In Full Bloom

With a Passion for Pattern and a Love of Elegant, Feminine Design, an Interiors Devotee Has Built This Hamptons-inspired Home From the Ground Up

- Shelley Tustin

SWEET STYLE After years spent devouring interiors magazines, Olivia couldn’t wait to get her teeth stuck into building a new home for herself, her husband, Ivor, and their children, Ava, eight, and Henry, five (pictured opposite). After finding a beautiful block in their hometown of Ballarat, the decorating addict drew on East Coast inspiration to fill her newly finished abode with classic Hamptons-style features, including Shaker cabinetry and a soothing grey-toned palette. She has given the scheme a feminine twist with modern floral touches, including artwork from Temple & Webster and a Bonnie And Neil cushion (above left), and a stunning botanical wallpaper in the main bedroom (above right). Two by-the-book Hamptons features are the weatherboard-style cladding (for similar, try Scyon Linea boards) and the timber windows, custom-made by Project Windows And Doors. This budget-stretching feature was non-negotiable, epitomising everything Olivia loves about the US-born trend. “All the Hamptons inspiration that I’ve been poring over included those beautiful, white rectangular timber windows,” she says. “I knew I had to have them.”

Tastes are not static; they change over time, mature and expand, which explains how people can become addicted to building or renovating one house after another. This idea of evolving style is perfectly encapsulated by Olivia and Ivor’s Ballarat home, a soothing space that first caught HB’s eye as one of the 2017 Beautiful Rooms finalists, when the kitchen seduced with its polished East Coast-inspired design.