Lena Paddington by Smart Design Studio.

William Smart, founder and creative director of Smart Design Studio, has worked with the owners of this grand Victorian terrace in Sydney‘s Paddington for the past 15 years so designing this third project for them came naturally.

After living in the house for over a year and researching many terraces in London and New York, Smart’s clients were able to formulate what they had in mind. “The brief was to deliver them a family home for a grown family. That meant that the bedrooms all have ensuites so the children could come back and stay for extended periods of time,” says Smart. “It was also to give them an exceptional north-facing backyard with a pool for children and grandchildren.”

The architect already had a great knowledge of what his clients loved but working on this 285-square-meter, five-storey house was also an opportunity to bring new ideas to the table. “The job was to be creative and compliment the owners’ favourite pieces,” he confesses. “Victoria in particular loves black, white and grey – and so do we. This provides a strong yet subtle backdrop for their impressive collection of Australian contemporary art.”

The spaces were initially very dark downstairs so bringing more natural light into the home appeared to be essential. Central to the transformation was also the conversion of an existing single-storey garage into a contemporary structure with a stair and lift to connect the five levels.

“On the outside, we wanted to respond sensitively to the Paddington streetscape,” says Smart, who chose brick for the new addition. “We needed a material that would complement the painted rendered walls of Paddington yet read in a contemporary way.”

Entering the house offers a real experience. “You go up four to five stairs and through the front door to a beautiful hallway with lovely art and traditional elements,” Smart says. “Once you leave that space you arrive on a balcony with a plate steel balustrade that looks down on the living room with 5.5 meter-high ceilings and double-height steel-framed doors at the back that open out onto a courtyard. It’s that moment of wow when you see that volume.”

Waxed rendered walls, terrazzo tiles and oak timber flooring combine with colourful paintings and monochromatic furnishing throughout in an atmosphere where heritage details –such as the mouldings, sculpted archways and original fireplaces– were retained.

“When I look at Lena, I see a building where old and new are intertwined so they fit together like hand and glove. There are remnants of old and parts of new together in a subtle way; so they aren’t playing against each other where the shiny and new makes the old look and crumbly,” Smart says. “This is achieved through proportion, detail and sensitivity to material.”

The Square 16 sofa from Boffi De Padova, lighting from Dedece and the dining table made out of a leftover marble slab from the owners’ ensuite are some of the key pieces in this character-filled home.

“To us, it is everything we could have wanted in our home for the future,” the owners say. “The home casts beautiful shadows at certain times of the day and the void space for the living section of the home is the family hub.”

“Great design can be sensitive, appropriately scaled, simple and confident without being traditional,” Smart concludes. “In this case, the addition is much smaller than the Victorian terrace and therefore feels very secondary.” Here old and new blend together perfectly.

[Images courtesy of Smart Design Studio. Photography by Romello Pereira.]