Love at first sight

For Monica, her history with the home goes deep into her childhood.

“Monica has liked this place since she went to school,” Chris said.

“A girl I went to school with actually lived here,” Monica said.

“I never visited, but I always used to come past and see it because I really loved it from the outside.”

Built back in the 1930s, this historical home is unlike any other in Shepparton.

With its high ceilings and impressive chimneys highlighting the exterior, this home stands out among the modern designs of today.

The house flows through each room, one leading into the next.

From the entryway into the formal living, into the formal dining, into the study, their home is almost like a maze, one that took Monica a while to grasp.

“[The layout] did my head in a little bit at the start,” Monica said.

“Just with the kitchen in the middle of the house and the fact that you could go this way or that way.

“I got confused, like where do you go in this house?”

But this became one of their favourite aspects of the home.

“We liked the quirkiness of it,” Chris said.

“We didn’t want to modernise it; we really liked the character that was here originally,” Monica said.

After purchasing their dream home, the couple got straight into renovations, updating, and repairing while keeping the original facade of the home and layout.

For six months, it was all hands on deck with Chris taking on majority of the renovations, using his Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays painting, plastering and restoring.

Now that they’ve been officially moved in since January, the couple has been settling in while still undertaking the occasional project.

Their favourite place to hang out is their formal living room, one they have kept virtually the same.

Peaceful, cozy, and inviting, this space is Monica’s favourite place to invite guests to catch up over coffee.

Brown leather couches, floral curtains and their standout piece, the gramophone, were all inherited from the previous homeowners, with the room tied together with a green velvet couch and more floral notes.

“We didn’t want a TV in here,” Monica said.

“I just wanted it to be a room where if we’ve got people around, we can come in and sit for a while by the fireplace.”

The couple hasn’t defined their personal style, instead choosing pieces that they are drawn to.

Many pieces in their home, like the green couch and formal dining set, were bought over from their old house, with the pieces fitting right in with the vintage charm of their new home.

“A lot of the furniture we already had is more suited to this house than our old house,” Monica said.

“I think we have been subconsciously buying furniture for an old house.”

Past the dining room, the study sits off in the corner, a quiet, cozy spot in the house.

The dark green walls and wooden touches are a stark difference from the whites and florals throughout the rest of the house.

The kitchen, the heart of the house, sits directly in the middle, leading into the open living and dining space.

They kept the layout of the kitchen the exact same, making some minor upgrades to reflect their style and finding new purposes for things they no longer needed.

“[The island] had a timber top on it, so we got this made to match the countertops,” Chris said.

“I cut the timber top up and use it as shelves in the laundry, rather than chuck it out.”

Downstairs is also the main bathroom, a spare bedroom and the master.

Situated to the right of the entryway, their master bedroom is bathed in natural light, with French doors leading into a private patio being the central focus of the room.

Similar to the rest of the house, an opulent chandelier hangs in the middle of the ceiling, decorated by cornices and a ceiling rose.

Upstairs, there are another two bedrooms, one with an ensuite and another bathroom, which have been almost untouched by them.

Monica and Chris still plan to renovate many areas of the house, with their backyard being their next major project, but for the moment, they are happy to settle in and soak up as much time as possible in their dream home.

This story originally featured in Our Home Winter 2024. Find the full magazine, here: https://www.sheppnews.com.au/features-and-magazines/our-home-winter-2024/