The Long Game

Slowly but very surely, a rundown terrace house in Sydney’s inner west has evolved into a spectacular family home.

- Sarah Pickette

Renovation projects come in all shapes and sizes. This one, in Sydney’s inner west, was completed in four stages over almost a decade. “It wasn’t ideal,” says homeowner and interior designer Annie Bowen, “but it was the best way for us to be able to afford what we set out to do.”

From the minute they bought it, Annie and her husband Sam had ambitions of restoring the 1901 terrace and extending it for their growing family. Others might have run a mile when the initial quotes – best described as eye-watering – came in, but Annie took it all in her stride and applied her considerable design experience to breaking the project into smaller, much more doable portions.

The house had been a purchase from the heart. “It was 2011 and we’d not long finished a previous renovation so we weren’t looking to buy,” she says, “but I fell in love with the history of this place.”