The housemates that made a 1970s-style rental in North Warrandtye their 'modern family' home

Who: Housemates Tilly Barber, Albee Barton and Justyn Burrows

What: A rental shared by a vintage furniture seller, her six-year-old son and two friends.

Where: North Warrandyte, Victoria

According to her housemates Albee Barton (a yoga instructor) and Justyn Burrows (psychology student), Tilly Barber has a “borderline obsession” with scanning the property market.

Luckily, this obsession sometimes comes in handy, such as when she spotted this North Warrandyte home for rent in late 2020.

Tilly did a drive-by of the property, and within 15 minutes, she was encouraging Albee and Justyn to apply, alongside Tilly and her six-year-old son. “We felt the open-plan kitchen and living area was waiting for our ‘modern family’,” Barber says.

The ’70s property with its original red brick flooring and timber ceilings is the perfect backdrop for the group’s furniture, most of which has been collected by Tilly, who owns the furniture restoration and sourcing business, Homebody.

“We have coined the term ‘semi-harmonious hodgepodge’,” Barber says of the decorating aesthetic. “It’s a real mix of vintage, handmade and salvaged furniture – quite a lot of it is revived or hard waste – complemented by art and objects by makers we admire. Simultaneously, it’s quite minimal.”

Mixing up the earthy tones throughout are deliberately inserted injections of colour and greenery, including tree-like indoor plants, artworks by Mars, and side tables by local designer Zachary Frankel.

One of the reasons Barber was so keen to live in this house is its suitability for entertaining. The property is host to “feasts and friends, music and memories”, as frequently as possible.

A surprising joy that supports these get-togethers is the walk-in kitchen pantry, which Barber and Burrows say is possibly their favourite feature in the whole home. The surrounding area comes in a close second, with its abundant trees, river proximity and clear night skies.

How to find vintage furniture

Over the past few years, the second-hand furniture re-selling market in Australia has really blown up.

Instagram has been a major part of this, facilitating countless new vintage furniture sellers, who scour platforms like Gumtree, eBay and auction houses to find covetable pieces, then restore, re-photograph and sell their finds via social media.

Consider the following when hunting for your very own vintage treasure.

• Search smarter. The best vintage scores are not found by accident. Set Google and eBay alerts for specific brand names or designers you like.
• You’ll often find vintage sellers have a backlog of pieces they’ve sourced that aren’t even photographed or advertised yet, so be proactive. Connect with online sellers and vintage stores, let them know if you’re after something specific, and if they don’t have what you’re after, see if they’ll source it for you.
• Play the long game. Vintage collecting isn’t something that can be planned. Keep your eyes open, but don’t expect the perfect pieces to materialise all at once. Where’s the fun in that?