June 29, 2026 • 30 mins
Deborah Hutton has worn many hats - TV presenter, magazine editor, model - but now she's doing something she's never done before: project manager and interior designer. After selling her house in Bronte, she bought a crumbling red brick cottage overlooking the ocean south of Sydney and is now deep in a build she describes as the home of her life.
In this episode of The Edit, Deb joins Home Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Elle Lovelock to talk about what drew her away from Sydney to the tiny seaside community of Wombarra, why she chose to work with architect Walter Barda, and how a landslide, a geotech and 70 concrete piers all became part of the story.
Plus, Deb shares why there’s not a drop of white in the colour palette, how a visit to Huka Lodge in New Zealand shaped the entire aesthetic, and why she’s building this house entirely for bringing people together.
This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation with Deborah Hutton.
This episode covers:
- Deborah Hutton’s South Coast build
- Why Deb sold her Bronte house and left Sydney
- Working with architect Walter Barda
- The landslide, geotech and 70 concrete piers that shaped the build
- The self-contained studio and why Deb decided to build it
- The steam room, master bedroom and infrared sauna
- A green colour palette that surprised even Deb
- The design inspiration behind the house
- Wall sconces, candlelight and a home designed for entertaining
- Why Deb hosts 12-hour lunches and how she does it
Photo Credits: @deborahhutton and Home Beautiful
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is an our media podcast. You've got a guest
bathroom which I'm putting a really beautiful steam room in there,
which is the dark green. Nice tiles are so imperfect.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
They're perfect, And so why the steamroom?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Because I'm just addicted to steam. I go to a
health fum every year and you can't get me out
of the steamroom. I cannot look like a prune. I
love it, I just love it. I love infrared saunas
and I love steam. I love being hot and sweaty,
except when it's Sydney humidity.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I'm l Lovelock, editor in chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome
to the Edit, where we bring you into beautiful homes
with the people who create them. Today, I'm sitting down
with an icon of Australian media, the one and only
Debrah Hutton. Deb spend fourteen years as the face of Quantis.
(01:01):
She has danced with John Travolta and interviewed some of
the biggest celebrities in the world. But right now her
biggest project is a little closer to home. After selling
her beloved bronte house, deb bought a crumbling red brick
cottage on the ocean south of Sydney, and she's now
building what she hopes will be the home of her life.
(01:23):
The plan is for layers of texture, a gorgeous green
color palette, and a design that's made entirely for bringing
people together. Deb Welcome. Welcome to the edit is called Yes, Yes,
that is what it's called. That's why we're here, Beautiful
to talk about all the choices, all the little decisions
that we make a day.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh, the pleasure is all mine. I think we have
a bit of a history together with Home Beautiful and yourself,
and I was really thrilled to see that. When we're
doing a bit of research, I googled Deborah Hutton home right,
and the first article to come up was home Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I thought, yes, is that when I completed my Bronze build.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
That's in it. But we've updated it with bits and
pieces that we do know about your South Coast build.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Oh there you go. I didn't know that because you
know what happens like you put things on socials and
it's basically like just throwing it into a really big
funnel and you don't know where it's going to end up.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I can tell you where Home Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I was like, really, okay, I know I didn't I
didn't know that, but yeah, it's funny because where we
live down south it also ends up being in the
ille war Mercury or something happened. Someone said I saw
your article in something. I said, I haven't done an
article of anything, and it just pops up right. So
Home Beautiful first up.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, thanks thanks for that. People love you. But tell
us about the build. I want to know everything right
from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Why the move, Well, funny enough, it came. It came
out of two things. It came out of COVID and
the lockdown. And I hate to be one of those
people that said I loved it. It was one of
the best things that ever happened to me was that lockdown.
I loved it because everything was like putting a wet
blanket on everything. And I was living in Bronte and
(03:23):
I built my forever house and I'd been there for
about three years and it was all going great, and
then COVID happened. And then at one stage when we
started coming out, I was having dinner with two really
dear friends of mine and they live in Lisbon in Portugal,
and they kind of sold a place in la and
they're living there and they said, do you know why
did you just sell this place? And you know, buy
(03:44):
something else and then you know, travel and you know,
build something else, and da da da, And that planted
a seed. But the biggest thing was literally when when
Gladys took the you know, basically said yes, we can
all go back to our lives again. And the hecticness
of living in Bronze, which is surrounded by a thousand schools,
(04:06):
so the person who doesn't have any kids millions ways
to get out of the suburb. It was like okay,
And so it all just kind of came together. And
I've always loved this place. This friend of mine has
an Otford which is just around just around that sort
of Stanwell Park area, just below the beautiful park what
the hell is it called, you know, Ryal National Park,
(04:29):
and I just love that area. So worlds collided and
the partner I was seeing at the time, we went
down there and had a weekend and I was like,
maybe this is where I need to be. So I
ended up selling Bronte. I ended up buying this little
red bricker, this shitter red bricker, which was literally falling
(04:52):
down around your ears. But it was right on the
ocean on the south coast in Wambara, and I was like, wow,
I get to buy like an ocean block and it's
about thousand square meets so it's pretty generous with it
steps down to a little beach and it's like okay.
And it came with a Walter Barda approved da for
(05:13):
quite a substantial, stunning house which was made for four
kids and a family, and you know, blah blah blah,
and I was like okay. Walter bart has always been
a huge I've been a huge fan of his work.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So tell us who is Walter Bartera and what do
you love about his work? Now, for our listeners anyone
who may not know, don't give me that looked him.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I love it. Could you see my look? And I'm
looking at it as you hearing me, but you should
see the startled look on my face. He is award
winning designer. But apart from that, his aesthetic really aligns
with what I love about architecture, and his strength is
those beautiful plantation houses and going back to the lovely
(05:53):
that weatherboard. I love a weatherboard house. I love going
back in time and having know v groove on the
like doing all the cladding inside and just adding a
lot of timbers and textures, and he's got this really
beautiful feel of how a house sits in the land.
It was a very challenging site because it runs down
(06:13):
to the water, so it's you know, it's got this
kind of slip to it. But his stuff is just
so beautiful and I was always a fan, so I
inherited him when I bought this property with this da Gosh,
that's lucky. Yeah, Well, it's just it's serendipitous, right, It's
just meant to be. So anyway, Marshia and I my partner,
Andrew marsh is a meditation teacher. He and I went, well,
(06:37):
this is going to be our life. So we moved
down there, lived in this little shit erec bricker which
was literally falling down around her ears for three and
a half years, and in that time I changed the
entire inside. I flipped it, I shrank it, and the
whole thing is crafted and designed around a beautiful north
facing terrace because that's where you want to be down south,
(06:58):
is facing north. So that was it. It was part COVID,
part just drawing getting out of getting out of the
hecticness of Sydney, the traffic. But I love it because
it's literally just over an hour from Sydney, so I
can drive up no problem. Yeah, get on the train,
no problem, and I can get out no problem. So
(07:19):
it's kind of key. So I kind of got rid
of a whole lot of problems, and then I inherited
in a whole another bunch of problems, which is buying
the site downs out. But I will say that when
we moved down there, three months after we moved down
there was a massive rain event and this property had
an incredible landslide where we lost beautiful banksy as we
lost all the little cute steps that went down to
(07:42):
the beach. So the whole thing was one of the
biggest landslides on that coastline.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
How scary.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, And the erosion was coming from the escarpment, because
this huge scarpet runs at the back of us, and
so what's not the erosion from the ocean, So that's
where it was coming from. Water couldn't escape quick enough.
