Work Of Art

This versatile Melbourne home readily switches from a grand gallery for the owner’s paintings and sculptures to an inviting sanctuary for family life.

- Chris Pearson

With its mammoth columns, crisp concrete floors and a soaring ceiling, this inner-Melbourne home has become a grand impromptu gallery for its artist owner Kylie Thomas, whose bold paintings and sculptures surprise at every turn.

The eclectic house offers her endless inspiration too. Sitting in her translucent new extension, with its floor-to-ceiling glass framed by a concrete colonnade and overlooking a grassy meadow, she can savour the shifting seasons and ever-changing light, ideal for someone who, as well as being adept with both paintbrush and chisel, is a country girl at heart.

Paradoxically, these grand spaces switch with chameleon ease into a relaxed family home for her, husband Tim Collier and their children Orlando, 15, and Ankha, 11. When Kylie and Tim bought the property in 2015, they were wooed by the generous back garden and the elegant Federation home, with its ornate timber detailing, bay windows and wraparound verandah. “I love older houses. They are so romantic,” she says. But a less-than-romantic 1990s open-plan addition suffered from poor flow and no zoning – a no-no in a family home – and sat at an awkward 45-degree angle to the rest of the house. The front and back failed to neatly marry old and new, and the red timbers used throughout looked dated.