Stewart Street

Stewart Street was a tiny timber cottage tucked away in a Paddington laneway and featured in Belle in 1995. The small proportions were no impediment for Garth to create elegance on a scale usually reserved for grand homes.

The compact proportions of the cottage with its Juliet balcony were no restriction to using bold colours (blue and yellow).  He scaled down a look normally seen in a country home.  In a confined space “every inch has to work”, Garth said. For example, a laundry is tucked away in a slim cupboard in the hall.   

A Georgian portrait in a gilt frame was placed over the sitting-room mantel. Antique botanical prints were hung in the dining area. Upholstered high-ceiling walls above a dado level were used in the main bedroom. A generous storage space was created in the attic and under the house.

Uncluttered and open to the outdoors, the house did not feel confining. Gothic detailed French doors open to a pocket-handkerchief stone-flagged courtyard off the small-scale kitchen.