A family opts for a maximalist home with interiors providing a spectacular show of lilac, green and yellow 
The original pitched ceiling has been lined with pine. The cushions from Sage x Clare, Gorman and Bonnie and Neil pick up on the large artwork by Mignon Steele. The eye capiz shell wall plaque is from Bauhaus.
Home Profile
Meet & greet: Tanya Van Der Water (entrepreneur and founder of creative hub The Bank Space), Cesar Bassi and their children Sabina, 14, Madiba, 13, Kingston, 11, Pheloni, six, and Reign, 22 months.
The property: A newly expanded ’80s home with a retro-cool vibe.
Tanya loves mixing timber species and wanted to accentuate their differences. The wall units are made of blackbutt veneer, the dining table was bought locally and the rug is vintage Moroccan. The accessories are from Simone Berry and Bonnie and Neil and the artwork by Nicole Kelly.
More is more and less is a bore sums up the renovated ’80s home where Tanya Van Der Water and Cesar Bassi live with their intensely busy family of five kids.
Spanning three-and-a-half levels with five bedrooms, and a pool nestled into the landscaped backyard, the home is alive with high-voltage colours, art-adorned walls and a green carpet that flows through the bedrooms like a summer lawn.
The reimagined interior riff on the dwelling’s 1980s origins, blended with a healthy dose of 1960s and 1970s design inspiration. “We like fun things, and don’t take ourselves seriously at all. This house represents that,” says Tanya, an entrepreneur and founder of The Bank Space, a flexible creative hub that’s housed in a well-preserved mid-century building.
The green sofa set was bought locally, the cushion is from Sage x Clare and coffee table from Freedom. The sideboard is an original Parker design, which Tanya has owned for years. The rug is from Miss Amara and artworks by Belynda Henry and Paula Birac.
Their knowledge of the home was pretty solid when they bought in 2021 – after renting it on and off for five years before approaching the owners with an offer.
“We loved the house, but knew that we needed more space with a growing family. And we wanted to get that space without compromising the house’s integrity,” says Tanya
Renovation goals included retaining the throwback vibe while stretching the architectural shell to bring the bedroom count up from three to five and incorporate extra bathrooms. “That’s why the renovation took 18 months rather than what could have been a short build – they had to keep the house and work around it.”
Expanding Tanya and Cesar’s home to fit their family took engineering prowess. Architect Matt Dickson filled in the space underneath the stilt dwelling and created a new ground-level entry with a laundry off to the side. The facade is made of spotted-gum battens stained in Cutek Colourtone Rustic Gold.
The nifty solution devised by their architect Matt Dickson involved adding a bedroom level and capitalising on the unused space underneath the stilt house. “It was an engineering feat keeping the house propped up for a month while they dug out tonnes of dirt to create the new ground-level entryway and laundry,” says Tanya, who worked with the builders.
“We built on top and underneath, but kept the middle level mostly as it was. People who visit the house and knew it before can still see the old home in there.”
Wallpaper from Spoonflower complements the boldness elsewhere. The side table is secondhand and flowerpot table lamp from Cult Design.
Tanya was clear about her ‘non-negotiables’. “I wanted the green carpet, and a laundry chute from the top floor down to the new laundry. And a one-metre peephole that connected the new bedroom level to the lounge room.” The retro flooring choice provided interior designer Isa Stancourt with a foundation for the overall look.
“Tanya already had a lot of mid-century furniture and really wanted to have some fun with it all. She wanted bold colour and a home that wasn’t conservative,” says Isa, who also worked on updating The Bank Space in a way that complemented the 1958 build.
“I’m actually appreciating split-level houses and 1980s finishes after this project,” says interior designer Isa. “The layouts are often really well thought out, and they divide the spaces really well. Homes became more open plan from the 1990s, but that’s not necessarily practical.”
Mid-century design, timber tones and fun colour pops come together in the highly functional kitchen repurposed for a large family. The cabinets are made of blackbutt timber veneer. The benchtops are made of recycled timber, as is the window frame. The kitchen island stools are vintage and reupholstered in yellow fabric.
“Working with Isa was critical,” says Tanya, whose infectious energy beams through her megawatt smile and rainbow-hued outfits. “I was pretty allergic to ideas about white and beige tones, but I needed someone to tie everything together.” The decision to go with joinery finished in electric tones of lilac, caramel and canary yellow was of the high-risk, high-reward kind.
“Once it goes in, it kind of has to work. It’s not a quick or cheap fix to change it. I didn’t realise how tricky it would be to coordinate all the colours,” she admits.
Also in a Burnt Ochre finish, this space features Escape Velour carpet in Esther from SuperTuft, which Tanya loves.
“If I went in with something, Tanya was so excited and enthusiastic about it that she encouraged me to take it further,” says Isa, who not only considered how seven humans would move around the home but custom-designed all the playful details, such as the squiggly hardwood handles at the entrance, in the laundry and study, and the lilac powdercoated tubular-steel wall shelving in the kitchen.
Alongside the personality-infused flourishes, each space is family-friendly and practical, courtesy of hardwearing finishes such as polished concrete, terrazzo and recycled hardwood.
The joinery is Laminex Burnt Ochre with Dulux Cartoon Red pigeon holes.
The open kitchen boasts two dishwashers and two ovens to max out the catering options, while the study doubles as a secondary hang-out zone for the family. And most importantly, each of the five children has their own room and plenty of space to spread out.
The fresh palette in the family bathroom is achieved with Ciottolo Grande terrazzo tiles and matte white mosaics, a pine ceiling and Glacier textured glass.
“The renovation was a really joyful experience because we were doing something that we had never done before for our family, and it ticked all the creative boxes,” says Tanya, who expresses masses of gratitude for the trades and design talent that helped bring their vision to life.
“We are lucky to have creative friends who are artists and musicians. We surround ourselves with people who inspire us and bring what we see as a vital part of our world to ourselves and our kids.”
Read this next: 10 easy ways to add colour to your home
See more photos of this brightly coloured maximalist home below
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“Mixing old and new throughout the house has given it a comfortable feeling,” says Tanya. The wall colour is Dulux Arrow Shaft, bedding from Bed Threads and Kip & Co, anglepoise light from Cult Design and artwork from Argentina.
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The joinery is painted in Dulux Jubilation. The bedding is from I Love Linen, Sage x Clare; cushion from Bonnie and Neil.
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An ’80s Memphis design vibe is strong in here, courtesy of Laminex Just Lilac joinery and white Inax Sugie Hanten tiles from Artedomus laid with Kerakoll yellow grout. Elysian mixer in Flora from Abi Interiors. The baskets and towels are from Adairs and the graphic print was bought in Argentina.
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“Tanya wanted the entry to feel like an art gallery, so we went with polished concrete flooring and added uplights,” says designer Isa. The console is by Sarah Ellison, the vintage rug bought from an online auction, artwork by Marinka Parnham and sculpture by Lauren Lea Haynes.
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