So basically, and it's very slip it's a slip area,
which I discovered.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Doesn't sound good. Yeah, yeah, what do you have to
do in the build.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
To Matt with that. Well, this is where I inherited
a nutcase geotech that was a learning wow.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Tell us about that?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Whoa, Well, the end is. Look, she's trying to keep
me safe. I said, Look, I'm going to be sixty
five in a minute. Give me twenty good years, and I
don't give a shit what happens to this house after that.
I'm not building it for one hundred and hundred and
fifty years. I don't give a ship. So just give
me something that's going to get through the next twenty
five maybe thirty years Max. And she just ignored all that.
(08:39):
Oh no, And we had God, I've got six or
seven subsort drains that go down eight and a half meters,
which is full of huge aggpipes and aggregate. There's so
little soil there now I have to like irrigate it
to grow anything. Oh my god. And then there's seventy
concrete appeers that went down. And then there was that
(09:00):
called a shoring wall. I didn't. I said, that sounds lovely.
Shuring wall. Shrawing wall's a thing that holds up the
neighbors in the highway. Okay, let's build one of those, and.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
All you wanted was a weatherboard house.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I just wanted to wear the by the oceans, simple
simple needs this. Really yeah, it was great. It was great.
I tell you what. I learned a hell of a lot.
I learned a hell of a lot about civil engineering
and groundworks. I learned a hell of a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Is there anything that will stick with you?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I hope not, because some must. I do think you'll
do it again. I'm like, absolutely, never again. Yeah, oh,
you know, love the idea of renovating and building, but
like doing like hardcore three months of the mud and
it was intense because I was just completely out of
my leg I didn't know what the hell can I
(09:48):
swear on this pod?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Of course you can, because well almost whatever you.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Like, because I swear a lot potty mouth, you know. Okay, yeah,
I would never fucking do this whole thing again, I
swear to god. It was like, what was I think?
But you know, now that we're out and look, it's interesting,
el because twelve months to the day was the twelfth
of June, right, and I looked at what we're doing.
Twelve months ago the house was demolished twelve months ago.
(10:13):
Today the roof is on, the doors are arriving, and
we're ready to start tiling.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
That is quick.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's insanely quick.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
It's a build like this.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, it's insane. It's insane. Who's your builder, Tokie Constructions,
and I'm very happy to talk about them. They are unbelievable.
They are Their structure and their organization is second to none.
They've got This is the difference I think when you're
paying for top end builders. Okay, so there's a bit
of a playoff here, and this is what I've learned.
(10:43):
It's like, when you got someone that good, they put
men on the ground because they want to get in
and get out. So they said to me, this will
take sixteen months. I'm like bullshit, because everyone around here
says it's two years, ten years. We tooked to it
a half. But these guys have got men on the ground.
The subcontract is a fantastic So you know, if we
gain him before Christmas, which I'm pretty certain we will,
(11:06):
that's the difference. You're paying a little bit more because
you've got more men, but also you in faster, so
you've actually got this because we were.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Renting well exactly, I think.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
There's all the other stuff that happens. So the sooner
you get in, I think it actually works out better
to have better quality builders and just get in there
as quick as you can.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I couldn't agree more. We did the same, I'll say,
on a much much smaller scale, and we were out
and back in in six months and no one could
believe it. And we're in a heritage street and we're
in an old Victorian workers cottage and ripped off everything
basically from the front, bedroom, back and story we had
(11:45):
a story on. But we we took all that off
as well. We did it and six months months is amazing,
but exactly the same thing that.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
You see you put it in the walls. Now are
you still well?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
No, we're good, We're good. But it was the quicker
it's done. Happy to pay a little bit more because
what you pay now you save.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Well that's that's that's the way. I'm good. So yeah,
because I was talking to someone, they said, have you
limited the amount of people that you have on the site?
What do you mean? I said, oh, if you limit
it to five, I said five, why you'd be sitting
here for three years trying to build a bloody thing.
I was like, no, get him in, get him busy,
get them out.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So how did you decide where to rent?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh? Just well it's not exactly like you know, there's
not like smalkest border rental down there. It's like really limited.
It's like we lucked out by finding a place that
was literally a four minute walk. It's just a little cottage.
And so that was great until they ripped the rug
underneath our feet about three weeks ago and they said, well,
we're selling, now you've got to go. I was like, okay,
(12:48):
oh no. And now we're in a unit in Austin Mere,
which is gorgeous. I don't know if you heard of
Austin here, but it's really it's just down the road.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It beautiful.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So in a nineteen eighties unit with old Corona plastic
like taps and stuff me seriously back to the eighties.
I feel like I'm having a moment, like I can
feel a whole thing. The shoulder pads are starting to grow,
the high waisted pants, you know, the plated pants, the
brogues are back. And I was like, and now I'm
living in a nineteen eighties apart. It's all just returned.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
After the break. Deb walks us through exactly what her
new house is going to look like. And trust me
when I say she has thought through every single detail.
You're hoping to be in by Christmas?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yep, no, we will, you will, you will, absolutely, I'm
determined to be in by Christmas. You can hold me
over the colds. By Christmas, Christmas will be sitting. Even
if we had the hose, I don't really care. I
just want to be in.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I know it's not done yet, but imagine you're in.
Take us on a tour, because we love to do
an audio tour.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Okay, so if you open the front door.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Well that's complicated in itself.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Well we've got all day, so let's let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It's an interesting build because what I inherited was primarily
you're living on two levels, but because of the topography
of the land, you're basically coming to a highway and
you're dropping down to an ocean. Right. So when you
drive in, you've now got visitors parking, and then you
open two front doors. You come into this beautiful big upboard,
(14:22):
a beautiful set of Indian doors from Rajasthan, and you
come in those doors and it comes to a little
sort of entrance area. Then there's two front doors. There's
a door that takes you down to the house, and
there's a door that takes you up to a completely separate,
self contained studio. Really yes, so that was the part
that was included in the original DA and I had
(14:43):
to kind of decide whether I really wanted to build
that or not. And I thought building for the future.
