Surround yourself with things you love

Nestled above Newport village, just a 10-minute stroll to the ocean, is the beachside-chic home of Amalia ​ Renwick and her four-year-old daughter Poppy.

Amalia’s approach to the laid-back interior was strongly influenced by her father, the late Ross Renwick. A northern beaches surf-loving legend, Renwick was also a graphic design whiz who co-founded Billy Blue Creative and its groundbreaking, Billy Blue magazine.  

“Dad had a huge impact on my style, giving me the courage to be adventurous with colour and design,” Renwick  says.

The cottage’s previous owners had engaged architect Peter Willett to open up the downstairs areas and add an upstairs parents’ retreat. Design references were Nantucket houses infused with a Swedish summer-house aesthetic.

Renwick enhanced the home further by painting the interior white-on-white, even using white paving paint for the floorboards.

The ceiling, which had formerly been limed, and its exposed beams and trusses, were also given the white-out treatment.

Texture and colour are infused throughout by patinated timber, touch-me textiles and quirky treasures, many sourced from local shops.

A favourite item is the living area’s bespoke Jimmy Possum modular sofa. With autumnal velvet stripes, its hues are picked up in the spines of the books.

Many of these were her father’s and are housed in bookcases flanking the fireplace with its gnarly railway sleeper mantelpiece.

Then there’s a cockatoo lamp base with quirky fabric shade, a cow-hide butterfly chair from Palm Beach’s popular Bow Wow and a turquoise-blue oriental rug under the dining table.

“The front door is blue too,” Renwick says. “Blue is peppered throughout the house. It was Dad’s signature colour.”

Perched atop the living room trusses, is a Midget Farrelly longboard made for Renwick in the ’80s.

Looking down over this gorgeous coastal home, it’s a fitting tribute from a proud and adoring daughter to an inspirational father.

Need to know

8 Goodwin Road, Newport

$1.75 million + 

Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, two car spaces

Built: 1952, renovated 2007

Inspect: Wed, noon-12.30pm; Sat, 2-2.30pm

Agent: Century 21 Avalon & Bilgola, 0414 997 328

Auction: July 25 at 2.30pm

More photos: Domain.com.au