Small Tweaks - Our House →

I thought I would introduce a little project we worked on when we moved back to Toowoomba 18 months ago. Like many others we decided to buy a tiny 2 bedroom cottage with dreams of making it our own over time. The existing house had good bones, was a testiment to the builders of the era and was perfect for our growing little family.

One of the first things we tackled was the existing kitchen build-out. Its pretty common for houses of this era to have a kitchen build out for the stove and a laundry/outhouse in a small structure out back. This arrangement wasn’t going to work for us so we set out to design and build a small extension to the kitchen which provides additional storage space, additional prep bench space, houses the washer/dryer & dishwasher and makes the most of the north facing orientation to bring in light.

The result was a 1m extension which utilises a good portion of the materials which were repurposed from the old outhouse and tank stand. The existing hardwood was cleaned up and fixed at regular centres to suit the new twinwall polycarbonate cladding. The interior was lined with inexpensive OSB sheeting and formed the finish surface for the walls, floor & benchtop. We decided to stain the OSB ceiling japan black because the space needed a lift and the darker finish with the textures still coming through would make it feel a little more generous.

Above is the finished product for our micro-extension. It’s 2.5sq.m footprint works alot harder than its size suggests. Its our kitchen pantry, laundry, lightbox, fernery & cafe. The twinwall polycarbonate cladding brings so much light into the space and the combination of OSB & greenery delivers much needed warmth to a previously cold uninviting kitchen space.

Products

Twinwall Polycarbonate Cladding - ‘Ampelite’ Easyclick PC

OSB (Oriented Strand Board) - ‘Hyne’ Timber 1200x2400x6mm Sheets

GPO’s & Switches - ‘Clipsal’ Iconic with Charcoal face plate. Installed & wired up by Justin Olsen at TMEC.