Furniture

Mark and Louella Tuckey and Family

Today’s EPIC-LY amazing home on Sydney’s Northern Beaches is no stranger to the camera. She’s been photographed MANY times, but… well… we just couldn’t help but jump on the bandwagon. Because when a home is this special, and so very quintessentially ‘Australian’, well… we just have to get on board!

Written
by
Lucy Feagins

The truly incredible home of Mark and Louella Tuckey at Clareville, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.  This is the beach side/front of the house, with classic Pittwater ‘P & O’ style rounded front.  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Sitting room at front of house, overlooking the Tuckey’s beautiful front garden and out to the beach beyond.  MARK TUCKEY box day bed sofa with Megan Park and orange felt cushions, MT oxo coffee table in raw oak, 2 sets of MT pigeon hole shelves in oregon, David band trumpet print on rear wall, Borg Morgensen spanish chairs, which came from A collection of David Bromley’s Danish furniture.  Tolomeo mega terra floor lamp from MARK TUCKEY.  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Dining area looking through to stairwell which leads up to the master bedroom.  Borg Morgensen leather and oak dining chairs, MT farmhouse table round Borg Morgensen rocking chair (‘OMG we just LOVE Borg!’ says Louella!), Mark Schaller woodcut artwork – ‘Richmond’. Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Dining area.  Borg Morgensen dining chairs. MARK TUCKEY farmhouse dining table in american oak.  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Another view of that stunning dining table!  MARK TUCKEY farmhouse table in raw american oak, Borg Morgensen leather and oak dining chairs (Loeulla says these are her new favourite things, picked up from Vampt in sydney), Caravaggio pendant light from MARK TUCKEY, David bromley nude ‘charlotte’ and Mark Schaller woodcut flower still life on walls opposite.  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Mark and Louella Tuckey at home with their much loved pups, Scribble and Lillydog. Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

This dining area is adjacent to the kitchen at the rear of the home, and doubles as rghe family craft room!  Vintage table with Frank Gehry paper cloud light.  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Colourful chaotic family kitchen!  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

The kids’ bedrooms in this house are so incredible!  Chilli’s bedroom – MT platform bed (king single size) in sand blasted oregon, MT birch side table with sand blasted oregon top, Sally Campbell vintage quilt from MARK TUCKEY, David Bromley rabbit and butterfly painting – a gift from the David a week before Chilli was born.  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Chilli’s bedroom. Vintage japanese university desk, vintage chair, David Band spirograph on wall and delicate Japanese vintage timber veneer lampshade.  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Master Bedroom.  Sally Campbell vintage quilt from MARK TUCKEY, leather Borg Morgensen campaign chair, MT warehouse bedside table in raw oak. Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Bedroom overlooking front garden and beach beyond.   MARK TUCKEY slab bed in sandblasted oregon, Sally Campbell vintage quilt from MARK TUCKEY, more Borg Morgensen leather campaign chairs from David bromley’s collection, MT radiata pine eggcup stool, MT simple chest of drawers in sandblasted oregon.  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Bathroom.  Missoni butterfly towels from Palm Beach home, MT warehouse stool in weather checked blackbutt, little kids chair from Beachwood, Avalon. Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Another angle in the dining / living room.  MARK TUCKEY mardi bench in sandblasted oregon, David Band bottles painting, David Bromley resin sculpture of girl.  Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Looking from dining area out to front doors and front garden.  MARK TUCKEY oregon bunting, MT mega drum coffee table. Photo – Sean Fennessy, Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Writer
Lucy Feagins
29th of January 2014

The home you see here, of course, belongs to Mark and Louella Tuckey of much loved Australian furniture and interiors brand MARK TUCKEY, and as you can see from their incredible interiors, its clear this prolific creative pair practice what they preach, aesthetically speaking!  Their home, which enviably opens right onto the sand at sparkling Clareville beach on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, is full to the brim of Mark’s distinctive timber furniture, homewares and soft furnishings sourced by Louella, and artwork by many talented friends, including David Bromley, Rachel Castle, and the late David Band.  Despite the immense photogenicism of these surroundings, there is something so effortless and truly relaxed about this space – at heart, it really is just a rambling Aussie beach shack. Albeit is a seriously stylish one!