There's like it could be cars, you could be renting
it out, my nephews would want to stay, and I
think for resale value at whatever time, not that I
plan to sell it. It becomes a four bedroom room
house as opposed to a thee bedroom house, and I
just think it made a lot more sense. And yes,
(15:05):
you know, in terms of budget, it would have been
better not to have built it. But it's so damn
cute that my partner goes, let's just live up here.
I'm like good stuffed, and my god, a beautiful house
downs down because he lives in bodies in a T shirt,
he's got nothing.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So you drive in, you can go upstairs to the
self contained unit, which is really cute, and then you
went to our house and you come down the stairs
and you enter into this beautiful sort of entry way
which is kind of like a mud room, and that's
where I drive in. I drive in underneath the house.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
So we drive James Bond.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, so we drive in underneath and then we come
in at that level. So if you're coming, you'll park,
you'll come down the stairs. If I'm coming home, I'll
park and I'll just walk through this door into the
same area, which is like a mudroom. And I've got
so many bloody canopy bay houses. There's an entire wall
plant of just hooks and can of your boy hats.
It goes back to the first season. Now there's six
(16:04):
and like, how do you get rid of these buggers?
Like there's just everywhere. They just keep coming like they're multiplied. Yeah,
so it's just like a wall of hats. But then
you walk in and then you've got stairs to take
it down to the bedroom level, and then you walk
one step up and you go on to this really
beautiful living kitchen. So you've got a kitchen on the
right hand side with a nearly four meter central island.
(16:29):
The kitchen looks out and everything's designed around this north
facing terrace, which is very generous in size. It's got
three huge sliding glass panes. So two huge doors which
are like three point four meters each, so those two
will slide in and tuck in behind the one that
sits sort of behind where the stairwell is to take
(16:52):
you down to the bedrooms. Yeah, and then the ceiling
is like I'd hardly callt a low ceiling because I've
seen it now, but it's basically a flat ceiling, beautifully
detailed in timbers. And then you walk through the kitchen
area all open, and you go into what Wally calls
the great room. I said, stop calling it the great room.
It sounds expensive and a bit lalla, And I said,
(17:14):
we're not like that, and I just don't need to
have great attached to it because it's expensive and grand,
and I'm that's not what I want. And he just looks, so,
what do you call it? Fucking awesome room? It's a
fucking awesome room. It's it's like wow, because it's got
this this amazing it's a ceiling within a ceiling. So
(17:35):
we're doing this beautiful open rafted roof, so this so
the roof's built and then this ceiling detail, it's all
this beautiful weather text. I don't if you know weather
text but it's got this lovely wood grain finish and
it's just textual. And so you've got this incredible open
rafted ceiling which got this two drop old colonial fans
(17:56):
that come down, and it's it's a huge fireplace, which
is lovely stone. I found these two Indian doors that
are hiding the TV. It's a hate looking at a TV.
And so you've got a dining room there, it's a
couple of bookshelves and it's just this lovely open space
that the weather we've been having lately. And I walk
in there and I can just see all the doors
(18:18):
going back and so that north facing terrace becomes part
of this, this this big, beautiful area. And then we've
got this biggest planet box I've ever seen. I said
to Walie, Am I doing laps in this thing is huge,
and it's like it is it. I swear to God
the planet box is like this because we're putting trees
(18:39):
in there to try and give us some privacy. So
you've got Lawrence Hargrave Drive and we're kind of exposed
to that. So we're doing this terrace as completely green
screened great idea. Yeah, So it's like it's this beautiful,
generous plane of boxes. So we're not we're not dialing around.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
It's like, okay, what are you planting? Do you know
what you want to do? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
He reckons bay trees gorgeous. Yeah, and they're thick and
you know, they're not deciduous, and they've got to lovely
green and so it's just having that beautiful canopy of
green that you're looking at.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
And the flooring is all this beautiful porcelain tiles which
look like they've been ripped up from some chateau in
the south of France. So that's how clever porcelain's getting now,
I know, isn't it incredible? It looks like it's sort
of shaved and broken up, but it's actually all in
and it's textured. It's got this sort of grand, this
grainy kind of feel. So that's all the flooring. And
(19:38):
so that's just the top, just just the top.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So then how many levels is it? Is it?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
That's the main level. Then you walk down the stairs.
You've got two guest rooms on the left hand side,
a very very generous hallway. You've got a guest bathroom
which I'm putting a really beautiful steam room in there,
which is these dark green tiles that are so imperfect,
they're perfect, and it's got this lovely dome ceiling which
will be really softly lit with led and a fantastic
(20:06):
huge one point eight Caesar stone bench, so I could
so I can use the guest room bathroom. So that's
a shower steamroom.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
So why the steamroom because I'm.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Just addicted to steam. I go to a health farm
every year and you can't get me out of the steamroom.
I cannot looking like a prune. I love it, I
just love it. I love infra red saunas, and I
love steam. I love being hot and sweaty, except when
it's Sydney humidity, because that's not fun because you're not
choosing that exactly. So I've got that, and then we
(20:36):
walk down and then we've got the master bedroom, and
that's just stunning. It just opens up completely to the
view because you're looking out to the ocean. So you've
got these doors that open up and then you've got
this beautiful you're right on the ocean, you hear the waves.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I was just gonna ask, what do you think it'll
sound like in the house loud?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
You won't hear the road, you'll hear the waves unless
it's a westerly and then you hear nothing. But if
it's a nor easterly, it sort of comes in. But
the way, while he's designed all these doors that go
back into cavities, these glass sliding doors, he's actually stopping
the nory slaves from coming into that northern terrace. He's
really clever. And then it's just it's really beautiful. I
tell you what's interesting. A friend of mine, when I
(21:14):
started doing the interior design, this is really interesting. I
think it's a great tip. I was talking to a girlfriend.
I said, I don't even know where to start. I sat,
I don't know where to start, but I don't know
what to start. She said, what's your favorite bathroom that
you've been into, because that's where I was going, like,
I love a beautiful bathroom, So what's your favorite bathroom?
And then think about that about where you want to
tell And I was like, that's a really good idea.
(21:36):
So I remember taking mum to a place called Hooker
Lodge in Taupo and New Zealand. Yes, one of the
most extraordinary places you could stay, and their bathrooms are
so beautiful. It's all it's all wood paneling and everything's
just got a bit of age to it. But it's
so beautifully beautifully done. So that's what started me on
this whole. This house is not going to be Whitehampton.
(21:58):
This house is not going to be more than houses.
