The Inner-City Townhouse | Maximising Space with Soul and Style

The Challenge: Creating a "Full-Scale" Family Home in a Townhouse Footprint

Living in a vibrant inner-city townhouse often means every square inch has to work twice as hard. Our clients, a young family, needed their home to transition seamlessly from a playful zone for children to a sophisticated space for entertaining. Our mission was to "expand" the home through clever custom joinery and tactile layers, ensuring that even the most functional corners felt like a curated retreat.

The Ultimate Lifestyle Wall: A Three-in-One Solution

In the living room, we solved the storage dilemma with a bespoke, full-length joinery unit designed to be the home’s hardworking heart. We tailored it specifically to the family’s passions:

The Entertainer’s End: A built-in wine fridge and a sophisticated bar area for evening hosting.

The Living Centre: A seamless, integrated TV zone for family movie nights.

The Analog Corner: A dedicated station for their record player and vinyl collection, keeping their love for music at the centre of the home.

Intimate Dining & Vertical Interest

To make the most of the cozy dining area, we designed a custom-built banquette seat paired with a round dining table. This configuration creates a much more fluid flow than a traditional set-up, offering a refined yet relaxed spot for everything from morning school prep to weekend dinner parties. To bridge the levels of the home, we introduced bespoke wallpaper and new architectural lighting into the stairwell, turning a functional transition into a beautiful, light-filled gallery space.

Playful Zones & Private Retreats

A key part of the brief was ensuring the children had their own world to explore. We created a dedicated kids' zone and playroom upstairs, allowing the family’s toys and creativity to have a home of their own, keeping the downstairs living areas serene and clutter-free.

For the parents, the primary bedroom was completely refreshed as a textural sanctuary. We layered the room with:

Designer Wallpaper: To add depth and a sense of "enclosure."

A Custom Patterned Bedhead: Bringing in that Porch Light signature of artisanal textiles and bespoke upholstery.

The Porch Light Touch: Small Footprint, Big Personality

Through the use of vibrant artworks, custom curtains to soften the architectural lines, and meticulously planned cabinetry, we transformed this townhouse into a high-functioning family estate. We loved the challenge of making this space feel "perfectly fit" for this family—proving that you don’t need a sprawling backyard to have a home that is elegant, energetic, and deeply personal.










SCOPE
Full Interior Design, Custom Furnishings, Re-upholstery, Art

PHOTOGRAPHY
Mindi Cooke