AUCTION:
June 19, 11am on site (unless sold prior).
Having admired the elegant homes of the Hollywood Hills, Troy Little couldn't resist the glamorous curves of this house.
Built for an artist in 1981, the solid concrete home was designed by architect Ian Burrow in his signature organic style.
As Troy says, "He thinks walls should have curves like bodies have curves, so the home has more sculpted lines. I like to think that it is like living in a piece of art."
When Troy bought the home three years ago, he felt a responsibility to preserve it for future generations so talked to the architect and previous owners as part of a "top to bottom renovation".
"I wanted to understand how the home was built and what it was like to live in," he says. "Anything I did I wanted to keep within the story of the home and not mess with the architectural brief."
In the four months before they moved in, Troy and partner Aaron Hill researched homes in a similar style in California, Italy and Portugal.
They haven't changed the home structurally, but they have replaced the kitchen, rebuilt fireplaces, put on a butynol roof and applied a membrane paint to the walls. They have also landscaped the property and renovated the pool and its surrounds.
At the end of a right-of-way, the home's pebble-dash exterior from this aspect only hints at what it is inside with a sloping facade and a couple of funnels just visible atop.
Inside, the home's gentle shapes and sinuous hallways draw you into curved rooms some with funnels with skylights, others with timber sarked ceilings and exposed beams. Despite the heavy beams, the roof seems to float on a series of high-level windows.
This effect is particularly noticeable in the living room, which looks out to the pool area through glass doors and a large porthole window. In here, the fire place is rounded and the curving walls lead you out into a hallway that winds through the house past a cosy dining area with skylight and a bathroom with a deep bath poured in situ. These rooms have a distinctively Mediterranean feel with their white-washed walls and tiling in the bathroom.
Further on, the laundry, a bedroom and another room set up as an office open out to an enclosed courtyard.
Image 1 of 10: Organic design is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live in something unique. Photos / Ted Baghurst
At the rear of the house, the master bedroom occupies its own wing and has an en suite as well as opening to a deck that runs along the side of the house .
"It's great having that," says Troy. "I can get out of bed in the morning and go down the side of the house and jump straight in the pool."
A beautiful spiral staircase creates a sense of enclosure before releasing you into what Troy jokingly describes as "the dungeon room" but is in reality a large, tranquil guest bedroom.
Alongside the lounge, the kitchen also has a rounded fireplace, glass doors and a large porthole window looking out to the pool.
Here, Troy and Aaron have gone for a more industrial look with stainless steel benchtops and a large island/breakfast bar where people tend to congregate at parties.
Outdoors, the remodelled pool area suggests Hollywood glamour with its kidney-shaped pool and palms underplanted with subtropical specimens.
Again curves are prominent in the landscaping and the adobe-style wall with outdoor fire beside the pool.
"Aaron had this vision for the garden of sweeping curves and that everything had to flow into each other with no start and stop points and all planted in groups," says Troy.
His hairdressing and beauty supplies business is taking off, so Troy is spending more time travelling and wants to downsize to a home that will make his and Aaron's lives simpler.
The upside is they will probably get out more often.
"This home is so beautiful to live in that it has almost turned us into recluses because you don't want to leave," says Troy.
"Living here has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; we're probably never going to live in another house like this."
