ABOVE & BEYOND

A GORGEOUS CONTEMPORARY ABODE ON THE VICTORIAN COASTLINE OFFERS A RESTFUL RETREAT FOR A HARDWORKING COUPLE AND THEIR FOUR SONS

- TONYA TURNER

Working long hours running their own underground drilling business, homeowners Kelly and David wanted a quiet place to come home to. They also craved a view of their surrounds, looking out over Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay. So when a house became available four years ago further up the hill from where they were living with their children, Lachlan, now 22, Riley, 20, Kynan, 18, and Logan, 13, in a coastal town on Mornington Peninsula, the couple decided it was now or never. “It’s very hard for us to get away with our business,” says Kelly. “Instead of holidays we put our money into houses, but we were getting to the point where we’d had enough. We knew sooner or later we had to stop, settle down and stay in the one spot.”

In order to create a contemporary family home, different to anything they had seen or built before and one that fitted elegantly in with its surrounds, they engaged Rod Hannah, of Rod Hannah Design, and designer Kate Walker for the interiors. “This is the dream home,” Kelly says simply. “You can’t plonk any old house on the side of the hill with a view like that. You’ve got to do it justice.”