Dripping in vines, wrapped in colour and tempered by natural materials, this coastal property has been refreshed and revived by designer Edwina Glenn.
Once advertised as a knock down, it took foresight, strategic planning and a union of creative minds to bring this home back to life. The relationship between the homeowners and designer was key, a yin and yang approach that balanced out one’s restrained use of colour versus the other’s inclination for a more vivid palette.
Owned by DMS Landscapes director Mal Heppell, and his wife and homewares brand founder Kip & Co. Kate Heppell, the couple had made some basic changes when they bought the house in 2010. But it wasn’t until recently that the house underwent a full-scale renovation where its full potential could be realised.
Their decision to enlist designer Edwina Glenn was a surprising one, given her comparatively more reserved relationship to colour. “I’m much more likely to use it in a controlled way,” she says. “But I think that‘s why we worked so well together. Kate had free rein on the walls and ceilings yet understood my need to quieten everything around that.”
The kitchen opens onto the deck with a pergola made from reclaimed tea tree sticks. Decorating the sofa is a boucle cushion and throw, both from Heppell’s brand, Kip & Co.
The kitchen bench is made from blue and green onyx with a filled Travertino Jurassico slab on the top. Illuminating the island is a palm tree pendant by Maison Corsini.
The house is set over multiple floors with the children’s bedrooms and playroom on the lower level. The meals, study and both family rooms were moved to the first floor and the tiny, disconnected kitchen on the mid-level was converted into an intimate Bordeaux red study with banquette seating, heavy pile woven carpet, oak shelving and a desk.
To achieve a more spacious kitchen, it was necessary to extend the first-floor footprint over an existing—but rarely used—deck. This opened up a generous amount of floorspace to incorporate a new scullery. Timber features prominently in the enlarged kitchen, a nod to the home’s modernist roots. The introduction of slick stainless steel, however, catapults it into the here and now, creating an entirely new design language. Glenn’s addition of brass handles to the cabinetry adds warmth, the mixed metal finish providing both durability and a “reflective quality.” To soften the juxtaposition between the materials, she introduced “earthy, natural stones” on the kitchen island, with filled Travertino Jurassico on the benchtop, blue onyx on the sides and green on the upright. Hanging over the island is a rattan palm tree pendant from Maison Cornisi, its fronds and coconuts adding a playful touch.
Around the custom table is a De La Espada Cursa lounge chair and De La Espada Vega A and B dining chairs.
Unfurling onto a terrace with a pergola made from reclaimed tea tree sticks, the roof casts a flickering interplay between light and shadow. “It’s Mediterranean meets modernism ensconced in a magnificent, loosely structured Australian native garden,” Glenn says.
The “explosive” wall colours act as a tool to delineate each room, while Glenn’s joinery and finishes help temper the “moving palette.” This is particularly evident where the terracotta fireplace tiles contrast with the emerald green wall.
Much of the home’s strength lies in its relationship to the garden, a green oasis filled with natives and an above ground concrete plunge pool. Glenn says that the vines—laced along the home’s timber beams from the first floor living to the ground below—feels like being in an “adult treehouse dripping in foliage and sustainability.”
De La Espada’s Cursa lounge chair in lambswool is a cosy complement to the terracotta fireplace. Windows of Bo Bardi by Destroyers/Builders side table.
Hanging on the peach walls is an artwork by Matthew Allen. Illuminating the space is a spherical lamp by Sergio Mazza and Giuliana Gramigna for Quattrifolio.
The bedroom is decked out in linen and cushions by Kip & Co.
