What We do
Clever design adds value.
Interested in our design services
to get it right for your home?
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Services
Dr Retro House Calls
For anybody needing a professional pre-renovation, design and building advisory…
Building Design Services
For extensions that are sympathetic to the existing architecture, or…
Interior Design Services
For renovations that are in a mid-century style that may…
3D Visualisation Services
For anybody who has trouble visualising three dimensions from plans…
Secret Design Studio – servicing all of Melbourne Metro
As Secret Design Studio is the only building and interior design consultancy that specializes in Mid-Century homes in Australia, we often receive enquiries from regional cities and interstate. Unfortunately, as a small business we cannot provide our full design services to these areas outside Melbourne. However, we can provide partial consultation services in a number of ways. Please contact us to discuss the options available for your location.
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Secret Design Studio
Secret Design Studio is a small, boutique building and interior design studio that specialises in retro homes of the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of visiting “Gillison House” designed by architect Robin Boyd. This is one of Secret Design Studio’s favourite homes In Balwyn. According to the real estate listing, it has two mature Lemon Scented Gums planted by one of Australia’s best-known landscape designers, Edna Walling.![]()
Fortunately, it has a Heritage Overlay that controls the external paint colours (but not the trees or internal alterations). ![]()
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From the Jellis Craig listing:![]()
“Designed by Robin Boyd, one of Australia’s most pre-eminent Modernist architects, “Gillison House” c.1952 is significant both as a “living, breathing” piece of the architect’s legacy and the home of historically important writers, Douglas Napier and Joan Gillison. Positioned on the northern side of what would have been then, Melbourne’s highest metropolitan hill, the home is one of a small number from Boyd’s first years of practice that incorporate elements from his “Victorian Type”; extensive northern glazing, frank expression of materials, a flat roof, simple exposed timber structure and the retention of native trees. Most definitively, it’s magnificent facade, a two-storey structure of diagonal window walls rare in post war homes and Boyd’s oeuvre, demonstrates the architect’s shift away from simplicity toward inspired structural innovation and forms designed to impress.”![]()
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www.jelliscraig.com.au/property-details-43-Kireep-Road-Balwyn/1606814
