TIME AFTER TIME

When designer and maker Dani Dean took on a sentimental family project, both her creative compass and her heart were on the line

- ANDREA TOMAZ

DANI DEAN HAS KNOWN HER HOME on Sydney's Northern Beaches forever, even though she only bought it six years ago.

"It was my grandma's house," she says. "It's been in my family since I was a little girl. Growing up, I spent weekends with my nan. She was extremely important to me. I had been in every nook of her house." Because of this, Dani always had lots of design ideas for it. The 1970s red-brick home was originally "like a Brady Bunch house", before Dani and her husband James embarked on a nine-month renovation.

"We changed the exterior to black and opened up the inside - just a bit," says Dani. "We did new floors, paint, new kitchen, bathroom, laundry and all our light fixtures."

BALANCING ACT The design was managed by Dani's design studio, The Make Haus. "We treated it like any other job, in order to reduce the sensitivity of working on your own place," she says. Still, being both designer and client was stressful.