There's no formed concrete, there's nothing. It's very everything's made
to feel like you've been there before or you walk
in and it feels very familiar, and it's got a
sense of kind of nostalgia and a bit of a
bit of age to it.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
So everything, every wall is paneled, all the ceilings have
this weather text, incredible detailing.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yes, because I think texture, even hard texture, makes people
feel comfortable.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, it puts you it ease, Yeah. Yeah. And I
want that this is not a house, that it's not
a precious house. I'm building it to be robust. And
I learned that from Bronti because Bronte was like the
Princess's house, Well, it has to be white marble, and
it's all it's beautiful. You know, there's heavens, there's Fulton,
you know, nickel pendants and the do Do to Do
(22:47):
And I was like, oh my god, the salt on
that and oh white marble in the bathroom bone now.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And that's it living by the water.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yeah. The challenge of that yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Because you don't even have to do anything and materials water.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Yeah. So therefore all of all of the finishes are
like in terms of all the tap where it's all
weathered organic, so everything is it's going to be. It's
going to age. Yeah, there's no there's no perfectness to it.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
So therefore it's just gonna it's just gonna get better
with age. That's plan.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Who do you hope to have over? Do you like
having people over?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I love having people over. It's so funny. I'm getting
such shipped from the locals because they all go, oh
my god, is this house big enough for the two
of you. Someone even commented, it looks like you're building
Westville one bar, Like, how rude word. Don't you know?
I have friends and family, So I've got I've got
(23:44):
my family, Marsh's got his family. I've got beautiful friends
that I miss dealing in Sydney, and a lot of
them do come down now, even even our little rentals
and stuff like that, and it's like I'm building it
in such way that. I'm even doing one of the
bedrooms two singles, which then become like a queen when
you putting together. So I'm doing that kind of hospital
hotel style. It's a hotel style because they're all, you know,
(24:05):
a couple of queens that are not together but great mates.
Like great, you can go in there and and so
it's built. It's built for people to come and stay
and have a good time. Because when I do lunch,
it's a twelve hour thing. It's just a thing. What
starts at when it finishes it one?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
So why is it? Why is it a twelve hour thing?
What do you?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Always was a twelve hour thing. I've got to get
out of that.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
What do you? What music do you play?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
I love it? I love it. Funnily enough, when I
walked in here today I ran into one of the editors.
It helped me do I did a cookbook here, Yeah, yeah,
with Women's Weekly that said, can we be part of
the cookbook? I'm like sure. I love cooking. I love cooking.
I love to cook. I love to entertain. Oh, I'm
just I get inspired by by things. I don't have
any sort of repertoires stuch, but I love I love
(24:49):
I love being I love things that are prepared prior
so when when you're when everyone arrives, I'm not stuck there,
you know, slaving in the kitchen. So a big sort
of pre prep person ready to go. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
What does an hour before people coming over look like
for you?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Oh well, the table's probably set the day before.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I do that too, because I figured the said at
least they have somewhere to sit exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Or look it looks like I was expecting you early
or whatever. No, I love. I love setting a table.
I love setting a table, and I've chosen some really
beautiful pieces from our fresco and porium. They've just got
the most gorgeous suff's. It's really well with this house.
But I love, I just I get excited. I just
I haven't never serve an entree. I always serve food
(25:37):
that they can pick and stand and wander around, and
then there's always to sit down for the main and
there's a dessert. But I just I love bringing people together.
And sadly it doesn't happen enough. It doesn't happen enough.
It used to happen, you know, just going back into
the eighties and stuff a lot of people used to.
No one does it anymore.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
No, it's true.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Maybe it's expense, or we're living in smaller places or whatever.
But for me, one of the things my great joy
is bringing people together and the fact that they can
jump on a train and come down and spend a
night and have lunch and hang and grope a swim
the next day. That's just that's joyful for me. Yeah,
that's kind of why I'm building it. Yeah, it really is.
(26:16):
I'm building it for for my loved ones.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Are you a home sent person? What do you burn
or well?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I used to burn my lin until I didn't have
it anymore. I know, well, you know, who needs another
candle and all the cost of living crisis, you know,
I do. I know you're gotter have those little things
around us, But no, I'm a candle I'm candle obsessed.
I mean, I love center candles, but I love candlelight.
(26:45):
So so the interesting thing about this particular house, this
is hardly an overhead. Really, most of it is wisconsors
and lamps.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That is exciting. I think more homes should be designed
that way.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, I think spending half of my life in front
of lighting, you get to understand that you never want
to stand or sit under a light that's above your head.
And you know some people highlight dining room tables with
a light. I'm like, God, I can have a hat
like it, cano be bay like anything that just stops
the light. So, and I love wars coonsors. It's that
American thing that they do so well. American sense of
(27:20):
lighting is really beautiful in restaurants and old homes. There's
war sconsors everywhere. We don't do them enough here and
I don't know why we need to bring it in.
We need to bring it in, so bathrooms and everything.
I've got war sconsors everywhere and they're really really beautiful.
And yeah, so I think that's going to be something
(27:41):
that's just again feels that warmth when you walk in.
The whole feeling of the house is very much along
the lines of British colonial raffles, Singapore plantation style, a
little bit of Bermuda. It's kind of got tree lanker.
It's you know, I'm doing like dark plantation and shutters.
(28:01):
There's no white, there's no white on the coast.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Isn't that crazy? Isn't that it's crazy? You can do
a coastal home.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yeah, that's that white. It's not Whitehampton's. Yeah, because I
did that in Bronti and I didn't want to I
didn't want to repeat it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
It's something different.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah. I wanted something that was going to challenge me,
and it's challenged me. Because colour can challenge you.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I sure can.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Do you have any colors you avoid?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
No? But you know what's interesting. I'm such a navy person.
I love blues of all. I've had different ranges that
are based on blue. Blue is my go to color.
This entire house is so many variations of the green
of the green tones, even so much that I even
change the outside color to be like I think it's
(28:45):
a deluxe like forest green. So it's really it's just
taken me and it's just without making up my mind.
It's just led me down. It's taken me on that
journey because I haven't been well. It needs to be
this and it needs to be that.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
It's just going with the hound go to the.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
House, and that's the way it's that's where it's turned out.
It's really interesting, it is, isn't it. Yeah? I mean
I love blue, I love wear blue and whatever but
I'm still I think there's going to be a blue room.
I had a blue room and bronze and it's just
like a big hug and so that's probably going to
be the main guest room. And then there's the green room,
which is where the two splits are and doing something
(29:21):
clever there. So the way I didn't tell you. Then
you walk downstairs there's another level. Well it's kind of
the rumpest room. Well to cause it a rumpest room,
and I said, don't have any kids. I just so do.
I go out with one and he's like, give me
fifty six tomorrow, and he's the biggest kid that I know.
