Homes

Top Ten Australian Homes of 2015 · Kate and Mal Heppell

Today we share another from our TOP TEN Australian Homes of 2015. This colourful, beachside family home in Point Lonsdale in Victoria was an instant favourite for many of you when we first shared it back in July. It belongs to Kate Heppell of Kip & Co, her partner Mal and their young son Zig!

 

Written
by
Lucy Feagins
Supported by Dulux

The colourful Point Lonsdale home of Kate and Mal Heppell. Above, main sitting room (upstairs). Cushion by Kip & Co, concrete ball and pink pyrenees sandstone coffee table made by Mal, white vase made by Kate’s mum in the 70s, painted vase by Kym Barter from the Falkner Gallery in Castelemaine, lip mirror by Bride and Wolfe, vintage shell chandelier from the Camberwell Market. Photo – Eve Wilson, production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

A corner of the timber-lined upstairs sitting room. Cushion by Kip & Co, concrete ball and pink pyrenees sandstone coffee table made by Mal, white vase made by Kate’s mum in the 70s, painted vase by Kym Barter from the Falkner Gallery in Castlemaine, three matching Japanese wood block prints from East West Art in Kew. Photo – Eve Wilson, production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Kate, Mal and their son Zig at home in Point Lonsdale. Photo – Eve Wilson, production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Upstairs dining / sitting room with window through to the kitchen. Floor rug by Kip & Co, rolled steel fire wood circle made by Mal, dining chairs purchased on a holiday in Bali. Photo – Eve Wilson, production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Living room details. Floor rug by Kip & Co, hand chair purchased from a secondhand hand market in Geelong, stool made by Mal, print by Patricia Marrafurra, small artwork of reclining woman purchased in Burma. Photo – Eve Wilson, production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Upstairs landing detail. Prints in stairwell by Melbourne’s Leslie van der Sluys, inherited from Kate’s parents. Photo – Eve Wilson, production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

TV room. Large painting by Minnie Pwerle, underwater photo by Eugene Tan of Aquabumps. Photo – Eve Wilson, production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Writer
Lucy Feagins
29th of December 2015

After documenting Australian homes for many years now, we’ve learnt you can tell a lot about a person by how they present their home. Kate and Mal Heppell are no exception to this – their Point Lonsdale home is them in every sense!

As co-founder of popular Melbourne bedlinen company Kip&Co, Kate is not afraid of vibrant colour – there’s not white wall to be seen in the Heppell family home! Each room in the house assumes a personality of its own, from the moody charcoal walls of the living room, to the contemporary concrete flooring downstairs, and the retro feel of the timber panelled stairwell. Somehow, it’s the perfect mish mash!

Kate and Mal purchased their property 10 years ago. The house was in a dire dilapidated state, and was even advertised as ‘ready for demolition’. What others perceived to be a ‘knock down’, Kate and Mal saw as an opportunity – they decided to renovate and extend using the existing structure and footprint of the property.

This ‘mend and make do’ approach explains, in part, how Kate and Mal’s house came to be such a rich patchwork of textures and materials. The creative pair added to the modest existing home, incorporating concrete finishes, bold colour and timber details. With its brave materials palette and brilliant use of colour, Kate and Mal prove that more really is more when it comes to a home like this!

For the full story and many more photos of this Point Lonsdale coastal home, do pop back and revisit the original post!

Front exterior of the home. Solid timber pillars salvaged from a wharf in WA. Garden by DMS Landscapes. Photo – Eve Wilson, production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

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