Treelight House

Caulfield, Melbourne

Treelight House is the Caulfield home of the architect Laura Hoare and her family, a 1910s Edwardian she bought in 2017 in poor condition and rebuilt in two stages: first the front rooms and the street facade, with hardwood double-glazed windows made to the original profiles, then this addition at the back. The brief, in her practice's words, was "a young family with two small children, two tiny dogs, and a dedicated work-from-home space", and the addition is planned around the one magnolia that was already there, stranded at the bottom of the garden and cut off from the living rooms.

The new wing sits off the old house's axis, stepped back towards the southern boundary to make the most of the north, with a bathroom and a play room before the open kitchen, living and dining room, and only an office and a gym upstairs, tucked behind the original roofline. The palette is polished concrete, native hardwood and brick, with solid timber benchtops from Australian Sustainable Hardwoods, and the deck around the tree is by Decking The Burbs. Hoare says the magnolia is now "a living, breathing presence that shifts with the seasons".

Laura Vivian Architecture

Laura Vivian Architecture is a Melbourne practice led by the registered architect Laura Hoare, working in residential architecture and interior design, mostly quiet renovations of period homes.

lauravivian.com.au · Instagram

Architecture Laura Hoare of Laura Vivian Architecture (@lauravivianarchitecture). Photography @benhoskingphotographer. Styling @madelinemcfarlanestylist. Builder @boyddesignandbuild. Seen via @thedesignfiles.

The picture comes from this post on Instagram.

Researched September 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.