Tim’s affection for mid century design is well documented, and since purchasing his own beautiful modernist home in Sydney in 2005, his passion for the era has only been exacerbated! ‘I have always collected things, and have had a serious problem with furniture over the years, particularly mid century modern pieces’ says Tim. This enthusiasm soon expanded into a full blown architecture obsession, inspired by the houses Tim recalls from his youth growing up on the Mornington Peninsula. ‘Mt Eliza in particular had houses designed by architects like Robin Boyd, Roy Grounds and Chancellor and Patrick‘ he says. When he has the privilege of visiting a fantastic modernist home now, Tim describes the experience as ‘like dealing with ‘architectural missing out disease‘!’ SO true! I have often wondered what it must have been like to live in a such an exciting time, aesthetically speaking!
The Walsh Street house is an iconic Australian home for many reasons. Robin Boyd is one of Australia’s most admired and influential architects, and his family home in Walsh street is his most well known work. The house perfectly demonstrates the design principles championed in Boyd’s book ‘The Australian Ugliness‘, including what he identified as the suburban propensity to build homes on the very centre of a block of land. Instead, The Walsh Street house demonstrates the advantage of a more introspective layout – the main house and a separate children’s pavilion face inward on the block, enveloping a lush central courtyard, linked by a distinctive sloping roof.
The home maximises its surprisingly modest footprint with versatile, multifunctional spaces which Boyd and his wife Patricia were known to re-configure often when entertaining guests. The lofty mezzanine with adjacent balcony in the main house served both as the couple’s master bedroom, and as a secondary sitting room when the need arose. Robin and Patricia’s bed would be covered by a neat upholstered cover to become a daybed for guests to lounge on! With its soaring sloped ceiling and views out to the courtyard, this would have been a seriously impressive space to entertain – can you imagine walking into such a bold and modern space in the late 1950’s!?
Tim Ross’ passion for mid century design has brought about a very intimate connection to this home, and many others from the era, on account of a hugely popular comedy show he’s been doing for a few years now, called ‘Man About The House‘! For this project he’s somehow managed to combine all his favourite things into one – comedy, music and mid century architecture. No mean feat!
‘Man About The House is about a complete experience’ explains Tim. First and foremost, the evening is an entertaining comedy show (with a little live music thrown in), but it is also an open house, allowing visitors to experience first hand a house or building that has outstanding architectural merit. Tim has performed the show at various architectural gems across Australia – in Melbourne, his venue is the Walsh Street House. ‘We encourage people to grab a drink and move around the house as if they were turning up at a friends place and check out their swinging pad for the first time’ he says. In fact, I was lucky to attend Tim’s show here last year and I can attest to this! The event started with a self guided wander around this incredible home, and culminated with Tim’s performance in the courtyard, alongside his best mate and musical sidekick Kit Warhurst.
Hosting his Man About the House show here, and in similar homes across Australia, has given Tim the chance to engage a new audience in a conversation about design. ‘Obviously the show is appealing for people who have a strong interest in architecture and design, but many people who don’t often walk away with a deeper appreciation for mid century modern architecture’ he says. ‘There is a strong message of preservation in the show, because I believe that buildings that are 50 or 60 years old are as important to save as those that are a 100 or 150 years old’. Having said that, although each show does include an appropriate level of banter about the house, it’s not an architecture lecture by any means! Tim’s performance is filled with anecdotes from his childhood in the suburbs, and cheerful musical interludes with Kit, ‘…and it’s also about me doing dumb things, which is always funny’ adds Tim!
What really makes Man About The House unique is the genuine sense of intimacy that this unconventional performance space provides. ‘There is no backstage, and after the show people tend to hang around and talk, make new friends and of course recognise each other from Instagram!’ says Tim.
The Robin Boyd Foundation have been fantastically supportive of Tim’s show, and will be hosting another series of Man About The House later this month for the Melbourne Comedy Festival. For a closer look at this very special Melbourne home, do consider getting along to check it out – a great night out, and one of the best ways to experience the charm of this truly iconic Australian home first hand.
