It takes courage – and vision – to stand out from the crowd, which is why this home is such a showstopper.

Serial renovator and homeowner Brooke Ingham had a clear vision for a new home in the Canberra suburb of Denman Prospect, and it definitely included the choice of Cemintel Territory – especially the Territory Quarry range.

“When we were looking for products, we just really loved the look and feel of concrete, and Quarry was the product we absolutely fell in love with,” she says.

“We’ve done a few renovations in our time and I said to my husband, ‘What can we do, that doesn’t include a lot of maintenance? I just want it to look beautiful all the time’, which is why we chose Cemintel Territory. And the way that it turned out is truly amazing.”

Industrial aesthetic
With its industrial style appearance, Brooke liked the fact that Quarry provided a point of difference with their modern, architecturally designed house, as part of their chosen monochromatic exterior palette.

“We’re in a new suburb and we hadn’t really seen this product on many of the exteriors – and even now, we still haven’t really seen it on many other houses, especially not in this scale” she adds. “We definitely did something that’s different – most of the houses in our area have a similar look and feel with their façades. Using this product has made our house stand out and we’ve had many people comment when walking by, admiring the product throughout the build and once complete”.

After the couple discovered Quarry and fell in love with its appearance, they added it to parts of the interior, as feature walls and as a cohesive design element.

“We’ve had it installed into the entryway just to create another hero piece and it flows seamlessly from the outside in,” explains Brooke. “We also decided to include it down into the stairwell because it’s a split level, double storey home. Mostly for cohesion and as another statement in the interior design.”

Easy installation
The Inghams’ builder was Marcus Noble of Noble Constructions. This was the first time he had used the Territory product and says he was blown away by its ease of installation and streamlined design. He’s now used it on three subsequent building projects because of how easy he found the process.

“I was really impressed with the concealed clip fixing method that they’ve developed,” he says. “It’s very, very simple. With every other cladding, you’ve got to put fixings into it and then you have to smooth them over try and paint it, but Territory is a prefinished product right from the get-go. The clips are concealed; you don’t see any fixings.

“There’s a starting track that you fit at the bottom. And once you got the first panel set, it’s nearly foolproof. It’s literally about stacking the next one on top and put the clip on.”

Marcus had a team of three installing the Cemintel, himself and two other carpenters. “We all had the same feedback; we just couldn’t get over how quick you could cover a wall once they were all prepped. It was just so efficient, and easy to cut into windows and things like that.”

The product size is appropriate, he adds, saying that the lengths supplied of Territory were easy to handle and transport to site.

A tough choice
The Inghams have a family of three active young boys, and Brooke says all their exterior surfaces need to be especially tough and durable.

“Cemintel is definitely a hard wearing product because there’s always ball games and things going on in the backyard,” she says. “We’ve included it in our downstairs al fresco area, which is where all the kids’ toys are. They run into it with cars and everything else because they think it’s great fun to have the racing track on the paths and paved areas outside – and it has stood up to the test. The use of Cemintel on a large part of the exterior at the front and back, provides a beautiful contrast against the greenery of the gardens.”

Photography by Ben King Photography