I'm Henry Tervenski and I'm Olive Cooke and this is our home, situated in the Northern Rivers
of New South Wales. We're on Arakwal Country in the suburb of Ewingsdale.
When we first came across this block, it was just more of a meadow. There wasn't much here other
than a few trees. Our brief when we first went to Davis Architects was a beautiful family home
that we can have our families visit from other areas and stay with us and feel comfortable,
like this is their space as well
and I feel like we've really achieved that through open plan living, clean lines,
separate sleeping areas and in general, just a real connection to the outdoors and nature.
Where we're situated it is really humid and wet so while the sun's shining, we can open everything
up and have all our doors open and be using the pool area. As soon as that wet weather settles in,
we can be indoors, we can have the fire on in winter
and really nestle in and just watch that storm roll past.
I feel like we've managed to create an indoor-outdoor, for all weather occasions.
We've worked closely with my sister. She is an incredible landscape architect and as you
first enter the property, there's some really beautiful trees and planting. You'll see an
atrium garden and then it'll take you through to the open plan living, dining and kitchen.
The hallway then takes you down to the two guest bedrooms
and a bathroom, as well as the master and ensuite.
Each bedroom has a door straight out into the garden.
As you're looking out from the back deck, you'll see the pool area
and the block walls that we positioned so when someone does build next to us, we won't be
seeing them and they won't be seeing us. The pool then looks out to the lawn and outdoor fireplace.
The use of concrete floors and heavy masonry throughout the house
ensures that we have a temperature balance throughout summer and winter.
We've got windows in certain areas where we can then get that winter sun
instead of using heating, as well as airflow to lessen our use of air conditioning.
We have also installed solar power and have solar hot water and I grew up being really close
to nature and having a veggie garden, so it's always been my dream to have that for myself.
We didn't really experience too many challenges. Olive made the process pretty easy because she
knows exactly what she wants. The architect did an amazing job positioning the house
which allows us to get the light throughout the day, from morning to night.
As a builder, we made sure we use materials that would last a long time such as
concrete slabs, external brickwork, heavy masonry walls, double glazed windows,
spotted gum joinery throughout, variety of Spanish render throughout the bathrooms and living rooms
and then a wide range of amazing products from Artedomus.
Olive and Henry had a clear direction that they wanted to go in for their property.
They wanted strong natural materials that could handle the environment here
while still being a beautiful addition to their home.
In the kitchen Olive and Henry wanted something durable but beautiful. They
chose our Sareva quartzite for all of the bench tops in the kitchen and the scullery.
Olive already had a beautiful timber finish in mind for a lot
of the joinery in the home and the Sareva quartzite complemented that brilliantly.
There's two fantastic bathrooms each with their own aesthetic; one uses out
Travertine Zena in entirety; the floors the walls and the vanity.
The travertine bathroom exhibits a much softer mood the use of the fluted glass
along with the singular material creates a real sense of calm and elegance in the room,
and in the master ensuite, they've used a brilliant combination of materials in the
Paladiana. The dappled light coming in through the very large window at the end of the bathroom
plays beautifully across the colours of the natural stone. Mixture of colours with
the greens and the darks and the travertines turns it into a beautiful natural environment.
The beauty of Olive and Henry's bathroom is that they've really used the traditional
method of Paladiana. We had them arrive on the back of a truck and then the boys
literally just got a hammer and saw where the natural grain broke
and in the laying of the stone, we had larger pieces and then smaller pieces to complement.
We love the story behind the exterior terracotta. It's a family-owned business
and they've been creating these products for generations and generations in the same way.
The colour was just perfect for a deeper tone
and matches in and flows through the home with the other timbers that we've used.
The line texture of the Japanese ceramics we used in the downstairs bathroom still had a
warmth connecting to the terracotta floor. There's a real beauty in the imperfections of using both;
there's a slight sort of movement and each one feels like it's really unique to itself.
Sometimes when you have a house in such an incredible natural setting as this one, it's easy
to focus too much on the view or on the outside of the property and not enough on the inside
but I think this house shows that you can marry the two together by the use of natural materials,
while still bringing the outside landscape inside the home as much as possible. I find
it's easier to create a space with less materials to begin with and then we can create a feature
with furniture or a texture on a wall or with our joinery. You can express yourself and have fun.
Throughout the home we have a lot of vintage pieces, some passed down. I then had the
kitchen chairs re-upholstered. We also had the couch recovered, which is vintage secondhand
and then we sort of complement that with a few local, small designer pieces.
We have artworks from Henry's late auntie. So, these are works that
have been in Henry's family and now we get to keep in our home and look at every day.
I'm super proud of the whole project. I feel like we've
come a long way since we've met each other and to build this
is a pretty big achievement. There's a lot of amazing people involved, there's so many different
skills. so I feel like as a whole, this whole project is just something to be really proud of.