Lana Taylor, Erin Cayless and Bonnie Hindmarsh are three professional renovators known as Three Birds. In their latest book Three Birds Renovations, they put their skills to use giving a cottage a new lease of life – exterior included
When we put out a call asking if anyone in Sydney wanted us to renovate their home, we never imagined that our inbox would be overflowing with messages from over 800 people submitting their homes for consideration. We were blown away! Especially because there was a bit of a catch: they’d need to hand over their keys, their budget and full creative control to us.
After days of deliberating and comparing all of the submissions, we found our diamond in the historic town of Windsor. This dated little cottage on a busy main road with a flight path overhead was a true renovator’s delight. She was the right size, shape and location, and was in dire need of some TLC. Even better, the reno timeline meant that we’d be able to wedge this project into our already jam-packed schedule (hence our affectionate nickname for her: our ‘Windsor Wedgie’).
Modern mums Sarah and Cath, along with their two sons Chaise and Addison, gave us their keys, their budget and their blessing, and off we went. From the front fence to the backyard, we transformed their cute cottage into a warm, stylish and low-maintenance family home they’ll love for years to come.
We welcomed them back to their home by throwing them an intimate and unforgettable backyard wedding… and they all lived happily ever after.
Don’t fret the fretwork
Decorative fretwork can be beautiful. Sometimes you need to keep it, and the end result can be amazing. At other times, it pays to be ruthless and fully committed to your vision board. On this house, the fretwork was dating the cottage and keeping it rooted in the past while we were trying to lead it towards a cleaner, more contemporary future. The fretwork had to go for the greater good. These decisions shouldn’t be hard. Your vision board will hold the answers.
Clad up for contemporary
One of the most important design decisions when it came to modernising this cottage was changing the direction of the cladding. Running the cladding vertically rather than horizontally helps to update period cottages in a way that looks fresh and new without sacrificing character.
Chunk up window trims
If you aren’t changing the windows, consider updating their trims. It’s easy, it freshens up the facade, and it gives your windows real presence. We gave these babies a thick fibre-cement trim that’s easy to attach around existing window frames. It makes the windows pop and has the added benefit of being a hard-wearing and low-maintenance material.
Go for gold
It’s the cherry on top of the pretty icing on that delicioso cake. Gold trim is definitely not a must-have, but there’s no doubt that it takes the look up a few notches. Best of all, it’s not expensive. We bought it from the local hardware store.
Say hello to sexy new tiles There’s no better way to pretty up an entry than with some drop-dead gorgeous tiles. They can really take a boring concrete porch to next-level amazing. The decision to tile the vertical front face of the porch was made at the last minute, but we’ve got to say that we think it totally makes the entire porch!
The power of three
One of our fave outdoor styling tricks is grouping three pots together with a variety of green, non-flowering plants. It never lets us down. For this house, rather than choosing plants with glossy, bright green leaves (such as banana palms, which we adore), we went for plants with a muted, grey–green colour to better tie in with the hue of the house.
Images and text from Three Bird Renovations: Dream Home How-To by Bonnie Hindmarsh, Erin Cayless and Lana Taylor
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