The bedrooms

Our original Queenslander cottage had two bedrooms that had quite a puzzling layout - both originally and as part of its last renovation in the mid 1960's. In some ways this made it easy for us to change the layout of the house, as we had to move a lot of the walls that had been damaged by termites and/or were modified with asbestos materials during the 1960's renovation.

One particularly interesting puzzle was the location of the front bedroom. In this room, the bedroom door was positioned next to the front landing / verandah entrance way adjacent to the front door - but had no entry from the internal hallway. This lead us to wonder if the house was originally set up as perhaps a Doctor's office, or some other small work from home business, that necessitate an entry from the outside verandah rather inside the house...we need to do some more research to try and find out the history of the house! There was also a 'third' bedroom according to the real estate agent, which was actually a narrow single bed only sleep-out area that also opened onto the verandah - it now serves as our new pantry which probably gives you an idea that it wasn't a large room!

Lifting the house gave us lots of options in terms of bedrooms. We decided to keep two bedrooms upstairs but rather than try and squeeze in a third bedroom upstairs, we made the living area larger to make best use of the view and sea breezes upstairs. Downstairs we added two more bedrooms (both with more than sufficient room to put a queen-sized bedroom (I'm not a fan of modern homes with pokey third or fourth bedrooms that fit a bed and nothing else) and created a multi-purpose room that can be used either as a rumpus room, second lounge room, media room or a fifth bedroom at Christmas when all the relatives come to stay!

We spent a great deal of time designing the layout of the house and incorporating key features but trying to make the house replicate the simplicity of the original design with a central hallway, and french doors off every bedroom onto the verandah. We used reclaimed french doors, passage doors and windows wherever possible and kept the Queensland spotted gum hardwood floors throughout the house - as per the original Queenslander style. We also compromised somewhat, and decided to put built-in wardrobes in the two downstairs bedrooms to maximise storage - though they are walled with T&G timber and skirting boards so if we really wanted to, we could remove them and just put freestanding wardrobes there...but probably not. We also opted for ceiling fans, rather than air conditioners, and used traditional period features a Queenslander would contain such as breezeways above the passage doors (upstairs bedrooms), fanlights above the french doors, picture rails and tall skirting boards. The chrome light switches, window and door hardware also help 'unify' the rooms and hopefully add character without cramming the house full of period features that would overwhelm you!

I've already done a post about the master bedroom so I won't repeat myself and bore those who were dedicated enough to read it, but I have included some pictures for continuity of the bedroom theme! Note, the curtain rings have since arrived so all the curtains now hang on proper curtain rings so that they slide across more easily!

Original cottage master bedroom (now bedroom 2)

Original cottage - Bedroom 2 (now the main bathroom)

Original Bedroom 2

Original cottage - third bedroom / sleep out? (now the pantry / ensuite)

The old lounge / enclosed verandah that is now the new master bedroom / internal stairwell

Master bedroom

Master bedroom with walkway into the dressing room and ensuite

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 4

Bedroom 4

Bedroom 4

Rumpus room / 5th bedroom

Rumpus Room

The master bedroom, dressing room and ensuite

In the original cottage, the master bedroom was located beside the front door with a very simple built-in cupboard and extensive termite damage on the exterior eastern wall. Upon embarking on our renovation, we decided to move the master bedroom into the old lounge room so as to make best use of the closed in verandah to put a dressing room and ensuite. The old lounge was a very narrow room so we had to push out the old exterior wall by some 20cm to gain a bit of extra space and make the enclosed verandah a bit narrow. Changing the roofline wasn't an option due to cost and aesthetics, so the master bedroom gained a sloped section of roof, which I think adds character, down to the newly installed but second-hand multi-paned french doors. Size-wise, it's not the biggest bedroom, but the multi-pane french doors leading onto the front deck, and the large opening to the dressing room, hopefully appear to make the room bigger.

We made a conscious decision to put in a different style of french doors on the front of the house. They are the only french doors on this side of the house and given there was no window in the master bedroom, we wanted to maximise the amount of light entering the room. Just as well, sanding back multi-pane lights and all that edging is a long and slow process as is the process of repainting it! We also decided not to add doors to the dressing room but instead make a large archway that would allow the light from the dressing room window to give some brightness and character to the master bedroom. I've always wanted a window seat, so this was the perfect spot to put one under the window and we're very happy with the result!

The other major change to this part of the house was to the flooring. Where the ceiling slopes down, the floorboards had been decking boards that were both a different level (slightly lower), a different direction, and different timber (with more gaps in it). As it wasn't a large space, we used floorboards from the old kitchen to make the boards all the same. The spotted gum, blackbutt and ironbark floors, which had never been painted before, came up a treat and we had just enough to do the dressing room with the purchase of some second hand boards from a local salvage yard.

The dressing room is a relatively simple design. While I actually prefer free-standing furniture, the limited size of the dressing room meant that built-in's were really the best way to maximise the available storage space. We also wanted to include a window in the design to avoid having a dark room - even though it meant sacrificing valuable hanging space. The room is only 1.6m wide so there is not much storage on the bedroom side wall, but plenty of opportunity for creative storage options such as hanging objects of hooks etc. There is also a lovely leadlight porthole window on the deck facing wall that gives extra light and character and is very similar to the porthole window in the front door. The drawers provide lots of storage though I think an amoire in the bedroom is on the cards!

