The Design Files: The bright home filled with love, colour and op-shop finds

Who: Madeleine and Jeremy Grummet and family

Where: Caulfield, VIC.

What: Updated mid-century family home for a family of six.

This bright and cheerful residence built 1956 is home to a bigger family than most. Madeleine Grummet and her husband Jeremy have four daughters (Violet, Audrey, Olive and Harriet) aged between 8 and 16.

While it’s necessarily large, there’s nothing showy about this home. It’s filled with love, colour, op shop finds and handcrafted treasures, resulting in a space that perfectly reflects the busy, creative family who live here.

Madeleine is an ex-journalist, stylist and proprietor of Do Re Me – a versatile creative business that sees her run craft workshops and experiential events for clients across Melbourne.

As a mother of four girls, Madeleine is also passionate about female entrepreneurship, and isco-founder of the GirledWorld leadership summit for girls of high school age.

Her husband Jeremy is a surgeon. A home with enough space for their four growing girls and various creative pursuits was not easy to find, so when the Grummet family came across this generously proportioned five-bedroom modernist home in Caulfield six years ago, their decision was made.

“When we bought this house there was a beige and apricot explosion on every single surface,” says Madeleine.

She and Jeremy knew the home needed updating a little, but were keen to avoid major renovations. They set about refreshing the interior colour scheme with white walls and adding lots of colour and texture, with a vibrant and eclectic range of furniture, lighting, artwork and soft furnishings.

There’s something refreshingly functional and no-nonsense about Madeleine’s styling aesthetic. She’s an intuitive decorator with a decisive sense of style, but she’s no perfectionist.

The philosophy here is to “mend and make do”, and Madeleine has done her best to make the most of the home’s existing features.

She also has an impressive knack for uncovering op shop treasure and re-vamping hard rubbish finds. “We’re big on reclaiming and reinventing,” she says. “We’ve tried to retain the integrity of the house without compromising our own aesthetic.”

Madeleine is co-founder of GirledWorld leadership summit for high school aged girls, taking place in Melbourne June 24-25.

The Design Files guide to designing for children

Children’s spaces are by far the easiest rooms to design and decorate. Creativity can be unleashed in children’s bedrooms – these spaces present the perfect opportunity to explore clashing colour, bold pattern and quirky flourishes.

Some fun ideas to explore:

• A bold bedroom door – painting an internal door is an easy one-day task, and the perfect project to get children involved.
• Nothing makes a bigger impact in a small bedroom than updating bed linen – try local label Kip & Co. for fun colour-clashing combos.
• Children adore quirky flourishes – consider a fun neon sign from local brand Electric Confetti.