Design

Taking the walls out of an old house is the most common renovation in Brisbane and the most often done badly. What holds the roof up and where the kitchen goes.

A corner block has two fronts, two setbacks and twice the neighbours looking in. Here is how we plan a house on one, and when it is better to start again.

Five bedrooms is not three plus two. It is a house that has to be zoned, with two living rooms, enough bathrooms and a plan that works when the kids leave.

Brisbane’s workers’ cottages are seventy to ninety square metres and people live well in them. The moves that make a small house feel bigger than it is.

The rules on secondary dwellings have loosened and a two-bedroom flat is the size most people want. What the plan needs and where it goes on a Brisbane block.

Brisbane’s inner suburbs are full of ten-metre blocks. A house on one lives or dies on where the light comes in, where the stair goes and the long wall.

Three bedrooms is the size most Brisbane houses are, and most renovations return to. Where the third bedroom goes and how the wet areas share a wall.

A bay window brings light from three sides, adds a seat and makes a small room feel deliberate. What it involves structurally and how it sits on a Queenslander.

You do not need a big room for a walk-in pantry. You need the right door, shelves the right depth, a bench, a power point and a light. The version we build.