Reach for the Sea: Creating a Luxury Home from a Simple City Beach House

This single storey home in City Beach was in need of a facelift; it had an amazing location with potential for great ocean views, but it was underwhelming and limited on space. The owners wanted to take their house from average to breathtaking with the addition of a contemporary second storey and a first level renovation to match. We loved working on this project as it allowed us to completely reinvent the existing home and expand it up and out, towards the sea.

The Design Brief:

The home was in a great location with amazing ocean views but the original house was looking tired and outdated. The owners wanted to take full advantage of the views and create a contemporary luxury home with a twist. To do this, we needed to completely renovate the existing first level and add a second storey to expand the home’s windows and balconies towards the sea.

Motivation to Renovate Rather Than Buy New:

The homeowners considered buying a new home but the existing house was sound and had great potential for improvement. Financially, the second-storey extension and renovation saved the owners approximately $500,000 compared to building a new home on the block.

The Challenge:

We were challenged to transform an old home to look completely new by using the bones of the building to create a two-storey home that would allow the owners to extend their view of the ocean with modern, contemporary living spaces. The plans required multiple revisions over several months to gain approval from the council but were well worth the wait.

The End Result:

We were given a great skeleton to work with that allowed us to completely transform the existing structure into a contemporary home that was able to fully take advantage of the great location and ocean views.
We transformed the City Beach house from X bedroom, X bathroom to Y bedroom, Y bedroom and added a study, open plan kitchen, backyard deck and outdoor kitchen, contemporary fireplace and two second level balconies.

The luxury home was designed to bring in the natural light and view from the western facing windows. We did this by installing tall and wide windows and doors that slide open to give access to the balcony. The staircase was used as a centrepiece of the contemporary house to connect the levels and allow the light from the second storey to stream into the kitchen and dining area below.

The owner’s love of contemporary designer homes allowed us to work with mixed materials to seamlessly combine the dark metal of the second storey exterior with the natural wood of the backyard decking and cement of the pool surrounds. The home features a profound use of vertical lines to accentuate the expansion of the second level draw the eye up.
View the entire luxury home in the gallery to fully understand the complete renovation and transformation that went on.

We loved working on the City Beach house and the owners were thrilled that their vision of a contemporary luxury home with ocean views was realised in a fraction of the time for a complete demolish and rebuild and for a fraction of the cost. They were so happy they hosted a cocktail party at their home for the Nexus team and their friends to celebrate the result.

City Beach Project: The second storey addition gave the home extra space to have an open kitchen.

Design Objective: Create a contemporary home with a second story to take advantage of the ocean views.

Design Highlight: Custom steel stairs with stone treads.

Design Objective: Extend the living space into the backyard with an outdoor kitchen.

If you love your house’s location but want to create your ideal home, speak to us today. We specialise in second storey additions and renovations. We have been helping families create their ideal home for nearly 10 years and love working with both old or new homes.  Our experienced team has tackled every design challenge and know we can help you too! As Director, I personally work with every homeowner to understand exactly what you want and together we can decide on how best to accomplish your vision with your budget and time expectations.

Start creating your new home with a Free Design Consultation and I’ll guide you through every step.

View these pages if you’re thinking about a second storey addition or renovating your home to understand our process and how, together, we can create your dream home.

Hope to see you soon!

Matt Keogh

Director
Nexus Homes Group