The Way House is situated in Perth's Western suburbs near Freshwater Bay.
I'm Mischa Way, this is my home The Way House.
When my parents purchased this site, my father who is an architect, designed the house and
built it around 1975. I grew up in this house my father and mother lived here their entire lives.
My parents passed away and I decided to renovate it with vittinoAshe.
I wanted to redo the kitchens and bathrooms and add a studio and guest room which
would allow us a little bit more space, but to retain the original feel and family
nature of the house which is obviously really really special to me.
The open plan design which was unusual in those days, provided us with a closeness with our
family, it made us be communal, we really lived around the kitchen which is really really lovely.
The older I get the more I realise how important that is and it has really
made me understand the role that really good architecture plays in family life.
The house itself is an architectural feature, if you can even say that, I'm not sure. Everywhere
you go in it, it just feels very joyous and it feels really unique and it feels really special.
It's made from recycled bricks, it's not a big house but it certainly feels expansive
due to the amount of glass that there is and the link from inside to outside.
The new studio plays hommage to the original house by the clean lines, the use of steel
and also the finishes which we've tried to connect from one to the other.
The steel element through the project really helps to tie the two dwellings together, we've expressed
the steel from the staircase in the original house into the staircase in the new studio.
The original house has a beautiful jarrah timber frame and the new studio is a little bit more
New York loft style with steel framed elements which we were always really keen to do.
We updated the original house by adding a laundry that's been rendered with dado to lighten the void
area where the staircase is because the bricks are really beautiful and very textural but they do
add a darker quality and the lightness of the dado render has really lifted that space.
The main bathroom isn't a big bathroom but it
looks much bigger than it is with the use of mirrors and the neutral
colour palette that we chose and the gorgeous products which really come into their own.
I was drawn to the Artedomus product range, I've worked with them for a number of years.
I know how beautiful they are they're
amazing quality and I knew whatever I chose I really couldn't go wrong.
The original architecture of the home has so much texture and detail, Mischa wanted to use timeless
elegant finishes that seamlessly blended in with that original character, the particular selection
of products in this project are brilliant because they're beautiful but simple and elegant.
We have Artetech Ombra Carbone porcelain panels, Agape Normal Bath, Paver Gris
unique porcelain tiles and beautiful INAX mosaics, the Yuki Border and the Yohen Border.
We have a fantastic selection of materials at Artedomus
some of the stones are incredibly graphic and vivid in colour
and then we have other products that are very smooth and elegant in their finished appearance.
What Mischa ended up choosing here suited the character of this project. This house has a
fascinating history, our relationship with Mischa and her father's work here in Western
Australia has made this house into a very special place to be the recent renovation by vittinoAshe
has seamlessly blended the old with the new and Artedomus products look beautiful in the finished
work of the old house and the new house it's really been a thrilling project for us to work on.
It's been really special to be able to work on making this house work for the next generation
of my family. The house itself I hope will continue to evolve and stay in our family.
I'm most proud of the fact that we've managed to really embody
my father and my mother and my family history, sorry can't help crying
I really hope I've made my dad proud but it's just so beautiful to live in it really is.