Edwardian residence is a refined blend of heritage charm
Style, heritage and design pedigree combine at \the Armadale home of Husk founder Jacquie Naylor, a showcase of timeless elegance and modern sophistication.
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In the domain of design, Jacquie Naylor knows what works, so it is no surprise that her Melbourne home is an essay in style and sophistication.
The acclaimed fashion entrepreneur and founder of luxury lifestyle brand Husk has been front and centre in shaping the nation’s retail landscape for decades.
Naylor has previously held senior non-executive roles with Michael Hill, Macpac, Cambridge Clothing, and the PAS Group. The fashion doyenne also sat on the board of the Melbourne Fashion Festival for 12 years. Earlier this year, she stepped down after six years as a non-executive director on the board of Myer.
Now she is making another significant move, selling her Armadale home of three decades.
Listed with Kay & Burton agents, Gerald Delany and Nicole Gleeson, the grand late-Edwardian residence at 39 Glassford St is a refined blend of heritage charm and contemporary flair in one of the city’s most desirable postcodes.
“Jacquie’s home reflects the same sophisticated aesthetic and attention to detail that have defined her professional life,” said Delany, who is marketing the property with a $5.5 million to $6 million price guide.
“It’s a rare chance to purchase a residence shaped by an industry leader with an exceptional eye for design and quality.”
Designed in collaboration with Mark Simpson of Design Office, the home expertly combines classic architectural features with sleek modern interiors.
Original Edwardian detailing includes ornate ceilings, leadlight windows, and decorative fireplaces sitting seamlessly beside 21st-century finishes and clever design principles that bring in natural light and provide functional living areas.
The two-storey home is connected by both a spiral staircase and an internal elevator, with the main living level on the ground floor, and three bedrooms, plus a rooftop terrace above.
Downstairs, there are multiple entertainment areas, including a lounge room with a fireplace and French doors to the yard, as well as a sitting room and a second living space.
A chef’s kitchen features ILVE, Miele, and Liebherr appliances, a butler’s pantry, and marble bench tops. The dining area feeds through full-height metal-framed glass doors to the north-facing terrace, gardens and gas-heated swimming pool.
Conveniently sitting on the ground floor, the main bedroom suite has a walk-in wardrobe and a hotel-inspired ensuite with a tub.
Upstairs, three more bedrooms feature custom-made cabinetry. Two bedrooms share a full family-friendly bathroom, while a guest room has an ensuite with underfloor heating.
Up above, a roof terrace is the ideal vantage point to enjoy panoramic views of the city and its surroundings.
Additional highlights of the home include zoned heating and cooling, heated towel rails, a lock-up garage, electric-gated driveway parking, and irrigated gardens with feature lighting.
Armadale is synonymous with leafy streets, grand period homes, and designer boutiques. The Glassford St house is 6kms southeast of the CBD and is close to the High St shopping strip, Beatty Ave cafés, and Armadale Station. Lauriston Girls’ School, Armadale Primary School, St Catherine’s and Scotch College are also nearby.
The property at 39 Glassford St, Armadale, is listed via an expression of interest closing October 28, at 5pm, with a $5.5 million to $6 million price guide.
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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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