Home for the holidays Star stylist Steve Cordony’s chic farm.
It’s a passion project on an epic scale: a property near Orange, NSW, is being transformed into an exquisite home and garden that works beautifully for its owners.
When the right place comes along, you’ll know: that was the nugget of advice just about everyone gave to interiors stylist Steve Cordony when he was searching for a country home. Three years of looking hadn’t yet turned up ‘the one’ – but then a friend sent Steve and his partner Michael Booth a clipping about a property near Orange, NSW, which had just hit the market.
“We thought we might as well take a look and within three weeks it was ours,” says Steve. That property was Rosedale Farm, 49 hectares of prime grazing land presided over by a glorious 1877 homestead that ticked a lot of boxes for Steve and Michael :“We wanted a Georgianstyle house, a wraparound verandah, and plenty of room for a large garden–Rose dale Farm had all those things.”
That was 2017, and a huge amount of work has been carried out to restore and reinvigorate the eight-bedroom property since then. First, the home’s old carpets
were pulled up so Steve could get a better sense of the space. Then the huge tasks of rewiring and replumbing got underway. New fences went in, along with a new driveway. The exterior, which used to be pink, received a lick of crisp white paint and the house-paddock garden was expanded from 1.2 hectares to almost four hectares (Michael is passionate about gardening and vegetable beds now occupy half a hectare). The pond by the house was relined and a hay shed transformed into a poultry house. A staggering 27,000 trees were planted too.
But the most beautiful of all the big changes have occurred inside the house. The old kitchen was gutted and completely overhauled. Anchoring the new space is its striking Shaker-style cabinetry in a khaki tone so deep it’s almost black. “I looked at hundreds of colours before finally settling on this one, which is Porter’s Paints Black Cockatoo,” says Steve. “Unlike a true black, it takes on a life of its own as light moves through the space. It looks darker in the brightest light, a bit more green in some light and more like grey in other conditions. It’s not static, it moves and shifts through the day.”
Arabescato vagli marble was selected for its heavy veining – necessarily punchy to work in with the joinery colour – and the French oak chevron flooring was
sourced from overseas. “I love the patina and the rawness of the timber,” he says. A generous butler’s pantry and mud room flow off the kitchen and out to the garden. “The mud room has so much beautiful natural light, it’s one of my favourite spots in the house,” says Steve.
Upstairs, in what was once the home’s nursery, three rooms have been turned into one very generous main bedroom suite. “I wanted it to feel calm and to make the most of the natural light that floods in through the windows, which offer a mountain view at the rear and look out to the pond at the front,” says Steve.
The main ensuite inherited a step that Steve decided to keep, using it to neatly delineate the room’s bathing and dressing zones. Two steel-framed showers add a graphic element and were made by Steve’s brother, a builder and the owner of Co rd ony Constructions. “The showers contrast with the soft lines of the bath and provide another interplay between contemporary and traditional,” says Steve.
His innate understanding of how to balance historic and up-to-the-minute
design elements is evident right through the house. “I had been trawling antique stores for years and picked up various lights, cabinets and consoles, so I already had some great pieces that really suited the house,” he says. “But I also wanted the rooms to feel light and fresh, and to pay homage to the heritage of the property but also to set it up for our future.”
And the future is looking exciting indeed for Rosedale Farm, with the old servant’s quarters soon to be transformed into two guesthouses for farmstay visitors. Plans are also being hatched for events, a pool and poolhouse, and an on-site nursery selling plants propagated on the property. But first, there is Christmas.
“It’s my favourite time of the year,” says Steve. “The ceilings are 3.6-metres high, so we’re able to have a very tall tree. Our families come to visit and we set a beautiful table under the trees. The house is full, the food is fantastic and it all feels very special.”
Steve Cordony Stylist; stevecordony.com. To see more of Rosedale Farm, turn to our Christmas entertaining feature, page 165.