At home with Mark and Louella Tuckey

Photos by Pablo Veiga
Author: Emily Hutchinson 

Hearing the waves crash right on your doorstep, on Sydney’s picturesque and highly sought after Northern Beaches, isn’t a bad way to wake up. Mark and Louella Tuckey are lucky enough to enjoy this way of life every day, in their stylishly decorated Clareville home that’s decked out with their own designs and art from friends. The Tuckeys are the creative masterminds behind Australian-made furniture and interior design brand, MARK TUCKEY.

Mark started the company under the name ‘Ancient Modes’ in 1990, and Louella came on board in 2005. The duo changed the name to MARK TUCKEY in 2006, and together design their signature recycled timber furniture pieces, which have become somewhat iconic in Australia. Houzz caught up with this dream team to get a sneak peek into their home life and design inspiration. Read the full interview below.

House at a Glance
Who lives here: Mark and Louella Tuckey, their daughters Chilli, 10, and Indigo, 8, and Scribble the dog.
Location: Clareville, Sydney, NSW
Size: 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom

How did you and your home meet?
Mark: We moved into the house seven years ago in 2009. I grew up in Newport and I accidentally went to Melbourne for 20 years. Louella came from England and we met in Melbourne.

When our second baby was born and the business was kind of running itself, I said to Louella that we could go and live on the Northern Beaches. I knew I could bring up kids perfectly well in Fitzroy, but how good to bring them up in the environment I grew up in along the beaches? Louella ran straight upstairs and started packing.

When we moved up here, we were renting and I was waiting around for that deal when someone really needs to sell somewhere that you really love. We looked around for properties – Louella was online every night after the kids went to bed – and one day she said to me that this place in Clareville had gone down a category in price. They basically made it clear to us that the guy was really keen to sell.

It was right in the middle of the GFC. It was still hundreds of thousands above our price range, but we decided to take a look. After leaving, we thought ‘Wow, how incredible was that?’. We saw it on a Wednesday and purchased it on the Friday.

A large rusted peace sign by MARK TUCKEY hangs beside the front door



Can you please draw a picture of your house and tell us what you love about living here?
Louella: People are here (in the Northern Beaches) because they passionately love the area. They love Pittwater, the surf, nature – there’s a real camaraderie around here. I also love that I can get up every day and smell the water. I go for a run with the dog – I run the headland – and swim with a friend in the ocean before I go to work and it’s the most amazing way to start the day. We have a speedboat on the water and the girls go to school across the other side, so we can just jump in the boat and take them there, which we don’t do nearly enough.

Mark: I like living near the beach. I like that when you have free time, there’s just so much to do. There’s national parkland right across the water, Aboriginal art and walking trails. In your spare time you can never run out of things to do. It’s also a beautiful climate and I like that my daughters are growing up living on a beach – I’m quite proud of that.

How do you define your style?
Louella: It’s liveable style and it’s eclectic – the whole house tells a story, everything in the house is layer upon layer of collected bits and pieces. There’s a strong foundation there with all our furniture from work. It’s a house of colour but the base palette is white with colour from the artwork, and the timber works beautifully against white.

Mark: I like to live in a way that I feel comfortable with, rather than one I am ’supposed’ feel comfortable in. I like furniture you can really live with and have fun with. Damage is character to me, if it gets too bad, what I make is all solid timber so it is repairable. Not too fussy thanks!

Borge Mogensen leather and oak dining chairs: Vampt Vintage; Farmhouse dining table: MARK TUCKEY

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What’s your favourite room and what do you love about it?
Louella: I love the couch area in the living room. It’s a little bit away from everything else in the house and it gets good light. I go on the computer there and also do some reading.

Mark: I love the upstairs bedroom – it’s elevated and has great views of Pittwater. My dream as a kid was to have a house where I could see Lion Island. I still think it would also make a great place for a kitchen – such a great panoramic view.

Box daybed sofa, hides and Oxo coffee table in raw oak: Mark Tuckey; lamp: Artemide; throws: MARKTUCKEY + COTTON ON; velvet cushions: Rachael Castle; artwork: David Band; Spanish chairs: Borge Mogensen

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What do you love to do in your spare time? How do you relax?
Louella: We go out on the water quite a bit for fun; the girls rollerblade and go on their bikes. We spend lots of time in the water in summer, they love boogie boarding. Straight from school, I’ll make sure I’ve got swimmers and towels in the car, and I’ll take them to the beach and go for a swim on the way home.

Mark: My spare time is spent boating, riding motor bikes, playing with my daughters, surfing, skiing, meeting people, travelling, reading, walking, exercising, good wine, keeping my old cars on the road, fossicking for old timbers and old bits of furniture to do up and looking through all sorts of furniture books and magazines. To relax I do all of the above. I LOVE to spend time playing with my daughters. I love to just stop and enjoy the present. I think it’s a skill to sometimes feel like you have arrived at your destination rather than be eternally trying to get somewhere.

Oregon Slab bed and Oak Warehouse bedside table: MARK TUCKEY



What do you love to make?
Mark: I love to make all sorts of things. I have done a lot of creative things in my life, for example, ceramic sculptures, clothing design, fabric and yarn dying with organic dyes. For the last 25 years, it’s been all about furniture – I love to make solid timber furniture.

Louella: I like making the stools. They’re fun to think up and draw, then it’s one simple process of putting them on the lathe and then they appear. It’s also satisfying that it comes from one piece of timber. I also love sketching and scribbling, along with having a major thing for textiles and homewares. One of my favourite things is having a blank space to design and creating a living space out of it. It’s a real nesting thing I think.

Artwork: Mark Schaller; Oregon oak bunting: MARK TUCKEY

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What inspires your design aesthetic?
Louella: There’s a strong link with Scandinavian design – we keep things pared back and simple and go with the flow of the timber. We also find inspiration when we go for walks along the beach, and we might see a tree with something leaning on it or see light falling nicely through a tree … all those things build up on this layering platform for a look.

Mark: I love to create pieces that I would have in my own home – in a sense we design for ourselves. We try to be completely unique. I am inspired by timbers I find during my eternal quest for timbers needing a new home!

What’s your proudest design moment?
Mark: When I first started designing furniture I would always go out every month to the news agency to get The World of Interiors magazine. We were asked to put something in it a couple of years ago, the Plinth Sofa, and that was amazing. The proudest I feel in terms of designing a piece is when you think of something, you actually get your hands on it and make it, and work night and day to finish it and have someone come into the shop and want to buy it for their own home – that’s pretty awesome.

Louella: I’m a sketcher, so putting down designs on paper, sending it through to the workshop, talking to them about it and then seeing a prototype appear that’s exactly right – those are the good moments – when an idea translates perfectly.