Cooks Hill

This Cooks Hill beauty, an original brick bungalow the Brown family purchased a few years ago and has been extended with a smart, efficient modern design.

The contrast between the old, the original three-bedroom home at the front, and the new, a spacious indoor-outdoor kitchen that spills onto a courtyard and a parents' bedroom, bathroom and retreat at the rear, is remarkable, yet seamless.

The secret to the success of the project is in the detail. Bespoke original features from the home, which dates to around 1915, were kept, and in some cases, made into features, like the stained glass windows. The brickwork at the front was left intact, imperfections and all. The chipped wood on the front verandah stayed, as did the tiny decorative lions on each side of the front steps.

The home is now a modern but energy efficient extension, with the high ceiling kitchen featuring north-east facing glass doors and windows offering an oasis of warmth and space.

It was also pivotal to the family to maintain the integrity of the block's 80-year-old Jacaranda, which abuts their new parents' loungeroom at the back of the home. The Jacaranda still wraps around its long-time companion, a crepe myrtle.