The owners had lived in their Morley home for years. It was a solid 1970s brick home — well-built, good bones, decent-sized rooms — but the layout and the finishes belonged to a completely different era. The kitchen was closed off from the rest of the living areas. The bathroom was due for a significant update. The exterior looked tired from the street. And throughout the house, the finishes had accumulated decades of decisions that didn’t quite add up to anything coherent.
The brief was not simply to refresh — it was to genuinely transform. The owners wanted to open up the ground floor layout by removing the wall separating the kitchen from the main living area, creating an open-plan kitchen and living space. They wanted a Hamptons-style kitchen with an island bench. They wanted a master bathroom that felt luxurious rather than functional. They wanted the exterior repainted and the gardens refreshed. And they wanted the laundry — which was barely a room — to become a proper, fitted space.
One agreement. One team. One timeline. Four months to take a good house and turn it into a great one.
A full house renovation is the most complex project type House & Co manages — not because any single element is uniquely difficult, but because everything is connected. The sequence of trades across five rooms simultaneously, the coordination of materials with different lead times, and the management of a home that is effectively a construction site for four months all require a level of planning that a single-room renovation doesn’t.
The most significant structural decision was the wall removal between the kitchen and the main living and dining areas. Before any design work could be finalised on the kitchen layout, the wall needed to be assessed. A structural engineer confirmed it was non-load-bearing, which meant the removal could proceed without a beam installation — a finding that saved both time and significant cost, and allowed the kitchen design to extend further than originally anticipated.
The bathroom was the other major structural component. The wall between the existing bathroom and the adjacent room was removed to create the expanded master bathroom footprint that now accommodates both the full bathroom and the walk-in robe. This required careful sequencing — the structural work and waterproofing happened before any of the fit-out trades could begin, and the waterproofing inspection was a hard hold point before tiling started.
The property itself was clean. No asbestos was identified in the wall linings or ceiling. No galvanised pipes were found. Electrical was compliant. No lead paint was identified. In a 1970s Morley brick home undergoing a renovation of this scale, a clean bill of health on hidden works is not guaranteed — and it made a material difference to the timeline. Four months from start to finish, on time.
The photographs tell the story better than words can. But the thing that doesn’t show in a photograph is how the house now feels to move through. Before the renovation, it was a series of separate rooms — kitchen here, dining there, living beyond. After it, those three spaces are one: a continuous open-plan kitchen, dining, and living area that connects through to the garden and reads as a generous, well-proportioned family home.
The Hamptons brief is carried consistently through every room. White shaker cabinetry appears in the kitchen, the bathroom, and the laundry. Matt black hardware in the kitchen, chrome in the bathroom — a deliberate distinction that keeps the kitchen contemporary while the bathroom leans more classic. The herringbone oak floor runs from the front of the house through the kitchen, dining, and into the laundry, creating a visual continuity that makes the house feel larger than its footprint suggests
The exterior transformation is as significant as the interior. The original cream brick, brown frames, and neglected garden gave the house a tired, dated first impression. The same building — same massing, same footprint — now has a completely different street presence. White painted brick, dark charcoal frames, fresh lawn, and clean concrete steppers. The house looks like a decision was made about it. Because it was.
The approximate value uplift following the full renovation: $500,000. For an owner-occupier who also intended to live in the result, the financial return is only part of the picture. The daily quality of a home this well considered is the other part.
“We’d lived in the house for years and knew it needed everything. What we didn’t know was how much of a difference the right team makes when you’re doing a job this size. Sam and the House & Co crew managed every trade, kept us informed the whole way through, and delivered exactly what we’d seen in the design. The kitchen opening up to the living room was the best decision we made. The house feels completely different.”
About Project | Details |
Suburb | Morley, WA |
Project type | Full House Renovation |
Home age & type | Owner-occupier — 1970s, brick veneer |
Design style | Hamptons |
Rooms renovated | Living room · Kitchen · Master bathroom & WIR · Laundry · Exterior |
Key feature | Herringbone engineered oak floor throughout |
Structural work | Wall removal (kitchen to living) · Bathroom expansion |
On-site duration | 4 months |
Total timeline | 18 weeks including design and trade booking |
Asbestos managed | No — none identified |
Replumbing | No — existing plumbing compliant |
Delivered on schedule | Yes ✓ |
Compliance certs | Plumbing + Electrical |
