Colour burst

Jenny Edwards and her partner David employed a series of small interventions to turn their tired Canberra apartment into a vibrant, joy-filled forever home.

Back in the 1990s, when Jenny Edwards first moved to Canberra to undertake postgraduate research in plant genetics at CSIRO’s Black Mountain Phytotron facility, she could not have imagined that in 2026 she would be using some of those same teak laboratory benches in her own new kitchen.

It’s been something of a full-circle journey for the founder of Light House ArchiScience. She and her partner, writer David Dufty, recently sold their award-winning 8.2-Star family home, downsizing to a two-bedroom older strata title apartment that’s just 180 metres away from one of Jenny’s favourite buildings, the heritage-listed Shine Dome in Acton. This is why she has named their new place the Shine Home, Jenny explains.

The headquarters for the Australian Academy of Sciences, the Shine Dome was designed by Sir Roy Grounds and completed in 1959. Grounds also designed the CSIRO Phytotron, which opened in 1962. Jenny heard that the Phytotron’s original lab benches had been salvaged by Canberra-based reclaimed timber business, Thor’s Hammer, and put in an order. Along with a bold colour scheme, the teak has become one of the main features of a renovation that has transformed their apartment from a tired grey and white box to a bright, warm and colourful home.

“With a tight budget, it was a very strategic choice to use vibrant paint colours and complementary Laminex finishes to create a rich, unique type of feel,” Jenny says. “Colour is the cheapest type of finish, and can totally transform the look and feel of a space. In Australia we tend to be quite frightened of colour, which is a real pity.”

On first stepping inside the apartment, the eye is immediately drawn along the hallway with its LED skylight and deep brown wall on one side to the vibrant hues of the living area beyond. A lounge is separated from the kitchen by an island bench, and off to one side there’s a dining and sitting area with a westerly outlook. The living area features floor-to-ceiling bookcases along one wall, artworks everywhere, and sliding doors onto a balcony.

As a strata dwelling, there were limits on exterior alterations, and unfortunately the couple couldn’t choose to ditch the gas hot water. So, the focus for the renovation was on interior comfort and liveability. That included creating more storage, installing a new kitchen, interventions to improve thermal performance, and updating the lighting – plus banishing the grey and white. “We decided not to do the bathrooms, as they are perfectly functional, and renovating a bathroom is complex and expensive,” Jenny says. “What we saved on the bathrooms we could spend on good timber and more storage.”

The teak used for the kitchen island bench still has marks from chemicals and Bunsen burners, Jenny notes fondly. “I told the cabinetmakers to leave those; they are part of my own story.” The wood has also been used for broad feature shelves incorporated into the new bookcases, a desk for the study nook, and as part of new bedroom joinery.

Another reclaimed timber has been used for flooring: tallowwood from the former Marsden High School in Sydney, also sourced through Thor’s Hammer. The timber floors replace cream carpet and bring a lustre at floor level that complements the gloriously colourful walls, artworks, furniture and books. “There is not a single white wall anywhere,” Jenny says proudly.

Fine art-trained colour consultant Sonia van de Haar, of Lymesmith, worked with the couple to determine the colour scheme [Ed note: se p56 for more from Sonia on introducing colour into your home]. Jenny says that while it’s commonly thought artworks are best displayed on a white background, her treasured collection looks stunning against the coloured walls. A focal point in the living area is a magnificent landscape titled ‘Beyond the Territory Wall’ by Mellissa Read-Devine. This painting conceals a secret – it is hung on a sliding panel that can be moved aside to reveal the TV.

One of the bedrooms has become David’s writing room. It gets abundant morning light in winter and looks out to a common area with trees and seating. The only structural change made during the renovation was converting one of the doors into this room into a linen cupboard in line with the aim of increasing storage in the apartment. The wall of shelving in the lounge is another example: sacrificing some floor space is repaid in spades with increased amenity. “It’s not floor space that defines liveability, it’s functionality,” Jenny says.

The main bedroom has been painted in a light coffee colour, complementing the teak and Laminex cabinetry. Overhead, a Big Ass Fans Haiku ceiling fan adds an element of energy-efficient thermal comfort for summer. Jenny explains that the colour of the walls changes throughout the day as the sun moves, and the room receives excellent north light in winter: “It’s such a relaxing room.”

Another of her favourite parts of the home is the dining area, which looks out through full-height glazing into the canopy of a mature street tree. “That outlook was what sold us on the place,” Jenny says. Facing west, this facade represents a thermal comfort liability, but the greenery helps mitigate summer heat. Cost-effective, multi-layered polycarbonate sheeting has been installed on the lower half of the windows to make them perform like triple glazing. This reduces heat and noise transfer but still allows diffused light in, while hiding the view of the traffic on the street below. It also means Jenny can sit by the window in a comfortable chair and look out on the trees while enjoying privacy.

There is an obvious air of joy in this apartment now, and it has brought Jenny enormous pleasure. “It is such a lovely thing to just sit and gaze at your books and your art,” she reflects. “I said I wanted to feel like I was outside when I am inside, and our renovation has done that.”