Personal Space: At home with Mary Poulakis, managing director of luxury store Harrolds

Managing director of Melbourne’s luxury fashion department store Harrolds, Mary Poulakis, lives with her husband John and their daughter Melina in Coburg.

She married in the front rose garden of the home in 1993. After the ceremony, 150 guests walked through the house to a backyard marquee for a happily-ever-after soiree by the pizza oven.

“It’s a beautiful memory to connect with the home, and that pizza oven is still entertaining people,” says Poulakis, who wore custom-made Mariana Hardwick on the day.

While her 9-to-5 is filled with designer luxury fashion brands, at home Poulakis likes to keep her aesthetic minimal and elegant.

The kitchen is a precious place of camaraderie, where everyone gathers around the oven, and a semi-circular extension at the rear allows bifold doors to open up and bring the outdoors inside.

Inside is filled with commissioned artworks, sentimental photographs, and a mahogany sideboard filled with antique purchases. There are natural hardwood floors throughout, four-metre-high ceilings and original fireplaces, too.

“Home is very much the centre of our world,” Poulakis says. “We drove by the ‘For Sale’ sign the night before the auction and only saw inside of it on the day of the auction and bought it,” she says.

A few of Mary’s favourite things …

Pizza oven

This pizza oven was built by a very dear friend’s father, who is no longer with us. It’s that big, you need to turn it on a few hours before you need it just to heat it up. Parties go all night long.

Hand-painted urn

We purchased this at an antique store in Rathdowne Street, Carlton, in the mid-’90s. It caught our eye while driving by. It’s hand-painted and takes pride of place at home now. It also holds my mother’s ashes. It’s in the front room with a photo of her and a poem, and when I need to speak to her, I go there.

Japanese screens

We purchased these at the former Georges Building when they were closing down in Melbourne. One is in my bedroom and the other is in the front study; it’s used as a feature piece rather than a screen divider. When I have had big format parties at home, I use them to hide the prep area.

Juan Davila artwork

We met Juan Davila as a client in our store in the late ’80s. We commissioned him to do the artwork that sits in the Collins Street store. Over the past five years, John and I have collected a considerable amount of his work. He is a Chilean born and Melbourne-based controversial contemporary artist.