Inside a Home that perfectly blends Mod Aus and Scandinavian Design

I do love a good peek into the houses of the super-stylish, and the home tour I’m conducting on the blog today can definitely be described as sublime on the style front.

This family home, situated in Kahibah (Newcastle) belongs to the very talented Melissa Webster – interior designer at The Gather Collective. This local Creative lives with her husband Trent, daughter Kaila (8) and sons Blair and Kobe (6 and 3). Add two dogs into the mix and you have a home that’s definitely not light on action.

The style of the home, Melissa tells me, is Scandinavian design meets modern Australian; a mix of pared-back styling that celebrates neutral tones and warm timber accents.

“I don’t love a lot of colour, I tend to be drawn to more earthy, muddy tones, and crisp whites,” Melissa tells me. “I’ve played with the whole monochromatic trend, but I cant cope without some natural timbers or some hints of colour in accents”.

There’s a wonderful sense of comfort in this home. The homewares, furniture and art all intermingle seamlessly – a mix of new and old – and it all seems to work without trying too hard.

Melissa explains that she looks for timeless elements when putting the rooms in her home together, not of-the-minute decor pieces that’ll date quickly.

“As much as I love on trend pieces and specify some in my work, I tend to mix these elements in with some older, found objects to keep the space feeling lived in and real”.

I’m always keen to discover the approach designers and stylists use when decorating their own homes. In Melissa’s case, she tells me that when it comes to style secrets to make a home look great, it’s all about layers.

“Once you get the colour base for a space, its easy to work the next layer into it with your finishes, fabrics, furniture and artwork,” she says, “but don’t forget to stand back and take things away…less is often more”.

Her son Kobe’s room is a lesson in careful planning, and it’s the room that intrigues me the most. A tiny space (1.5 x 3 meters as you can see above), Melissa had to carefully consider how she was going to make it work.

The first step in the process, she explains, was to think about clean lines, clever storage ideas and visually light furniture.

“The elevated bed platform allowed for a full wardrobe space and toy storage underneath, plus I managed to squeeze in his own desk area. When selecting a desk chair I opted for an ottoman to keep the line lower. The little ladder to his bed is removable and houses an additional hidey nook underneath; sometimes its storage and sometimes its a fortress”.

Melissa tells me that while she did ask her kids what they wanted their rooms to look like, she was careful to interpret their desires and execute them in a way that gave them a little of what they wanted but still served the overall design of the home.

“If the kids had their way entirely, Kaila’s room would be hot pink, Blair would be wall to wall comic strips and Kobe would move permanently to our room! But I did ask for their wish lists and picked the most design sensitive options available.

Bedrooms are meant to be a retreat, and with the plethora of toys adding colour and stimulations to their space, I needn’t add vibrant bedding or wall colours to the chaos”.

>> What are you loving about Melissa’s Scandinavian design meets modern Australian home? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below this post.