After looking for a year, the couple traded in apartment life for this modern two-level, four-bedroom home in early 2019. “At the time I was pregnant, and we had a one-year-old and a two-year-old, so we were looking for a home that had living space for us all to be together.” They didn’t want too many levels or separate rooms, “so the layout of this house was a big selling point.”
The location in Sydney’s inner-east was a drawcard too, Lahey says, “we wanted to be in walking distance to a school, park and good coffee." Good but not perfect, they enlisted Poco Design’s Poppy O’Neil to help them make it their own. The renovation took a year to complete. “The idea behind the design was to evoke the feeling of being on holidays with resort-style interiors and flow,” says Lahey. The brass, marble and polished plaster pool cabana hits the brief. So too does the five-star master suite with plush carpet and marble-clad ensuite.
The growing art collection includes custom installations by Oliver Tanner that look like textiles spun from silk and a 55kg compressed resin sculpture fashioned by Fred Allard to look like a Chanel suitcase, which the couple shipped from Paris. With rugs by the likes of Kelly Wearstler and lighting by Articolo and Apparatus Studio, three kids under five and two dogs keeps it interesting.
In any other home the sheer luxury of it all would feel like a disaster waiting to happen but Lahey plays it cool. “We’ve had two broken lamps. One was replaced, then broken again. It’s now sitting half broken,” she points out. “And there’s been toilet training accidents on carpets – both the kids and the dogs.” Planning the renovation, Lahey envisaged a home they could really live in. “We’ve called a carpet cleaner a couple of times, but all-in-all the house has held up.” There's a lot of grit below this glossy surface.
For the full cover story, pick up the new issue of marie claire Lifestyle, on stands now.
Prop styling by Kerrie-Ann jones. Fashion styling by Jana Pokorny and Rachel Dawson. Hair by Daren Borthwick/Artist Group. Hair by Teneille Sorgiovani/Lion Artist Management.
