TRANSLATIONS FROM THE VERNACULAR

Designer Natalee Bowen has created a version of the Hamptons style at Toodyay in the Western Australian wheatbelt.

- KIRSTY MCKENZIE

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. Visiting Perth interior designer Natalee Bowen's sweeping Hamptons-style weekender near the historic township of Toodyay, it's hard to imagine that this transformation began with a small 1860s mud-brick cottage.

The renovated homestead is the crowning glory of a working sheep and wheat farm, which has been in Natalee's husband Mark's family for five generations. The couple bought the property from a family member and set about turning it into a showcase for the work of their building and design company, Indah Island. During the past 20 years, Natalee and Mark have developed Indah Island as a complete design, construction and interiors styling business, with a portfolio of projects all over Australia, South-East Asia and the United States.

"My dad was a builder and I grew up in a creative environment," Natalee recalls. "When I was still in high school, I started making and selling bespoke clothes to fashion boutiques, so it seemed a natural progression to study interior design. Mark and I moved overseas and lived and worked in Thailand and Indonesia. The word 'indah' means beautiful in Bahasa, and Australia is the most beautiful island in the world, so Indah Island became our business name.

Also, it's a fusion of our two younger daughters' names, Indiana and Dakota. Our oldest daughter has left home now as she is a schoolteacher. But we're all very close and we're lucky to be able to spend time together at the farmhouse."