So that's why I'm putting Marshie. But it's a little
kitchenette and that's infrared sauna down there, and it's where
(29:43):
you walk out onto the grass and then you've got
steps down to the beach. So it is a kind
of way of getting out of the house.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I can't imagine ever wanting to leave.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
No, no, I won't be able to for two.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
No, that's true.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I'll be on light kneezes in the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Just stay there.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, you won't telling to do dinner for eight because
what we're having I could you likes and it takes
three minutes in the microwave.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Well, I'd love to be invited to one of Deb's
twelve hour lunches. And that sauna room looks incredible. Dev
and I had so much to talk about that. There
is a part two of this conversation, where Deb shares
the intimate details about her skin cancer scare and why
she started her hat business, Canopy Bay. You'll find Part
(30:30):
two wherever you're listening or watching this episode.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
This is an our media podcast
This is an our media podcast. You've got a guest
bathroom which I'm putting a really beautiful steam room in there,
which is the dark green. Nice tiles are so imperfect.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
They're perfect, And so why the steamroom?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Because I'm just addicted to steam. I go to a
health fum every year and you can't get me out
of the steamroom. I cannot look like a prune. I
love it, I just love it. I love infrared saunas
and I love steam. I love being hot and sweaty,
except when it's Sydney humidity.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I'm l Lovelock, editor in chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome
to the Edit, where we bring you into beautiful homes
with the people who create them. Today, I'm sitting down
with an icon of Australian media, the one and only
Debrah Hutton. Deb spend fourteen years as the face of Quantis.
(01:01):
She has danced with John Travolta and interviewed some of
the biggest celebrities in the world. But right now her
biggest project is a little closer to home. After selling
her beloved bronte house, deb bought a crumbling red brick
cottage on the ocean south of Sydney, and she's now
building what she hopes will be the home of her life.
(01:23):
The plan is for layers of texture, a gorgeous green
color palette, and a design that's made entirely for bringing
people together. Deb Welcome. Welcome to the edit is called Yes, Yes,
that is what it's called. That's why we're here, Beautiful
to talk about all the choices, all the little decisions
that we make a day.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh, the pleasure is all mine. I think we have
a bit of a history together with Home Beautiful and yourself,
and I was really thrilled to see that. When we're
doing a bit of research, I googled Deborah Hutton home right,
and the first article to come up was home Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I thought, yes, is that when I completed my Bronze build.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
That's in it. But we've updated it with bits and
pieces that we do know about your South Coast build.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Oh there you go. I didn't know that because you
know what happens like you put things on socials and
it's basically like just throwing it into a really big
funnel and you don't know where it's going to end up.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I can tell you where Home Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I was like, really, okay, I know I didn't I
didn't know that, but yeah, it's funny because where we
live down south it also ends up being in the
ille war Mercury or something happened. Someone said I saw
your article in something. I said, I haven't done an
article of anything, and it just pops up right. So
Home Beautiful first up.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, thanks thanks for that. People love you. But tell
us about the build. I want to know everything right
from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Why the move, Well, funny enough, it came. It came
out of two things. It came out of COVID and
the lockdown. And I hate to be one of those
people that said I loved it. It was one of
the best things that ever happened to me was that lockdown.
I loved it because everything was like putting a wet
blanket on everything. And I was living in Bronte and
(03:23):
I built my forever house and I'd been there for
about three years and it was all going great, and
then COVID happened. And then at one stage when we
started coming out, I was having dinner with two really
dear friends of mine and they live in Lisbon in Portugal,
and they kind of sold a place in la and
they're living there and they said, do you know why
did you just sell this place? And you know, buy
(03:44):
something else and then you know, travel and you know,
build something else, and da da da, And that planted
a seed. But the biggest thing was literally when when
Gladys took the you know, basically said yes, we can
all go back to our lives again. And the hecticness
of living in Bronze, which is surrounded by a thousand schools,
(04:06):
so the person who doesn't have any kids millions ways
to get out of the suburb. It was like okay,
And so it all just kind of came together. And
I've always loved this place. This friend of mine has
an Otford which is just around just around that sort
of Stanwell Park area, just below the beautiful park what
the hell is it called, you know, Ryal National Park,
(04:29):
and I just love that area. So worlds collided and
the partner I was seeing at the time, we went
down there and had a weekend and I was like,
maybe this is where I need to be. So I
ended up selling Bronte. I ended up buying this little
red bricker, this shitter red bricker, which was literally falling
(04:52):
down around your ears. But it was right on the
ocean on the south coast in Wambara, and I was like, wow,
I get to buy like an ocean block and it's
about thousand square meets so it's pretty generous with it
steps down to a little beach and it's like okay.
And it came with a Walter Barda approved da for
(05:13):
quite a substantial, stunning house which was made for four
kids and a family, and you know, blah blah blah,
and I was like okay. Walter bart has always been
a huge I've been a huge fan of his work.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So tell us who is Walter Bartera and what do
you love about his work? Now, for our listeners anyone
who may not know, don't give me that looked him.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I love it. Could you see my look? And I'm
looking at it as you hearing me, but you should
see the startled look on my face. He is award
winning designer. But apart from that, his aesthetic really aligns
with what I love about architecture, and his strength is
those beautiful plantation houses and going back to the lovely
(05:53):
that weatherboard. I love a weatherboard house. I love going
back in time and having know v groove on the
like doing all the cladding inside and just adding a
lot of timbers and textures, and he's got this really
beautiful feel of how a house sits in the land.
It was a very challenging site because it runs down
(06:13):
to the water, so it's you know, it's got this
kind of slip to it. But his stuff is just
so beautiful and I was always a fan, so I
inherited him when I bought this property with this da Gosh,
that's lucky. Yeah, Well, it's just it's serendipitous, right, It's
just meant to be. So anyway, Marshia and I my partner,
Andrew marsh is a meditation teacher. He and I went, well,
(06:37):
this is going to be our life. So we moved
down there, lived in this little shit erec bricker which
was literally falling down around her ears for three and
a half years, and in that time I changed the
entire inside. I flipped it, I shrank it, and the
whole thing is crafted and designed around a beautiful north
facing terrace because that's where you want to be down south,
(06:58):
is facing north. So that was it. It was part COVID,
part just drawing getting out of getting out of the
hecticness of Sydney, the traffic. But I love it because
it's literally just over an hour from Sydney, so I
can drive up no problem. Yeah, get on the train,
no problem, and I can get out no problem. So
(07:19):
it's kind of key. So I kind of got rid
of a whole lot of problems, and then I inherited
in a whole another bunch of problems, which is buying
the site downs out. But I will say that when
we moved down there, three months after we moved down
there was a massive rain event and this property had
an incredible landslide where we lost beautiful banksy as we
lost all the little cute steps that went down to
(07:42):
the beach. So the whole thing was one of the
biggest landslides on that coastline.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
How scary.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, And the erosion was coming from the escarpment, because
this huge scarpet runs at the back of us, and
so what's not the erosion from the ocean, So that's
where it was coming from. Water couldn't escape quick enough.
