Contemporary Brighton home transformed by design doyen
Once home to Australia’s kitchenware king, this Brighton residence is now on the market with a $15m–$16.5m price tag.
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Alex Schiavo, James Driver and Jia Teresa Wizel of Kay & Burton Bayside, have listed the contemporary Brighton residence and are asking for expressions of interest by 5pm on September 16.
Brian Davis, founder of the Decor Corporation, lived at the Wolseley Grove home until his passing in 2021. Davis built his humble homewares company from the ground up in the late 1950s, eventually securing lucrative contracts with Coles and Woolworths.
He then went on to sell his award-winning designs around the world and was inducted into the Design Institute of Australia’s Hall of Fame in 1996.
After his estate was sold in 2022 for $8 million, the current owners engaged Frank Macchia of Macchia Design Studio to inject some Byron Bay je ne sais quoi into the then four-bedroom mid century modern house.
Today, the reimagined five-bedroom home on a grand 1630sq m is a private retreat with all the mod cons expected of a 21st century beachside home.
Beyond the double entry doors, the expansive ground floor has been created for quiet contemplation and meaningful gatherings.
The open plan footprint flows via seamless bi-folds to the outdoors, with the layout centred around a reading and conversation space featuring integrated seating and inspired planting.
There is also a fireside sitting area, window seats and a banquette dining zone next to the unique limestone kitchen with its vast island bench, Wolf appliances and large butler’s pantry.
Macchia’s modern touch has introduced Tongue & Groove oak floors, sand-laced wall render, fluted windows, custom made concrete basins, designer lighting and bespoke joinery throughout.
Additional entertainment areas on the lower level include a separate media room and the north-facing landscaped backyard complete with a family-friendly heated pool and spa. There is also a decadent outdoor spa, self-contained poolside pavilion and gym with a space for a sauna.
While four bedrooms with ensuites and a dedicated study space sit on the entry level, the first floor is home to a palatial suite with a lounge area and bedroom featuring a yard-facing balcony, walk-in wardrobe and a twin-basin ensuite with multiple skylights.
The new-look Brighton residence also has a big wine cellar with tasting table, a large laundry, an attic storage space, reverse-cycle heating and cooling, comprehensive camera security, bore-water irrigation, a substantial wine cellar, a lower-level powder room, and undercover parking for at up to three cars.
A unique Brighton property, the Wolseley Grove house is close to Church and Hampton streets, sought after schools, Sandbelt fairways, city trains, the Bay Trail, and Brighton Beach.
Listed with Kay & Burton Bayside, 3 Wolseley Grove is on the market via an expressions of interest campaign closing on September 16.
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A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
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