SUNSHINE STATE OF MIND

The light that shines on this coastal villa enhances its airy and elegant interiors, making it a home that is both uplifting and relaxed

-  RACHEL LEEDHAM

Looking at this home’s gracious, airy rooms furnished with pieces that appear to have been collected over time, it is hard to imagine that it was ever the ‘ugly duckling’ interior designer Kate Walker is describing: ‘It was built in the 1980s, which was not a great time for Australian architecture,’ she says. ‘A lot of potential buyers had been put off as the house felt uninviting, but I could see that it had been designed back to front. You entered into a very narrow hallway with a laundry room at the end – there was absolutely no sense of arrival.’

It was the property’s coastal location in the hamlet of Mount Martha on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula that was a huge draw for Kate and her two teenage children. ‘I have lived on the peninsula for nearly two decades and it is a wonderful part of the world,’ says the designer, whose studio, KWD, is situated close to the house. ‘We don’t need to be in a capital city as my clients love coming down for presentations; some of them end up moving here,’ she laughs.

Kate was handed the keys to the property just as the pandemic descended on the world, and this guided her approach to the renovation. ‘I realised we needed to move in quickly so I decided not to seek permission to increase the footprint but instead make every existing space beautiful,’ she explains. It was also at this point that Kate met her new partner, Anthony Hansen, and a house that had been bought for three now needed to accommodate six. ‘Anthony has three children and we wanted a bedroom for his two youngest, so I had to be very clever with the spatial design,’ she remembers.