This regal kitchen has dramatic views of Hobart's skyline and the Derwent River

The Age

08-05-2025

From the outside, an imposing Italianate Victorian mansion in Hobart has a regal look that is enhanced by slender elongated chimneys and fine filagree wrought iron lacework.
But rather than a foreboding front entrance overseen by Lurch the butler from the TV series The Addams Family, the front door is to the side and visitors are met by frisky Labradors. Renovated for a couple with three children and two dogs, the family home in the northern suburb of Mount Stuart is neither eerie nor pretentious.
'Our clients had a certain vision in their minds but were not exactly sure how to achieve it – something that was quite layered and, importantly, liveable. From memory, a few keywords were 'being able to see both the garden and the sky',' says architect Shamus Mulcahy, who worked closely with colleagues Bek Verrier and Sophie Bence, a co-director of Bence Mulcahy Architecture.
Neither the dramatic view of the Hobart skyline or the Derwent River was clearly visible from the house's former kitchen, a 1980s glass box that had been crudely tacked onto the back of the house with little consideration for either aspect or heat retention. About two by four metres in area, the old rudimentary kitchen was far from functional or desirable to be in.
Another idea suggested by the owners was to create a kitchen that felt more like a 'potting shed', where souvenirs from travels could be displayed alongside kitchen utensils within reach.
Vases and objects lovingly brought back to life by the owners, and flowers picked from the garden are scattered on the mild steel shelves. And rather than a slab of marble on the benches, Bence Mulcahy opted for brass – with the imprints and marks made over time.
Combined with Tasmanian oak joinery, the kitchen is a place to enjoy the art of cooking or the views that extend beyond the back garden to the Eastern Shore and Frederick Henry Bay.
The six-metre-high void of the new dining nook also magnifies the vista, with the steel and glass window in the ensuite to the main bedroom, directly above, also benefiting from this aspect. 'It was quite a challenging brief as providing a view from the bath tub meant creating a stepped or recessed effect,' says Mulcahy, who was also conscious of retaining the established cyprus and the mature pear tree that now almost reach the home's pitched slate roof.