Personal Space: Inside artist David Bromley's 'glorified tree-house'

David Bromley is an Australian artist and six-time finalist in the Archibald Prize.

He splits his time between his home in Melbourne, a property at Hepburn Springs and his art studio in Daylesford. Now he’s collaborating with Australian potter Robert Gordon on a new ceramic collection.

Known for his bright and colourful paintings and sculptures, Bromley’s home in country Victoria is about as close as it gets to a Swiss Family Robinson scenario.

The old truck and brickyard property was purchased seven years ago and, instead of pulling down the house, Bromley and his wife Yuge Yu decided to keep it as is.

“It’s the worst piece of architecture but we live in it,” says Bromley. “We’ve always been of the view that the greenest house built is the one that is already standing.”

He calls it their “glorified tree-house” and what the home lacks in storage space and a proper kitchen is made up for with love and plenty of knick-knacks. There’s an old iron bath, a leaking sink in the bathroom and fabulous artworks all round.

“It’s crooked and wonderful,” Bromley says.

The couple has planted trees all around the property – you can see banksias and vines growing everywhere; and they’re easy to touch with your hand when you open a window. “It’s the happiest place and we love coming here with the kids,” Bromley says.

A few of David’s favourite things:

Bottle tree

I am an obsessive gardener and love this tree. I have them inside and outside of the house. The indoors one is so big I can’t get it out. I love their trunks. The bottle tree can be found throughout the property, with every shed becoming an internal garden. I love having nature so close.

Cutlery

I am born in Sheffield, UK – it’s the land of cutlery and steel. My grandfather had a humble bone-handle knife workshop and I always thought I should make some cutlery. My motto is “style over substance” and while these aren’t practical to use, they look great.

Heston Blumenthal has commissioned me to make the cutlery for his Dubai restaurant. I am in the process of making them into large-scale artworks too. They are found all over the house – from the cutlery drawers to some hanging on the walls in the house.

Robert Gordon collaboration ceramics

I spent an afternoon with Bob Geldof nine months ago and was interested to hear what he considered a contemporary version of change and how do we get something big happening in the world. In everything I garnered from the conversation, Geldof said to make a big difference you need to collaborate.

I’m about to hit 60, and working with Rob (or Andy as we call him) was great. If the process flows and there’s no second-guessing, then you go with it. I was a potter and it’s something I understand. I love the shallow ceramic bowls from this collection – they’re a nice shape.

Brown leather chairs

I love these chairs and collecting them, the irony is I hardly ever sit down but I love looking at them. When I was younger, and I couldn’t make a full living out of art, I sold furniture and then made more art from those sales and combined my earning from both.

Japanese wind-up toy

This 1950s Japanese wind-up toy was given to me by a friend – he’s like the Indiana Jones of Japan – and always bring back amazing things. I love that it winds up and he kisses the two girls. It’s very sweet and my four-year-old loves it. It’s a delightful toy that brings me much joy and I would like to make a life-sized version of it.