Two and a half years ago, after living in an inner-city Sydney terrace, stylist and interiors consultant Natalie Walton and her family of then five (now six!) made a bold move – relocating to this magnificent, rambling timber house on the NSW central coast. Their love of the Wyong Creek home was immediate, and partly sparked by an Italian holiday where the family had stayed in an old Mill House. On first seeing the cedar cabin, the family were enchanted by the dramatic stone walls which run through the spine of the building. Natalie explains ‘as soon as we saw them, we were ready to sign on the dotted line.’
The home vibrates with Natalie’s distinctive aesthetic, while also responding to the surrounding environment. To balance incredible views of the Yarramalong Valley from almost every window, Natalie opted for a pared-back vibe and neutral palette, allowing the tree-scape to be the hero feature of the house.
Though it did come with great bones, the house wasn’t always this understated. When the family first moved in, they inherited a magenta fireplace, lime-green feature wall, eggplant bedroom and a corrugated steel internal wall. ‘There was a lot going on!’ Natalie describes. To create a more harmonious interior, she sought to ‘bring the interior back to the original owner’s intention, of a cedar cabin that celebrated natural materials and finishes, while making it useable for a family of six.’
Making the cabin feel like home required surprisingly few structural changes. Instead, decorating choices and furniture placements have contributed to an overall softening, and gentle re-zoning of the house. Open plan living, kitchen and dining areas have been differentiated through the considered placement of pendants, wall lights and rugs. The largest, and most challenging alteration was a kitchen renovation, where Natalie re-emphasised the country-cabin aesthetic, through introducing a timber bench top, barn lights and tactile details such as brass cup pull door handles.
This is a home that has offered a formerly city-dwelling family a new lease on life. With its generous footprint, rugged materials palette and distinctly nostalgic vibe, this truly does feel like a house of Enid-Blyton-level childhood dreams! It’s also been an endless source of inspiration, and a testing ground for Natalie’s own creative projects, not to mention a highly appropriate site for the writing of her beautiful book, This is Home. Here, Natalie truly is living by her word.
