How this couple is restoring their 1970s 'time capsule' home

Georgia Frances King and Mete Erdogan had such low expectations of their future home that they almost didn’t bother going to the inspection. Built  in 1970 and suspiciously affordable for its size – with four bedrooms, a sunroom, and separate kitchen, living and dining rooms – the house in Melbourne’s north was spruiked as “ready to renovate”. Would it be another rundown, mouldy mess like others they’d seen? 

What they found on arrival was a “time capsule” in such good condition they were stunned. The house had been in one Italian family for over 50 years, with hand-poured terrazzo floors, shag carpet, and handmade furniture still in situ. 

“We saw a lot of houses on this journey and as soon as we walked into this one there was definitely a feeling that this was a very much-loved house,” says Erdogan. 

The couple immediately fell for the retro features they now can’t live without: an orange curved vinyl bar, patterned velveteen wallpaper, and amber bottle-glass sliding doors, all in excellent condition. 

Since moving in at the end of 2023, the pair have focused on bringing the grooviest 1970s elements to the fore. This meant toning down the background noise – stripping brown stripy wallpaper from some of the rooms (including the kitchen) and painting over lemon meringue-coloured walls with crisp white. While they loved the shag carpet, their decision to rip it up paid dividends when they found pristine Tasmanian oak floorboards underneath. 

Neither King nor Erdogan had experience doing DIY projects, yet they found themselves restoring the home with their own hands … and a lot of help from YouTube. 

“The plan was not to do any of this ourselves,” Erdogan says. “Our first DIY project happened by accident because the person we called to peel the wallpaper off the walls backed out at the last minute.” 

They decided to film some Instagram reels of their attempts. To their surprise, their account Shag Manor now has close to 70,000 followers. 

“We started [the account] literally just to show our friends and family how it was all going. Neither of us would have had anywhere near the level of confidence to go, ‘I think the world needs to see us do this’,” Erdogan says with a laugh. 

But it seems the home’s disco-era elements have struck a chord with people. Throughout the house, there are vintage light fixtures and chandeliers, the bathroom has a gold-tapped bidet, and the dining and living room ceilings are chequered plaster, giving “Queen’s Gambit vibes”. 

Having separate rooms for dining, living and kitchen rather than the ubiquitous open-plan area is something they celebrate.

“There’s a cosiness you get from being able to close off the dining room area, especially at night,” King says. “With candles on the table, they reflect in all of the chandeliers that are on the ceiling.” 

The spacious kitchen is in its original state but requires no work. 

“It’s a 1970s kitchen made in the style of a 1950s kitchen, and it’s in such incredible condition that it still has the original laminate coverings in some of the some of the cupboards,” King says. “It looks like something out of a 1950s film set. We will never remodel this kitchen.”

Huge windows – “really abnormally large,” King says – let sunlight flood the home, warming the deep window sills where the couple’s beloved cat, Lila, curls up. However, they are one of the downsides of the home’s vintage; without double glazing, they also let in Melbourne’s cold temperatures. 

Weather-proofing the home is on the couple’s list of future improvements, as is putting in some storage – with no built-in wardrobes at all, they’ve filled a bedroom with their clothes hanging on racks – and bringing some greenery to the concrete outdoor area. The beloved vinyl bar also needs restoration “because it’s got lots of knee marks from where people have sat up at the bar for five decades,” King says. 

Some extra pieces were recently returned to the home, too, after the family who built the house found them through their Instagram account. 

“We’ve literally had the man who built this house with his own hands walking around the house with us, King says. “[His son] brought over all of the glassware that used to sit on the bar. So the bar now has the original glassware that was in it in the 1970s.”