Home away from home
When renovating, it pays to have an architect who really knows you and your needs. For Janet and Michael Allen, there was nobody better to take on the job than their son James.
Janet and Michael Allen had lived in Keith in the state’s south-east all their lives – it’s where they met, married and had children. But they wanted a new place to live in the city, while still being able to commute back to their 6000-acre farm, Warrawee Park.
Originally, they were searching for a home that they could move straight into, and yet found themselves drawn to a crumbling villa on Adelaide’s fringe and even though it would require a lot of work, they found something familiar in the home; they’d lived in stone farmhouses their whole lives.
“We wanted a home base; something that was easy to look after and that we could leave if we want to go away or go back to the farm,” Janet says. “We wanted something that wouldn’t be too precious. We had been looking for a long time and we had three places on the market that ticked some boxes.
“We didn’t want a swimming pool, and we didn’t want stairs. This one was in a great position; it’s a great area to walk the dogs and a beautiful place to live.”
While there were so many positives, the house was in need of some serious love and attention, but luckily, Janet and Michael knew just the person: their son, James Allen. James is an architect living in Sydney, who comes back to Adelaide regularly for work, and he was handed a new canvas, an expansive 1890s villa in Rose Park.
The job was a mammoth one – the original floorboards were to be retained, while ceilings were replaced and the walls re-done. The front of the original villa featured four bedrooms, two of which have been retained, the third converted into the Lego/whiskey room (depending on whether the grandchildren are there or not) and the last transformed into a bathroom and walk-in-robe.
The house was then extended at the rear for an open, airy living space that respects the history of the existing building, while introducing a fresh feel. There are touching nods to Keith around the home, from the painting of the old farmhouse above the master bed, to the mirrored use of glory vines in both properties, and – most prominently – the use of stone. It’s a material that James uses liberally in his designs, and this home is no different.
While in most homes the study is tucked away, here, the open space is on full display along a main walkway. There’s no need to hide this room away; it’s a beautiful feature with its subtle peeks of stone on the rendered walls and rich timber used for the desk and shelving. There’s also the option to close the area off with a floor-to-ceiling pivoting timber panel.
The stone continues through to the kitchen, where larger blocks form walls and the same subtle brickwork from the study makes up the island, while atop it is a neutral-toned Taj Mahal quartzite slab.
Michael and Janet were told they’d have to choose two quartzite slabs because they wouldn’t be able to find a large enough piece for their kitchen. But when Michael and Janet arrived at the stone importer, they found a giant slab, and fortuitously, it was centimetre-perfect. Behind the kitchen, a stainless steel splashback slides across so the area connects to the butler’s pantry, allowing for easy serving between the areas.
“When we have a lot of people over, we can open this and use it as a bar area,” Janet says.
In the living space that overlooks the kitchen, light stone creates a wall around the fireplace. The brief was to use natural materials, and the flooring and a bench in the living space are made from concrete. With strong materials used throughout, the atmosphere of the home is softened by white linen curtains and neutral-toned seating and rugs. Two lounge chairs from Nordic Design sit with Michael’s grandparents’ chairs, and stools are from 1k Chairs.
The Allens are so used to life on the farm and being outdoors that they wanted to be surrounded by green, even indoors.
The corridor, whiskey room and living spaces all enjoy views into a courtyard, along with the light that streams in through it.
“Our farmhouse was darker, so James was aware to bring in more light,” Michael says. “That was the idea of the courtyard, and also the sense of stepping from old to new.”
The bedrooms are lighter shades of green, while the deep forest tone of the whiskey room creates a moodier feel. The colour was used even on the room’s heater, cleverly painted with car lacquer.
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James worked with Build Theory for the project, which won a host of awards at the HIA South Australian Housing Awards, including Kitchen of the Year and Renovation/Addition Project of the Year, and an award at the South Australian Architecture Awards. The master bathroom is a sanctuary, with the addition of a steam room, which hit the brief for health and wellbeing.
“Dad has always liked a deep soak in the bath after physical work and we thought a steam shower would be an approachable version for this for ageing in place,” James says.
The steam shower is cleverly tucked away in the bathroom, enclosed in the bay window that pops out from the side of the old portion of the house. Over in the mud room and laundry, there’s a real country feel, with the widely-spaced textured tiles, use of stone and touches of sage green.
Dotted around the house are a few paintings by Janet – she describes herself as a “Sunday painter”. In the hallway is a print of one of her originals, a landscape of Keith with a seemingly endless expanse of sky.
“I was a member of the Keith Art Group and they wanted this in an exhibition, which I hesitantly agreed to, as it was a piece that I imagined we’d keep,” Janet says. “A local ended up buying the original, so I had a print made as a gift for Michael.”
Janet has started classes at the nearby Adelaide Central School of Art and she has the perfect place at home to practice her craft. Detached from the home in the backyard, Janet’s studio is filled with paints and brushes and her work – on the wall hangs an impression of Iceberg Graveyard, a scene from a photograph taken during a trip to Antarctica.
James had a challenge to overcome with this room, wanting to install large timber doors with big window panes capturing the southern light that is perfect for an artist’s studio, without taking too much space for them to open and close.
The solution was doors that slide around the corner and out of the way, inspired by doors on an old shed farm.
As serene as it is to come out here and paint away, it’s not only Janet’s domain.
“The grandkids are aged five and two and they love it – they enjoy the freedom of this space for creativity as much as I do.”
James says the process of working with his parents was smooth, with a perfect balance of trust and discussion.
“They gave me a lot of freedom in the design, which meant a lot of the design work could be done shorthand and quickly, and then they had strong opinions on certain elements,” James says.
For James, the project has felt like a success knowing his parents are so happy here.
“It feels very settled,” James says. “The house feels very intended for Mum and Dad and they’re comfortable here.
“Some of our extended family, when walking into the house for the first time, remarked that it seemed as if they had always lived here. That’s very reassuring to me.”
This article first appeared in the March 2025 issue of SALIFE magazine.
