apartment. Not many units like this have a separate kitchen complete with pantry and ducted rangehood, much less a proper laundry space that doubles as a baby change area.

To make the apartment pleasant and functional to live in for owner-occupiers expecting a baby. Unfortunately, most apartments like this tend to have the bare minimum amount of work and maintenance done to allow them to be rented out, and when it comes time to sell, they are again cheaply and hastily done up with very little consideration given to quality and longevity.

Almost without fail, renovations to old buildings reveal unexpected issues that need to be addressed. How they are addressed depends on who is doing the work, and it was evident that past renovators had chosen to cover up, or to do half-fixes – presumably because it was cheaper to do so – which of course leaves the problem for the next person that comes along. For example, we found in both the kitchen and bathroom that several layers of flooring had been installed on top of each other over the years, and that the electrical cabling in the bathroom was incorrectly installed. The old range hood was of the recirculating variety, which was as good as not having one at all. Fixing those problems properly was not just the right thing to do, but also improved the experience of using the spaces while increasing the value of the property.

In light of the brief and common issues with apartments like this, we saw this project as a good opportunity not only to make the apartment a great place to live in, but to do our small part in improving the quality of older housing stock in Melbourne beyond the ‘buy, rent, and flip’ mentality that dominates the current market. Having said that, the construction budget was modest, so this was another good exercise for us in balancing cost and quality.

We selected composite stone for the benchtops and sills for durability and ease of maintenance. The porcelain tiles in the kitchen were sourced from a disposal warehouse for next to nothing, and those in the bathroom are standard white glazed ceramic. As a general rule, we believe that good planning and design go a lot further than expensive materials when it comes to getting value for money. The timber shelves were added not just to maximise storage, but to balance the hard surfaces with some warmth and softness. And if you ever want to completely transform the feel of an apartment while significantly improving its thermal performance, just replace the old venetian blinds (and they are always old venetian blinds) with some good quality drapes.