Contemporary country retreat in the Blue Mountains

Weekend escapees from Sydney to the Blue Mountains inevitably end up gazing at photos of cute-as-pie cottages in real estate agents’ windows.

While it is hard not to be seduced by these charming homes, it is obvious that many require more time and TLC than nine-to-fivers can typically afford.

Enter Claire Wilmott and Jonathan Claridge, a young professional couple keen to test-drive their design skills. Their vision was to devise a contemporary take on a traditional country retreat.

“We wanted something quaint but with user-friendly luxuries, such as a gourmet kitchen and bathrooms with top-notch fittings and fixtures,” Wilmott says.

To pay homage to the weatherboards of traditional mountain cottages, most of the exterior of the new home they created has been clad in Weathertex: a product that’s 90 per cent hardwood timber, 3  per cent natural wax.

This was painted in Dulux Mt Eden, an evocative misty blue-grey hue. Spotted gum horizontal shiplap cladding – oiled in Cutek’s Sela Brown – delineates the garage and courtyard areas.

“We felt it was important to use natural materials,” Wilmott says, adding that the interior also includes lots of timber to impart a feeling of warmth.

The island bench, with its solid, thick blackbutt butcher’s block top, is a stand-out.

To emulate classic tongue-and-groove lining, feature walls in the living room and the undercroft of the kitchen island bench sport Easycraft Easy VJ engineered wood panelling.

 “The property had been a show garden, so it had lots of established plants,” Wilmott says.

“We saved 80 per cent of these, including established Japanese maples, azaleas and tree ferns, and transplanted them to new locations.”

However, the central courtyard was devised so as not to disturb a beautiful mature magnolia tree.

Picture windows and glazed doors were powder-coated in dark charcoal to frame park-like views of the re-landscaped grounds.

“Sitting in the living room, you can watch the richness of colour of the leaves outside. The seasonal changes are quite dramatic and very different to Sydney,” Claire says.

Need to know

30 Romaine Street, Blackheath
$700,000+
Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, one garage
Built 2014- 15
Agent Ray White Blackheath, 0402 080158
Auction  July 5 at noon
More photos: Domain.com.au

Where to buy

Cotton canvas Empire Breakfast scatter cushion in indigo with chain-stitch embroidery and whimsical pom-pom detailing, $29.95 from zanui.com.au

The appropriately-named Sanctuary by Scott Petrie, 83cm x 83cm brings the artist’s close association to nature to a subtle oil-on-canvas painting. $3,200 from scottpetrieart.com

A touch of blue with Spanish handmade subway tiles, in Ocean, 150 x 75mm, $95/sqm from Colortile Wentworthville, colortile.com.au

Ground cover in the courtyard is 20mm crushed quartz pebbles, around $75 per tonne from landscape suppliers. These from Tunks Landscape and Building Supplies, Katoomba, tunkslandscape.com.au