The rise of the weekender: Three stunning homes to get away from it all

A weekend getaway is no longer just about choosing a place to visit, it’s also about choosing a place to stay. Sometimes it’s even the accommodation that comes ahead of the location.

We crave getaways that offer relaxation and an escape from our everyday lives in places that feel like home.

We’re ditching the hotel’s mini shampoo bottles and panoramic views of the sky-rise next door for design-conscious weekenders where you don’t need to bend over to open the fridge door.

Lorelei Vashti says the appeal of the weekender is that it feels like the visitor’s “own home but without all the life-admin stuff and only the good bits”.

Vashti and her partner Jeremy Wortsman opened their short-stay guest house, Jacky Winter Gardens, in the Dandenong Ranges in 2015. Already living in the area, part of their motivation for creating the weekender in this region “was wanting to lure out other people to [the] Dandenongs to witness the beauty of this part of Australia”.

The couple purchased the almost dilapidated property, knowing an extensive renovation was non-negotiable, because they were “instantly taken by the gardens”.

“They were wild and peaceful, and as you walked further down to the creek you just felt something in the land that was magical and inspiring,” Vashti says of the 2000 square metres of garden and bushland surrounding the Belgrave home.

Vashti and Wortsman knew they wanted interiors that matched the beauty of the exteriors, and engaged interior architect Sarah Trotter of Hearth Studio. The floor plan was reconfigured and the home completely overhauled during a 10-month renovation process.

The one-bedroom home has an open living area, fireplace, wireless music system, library and deep-soaking bath. The work of Australian artists and designers from Worstman’s illustration agency The Jacky Winter Group is also showcased within the house, giving the home a live-in gallery feel.

The serenity of the short-stay rental is palpable and the couple offer a week-long artist residency each month for nine months of the year.

“The house has the comfort, cosiness, luxury and relaxation you feel when you have everything you need,” says Vashti.

The personalisation the weekender offers also attracts getaway-goers. “If you stay in someone’s holiday house, you can really see their own style and I think that’s really special because it creates a new experience for you,” says interior designer Jenna Densten of Design School.

Before she and her husband, Josh, had their daughter they used to go on road trips most weekends. “We love the go, go, go of city life but come the weekend we wanted to escape town,” she says.

Planning for their future and growing family, the couple invested in a holiday house. Living in a small city terrace without much space, they believed the “perfect balance would be to have somewhere in the city and the coast where the kids would have space to run around and we could hang together”.

To make this financially possible, the pair always intended to rent out their family holiday house when it was vacant and decided to hold back on yearly overseas trips. “For now, we’re happy to give [up the] idea of an annual holiday overseas and, in return, it kind of feels like we have a multiple mini holidays every week,” Densten says.

Purchasing a modest beach shack (now affectionately known as the Shack) in Skenes Creek, their aim was to create a low-maintenance holiday rental where “people could open the doors, exhale and relax”.

“We’ve only had the Shack for a little over 12 months and have already seen people return,” says Densten.

The couple refrained from repainting the original yellow walls and faux-timber panelling, deciding it was these details that gave the home “this amazing feeling of cosiness and beach life”.

The quaint beach shack facade of the home is deceptive. “It looks small from the outside,” says Densten.

Inside reveals a spacious two-bedroom home, styled in Densten’s preferred tonal palette with collected secondhand furniture and nostalgic ephemera, including a record player, DVD collection and Nintendo 64 console that will unleash anyone’s competitive side. “It doesn’t matter how much you love you someone, when you play Mario Kart you still want to win,” says Densten.

It’s these thoughtful details – the comfortable interiors you’re not afraid to bring sand into and the 500-metre walk to the beach – that have made the Shack a popular weekender choice along the Great Ocean Road.

Almost four hours in the opposite direction sits the Summer Residence on Balnarring Beach.

After selling their city home, Kate Dinon and her husband decided to rent locally and purchase a coastal property instead. “It is less of a financial burden and a great way to structure things for us,” she says.

Dinon says the property “was always meant to be just for the family” but once she enlisted interior designer Chelsea Hing for renovations, the project expanded.

“The house ended up being really beautiful and it made sense to share it with others when we’re not using it,” Dinon says.

Structurally Hing reorganised the floor plan and clad the house in timber panelling. For beach house interiors, she says “there’s the opportunity to play more than you might in a primary residence”.

Taking cues from the Hamptons beach style, Hing incorporates escape-from-your-everyday-life touches, including the free-standing bath, mixed timber and tiled floors, a brass vanity and open storage.

“Visitors say the house gives you an immediate place to turn off,” says Dinon. “A weekender should feel restful, and I think ours genuinely feels like you’re right at home.”