New beginnings

This home with good bones in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs was elegantly reimagined for a young family of four

- REBECCA HOOTON

It started with a stair runner. Kathryn had fallen in love with one she'd seen online - Hartley & Tissier, laid with precision on a staircase in a home designed by The Classic Outfitter - and knew it would be perfect in her house. “I hadn’t appreciated how difficult it would be to lay on the curves of our staircase,” she says with a laugh. “But the installer did a fantastic job.”

That attention to detail echoes throughout this refreshed harbourside home, where Kathryn lives with her husband and their two young children - Sophie, four, and Alexander, two. What was meant to be a quick kitchen and bathroom update soon evolved into something bigger. “A new build might have been easier!” jokes Kathryn. Though the original bones and structure were retained, almost every surface was reimagined with care.

The family had moved into the home shortly after Alexander was born, drawn to the leafy suburb's proximity to beaches, schools and local parks. “It’s a wonderful place for the kids to grow up,” says Kathryn, who's enjoying a career break from corporate law to focus on family life. A passion for classic interiors - particularly the work of design duo Georgia Boyd and Merian Migliore at The Classic Outfitter - set the tone for this transformation.