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. Â ‘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!’. Â 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. Â ‘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! Â 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! Â Hey, at least we get to look at the pictures!
Love his furniture and use my MT table and desk every day with joy.
What a breathtakingly beautiful home and location
Its so lovely to see a well lived in home. Yes, it is filled with divine designer pieces, but still a home that looks so loved and where a family will make many memories together. Love it! Thanks for sharing Mark & Luella…..x Ps Ive always been a fan of Marks pieces, but the Borgs are gorgeous too!!!
Beautiful home. Absolutely loved it. Thank you for sharing.
Have scrolled through the rooms over & over, sooo beautiful & homely. I can picture the girls playing throughout the home & nothing being too precious, even though its filled with so many designer pieces! Thankyou Louella & Mark, & Lucy!
Love at first sight. Truly iconic… and genuinely a fun place. Best yet.
absolutley incredible!
dream home. i can’t imagine a nicer place to live.
LOVE LOVE LOVE this house and this family!!! Definitely dream home! I loved their place in Melbourne too! The Best ! xx
As far as I’m concerned, this has to be the best house in Australia.
I can’t tear my eyes away, stuck in a scrolling loop, there is just so much to take in. And it is all PERFECT!
This is so much more than a beautiful house, it’s a gorgeous well loved and SO Australian home. Thank you for sharing. So much inspiration in every paragraph and photo.
Gotta LOVE a house that’s full, I mean really FULL, of love and art !!!!!!
Love everything about this wonderful home….so relaxed…so Australian.
epic.
Oh yeah…..
Amazing house in an amazing spot!!! It was part of an Australian special in a deco magazine here in Argentina called LIVING. Good to see it here too!
Stunning with a capital S!! Thanks for allowing us to have a peep into this gorgeous home. Love the Richmond store and all of Mark’s furniture – my daughter received one of his tables from us as a wedding gift and we all love it.
What a wonderful way to live – surrounded by such joyful and idiosyncratic art and furniture – the home seems to have its own wonderful personality.
What a beautiful home… Idyllic location and an AMAZING collection of furniture and art!!
The Tuckeys deserve an award for promoting an authentic, amazing, Australian aesthetic. Just wonderful!
This home conveys a delightful sense of intimacy through modest proportions, beautiful natural materials, art and nature. Comfortable, inspiring – yeah it’s a happy home.
Absolutely beautiful. Loved it in Real Living and love it even more now!!
This home is without a doubt stunningly beautiful, I LOVE it. I do however, feel like I’ve seen photos of it so so so many times that I’m feeling a tad fatigued … onto uncharted territory next please? :-)
Lucy, you make Wednesdays worth waking up for. I too have seen this house in magazines but it looks different from every angle so thanks for the new angles.
ridiculous! i don’t think I can even look at it again for fear of going bright green. I love that it looks like a home inside and not a showhome – inspiring things everywhere! *sigh*
That has got to be one of the most beautiful facades for a home I have EVER seen. I’m in love… sigh
Oh my, what a gorgeous home. This is definitely my favourite. Perfect blend of chaos and perfection.
Thank you to Mark and Louella for inviting us into their home. Stunning – An example of great Aussie design and why we are the lucky country .
that right there is the dream! so beautiful!
Yep, I’m sorry but this is insanely ridiculous!!! OMG, i wish I could die right now and be reincarnated immediately into the Tuckey family. Its going to be very hard to go back to living in the “real world” after seeing this..
That grass on the front lawn.. !!
Wowsers. Gorgeous.
Oh thank you so much Lucy, I’ve always wondered with Mark’s home looks like! More amazing than I would have imagined!
I have sat on the sand infront of this house many times. It’s a dreamy home that makes us beach goers just a little bit jealous……..
You spoil us lucy!! :) Absolutely gorgeous
The most glorious thing about this house is all Louellas little bits pinned to the walls. This house is truly so very beautiful.
I love you Tuckeys, amazing at everything you create. Thanks Lucy!
this has been my dream home for oh so long and I can never see enough of it.. adore the styling which is so perfectly not styled :)
This is aaaamazing!
Wow such a GREAT home!! Firstly the Tuckeys are a formidable couple, they seem to have mastered the “Effortless, Casual look”. This is not a put together home…. Mark your furniture is simply amazing!!
Also I am not sure what it is about the name Louella, it seems to brings out the creative side of those blessed with that lovely name.
Its lovely that in a woodsmens house there is wood everywhere, so warm. Interesting chairs, amazingly I picked up some like the Borg chairs today for love of them. They are not borgs (no markings) but have that same leather look. Thanks + Synchronicity.
Love this home. Love that is looks lived in but beautiful at the same time. So nice to see the kids art around. Am crazy about that kitchen table. Thanks for introducing me to this great place.
Amazing house, love its vibe, colors and unique elements that decorate it, thanks for sharing
Wow. What a front garden!
How lucky for those little girls to have BROMLEYS in their rooms!!!
Makes me want to move to Sydney! My favorite house .
*Børge Mogensen.
But pretty amazing that they have pieces in almost every room!
wow, just wow. love your house so much
I have fallen in love with this home – beautiful! It tells 1,000 stories…
I love the perfect chaos of this house. It is well loved, homely, not over designed and truly reflects the family. The way the timber furniture and cabinetry pieces have been balanced with the simplicity of the white walls. Given that the family has a love and passion for timber, there is definitely not too much. And to top it all off the view is divine!
I would love to paint my house this fabulous colour. Any idea what the colour is?
penny.