PERFECT MATCH

METICULOUSLY DESIGNED AND SURPRISINGLY SUSTAINABLE, THIS SENSATIONAL PERTH HOME MARRIES COLONIAL-ERA CHARM WITH CONTEMPORARY FLAIR

- ANNA McCLELLAND

Do you remember if it’s three bedrooms, or four?!” So went just one of the panicked questions Akshee (Ash) and Dhruv asked each other after they suddenly found themselves to be the new owners of an 1980s-era home in an inner suburb of Perth.

Tempted by the location, Ash says the couple decided to “put something cheeky on”, never thinking anything would come of their offer. “We got a call that night saying, ‘Congratulations, it’s yours’,” recalls Ash, who understood their new house, with its garish blue kitchen, orange carpets and challenging boxed-in floor plan, would need a major revamp before they could call it home.

The pair’s shared Kenyan/Indian heritage meant that the British colonial look instantly struck a chord. “It’s a style that reminds us both of our childhood growing up in Kenya, and holidays spent on safari at lodges with an old British colonial feel,” says Ash.

Despite advice to knock it down, the couple could see the home’s potential, and as ardent environmentalists, couldn’t stand the thought of “wasting a perfectly well-built original home,” says Ash. That’s when Ash, who with Dhruv has built investment properties before, decided to don her project manager hat, hiring contractors herself and pouring all her spare time into the project, in lieu of a builder. And after 12 months of Pinterest, painstaking research and planning, Ash was ready to begin an “aesthetically-driven renovation.” Interior designer Kelly Donougher of 13 Interiors helped realise Ash’s vision, by contrasting dark tones of ash wood furniture and black Georgian bars (fitted across windows and doors and painted in Dulux Night Sky) with crisp white walls and chic stone surfaces.