GYPSY CREEK
INTERIOR DESIGNER LOUELLA BOÌTELGILL TAKES US INSIDE HER QUIRKY BYRON BAY HINTERLAND CREATION, WHICH OVERFLOWS WITH A BEACHY, HAPPY VIBE
This luxe hideaway exudes a beachy, bohemian vibe – complete with gypsy caravan.
when I started looking for a house, I had no intention of buying anywhere but Sydney, but on the last day of a week-long stay in Byron I spotted a little Queenslander in the hinterland that was open for inspection and it was just too sweet not to look at. As I walked up the front steps, I knew this was it – the energy of the house had cast its spell on me. It hadn’t been overly modernised; it had been cared for sensitively and with love and it still retained so much original character – it just needed a little update.
The front steps ran crookedly sideways across the front of the house and were in dire need of repair. The first thing we did was build wider steps and run them straight, creating a strong, welcoming entryway and a beautiful area to sit in the afternoon sun.
The main house has two bedrooms that work off the main living area and the previous owner opened up the first bedroom with sliding barn doors, which makes the space feel larger. All we did was replace the handles on the cupboards with rope and add stone handles to the sliding doors.
Running off both bedrooms were sunrooms, which I turned into bathrooms, complete with old zinc baths, and one has a tiled shower. The bathroom at the front of the house had old double glass doors out to the corner of the verandah, with another set of latticed double doors closing it off from the front verandah – which proved the perfect spot for a beach shower.
The main thing we altered structurally was the kitchen, which included pulling out three pillared wall sections to open it up. It meant adding a beam to span the roof, which gave rise to the obligatory rope swing. Very important to have a rope swing in the kitchen! A heavy industrial workbench creates another benchtop with drawers. It’s an old piece from Belgium that I loved, and the island bench is also the kitchen table. I designed it at bench-height
LIVING for stools and it has a lovely round Belfast sink dropped into it with exposed copper plumbing.
The adjoining gypsy caravan only had one bunk, so we pulled out the wall section, where the horse’s bum would have been, and opened it up, rebuilding the bunk a bit deeper and adding a bunk underneath. When I looked at the opened space from the doorway, I realised we had to keep it open, and add a window. It was magical looking straight through to the garden.
Working on this house, nurturing the character it already had and injecting further life into it, has been so special. There’s a creek and rainforest at the back door, an ocean down the hill and abundant wildlife. Sometimes it feels like they’ll all move in, too!