La Gemme A Southern Highlands Showpiece For Sale
A European-inspired country estate reimagined with couture-level detail, La Gemme sets a new benchmark for Southern Highlands luxury.
2 min
La Gemme Estate, a grand getaway meticulously reimagined by The Property Stylist founder Kyara Larcombe, has debuted on the coveted Southern Highlands property market with a price guide of $30 million.
Kyara and her husband Clayton, founder of PAC Capital and Pacific Partners, bought the Bowral estate in 2021 and collectively set about curating a stately country compound that would feel at home alongside the heritage chateaux of Europe.
The finance and design duo purchased the 40ha property as a luxury weekender, then in 2024 held their wedding (after eloping in Lake Como, Italy) at the 40ha estate – a glamorous event later covered in Vogue magazine.
Deborah Cullen and Richard Royle of Cullen & Royle are marketing La Gemme through an expressions-of-interest campaign, closing on March 10 at 5pm.
“It is an absolute divine experience to wander around this estate. The detailing and finishes are on another level,” Ms Cullen said.
“Excitingly, we have had some very well-known families reach out to learn more.”
Over four years, Kyara – whose team has styled private homes worth as much as $100 million and iconic venues such as the Sydney Opera House – exercised her design prowess to bring the dream project to life. Alongside Clayton, the globetrotters travelled throughout Europe to gather inspiration and acquire unique antique pieces to furnish La Gemme.
Rather than a renovation, Ms Cullen said the finished result is a custom-made mansion with all the must-haves of the 21st Century.
The brand-new estate was designed for offshore investors and high-net-worth homebuyers, with a focus on architectural excellence and complete privacy.
La Gemme Estate can house up to 24 guests in the five-bedroom main residence and a separate two-bedroom guest house.
In the primary house, each bedroom has its own ensuite, and there is an additional attic suite. There are formal lounge and dining spaces, a study, a library and lift access.
Designer elements include a bespoke marble kitchen with two large island benches, a Lacanche stove, butler’s pantry with integrated appliances, reclaimed French oak floors retrieved from a historic church in Normandy, Joseph Gilles hardware, and 18th and 19th-century French chandeliers and mirrors.
Modern features include a climate-controlled wine cellar, underfloor heating, ducted air conditioning, a Lutron home automation system and security, and an integrated Bose sound system.
La Gemme Estate is also home to a 14m heated swimming pool and spa with a cabana and limestone-paved courtyard terrace, an outdoor fireplace and a wellness centre with a fully equipped gym and sauna.
Gardens designed by Richard Haigh feature a long driveway lined with mature plane trees, an abundance of established Australian natives, and a koi lake. Additionally, DA approval has been granted for a luxury stables complex and covered arena, ideal for equestrian enthusiasts.
The property, which is about 120 kms from Sydney and 185 km from Canberra, is accessed via two gated entrances; either from Range Rd, Mittagong or Kimberley Dr, Bowral.
La Gemme at 31 Kimberley Dr, Bowral is listed with Cullen Royle via an expressions of interest campaign closing on March 10 at 5 pm.
For Central Element, the start of work at Pearl represents another step in the company’s growing eastern suburbs pipeline.
All three vehicles will form part of a broader charitable initiative benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross and Starlight Children’s Foundation
Jack Freeman believes the most compelling interiors are not decorated, but collected. The FREEMAN & CO founder creates layered, personal spaces shaped by art, travel and craftsmanship.
4 min
For Jack Freeman, a compelling interior should not look as though it was completed in a single shopping trip.
The founder and designer behind FREEMAN & CO prefers rooms that develop through art, travel, commissioned furniture and objects collected over time. It is an approach that treats the home less as a decorative project and more as an evolving portrait of its owner.
“I am a true believer in collecting versus decorating,” Freeman says.
That distinction underpins the international practice he has built across private residences, hotels, property developments, yachts and private aviation. Its projects stretch from Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay and Toorak to Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean.
Although the locations and architecture vary considerably, the work is connected by a restrained design language. Natural stone, warm timbers and sculptural furniture establish the foundation, while art, bespoke lighting and individual objects give each interior its identity.
The objective is not to overwhelm a room with obvious symbols of expense. It is to create an environment that feels calm, layered and particular to the people living within it.
“The greatest luxury isn’t about excess,” Freeman says. “It’s about creating an oasis where you come home and feel immediately grounded — effortlessly chic and deeply personal.”
