The Journal · Category
Décor & Home.
La dolce vita at home — traditions, tablescapes and everyday luxury, Italian-family style.
Homes with heart
The houses Jo built up — and loved.
Bronte · sold with a full heart
The French provincial by the beach
This was the house that taught me flawed, aged pieces are so much more beautiful than the shiny new. We took a plain 1970s double-brick box and slowly, lovingly coaxed her into a three-level French provincial dream — whitewashed beams, fanlights over French doors, and a big airy kitchen that was always the heart of the home. Coming from a large Italian family with eight kids, home is always where the succo is cooking!
I’d wake in the mezzanine bedroom to the ocean glittering over Bronte Beach, the terrace drank in sun all day, and nearly every lampshade had a past life in a Parisian flea market. Years of work went into building her up — and every minute of it showed.
As featured in Domain
Coogee · the one that hurt to sell
The house on the hill
After Bronte we landed at just about the highest point in Coogee — a tri-level home I spent years building up into the family sanctuary she deserved to be. Open-plan living spilling onto sun-drenched landscaped gardens, a proper cook’s kitchen, and the beach a lazy stroll down the hill.
But the views. Oh, the views. On the mornings I rose early (not as often as I should have!) it brought me such joy to simply walk outside and watch the sunrise pour over the sea. This one was genuinely hard to say goodbye to — some houses are chapters, but this one was a whole volume.
Byron Street, Coogee
When you love what you have, you have everything you need.
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