Share Your Space: A couple in their 30s who completely renovated their old Victorian terrace.

Mamamia's Share Your Space series asks everyday women to share all the juicy, specific details about their home. How much do you pay in rent? Who do you live with? Where did you get your furniture? It's pulling back the curtain on real estate in Australia, and allowing us to really see how the people around us live. This week, a 32-year-old living in Sydney shows us around her home.

Age: 32

Job: Head of Partner Solutions

Rent: We’re paying off a mortgage and construction loan, I shared the repayments 50/50 with my husband. 

Location: Redfern in Sydney, NSW.

Lifestyle: I live with my husband and our two daughters. Living so centrally I walk everywhere. I’m on mat leave right now which means I get to make the most of the big park at the end of our street and all the delicious cafes in Redfern and Surry Hills. When I’m at work, my commute time is next to nothing. I love being so close to work and my daughter’s daycare, even after a long workday we get time together as a family. My husband has a car which is good because on the weekends we tend to drive to the beach, shopping centres or see family, it’s all really close. 

So, take us inside:

We renovated a Victorian terrace, described by the agent at the time as "a retro property preserved in the past" or in English... "rundown house with a dodgy 70s extension". This is our second renovation together, my husband has a construction background and co-founded TileCloud so that definitely helps.

Bedroom/s:

We’ve got four bedrooms, but we use one as a playroom so I can close the door on the chaos of toddler toys at the end of the day. With two kids, storage is an absolute necessity. We have built-ins in every room, including a walk-in closet in our bedroom. 

The majority of our bedroom is taken up by a monster king-sized bed that I absolutely adore. The giant velvet headboard is from Brosa.

There’s no TV, just pictures and plants, so it’s a really calm and relaxing room. Normally. Our newborn is in with us right now so less relaxation and more night feeds. The mirror is from IKEA, I love how it adds light and the illusion of space to the room.

Before: 

Image: Supplied. 

 After:  

Image: Supplied. 

Image: Supplied.

Image: Supplied.

Bathrooms:

I can’t deal with gross bathrooms and when we bought this place the bathrooms were the worst bit. One tiny indoor bathroom, with a shower/bathtub combo, and an outhouse. Luckily bathrooms are my husband's thing and we went to town. We have four bathrooms. Excessive maybe, but I love it. They are all decorated in black and white with beautiful tiles of course. 

Our laundry is upstairs which might seem weird but umm, our clothes are all upstairs and I do about four loads of laundry a day (vomitty winter baby).

The family bathroom has the most lux bathtub, which is probably wasted on our toddler’s bath time tea parties but gets used every day. I’m a shower person and so I adore the double shower in our master bedroom ensuite. The black shower heads and tapware are from Meir. The shower has a shelf built into the wall, perfect for my random mix of products recommended by beauty guru Leigh Campbell on You Beauty.

Before: 

Image: Supplied.

After:

Image: Supplied. 

Image: Supplied. 

Lounge room:

My fave room. Terrace houses are famously cold, damp and dark due to no side windows. We overcame this by adding a skylight, gas fire and turning the back wall into panelled glass doors. It’s such a warm and sunny space.

I had our second baby mid-COVID, so I spent many weeks snuggling her (and binging old How I Met Your Mother episodes) on the sofa during the newborn phase and I’m so grateful I had a nice space to do it. 

Our couch is from Companion Couches, it’s totally modular and took about 30 mins to make. So comfy and has a special coating so it doesn’t stain, which is handy as we eat 99% of our dinners on here once the kids go to bed. The wall behind the sofa is rough sawn Oregon planks.

My favourite gadget in here is our Samsung Frame TV which looks like an artwork when not being used as a TV. It’s nice that it doesn’t feel like the screen is the centre of the room.

Before: 

Image: Supplied.

After: 

Image: Supplied.

Front room:

We have a separate front room which is known as “the footy watching room” for obvious reasons, and is generally used for storing our many prams, school bags and shoes. The Aquabumps print on the wall was a wedding gift from our friends.

The hallway you can see in the picture is all exposed brick. One of my favourite features in the house is the down lighting in the hallway, we can adjust the lights to highlight the art and photos.

Before: 

Image: Supplied. 

After: 

Image: Supplied.

Kitchen:

Our kitchen, dining and living room is one long space which is great for socialising or keeping an eye on the kids.

The theme for the kitchen is definitely minimalist... but almost accidentally just because it is so much easier to keep clean. The island bench in the middle means we can chat as we prep food. The high stools are from Kmart. 

My favourite thing about the kitchen is the Billi zip tap which has sparkling water ON TAP literally. Game changer. I feel fancy every time I have a drink.

Before: 

Image: Supplied. 

After: 

Image: Supplied.

Garden:

The original terrace was just a suburban concrete prison. In contrast, our little terrace garden was my oasis during early COVID lockdown when I was in my third trimester and working from home. We actually turned it into a gym complete with spin bike and weights and I’d be out there at 7am every day doing Zoom classes. 

Sadly, it’s also home to my herb garden grave. After early success with parsley (but who even likes parsley?), we’ve managed to kill the full range of Bunnings herbs.

Before: 

Image: Supplied. 

After: 

Image: Supplied. 

Image: Supplied.

Garage:

Off street parking is rare in Sydney and parking rangers are plentiful, so we are lucky to have a double underground garage. My husband keeps his project car down there and I keep 100s of litres of frozen breastmilk in a dedicated freezer. Weird combo I know. 

Image: Supplied.

Final thoughts:

I love our house. Hands down the BEST place to have been ‘stuck’ during lockdown. But we are actually about to move. We’ve just listed (hence the pretty pictures) and you can stalk the photos and floorplans in full here if you’re a property nerd like me.

You can catch up on our previous Share Your Space stories here:

• Share Your Space: Inside a $650 one-bedroom terrace in Sydney, with a puppy who likes to eat everything.
• Share Your Space: Inside a beach-side apartment in Sydney, with second-hand buys and lots of plants.
• Share Your Space: Inside a $650 two-bedroom house in Sydney, with a lot of Ikea accessories.

Feature Image: Supplied.