HOME DESIGN:

Bonnie Hindmarsh wanted a rambling house to accommodate her family, friends and animals, so, Bronwyn Phillips writes, she devised a light-filled combination of luxurious beach house and rural retreat.

a glamorous rural retreat

Planning her forever home, Bonnie Hindmarsh wanted a place that felt like it was on the coast, with a relaxed ‘on holidays’ vibe. “But buying a house near the beach wasn’t going to happen,” says the artistic director and co-founder of Three Birds Renovations, “not in Sydney anyway.” On acreage 30 kilometres from the coast in north-western Sydney, Bonnie has created a home that combines Byron Bay beach house glamour with an expansive country retreat. She calls it her “modern coastal barn”.

Bonnie and her husband, former NRL football star Nathan Hindmarsh, have four young sons, Archie, 13, Buster, 11, Rowdie, 10,

and Dodge, three, as well as three dogs. The Hindmarsh menagerie also includes cows, a pony and guinea pigs. It’s a busy, active, noisy, laughter and guest-filled household.

“With four kids, you don’t get asked to many places,” laughs Bonnie, “So we invite people here. We’re constantly outside, having barbecues and in the pool with our mates, with kids bolting around the five acres of land.”

Growing up with property-flipping parents, Bonnie’s childhood homes were always works in progress, and the family was continually moving. But rather than crave a settled existence, Bonnie loved what they did and wanted to follow in their footsteps. Nathan, however – not so much. “He’d lived in one home his entire life,” says Bonnie, “That’s what he wanted for our family too.”

Originally planned as an extension to the existing 1970s home they’d bought six years ago, the project became a major renovation. The family lived on site while work was carried out.

“The six of us lived in a one-bedroom cottage [now the guest house] for seven months, with the kids sleeping in the garage,” says Bonnie. “We coped; it was exciting. I found it really beneficial being on site, I was across all the changes.”

The project took a year and was the eighth, and most ambitious, renovation for Three Birds, the business Bonnie co-founded with friends Erin