For more on Man About The House, there is a cute video from Tim explaining the concept behind the show in a little more detail here.
For more info on The Robin Boyd Foundation and other upcoming events in the Walsh Street House , do check out their website!
While this is a distinct break from the Wednesday tradition of homes which are currently lived in, this is such a beautifully photographed treat of such a ground-breaking and forward-looking home that it fits ever so neatly into the Wednesday homes category, to my mind at least. The richness of the materials and the drama of the details has been captured perfectly.
Hmmmm timeless……
Beautifully shot Eve. Thanks for your support Lucy, you are the best x
What an incredible house. And well done Tim for bringing amazing architects to the public awareness. Hopefully he will have a date in Sydney soon!
Bizarre! I’m just getting in to mid century design and am enjoying Robin Boyd’s book at the moment. Can’t wait to see the house & the show :)
What a fabulous example of the period. Wow, I had no idea about this place. Very envious of Eve getting to shoot it! The Featherstone furniture is pretty special, too.
Fab house! You can also get fabulous butterfly chairs from http://www.muumuubutterflychairs.com.au
Looks fantastic – great architecture
Looks amazing and without everything painted white.
I remember when this house was for sale and it was such a relief to see it purchased (at huge cost) by the Robin Boyd Foundation. As a community, we are forever in their debt for saving such an iconic building.
Beautiful Lucy & team, such a gorgeous building and story
Amazing home! Having seen many photos of it and been lucky enough to visit it myself, I am still blown away by these great images! Thanks for featuring this great piece of Melbourne architecture!
So excited to see this post… we are in the middle of researching Robin Boyd for interior design, and have fallen just a little bit for the Walsh St house. Seeing all these gorgeous pics and learning more about Robin Boyd and the era is a delight. How lovely to open it up to an evening of entertainment. Enjoy!
Love Tim Ross. Love the house.
The classics are timeless, beautiful. Love this post, thank you.
Amazing! Tim Ross is a total champion. Great house and great photos – thank you for sharing with us. I live in a Chancellor and Patrick myself so I’m always really interested to see photos of mid century homes untouched by poorly considered renovations. Mine’s been touched (in a bad, bad way) by the 80’s so always looking to see how we can renovate sympathetically. The Walsh St bathroom is incredible – love the copper and the dark tiles and wood and ….and I could go on!
I must have studied each image for ages. Loved it all!
Wow! big fan of Tim Ross and a huge fan of this home one of my favourites ever featured, so so beautiful and so lucky the home has been preserved by the Robin Boyd foundation, thank you!
Can it get any better than this! Tim Ross, you are a legend for coming up with such a unique idea. Can’t wait to see the show, and the house.
Love this house and particularly the range of colors in the furniture! The purple/fushia chairs combined with the red settee just gorgeous!
This house is pushing the boundaries I’d like to see more like this.
I’d like to see houses that are pushing these boundaries even more than this….There’s a challenge for you.
Just booked- can’t wait for the show and the house!
The epitome. Thank you!
simply beautiful. a home like this doesn’t need to succumb to trends. thank you lucy x
What an extraordinary building and such a treat to see inside.
Those Grant Featherstone prototypes. How I would love some!!
Perfection
Stunning!!. I’m a huge fan of Robin Boyd, delighted that the foundation was able to purchase the property. So important to preserve our significant moments in architecture .
Could someone identify the design of the purple lounge chairs in the first picture. My grand ,other had one and then us with a lounge and 2 chairs. I don’t thinks its Eames Plank. Would live to be able to buy one. Authentic or reproduction.
Love the play of volume, light and texture. Getting beyond gloss planar surfaces is where the possibilities are.
This is one of my favourite houses ever, ever, ever. ADORE IT.
Yummy! I’ll be checking the website.
Ciao
Robyn
Exquisite use of deep colours.
Two things; Thank you so much for bringing this house to my eyeballs. So much to love. And two, this photo presentation style is much easier to see details and zoom in on things etc than the usual Wednesday slideshow (for me!). Pleeeeeaase change to this style!!