Fans of the fashion and lifestyle website BellaMUMMA will be familiar with the ex-magazine editor’s inimitable style. Nikki’s renovation journey has inspired thousands of renovation ideas with images that have tantalised as they visually unfolded both on social media and on magazine pages across the country.
Nikki has transformed her home into a modern family haven and she shares with us images of the home hub - her lust-worthy kitchen.
Once a dated 1940s beach house, the weatherboard home in Avalon on Sydney’s Northern Beaches was purchased almost 15 years ago by Nikki and her husband Adam, when they fell in love with the area.
“With the boys being 11 and 14 we were at a crossroads on whether to sell and buy something bigger or stay and renovate to make the house work better,” says the BellaMUMMA creator and editor.
"We decided to renovate and to put the money that we would have spent on moving and stamp duty into creating our ultimate dream home."
Nikki, Homeowner
They engaged friend and interior designer, Nina Maya to direct and style the home renovation, which involved the family moving out for three months so that the house could be gutted and rebuilt.
A refined palette of neutrals was chosen, using only natural materials such as European oak flooring, marble, stone and brass. Nina designed a space that maintains the home’s original charm, while maximising the indoor areas with added storage.
“The bespoke plasterboard shelving in the living area is definitely one of the wow-factor features in the house,” says Nikki. “It’s great for creating niches that work in harmony with the overall design of the room.” Plasterboard can be used to make a recess and to create nooks for storage units that don’t consume valuable floor or wall space. As a clever design technique, they can neatly house possessions like TV’s – cleverly hiding the nest of cables and providing a fluid finish.
Nikki also used Gyprock plasterboard to replace the existing ornate cornices with a modern shadowline effect. A shadowline is a simple alternative to a cornice that leaves a streamlined gap where the ceiling meets the wall. For Nikki, this subtle update contributed to the home’s clean lines and contemporary style.
The original wall separating the living area and the kitchen was removed, and to increase the connection to the outside, full-height glass bi-fold doors were installed on the back deck and skylights were used to boost the amount of natural light.
“We went from an old timber framed sliding double door in the dining room to a Stegbar aluminium bi-fold patio door which has completely opened up the room and given it the illusion of more space. Plus, we were able to match and complement the colour of our home choosing a pearl white gloss finish which perfectly suited our beachside feel,” says Nikki.
The kitchen is one of the first rooms the family had outgrown. With Adam’s love of cooking and the couple’s passion for entertaining, the kitchen was maximised and upgraded with new ASKO appliances for a modern and contemporary space that performed as amazingly as it looked. The kitchen and the benchtop bar are now the hub of the house.
“We also replaced the small timber framed windows in the bathroom with floor to ceiling Breezway Louvres from Stegbar. This is a popular trend in architectural design which we liked, but we chose the louvres mainly for their ventilation properties and ability to allow natural airflow and light into the home, while giving the illusion of more space,” says Nikki.