The ensuite is adjacent to the dressing room - after all, who wants to see the toilet from the bedroom! It is a good sized ensuite that fits a shower panel, pedestal sink and toilet and has a nice reclaimed casement window. The encaustic tiles give the ensuite it's "wow" factor - for us anyway. Having an ensuite isn't really in keeping with a traditional Queenslander layout - but hey, who wants a master bedroom without one these days! I've included a few pics below but if you're after details, check out my other posts.

As you can see from the pictures below, it was quite a transformation of space!

Details are as follows:

• Curtain rods, rings, holdbacks and curtains (Pottery Barn Australia: Standard square finial drape rod, small clip rings and standard holdback - pewter finish)
• Hallway arch (see post on mouldings)
• Ensuite fittings and tiles (see post on bathrooms and tiles)
• Dressing room door / drawer handles, 152mm (Emporia Victoria: Porcelain handles with chrome base)
• Various internal and external doors and window (reclaimed, sourced from Gumtree and eBay)

The enclosed verandah complete with asbestos sheeting over the T&G and boarded up windows!

The enclosed verandah from the street

The original master bedroom - now bedroom 2

Original master bedroom

The enclosed verandah minus the asbestos cladding - not much left!

Our new master bedroom - well the start of it anyway!

Framing up the master bedroom / dressing room divide

The dressing room framing begins...big holes in the floor though!

Ensuite / dressing room framed up

New ceiling going up to replace the asbestos clad ceiling

The sliding ensuite door goes into place

T&G goes up in the ensuite and dressing rooms

T&G finished in the master bedroom

The hallway arch goes in

What a difference some paint makes!

The new master bedroom with a view to the dressing room!

Dressing room drawer and door chrome and porcelain handles

Ensuite

Hardwood floors

When we first bought the house we knew that there were hardwood tongue and groove (T&G) floorboards, however, they were covered by layers of vinyl and carpet (including vinyl tacted over carpet) so it was hard to gauge what condition the timber floorboards were in. The only way to gauge the condition and type of timber was looking at the floorboards from beneath the house.

While the timber looked to be in a relatively good condition it was near impossible to tell what species of timber they were until the floor coverings were lifted and samples were taken up, planed and taken to a timber supplier for identification. While we suspected the floors were Queensland Spotted Gum, it turned out that they were actually a mix of hardwoods - Spotted Gum, Black Butt and Ironbark. Interestingly, two of the rooms had Ironbark floorboards only, while the rest of the house was a blend of the three. Clearly the floorboards were intended to be covered and it was lovely that we would be the first owners in some eighty plus years to see them sanded and polished.

The floorboards were not without issues however. There were quite a few damaged boards in the old kitchen and the old verandah boards were a different width, direction and height to the T&G floorboards in the main house. While trying to preserve as much as possible, we had to be practical. Particularly as the Master bedroom was now half the old verandah and half the main house so boards on differing levels was not going to work. We therefore lifted up the salvageable boards from the kitchen and used this to finish the master bedroom, dressing room and hallway entry (which had also been part of the original verandah) so that the boards all flowed in one direction and were all the same height. We ran short of a few boards in the master bedroom but rather than use new boards for the whole room, we found a local reclamation supplier (Keber's in Murwillumbah) who were able to supply matching second hand boards to finish off the room.

Now that we had an open plan living, kitchen and dining area, we also had to decide where the old and new boards would meet keeping in mind that new in stock timbers, are a different width to the old timbers (slightly narrower) and that the old boards have shrunk and warped a little which meant wider gaps. The logical place was to keep the old boards in the kitchen and pantry and start the new boards at the entry to the kitchen (the join is under the kitchen) bench and the end of the hallway. On the advice of the builder and timber supplier we go new Qld Spotted Gum floorboards which had enough variation to best match the original floors, whilst also matching the Qld Spotted Gum decking boards. We got raw samples, put water on them to try to replicate the darkening of the timber during the polishing stage, and hoped for the best. Picking a floorboard based on one sample is not ideal as the variation in colour and grain between batches can be significant. Our timber supplier had done a great job with the decking boards, however, so we were relatively confident it would all work out!

The floor sander came and spent a few days cleaning the boards up, punching nail holes and getting the boards ready for several coats of polish before having to dash of to his wedding and honeymoon! Alas, he didn't get time to finish the boards before his wedding, so we're waiting upon his return and the installation of the cabinetry before we can finish off the boards. Final photos are still to come.

The transition from the main house to the decking boards

Raw timber samples

Raw timber samples (wet) to mimic the effect of polishing

New Spotted Gum boards

The old meet the new boards

Old boards in the kitchen run under the kitchen bench (to be installed)

Reclaimed / second hand boards were used in the dressing room to make sure we had enough timber

Downstairs hallway - new boards being laid

Old meets new at the end of the upstairs hallway

Final matte finish complete.

The old meets the new and blends very nicely

The only room that wasn't mixed hardwood. This is polished ironbark and looks lovely...

The reclaimed board in the dressing room (top of photo) are a great match to the original bedroom floors. Just a fraction narrower.

The old boards came up a treat in the master bedroom.