Love, Actually - Auckland Villa |
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She has renovated every room from top to bottom over the past few years, painting all the walls a particular shade of pale grey in the process. “I’m quite fussy about paint,” says Cassandra. “This one is full of pigment, has no shine and is completely flat. It looks white at first glance but has an unexpected depth of colour.” Interiors and fashion magazines from around the world are something of an addiction for Cassandra, who has been collecting Australian Vogue since she was eighteen years old. She now subscribes to about fifteen magazines. It’s an abiding interest, not just because her job as marketing manager for Fairfax Magazines requires her to keep up with the latest publications. She reckons she has about 3000 issues carefully stored away.
“This is what homes are about,” says Cassandra of the many small personal elements that are dotted throughout on walls and tabletops – such as meaningful mementoes, framed photographs and scrawled notes. “I’d never have a house interior designed by someone else.” Her idiosyncratic possessions are unlikely to suit the constraints that a cookie-cutter approach to decoration often entails.
A wrought-iron French day bed in the downstairs guest bedroom is waiting for two-year-old twin nieces Scarlett and Ivy to be old enough for a sleepover at Aunt Cassandra’s house. And underneath the hall table is a basket full of old sneakers and an impressive collection of canine toys belonging to Lily, the frisky resident Australian terrier, who graduated last in her obedience class but is much loved nonetheless.
Retro mirrors with bevelled edges gently softened by time reflect the details that transform a simple house to a welcoming home. Fresh flowers are sourced weekly, beds are draped in crisp white linen, petunias grow in window boxes, scented candles burn and music from one of Ed’s compilation CDs plays. Pots of basil, coriander and chives adorn the kitchen, where Cassandra cooks simple, rustic food.
She loves pretty objects sparsely arranged and traditional English Colefax & Fowler fabrics, which she describes as “pretty without being too frilly”. It’s important to her that “a boy” could live here happily without being overloaded with sheer femininity. “I do like vintage things but it could easily turn into a Nana house if you don’t achieve that balance,” she says. “Another rug for example could just be too much here.” Buy things because you love them, Cassandra advises. “If you want something beautiful, it’s worth saving up for. The rest will come to you.”
Story: Shelley Bridgeman
Photographs: Matthew Williams
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