NOT YOUR AVERAGE COASTAL RETREAT
A RUSTY appearance with the walls and sliding wooden doors that have been torched to create a one-off look ... this luxurious Southport house in Yacht St is not your typical Gold Coast residence and owners Donna and Mark Fuhrmann love that it is “a bit different”.
“I like things that are not typical of everything around me,” Mrs Fuhrmann said. “As soon as you walk in you just want to sit and have a drink and have a look around.”
The couple bought the property in 2016 and have enjoyed living there with their three sons – Tom, 20, Joe, 19, and Max, 18.
When they first walked in, the house was “plain, shiny and very Gold Coast”, but over the past four-and-a-half years Mrs Fuhrmann has put her own stamp on it.
“I could feel an element that was not so much industrial but a little bit rustic could come out of it,” Mrs Fuhrmann said.
From the street, paint that gives a rustic look sets the tone but it is the attention to detail that really creates the atmosphere.
“The light shade at the front door is made up of old barbed wire,” she said.
“It sounds ridiculous but it’s a wire circle that someone made for me. That will be a hard thing to leave as they made it and I love it.”
Sliding timber doors are another quirky feature, having a distressed look. The doors were branded with a cattle stamp and were even burnt to create the one-off look. Brick wallpaper, pendants, fairy lights, hanging plants, industrialstyle chandeliers and a concrete-look kitchen also bring the house to life.
“I don’t go looking for things, I just find things that will suit the space,” she said.
“I needed something that was going to stand up to lots of boys and still be appealing.
“I don’t think it looks too masculine even though I do have a house full of men.”
The backyard deck, complete with wine barrels and climbing vines, rates as the family’s favourite place to relax. “When I’m in the kitchen I can hear them laughing or talking to their dad. It’s the happiest place to be out there,” she said.
The property is on the market through an expressions of interest campaign by Cole Residential’s Nicole Bricknell and Ray White Prestige’s Robert Graham.
“This is a fantastic sixbedroom home in the The Southport School (TSS) and Regatta Beach precinct,” Ms Bricknell said. “It is designed for entertaining as the family often find their house full of boys on the weekend.”