How a couple turned their humble beach house into a unique dream home

For husband and wife, John Middleton and Rachel van den Bosch, renovating their home wasn’t about making the place look nicer: it was an opportunity to design a home that truly reflected who they are and what they enjoy.

Middleton works as a sculptor, landscaper, yoga teacher and massage therapist, while van den Bosch is a chef, naturopath, nutritionist and massage therapist.

When they started renovating their “humble, non-flashy beach house” on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula three-and-a-half years ago, they approached it as their one shot to create the home of their dreams.

“When you’re not super wealthy, you don’t have [several] chances to renovate five houses and keep floating projects,” says Middleton. “It was like, ‘This is our opportunity to have a crack. So of course we’ll impose some ideas and beauty and flexibility on that space.'”

They started with the “big picture” and left tasks such as redoing the bathrooms and floorboards until last. Instead, the first thing Middleton and van den Bosch did was to plant an orchard – an ode to their respective childhoods spent growing fruits and vegetables.

Their 880-square-metre property is now home to almond, apricot, peach, fig, apple, pear, orange, lime and babaco trees, and blackcurrant and mulberry bushes.

• Related: Meet the couple restoring a 103-year-old home
• Related: Inside the kitchens of Australia’s favourite foodies
• Related: The family of six who made a school bus their home

The backyard offerings are a visual representation of what the family is most passionate about.

The backyard, which also features a rock-climbing wall, chicken coop, trampoline, woodfire pizza oven and beehive (the couple harvest and sell honey to friends and family), is a visual representation of what they’re passionate about as a family: adventure, good food and sustainable living.

Inside, meanwhile, boasts a large open-plan kitchen area that looks out onto the landscaped garden and that Middleton uses as a yoga studio (complete with a yoga hammock hanging from the ceiling). There is a second kitchen downstairs that van den Bosch has previously used for cooking classes, and the latest addition is a treatment room (which they’ve termed “the vitality lab”) where each of them can treat patients.

Middleton says part of what inspires them is providing a good example for their two children, 11-year-old Otto and four-year-old Kato.

“Our kids see us doing what we want to do, rather than being cranky at work,” says Middleton. “And the house is a part of that. It reflects our values. That’s a nice part of getting older – that your values become more integrated and you’re applying them.”

A woodfire pizza oven and beehive have been built in the backyard. 

It also means that the couple aren’t pulled to head north or overseas each winter like many from Victorian coastal towns do.

“We didn’t want to feel like we had to escape every winter,” says van den Bosch. “We have kids and a mortgage and it’s not that easy. It’s nice to have something really beautiful in the cooler months.”

Their plans for the future do, however, involve opening up the home as both a retreat space (where people will be able to come and have a treatment, stay the night and enjoy breakfast) and an Airbnb (allowing the family to go camping in Tasmania for the summer, which is the region’s busy season).

The couple believes that when it comes to accommodation or even selling the house one day, it will capture its own unique market. Of course, this is just a bonus for a home that’s really been designed with its owners’ personalities and passions in mind.

“We won’t appeal to everyone,” says Middleton. “But someone will come and pay more money for this than they would some other joint where a neutral palette has been chosen to appeal to the most people.”

Inside features include a large open-plan kitchen area that looks out onto the landscaped garden and a yoga hammock hanging from the ceiling. 

And van den Bosch says that although they’ve been warned not to install certain features in their home because it will “limit their market”, she “feels sad” for people who design their home based purely on what’s fashionable.

“I know they make money off it, but they’re building it for someone else,” she says.

The greatest take away they’ve gained from their renovation experience is that you don’t need to compromise on your vision or values.

“You see it all the time,” says Middleton. “People going all-in on big mortgages to renovate for the benefit of selling. And we get it. But that whole notion of building a massive house without any thought for its long-term liveability or whether it works environmentally and works in its environment… We believe you can have your cake and eat it too, basically.”