Laura Byrne and Matty J's Chante Mer renovation: An unliveable Ulladulla home transformed

When reality TV power couple and popular podcasters Matt Johnson (Matty J) and Laura Byrne, who met on The Bachelor Australia in 2017, were looking for a house that would become their family home, they didn’t have their sights set on a fixer-upper.

After initially searching on the NSW Central Coast and Shoal Bay region, Byrne shifted focus to the South Coast – and found a rundown vacant property in Ulladulla, 230 kilometres from Sydney.

With water views from almost every room and a 500-metre walk to Racecourse Beach, Byrne knew it was the one and had “no hesitation”.

“The view is breathtaking,” she tells Domain. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You feel as though you’re in the ocean. It’s so close, almost like you can reach out and touch it.”

Johnson, however, took a little convincing.

“When we saw it for the first time, it was unliveable; there was just mould everywhere,” he says. “lt had been sitting there for four years. Imagine spider webs everywhere; cockroaches.”

However, once he started envisioning the idyllic life he could have at the property with Byrne and their three daughters, Marlie-Mae, Lolaand Poppy, he was in.

The couple bought the property and started renovating in 2024, documenting the process along the way for their hundreds of thousands of social media followers.

While the neighbours feared that they would knock the place down to start afresh, the pair were determined to keep the essence of the mid-century home intact.

“We really looked at what the house was, and were like, ‘OK, how do we honour what this is and do it in a way that feels like us and feels like our family, but still has a nice nod to the history of the house?’” Byrne says.

After years of neglect, there was no choice but to remove a lot of the existing features. Mouldy cupboards were out, gyprock was stripped off, windows were replaced, and damaged floors, tiles and plumbing all had to go.

Still, the couple made a conscious effort to replace like with like where possible.

“The vibe was really set so much from what was originally there,” Byrne says.

“The kitchen was wood with a pinky-red vinyl stone-imitation benchtop. We replaced it with a real stone benchtop, but in similar colours.”

Structurally, the most extensive change was made in the kitchen, where a small servery was removed to open up the space and highlight the ocean views.

The couple chose to keep the original fireplace but wanted to add something that was “big, bold and colourful”, tiling the overmantel in hand-painted pastel pink, orange and purple tiles from Smink Studio – a move that Byrne says was “very controversial”. It’s now one of her favourite features.

However, the main bathroom became one of the most polarising spaces as the renovation journey unfolded.

The biggest uproar from followers came when they removed a bath, opted for a double shower and made a bold design choice: pairing vertical-striped tiles with a marble-look shower bench and timber vanity.

“You can’t expect every single person to like every single design decision that you do,” Byrne says.

“We didn’t want to make a house that was for everyone; we wanted to make a house that was for us.”

Living with three young kids, Byrne acknowledges that taking out the bath was “definitely a big decision”. However, she says while it will be handy while the children are young, “kids don’t stay little kids forever”.

An 18-month renovation and “12,678 decisions later”, the old, unloved house has been reborn as Chante Mer.

“We designed this house knowing that it’s a house that we’re going to have in our family for, hopefully, forever,” Byrne says.

“It’s a place where our kids will be able to bring their kids, too.”

For Johnson, narrowing down his favourite spot at Chante Mer is like “trying to pick a favourite child” – but still, he has a few.

“There’s so many little nooks and crannies that I love … I love the kitchen. I love the blue laundry,” he says.

While the plan is for the family to eventually move from Sydney, in the meantime, Chante Mer can be hired as a shoot location for brands and as holiday accommodation.

“Whenever we go down there, we get this great sense of relaxation – you’re out there with a beautiful ocean or the wildlife,” Johnson says.

“We just want people to have those same memories that we’ve been making.”