A Tardis of their own … Heidi Dokulil and Richard Peters' warehouse makes the most of limited space.

A Tardis of their own … Heidi Dokulil and Richard Peters' warehouse makes the most of limited space.

They call it The Shed. And from the outside that's what it looks like – a brick wall butting against the footpath of a laneway in suburban Randwick, Sydney. "It's a magical thing to transform something that has four small walls into this," says owner Heidi Dokulil of the space-shifting feat wrought by her partner Richard Peters, an associate director at Tobias Partners architects.

The Shed has been a personal project, one that explores his passions for homes with a smaller footprint and adaptive building re-use. At just 74 square metres it's smaller than some one-bedroom apartments. And yet Richard has managed to eke out a stunning two-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a central living area that boasts a soaring six-metre ceiling.

This is a house that defies the notion that "bigger is always better."  

This is a house that defies the notion that "bigger is always better" and has won Richard several design and sustainability awards. Here, furniture and fittings are purposefully scaled big to match the height – from the vast Noguchi paper lantern that hangs over the dining table to the decadently comfy, ground-hugging Poliform sofa. But it's the steel-mesh staircase leading to the master bedroom and ensuite that takes centre stage. Heidi, a design writer, publisher and curator, uses it as showcase for favourite postcards and trinkets.

Miriam Hayes's renovated Victorian home. Click for more photos

Home of the week

Miriam Hayes's renovated Victorian home.

While the space is clever, it's also a happy house thanks to such vibrant, whimsical decorative touches. And it's a home that shows that living small can be very large indeed.

From Sunday Life