Mark and Louella share their home with daughters Chilli (7) and Indigo (6).  The family have been here for four years, having originally moved from Melbourne up to the Northern Beaches five years ago. ‘We rented a house at Whale Beach for the year, and rented out our place in Fitzroy, while we made sure we’d made the right decision, which of course we had!’ says Louella of the move.  Orginially from the UK, Louella says she’d had a thing about Pittwater since her time working for Terence Conran in London, so when Mark suggested that they could possibly live up here, whilst still running their main business out of Melbourne, Louella didn’t take much persuading!  ‘I ran upstairs and started packing!’ she says.

After securing their incredible home, Mark and Louella set to work personalising the space.  ‘The first thing we did was take up all the carpet in the house, because we both have a basic aversion to carpet on any level, and because carpet at the beach just doesn’t work!’.  Sound advice from Louella!

After this, it was decided that the next big project to tackle was the front garden.  ‘The main access to the house and the front door are on the beach side, and there was no path from the front gate to the front door – it was a muddy walk across grotty semi-bare lawn’ Louella explains.  The lawn was levelled, fresh turf laid, and a wide ‘deck-like’ path installed from the front gate right up to the house. Louella and Mark also hand picked large sandstone boulders, and spread them roughly around the perimeter of the garden, ‘like giant’s stepping stones’, which Chilli and Indigo still love to leap around! The final touch was the planting of various native grasses and grass trees to fill in the gaps.

Another excellent early addition was the widened front deck around the perimeter of the house – a relatively simple update which made a huge difference to the look and feel of the home, as well as allowing for a generous, functional outdoor dining area.  ‘There was a skinny deck all around the house when we moved in, so squeezing a table onto the front deck was quite the task’ says Louella. ‘When we doubled the width of the front deck it pulled the whole front of the house out towards the beach, and changed the feel of the front of the house so much – it was a really good move and had so much impact!’.

When asked if any extra-special favourite furniture pieces or artwork spring to mind, Louella has an understandably hard time narrowing things down!  ‘That’s an impossible question, because we love all the furniture and artwork at home for different reasons’ she says.  However, there are, of course, a few front runners! – The MARK TUCKEY eggcup stool is a perennial favourite because with its solid timber and skilled turning, it has become such a hallmark for the MT brand.   Another favourite from the MT range is the farmhouse dining table – Louella loves the sweet detail of the leg popping through the table top, and the simplicity of this design.  Artworks by Australian artist David Bromley are treasured, ‘because they’re beautiful, and David is one of our closest friends and an inspiration and mentor’.  Likewise, the work of the late David Band holds special appeal. ‘And last but by no means least Rachel ‘OMG i can’t seriously believe you’ve left me til last’ Castle‘ says Louella!  ‘Rachel Castle is my idiot friend who I love to death and back. I love her ability to hit the nail on the head every time! We have a screen print over our bed that says ‘YOU BE PERFECTION ON 2 SEXY LEGS’. This was a comment that Mark apparently made in the first few weeks we were together – recorded and retold as only Rach could do’.

As with all creative spaces, it seems this home is forever a work in progress – there are plans for an extension at some point, but for now Mark and Louella seem truly content with their lot. ‘The location speaks for itself, but the house is so pure beach shack, it really is a little old farmhouse by the water’ says Louella affectionately of her eclectic family home. ‘We love big modern spaces, but this little house has so much character, you just can’t not love it.’

Huge thanks to Louella and Mark for sharing their beautiful home with us today!  I’m now SUPER jealous of the idyllic beachside lifestyle the Tuckeys have created here… but, thrilled to have had the opportunity to document it!  Hey, at least we get to look at the pictures!

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