Ash Grey brick tiles create a warm, highly liveable space in Sandringham.

Sandringham House is beautiful and functional, with a warm, liveable feel. Because well-lived-in, this home certainly is.

Designed and built by its owner, Ryan Boyd, Director, Boyd Design & Build, and Freya, his wife, Sandringham House is a spacious five-bedroom, three-bathroom home. Along with their four young children, the Boyds wanted to create a single-storey, low-maintenance home that was not only inviting but perfectly suited to the needs of their active family for the foreseeable future.

Having lived on-site in the previous 1960s house for three years before renovating, Ryan and Freya knew that for them, the new design was all about cultivating a homely feel in an open-plan living environment and, most importantly, bringing the outside in.

After all, as Ryan says, “All good homes should be made to look out of, not to be looked at.”

This aspect of the design sets Sandringham House apart.

From the spacious front entrance, a glorious 38 metre-long hallway welcomes you into the home and pulls you straight to its heart: the open plan living and kitchen area, which flows seamlessly onto the alfresco area and pool, blurring the indoor/outdoor spaces.

A warm, neutral palette provides the perfect backdrop, enabling a pop of colour on the interior furnishings, which can change as their lives and styles evolve.

Most striking in the palette are the Ash Grey brick tiles, which greet you at the entrance and walk you through the hall into the heart of the living area, culminating as a feature on the fireplace surround.

“We loved the neutral tone, and the slight fleck that it has in it. When the light hits the tiles running the full length of our northern-oriented hallway, it casts beautiful shadows of the neighbouring trees bringing a sense of the outside in,” Ryan comments.

The Ash Grey brick tiles’ durability and beautiful aesthetic make them the perfect task, as Freya explains, “They’re just a great surface for us as a young family. We’ve got the pool, so the kids are constantly running in and out with wet feet, but they’re so forgiving, they dry so well, and they’re a great liveable colour too. I’ve got the dog, my builder husband with his boots, and the kids riding their bikes up and down the hallway – it’s just like a main road. They’ve got enough grip that they don’t slip, but the mop glides easily over them, so we’re really happy; I can’t speak more highly of them.”

Sandringham House, though mostly new, does give a slight nod to the old 1960s house, main thanks to retaining the pitched roof, which invited a stunning cathedral-style ceiling in the living area, opening up this light-filled room even further. Old or new aside, what matters most is that Sandringham House is just as Ryan and Freya intended: a highly liveable home, purpose-built for family and entertaining friends that will serve the Boyds well into the future.

Designer/Builder: Boyd Design & Build
Product: Ash Grey Brick Tiles
Photographer: Boyd Design & Build