In 2019, Sophie Bell, director and founder of Peppa Hart design studio, built the home of her dreams. With a little help from fellow friends and expert renovators, The Three Birds, the digital design guru used her meticulous eye to build a sprawling Mediterranean-inspired home. And if you thought Sophie’s Insta-famous family abode was breathtaking, just wait until you see the newest addition to her home.
Using nothing but a design she drew by hand, Sophie and her husband Michael have taken the idea of the humble cubby house to a whole new level. Taking design cues from their love of Mediterranean architecture, the couple have built not one but two luxe adults and kids’ cubby houses, which has everything you (and your five-year-old self) could ever dream of.
While building a cubby house for her two kids, Hendrix and Peppa, was a no-brainer, the idea for an adult cubby came not from a want, but a need for Sophie to have a place of her own to retreat to while her little ones kept themselves busy outdoors. “When looking for locations to build [the cubby houses], the space on the property was far away from the main house — we thought, what are we going to do? Because the kids are still at that age where they want us to be around all the time,” Sophie tells of the idea.
Tucked away in the lush northern hinterlands of NSW, the structure is situated on the couple’s sprawling estate. With white rendered walls and a neutral palette, the cubby houses mirror the home’s pared-back aesthetic and are an extension of Sophie’s signature style. “I wanted a place for the kids to have fun and be safe but also for the aesthetic to tie into the design of our main house,” she explains.
Unlike traditional cubby houses, you won’t find any doorways or timber boards here. Rather, ‘crazy pave’ flooring, rounded arches and gentle curves adorn this outdoor oasis making it the ultimate place to escape. “Having it all open allows airflow through and provides enough shade while we’re outside,” Sophie tells of the Mediterranean-inspired design.
Gallery: Real Living’s 26 most beautiful kitchens (Real Living)
The luxurious yet serene kitchen of this minimalist Mediterranean-inspired abode considers design down to the finest detail, making it one of the most spectacular spaces of this home. A floating, two-tone island is paired with brass tapware, mosaic feature splashback and welcomed hits of greenery. “The kitchen has so many beautiful design details, as well as being a chef’s dream. [It] is the focal point of the downstairs area and has many corridors of natural light,” say the team of Alicia Xiberras Interiors, the masterminds behind this home.
This minimalist home in Sydney’s eastern suburb of Randwick serves as a calming, beautiful blank slate from which the owner, lawyer Catherine Wilson, was inspired to begin and build her ever-growing art collection. Lukily for Catherine, the kitchen needed little work, already coming adorned with a lush Caesarstone Cloudburst island and Sussex tapware, all of which is spotlighted by over-bench track lighting.
Handmade stoneware, open timber shelves, gorgeous terracotta floor tiles and a minimal, gloss splashback are lit by an oversized window, through which lush palms and ferns can be seen in this Mediterranean-inspired Melbourne home. “I love the kitchen in the morning,” says owner Georgia Ezra. “The sun filters in and the colours blend into one another.”
A sculptural piece in its own right, this ultra-stylish timber dowel and marble topped kitchen bench is fitted with built-in storage. With its custom curves, the island echoes the design rhetoric of this Victorian Forest Lodge home, with contours continuing in the dining area and via the arched entrance.
“Our main intention was to capture the essence of my grandparents’ home, the Fenner House, a mid-century home designed by Robin Boyd and commissioned by my grandfather, Frank Fenner,” says the owner of this sprawling Byron hinterland home, Sally. With this in mind, the kitchen harks back to retro design, with its focus on texture, warm tones and touches of brass, as well as no shortage of storage “to maintain our minimalistic aesthetic and hide the mess,” Sally explains.
Below the towering, light-filled mezzanine of this Parisian family home sits this artful, textural, natural-toned kitchen. Perfectly combining functionality with aesthetic, the iron-clad bench morphs into a Paloma stone dining table, where continuity is emphasized via selective materiality and a collection of overhanging Bocci Murano glass lamps.
“The kitchen island bench is the showpiece of the kitchen,” says architect David of this contemporary kitchen in this bold new residence in Melbourne’s south east. “The Superwhite Dolomite honed stone top is soft and inviting and looks more like a piece of furniture, with looped legs at each end, and it has seating on both sides to fit the whole family.”
The kitchen serves as the hub between the formal dining and informal living rooms, continuing themes of the joinery and paint colour from the adjoining spaces.
Leather pulls and handles are just one of the beautiful and laid back aspects of this timber inspired kitchen in this coastal home on the Great Ocean Road. The aged-brass mixer tap from Sussex Taps delivers a subtle metallic touch and the island bench is made from Victorian Ash.
