Grand Designs Transformations on ABC – In Geelong, Victoria, industrial relations partner Bree and plumber Luke are desperate for a home with more space for their three kids to run around in. When Bree falls in love with an 1860s Victorian gem in need of extensive repair, they not only buy it, but add on plans to double its footprint with a giant new extension.
Professor of Architecture Anthony Burke is surprised by the size of the contemporary extension and its impact not only on the original cottage, but on the garden as well. But as Luke and Bree push on with three house sized transformations – a heritage restoration, a modern extension with a focus on indoor outdoor living, and a three-car garage and workshop – the unexpected costs of restumping the heritage cottage and three-month delays just to get concrete in, they’re forced to refinance.
In the historic village of Oatlands, Tasmania, parents Luke and Karen are also planning to add a huge extension onto a heritage building, but of a very different style.
After two years renovating a 200-year-old, two-bedroom Georgian sandstone building, it’s about to undergo a radical transformation about as far from a humble convict cottage as you can get. They’re building an extension twice the size of the two convict-built Georgian rooms at the front and furnishing it in a French provincial style.
While interior designer Yasmine Ghoniem ponders the wisdom of Gallic styling in a Georgian house, Karen pushes the eclectic mix a step further by having convict era wallpaper fragments made into one-of-a-kind linen and dashes off to Paris for homewares.
With Karen running a home based French linen fabric business in Sydney, managing the historic transformation remotely proves to be far more challenging than anticipated.
Production credits: A Fremantle Australia production for the ABC financed with support from the ABC. Supervising Executive Producer: Brooke Bayvel. Executive Producer: Michael Collett. Series Producer: Chris Perry. ABC Commissioning Editor: Jo Chichester. Executive Producer: Madeleine Hawcroft. Head of Factual: Susie Jones. ABC Head of Screen Content: Jennifer Collins.
Grand Designs Transformations on ABC and ABC iview – Thursday 8 February 2024 at 8.00pm
TV Central ABC content HERE
