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Intrim style series: Naomi Findlay’s new ‘Modern Country’ reno

Bathroom
Bathroom

Sponsored by Intrim

We’ve been following Naomi Findlay’s Carrington House transformation for a while now and have marvelled at the way in which the reno expert turned a run-down 1880’s stone cottage into a light-filled, modern country abode. The latest ‘room’ to be unveiled is the home’s extension which functions as Naomi’s studio and events space, and we caught up with her recently to get the inside scoop.

Kitchen
Kitchen

“I would describe the style of the extension as ‘modern country’ and we tried to reference the original property as much as we could,” says Naomi who tackled the renovation in two stages, initially bringing the original cottage back to life before knocking down a dilapidated extension and rebuilding the back of the home.

Dining room
Dining area

“The style is very traditional with vivid florals, wall panelling, colour and stripes all put together,” says Naomi of the home that features the same Intrim mouldings in the original cottage, all the way through to the back. “I wanted the comfort from the front to continue into the back of the house and we used skirting boards, architraves as well as chair and picture rails to achieve this continuity.”

Bathroom
Intrim chair rails were used to cap the tiles in the bathroom
CR22 chair rail

Chair rails were used to great effect in the bathroom and laundry where they cap the tiles and create a seamless flow between the rooms. “We put chair rails in those areas because that way, when you leave a living area and enter a wet area it doesn’t feel like a utilitarian space. It feels like an extra room in the home,” says Naomi.

Laundry
Laundry

One of her favourite features of the extension are the picture rails – she loves the freedom that they allow when it comes to art. “The picture rails mean that I get to change my art as much as I want. They also mean that the walls and paint stay intact because the less paint and patch the better!”

As for where to place a picture rail on the wall, Naomi says you must always allow for large pieces of art to hang with the centre at eye level. In the lounge area for instance, the picture rail is in line with the top of the room’s clerestory windows, which allows for art to be hung at the appropriate height. 

Lounge room
Picture rails were positioned in line with the windows in the lounge area
The PR20 picture rail

“If I had my way, I’d put picture rails in every home! There are even modern profiles when it comes to picture rails – your home doesn’t have to have a modern country style to use them.”

Naomi changes up the art in her kitchen on a regular basis
Naomi changes the art in her kitchen on a regular basis
SK498 can be, and was here, used as a skirting board and architrave

What Naomi used

Intrim CR22 chair rail 66 x 18mm

Intrim SK498 architraves 90 x 18mm

Intrim SK498 skirting boards 135mmx18mm

Intrim PR20 picture rail 66 x 18mm

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Stone cottage renovation that’ll blow your mind!

Most people would have run for the hills on seeing the rundown state of this 1880s stone cottage, but not our favourite renovator Naomi Findlay! Her years of experience and can-do attitude, meant she saw the potential to rescue and restore ‘Carrington House’ to her former glory, and she’ll be sharing the step-by-step process with us over the next few weeks and months. Over to you, Naomi…

From this…
…to this!

Carrington House is a little old house on Carrington Street in the Hunter region of NSW. What first attracted me to this property was not just the obvious need for it to be rescued, but the property felt like it was hurting. It felt like it had a story to tell, and no one to help tell it. And once I visited it once, regardless of how graphic and disturbing the property was, I couldn’t not have it as mine.

Step-by-step, I’m showing you everything I do, room by room, to transform this 1880s stone cottage that has been butchered and cut up over decades, and completely neglected, into a modern country, comfortable, classic, cosy cottage for me to work from.

Today I am pumped to be able to share with you the first finished room. I could go on forever about all of the things that were wrong with this room. There were rotted waling plates, destroyed bearers and joists, unstable floors, damaged multiply-lined walls, no character, water smells, mould and a dropping ceiling!

Oh gosh, the list goes on and on and on! Let alone not being weathertight, waterproof, insect-proof, or even secure. If you want to see more, you can here with behind the scenes videos of every single step in that journey.

My inspiration for room one was a strong, feminine, classic feel. 

You’ll notice that even though the walls are adorned with the most audacious floral wallpaper, it is in a very deep navy blue which gives it such strength. I’ve ensured that space medicine is integrated as the light and outdoors are brought inside with amazing French doors and side lights. These doors are then made super practical for the Australian environment with French security doors layered internally, meaning privacy and security as well as no flies!

To add that next level of detail, I’ve installed broad trims, bulky cornices, picture rails, chair rails and custom wainscoting. It’s like jewellery on the walls.

I totally get that many people love spray painting everything white nowadays, but for me colour can be so therapeutic and so nurturing when it’s used correctly. So I used this wallpaper as my jumping off point for all of the colours in the room. From the wallpaper, I pulled the deep blue for the door and the playful soft blue for the wainscoting, as well as a crisp but warm white on the rest of the walls and the ceiling.

So the floor that was here was in disrepair but never fear, I have renewed and recycled that and taken it to another project, it’s certainly not in the skip bin. Given this may become my office, I needed to make sure that the floor was really hardy and so I’ve actually gone for a wide plank on the floor. Wider boards were often used in years gone by and were certainly what was underneath this existing floor. Here I have chosen to go on with a very, very hard-wearing, very wide, vinyl plank, which is laid with a heavy adhesive. This means it’s waterproof, dust proof, scratch proof, you name it, I can do pretty much anything to these floors and they will tolerate it.

My biggest challenges in this space were the subfloor (it was non-existent) and the repairing of the existing gyprock. It was my choice to keep the gyprock on the walls and not strip it. But in doing that, it was a really tough job for the gyprockers to repair the walls.

My favourite part of this room varies day by day as I sit in the space. However, the door is still a winner. The finish on the door and the colour of the door blow my mind.

I hope you enjoy seeing the transformation, and if you would like to know more about any of the specs or products that you’ve seen, you can find them here.

Learn to renovate with Naomi: FREE masterclass