![Guitar showtime: "David Cameron lent me that guitar with the intention that I was going to have some lessons and learn, and it’s been sitting in [the music room] for a year and I haven’t touched it.” Photo: Chris Hopkins](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/53f4a62c-151b-46d0-ac5f-bf348fc3f847.jpg/r0_0_728_410_w576_h298_fmax.webp "Guitar showtime: \"David Cameron lent me that guitar with the intention that I was going to have some lessons and learn, and it’s been sitting in [the music room] for a year and I haven’t touched it.” Photo: Chris Hopkins")
Songbird Silvie Paladino has been a regular fixture of the Christmas Eve tradition, Carols by Candlelight,since she was 16. In fact, the annual concerts have become such a part of her life that memories of one in particular are inextricably intertwined with moving into the Niddrie home that she and her husband Greg designed themselves.
"I remember five years ago, it was the 24th, the day of Carols by Candlelight, and we moved in on the 22nd of December, so we had boxes everywhere," Paladino says. "I'm sitting here in my pyjamas, I think it was about 2pm, and I'm completely exhausted.
"My sister-in-law came over and said 'how are you going to do Carols tonight?' and I said, 'I really don't know, I'm so exhausted.'"
Despite the boxes and the exhaustion, her performance went off without a hitch and she fondly remembers the concert as a particularly "great year".
As for the house, a four-bedroom, three-bathroom Georgian-inspired home, it's well and truly settled into now, though Paladino admits "we're still doing things to it".
A swimming pool was recently installed in the back garden, and the finishing touches are being put to some outdoor tiling.
Before building their dream house, the couple visited display homes, selecting preferred features and elements for their own floorplan.
The result is a light and bright residence, with Paladino's music room, a guest room and an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area downstairs and the family bedrooms upstairs.
"We just wanted something where we'd use every space. You know that old idea of having a formal dining room and a formal lounge - we didn't want any of that," Paladino says. "We just wanted something casual, something modern on the inside.
"I love clean lines. My old kitchen used to have grooves in the door and I hated how the dust used to gather in those grooves, so I went completely minimal."
A neutral palette goes hand-in-hand with the simple design, with more vibrant colours introduced via framed prints or furniture.In addition to a minimalist sensibility, another must-have for Paladino was a music room.
Situated at the front of the house, it hosts a grand piano - Paladino's 40th birthday present to herself, formerly the instrument of her pianist, David Cameron - an acoustic guitar (lent to Paladino by Cameron) and a painting of Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables, a gift from Sir Cameron Mackintosh during her run as the tragic Fantine on the West End.
"I have my times where I go in there and I'll have a bit of a play or a sing. It's a great house to sing in, because it's so open and has great acoustics, it's like singing in the shower," she says.
Some of Paladino's acquaintances have expressed surprise that she still lives in Niddrie, just one suburb over from where she was born and raised, but it's her history here that gives the north-western neighbourhoodits appeal.
"People say, 'I thought you'd live on the other side of town by now', and I'm like, why? I love this area. "I love that I can go to the shops and know all the people that work there and we can have a chat. I just love that homey feel."
Plus family and close friends are just down the road, and schools are walking distance for her 16-year-old son Christian and daughter Isabella, 12.
Paladino is currently in the middle of a season of Jerry's Girls at the Arts Centre Melbourne, and will bring in the New Year with the Queensland Pops Orchestra a week after Carols by Candlelight.
Next year looks to hold more shows at home and abroad and a new recording - to use Paladino's word, work should be "consistent".
"You know, in this industry it's so hard for it to be busy all the time, but I always say it's been consistent," she says. "I feel a real sense of achievement that I'm still able to call it my job, and my sole job that I do."
