Old Charm, New Love.
The vintage aesthetic is back—or maybe it never left? Either way, one thing is certain, maintaining a home’s original façade speaks to the history behind the home. Original fixtures speak to the memories of the house. The walls of these homes are filled with stories and keeping the original facade can preserve a small slice of the city’s history. The soul of each build can be found in these old fixtures, and a good restoration brings new life into the home. Melbourne Home Design + Living’s Stef Grinberg sits down with Dan Evans, the director of Evans Building Group to discuss maintaining the original character of the home while freshening up living spaces with a contemporary twist.
With a strong focus on custom homes, renovations, and extensions, Evans Building Group services unique homes across the state. Each home is treated with care and has individual restoration and renovation plans, customised to address issues, concerns and limitations within existing builds. Working closely with clients and designers ensures the finished result of the project is as wonderful as the client had envisioned. “The challenge of transforming an existing home into a space tailored to suit the client’s needs brings us a lot of satisfaction,” Evans says.
The Geelong based company prides itself on its precision and care, which is the core of every project the team tackles. With an emphasis on expertise and attention to detail, each job receives the care it deserves to ensure client satisfaction. Exclusive collaboration with designers and clients for each project guarantees personalised care. Evans Building Group focuses on clever solutions for these unique builds, while maintaining their classic, aesthetic style.
PERSONAL TOUCHES
“The clients live in these homes prior to having us transform them, so they know what they love and hate about the existing home,” Evans says. Working closely with clients and hand selected professionals allows personalised care for every project Evans takes on. The delicate balance of modern amenities and heritage elements within these homes is a testament to the care and creativity of those involved with bringing the clients vision to life. “A lot of the homes we work on internally have beautiful old timber work and decorative cornice, so we like to maintain that detail which normally means taking samples to get matched,” Evans says
Precision and attention to detail means that no element is overlooked, ensuring a cohesive, finished home. The delicate harmony of contemporary additions allows for comfortable living and vintage style to combine beautifully, even the smallest change can make all the difference for these homes. Modernising homes without compromising charming exteriors or pieces of history allows you to enrich daily life, without settling for moving out of an area you adore. “People normally renovate and extend because they love the area they live [in] and don’t want to move,” says Evans.
CREATE LASTING MEMORIES
The journey to making your dream home a reality starts with figuring out how to change your home without destroying what you love about it. “From a comfort and functionality point of view we work closely with the clients to create a space that works for them,” Evans says.
Colour, texture and finishings bring each project to life, with these seemingly minor details, individuality and personality can shine through. Trends suggest the resurgence of traditional elements and accents within homes is due to the desire for warm, cosy spaces. “We are seeing full scale transformations, using the old style and charm but transforming the home into a classic modern masterpiece,” Evans says.
Being present from idea to reality means that Evans is there to help every step of the way, to build something that lasts. “It is very rewarding to meet with them [the clients] after handover to then see how the new home is lived in and if it meets all expectations,” says Evans. Working with the homeowner and seeing firsthand appreciation to the changes makes the job worth it as Evans focuses on creating forever homes. “Time must be taken to ensure we deliver a bespoke one-of-a-kind home for our clients,” Evans explains.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
Understanding and respecting the home makes all the difference with older builds. A common challenge that many homeowners face is the framework and existing bones of the home having problems. Evans insists that the pre-build process which includes identifying issues, with designer, client and builder ensures that the project goes as smoothly as possible, with minimal budget blowouts. Engaging with a full team from the start of the project means that the relationship grows, and much like the project the relationship is built with trust and care.
Some important advice from Evans is to engage with a builder who has had experience with older properties before, as they tend to be more difficult to work with. Each home is unique as Evans points out, and many remain in his mind after completing the project and finishing the handover process. “They [the builds] are all very memorable for different reasons. We are proud of every project we have delivered to date,” Evans says.
Renovating or changing a home while maintaining the original façade and tone of the home is a task that Evans Building Group specialises in, ensuring that standards are met all throughout the home. With a great team behind you, no detail is unnoticed when renovating your forever home.
Images courtesy of Evans Building Group