Property Home Tours

Home Tour: Budge Over Dover, A Coastal Sanctuary

The stunning transformation of a family home in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs is bold, sensual and utterly alluring at every turn.

Writers

Sitchu Team, Margaret Quilter

22 November 2022

Who lives here: Budge Over Dover is a project by YSG

Location: Dover Heights, Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs

Decor style: A coastal sanctuary with a sculptural aesthetic

Favourite room: The kitchen. You can feel the breeze in summer with the bi-fold doors open near the pool. It’s a social epicentre with plenty of zones for the family to be together yet have some space – from the island bench seating to the sofa in the informal lounge area and around the corner breakfast table.

Favourite pieces: My fave is the custom marble island bench in the kitchen with its integrated stone sink. The interplay of polished and raw surfaces resonates in the kitchen with an enlarged oxidised kickboard cladding the Black Panther marble. Above, rust stains on the newly exposed concrete ceiling match its honey-toned veins.

Ever since Sydney-based interior designer and founder of YSG, Yasmine Ghoniem, made the switch from aspiring musician to interior design, Sydney’s design world has never been quite the same. Renowned for her adventurous palettes and colour-fuelled aesthetics, Yasmine’s gutsy makeover of a drab coastal home is just what a family of six needed to start afresh.

“With three children between them from previous relationships and another on the way, our clients wanted to create a fresh start where everyone had space,” explains Yasmine. “It was the perfect compromise as one of them was selling his apartment right on Bondi Beach. But more space was needed, so moving just that little way up the hill in Dover Heights was worthwhile.”

THE BRIEF

Having revamped the client’s Bondi Beach apartment for the owner, it was a no-brainer to call on YSG again to rework the 90s minimalist home. Armed with a brief to create a tactile haven using highly customised finishes and furnishings, Yasmine set about establishing more connections between internal living areas and the various outdoor spaces.

“The house was a rabbit warren of tiny dark rooms and hallways with travertine floors throughout the ground floor,” she explains. “I wanted it to feel like an immersive dreamscape that envelops you the moment you enter and instantly quietens your mind.”

OPEN PLAN LIVING

Several internal walls were demolished to enhance the open flow, and the ceiling in the kitchen/living area and formal lounge room was raised. Arched doorways and curved returns abound, and although some of the travertine floorings were retained, most were replaced by handmade terracotta pavers in the kitchen, living and dining pavilion. The pavers effortlessly flowed through to the outdoors through bi-fold doors to an entertainer’s sanctuary.

“A painting by French-Australian artist Stanislas Piechaczek hovers within the home entrance. It was the first artwork the couple purchased together during a break in Byron Bay,” explains Yasmine. “The canvas’ dusty pastel shades, patchy brushstrokes and experimentation with conceptual depth informs much of the interior (especially the velvety Marmorino walls and ceiling features) of their radically transformed coastal sanctuary.”

The rust stains on the newly exposed concrete ceiling match the honey-toned veins in the kitchen’s Black Panther marble bench, which features an integrated stone sink. The customised banquette seating (designed by YSG) in the living room traces the curved wall and features a George Nelson Ball Bubble pendant above – mirroring the George Nelson pendant above the kitchen island.

The built-in seating perch alongside the hemp-rendered fireplace adds to the home’s sculptural aesthetics. Reflecting the painting over the fireplace, ‘The Real Housewives is the Tenessee Williams of our times’ by Kristy Budge is the custom-designed wool and art silk rug by YSG.

The Anton Table with oak top and brass legs from Living Edge pair beautifully with the vintage leather and chrome chairs from The Vault in the dining area – a cohesive look that continues into the lounge area, where a modular sofa rests on the wool and hemp rug by Halycon Lake.

THE BEDROOMS

Upstairs in the private wing of the home are four of the five bedrooms, two of which are separate master bedrooms. Powdery plum tones for ‘her’ with black joinery walls and soothing rose-shaded marble with back veining in the ensuite. For ‘him’, densely hand-brushed deep eucalypt green walls to enhance the impressive seascape beyond, with black marble with caramel veining in his semi-enclosed ensuite.

“Rather than fade the walls to shades of white as is the custom in Australian seaside residences, the eucalypt green instead frames the knockout views,” says Yasmine.

THE BACKYARD

Outside, the pool was reduced in size and re-surfaced, allowing an entertaining area that included a dining setting and an outdoor kitchen. —The theme of natural textures continues with a hewn sandstone plinth that hangs over the poolside, supporting a water feature. With rear bi-fold doors open in summer, the trickle from the water feature creates a gentle soundscape throughout the home, instantly relaxing you from the moment you step inside.

“Given the seaside location, natural aging is celebrated, providing the home with a ‘lived in’ ambience that complimented the family’s relaxed lifestyle and preference for casual daytime entertaining,” says Yasmine. “Every day feels like the weekend.”

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Dover Heights has always been an Eastern Suburbs gem with its prime location and stunning views of the city skyline and ocean. It offers a laid-back lifestyle away from the crowds of its world-famous neighbour Bondi Beach. Although life is a lot quieter up on the hill, this seaside suburb also borders Rose Bay and Vaucluse. Meaning, locals have their pick of Sydney’s hottest dining spots, pulsing nightlife and shopping precincts.