CLOSE & PERSONAL

Securing a sublime coastal site on Sydney’s Northern Beaches allowed one lucky couple to build a weekender just 30 minutes from home.

- Chris Pearson

LIVING

This page and opposite Escea ‘DS Series’ fireplace, Stoke. Grigio San Marco marble flooring, Euro Marble. Delta Light Spy downlights and Link Lights, all Inlite. River weave rug, Armadillo. Charlie sofa, Fanuli. Herman Miller ‘Crosshatch’ armchairs, Living Edge. Moroso ‘Phoenix’ coffee tables, by Patricia Urquiola, Hub Furniture. Tonks stools, MCM House. Chairs on balcony, Robert Plumb.

With an iconic picture-postcard beach, iridescent aqua waters and a bush-clad headland lavishly laid out before this weekender on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, it’s little wonder its owners wanted their getaway to wallow in that prized panorama.

But, when Linda and Peter bought the property in 2017, the jaw-dropping view was wasted on a less-than-spectacular ageing semi, which was tired and too small with just two bedrooms. “But we loved the area,” says Linda. “Our three boys and one daughter [now aged 17 to 25] all adore surfing, so we wanted a beach retreat that we could come to regularly and close to the city, otherwise our kids would never come and see us!” It’s just 30 minutes’ drive from their family home on the Lower North Shore. “This way, we can come every weekend.”