Lawyer Hannah Douglas was thinking about packing up and moving abroad in 2018 when she discovered the Brunswick house for sale that changed everything.
“I’ve never lived in Brunswick before, but my friend and I came to look at this house out of interest,” says Hannah.
“I remember as soon as we walked in the front door, we both said, ‘Oh, this is beautiful,’” in unison. She had a beautiful energy, and still does.
We left and I said, “Can you see me in Brunswick?” And he said, “Yes, you can be a Brunswick baby.”
The house looked very different then than it does today, but Hannah loved it just as much. “There’s something positive about that — not all homes do that,” she says.
Hannah lived in the house for about three years before embarking on the renovation, motivated by the small existing bathroom.
“Honestly, the bathroom was pretty bad,” she explains. “There wasn’t a single flat surface other than the top of the washing machine – just a sink attached to the wall (no seat or anything) and the medicine cabinet was above the toilet. I lost a lot of my good mascara when I opened it!” ‘
Hannah found interior designer Jasmine McClelland Design, initially briefing her “just to make this small bathroom more functional,” but a much larger renovation soon followed.
“It’s so beautiful, and I took the time to understand how I live and what would make a home both beautiful and functional for me,” says Hannah.
“There was a lot of ‘scope creep,’ and I eventually decided to take it and do the kitchen and some custom cabinetry in the central living area as well.”
The renovated home features new flooring, interior doors, a landscaped courtyard, a light well and a completely new back wall – the latter replacing some Gothic-inspired windows and a back door that takes up valuable interior space when opened inward.
“It also involved a lot of fixing issues in the house, like the subfloor and new roof in certain places,” Hannah says of the renovation. “The way I describe it is that everything changed, except all the rooms stayed in the same place.”
Hannah felt overwhelmed by decision-making during the project, so she enlisted the help of several friends to choose materials and fixtures, which made the house feel even more special.
“So I have Olaf’s ceiling roses, Dom’s French doors, Sophie’s brass door handles, and Nikki’s decision not to install a wood-burning fireplace,” she says.
“I never want to have to pick out door handles again – that was surprisingly technical and difficult!”
Hannah now describes her home as “gently active”, serving as a quiet and uplifting refuge from her busy working life.
“By active, I don’t mean lively, but natural and generative… I work very long hours sometimes, and it’s important to me that home is a completely different, calm place,” she explains. I’ve made a point of not having a home office, to keep those parts of my life separate.
Arriving home at the end of the day to the warm, painted Victorian facade of the Dulux Ecru Quarter with a vibrant red door sets the tone for what is to come.
“I was wondering whether to paint it glossy black or bright red, and my cousin said, ‘Black would look great, but there will be days where the last thing you need is to come home to a black door,’” Hannah recalls. “She was right,” Hannah recalls. Of course, and on those days, a happy red door is exactly what you need!” I’m often grateful for her saying that.
Along with the invaluable input of Hannah’s friends, this project came together with the expertise of Jasmine McClelland Design, Danny Searle at Contour Cabinets, artist Gab Nash who designed the patio, Glenn Redmond at Red Letter Landscapes, and “builder extraordinaire” Luke Taylor at L&G . Creative projects.
“It’s probably obvious from what you’ve said, but the decisions you’ve made about the house are the sum of a lot of conversations with friends and loved ones, and I hope that comes through in how you feel,” says Hannah. here. It certainly is for me.
