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HOMEWARES AFICIONADO Tracie Ellis never suspected her dream home would LURE her back to her childhood stamping ground of Kew, in Melbourne Words alex warren STYLING glen proebstel Photographs sharyn cairns

Tracie Ellis, the creative mind behind bedlinen and homewares brand Aura, has decorated her mid-century Melbourne home with thoughtful, stylish pieces: a Jardan ‘Empire’ sofa, a ‘Diamond’ chair by Harry Bertoia, a George Nelson pendant and a Mies van der Rohe ‘Barcelona’ table, which was her “first bit of grown-up furniture”.

Cushions on the sofa are by Aura (which Tracie has been running for 10 years), while an antique Indian tapestry, bought by Tracie and husband David in Jaipur, is framed on the wall. >

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(Opposite page, top right) “One of the main reasons we renovated at all was that I wanted a big family kitchen,” says Tracie. On the advice of a designer, she added a warm, timber element – the walnut cupboards. The benchtops are CaesarStone, while the stool is a ‘Charles Ghost’ from Kartell. (Opposite page, top left) Tracie, with the family dog, Max. She designed the dining table (opposite page, bottom), which Mark Tuckey made out of recycled American oak. Bluestone steps were added during the renovation, but the exterior (this page) is essentially original. The chairs are by Casala. “Where we lived before was too noisy and dusty to open our front door,” says Tracie. “Here, we’re outside all the time.”

company Aura had grown up, and that was enough for her. “You think, ‘I’m a bit too cool for that; I want to live somewhere groovier than where I went to school.’ Even my mother had moved away!” she says.

But she and husband David had done the inner-city Melbourne thing, living in Richmond in a terrace close to restaurants, “and we wanted more space, we wanted a dog”. And strange as it may sound, she wanted a chandelier. “We’d done a clinical renovation – a big square white box – on the terrace, and I needed something decorative.”

After a year of househunting and on the point of giving up, Tracie spotted an ad for a ‘Robin Boyd-inspired’ house in Kew. That was five years ago. She was attracted by the shot of the front of the house. “It had all northern windows, and was just gorgeous with the light, which was something we hadn’t had in the terrace house.” And plenty of others were also taken with it. “It caused quite a stir,” she says. “When we went to look at it, all these trendy people were checking it out.”

The 1956 house had been occupied by the one family for 30 years, “which gave it such a nice feeling, knowing the same people had lived in it and loved it for so long,” says Tracie. As soon as she and David got back home, they Googled the house and discovered it was the brainchild of John and Phyllis Murphy, “who were designers in their own right”. (Robin Boyd, himself, was on the jury when their design for the ’56 Melbourne Games Olympic Swimming Pool was awarded the Building of the Year back in 1954.)

The couple found some photographs of the original house on the State Library of Victoria’s website – pictures of a place with feature walls and vinyl-covered bar stools up against the kitchen bench, a Dodge in the driveway and “a stick” in the front yard. “That stick’s now a magnificent wisteria that’s been there since the day the house was built,” says Tracie. “We felt quite emotional about it.”

In fact, they lived in the house for three years before renovating, partly so they wouldn’t disturb the plant. “It wasn’t a style of place >

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Tracie Ellis had no intention of living in Kew, in East Melbourne, again. It’s where the founder and creative director of homewares

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(This page) The master bedroom, which was once the rumpus room, looks out onto the garden. The ‘Spot Caviar’ bedlinen is from Aura, and by the bed is an original Eames chair – Tracie’s first eBay purchase. “I thought that I’d got an amazing deal, but then realised how much it cost to freight a chair from country New South Wales to Melbourne.” David bought the Persian rug in Tasmania 25 years ago.

(Opposite page, top left) Bluestone, used for steps at the front of the house, has also been featured in the bathrooms. Tracie and David did think of doing an all-white scheme, but decided they wanted something more “moody and earthy”. (Opposite page, top right) Son Jacob’s room is full of red accents, such as the Kartell ‘FL/Y’ light, the Jaipur cutwork cushion and the bedding from previous Aura ranges.

we’d lived in before, so we wanted to get to know it properly before doing anything,” says Tracie. One of the biggest challenges, she recalls, was the old yellow Laminex kitchen, with its fitout of lazy Susans and serious lack of bench space. “We had dinner for 21 people for our 10th anniversary, and that was a real effort.”

The house, modest and modernist in design with a large terrace off the living area, originally housed four bedrooms, with a rumpus room added at one end several years later. Tracie and David, with the help of architect Emma Tulloch, of Nixon Tulloch Fortey, sensitively reworked the space, converting the rumpus room into a main bedroom with ensuite and one of the other bedrooms into a study. The kitchen and bathrooms were renovated, many walls removed, the entire house was replastered and new flooring installed. “It was a pretty big facelift,” says Tracie. The changes make it a more accommodating space for her and David, operations manager for the underwear division of Pacific Brands, plus his two grown-up sons, Jacob and Nathan, who visit occasionally, and Max the miniature schnauzer.

Now,Tracie’s favourite room is the kitchen. “We love cooking and having dinner parties, and because we’re so comfortable here, we invite more people over than ever happened in our old place.” She also loves the terrace, where they have breakfast on weekends. “And as soon as we get home every night, we open the front door and the sliding doors to let the air in. That’s fantastic.”

She also appreciates the fact that “in mid-century architecture, there always seems to be a foyer, rather than a hallway. It’s a very welcoming spot.” Adding to this inviting feel is the fact that most furniture was bought specially for the home – in particular, the chandelier that Tracie so wanted, a Giogali light designed by Angelo Mangiarotti, which took 12 weeks to arrive from Italy. “It was worth it, though,” she says. “It adds a touch of glamour to the entrance.”

And as for being back in her childhood neighbourhood, she has got over that. “I lived on the wrong side of Kew when I was young and I hadn’t been down this street. I didn’t know the house at all.” C

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