Photography: Nat Spada | Styling: Tilly Roberts
Sometimes it’s the kids in the family who make the big decisions. For architect and Australian House & Garden’s 2024 Rising Star Kitty Lee and husband Matt, their first house purchase was influenced by then four-year-old Zac and his design brief: “Mummy, can I have a bath that’s stuck to the ground?”.
While their shower had hosted many happy children’s bathtimes-in-a-bucket over years of apartment living, the arrival of second child Maddie, plus the pressure of running a practice from a home office for a couple of years meant they were all dreaming of space, a backyard and separate bedrooms for each of the children.
Kitty can relate. She grew up as the middle sister having to share a bedroom. But when she was 10 and her parents made the decision to renovate and add another storey, she was incredulous. “It was the most eye-opening thing. I had no idea that you could even do that – and then make it your job.” It sparked her architectural career and, years later with multiple architectural projects under her belt, it was the right time to get stuck into a house of her own.
The freestanding cottage Kitty Lee and Matt ended up buying in Sydney’s Inner West was not quite what they were looking for. Zac’s first impression? “He said, ‘Mum, this is the worst house I have ever seen in my life!’ The house was dilapidated and the yard full of weeds as tall as him, but I asked him if he trusted me and he said ‘yes!’.”
Admirers of Kitty’s work will know that she has forged a reputation as an architect who understands designing beautiful yet efficient homes and spaces for family life. As a Sydneysider, she’s a fan of Federation restoration and keeping original details alive. “I love heritage homes and bringing them back to their former glory,” she says.
But it wasn’t just heritage charm that got this purchase over the line, it was also close enough to the city for Matt, an analyst, to cycle to work. And schools were close enough for Zac, now 9, and Maddie, now 5, to walk to. “My husband and I used to do that and we wanted that for our kids.”
Kitty’s approach to her work is yin and yang, marrying modern design and efficiency with a focus on realistic budgets. Of her three design tenets – floorplans, flow and frugality – Kitty always starts with the floorplan. “I need to make sure it is efficiently planned.” And so she set out to refurbish and expand their charming but tired cottage.
“So much of what I do is just stepping back and asking what’s really necessary.”
KITTY LEE
“We kept the front two bedrooms and redesigned the previous living room to accommodate the stairs, laundry and bathroom,” she says. Upstairs, a small landing leads to a bathroom, two bedrooms and a large playroom under the existing roof. Kitty preserved the beautiful joinery in this part of the house and reinvigorated the original Kauri pine floorboards.
A tasteful rear extension was added, “but zoned in a way to allow for multiple uses at once”. An airy kitchen-dining-living opens up to the backyard. Across the lawn and up cantilevered concrete steps, an open garage ‘platform’ offers flexible additional space, and a studio sits above.
The colour selection moves from light, bright family areas in Popcorn white to contrasting, cocooned zones, including greys and navy. “I know that colour drenching is all the rage, but I love doing it. Navy blue is my favourite colour and I think in older rooms that are already a little dark… go with some depth of colour. The light changes throughout the day and it’s lovely to see that on the walls.”
“I tried to prioritise using high-quality, natural materials for their timeless appeal.”
KITTY LEE
True to form, the materials are family focused. “I think that it’s about specifying finishes that are robust and withstand the test of children and time.” This includes a burnished concrete structural slab to act as the flooring, a heat-resistant, waterproof Fenix surface for the kids’ and Kitty’s desks, and dolomite stone in the kitchen.
Kitty and Matt’s family home has delivered everything they wanted: an incredibly luxurious bathroom, including a superb bath (on brief for Zac, and Maddie, too), a backyard big enough to entertain in and more than enough bedrooms for them, their children and guests. But it’s not over yet.
“It’s still a work in progress. But we know that the house is big enough for us and flexible enough to grow with us. And I think, yes, that’s exactly what we wanted.”
Kitty Lee Architecture: klarch.com.au.
Geometric Construction: geometricconstruct.com.
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