Mediterranean Coastal

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business.

My husband and I have been in the real estate game for a little while, buying and renovating a couple of properties. Some may say we’re crazy to have spent half of our relationship living with my parents, but in this day and age, you have to be patient, creative and think smart to get ahead… long gone are the days of no deposit required for a house, or just 5% will do on a $150,000 loan. These days, we not only have to think about a deposit for ourselves, but our children's future. So here we are again, round three and back living with my parents with now 2 littlies that have joined this crazy life journey with us. 

We just flipped our second home in order to invest our money into a development that will hopefully set us up to continue what we love to do most…property development and interior design. 

We were strolling on the beach one day and thought, we should AirBnb a unit for Christmas this year for a family getaway...until my husband jokingly said, “Why don't we just buy a unit instead”….pondering thoughts left us for the rest of the day and thus became the search for a little cheap unit to buy and renovate as a weekend getaway whilst we are patiently awaiting to score our dream home in the near future. 

We searched and searched for a reasonably priced unit in a quiet and family friendly area but as we all know, this is hard to come by. We finally found one that was slightly above our budget but weighing in on family comfort and children’s safety, it was this one or none. After an intense negotiation with an owner to secure this ideal unit, we finally got it!

Now the challenge for us as interior designers was how to create a fresh and calm coastal vibe in a unit that had deep and dark tones, such as black, dark brown, cream and walnut. We decided we just had to have a coastal style in this unit that was right across the beach! On a tight budget, our goal was to minimally renovate without those big ticket items, like needing to replace the kitchen or retile the bathroom. 

The kitchen has a latte theme, brown carpeted living and bedrooms, with a featuring mosaic bathroom tiles that are between a salmon and light brown colour (the perks of being rebuilt in the late 90’s). After much researching (let's be real, pinteresting mainly) googling, researching and pondering we decided to embrace the existing colour schemes of the unit and of the iconic apartment building. 

Once we work our magic, our main focal points of the design are the contrasting palm tree wallpapers. The lighter cream tone was placed on the bathroom wall that once was a large plain vinyl backed mirror and around the kitchen island is the darker tone wallpaper. A simple fresh paint job featuring Dulux White Quarter, change of bathroom and kitchen fixtures to gold and good use of some of my old furniture mixed with the new created our dream Coastal Mediterranean escape where we can enjoy spending quality time with our littlies. The final touch of replacing the cabinetry handles which are awaiting delivery will bring the apartment together with the rattan and horn brass handles. Total eye swoon over here!