So basically, and it's very slip it's a slip area,
which I discovered.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Doesn't sound good. Yeah, yeah, what do you have to
do in the build.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
To Matt with that. Well, this is where I inherited
a nutcase geotech that was a learning wow.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Tell us about that?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Whoa, Well, the end is. Look, she's trying to keep
me safe. I said, Look, I'm going to be sixty
five in a minute. Give me twenty good years, and I
don't give a shit what happens to this house after that.
I'm not building it for one hundred and hundred and
fifty years. I don't give a ship. So just give
me something that's going to get through the next twenty
five maybe thirty years Max. And she just ignored all that.
(08:39):
Oh no, And we had God, I've got six or
seven subsort drains that go down eight and a half meters,
which is full of huge aggpipes and aggregate. There's so
little soil there now I have to like irrigate it
to grow anything. Oh my god. And then there's seventy
concrete appeers that went down. And then there was that
(09:00):
called a shoring wall. I didn't. I said, that sounds lovely.
Shuring wall. Shrawing wall's a thing that holds up the
neighbors in the highway. Okay, let's build one of those, and.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
All you wanted was a weatherboard house.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I just wanted to wear the by the oceans, simple
simple needs this. Really yeah, it was great. It was great.
I tell you what. I learned a hell of a lot.
I learned a hell of a lot about civil engineering
and groundworks. I learned a hell of a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Is there anything that will stick with you?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I hope not, because some must. I do think you'll
do it again. I'm like, absolutely, never again. Yeah, oh,
you know, love the idea of renovating and building, but
like doing like hardcore three months of the mud and
it was intense because I was just completely out of
my leg I didn't know what the hell can I
(09:48):
swear on this pod?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Of course you can, because well almost whatever you.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Like, because I swear a lot potty mouth, you know. Okay, yeah,
I would never fucking do this whole thing again, I
swear to god. It was like, what was I think?
But you know, now that we're out and look, it's interesting,
el because twelve months to the day was the twelfth
of June, right, and I looked at what we're doing.
Twelve months ago the house was demolished twelve months ago.
(10:13):
Today the roof is on, the doors are arriving, and
we're ready to start tiling.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
That is quick.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's insanely quick.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
It's a build like this.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, it's insane. It's insane. Who's your builder, Tokie Constructions,
and I'm very happy to talk about them. They are unbelievable.
They are Their structure and their organization is second to none.
They've got This is the difference I think when you're
paying for top end builders. Okay, so there's a bit
of a playoff here, and this is what I've learned.
(10:43):
It's like, when you got someone that good, they put
men on the ground because they want to get in
and get out. So they said to me, this will
take sixteen months. I'm like bullshit, because everyone around here
says it's two years, ten years. We tooked to it
a half. But these guys have got men on the ground.
The subcontract is a fantastic So you know, if we
gain him before Christmas, which I'm pretty certain we will,
(11:06):
that's the difference. You're paying a little bit more because
you've got more men, but also you in faster, so
you've actually got this because we were.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Renting well exactly, I think.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
There's all the other stuff that happens. So the sooner
you get in, I think it actually works out better
to have better quality builders and just get in there
as quick as you can.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I couldn't agree more. We did the same, I'll say,
on a much much smaller scale, and we were out
and back in in six months and no one could
believe it. And we're in a heritage street and we're
in an old Victorian workers cottage and ripped off everything
basically from the front, bedroom, back and story we had
(11:45):
a story on. But we we took all that off
as well. We did it and six months months is amazing,
but exactly the same thing that.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
You see you put it in the walls. Now are
you still well?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
No, we're good, We're good. But it was the quicker
it's done. Happy to pay a little bit more because
what you pay now you save.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Well that's that's that's the way. I'm good. So yeah,
because I was talking to someone, they said, have you
limited the amount of people that you have on the site?
What do you mean? I said, oh, if you limit
it to five, I said five, why you'd be sitting
here for three years trying to build a bloody thing.
I was like, no, get him in, get him busy,
get them out.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So how did you decide where to rent?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh? Just well it's not exactly like you know, there's
not like smalkest border rental down there. It's like really limited.
It's like we lucked out by finding a place that
was literally a four minute walk. It's just a little cottage.
And so that was great until they ripped the rug
underneath our feet about three weeks ago and they said, well,
we're selling, now you've got to go. I was like, okay,
(12:48):
oh no. And now we're in a unit in Austin Mere,
which is gorgeous. I don't know if you heard of
Austin here, but it's really it's just down the road.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It beautiful.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So in a nineteen eighties unit with old Corona plastic
like taps and stuff me seriously back to the eighties.
I feel like I'm having a moment, like I can
feel a whole thing. The shoulder pads are starting to grow,
the high waisted pants, you know, the plated pants, the
brogues are back. And I was like, and now I'm
living in a nineteen eighties apart. It's all just returned.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
After the break. Deb walks us through exactly what her
new house is going to look like. And trust me
when I say she has thought through every single detail.
You're hoping to be in by Christmas?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yep, no, we will, you will, you will, absolutely, I'm
determined to be in by Christmas. You can hold me
over the colds. By Christmas, Christmas will be sitting. Even
if we had the hose, I don't really care. I
just want to be in.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I know it's not done yet, but imagine you're in.
Take us on a tour, because we love to do
an audio tour.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Okay, so if you open the front door.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Well that's complicated in itself.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Well we've got all day, so let's let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It's an interesting build because what I inherited was primarily
you're living on two levels, but because of the topography
of the land, you're basically coming to a highway and
you're dropping down to an ocean. Right. So when you
drive in, you've now got visitors parking, and then you
open two front doors. You come into this beautiful big upboard,
(14:22):
a beautiful set of Indian doors from Rajasthan, and you
come in those doors and it comes to a little
sort of entrance area. Then there's two front doors. There's
a door that takes you down to the house, and
there's a door that takes you up to a completely separate,
self contained studio. Really yes, so that was the part
that was included in the original DA and I had
(14:43):
to kind of decide whether I really wanted to build
that or not. And I thought building for the future.
There's like it could be cars, you could be renting
it out, my nephews would want to stay, and I
think for resale value at whatever time, not that I
plan to sell it. It becomes a four bedroom room
house as opposed to a thee bedroom house, and I
just think it made a lot more sense. And yes,
(15:05):
you know, in terms of budget, it would have been
better not to have built it. But it's so damn
cute that my partner goes, let's just live up here.
