My Houzz: A Musician and a Maker Create a Home With Good Vibes
A young creative couple use the bare necessities and some maker magic to turn their home into something truly special
Matt Walters and Liz Hamer have spent the past two years collecting pieces that are both practical and unique for their two-bedroom, one-bathroom home in the Melbourne, Australia, suburb of Northcote. Walters, of Parlour Gigs, and Hamer, a budding architect, use their rental home as an office and a creative workspace. Walters runs a business that brings live music into people’s homes across Melbourne, and he also produces his own music.
Hamer put her design skills to the test making some of their furniture, including the bed frame and bedside tables. She and Walters have come together to create a space that looks, and sounds, like a happy home.
Hamer put her design skills to the test making some of their furniture, including the bed frame and bedside tables. She and Walters have come together to create a space that looks, and sounds, like a happy home.
“We loved the street immediately — it’s a dead end, so it’s super quiet, and everyone knows each other,” Walters says. “Also, it’s only a minute’s walk from High Street.” He also loves that the couple across the road has chickens that roam the street and scratch in their front garden.
“The house itself is pretty humble. It’s small and quite run-down, but it has everything we need really, and has the important bits like good light and large operable windows,” Walters says. “We walked in at the inspection, and it was the first place we had seen that we thought felt like home.”
A musical theme resonates throughout the home, thanks to Walter’s production background. A nonfunctioning reel-to-reel tape recorder is displayed here as a decorative feature.
Green velvet sofas: eBay
Green velvet sofas: eBay
Walters’ favorite room in the house is his study and music room, which he says has a very peaceful vibe. In here, he produces music and runs the back end of Parlour Gigs.
Desk at back: designed by Liz Hamer
Desk at back: designed by Liz Hamer
Hamer loves their side yard, where they installed an outdoor bathtub. “There’s a fig tree and our other plants, and you can stare at the stars from a hot bath,” she says. “On an indulgent day, you can pick figs and eat them in the tub.”
Walters insists that having a green view can make a world of difference. “It can make a small room feel open and spacious. We’ve found that hanging plants, pots and creepers are great if you don’t have the space for a big garden,” he says.
The two agree that their style was born out of necessity. “It’s pretty random — we salvage and collect lots of bits and pieces,” Walters says.
What they both love about decorating in this style is that it has transformed the house from something relatively pedestrian to something unexpected and beautiful.
What they both love about decorating in this style is that it has transformed the house from something relatively pedestrian to something unexpected and beautiful.
The couple’s favorite piece is their bed. “It might be the most comfortable bed in the world,” Walters says. The wooden frame was the first thing Hamer designed and built as a fledgling architect. It used to be raised as a loft level in the house she lived in when the couple first met, and has been along for the journey with them ever since.
Clothing racks: designed by Liz Hamer
The single-level terrace house has the necessary foundational elements to make it a great home. “The bones of the house are the most important thing,” Walters says. “You need good light, good ventilation and good flow. Once you have those things, you can play all you like.”
The bathroom is simple, with greenery in the form of potted plants and through the window.
The couple replaced the kitchen door to bring in more natural light and open the space to the outdoors. “We open the house windows, and we can have music and have long chats with whomever is cooking in the kitchen. It’s like our own bit of luxury,” Walters says.
Walters and Hamer have made their concrete garden warmer and more inviting by incorporating container plants and small garden beds. They also used some bamboo coverings on the back fence for privacy and to soften the wire fence. The two agree that even though their home is small, the outside areas make it feel more spacious.
Their container garden started as a few gifts from Hamer’s mother and continued to grow, creating an ideal outdoor space for the couple to spend their afternoons in.
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
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My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
Browse more homes by style: Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Homes Around the World | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Small Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes
Who lives here: Matt Walters and Liz Hamer
Size: Two bedrooms, one bathroom
Location: Northcote suburb of Melbourne, Australia
After returning from months of overseas travel around Europe and the U.S., the couple, pictured here, quickly needed a home and settled on a small rental property in Northcote. With an aim to do it on the cheap, Walters and Hamer looked for only the necessities, and used them to optimize their minimalist space. The couple found a lot of their furnishings on eBay or secondhand, and what they couldn’t find, they made themselves.