Queensland family home Queensland family home

When former real estate agent Belinda Jones first viewed this large run-down Queenslander in the Brisbane suburb of Virginia, she fell in love. “It was dark and enclosed with yellow walls and dark timber ceilings,” she says. “But I could see what it could be. It had a lovely feel to it. It felt like a real family home.”

Queensland family home Queensland family home

However, as a family home wasn’t what she was looking for at the time, she presumed it was just a passing fancy. “I had just started dating David and he was looking to buy,” she recalls. “He was actually looking to buy a small inner city apartment, but I brought him here to have a look, anyway, and he loved it, too!”

Queensland family home Queensland family home

Fast forward a few years and it is indeed a lovely family home as Belinda and David now live here with their three-year-old son, Charlie. “The first thing we did was to paint all the walls and ceilings white,” Belinda says. To lighten up the home as much as possible they choose Dulux White on White, which is almost a pure white.

Queensland family home Queensland family home

As they soon discovered, painting VJ (vertical jointed) walls takes a little more time and product than painting regular plasterboard. “We hadn’t really looked closely at the condition of the VJs before we started painting but they were actually quite cracked,” Belinda adds. “My sister, who also owns a Queenslander, said to buy some wood filler. David went down to Bunnings and bought a couple of tubes — we ended up needing about two cartons!” Structurally, the only changes they made was to remove the decorative moulded arches, which were originally installed between the kitchen and the dining room, and the dining and living rooms. Along with the white paint, this really opened the house right up. They decided to have the outside of the house painted in time for their joint 40th birthday party to surprise David’s mum, Lynne, who was flying in from Wales especially for the occasion. “When the quotes came in, though, they were all for around $20,000, so David decided to do it himself,” Belinda says. “He did an amazing job as he works long hours, anyway, and then he’d come home every night and paint under spotlight for another four or five hours and all day Saturday and Sunday.”

Queensland family home Queensland family home

This story was originally published in Australian Country issue 15.1. Subscribe to the magazine here.

For more homes and interiors, click here.

Words Tahn Scoon
Photography John Downs

More Like This

The Great Ocean Road’s Greatest Stays

The Great Ocean Road’s Greatest Stays

The Great Ocean Road is famous for the 12 Apostles and iconic rugged coastline, but there’s a whole lot more to […]

The Blooming Legacy of Treloar Roses

The Blooming Legacy of Treloar Roses in Portland Victoria

Just outside Portland Victoria, at the edge of the great ocean road, sits approx. 50 hectares of paddocks that are quilted […]

A Rising Phoenix: Rae and Guy spent 15 years developing their garden in the NSW Mid-West

The spectre of the bushfires of summer 2019 looms large over the garden at Keewaydin, the home of Rae and Guy […]

What Goes Around: Susan Duncan has learnt that the secret to life is as simple as surrounding yourself with good people

If the accepted wisdom about adversity revealing a person’s true colours is correct, Susan Duncan’s bushfire plan delivers the full rainbow. […]

A drive through the seaside town of Victor Harbor

A Sunday Drive: A drive through the seaside town of Victor Harbour, SA

This house has been waiting for me,” Tania Norman says as she recalls a conversation she recently had with a tradesperson. […]

On the bright side: Find a work-life balance in Victoria's high country

On the bright side: Find a work-life balance in Victoria’s high country

Find a work-life balance in Victoria’s high country: when Matt and Britt White decided to return to Australia after years living […]

A bed and breakfast with warm tones and wooden features, Hospitality Haven: Creating a home away from home for visitors to India

Hospitality Haven: Creating a home away from home for visitors to India

Creating a home away from home for visitors to India, as Caroline Gabriel recalls returning to India at the end of […]

Light and airy contemporary living space in Victoria's picturesque Hepburn Springs.

A New Stage: Aussie actor transformed a cabin in Victoria

Aussie actor transformed a cabin in Victoria Hepburn Springs, Hannah Fredericksen is not normally one to sit still. She chases her […]

Follow Us on Instagram