Suburban Melbourne Home Overflowing With Heart and Charm

By Danielle Webb 09/08/2026 3 min read 27 views

Lisa Mortimer‑Halaliku and Brenton Halaliku turned a modest 1940s Heathmont house into a suburban Melbourne home that feels both airy and personal, thanks to a handful of focused updates.

Preserving character while modernising the space

The original structure, built in the 1940s with a 1990s addition, retained solid bones but showed signs of wear. Outdated carpet, heavy curtains and bulky furniture left the interior looking drab, according to the owners. They saw beyond those surface issues, noting a wood‑panelled ceiling in the dining room that offered a view “up in the treetops,” with a clear‑day sightline to Western Port Bay.

By keeping the open‑plan extension linked to the older sections, the couple achieved a blend of classic charm and a floor plan suited to entertaining. Their location in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs also met practical needs: close to both parents, near Brenton’s workplace, and within a 30‑minute drive of the city centre. “It feels like living in the Dandenongs with the perk of being only a 30‑minute drive from the city,” Lisa said, adding that a walkable train station adds convenience.

Strategic cosmetic changes refresh the interior

After moving in during 2023, the first step was to strip most of the carpet and polish the existing Tasmanian oak floorboards. “This made things feel fresh and clean and bounced light around beautifully,” Lisa noted, also removing heavy window coverings that aggravated her allergies.

Small updates such as new joinery, fresh handles and several coats of paint played a large role in the new look.

The only structural renovation involved the ensuite bathroom, which had been updated in the 1990s and was now dated. The owners chose to gut the space and rebuild it, installing a handmade dark‑green tile on the walls, cream tiles on the floor and a custom walnut vanity. The work, carried out by SK Renovations, was completed in three weeks.

In the rest of the house, paint choices helped define each room’s mood. The kitchen and dining area retained the original butter‑yellow walls, a hue the family grew to love for its warmth. The living room and Eli’s bedroom feature blue walls inspired by stylist Lucy Williams’s London home, chosen to keep the spaces bright yet cozy. High‑gloss yellow was applied to windows and doors in the lounge to echo that influence.

One standout element is a stained‑glass skylight cover made by Fools Glass for Eli’s room. A video of its installation on Lisa’s TikTok reached over a million views, and she calls it the family’s first heirloom.

They love the view.

Looking ahead, the modest scale of the updates suggests that similar homes could benefit from targeted refreshes without major overhauls. Homeowners may find that preserving structural integrity while swapping out finishes can yield a fresh feel that matches contemporary tastes, especially when the surrounding location already offers a blend of green space and city access.