Houzz Tour: Steampunk Style in the Suburbs

The story of this house goes back 20 years, when flight attendant Ollivier bought a low-maintenance but “boring” house, within easy commute of both the airport and the city. Three years ago, when Fisher joined his life, the couple decided that they needed to make his house over so that it would feel like theirs.

There were tears when quotes for the dream renovation (three bedrooms, two bathrooms, everything turned on its head) came in at bank-breaking levels. Obviously a rethink was needed.
“We then decided: ‘Let’s do everything that we want for us, not for resale,’” Fisher says. Their engagement gift to each other, a greenstone sculpture by Colombian-Kiwi jeweller Ernesto Ovalle – displayed beneath the wheel on the shelving unit in this photo – was, literally, the brief they handed to Dryland of August & Co: they wanted a materials palette of organic stone, copper and raw steel. “They did not want to see white in the house; even the cabinet carcasses are black!” says Dryland.

Fisher and Ollivier decided to think of their two-storey gabled house as an apartment in their tropical garden, creating impact with detailed finishes rather than with square footage.

First up was redesigning a very ordinary staircase to turn it into a dramatic, sculptural centrepiece of the house. It was no mean feat for Wickenden and his crew to rebuild the wall to take the weight of the steel plates for the floating staircase. The television sideboard, one of the few pieces to make the transition from old to new home, became the pivotal point for the structure. Glass balustrades keep the look open.

Both Ollivier and Fisher are obsessed with lighting, spending the year of planning and building combing the internet (and filling more than a suitcase or two on their travels) for unique fixtures. LED lighting transforms the stairwell into an art installation at night.

Dryland helped with the space planning of the bathroom and design of the cabinetry, but Ollivier and Fisher had already bought the copper-look tiles in anticipation of the earlier renovation that did not go through. There were enough tiles to cover the ceilings as well, a job that caused plenty of headaches for the tiler, but which delights the couple every day. The bathroom door (not shown) was given a special paint treatment to create the look of raw, rusted steel.

Ollivier found the perfect towels at department store Smith & Caugheys, an emporium not known for edgy steampunk, and the lion-head towel rail was shipped from Paris. Trendwood made the custom gloss laminate vanity and mirrored wall cabinet, while the benchtop continues the kitchen’s leather-finish granite.

The black toilet was a must-have, and friends gave them the black toilet paper as a wedding present.

By stealing space from the old laundry, Dryland made room for the huge shower Fisher and Ollivier wanted (the spa-pool outdoors replaced an old bathtub).

A light oak barn door with crisp black hardware was a space-saving solution for the entrance to the master bedroom, which sits at the top of the stairs.

The well-used spa pool was tucked down the side of the house, where it is sheltered from the prevailing wind, and private from the street.

Steel posts and beams set the tone for the house, inside and out. In the background is the caravan Fisher and Ollivier lived in while their house was gutted and rebuilt. After the excitement of transformating this house from pedestrian to outstanding, they are considering making over their van next: watch out for steampunk cool at a campground near you.