Peg Maltby's house and studio at Olinda, once a local tourist attraction, have high local significance as one of a number of artists' home and studio that remain within Yarra Ranges Shire. The property is significant for its associations with an artist who, at the height of her fame, lived and worked at Olinda, and whose fairy paintings have continued to delight later generations.

Peg Maltby's house and studio is located at 21 and 23 Sunset Avenue respectively. The house at 21 Sunset Avenue shelters within a leafy garden. It is a simple timber building, assymetrical in form with a small entry porch, in appearance dating from the 1940s. It is typical of the period, and externally is quite modest in design. The house has been reclad using cement sheet boards. There is said to be a building at the rear of the house which may have been used as a studio; this needs to be further investigated.

Peg Maltby's studio is an unusual, predominantly two storey building (now a house) set within a formal, landscaped garden. The garden includes a series of shaped intersecting clipped hedges with gravel paths and mature trees. A lych gate, facing Sunset Avenue, is constructed from simple timber pickets with a shingled covering overhead. The building has undergone substantial alteration, and the original extent of the house is difficult to ascertain. Parts of it may date from the early twentieth century.

Peg Maltby's studio has three distinct sections, each with a rectangular plan and graduating roof heights; the lowest to the south boundary, and the highest, a double storey section to the north. The single storey sections have shallow sloped, corrugated iron gabled roofs, while the roof to the two storey section is a Dutch gable. Gable ends have decorative timber strapping, with stucco infill panels.

The walls to the ground floor are stone clad with in a random, rubble construction, while the upper level has a lining of half timbering and stucco, imitating Tudor style architecture. The windows to the ground floor are timber framed diamond pane casements, while those to the upper floor have single panes. Recent timber verandahs have been added to the north and east faces. They have a stone base with heavy timber posts and low, gabled roofs.

Physical Conditions: Good

Integrity: Major Alterations