Some homes earn their names. This one, elevated among 250-year-old gum trees in the leafy Brisbane suburb of Bardon, wears the title Treehouse with complete conviction.
Completed in 2025, the Bardon Treehouse is a three-level, 390-square-metre home designed by Christopher Gyzemyter and Adria Santaella of CG Design Studio. It draws on three distinct references — a 1930s bungalow, a French farmhouse, and a contemporary industrial extension — and somehow, all three feel entirely at home with each other.
A Street Presence That Reveals Itself Gradually
From the street, the home tells its story in layers. The original bungalow facade, with its warm brickwork and arched openings, anchors the home in its heritage and its era. Then, stepping back and rising above, comes the new addition: steel cladding, recycled timber, and natural stone working together in a composition that is striking without overwhelming what came before.
The entry journey is quietly theatrical. A new carport addition retains the integrity of the original architecture while giving the home a sense of arrival that the old cottage alone could never have provided.
Old Bones, New Purpose
The existing 1930s cottage has been repurposed by CG Design Studio as the children’s wing, a characterful domain that retains the warmth of the original building. The new addition houses the main living areas, a luxurious main bedroom suite, and a loft study overlooking the tree canopy below. It’s a layout that works beautifully for family life: the children have their own clearly defined territory, the adults have theirs, and the spaces in between are generous and light-filled.
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A Material Palette With Real Character
Inside, the material language used by CG Design Studio is rich, layered, and deeply considered. The client’s affection for French farmhouse warmth sets the direction, married to a contemporary industrial edge that gives the home its more dramatic moments.
The kitchen’s dark monochromatic palette is given dimension by handmade glazed zellige tiles that catch and play with light, and a warm bronze exhaust patina that adds depth without heaviness. In the powder room, hand-glazed green tiles envelop the walls in a bold, entirely intentional move, a direct nod to the lush canopy surrounding the home. Custom timber joinery, natural stone, and handmade ceramic tiles appear throughout, each chosen for how they age as much as how they look on day one.
Living Among the Trees
The surrounding gum trees, some estimated at 250 years old, aren’t just a backdrop. They’re participants in the design, visible from every level, casting dappled light through the windows and giving the whole property its defining quality: simultaneously elevated and grounded.
The loft study, perched at the top of the home’s three levels, distils this most completely. It looks out into the canopy rather than over it, offering a sense of quiet immersion that is rare in suburban Brisbane and genuinely special in the way it makes you feel.
Building & Interior Design: CG Design Studio | cgdesignstudio.com.au
Photography: Mitchell Kemp
