American Dream

A Vision Crafted From Hours of Internet Research – and a Fabulous Kitchen – Has Brought This Family Home on the NSW Coast to Life

- Anna McClelland

 Inpiration can come from many directions, but for Jenna, it was all about the 2003 movie Something’s Gotta Give. “That kitchen was where the passion started,” says the mother-of-three, whose decoration devotion to American East Coast style only grew as she immersed herself in beautiful images from other movies, TV series, Pinterest and Instagram. So by the time Jenna and her husband, Paul, bought an empty block of land on the NSW south coast, their dream home was almost fully formed in her imagination.

The couple had been living in a place they’d renovated near the coastal city of Wollongong, but when their family of four grew to five – with Noah and Flynn joined by a third boy, Ethan – the house started to feel a little crowded. Determined to build their forever home from scratch, they began looking for empty blocks, finally settling on a pristine patch of land in the hills above the city. “Up on the mountain here, it’s a lot more private, more rural,” says Jenna. “We can come home from our busy lives and feel like we’re out of the city, but it’s only 15 minutes away.” The property is surrounded by untouched bushland, with only one direct neighbour (that property is owned by friends) plus room for their rambunctious boys to run wild. “We’d always wanted a single-level house and it was big enough to have that sprawling home we wanted,” she says.