Welcome back to Behind the Facade, your backstage pass into the personal stories that shape the homes we love.
At 94 Carshalton Street, Siobhan has lived through fifteen years of change. The house has changed too, but not all at once, and never for effect.
When she bought it, it was a Federation semi that felt dependable. The front rooms were intact. The hallway was long. The back of the house was basic, but nothing felt terminal. It was the kind of place that didn’t rush you. You could move in, get on with life, and let the house show you what it needed in its own time.
“It felt solid,” Siobhan says. “Nothing fancy, but it felt like it could hold a life.”
So she did exactly that. She lived there. Noticed where the afternoon light settled, how sound carried, which rooms she gravitated toward. The renovation came later, once those things were obvious.
When it did, it wasn’t about pulling the house apart. The front stayed largely as it was. The ceilings remained. The scale of the rooms didn’t change. It still reads as a Federation home when you walk in.
The shift happens as you move through it.
At the back, the ceiling rises. The space feels taller. Timber beams run overhead. Skylights do most of the work during the day but it doesn’t feel bright in a showroom way.
Materials were chosen because they made sense. The bricks along the hallway were cleaned and left visible. Others were sourced locally and laid by hand. The doors are heavy. The frames are thick. Nothing feels delicate or temporary.
She didn’t want white walls everywhere or finishes that needed explaining. Concrete benches and timber shelving went in because they wear well. Steel was used where it belonged.
“I wasn’t interested in trends,” she says. “I wanted things that would still make sense ten years later.”
The bathroom follows the same thinking. Timber-lined walls. Warm to the touch. Calm without being precious. It isn’t trying to look like anything other than what it is.
The plan had to work. That mattered more than how well it photographed. An extra bathroom was added, but the long hallway stayed. Bedrooms remained on the ground floor. Everything is still on one level, even though the ceiling space above could easily become an attic one day. Out back, the deck is where most time is spent and the doors open straight onto it. This house is also where her business began.
Trying to manage a renovation while working full-time showed her how difficult the process could be. That experience became 'Perfect Plan', the renovation business she now runs across the inner west. The standards she set here became the baseline for the work she now does with others.
The street has been just as important. Neighbours look out for each other in small, practical ways. Bins get wheeled back in. “It’s the sort of street where people notice each other,” Siobhan says. “Nothing dramatic. Just a sense of family and that you’re not anonymous.”
The house holds work, rest, risk, and routine. It’s where the day settles when she walks in the door. It’s where the business took shape and where friendships deepened. “I just wanted to get it right,” she says. “And then live in it long enough to know that I had.” Now, after fifteen years, it’s ready to be lived in by someone else.
Watch the full interview here.
‘Behind The Facade’ is your backstage pass to the world of architecture and homeownership. We go beyond the status quo to bring you candid conversations with architects and homeowners, discovering the inspirations, challenges, and personal stories that breathe life into these structures. It is architecture unmasked, raw, authentic, and deeply human.