'It was meant to be': Inside The Block co-creator Julian Cress' spectacular Melbourne home

The stars were aligned in 2014 when The Block co-creator and executive producer Julian Cress and his wife Sarah Armstrong began searching for a home for their growing family.

Sheathed in Boston ivy, a three-level red-brick house in Melbourne’s inner south started life in the late 1800s as a neighbourhood bakery. And, for Armstrong and Cress, serendipity was at play.

“Sarah found this house online and it was being sold by a couple who were downsizing, while we were upsizing because we were expecting our second child,” says Cress.

“But what was really remarkable was the discovery that the [vendors] had just purchased a Block apartment 200 metres away. So, it was as if we were doing a house swap! It did feel as though it was meant to be.”

To Cress and Armstrong, the house held a magical promise. Armstrong, who runs The Block Shop, says of that first viewing: “It took my breath away – it was like a big, beautiful old barn tucked in a little laneway.”

And Cress, who has been at the helm of one of our greatest reality TV success stories for the past two decades, was no less smitten.

“The house has such a romantic facade,” he says. “We loved the look of it from the very beginning.”

For the couple, whose sons Max and Charlie are now aged eight and seven, their heritage-industrial-style makeover of the home was not to be rushed.

“The house oozes charm,” says Cress. “We have loved exposing the old parts. When we first moved in, we lived in it for about 12 months and then stripped the house back to its original features and started to work from there. 

“In that process, we discovered some beautiful old steel beams holding the house together. The beams dated back to the 1800s from Sheffield, England. They’d been covered up by various renovations over the years, but we’ve exposed them.”

Over the past seven years, the couple have also relished injecting new life into their home. With help, of course, from some of The Block’s most talented creatives. 

“It’s been a really interesting collaboration to renovate this home,” says Cress. “We’ve worked with people who are very close to us.

“All of the renovations have been done by The Block builders, Nine in Six Builders. We also collaborated on the whole project with my oldest friend, Julian Brenchley, who has been the architect for The Block since it started.

“For the downstairs area, which we renovated six years ago, we worked with The Block judge Darren Palmer, and for the latest renovation of the upper level, we’ve been working with another good friend and former contestant on The Block – very gifted interior architect-designer Matt Martino of Martino Group.

“And Viridian Glass, who have always been supporters of The Block, really helped us access the extraordinary view and make us feel we’re in the heart of Melbourne.”

It comes as no surprise to hear that Armstrong and Cress have themselves long been avid renovators.

“We never stop,” concedes Armstrong with a laugh. “And this house has always offered us scope to work with.”

Within the walls of the home, a sense of creativity and whimsy is palpable. Passionate collectors, Armstrong and Cress – the son of Archibald Prize-winning Australian artist Fred Cress and Dobell Prize-winning artist Anne Judell – have filled the home with cherished works and furnishings.

“We’re really lucky that we’ve got some beautiful art around us,” says Cress. “I’ve grown up with art and fine art all my life – and Sarah, through her work with The Block Shop, also has a great eye for art. She’s become such a collector and supporter of emerging artists.

“It’s been really wonderful adding those pieces to the collection.”

Two prints by Andy Warhol set the scene in the entry, while scene-stealing “fake taxidermy” works by Australian sculptor Troy Emery feature prominently throughout the home. There’s also a gloriously pink painting by one of Armstrong’s “newest favourites”, indigenous artist Lizzy Stageman, who made her debut on The Block this year in Ronnie and Georgia’s hallway.

However, it’s the just-completed transformation of the upper level that unveils perhaps the sweetest surprise. Home to the couple’s tranquil new main suite, the retreat reveals panoramic vistas of the city skyline.

“All of the visual interest up here is in the view,” says Cress. “Everything internally is very calm, soft and pared-back, so that it makes the drama of the view the hero.”

Adds Armstrong: “I guess you could usually describe our style as fairly colourful and eclectic – we’ve always collected things. But this top level – and I think it’s mainly in response to the way the world has been the last couple of years – has been designed to be a real sanctuary.”

Meanwhile, renowned landscape architect Dave Franklin, also well-familiar to The Block viewers, has encased the home in a picture-perfect floral setting.

“The brief to Dave was to build us a brand new garden, but make it look like it’s been there since 1895,” says Cress.

“There are pink camellias, magnolias and a big urn with soft grey flowers,” says Armstrong. “We also have a ‘cloud garden’ of shaped topiary.”

Is the home’s remarkable metamorphosis finally complete?

“I think we’ve pretty much done every square centimetre of this house,” says Cress. To which Armstrong adds with a smile: “And it’s pretty much our dream home.”