Collecting instead of decorating
Decorating can imply the completion of a room: selecting the required furniture, filling the available walls and producing a coherent finished image.
Collecting is less conclusive.
A collected interior has room to change as its owners travel, discover artists, inherit pieces or reassess how they use their home. Its character comes from the relationship between objects rather than adherence to a single brand or season.
That does not mean placing unrelated pieces together without discipline. The designer must understand scale, proportion, material and provenance well enough to create a dialogue between them.
A contemporary artwork might sit beside a historic piece of furniture. A precisely detailed new interior may be interrupted by an irregular object made by hand. Smooth stone can be balanced by timber, textiles or a patinated metal surface that becomes richer with age.
The tension between those elements is part of the appeal.
For Freeman, art is not an accessory to be added once the furniture plan is complete. It forms part of the architecture and atmosphere of the room from the beginning.
Lighting is considered in the same way. Beyond its practical purpose, a bespoke fitting can operate as a suspended sculpture, changing both the room’s composition and the way its materials are experienced after dark.
A design perspective shaped by travel
International travel plays a significant role in Freeman’s creative process.
Design fairs such as PAD Paris and Salone del Mobile in Milan provide opportunities to encounter emerging designers, established galleries, new materials and collectible furniture away from the filter of social media.
More spontaneous discoveries can prove equally important.
“Sometimes it’s the simple things,” Freeman says. “That piece found on a shopping trip with a client in Paris, stumbling across an artisan’s workshop, or a special memory that forms the narrative of the story.”
Objects selected during travel bring more than visual interest into a home. They carry an association with a place, maker or experience, giving the client a connection that cannot be reproduced by ordering an entire interior from a catalogue.
Freeman’s influences are international, but his projects are not conceived as replicas of Parisian, Milanese or Californian style. Each commission responds to its architecture, setting, natural light and the daily lives of its occupants.
A waterfront Sydney residence demands a different treatment from a Mayfair townhouse. A Caribbean estate shaped by brutalist architecture and reflecting pools calls for another response again.
The designer’s role is to absorb those references without allowing them to overwhelm the individual qualities of the property.
Designing the complete experience
FREEMAN & CO extends beyond conventional interior decoration.
The practice’s stated services include interior design and architecture, project management, property acquisition, development advice, concept design, documentation, furniture and lighting design, procurement and art curation.
That breadth allows the team to become involved before a room’s dimensions and finishes are fixed.
Early participation can be important at the top end of the residential market, where architecture, landscape, interiors, technology and art must operate as one environment. Decisions about ceiling heights, wall dimensions, sightlines and lighting can directly affect where art is installed or how custom furniture is proportioned.
The practice can then carry those decisions through to procurement and final installation, maintaining the design narrative as a project moves between architects, builders, specialist craftspeople, dealers and suppliers.
Its residential portfolio includes a South Coast retreat conceived as an escape from urban life, a Caribbean estate with reflecting pools, an East Coast-inspired Palm Beach residence and a Mayfair townhouse organised around an expressive drawing room.
The studio also says it has worked on highly tailored Sydney residences with values exceeding $100 million, although the private nature of such commissions means individual addresses and clients are not always disclosed.
A home that can keep changing
The risk in creating a perfectly resolved interior is that it can become too static — a composition that looks exceptional in photographs but leaves little room for life.
Freeman sees the home as something that should evolve with its owners.
“I love the evolution of design,” he says. “We are talking about people’s lives, and as they evolve, so too should their private sanctuaries.”
That evolution might involve adding art, reupholstering a significant piece, adapting rooms as a family changes or making space for objects gathered through future travels.
The original design needs to be strong enough to accommodate those layers.
This may be the clearest expression of Freeman’s approach to luxury. It is not simply access to rare stone, collectible furniture or commissioned craftsmanship. It is the creation of a personal environment whose meaning deepens rather than diminishes with time.
Fact box
- Designer: Jack Freeman
- Role: Founder and managing director
- Practice: FREEMAN & CO
- Base: Australia, with international projects
- Project locations named by the practice: Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay, Toorak, Palm Beach, the NSW South Coast, Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean
- Sectors: Private residences, hotels, residential developments, private aviation and superyachts
- Services: Interior design and architecture, property development, project management, property acquisition, documentation, furniture and lighting design, FF&E procurement, interior dressing and art curation
- Design philosophy: Collected, personal interiors shaped by art, craftsmanship, travel and enduring materials
- Website: free-man.co
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