ESCAPE ROUTE

Leaving the city for their new seaside weekender on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula is a top priority for this wellness-loving family.

- Carli Philips

When they're not juggling the footy, kids, social events, work and the hectic to-and-fro of weekday appointments, this young family is decompressing at their newly built holiday home on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. A Covid purchase where a green fibro shack once stood, the plot is close to the beach with no through traffic, which was a great selling point for the owners who have two young kids.

A partnership between design and build company InForm and architecture studio Pleysier Perkins with interior designer Bree Banfield, the building’s structure adopts Japanese design influences with black charred screens wrapping the facade. But while the exteriors are moody and geometric, the interiors are lighthearted and low-key — a joyful, colour-coded oasis fit for a family of four.

The owner confesses to having about “a thousand things” on her wish list. “I’m not sure if I was either the hardest or easiest client to work with. I even had a Powerpoint document showcasing the tiles, fixtures, fittings and my must-have pieces,” she says.

“I'm sure both InForm and Bree silently wondered what they'd gotten themselves into. But in the end, the team came together and elevated my thinking, creating an interior that I absolutely love and could not have done myself.”