I'm like good stuffed, and my god, a beautiful house
downs down because he lives in bodies in a T shirt,
he's got nothing.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So you drive in, you can go upstairs to the
self contained unit, which is really cute, and then you
went to our house and you come down the stairs
and you enter into this beautiful sort of entry way
which is kind of like a mud room, and that's
where I drive in. I drive in underneath the house.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
So we drive James Bond.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, so we drive in underneath and then we come
in at that level. So if you're coming, you'll park,
you'll come down the stairs. If I'm coming home, I'll
park and I'll just walk through this door into the
same area, which is like a mudroom. And I've got
so many bloody canopy bay houses. There's an entire wall
plant of just hooks and can of your boy hats.
It goes back to the first season. Now there's six
(16:04):
and like, how do you get rid of these buggers?
Like there's just everywhere. They just keep coming like they're multiplied. Yeah,
so it's just like a wall of hats. But then
you walk in and then you've got stairs to take
it down to the bedroom level, and then you walk
one step up and you go on to this really
beautiful living kitchen. So you've got a kitchen on the
right hand side with a nearly four meter central island.
(16:29):
The kitchen looks out and everything's designed around this north
facing terrace, which is very generous in size. It's got
three huge sliding glass panes. So two huge doors which
are like three point four meters each, so those two
will slide in and tuck in behind the one that
sits sort of behind where the stairwell is to take
(16:52):
you down to the bedrooms. Yeah, and then the ceiling
is like I'd hardly callt a low ceiling because I've
seen it now, but it's basically a flat ceiling, beautifully
detailed in timbers. And then you walk through the kitchen
area all open, and you go into what Wally calls
the great room. I said, stop calling it the great room.
It sounds expensive and a bit lalla, And I said,
(17:14):
we're not like that, and I just don't need to
have great attached to it because it's expensive and grand,
and I'm that's not what I want. And he just looks, so,
what do you call it? Fucking awesome room? It's a
fucking awesome room. It's it's like wow, because it's got
this this amazing it's a ceiling within a ceiling. So
(17:35):
we're doing this beautiful open rafted roof, so this so
the roof's built and then this ceiling detail, it's all
this beautiful weather text. I don't if you know weather
text but it's got this lovely wood grain finish and
it's just textual. And so you've got this incredible open
rafted ceiling which got this two drop old colonial fans
(17:56):
that come down, and it's it's a huge fireplace, which
is lovely stone. I found these two Indian doors that
are hiding the TV. It's a hate looking at a TV.
And so you've got a dining room there, it's a
couple of bookshelves and it's just this lovely open space
that the weather we've been having lately. And I walk
in there and I can just see all the doors
(18:18):
going back and so that north facing terrace becomes part
of this, this this big, beautiful area. And then we've
got this biggest planet box I've ever seen. I said
to Walie, Am I doing laps in this thing is huge,
and it's like it is it. I swear to God
the planet box is like this because we're putting trees
(18:39):
in there to try and give us some privacy. So
you've got Lawrence Hargrave Drive and we're kind of exposed
to that. So we're doing this terrace as completely green
screened great idea. Yeah, So it's like it's this beautiful,
generous plane of boxes. So we're not we're not dialing around.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
It's like, okay, what are you planting? Do you know
what you want to do? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
He reckons bay trees gorgeous. Yeah, and they're thick and
you know, they're not deciduous, and they've got to lovely
green and so it's just having that beautiful canopy of
green that you're looking at.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
And the flooring is all this beautiful porcelain tiles which
look like they've been ripped up from some chateau in
the south of France. So that's how clever porcelain's getting now,
I know, isn't it incredible? It looks like it's sort
of shaved and broken up, but it's actually all in
and it's textured. It's got this sort of grand, this
grainy kind of feel. So that's all the flooring. And
(19:38):
so that's just the top, just just the top.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So then how many levels is it? Is it?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
That's the main level. Then you walk down the stairs.
You've got two guest rooms on the left hand side,
a very very generous hallway. You've got a guest bathroom
which I'm putting a really beautiful steam room in there,
which is these dark green tiles that are so imperfect,
they're perfect, and it's got this lovely dome ceiling which
will be really softly lit with led and a fantastic
(20:06):
huge one point eight Caesar stone bench, so I could
so I can use the guest room bathroom. So that's
a shower steamroom.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
So why the steamroom because I'm.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Just addicted to steam. I go to a health farm
every year and you can't get me out of the steamroom.
I cannot looking like a prune. I love it, I
just love it. I love infra red saunas, and I
love steam. I love being hot and sweaty, except when
it's Sydney humidity, because that's not fun because you're not
choosing that exactly. So I've got that, and then we
(20:36):
walk down and then we've got the master bedroom, and
that's just stunning. It just opens up completely to the
view because you're looking out to the ocean. So you've
got these doors that open up and then you've got
this beautiful you're right on the ocean, you hear the waves.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I was just gonna ask, what do you think it'll
sound like in the house loud?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
You won't hear the road, you'll hear the waves unless
it's a westerly and then you hear nothing. But if
it's a nor easterly, it sort of comes in. But
the way, while he's designed all these doors that go
back into cavities, these glass sliding doors, he's actually stopping
the nory slaves from coming into that northern terrace. He's
really clever. And then it's just it's really beautiful. I
tell you what's interesting. A friend of mine, when I
(21:14):
started doing the interior design, this is really interesting. I
think it's a great tip. I was talking to a girlfriend.
I said, I don't even know where to start. I sat,
I don't know where to start, but I don't know
what to start. She said, what's your favorite bathroom that
you've been into, because that's where I was going, like,
I love a beautiful bathroom, So what's your favorite bathroom?
And then think about that about where you want to
tell And I was like, that's a really good idea.
(21:36):
So I remember taking mum to a place called Hooker
Lodge in Taupo and New Zealand. Yes, one of the
most extraordinary places you could stay, and their bathrooms are
so beautiful. It's all it's all wood paneling and everything's
just got a bit of age to it. But it's
so beautifully beautifully done. So that's what started me on
this whole. This house is not going to be Whitehampton.
(21:58):
This house is not going to be more than houses.
There's no formed concrete, there's nothing. It's very everything's made
to feel like you've been there before or you walk
in and it feels very familiar, and it's got a
sense of kind of nostalgia and a bit of a
bit of age to it.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
So everything, every wall is paneled, all the ceilings have
this weather text, incredible detailing.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yes, because I think texture, even hard texture, makes people
feel comfortable.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, it puts you it ease, Yeah. Yeah. And I
want that this is not a house, that it's not
a precious house. I'm building it to be robust. And
I learned that from Bronti because Bronte was like the
Princess's house, Well, it has to be white marble, and
it's all it's beautiful. You know, there's heavens, there's Fulton,
you know, nickel pendants and the do Do to Do
(22:47):
And I was like, oh my god, the salt on
that and oh white marble in the bathroom bone now.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And that's it living by the water.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yeah. The challenge of that yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Because you don't even have to do anything and materials water.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Yeah. So therefore all of all of the finishes are
like in terms of all the tap where it's all
weathered organic, so everything is it's going to be. It's
going to age. Yeah, there's no there's no perfectness to it.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
So therefore it's just gonna it's just gonna get better
with age. That's plan.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Who do you hope to have over? Do you like
having people over?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I love having people over. It's so funny. I'm getting
such shipped from the locals because they all go, oh
my god, is this house big enough for the two
of you. Someone even commented, it looks like you're building
Westville one bar, Like, how rude word. Don't you know?
