Ten years is a long time to live in a custom home designed around someone else’s preferences
The Invisible Layer Series No.12 | August 2026
Behind the Scenes
A note from Jacqui
An extraordinary property in Bellevue Hill has just come onto the market. It is a home that has accommodated very different lives without losing the strength of its original architecture.
A home should tell you something about who lives there, and this one certainly does.
Warm regards, Jacqui
“Designing for resale can mean giving someone you have never met a say in how you live today.”
The Invisible Layer Series No.12
Who are you designing your home for?
Colour covers walls and ceilings, artwork fills the rooms and Martin Sharp’s creative life became part of the house itself during the decades he lived and worked at 3 Victoria Road in Bellevue Hill.
There is nothing generic about it. The interiors are intensely personal and sit within a very different architectural framework established long before Sharp arrived.
3 Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill.
The house was built in the early 1920s for the Friend family, with Halligan & Wilton engaged to design their home. Its generous proportions, approximately 4 metre ceilings, tall shuttered windows, dark timber floors and established garden still give the property much of its original character.
Sharp’s family acquired the house in 1937, and he inherited it in 1978 before living and working there until his death in 2013.
Martin Sharp lived and worked at the property for more than three decades.
The Friend family had the house designed around their own lives, then Sharp occupied the same rooms in a completely different way.
Whoever buys the property now will make another set of decisions about what they want to retain and how they want to live there.
The original kitchen remains in the house today.
Resale deserves consideration in residential design, although its influence should be proportionate to how long you intend to own the property. Designing around a buyer who may not arrive for ten, twenty or thirty years can compromise decisions you will live with for much of that time.
Future owners will bring their own priorities to the property, just as each generation at 3 Victoria Road has done. The individuality of the home is part of what makes it such a desirable property today.
The property is now for sale again, giving another owner the opportunity to decide how they want to live within it.
A home shaped by decades of personal choices can still hold enduring value.
The Invisible Layer
How long you intend to own a home changes the design brief, so establishing that timeframe early helps us determine whose needs should carry the greatest influence through the project.
An intended sale within the next few years shifts the emphasis towards the future buyer, so we consider who they are likely to be and what will matter to them, while ensuring the home still works for you during the time you own it. The investment can then be directed towards decisions that support both your period of ownership and the property you eventually take to market.
With ten years or more ahead, we can design more closely around the way you want to live, allowing your priorities and preferences to shape the home and the investment you make in it to deliver the greatest benefit to you over those years.
Related Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Designing for enduring personal liveability, resisting trends, and long-term value.
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