The Wood Street House in Beechworth, Victoria, Australia, began as a modest bathroom renovation project, but it eventually transformed into a multi-year reworking of a country holiday home. The project, led by Britt White Studio, took cues from the existing yellow kitchen joinery, Art Deco detail, and the clients’ love of color and boldness.
The house is located in Beechworth, one of Victoria’s most recognizable historic towns, where architecture and gold rush memory still shape the aesthetics of the streets. From the outside, the home presents with quiet confidence, featuring a black Shou Sugi Ban timber facade that replaced the original galvanized steel.
The Design Process
One of the earliest and most important decisions was to retain the existing pastel yellow kitchen joinery. Rather than neutralizing it, Britt White Studio treated this yellow as a starting point, picking it up in the marble mosaic tiles used throughout the kitchen splashback and fireplace hearth.
The clients, Alan and Patricia, came to the project with a love of the Art Deco era and a clear trust in Britt White Studio’s process. Alan, a scientist with a love of cycling and the outdoors, brought a sense of practicality and rhythm to the brief, while Patricia, an artist and actor, brought color, pattern, character, and an eye for collected Art Deco pieces.
The project grew to include a broader color and materials palette for the house, new White Oak Herringbone Parquetry flooring, an updated kitchen splashback, a new living room fireplace hearth, window treatments, bedroom paint colors, furnishing assistance, exterior cladding, and the conversion of the former carport into a dedicated bike training and yoga studio.
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The House Unfolds
The Wood Street Project has a sense of reveal, from the more traditional street front to the interior spaces. The house opens into the lounge room, where the new marble mosaic fireplace hearth introduces color and pattern in a measured way. The kitchen, with its retained pastel yellow joinery, became one of the project’s most important reference points.
The house moves down the rust color drenched hallway towards the bedrooms and main bathroom. The main bathroom features Tradewinds Terracotta floor and wall tiles, sculptural gold mirrors, and black concrete basins. The ensuite, created by reclaiming space from the study, carries the same language as the main bathroom, but in a quieter and more intimate manner.
At the rear of the home, the laundry and adjoining powder room form the crescendo of the journey. The powder room is wrapped in Catherine Martin’s La Palma wallpaper, with a pale yellow English Tapware basin and vintage tapware, rust painted ceiling, and black marble floor. The laundry shares the La Palma wallpaper and black marble floor, but shifts into a more practical register, with custom cabinetry and a ceramic farmhouse sink.
Rather than being treated as a forgotten service space, the laundry and powder room become a passage to the bike and yoga studio beyond, a room Alan and Patricia use every day. Britt says, “The clients were so open to colour, pattern and a more expressive approach.” This gave the studio the freedom to create something genuinely personal to them.
The project’s confidence comes from the relationship between client, designer, and house, resulting in a deeply liveable home with glamour, color, and a clear sense of the people who live there. The black timber exterior gives the home a more resolved presence from the street, while new functional decorative lighting adds atmosphere and practicality. The former carport was converted into a dedicated bike training and yoga studio for Alan and Patricia, which they use every day.