The kitchen in this modern rustic home features a plaster finish called Tadelakt. “I’d seen it on Pinterest and loved it. I showed [design studio] CM Studio, and they found someone who did it – but he’d only ever done a benchtop before, not a whole kitchen and bathrooms! It’s an amazing process,” said owner Romi.
A successful redesign restores harmony between this 1938 Sydney home and its 1981 addition, and delivers the soul of a gallery space, and the kitchen is perfectly displayed with dark polish floorboard to suit the black timber island and Thonet bar stools.
The original Art-Deco features of this Mediterranean home in Melbourne shine through in the kitchen, from the exposed beams to the textural brick wall. Meanwhile, an arch window provides the perfect backdrop for days spent baking and an antique rug tucked under the timber island keeps it cosy.
Small brass pendant lights, paired with brass tapware, are contrasted to the mostly black colour palette in the kitchen of this Barwon Heads home. Their placement also makes for a functionally lit kitchen bench.
The owners of this 19th century home reinstated the Victorian plasterwork, and in the kitchen, custom joinery by turns these ornate details into a focal point with a chandelier, an abundances of marble and greenery.
Sage green cabinetry painted in Dulux ‘Spiralina’ and grey marble complement each other perfectly in this light-filled 1970s family home that opens out to an outdoor entertaining area.
Materials, such as white cabinetry and marble, were chosen to reflect light in the kitchen of this semi in Bondi Beach. An island bench was inset to allow easy access for passers-by when someone sits on the stool. “I didn’t want this person to feel like they were in the way of the circulation space,” said owner and designer, Romy.
The kitchen of this Hamptons-style home nails the breezy seaside look! With a predominately white palette, the devil is in the details, with mouldings, taps and tiles all adding layers and textures.
Sunlight streams through glass louvres into the kitchen all day long. Black cupboards and white benchtops tie in with the rest of the palette in this charismatic beachside home.
The tiny kitchen of this Scandi-style home is true to its simple aesthetic. The oak benchtop offsets the bright white interior while the window above the sink allows ample light.
Handle-free jet-black cabinetry looks sleek, and contrasts with the white marble island in this contemporary residential development in East Melbourne, designed by Powell & Glenn architects for ICON Developments.
This pared back kitchen is designed for simple living, with an open-plan kitchen and dining area and a concrete countertop that suits the simple Scandi-style abode.
An ebony stain was applied to solid American oak joinery in the kitchen of this artistic family home in East Melbourne. The kitchen benchtops are green marble. Though the kitchen is dark, Andrew says, “Everything that happens in it becomes more theatrical. It also works in contrast to the white spaces of the apartment.”
26/26 SLIDES
Boasting a kitchen, sundeck and a waterslide (yes, a waterslide) the kid’s cubby house isn’t your average child-friendly space. But as important as it was for the cubbies to echo the style of the main house, it was equally important for Sophie to build a space that allowed her kids to do what kids do best: let their imagination run wild.
“For the kids, the main thing they wanted was a servery window because they love playing shop and selling us little coffees. They love it. ” As for Sophie’s wish list? A built-in bar where she and Michael could enjoy a margarita (or two) at the end of a long day. “I wanted it to be a little bit more fun and playful because it was a small space and not something we were going to use every day”.
Inside the adults’ den, the bar was decorated with custom-made tiles Sophie designed herself in collaboration with boutique Queensland tiler, Three Balls Red (don’t worry, they’ll be available for purchase soon). The soft pops of colour punctuate the all-white backdrop, infusing warmth into the space without going overboard. “It doesn’t have to be crazily coloured or look too hectic,” she explains. “Especially for the adult cubby, I kept it simple. There’s nothing too crazy about it”.
Although the build was a team effort, it was Sophie’s husband who took the reins when it came to bringing her vision to life. Every detail of the grand design, from the slide for the kid’s cubby (which is a complete hit with Hendrix and Peppa, by the way) right down to the tiles was executed by Michael himself, albeit with a little help from a few YouTube tutorials along the way. And while the end result is pure bliss, the construction process wasn’t all smooth sailing.
“Laying the concrete was definitely a massive undertaking. Because Michael did it all by himself it was a mad rush to get it levelled out, so it was a bit more organic and not as perfect.” Despite some pauses in the construction timeline thanks to the weather, Michael was adamant in seeing the project through to the very end – and if the final product is anything to go by, we’d say his hard work was well worth it.