What was a bit of a barn has been turned into an enviably liveable house by architect Richard Peters and his partner, design activist and editor Heidi Dokulil. Before its recent reinvention it had other lives: second-hand washing machine storage, motorbike repair shop, artist’s studio and, first, a coach-making business when built in 1890 by two Irish blacksmith brothers in a cul-de-sac in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.

This small industrial building was like a tardis, wedged by chance in a back lane and waiting for them to appear. “It remains a secret space,” says Peters, “revealing its new life connected to the sky, the seasons, the breezes and the surrounding gardens”.

From ‘The Tardis’, a story on page 84 of Vogue Living Before+After 2011.

Photograph by Mikkel Vang.