MODERN COUNTRY

Sarah Parry-Okeden, owner of Wild Orchid Spaces, invites us into Romney House, her newly renovated home in Bowral, NSW.

- GEORGIE MCCOURT

Sarah Parry-Okeden is the type of woman whose Instagram algorithm serves her reels of mini cows roaming around kitchens, which is probably why she feels so at home in the Southern Highlands, in country New South Wales. Here, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that a cow could just wander into your kitchen. At Romney House there are no cows (yet), although to the left you'll spot a large chicken coop, home to an ever-expanding collection of hens. The founder of interior design studio Wild Orchid Spaces has recently finished an extensive two-year renovation on the Bowral property, where she now lives with her husband, Henry, two children, Ollie and Ruby, and their honey-hued dog, Sheldon.

The first thing you notice, as you follow a luxuriously long driveway lined with established Liquidambar trees - so plentiful you couldn't possibly be anywhere but the country - is the garden. It's rather spectacular and there's not an out of shape Buxus hedge in sight. Even the grass looks fake (it's not). It makes sense, given one of Parry-Okeden's design principles is to “blur the boundaries between interiors and nature”. It's an approach she learnt from her late mother Helen's love of gardens, and why every room comes with a view of the property's formal gardens. It all serves as a reminder that one of the greatest luxuries in life is having a garden to gaze out at (along with having no neighbours looking at you).

“Nature genuinely makes us happy,” she says. “There’s so much research that has been done around the connection between green spaces and happiness. For me, it brings calmness, creativity and just generally puts me in a better mood.”