Product

Tasmanian Ash, Quarter Cut, Slipmatch with custom stain 

Architect

Work by BASE and Hicks & Holmested

Project

Redfern Terrace

Photography

Tom Ross

Styling

Jessica Bradley from Work by BASE

Joinery

Ample Interiors

Builder

Rise Architectural Builder

Some renovations are about transformation. This one was about listening. When the new owners of a heritage-listed terrace in Redfern, part of a row constructed around 1864, engaged Jessica Bradley of BASE to reimagine their kitchen, the brief was deceptively simple: bring in light, open the home to its extraordinary garden, and do so without pretending the new work was anything other than new.

What followed was a renovation of rare sensitivity. The existing kitchen, dark and closed from the generous sandstone-paved courtyard beside it, was reimagined entirely; opened toward the north-facing side garden, connected to the rear terrace, and threaded through with a series of deliberate material choices that respond to the richly textured world beyond the glass. Patagonia quartzite for the island, its warm sandy tones echoing the ancient sandstone pavers outside. Recycled sandstock bricks for the new rear studio, corbelled to distinguish the new from the old while honouring the material language of the site. And throughout the joinery – running the full length of the shared wall and incorporating kitchen, laundry, storage, and dining seat in one seamless composition – Briggs Veneers’ Tasmanian Ash, quarter cut, finished in a custom medium green stain that allows the fine, straight grain of the veneer to remain visible and present beneath the colour.

It is a material decision of quiet intelligence. The quarter cut’s consistent, linear grain brings a subtle texture to the green joinery that a flat paint finish could never achieve; the timber breathing through the colour, lending the cabinetry a depth and handcrafted quality that feels entirely at home in a 160-year-old terrace. The green itself anchors the kitchen within its garden context, drawing the ferns and fig tree and overgrown brick fences of the courtyard into the interior palette without replicating them literally.

When Jessica commenced maternity leave mid-project, friend and colleague Joanna Bridle of Hicks and Holmested stepped in seamlessly to deliver the remainder; a testament to the strength of the design vision and the collaborative relationships that brought it to life. Built by Rise Architectural Builders, the completed renovation is everything a heritage renovation should be: honest about what is old, clear about what is new, and deeply generous in the way it connects a family to the place they now call home.