There is a cedar chalet set back in the bushland above Hyams Beach. You reach it by gravel road - past tall eucalyptus and native scrub. The ocean is close, and you catch glimpses of it as you arrive, surrounded by trees and birdsong.
Julia and Tim Corbett bought the house as a young couple and returned to it across every season of their lives. Friday nights after the drive down from Sydney. Mornings feeding king parrots on the back deck. Outdoor baths at dusk. Dinners carried down to the beach, where dolphins would often appear.
Julia met us at the door. She and Tim had owned this house for twenty-five years. A quarter of a century of memories. She walked us through every room - pitched ceilings, warm timber, bush pressing in at every window - and she spoke about the cedar, the light at dusk, the way kookaburras gather on the deck every morning.
Our brief was to style the home for its next chapter, while honouring the memories and the moments that made this house a home.
Tara x
Julia describes the drive south on Friday nights, feeling the palpable weight of a stressful week. About an hour out of Sydney, the landscape shifts. The road narrows. The bush thickens. The bath is filled before bags are unpacked. This place calls you to step back. Breathe.
01
THE BATH AT DUSK
Julia is a bath person. Always has been. The outdoor bath looks out to the bush through the trees, and she goes straight there most Friday nights, letting the week dissolve in warm water and the sound of cicadas. Once, a huge kangaroo appeared on the path, paused to look at her, then bounded off into the scrub.
02
FEEDING THE BIRDS
A ritual started when the children were small: bird food on the back deck, every morning. Up fifteen kookaburras laughing together. King parrots, too. Now, their fifteen-year-old still keeps it up without being asked – the kind of inherited habit that tells you everything about how a family has loved a place.
03
DINNER AT THE WATER
In summer, everything moves to the beach. Dinners carried down to the sand. The light at dusk turns the bay gold. Roughly one evening in four, dolphins appear. A kind of everyday magic that settles into lifelong memory.
04
THE SILENCE
Julia often prefers no music at all – just the birds, the cicadas, and a deep sense of stillness. When she does play something, it’s soft and in keeping with the surroundings. Most of the time, the house provides its own soundtrack.
The brief became the bush. We simply responded to what was already there.
A palette of muted sage and eucalyptus, pale sand and warm clay draws from the landscape – lichen on bark, filtered afternoon light, the walls the family had chosen years before.
From there, layers unfold. A low, generous sofa. Cushions in earth tones and soft sheepskin. A coffee table stacked with books and dried florals – styled with a quiet, lived-in ease, as though someone has just stepped out of the room. Vintage Indian pieces bring depth through patina and provenance.
Every object has been chosen to nestle within the space, rather than perform in it. Old and new. Organic and curated. The bush, translated indoors.
In a world that moves quickly, this house asks you to slow down. We hope that feeling comes through in every piece we’ve placed here, and that it stays with whoever walks through the door next.
