Lifestyle: Exotic spirit of the islands

The tropics-inspired home of Leesa Murray and Mark Sullivan radiates instant beach appeal with its limewashed floorboards inset with timber strips, white timber-panelled ceilings and curated vignettes of fossicked flotsam and jetsam.

“We adore North Queensland: Mission Beach; Bedarra​, Dunk and Lady Elliot islands; and the Pacific region: Ile des Pins, the Cook Islands and Bali,” Murray says.

Memories of holidays past are evoked by the objects of love grouped in the whimsical still-lifes. A vase given to Murray by her husband one birthday is paired with glazed pottery bowls made long ago by their children. Alongside are a bird’s nest, seed pods and dried seaweed found on hunter-gatherer walks. Then there are two vintage, split bamboo fishing rods mounted on a wall with carved timber fish quirkily floating from their lines.

Combining their talents – Sullivan is a designer-builder and Murray is an advertising art buyer – the couple worked weekends and after hours to upgrade and rejig the previously dark and uninspiring spaces in the existing house, helped by a plumber and electrician.

The home is configured as two independent, upstairs-downstairs living spaces, each with two bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen-dining-living space. Before their five adult children all moved out, this layout offered flexibility.

“Having a separate area for the older kids to occupy was ideal,” Murray says. This arrangement could work equally well as a granny flat or a rental.

Sullivan made all the cabinetry, elevated from the floor. The kitchen island bench, with heavy-duty lockable castors, multitasks as a preparation area. It can be moved to create a larger living zone, or it can swing around the length of the room to become a dinner-party table.

“Visitors make comments like, `Wow, this place makes me feel like I’m in some exotic location’,” Murray says, thrilled that their inner-city oasis has captured the laid-back, island-life spirit of places that are special in their hearts.

180 George Street, Erskineville
$1.2 million+
4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 car space
Built circa 1900, renovated 2015
Inspect Wednesday, 1pm
Auction September 26
Agent Ray White Inner City Group, 0424 172 217 or 0423 941 112

Where to buy

Cushion

This screen-printed, 100% linen cushion is Kookaburra, from Bonnie and Neil’s Winter Garden, a collection inspired by historic gardens and native flora and fauna, 50cm x 50cm, $155. Bonnieandneil.com.au

Oars

Murray and Sullivan display oars as decorative items tied together with rope. Find similar in various sizes dating from the 1940s-1950s, at around $80 to $220 a pair. lunatiques.net.au

Art work

Leesa Murray paints acrylicon-canvas still-lifes of objects from around the home calling each piece an Object of Love, 71cm x 71cm $1000. Hang it up or try placing one, or more, on a tabletop. leesa@habitude.com.au 

Flooring 

The design idea was to accentuate the length of the room. The timber is 25mm pine plywood white washed with Porters white lime wash. The insert stripes are the same material stained with Wattle’s Golden Oak and the finish is Porters Clear Coat.