All Images: Peter Clarke Photography

With its brown brick construction and imposing façade, the exterior of the Armadale Treehouse, as its been dubbed by Inarc Architects, belies the luxury and splendour you’ll find inside. What’s perhaps even more surprising is that despite its thoroughly contemporary, angular design, Inarc looked to nature and the surrounding, heritage-listed street, when constructing this handsome home.

According to the award-winning East Melbourne architecture firm and proud Lovelight partners, the decision to split the first floor of the home into two wings separated by a bridge was motivated by the desire to show off the sprawling canopy of the pin oak tree which sits in the backyard. According to Inarc, who also worked with South Melbourne firm Leone Constructions, they wanted to ensure the “towering specimen” could be “admired from as many spaces within the house and garden” as possible.

Inarc’s sensitivity towards the local landscape continues in the construction of the home, which features natural materials arranged to echo the heritage Old English Tudor homes in the area. Red and brown bricks are piled atop grey timber floorboards and set amongst white timber battens. In the lounge room, floor-to-ceiling windows let light flood in and open up views of the greenery outside.

In order to ensure the centrepiece of the home could be properly admired from almost anywhere in the home, but allow privacy for the owners when desired, Lovelight was tasked with supplying a range of solutions for the varied sequence of windows which provide looking points across the rear façade. This included exterior blockout blinds for bedrooms, S-fold curtains for the lounge space, and honeycomb shades for the home’s charming bay windows, which provide both comfort and insulation.

The external venetians proved essential to the overall design of the home, not just aesthetically but functionally as well. The blinds shield the home from the ample sunlight its western orientation provides, as well as adding an extra flourish to the home’s façade and complimenting Inarc’s distinctive, naturalistic material choices.

Meanwhile, a stylishly crafted fireplace adds a touch of cosiness to the vast lounge space and serves as another way to invite nature into what is a thoughtfully designed work of architectural art. To see how Lovelight window furnishings can transform your home into a work of art, head over to our gallery, or get in touch with us to learn more about our made-to-measure solutions.

Inarc wanted to keep true to the home's heritage-listed surrounds.

The property's mighty pin oak tree served as inspiration for the home as a whole.

Lovelight exterior roller blinds on display.

Grey timber floorboards and red brick for the lounge room.

Inarc and Lovelight worked together to place comfortable vantage points throughout the home.

After breakfast, move into the lounge and admire the glorious canopy of the old pin oak tree.