This endearingly homely abode belongs to Sarah Murphy, her husband Matthew McCaughey, and their two daughters Lola and Posy. Matthew is a film director, whilst Sarah is creator of Murphy & Daughters, a homegrown bath and body products company. (In a previous life, Sarah worked for many years as the buyer for iconic Melbourne homewares store Market Import, as evidenced by many of the colourful details and trinkets in her home!). The family have been here six years.
‘We weren’t exactly looking for a new home, but came across this place on the internet and were pretty intrigued by the size of the garden’ explains Sarah. ‘Our home at the time was pretty comfortable, but we had two small exuberant girls who were kind of busting out of our little courtyard at the time’. Sarah and Matthew went along to the auction more out of curiosity than anything else, as it was scheduled to take place on an election day. ‘As is turn out, there was a pretty small crowd… and next thing you know – the house was ours!’ says Sarah.
When they first took possession, Sarah recalls every room was a different colour. ‘Only after we had repainted every room white and moved our things in did we discover the motivation behind Lola’s room choice – to her huge disappointment we had ‘whited out’ her half orange and half blue bedroom!’. The family are in the process now of getting ‘psyched up’ to tackle a more serious renovation, though Sarah admits that finding the time and energy is proving a bit of a challenge! ‘Our girls are nearly ready to drop us though if we don’t do it soon’ she admits, adding ‘it’s a lovely feeling type house, but there are a few scary and squishy bits!’
With its aged patina and charming old world ‘wonkiness’, Sarah and Matthew’s cheerful Victorian home exudes an uncanny sense of familiarity. It’s as if you’ve been here before. In part, that feeling comes from the relaxed, eclectic decorating decisions Sarah has made here. The home is layered effortlessly with antique and vintage furniture, picked up at nearby Leonard Joel Auctions, or found on the side of the road. Alongside these gems are lots of treasures gathered by Sarah on her travels through Mexico, Italy, Spain and France for Market Import. Amongst all this are a smattering of much loved artworks by friends and local painters. ‘We love all of our art, mostly it comes from good friends, including some we have been given as gifts or swaps’ Sarah says.
Despite being a stone’s throw from Chapel street and the Prahan Market, this is also a surprisingly quiet and private home, tucked down a tiny street in a spot only locals would ever find. ‘Its like a secret oasis’ says Sarah. ‘As soon as we enter and come down the hallway, we’re miles away from the outside world… it’s like being in an old country farm house.’
Huge thanks to Sarah, Matthew and family for sharing their gorgeous home with us today! If you love Sarah’s aesthetic do pop over and check out her beautiful Murphy & Daughters range of bath and body products (all made in Melbourne!).
Yes!!! All of it!!
Looks like a great house, but can’t get past image 6 as it keeps crashing.
As I only have an old screen it is not possible to see the full images and the site is difficult to navigate.
Hope it is possible to fix this. :)
Thanks for your comments guys!
Jane – thanks for your feedback, there are still a few website niggles being ironed out this week, and the main image slider at the top of posts is one thing we are working on! Please bear with us, it’s taking a little longer than expected unfortunately. The intent with this slider is for it to scale down responsively to smaller screen sizes so these high quality images can be viewed in full on various screen sizes, without disrupting your navigation of the page. Thankyou so much for your patience, and please accept our apologies! x
That dining-room view is magnificent!
And I am really enjoying the new website look, those little fixes have really made a difference :)
Love this. What a great quirky/country feel in the middle of slick South Yarra. I love the Murphy & Daughters products too. Very cool post. Thanks.
What a gorgeous house! So much soul. A new Design Files favourite.
Lovely house – I especially love the entrances and the living areas. Very warm and lived in feeling.
Lucy, my wife and I are long-time readers, and we always view the featured houses over breakfast each Wednesday. I must say we are both finding that using iPads to navigate the site since the redesign is very difficult for us. I am not sure if you have done much testing on mobile devices, or even if many of your website visitor stats show iPads are polific, but it is harder to view pictures while reading, and not possible to zoom pictures any longer to see greater detail. I see it looks great in a browser though on a very large display… we don’t have one at the b’fast table though :)
Thanks for your brilliant site!
So nice seeing your gorgeous house on TDF Murph! I love every aspect of it, you have an amazing eye – thanks The Design Files for sharing! :)
This is one of my favourite house post by far! what an eclectic mix of beautiful things. Lovely photography too!
What a warm, beautiful home Sarah, and I love the Murphy&Daughters soap range!
These kinds of houses make my heart sing. ^.^
Hi Lucy
I love the look of your new website but am struggling to see the pictures because I have a 12″ MacBook and the arrow to scroll and pics don’t all fit on a page! Anyway if it can be shrunk somehow that would be amazing!
This makes my heart sing. What a beautiful home!
I love the house, stunning photos. So nice to hear the story behind the brand. I have used their products for a while now, they are so beautifully presented that I am not surprised her house is so wonderful! The bonbon soaps and especially the candles (currently burning “midnight in the garden of good and evil”) are my favourites so far….
Such a gorgeous house! So warm and inviting with beautiful pieces – love your style Sarah
Goegeous. A home not a house! Love it :)
lovely home, just hard to see it with the photo issues with scrolling through them on an 13 inch Mac, as allready discussed, will wait paitiently for the fixes . Also wondering on your old set up there was a way to go to older posts ( regardless of there subject ) at the bottom of the old screen, so you could def see what had been posted the last few days and even further.. i see you have two recent articles labeled on your home screen as recent. but is there an easy way to see what you haev posted before those , say all week or all fortnight etc? instead of going to each heading ( ie; homes, arts, food etc) ? any help would be great.
thankyou
sarah
Beautiful beautiful beautiful
I really love seeing these older homes which are obviously lived in and well loved. It makes me love my house even more. Scary and squishy bits included. You’ve got a great eye, love your style!
Another house with soul. Thank you!
Could you please make the font of the text foe the pics larger and darker? My poor, not so old eyes struggle to read it on the iPad.
I have issues with the photo size too. pretty please fix.
lovely home.
This format is a nightmare for watching on a laptop. Clicking through the photos is slow and the fact that a chunk of the photo is missing on the top of each photo is annoying. Bring back the old format.
Man, that house is so picturesque! The rustic old feel is so trendy at the moment. Even the dog looks vintage lol
The Planet of the Apes print is hysterical. Love the whole house!
Have viewed several other of the homes, but this one would only load two photos. Is it me??
Love you site and plan to keep checking out the rest of it.
Thanks…
Hi Lucy,
Thanks for another great article. I’ve been following your site for years and must comment that the new format has significantly diminished my ability to navigate and view the photos with ease. These more modern website templates are gorgeous to look at but tend to be more awkward to navigate unless you’re using a huge mac or something. As well, the pictures do not expand when I click so it’s harder to see the details of each shot. I hope you go back to the old format or at least make the photos expandable. Otherwise, it’s too much trouble.
Have a Happy New Year!
Love, love the house. It is perfection ! Thanx for showing it. Jo
I was just wondering where the print of Charlton Heston and Kim Hunter was from. I love it!