CARLTON NORTH

Words by Stephen Crafti

AUGUST 2026

Some things don’t date, However, this townhouse in Carlton North certainly ‘spoke’ of the early naughties – greige carpets, white laminate joinery and steel handrails, the latter trying to capture the building’s industrial past. Owned by a couple with two adult children who had rented out the place while living in Hong Kong, its location was definitely more of an attraction to return to rather than the fairly tired townhouse.

Loosely modelled on the floorplan of a typical Victorian terrace, being long and narrow, the townhouse, one of four, will still appear relatively untouched when it’s completed – bordering a bluestone lane, with its façade clad in zinc fish-like tiles. Beyond the threshold, however, things have been significantly changed. While retaining the locations of the kitchen and bathrooms to provide an economic solution to the renovation in terms of the existing plumbing and services), the floorplan has been finely tuned to cater for the family, along with changes to all of the internal materials – including the original mottled grey tiles that extended from the carport at the front through to the ground floor plane. A new ‘floating’ timber floor is part of the scheme, along with a refurbished stairwell.

Instead of arriving at the top of the stairs and finding a suite of cubicles that accommodate the laundry and pantry, the new design will be integrated so that it reads as an extension to the kitchen, the latter being completely reworked – including a marble island bench and porcelain benches. Over the last few decades, there have been significant developments in technology. In this instance, an Invisi cooking system, concealed beneath the porcelain tiled bench, will function as a cook top (electric), allowing the bench to also be used for food preparation. Other areas, such as a living area to the rear, will be resigned to include a study/home office area, with a new blade wall separating the two, accommodating a television screen.

Lucy Architecture also made a number of strategic changes on the third level, primarily given over to the main bedroom suite. Here there’s new built-in joinery that frames a window, reduced in scale, together with a new ensuite. The colour palette for the interior will also capture a softer mood for the home – with putty and mushroom hues a welcome change from the stark white finishes, such as the tiles, that gave the place a clinical rather than a domestic feel.

For the owners, who may have initially may have been disappointed to see the townhouse after years of living overseas, there’s the excitement of not only living in a great inner-city location but, as importantly, now in a home they will be proud of and which has been tailor made for their needs for both the present and their future.

Words by Stephen Crafti