A new and stylish chapter in the 150-year history of this Queensland property.

Thirty minutes from Brisbane was the outer limit for a busy family, who took on a 150-year-old dairy needing old-style TLC.

For windowseat comfort, choose cushions filled with down and feathers.

LIVING Hudson at the centre of the book-friendly cabinetry with a Shaker profile specified by his mother Juliette, who opted for more storage in her 16-drawer coffee table from Myer. “It’s wonderful,” she says. “We have games, toys and also my nail polish in there.”

KITCHEN The handpainted splashback tiles were one of Juliette’s biggest splurges. Antique metal jug, found on a trip to Northern Ireland. Flowers, white tiger lilies.

Work-life balance can be tricky to evaluate, but Juliette Wright has it sorted. For her, it can be measured by the drive between inner-Brisbane, where she works as the CEO of innovative non-profit body GIVIT, and the bucolic property she shares with her family in a semi-rural pocket north-west of the CBD. “We live on eight acres [3.2ha], but we’re only 25 minutes from the city,” she explains.

Built in 1867, the home was originally the farmhouse of a large dairy property and had been sympathetically extended in recent times. In 2003 the owner – a friend of Juliette and her then fiancé, now husband, Glen – happened to mention that the house would be going on the market the next day. Already living in the area and loving it – this house in particular – the couple seized the opportunity and bought the place “on a handshake” that afternoon. Today, their two children – Sara, 10, and Hudson, eight – have the run of a picturesque property that features a creek, fruit orchard and rustic farm equipment, where they can play freely with their dogs, horses and ponies, and watch the neighbour’s cows grazing contentedly.

The size of the holding makes homecoming a beautifully staged progression, through steel gates patterned with magnolia blooms (the couple’s wedding present to each other) and along a drive lined with