Homebodies
Nina de vries and bo bagshaw live with their daughter meeka and cat possum in tivoli, queensland. nina is a designer and maker; bo is a landscaper.
Sometimes the things meant for you appear when you’re not even looking for them. Nina de Vries and her husband, Bo Bagshaw, had no intention of buying a house when they acquired their two-bedroom timber miner’s cottage on the outskirts of Brisbane 10 years ago. “We were pretty young and kind of irresponsible,” she says. “A friend of Bo’s mum was selling the place and I had a small inheritance from my grandmother – just enough for a small deposit, and it seemed the right thing to do.” They were living in the city and couldn't imagine ever moving that far out, “but it was such a cute place. We thought we'd rent it out and one day, in the distant future, perhaps we could consider living there.”
When the lease on their inner-city rental was up, the couple wondered if the cottage could be an option. It would be so much cheaper than renting in Brisbane and the idea of being able to paint, hammer, rip out walls and dig up the garden was very appealing. They reasoned that, if they didn’t like it, they didn’t have to stay. Seven years later, they’re not going anywhere.
Built in the late 1800s, their home is the kind of little wooden cottage that makes you think of fairytales and feel nostalgic for simpler times. It’s rustic and a little bit ramshackle – which is to be expected from a house that’s more than 100 years old – and furnished almost exclusively with op-shopped, secondhand and handmade things. Bo, who owns his own landscaping business, has given the garden a serious makeover, ripping up ugly concrete slabs, terracing the back garden, planting trees and making garden beds.
Inside the house, the changes have happened gradually, as Nina and Bo are doing everything themselves. The previous owner had done a lot of work on the place, ripping out asbestos to reveal high ceilings and tongue-and-groove boards on the walls that had been concealed in the name of ’50s fashion.
The couple has since painted the interior, ripped out some ugly kitchen shelves and built their own pantry. And Nina’s brother and Bo built the entire back deck from timber reclaimed during the 2011 Queensland floods. There’s a big old mango tree that hangs over it, providing welcome shade and creating such a beautiful effect that the couple has been asked by visiting kids if they live in a treehouse. While this isn’t quite the case, the deck and garden are a favourite spot for the family to hang out.
The biggest project they’ve completed so far is the bathroom and studio renovation, removing the last of the asbestos to reveal more beautiful high ceilings, building new walls, adding some windows and completely rearranging everything to make it all work. “It’s so much more functional,” Nina says. “We can’t believe it’s the same space.”
For the bathroom, they splashed out on a new toilet and spent a small fortune on plumbing fittings, but other than that, they used reclaimed and recycled pieces. Nina’s dad found the laboratory sink they use as a basin at the tip, for seven dollars. “We love using reclaimed things, not just because of the obvious environmental benefits, but because it’s so fun to work with what you can find, and I also feel like it pays respect to the era of the house,” Nina says. “We don’t often have to go far looking for things – they just appear at the right time. Our neighbour a few doors down was chucking out a really old cupboard that we used for the vanity. We removed the doors and drawers to make it more usable. Another neighbour gave us some floorboards from his house that’s the same era as ours. They fit perfectly to patch up the old plumbing holes. The big mirror is off a side-ofthe-road dresser.”
Nina is a designer and maker who, using vintage and reclaimed fabrics, creates handbags, purses, cushions, art prints and, more recently, since the arrival of daughter Meeka, some kids’ clothes and
toys for her label Obelia. While she’s certainly appreciative of her husband’s handiness when it comes to renovating, the DIY life does have its downfalls. During the renovations her studio was ripped apart, which meant she was working at the kitchen table for a long time, with her fabrics stored in garbage bags on the back verandah.
Nina loves her new studio, which is her own creative space, with all her fabrics neatly stored and displayed on colour-coordinated shelves. It still needs a door, which will make it even more productive, as her little helper Meeka won’t be able to drift in so easily to pull out all the cotton reels and tangle the threads.
The addition of even a tiny person in the house meant conjuring up more room in an already tight space – but Nina’s approach is pretty fluid and things change and evolve as the family does. Meeka currently shares a room with Nina and Bo. Her toys, books and crafty things are stored in baskets and boxes around the place, so they’re easily accessible. The next project the couple are planning is to turn the area under the house into a big studio for Nina, so Meeka can have her own bedroom. “We like to let it evolve, let things go, move things around as we discover something that fits better,” Nina says. “It will always be a work in progress.”
Bo and Nina are both from northern New South Wales, and sometimes wish they could pick up the house and move it down there. “One of the worst things about living here is having nowhere to swim in summer,” Nina says. “It gets so hot. Luckily, we have good mates with a pool close by and Bo’s mum lives near the beach. We spend a fair bit of time away in summer!”
The house next door is also much too close for Nina’s liking. The couple were ready to pack their bags after a string of tricky neighbours, but they’ve finally hit the jackpot in that department. Now, the only noisy neighbours who give them grief are the ones in the roof – a family of possums that break things on the verandah, raid the parsley patch and decimated Bo’s passionfruit crop last year. “We try to remind ourselves that they’re native and they belong here, but they can be hard to live with.”
Apart from the possums, the family loves the local wildlife. The house is right next to a park and wetlands and there are plenty of lizards, birds and other creatures who stop by. And, despite the fact there are still many improvements to be made, Nina is smitten with her cosy, comfortable home. “I love how affordable it is, and that it’s still so close to the city. I love that we can make it our own. And I love that it has so much history; so many layers of paint. We often wonder about the stories it could tell about the people’s lives who were here before us.”