Small Cottage for a Large Family: Example from Australia

Moving from Norway to Australia with two children is not an easy decision, but if you're supported by friends, everything becomes simpler. The 600 sq m plot in Shenton Park, a suburb of Perth in Western Australia, was purchased together with their friends.

The group of friends settled into a renovated 1950s house. Our heroes, Beck and James, built a new house on the plot. It was impossible to divide the territory into two addresses, so the additional structure had to meet the standards for auxiliary housing, such as a guest house. In the end, our heroes received permission to build a single-story house no larger than 78 sq m.

"We've always lived compactly, so the modest size of the future house didn't bother us. There was a period when we lived in Norway on the coast in an elling. Its size was only 55 sq m, but we were comfortable," — Beck recounts.

They designed and decorated the house themselves. Beck is an architecture graduate, and her husband James is a costume designer, so the couple approached the interior with taste and expertise.

Beck spent 11 months planning and coordinating the project, and they assembled the entire house in just eight months. On a small area, space had to be provided for comfortable living for all family members — parents, two children, and a cat. Immediately after moving in, the couple realized they were expecting another child. However, the house proved to be convenient even for a family of five.

It was possible to arrange all necessary rooms in the small house: two children's bedrooms, parents' bedroom, laundry room, and wardrobe. Still, the space does not feel cramped: open-plan layout, high vaulted ceiling, and glass doors to the garden visually expand it. The high ceiling allowed adding a parent's bedroom inside the room, and even the child's bed could be raised without issues.

The family had little money for construction, so the couple decided to save money in many ways. For example, they clad the exterior of the house with cypress panels. For interior finishing, they used bricks left over from the old Perry Lakes stadium built for the Commonwealth Games in 1962.

There is a lot of vintage furniture in the interior. For example, industrial General Electric lamps from the 1970s found in a thrift store. Now they decorate the dining area outdoors.

One of the key accents in decoration was the yellow color. James and Beck, as true aesthetes, fell in love with this shade after watching the movie "The Child of Rosemary." In 2008, they chose warm dark yellow for decorating their wedding.

Years later, they brought their favorite color into the interior. The front door, staircase, dishes, cushions, even the faucet in the bathroom — this color is now present everywhere. The texture also did not escape attention: here you want to touch every detail. There is a lot of wood and textiles in the interior. Part of the kitchen wall was painted with blackboard paint — children can draw on it here.

"We didn't want our house to look like a spaceship with trendy, uncomfortable furniture. We specifically looked for simple things with history that align with our perception," — Beck and James shared their main idea.