Tartan House
Sunset Constructions
Leo & Lotus
Habitat
Le Cru
Plank
Tartan House is a 1940s Mt Eliza home restored for the next century. Robust, playful, timeless, and elegant: it’s a lot to ask of a home. Melanie Strathdee of Leo & Lotus delivered on all four.
The Vision
Elise and Sam approached this as owner builders, which meant the vision was entirely their own and so was the accountability. The goal was a modern family home that honoured the beautiful period details of the original terrace while extending it into something genuinely liveable and calm.
A moodboard guided every material and finish decision throughout. If it didn’t align with the vision, it didn’t make the cut.
The Brief
This is the second home Melanie has restored for this family. The art from the first transferred seamlessly to the second, which tells you something about how she thinks about the relationship between objects, spaces, and the people who inhabit them.
“I always begin with colour, then go nuts with texture, keeping within the palette. With this formula everything falls into place.”
— Melanie Strathdee, Leo & Lotus
Le Cru was where the project began. As Melanie described it: “Le Cru was the perfect floor to begin with. It doesn’t compete for attention. It just rests stoically in the background allowing the colour above to play.”
The challenge of working with age
Working with a home from the 1940s means working with age. That’s the challenge most projects like this can’t solve, which is why so many end in demolition. Melanie’s view is direct: tearing down to start fresh is sometimes easier and cheaper, but the result often lacks the feeling of completeness that a home with real history already carries.
The renovation had a moment that confirmed the approach entirely: original archways were found in the walls in the exact locations where new archways were being built. The home already knew what it wanted to be.
The design
Furniture came largely from auctions, pieces reinvented to suit a home with a similar story of their own. The art didn’t need to be sourced for this project, because it was never bought for any particular home.
“Art should never be bought for a particular home. Art speaks to you, that’s why it’s art.”
— Melanie Strathdee, Leo & Lotus
The flooring
Le Cru provides exactly the foundation a project like this requires. A rich depth of character that it settles into the background without disappearing, holding the weight of everything above it without ever demanding attention for itself.
One tip for anyone considering new flooring
“Don’t be afraid. There is so much over thinking when it comes to floor colour. If you’re stuck between a few shades, lay the samples a few metres away from you and look ‘over it’. That’s how you see its true colour in a home, never looking straight down on it.”
— Melanie Strathdee, Leo & Lotus
The Kustom Timber Experience
“Wouldn’t go anywhere else.”
— Melanie Strathdee, Leo & Lotus
For a designer whose criteria for suppliers is a willingness to go outside the box, to make things that haven’t been made before, that kind of certainty means something.
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