BEACH modern

A passionate collector and purveyor of Scandinavian furniture and design finds the idyllic coastal location to showcase his pieces.

-  Chris Pearson

Anton Assaad, founder of Great Dane Furniture, is a passionate collector of classic Scandinavian furniture. He has stored away prized pieces for years, awaiting just the right moment. "I loved them all, but had no room for them in my Melbourne home," he says, so they were unglamorously relegated to cupboards and a warehouse. That special moment arrived in early 2021, when he and his partner bought this weekender on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula for themselves and their blended family of four children, now aged 10 to 17. Cherished treasures, including an iconic sofa, armchairs, tables, light fittings and rugs, have found the perfect home.

Anton spied the property online and the next day the couple made an offer. "We fell in love with the home's simple, understated nature," he says. "It was a classic 1970s pole house with the carport underneath, but, unusually, it had been little touched, which gave it a quaintness and charm." Open-plan living areas with a broad weathered-timber deck and two bedrooms occupied the upper level and looked directly into a canopy of ancient moonahs. Two small bedrooms and a double carport occupied the bottom floor.

The couple’s brief? “We wanted a three-bedroom house, integrating as many of the existing materials as we could,” says Anton. “It had to be comfortable, unassuming, not ostentatious, with texture and warmth, to reflect who we are.” Equally importantly, it would liberate those pieces he had stored for nearly 20 years, awaiting their moment in the sun.