Wolseley House: The Brighton concrete home with plenty of style, warmth and comfort

Concrete, how do we love thee? It would take too long to count the ways. Instead, let’s talk about how the superb application of a material considered bleak and basic can make a place positively float.

Wolseley House was built in 2014 and looks impeccably fresh for its decade-plus of service, and that is precisely the beauty of concrete when it is used as ingeniously as it is here.

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For a start, the deep awning that creates the recessed entry is a thing of beauty; its flat plane reads as shelter, invitation and simple monumental drama all in one. A full-height, glassy pivot door beneath brings the necessary illumination to draw shape and shadow onto the stone, rendering its surface playful, mutable, timeless.

The tonal shifts in this house are exquisite. Head left beyond the gorgeous pale-brick foyer, and the house begins to soar in both volume and airy, easy beauty.

Expressions of Interest ends Wed 9th Sept at 5pm

23 Wolseley Grove, Brighton VIC 3186

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The splendid garden is always visible, its shimmering pool and entertainment spaces cleverly lending the interiors’ colour and verve. In the left-side living room, those views fill the plentiful glass, but the interiors here are worth a long, slow look too.

The concrete floor, walls and ceiling are leavened by different applications, from polished underfoot to raw overhead, with feature chevron tiling around the handsome low hearth. Brilliant.

Head north, back past the foyer, into the superb kitchen, where delineation is again easily and stylishly achieved by a warm timber edge and dramatic dark cabinetry that flows into the rangy butler’s pantry. A five-metre marble island bench centres everything perfectly.

Glazing slides open to an epic covered patio with central barbecue kitchen. Behind the pool is greenery, plus an in-ground trampoline and a half-court to keep everyone entertained.

Back inside, the generous dimensions continue with a dining room and stylish second living area. Radiant timber runs behind the modish black hearth and up across a section of ceiling.

There’s a glassy front here too, opening onto a long deck. At the end of this section, a versatile wellness area is the perfect place to sauna and chill, if you know what we mean.

As if you didn’t have enough places to escape inside this extraordinary design, take the stairs down to the basement level and another living space, gym, stunning marble bar and cellar. Of course, this is not just any kind of subterranean spot; not here. A spectacular sunken garden could make you believe you’re not underground at all. Incredible stuff.

Up top on the first floor are four superb bedrooms. Two at the northern end have large, brilliant windows that look over the rear garden and share a sharp bathroom. Beyond a terrific retreat, bedroom three has its own urbane en suite.

A floaty, gallery-like passage sends you across to the main bedroom – effortlessly elegant, superbly spacious with a large walk-in wardrobe and sublime en suite where a pivot porthole window looks out to the world.

Down below, on the street side, a swirling blue mandala-like mural is painted on the external concrete. As good as it gets.