House Tour: Jenny and Peter's Craft Cottage Melbourne

Name: Jenny & Peter
Location: Melbourne, Victoria
Years lived in: 21, own

Jenny and Peter have lived in an old bluestone worker's cottage in Melbourne, Victoria for 21 years. The front of the house is basically in its original form and the back was added to create a kitchen and extra bedrooms. When you first enter, you realize the workers never left this cottage. Jenny is an artist working mainly with textiles, ceramics and found objects. The house is a maze of textures and colours - evidence of her magpie tendencies...

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The house is best described as a work in progress. Projects in mid-construction are all over the house, interrupted recently by the arrival of 7 week old baby Ben. The creative construction areas still exist, but now they have to share space with prams, baby rugs and bottles. There is a work life balance, it’s just being acted out in nearly every room of the house, as opposed to a single work room.

The fascination of this house is the details. The more you look at the surfaces and collections the more you see within them. There are some really nice ideas as well that can be worked into a less hectic interior like mixing decorative tiles within larger, slate ones in the kitchen. And the beautiful coloured tapestry hanging in the nursery is a great way to get a lot of colour into a room. We also loved the tiles framing the internal wall ‘window’. And of course the hanging artwork; we loved mixing the framed artwork with fabric hangings and 3D pieces.

AT Survey:

My/Our style:Eclectic, hoarding, collecting

Inspiration:Life, travel, art, ceramics

Favorite Element:Space, open plan, lofty ceilings

Biggest Challenge: It was an organic process

What Friends Say: It’s always evolving

Biggest Embarrassment: The mess

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Furniture: Inherited, collected over time

Beds: Leander crib for 7 week old Ben

Artwork: Own artwork mixed with friends

(Thanks, Jenny & Peter!)

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Photos by Emilie

And check our archives of past house tours HERE

Comments (13)

They have a lot of cool things in there, but if I lived in this place, I'd work in "editing" a bit.

Hey, not everybody's a minimalist. I like it.

Anyway, as an artist, you're always collecting visual references.

real home , where real people live and work their real every day life. happy and full life, as it appears. it looks as the place where everybody feel home and at ease in instant, yet it prompt you to move and explore. it intrigues and envelops you into holy hominess. there should be a sign above the front door "life is too important to take it seriously" . beautiful in it's concept, spirit and details.

What a wonderfully creative and comfortable interior!!!

And what a great environment for a child!!!
I love it!!! Thanks for sharing.

Very nice and colorful environment you have created! Definitely shows a lot of personality :)

I don't particularly care for it except for the tile floor.

EricaHT

I'm with you. Can't see the tree for the forest. Everything is fighting for your eye. Then again to each his own and some people really only have to please themselves and that's fair enough, after all they're living with it and enjoying it. Good for them. I'll take two aspirins and call you in the morning.

Not my favorite, but the tile is nice.

I agree to each his own -if they feel happy and comfortable there, well 'nuf said.
But most people are calmer and feel less stressed in a more streamlined atmosphere. It's part of the reason we love to go on vacation because we leave all our "stuff" at home and go to streamlined, visually calming hotel room decor.

This was a nice change from a lot of the other spaces which tend to be/look similar.

A little cluttered, but it feels lived in, folksy and honest. There's a lot to like and look at as a curious house guest.

Yes, a nice change from new-car-smell loftiminimalism and mid-c kitsch collections.

It is a very personal space. I wish I had a personal space to work with.