Her own home says it best, ‘Blue House’ was a dilapidated heritage cottage (one of the oldest in South Melbourne) that has been carefully restored and extended, its original proportions respected and its bones preserved, while a new rear pavilion introduces pitched ceilings, expansive glazing, and a connection to the garden Whiting has come to love through the seasons.

The two homes’ two halves hold a soft dialogue: dark and intimate at the front, open and light-filled at the rear. “You enter the house through the blue front door into the heritage part, the rooms are smaller, the space more intimate and enclosed,” she explains. “And then as you navigate through into the more contemporary space, it’s volume and light and contemporary living.”

Threading it all together is a recurring geometry of checks, grids, and squares that moves from checkerboard tiles to gingham wallpaper to the enveloping grey of the reinstated staircase. The final layer is textile. Abode’s bed linens, cushions, throws, and towels are woven through the home with the same considered ease that defines every other material decision in Whiting’s home; premium, pared-back, and completely at home against linen, dolomite, and warm timber. For Whiting, bedding is never incidental. “I’m the queen of layering up beds,” she says. “Lots of different sheets, blankets, textures and that’s where the textiles are so important, because they’re right next to your skin. You’re actually in the middle of it.”