Back Dated

I was really quite distraught when MR sent me the link to 19 Longstaff Street Ivanhoe East. While the description reads 'tastefully updated' I couldn't help crying out its 'Back Dated' NOT UPDATED!!

In the 1950's & 1960's architects and designers were doing away with excessive embellishments. While the rations and restrictions of WWII had been lifted, the way we designed buildings and used materials had changed forever. There was a sense of creative freedom and the optimism of the post-war era was celebrated across the arts. It meant new buildings were free from the shackles of traditional decorative elements like stained glass windows, ceiling roses, timber mantel pieces, dado paneling and swags and tail drapery. Yet at Longstaff Street we seem them creeping back in and its wrong, wrong, wrong! Rather than looking rich and opulent as they would in a classic Victorian home, the interiors look like spartan and unfinished. This is because the 1960's proportions of the rooms, the ceiling heights and the windows all work against the interior decor which is designed for smaller, darker rooms with higher ceilings with ornate cornicing and smaller, draftier windows.

Images Miles Real Estate

I won't include more interior photos here because, well frankly, its too upsetting for me! But I hope that the new owners can breathe some new life into this home. Peel off the layers that are aging it un-gracefully and reveal (and celebrate) the modern young building within.