Interior designer Adelaide: bluestone at the front, contemporary at the back

The villa plan is worth keeping

Adelaide villas were drawn to a rule. A central hallway, rooms paired off it, ceilings near three and a half metres, and windows placed to hold the symmetry. The stone does the talking outside. Inside, the value sits in the proportion.

Most renovations lose it in the first week. A wall comes out to make one long room, the hall loses its end point, and two good rooms turn into one that feels like neither. Any interior designer Adelaide owners consider should read the original plan before drawing over it. They should also say plainly which walls carry the proportion and which are only in the way.

So we measure the front of the house first. Ceiling height, cornice depth, skirting, hall width, where the fireplaces sit. Those numbers go on to set door heights and joinery lines in the new part of the house. It is the cheapest way to make an addition look deliberate.

Rear extensions that do not embarrass the front

The lean-to behind a villa is the part everyone dislikes and nobody has drawings for. Low ceiling, a step down, a laundry that used to be a porch. Replacing it is the main job in most Adelaide homes we are asked about.

The join is where the design is won or lost. We keep the hallway reading as a spine, so you can stand at the front door and see all the way to the garden. The new ceiling sits higher than the old lean-to, though not level with the villa. It only has to beat the squeeze that makes an addition feel like a shed. Where the stone stops, we let it stop. A plaster return, a step in the floor or a slim glazed link all say the same thing without pretending.

Kitchen, pantry, laundry and mudroom get planned as one zone instead of four. On a villa footprint the plumbing wants to stay near the old wet wall, so grouping them saves money early.

Heat, dry air and the western sun

Kent Town, the city gauge, averages close to 17 days a year at or above 35 degrees, on Bureau of Meteorology records. Nights then drop away quickly. That daily swing is the thing to design for, and stone walls handle it well. Glass does not.

Almost all the discomfort in a renovated villa traces back to one new rear room with a wide western opening and nothing outside it. Ask any interior designer Adelaide clients rate about west facing glass. The answer should be about what sits outside it, rather than what hangs inside.

• Shading outside the west and north glass, sized to the sun angle, not blinds on the inside
• High and low openings so the house can be flushed with cool air once the day breaks
• Double glazing on the west face first when the budget will not cover every window
• Pale hard wearing floors in the new rooms, darker quieter finishes in the original ones
• Joinery finishes picked for dry air, because timber moves more here than in the humid states
• Salt taken seriously near the coast, in hardware, tapware and outside metal

Where the work tends to be

Four areas account for most of what we are sent, and each asks something different. An interior designer Adelaide clients hire cannot move the same plan between them.

• North Adelaide: bluestone and two storey terraces on tight sites, where new work has to sit quietly with the street
• Unley Park: wide return verandah villas on big blocks, where a rear addition can be genuinely large
• Springfield: later houses on garden allotments, more about light, levels and outlook than heritage detail
• Glenelg: coastal cottages and apartments, where glare, salt and storage decide the plan

How a Gold Coast studio designs a house in Adelaide

We do not claim a local office. Luxxe works from the Gold Coast and delivers interstate through 3D renders, virtual reality walkthroughs, drafting packages and site visits at the points that matter. Clients walk the rear extension in VR while it can still be changed, well before a builder prices it.

Tammy Brazel holds a Bachelor's degree in Design and has worked in residential interiors for eight years. Older buildings are familiar ground. Luxxe delivered the interiors of Duddingston House, the Category A listed Palladian mansion in Edinburgh designed by Sir William Chambers in the 1760s. The studio has also completed a Melbourne Georgian, a Brisbane renovation and four residences on the Sovereign Islands.

Services cover full home design, drafting, kitchen, bathroom and laundry design, home cinema and bar, renovations, decoration and work with your builder on a new build. Send plans, or photos of the front rooms and the lean-to, and you will get a straight answer about what is worth keeping.