Petersen D91 bricks from Robertson's Building Products Pty Ltd matched the cement render perfectly on the facade of a new home in Kew East, Melbourne, keeping the look simple, timeless and understated, yet bold.

Designed by Herbert & Howes Pty Ltd, the new house has been planned not only to provide extra space for a family with growing children but also create a modern, comfortable home that will easily see them through the next chapter in their lives, opening up multiple spaces for entertaining family and friends, behind a solid, attractive facade.

Located on a challenging slope, the striking residence presents as a single storey structure from the street-front, splitting into a double storey at the rear, which allows the entertaining area to be located on the same level as the pool.

The open plan design includes six-metre windows, spanning from the front to the back of the house to create a light and bright home that the family can enjoy throughout Melbourne’s variable seasons.

On selecting the material palette for this new home, Matthew Herbert of Herbert & Howes said: “We love traditional building materials and colours, which aren’t too fussy. For us, keeping the material palette to clay bricks, cement render and timber was the perfect choice.”

Though his original plan was to cement render the entire home, he introduced bricks to break up the mass of the bold facade. Petersen D91 bricks perfectly matched the tone and colour of the cement render. Herbert explains that he chose this range because he “loves the texture, colour and unique shape of each brick”.

Homeowner Paul Mastras was also thrilled with Matthew’s choice, saying, “I love the grey tone of the bricks because it matches the render of the house. Robertson’s Building Products gave me a few places to look at who’d already used the bricks, and I thought the brick looked really nice – they had a similar sort of style, and we thought it worked well.”

He adds, “We looked at other bricks, too, and I did see quite a few. But there was nothing as unique as these, with the grey overtones and the blue/grey colour of the brick. It’s really lovely.”

Photographer: TBA