VERANDAH LIVING

Sarah Parry-Okeden of Wild Orchid Spaces welcomes us into her retro-influenced home on Sydney's Northern Beaches

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The first thing you notice at Lanai, Sarah Parry-Okeden's newly renovated Avalon Beach home, is the colour. A "tequila sunrise" palette of soft pinks, warm timbers, natural cane and sunset-toned marble runs through the interiors. Even the utility spaces follow the brief: the kitchen's cane-fronted refrigerator doors, the warm creamy cabinetry, and the marble splashback that rises in a curved silhouette behind the stovetop. Being beachside, the house feels coastal, but not in the predictable sense. "You don't need decorative shorthand to say 'coastal,"" Sarah says.

"Airflow, light, the way the house opens: that tells the story." Sarah, founder of the design studio Wild Orchid Spaces, purchased the property from its longtime owner, who lived here until the age of 95. His attachment to the home shaped hers.

"We weren't interested in erasing him," she says. During construction, her team uncovered a hidden sound system in the garden - a relic of the poolside gatherings the house once hosted. In the dining area, she installed a 1970s-style portrait of the couple who lived here before.