The colourful wonderland of jewellery designer Millie Savage and her surf coast home

Friends are everything to Melbourne jewellery designer Millie Savage. She has filled her colourful Surf Coast home with art and keepsakes made by friends, enlisted builder pals to renovate the place, and has even named her goats after her mates.

When her friends make the 90-minute drive down from the city to visit her Gherang property, dubbed Hoof Doof, there is a bunk room with four queen-sized beds to accommodate them for the night or the week.

“The party never has to end!” Savage says with a laugh.

The 33-year-old bought the property that backs onto the Great Otway National Park in 2020. She fell for its established golden elm trees and peaceful feel.

At the time, she was based in Fitzroy, where her flagship store is located, and where she still owns an apartment.

Savage grew up on the Mornington Peninsula’s hinterland and has ridden horses since the age of three. She dreamed of owning the space for animals and to have her horses “in the backyard”.

Charmingly, Martini and Oskar now follow her about the garden, as do her dogs Ms Sparkles and Mr Eggy, the alpacas Bert and Ernie, and Lazarus the mischievous peacock.

“I call it the farm,” she says. “Ten acres is not a real farm, but it’s a pretend farm and it’s perfect for me and my menagerie.”

Originally, the old house with its dated decor, garish white paint job and cramped floor-plan was “pretty crap”, she laughs.

However, a full renovation was always part of the plan; Savage just wanted to live there and get a feel for the place for a while first.

Must-haves included a sunken lounge with a big fireplace, a bath in her bedroom and the bunk-room.

“I knew exactly what the vibe would be from the beginning,” she says. “But maybe not the exact specifics. So, for a lot of it, I just changed my mind along the way, which is probably the most expensive way to work!”

With friend Joseph Moon, of Moon Building Group, she began the transformation in 2023.

Savage camped out in a swag in the lounge room as she sourced door handles and finishes from op shops, scoured Facebook Marketplace for the rusty corrugated iron which now clads the exterior of the house, and worked with specialists to custom-make designer features.

There are pink terrazzo floors inlaid with colourful chunks of stone, handblown glass pendants by friend Leisa Wharington, and an arched door of recycled Otway timber featuring Savage’s original star logo that was made by Melbourne furniture maker Simeon Dux and opens to her home studio.

Inspired by a trip to the National History Museum in New York, Savage convinced her plasterer to conjure a wall with assorted nooks to display her crystal collection, taxidermy birds and sculptures made by friends.

The custom sofa was another vision realised. “It’s a leather doona, essentially, that velcros onto the top of the couch,” she says, “so that’s why it looks really floppy and soft – it’s the best.”

Savage saved thousands by bringing green onyx over in a shipping container from China, then lost money when a measuring bungle left a slab of natural stone for the kitchen island bench just millimetres short.

Not willing to consider a joining seam in the stone, she relocated it to the laundry.

“So, now I have the world’s most ridiculous and expensive laundry with this beautiful stone in it, and it looks great!” she says. “Actually, it’s probably one of my favourite rooms in the house.”

Another favourite, her bedroom upstairs, features a purple and gold claw-foot bath, restored by NuPride Kitchens and set on green onyx.

Savage says she is “obsessed” with baths and bathes multiple times a day. There’s one out in her garden, too.

“I did seven hours of reconciling accounts the other day,” she says. “And I just sat in the bath and did the whole thing. I didn’t get out once.

“I always love having a bath in my room. Even in my share houses, I’d just get a plumber friend to come and put a bath in the corner.”

Savage’s house, with its deep greens, blues, purples and reds, is akin to a gemstone-filled jewellery box.

She says that while it appears wildly vibrant, each space has been designed with two key colours in mind – the lounge features orange and blues, the kitchen is green and pink, and her bedroom sticks to purple and green.

“You don’t want it to be a silly, rainbow kids’ house rather than a design space,” Savage says.

A labour of love, which dragged on a little thanks to its visionary scale, the reno was finished with the help of Jaros Construction, another builder friend’s company.

“It was really, really fun, but it was also really hard,” Savage says of the process. “Like, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

“But now it’s just the best. I love living here. I love having my friends come visit, riding my horse on the beach, just pottering around, cooking a roast, having a party.”

Savage’s pet goats are another source of pride and joy at her Gherang property, as is the concrete-culvert “goat tower” handcrafted by her father.

“I said, ‘I want a castle that my goats can live in,’ and he’s like, ‘That is so silly, I will definitely make you that!’

“At night, if you come out with a torch, you’ll see all these little eyes staring back at you. They’re just the best.”