SHARE HOUSE
HOW THREE GENERATIONS HAVE COME TOGETHER AT THIS FARMHOUSE IN THE MACEDON RANGES.
ENTER KATE THORNELL-STAIG’S home and you feel as if you’ve stepped inside one beautifully curated, still life canvas. Kate’s love of old things, bearing the marks and eccentricities of time, inspired the evocative aesthetics of this interior. “Most of the pieces here I’ve been collecting over 20 years,” says Kate, 44, who lives at Ashbourne, in the Macedon Ranges, 80 kilometres north-west of Melbourne with her husband Dave Staig and daughters, Abby Maya, 16, and Lotti, six. When it comes to finding beautiful things for her home, such as the blue and white china she keeps on an old colonial dresser, Kate reveals that it’s not perfect condition that draws her to a piece, rather it’s the life story etched on its skin. “Marks and chips on old things tell their story, and I’ve tried to explain that to Lotti, who wants all new things... I love to wonder who made that scratch, who sat there and was wiping it to give it that patina. I love anything with borer holes in it.” Kate, a former website designer, just launched her first clothing and knitwear collection under the label Garçonne, while Dave, 39, has a joinery business with his brother James, Whetstone Windows and Doors, in Melbourne. Both grew up in the Macedon Ranges. “I already knew most of his family, but we actually met at a funeral,” she says. After renting homes in the region, 18 months ago the family finally moved in to the house they spent five years building. It sits behind a hawthorn hedge overlooking 11 hectares of paddock sweeping down to the Campaspe River. The house, under a roofline of hips and gables, is actually two houses, mirrored — one for them and the girls, and one for Kate’s parents, Marg and Doug Thornell. >
“We were between rental houses and moved in with Mum and Dad,” Kate explains. “And there we all were, with two border collie puppies, it was winter and we all got the flu, and Mum said, ‘I wish we could stay together all the time!’” A short time later they went out on a drive and saw their block of land. “We went for a walk on it, and thought, ‘Wow, it’s just so beautiful’. I called Mum and said ‘You know how you said we should all live together? Come and look at this!’” That was in 2012, and afterwards began the design process and building to suit three generations. “Dave and I would have built something more traditional, but Mum and Dad wanted modern so we tried to meld the design.” The houses have shared space in the middle — the entrance hall and a room for storage — with a large open kitchen and living space and three spacious bedrooms either side. “We designed the main room with high ceilings and to get lots of light.” Dave did the windows and doors and project managed the build, they painted together. Special pieces were worked into the layout including an antique French farmhouse beam that became the shelf and lintel over the stove alcove and displays Kate’s treasured bread board collection. An old shop counter is used as the kitchen workbench. “I had searched for years for a shop counter,” says Kate. “When I found this it had an open back with drawers on the front — perfect for keeping Lotti’s drawing stuff and table linen in.” In the main bedroom Kate has indulged her romanticism with hand-painted paisley motifs on the wall, in reference to Charleston in Sussex, UK — the former home of the Bloomsbury artists, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. “I am obsessed with the cottage. Vanessa Bell hand-painted stencils on the walls and I wanted to pay homage to that. Each one I’ve painted is a bit different.” It’s here too, that she has a French oak bookcase she calls her “cabinet of curiosities”, filled with heirlooms and sentimental pieces made by friends. The bed linen has also been chosen carefully. “I’ve loved linen for as long as I can remember,” says Kate, and the natural textile was the inspiration for her clothing range. She’s not the only one who finds sanctuary in the bedroom. “A koala walked in on a hot night and climbed on the bed,” she says. “He put scratch holes in the beautiful linen and on the window frame where he was climbing.” Needless to say, she’s not about to paint out the scratches, they remain as a memory and witness to the lives lived in this house. There’s privacy, communal spaces, and a sweet spot for everyone in this cleverly combined family home. Dave, who is a keen hot rod enthusiast, has his own shed at the end of the drive, while Kate and her mum tend the large kitchen garden and beehive. “Dad loves to sit down at the creek with a glass of wine or his morning coffee, and practice his golf swing on his single fairway in the paddock,” says Kate. “For me it’s sitting in Mum’s kitchen as we chat over breakfast together... And on summer evenings, curling up on my favourite cane chair overlooking the paddocks and the colours of the garden harmonising with the setting sky.” For more information about Kate’s cashmere knitwear and clothing range, visit garconne.com.au