When Bank Australia customer Shaun first walked through the door of his Brunswick West apartment, he took in its drab interior and had one thought: “It’s perfect!”. Beyond the grey carpet and even greyer curtains, Shaun could see the potential of this one-bedroom flat.
“It had a beautiful view through north-facing windows, and so I could see the immediate possibilities for a sustainable renovation,” he says.
Shaun bought the apartment with help from the Victorian Homebuyer Fund (VHF) – a shared equity scheme where the state government contributes to the purchase price in exchange for an equivalent share in the property. This means eligible buyers can use a smaller deposit (starting from 5%) and not need to pay for Lenders Mortgage Insurance. Bank Australia is a participating lender with the VHF, and since Shaun was already a customer, applying online was simple. The financial flexibility offered by the scheme allowed Shaun to use more of his savings to transform his new home.
While Shaun had never attempted a renovation before – admittedly more handy on the pottery wheel than with a hammer in hand – he spent hours watching YouTube videos, borrowed tools from the local tool library and called in the professionals for the important stuff, like plumbing and electrical.
“I think one of the main misconceptions with renovating an apartment is that you can't do it yourself, and that it's really expensive,” he says. “While it was probably the most challenging thing I’ve done, it's also the most rewarding, and things like laying the floor and installing the kitchen were actually way easier than I thought. It’s worth having a crack!”
Shaun did have one big advantage, though: he works for a local council as a sustainable buildings officer. This gave him some grounding knowledge and the motivation to practise what he preached.
The first thing Shaun set about fixing was the thermal efficiency of the apartment. While it had a great orientation, it got too hot in summer and too cold in winter. “I wanted a comfortable space to live in,” he says, “so I prioritised insulation so the apartment would maintain its temperature a bit better.”
He added Pink Batts insulation to the ceiling, which was previously just an air cavity, and attached Kooltherm K17 insulated plasterboard on the internal north and west walls, which were especially exposed to the sun. “This is a really handy way to insulate, because you can fix it straight to the internal wall,” he says. “Those additions alone completely changed the feel of the apartment, which is now able to hold a stable temperature.”
Shaun’s apartment was already running on electricity, so he swapped out the inefficient electric oven and cooktop that was at the end of its life for a compact induction cooktop. “I love the speed and ease this brings,” he says. “Although, I would advise people living in apartments to check what amperage they have available in their electrical boards first, as this determines the size of the cooktop you can have. In my case, it required its own breaker and cable.”
After calling in some mates to help him rip up the old carpet, he laid down natural cork “tiles” from ReadyCork. In addition to looking beautiful, cork is a natural and renewable flooring option. “It feels great underfoot,” says Shaun, “and it provides a little bit of thermal and acoustic insulation as well.”
To keep the renovation sustainable and budget-friendly, Shaun sourced as many materials and fittings second-hand as he could. He made his own kitchen benchtop from reclaimed wood purchased at a salvage timber yard and bought much of his furniture via Facebook Marketplace, including his dining chairs that he reupholstered himself.
Transforming the space from the original dull colour palette into brighter and vibrant greens and white hues was both an aesthetic and sustainable design choice for Shaun, who knew lighter colours would be more likely to reflect heat. And while double-glazed windows were not in his budget, he doubled up on blinds instead, opting for bright white blockout blinds that sit inside the window sill to block the sun and timber venetians on the outside.
The project has come with its challenges (including finding nesting birds inside his ceiling when it came time to insulate), but Shaun says sticking to a firm budget and not overcomplicating things has made all the difference. “My advice to people who want to do a similar project in an apartment is to just keep it simple,” he says. “There's no crazy technology or materials in here – it's really simple principles and much easier than it looks.”
