Lilyfield's Latest Lavish Residence Hits The Market

Located in one of Lilyfield’s most sought-after streets, 18 Chapel Street presents a bold new residence. Designed by Simon Vaughan Architects and interiors by MXM Design Studio – and built by award-winning boutique building team, Micrah Projects – the new development brings high-end luxury across a dual-level floor plan.

The 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom, with lock-up garage residence sees imported Spanish porcelain tiling underfoot (with underfloor heating on the ground floor), high ceilings, galleries of glass and architectural skylights creating an airy light-filled space.

Further, the interiors – styled by Coloured Pencil – see a lavish kitchen as the centrepiece of the home, fitted with Manhattan marble benchtop and island, Zip hot water unit and integrated refrigerator with an outlook to the garden.

Elsewhere, the home sees flexible, fluid living courtesy of the architectural curves of the living and dining space fitted with a showcase fireplace. A separate family room offers built-in cabinetry and a comfortable space to retreat.

The residence is replete with four luxury bedroom suites all fitted with built-in robes while a study offers a built-in desk with brass inlays and LED strip lighting.

The master bedroom boasts ‘his’ and ‘hers’ robes, built-in bedside tables and a timber panelled feature wall. Here, the master also holds an ensuite, arriving with Manhattan marble – coordinating with the kitchen – and underfloor heating.

The other bathrooms follow suit with the same marble adornments and underfloor heating.

Outside, an expansive covered rear alfresco terrace sees a custom Cedar built-in barbeque and preparation area ideal for entertaining. In addition to the above, a central courtyard with established garden and spotted gum hardwood timber decking is also offered with great connection to the indoor spaces. It also doubles as a garage.

The residence is nearby to the bay and parklands, weekend markets, bus and light rail to Sydney CBD.

The listing is with Cobden & Hayson’s Ben Southwell (+61 407 896 212) and is set for auction on 13 February 2021 on-site. Price guide $3.3m.

ch.com.au

A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.

The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.

“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”

The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.

It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.

In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.

“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.

The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.

“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.

He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.

The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.

“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.

His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.

“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.

When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.

They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.

The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.

For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.

“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”

As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.

“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”

Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.

Lilyfield’s Latest Lavish Residence Hits The Market

Elevated living in a tightly held Sydney locale.

Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.