Three Capes Cabin - Real Life Reno

An hour from Hobart in the Tasman Peninsula resides the cosy Three Capes Cabin. Dan was busy juggling his full time job as a carpenter whilst designing and building this charming cabin on the weekends. We love the use of timber elements in the home connecting nature to the indoor space!

What spaces did you renovate?
The cabin is a new complete build, the design process started in 2019 and the build started in June 2020.

Splashback tile done in our Coogee in Antique White
       

What motivated you to renovate?
As property prices exploded in Hobart I really wanted to secure a spot in the market, I’m a carpenter/builder by trade so designing and building my own place has always been a dream of mine. Instead of building in Hobart I decided to buy a block in a small holiday friendly place on the Tasman peninsula, around 1hr from the Hobart CBD. That way my budget allowed me to go all out on the design and build, yet still have a beautiful setting and location for the cabin. For now the cabin is my home but it has been designed to become a BNB in the future. Hopefully late this year!

Were you living here at the time of your renovations?
I lived in Hobart and travelled for the duration of the build. Mostly on weekends.

Our Albert Park White on the walls paired with our Paddington White Terrazzo look tile

Where do you find your inspiration?
Straight out of school I started a carpentry apprenticeship specialising in architectural homes. I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time and be around a lot of different designs and builds. I’ve learnt a little bit from each build and soon figured out what I liked or disliked about different builds. I also wanted to use my skills to my advantage so timber-work and concrete where definitely always a go to. I also had a huge list of saved images on Instagram, lots of folded pages in design magazines and a bunch of screenshots on my phone to use for inspiration for the cabin, or others in the future.

Our Brunswick Kit Kats in matt

How would you describe your style?
I’d say I have a strong focus on things being timeless and minimalist. I really like designs that speak for themselves without having to be dressed too much.

Talk us through the process you took in the planning stages of the renovation!
I definitely took a lot of screenshots, flicked through and saved pages from magazines and saved many images on Instagram. I also used a drawing app on my iPad to sketch up 3D mock ups of the spaces. From there I could really picture what I wanted to achieve.

Our Albert Park White on the walls paired with our Paddington White Terrazzo look tile

Were there any delays? How long did the renovation take?
The build took one year. I made changes and added some extra details along the way which pushed things back a fair bit, but all good things take time right ?

What was the most challenging part of the renovation? Did anything go wrong? How did you adapt?
Everything went pretty smoothly, pre build getting the draft pushed through so I could start building took more time than I expected, and working every weekend took its toll for sure.

Our Brunswick Kit Kats in matt

Were you juggling a career as well as overlooking the renovations?
I’m a leading hand carpenter for DS Building Monday to Friday building some really special homes, then I’d jump to the cabin on weekends. My boss Dean was a legend and gave me time off when I needed to coordinate the build which was a massive help, I’m very grateful.

Did you and your partner or family butt heads over the design at all?
This one was my own little project but my partner and I plan to renovate an existing home in the near future which we are both really looking forward to.

Did you come into the TileCloud showroom to look around at tiles? Did you order samples?
Being in Tasmania I searched online, found a variety of tiles I liked and got the sample pack delivered!

Our Albert Park White on the walls paired with our Paddington White Terrazzo look tile

Why did you choose TileCloud / What did you enjoy best about the TileCloud experience?
I chose TileCloud because it had loads of different options, and really detailed photos of each product. It helped me get a solid idea of what I wanted. I also saw a lot of fantastic bathrooms and kitchens coming up on TileClouds feed and I knew I wanted to create something equally as special.

Any advice for first time renovators?
As a carpenter my advice would be to think as far ahead as possible for your project, and listen to your tradies haha !