S
usanne Sutton feels a sense of joy every time she
opens the front door of her historical two-storey
home in Melbourne’s south-east. Inside lies
everything she and her family hold dear, displayed
to encourage a visual journey through the space.
Artfully placed throughout the gracious 19th-century house
are myriad treasures, each with a story attached, collected
here and abroad by Susanne and her husband Toby.
“We spent 15 years living in London and by the time we
returned to Melbourne, we had a lot of items that were
precious to us,” says Susanne. “We rented in London, so the
only way I knew to make a house a home was through
the things – furniture, artwork and other special pieces – that
I put in it. As the children came along, the collections
grew too. We had always kept an eye out for a house in
Melbourne that would be right for our family and all of our
things, and then we saw this home.”
Susanne and Toby were captivated by the house and its
established garden with rambling pebbled pathway,
towering silver birches and numerous leafy pockets.
Concealed behind the wrought-iron fence and Italianate
facade were expansive rooms with soaring ceilings and a
family-friendly layout featuring a first-floor parents’
retreat well separated from the other two bedrooms.
“It had the right footprint and scale, with a sense of
space,” says Susanne. “There was a lovely feel to the house,
but it definitely needed to be updated.”
She and Toby purchased the home in 2015 and promptly
called on the expertise of interior designer Ali Ross and
builder Jayden Wintle from Larkin Building Group. The new
owners explained their desire to repurpose selected zones
and overhaul the ’90s renovation with a simple but elegant
base palette of white walls, Carrara marble and original
Baltic-pine flooring, which was found under floating
parquetry. Naturally, Susanne and Toby also required ample
storage, both concealed and open, to showcase their
collectables without cluttering the interiors.
“It was a lovely process,” says Ali. “There was a clear focus
on reforming and transforming the kitchen, dining room
and laundry on the ground floor, and the upstairs bathrooms.
The dining room was relocated from one of the formal>HGHOUSES
84 | AUSTRALIAN HOUSE & GARDEN