The Design Files' Top 10 Australian Homes Of 2023

Photographer Eve Wilson’s Palette-Perfect Inner City Family Home

If you’ve been reading The Design Files for any length of time (thankyou!), you probably recognise the name Eve Wilson. That’s because Eve is our longest standing collaborator! She’s been photographing TDF stories for almost 10 years, including the very home you see above, which happens to be her own stunning family home in Cremorne, Melbourne.

Eve lives here with her husband Jon Atchison, and their daughters Elliot (7) and June (5). The house itself is a small weatherboard cottage, with an extension designed by Studio Bright that packs a punch, to say the least!

The architects have capitalised on every inch of the 144 square metre block (that’s only 4.22 metres wide!) to create a three-bedroom home that’s not only generous, but utterly unique. Breeze blocks on the facade provide the home with a distinct design identity, while filtering light through the interiors and offering privacy.

Read the full story here!

A Stylist’s Under-The-Radar 1950s Modernist Family Home

This mid-century modern house on Sydney’s Upper North Shore was designed in the 1950s by prominent architect and furniture designer Douglas Snelling.

Despite its architectural pedigree, when stylist and art director Gemma Keil came across the home earlier this year, she found it empty and unloved. ‘It was nothing like the open for inspections in the east where you line up in crowds only to shuffle through poky overpriced houses,’ she says. ‘Hardly anyone turned up to this showing, and people were walking straight out as they thought it was too run down or they didn’t have the imagination. I, on the other hand, had felt like I stumbled into a dream.’ We couldn’t agree more!

With that right styling and a few minor cosmetic tweaks, Gemma has made the house her incredible family home that looks straight out of California.

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Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s Multigenerational Dream Family Home

Since founding The Design Files in 2008, I’ve seen hundreds of incredible Australian homes, but I’ve honestly never wanted to live somewhere, quite as much as Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s new Melbourne house!

The cook, best-selling author, and our very own food columnist recently signed the lease on this newly-renovated Victorian house in Clifton Hill with her husband Nori Nishimura, and their two children Haruki (7) and Yukito (3).

Julia and Nori chose the home for its location, architectural design, and its self contained studio out the back — allowing Julia’s mum Rachel to live here comfortably too.

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A 1980s Timber Beach House Where Every Day Feels Like A Holiday

For many Australians, a dream summer holiday involves the sun, sea, and coming together as a family in a familiar home.

Josephine and Paul Luczak and their two children are lucky enough to experience this more often than most, in their circa 1988 Cape Schanck beach house, clad in western red cedar.

The couple have made only minor cosmetic renovations to the existing home, to highlight its original design features, and celebrate its sweeping ocean views.

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An Eclectic Sydney Family Home, With International Flair

Depending on the image or angle you’re viewing of Chad Barnier and Heidi D’Elboux’s home, you might think the property is in Bali, Copenhagen, or even New York City.

The home — which is actually located in St Peters, in Sydney’s inner-west — ties together these global influences through its eclectic design and artful styling.

The result is an inspiring and vibrant family home for the couple, their one-year old son Dallas, and bulldog Nash.

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A Lovingly Updated Mid-Century Beaumaris Home

The bayside Melbourne suburb of Beaumaris features one of the greatest concentrations of unique, mid-century homes in Australia. Many of these homes call for care and restoration, so it’s lucky when one falls into the hands of buyers like Natashia Ting and Peter Rosser.

The couple purchased this 1961 house in 2019, and have worked with Tecture architects to enhance its modernist sensibilities, alongside modern practicalities.

Materials and colours pay tribute to the original era, facilitating a home that is both sophisticated and playful, whilst remaining timeless.

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The Idyllic Country Family Home Of The Design Files’ Partnerships Manager, Alice Ziebell!

This home is extra special as it belongs to one of our own – The Design Files’ partnerships manager, Alice Ziebell!

Alice and her husband Marlon purchased their house in Korumburra, South Gippsland back in 2010, with long term plans to turn it into a country weekender. But when Covid hit in 2020, the couple decided to bunker down here while expecting their first child. Three years later, they’ve settled into country life, permanently!

Alice and Marlon completed an owner-designed renovation (in just four months!) that has taken their charming country cottage to the next level.

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An Interior Designer’s Dreamy Beach House On The Great Ocean Road

The beach house of Leigh Ellwood is the definition of a dream.

The interior designer and her family purchased the ‘80s home in 2020 for its perched position above the Great Ocean Road, offering ocean views as far as the eye can see.

These views drove a subsequent renovation inspired by the minimal timber interiors of Cabanon (1951) on the Côte d’Azur in France—the holiday house of Le Corbusier.

By reducing the palette of materials to the essentials (plus some special paintings – by an Archibald Prize winner), the house recedes into the background, allowing the natural world (and that view!) to become the complete focus. Just perfection!

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The Vine-Covered, Victorian Family Home Of Frank Body Co-Founder, Bree Johnson

Bree Johnson, co-founder of beauty label Frank Body and branding agency Willow & Blake, used to regularly park her car in front of a grand Victorian house in Richmond, covered in creeping vines.

She dreamed of one day owning the property, so when it came up for sale, there was no hesitation. Bree and her husband Steve Rowley inspected the Melbourne home and bought it the very same day.

The 1888 house is now Bree and Steve’s divine family home, with a sleek, contemporary extension designed by Therefore Studio.

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A Modernist-Inspired, Fully-Accessible New Melbourne Family Home

The Elsternwick, Melbourne home of chef Tobi Dikstein and access consultant Nick Morris is remarkable.

What looks like an authentic mid-century build is actually a modern family home (built in 2017) that’s ‘discreetly fully-accessible’ for Nick, who uses a wheelchair. ‘There is no way anyone could tell that the house was built specifically for a paraplegic,’ says Tobi.

Designed and built by Fasham, the concrete and timber home is solid, timeless, and made eclectic through Tobi and Nick’s artful styling. In Tobi’s words, it’s a ski lodge in winter, and a pool party in summer!

Read the full story here!