Re-proved: The Cake Factory landmark.

Rather than erase the past, the team chose to work with it. “To buy the site, to do the DA, to do the design, to decide what to build without any presales - and be able to work along the way with family and people that we’re really close to - it was a bit of a perfect storm for us,” director Joe Sidoti says.

From the outset, the ambition was to avoid something overly polished. “We always felt it necessary to not produce a building that was too clean and too perfect,” Joe reflects. That sensibility carries through the home’s material language: Australian bluestone paving, hardwood decking, polished concrete floors and bespoke Blackbutt timber detailing sit alongside Italian porcelain tiles, New Zealand wool carpets and richly veined Monte Rosso and Bonito Green quartzite. Smeg appliances and refined European fixtures elevate the industrial shell without softening its edge.

Architect Joe Quarello led the design with a focus on retaining form and character. “We liked the idea of adaptive reuse - we didn’t want to demolish and start again. We wanted to keep the form. We wanted to respect the heritage and the history of the place,” he says. External walls, parapet lines and original openings were preserved wherever possible, allowing the building’s factory identity to remain legible in its next chapter. “I think considering all the constraints, it was actually a good thing that gave us an opportunity to produce something better than we would’ve if we’d demolished and started from scratch,” Quarello says.

Across two levels, the home unfolds around a completely private alfresco sundeck, creating a surprising sense of openness within its laneway setting. Three well-separated bedrooms each enjoy integrated storage and their own dedicated bathroom, offering flexibility and privacy rarely found in warehouse conversions. Over-height ceilings and north-facing glazing amplify light and scale, while the balance of robust and tactile finishes gives the interiors a grounded, lived-in quality.

Art also plays a quiet but meaningful role. A mural by Nastia Gladushchenko references the building’s confectionary past in an abstract, light-filled way-designed not as street art, but as a considered extension of the site’s story.

For co-director Matt Sidoti, the project was as much about place as product. “I think we struck the balance here, where we were able to keep a big chunk of the existing building, revitalise it, make it something new, but then add a new section of building that will stand for a long time,” Matt says.

That balance is felt not only in the architecture, but in the way the experience now contributes back to the street, and the Inner West landscape more broadly.

The first of these five recently completed dwellings at 91 Lord Street, Newtown is now for sale - brought to market by BresicWhitney's Chris Nunn. Click here find out more.