Calmly Fitting – Macauley’s Beach House by Alexandra Marie Interiors

As an open embrace of its coastal setting, Macaulay’s Beach House is conceived from a place of considered calm. Alexandra Marie Interiors brings elements of the relaxed and slowed nature of the site’s surroundings, conjuring a similarly matched palette of muted yet textural comprising elements.

 Within the boundaries of an existing and beloved home in Coffs Harbour, Macauley’s Beach House sits within its namesake and is the fusing of old and new. Part of the reimagining process, Alexandra Marie Interiors was engaged to breathe new life into the tired home, paying particular attention to maintaining the connection to its owners and weaving in nostalgic elements of significance. The result saw the renovation of the home’s living areas, elevating the everyday and bringing a sense of purposed intention to the interior space. By looking to the nearby coast for inspiration, a sympathetic palette of warm and muted tones encases the newly revised areas, injecting a contemporary relevance in the process.

By looking to the nearby coast for inspiration, a sympathetic palette of warm and muted tones encases the newly revised areas, injecting a contemporary relevance in the process.

Built collaboratively between joiner Shipman & Co. and builder Adapt Design and Build, the interior allows a revised lens that brings a new sense of connection to place. The previous layout and arrangement were not optimised for the site’s outlook and, with no link to the surrounding view, the home felt tucked away and disconnected. Through a series of gestures, the kitchen, dining, laundry and living room are given a new purpose and open outwardly, allowing reminders of place to be created. From both the functioning bones of the home and its decorative elements, the team worked to combine the personalities of its occupants while responding to a sense of modern context.

Combining a clean and linear approach, tactile texture is layered into the spaces in a controlled way, again through a matched point of restraint similar to the rest of the home. The location and proximity to the ocean calls for a laid-back sensibility, while the demands of family life require a robustness that feels familiar and warm. The result sees the refurbishment of existing furniture and the re-staining of the original hardwood timber flooring to create the foundations upon which new elements are added. The newly conceived joinery then allows the everyday workings of the home to be concealed and the focus to be directed toward the enviable views and surrounding nature.

The location and proximity to the ocean calls for a laid-back sensibility, while the demands of family life require a robustness that feels familiar and warm.

Through a combined approach, Macauley’s Beach House fuses the past with the present and, in doing so, Alexandra Marie Interiors reinforces a sense of permanence, anchoring the home to its site through considered purpose.