Editor’s letter
#BELLEMAGAZINE
How great would it to be to have a luxe country retreat? As long as you could visit it often it would be marvellous. It would need to be low maintenance and looked after by a fabulous housekeeper who ordered in your favourite food and tipples and made sure the linen was plumped! I am intrigued by those who are able to maintain two or more addresses – I spend so little time at home that when I am there it feels like a weekender anyway.
In this issue we visit seven very different rural retreats from Montauk to the NSW south coast (p85) that share a common theme of providing sanctuary for their busy owners. I recently had lunch with the owner of one of our featured abodes, Ljiljana Gazevic, director at busy design firm SJB. Her country home is on the Mornington Peninsula and most weekends you will find her reading and relaxing in her chic, pared-back space. Of course, even though it looks absolutely perfect (p95), like all of us property-obsessed, serial renovators, she told me that she still has something she would like to add – the perfect inclusion at any true haven – a yoga studio.
Two very talented men, who had an enormous impact on the design landscape in Australia, Garth Barnett and George Freedman, sadly passed away recently. Our senior design consultant, Jean Wright, pays tribute to her friends ( p60 and 164).
Fabulous floor finishes anchor a great interior and the selection in the Australian market is better than ever. Terrazzo is appearing in glamorous schemes, terracotta is making a comeback in a less brash form than its previous incarnations and interior designers are collaborating with manufacturers on their own collections. On p74-78 our interior design editor Lucy Mccabe takes us on a floor show accessorised with stylish hardware.
Those of us who remember the heady days of the Christopher and Pixie Skase empire, when Mirage became a household name, will be pleased to see that the Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas has undergone a facelift – not an invasive one – still true to her original DNA – but with some well thought out work by Miriam Fanning of Mim Design (p218).
To welcome the warmer months we have launched a new event series. Our ‘Luxe living alfresco lunches’, in partnership with exclusive outdoor furniture purveyor, JANUS et Cie, will feature Australia’s leading interior and landscape design talents, Thomas Hamel and Paul Bangay, on November 4, and Greg Natale and Myles Baldwin on December 16 (p145). We would love to see you there, and in the meantime we hope you enjoy the sanctuary of this issue’s inspired pages.