I have friends and family, So I've got I've got
(23:44):
my family, Marsh's got his family. I've got beautiful friends
that I miss dealing in Sydney, and a lot of
them do come down now, even even our little rentals
and stuff like that, and it's like I'm building it
in such way that. I'm even doing one of the
bedrooms two singles, which then become like a queen when
you putting together. So I'm doing that kind of hospital
hotel style. It's a hotel style because they're all, you know,
(24:05):
a couple of queens that are not together but great mates.
Like great, you can go in there and and so
it's built. It's built for people to come and stay
and have a good time. Because when I do lunch,
it's a twelve hour thing. It's just a thing. What
starts at when it finishes it one?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
So why is it? Why is it a twelve hour thing?
What do you?
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Always was a twelve hour thing. I've got to get
out of that.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
What do you? What music do you play?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
I love it? I love it. Funnily enough, when I
walked in here today I ran into one of the editors.
It helped me do I did a cookbook here, Yeah, yeah,
with Women's Weekly that said, can we be part of
the cookbook? I'm like sure. I love cooking. I love cooking.
I love to cook. I love to entertain. Oh, I'm
just I get inspired by by things. I don't have
any sort of repertoires stuch, but I love I love
(24:49):
I love being I love things that are prepared prior
so when when you're when everyone arrives, I'm not stuck there,
you know, slaving in the kitchen. So a big sort
of pre prep person ready to go. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
What does an hour before people coming over look like
for you?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Oh well, the table's probably set the day before.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I do that too, because I figured the said at
least they have somewhere to sit exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Or look it looks like I was expecting you early
or whatever. No, I love. I love setting a table.
I love setting a table, and I've chosen some really
beautiful pieces from our fresco and porium. They've just got
the most gorgeous suff's. It's really well with this house.
But I love, I just I get excited. I just
I haven't never serve an entree. I always serve food
(25:37):
that they can pick and stand and wander around, and
then there's always to sit down for the main and
there's a dessert. But I just I love bringing people together.
And sadly it doesn't happen enough. It doesn't happen enough.
It used to happen, you know, just going back into
the eighties and stuff a lot of people used to.
No one does it anymore.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
No, it's true.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Maybe it's expense, or we're living in smaller places or whatever.
But for me, one of the things my great joy
is bringing people together and the fact that they can
jump on a train and come down and spend a
night and have lunch and hang and grope a swim
the next day. That's just that's joyful for me. Yeah,
that's kind of why I'm building it. Yeah, it really is.
(26:16):
I'm building it for for my loved ones.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Are you a home sent person? What do you burn
or well?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I used to burn my lin until I didn't have
it anymore. I know, well, you know, who needs another
candle and all the cost of living crisis, you know,
I do. I know you're gotter have those little things
around us, But no, I'm a candle I'm candle obsessed.
I mean, I love center candles, but I love candlelight.
(26:45):
So so the interesting thing about this particular house, this
is hardly an overhead. Really, most of it is wisconsors
and lamps.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That is exciting. I think more homes should be designed
that way.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, I think spending half of my life in front
of lighting, you get to understand that you never want
to stand or sit under a light that's above your head.
And you know some people highlight dining room tables with
a light. I'm like, God, I can have a hat
like it, cano be bay like anything that just stops
the light. So, and I love wars coonsors. It's that
American thing that they do so well. American sense of
(27:20):
lighting is really beautiful in restaurants and old homes. There's
war sconsors everywhere. We don't do them enough here and
I don't know why we need to bring it in.
We need to bring it in, so bathrooms and everything.
I've got war sconsors everywhere and they're really really beautiful.
And yeah, so I think that's going to be something
(27:41):
that's just again feels that warmth when you walk in.
The whole feeling of the house is very much along
the lines of British colonial raffles, Singapore plantation style, a
little bit of Bermuda. It's kind of got tree lanker.
It's you know, I'm doing like dark plantation and shutters.
(28:01):
There's no white, there's no white on the coast.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Isn't that crazy? Isn't that it's crazy? You can do
a coastal home.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yeah, that's that white. It's not Whitehampton's. Yeah, because I
did that in Bronti and I didn't want to I
didn't want to repeat it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
It's something different.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah. I wanted something that was going to challenge me,
and it's challenged me. Because colour can challenge you.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I sure can.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Do you have any colors you avoid?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
No? But you know what's interesting. I'm such a navy person.
I love blues of all. I've had different ranges that
are based on blue. Blue is my go to color.
This entire house is so many variations of the green
of the green tones, even so much that I even
change the outside color to be like I think it's
(28:45):
a deluxe like forest green. So it's really it's just
taken me and it's just without making up my mind.
It's just led me down. It's taken me on that
journey because I haven't been well. It needs to be
this and it needs to be that.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
It's just going with the hound go to the.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
House, and that's the way it's that's where it's turned out.
It's really interesting, it is, isn't it. Yeah? I mean
I love blue, I love wear blue and whatever but
I'm still I think there's going to be a blue room.
I had a blue room and bronze and it's just
like a big hug and so that's probably going to
be the main guest room. And then there's the green room,
which is where the two splits are and doing something
(29:21):
clever there. So the way I didn't tell you. Then
you walk downstairs there's another level. Well it's kind of
the rumpest room. Well to cause it a rumpest room,
and I said, don't have any kids. I just so do.
I go out with one and he's like, give me
fifty six tomorrow, and he's the biggest kid that I know.
So that's why I'm putting Marshie. But it's a little
kitchenette and that's infrared sauna down there, and it's where
(29:43):
you walk out onto the grass and then you've got
steps down to the beach. So it is a kind
of way of getting out of the house.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I can't imagine ever wanting to leave.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
No, no, I won't be able to for two.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
No, that's true.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I'll be on light kneezes in the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Just stay there.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, you won't telling to do dinner for eight because
what we're having I could you likes and it takes
three minutes in the microwave.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Well, I'd love to be invited to one of Deb's
twelve hour lunches. And that sauna room looks incredible. Dev
and I had so much to talk about that. There
is a part two of this conversation, where Deb shares
the intimate details about her skin cancer scare and why
she started her hat business, Canopy Bay. You'll find Part
(30:30):
two wherever you're listening or watching this episode.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
This is an our media podcast
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