879 Melbourne Road

Sorrento VIC 3943

One of Sorrento's earliest homes with an award-winning heritage design restoration and sympathetic reincarnation by local visionary Ray Watts, 'Narbeth' is an understated masterwork that accentuates the limestone classicism so characteristic of heritage Sorrento, while unifying it with an extended family layout that nullifies any contrasting modernity.

A 90-year-old Cypress Pine helps to balance the gently rising site with the original cottage facade, while subduing the extended limestone fascia that consolidates with the residence's initial form. The four-room cottage has been reimagined as a fireside main suite with a fitted robe and ensuite, opposing an additional bedroom and a fireside sitting room that gives way to its newest incarnation.

An immense main living area sits under a unique ceiling profile, including a raked 16.5ft gable roof separated from the remainder by large rusticated support beams. The natural materiality continues with a limestone stack around the room's gas fireplace, plus a granite-topped kitchen that subtly integrates a suite of complementary supporting elements. A west-facing BBQ deck with a Vergola roof and kitchen servery window headlines an array of relaxed alfresco spaces, overseeing a large lawn edged with a grove of maturing olive trees and the extended accommodation wing of two further bedrooms.