BLOCKBUSTER CRED MAKES THIS HOME A STAR
This Surrey Hills stunner has starred alongside Zac Efron and John Cena. Now the five-bedroom showpiece is ready for its next leading role.
2 min
Every house claims to be picture-perfect when it hits the market, but this grand five-bedroom home in Melbourne’s Surrey Hills has Hollywood’s stamp of approval.
The contemporary two-storey house was hand-picked by movie location scouts to feature in the $80 million Zac Efron-driven film, Nicky Stanicky.
Out last year, the movie also stars former pro-wrestler turned Hollywood heavyweight John Cena and Academy Award nominee William H Macy. Set in Providence, Rhode Island, with scenes in Atlantic City and New Jersey, the production was actually filmed in various Melbourne suburbs.
The modern suburban residence has all the hallmarks of a US family home, with its Hamptons-style facade and vast proportions measuring 650sq m of internal space.
Just listed with Kay & Burton Boroondara team, Scott Patterson, Walter Dodich and Jacqui Bendall, the Norfolk Rd property is set to go under the hammer on August 23 with a price guide of $5.5 million to $5.9 million.
After appearing on the big screen, the home has piqued the interest of several filmmakers (including Neighbours producers before the show was axed) and is still on the books to feature in other filming projects, if the new owners are keen to play the role.
In Australia, private residences can earn between $1000 and $5000 a day when used in the media – from magazine shoots to blockbuster movies.
The 2016 house sits on a 996sq m block and is home to a versatile floor plan with multiple entertaining spaces over both levels.
On the spacious ground floor, there is a central family room with an Escea fireplace anchoring the footprint, with an adjoining state-of-the-art Gaggenau and Miele kitchen that has a butler’s pantry, an expansive stone island bench, pyrolytic and steam ovens, an integrated coffee machine, a dishwasher, and a Vintec wine fridge.
A large dining room with bespoke wine storage opens via stacker doors to an undercover alfresco area with ceiling fans, a built-in Zeigler & Brown barbecue, sink, and a fridge for all weather gatherings around the pool and half basketball court.
This lower level also houses a dramatic entryway crowned with a 4m void, a formal lounge room with another fireplace, a separate study overlooking the pool area, powder room, and a primary bedroom featuring a walk-in wardrobe, a bath ensuite, and an illuminating skylight.
Upstairs, there are four more spacious bedrooms, including one with a two-way wardrobe and bathroom. Additionally, the level has a full family bathroom, a powder room, a walk-in linen press featuring a handy chute to the laundry below, and a huge media room or kids’ breakout space.
Other attributes of the Melbourne property include a poolside cabana with toilet and outdoor shower, French oak parquet floors, zoned central air-conditioning, ducted vacuuming, a security alarm, in-built speakers, automatic blinds, front electric gates, and an internal remote-control double garage.
Close to Union Station, the property is near sought-after schools, Surrey Hills cafes and shops, as well as Wattle Park, Deakin University, and Box Hill Central.
Kay & Burton agent Scott Patterson is auctioning 14 Norfolk Road, Surrey Hills on August 23 at 2pm with the indicative price guide of $5.5 million to $5.9 million.
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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