ON THE COVER BYRON BAY DREAM Serial renovators have built a luxury holiday villa on the east coast of Australia

elissa Bonney knows – as does anyone who’s ever done one – the toll a renovation can take on a family. For Melissa, director of design studio The Designory, it was no different. ‘We’ve dragged our poor children in and out of houses every year – we buy, renovate, flip. It’s awful for them,’ she explains. However, she adds, there’s no better way to try new ideas and iron out mistakes than on your own projects, with no risk to clients. To give her brood a break from cardboard boxes and packing tape, Melissa came up with an alternative plan that just so happened to tie in with her own pipe dream.

‘Years ago, I imagined that one day I’d run a B&B,’ she says. ‘That then evolved into the dream of owning a place in each of my favourite locations on the South West coast of Australia. I pictured renting them out as holiday homes, and then retirement would involve flitting between all my lovely properties around the country, making the occasional breakfast for guests!’

Melissa and her partner Brendon, owner of B2 Construction, were enjoying a family holiday in Byron Bay when the idea began crystallising into a real possibility. Melissa had spotted a cottage for sale on 1,000 square metres with approval for a second house, so they drove to see it en route to the airport.

They bought it in October 2017, splitting the property and renovating the cottage before submitting new plans for a revised second house in April 2018. Approval came in November and they completed the new building in September 2019.

However, a closer inspection of the planning application lodged by the previous owners revealed there had been 36 objections. ‘The proposed building was too big and ostentatious for the area,’ says Melissa. ‘When you build, you’re charged with a responsibility. What you do changes the experiences of people walking down that street. I’m not interested in leaving a legacy that isn’t sympathetic to the environment, the neighbours or the heritage.’

Though it lengthened the process, Melissa went back to the drawing board. ‘We reorientated the building for privacy, reduced the size and created setbacks into the ground to lower the house and lessen the impact on the neighbours,’ she says. The result is Barefoot Bay Villa, a beautiful matt-black haven that blends in with its low-profile surroundings – a theme that continues inside. ‘There is nothing shiny in here at all,’ she adds. ‘It feels very earthy.’

Having designed it with her own extended family in mind, Melissa sees the house as the perfect space to slow down and reconnect, with the kitchen very consciously at the centre of it all. ‘I love to cook, but I don’t like being disconnected from what everyone else is doing,’ she says. ‘I can stand in that kitchen and see everyone in the living room, at the dining table, in the garden and in the pool. Someone can be making drinks, someone else doing dishes, but you’re not on top of each other, and you’re all still part of whatever else is happening,’ continues Melissa. ‘That kind of flow isn’t easy to achieve without starting from scratch, as we did here, and it’s my favourite thing about the house.’

Though still based in Sydney, Melissa and her family head to their coastal escape as often as possible, opening up both properties as holiday rentals in between – complete with all the creature comforts imaginable. ‘For me, luxury on holiday means having everything you need right there – and, seriously, this kitchen is better kitted out than my one at home,’ she says. ‘You don’t want to lug a high chair or a travel cot, or beach towels or surfboards to your accommodation. Here, you don’t have to do any of that. You can literally walk into the property with a bag of clothes and feel completely at home. It took us longer to create this house than we anticipated – planning permission took seven months rather than the expected 12 weeks – but it’s all worth it now.’