One Of Hawthorn's Finest Hits The Market

In Hawthorn’s most desirable street, less than 15 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD and nearby to the Yarra River, leading schools and local dining precincts, this three-storey home is set on approx. 886sqm, offering 5-bedrooms, 5-bathrooms and space for seven cars.

Designed by Charles Salter, of Salter Architects, with interiors by Jessie Cook of Cook Gordon Architects, the home finds Harper & Sandilands oak flooring underfoot while bespoke panelling and brickwork arches come to define the home’s aesthetic.

The kitchen boasts Miele appliances and a Liebherr built-in double door fridge, marble benchtops, and a butler’s pantry while the connected living, meals and alfresco dining area is elevated with the aforementioned timber panelling and a fireplace.

A formal dining, study, laundry and powder room are also found here.

Also on the ground level is the master suite, which sees private access to the verandah, another fireplace, large walk-in-robe and ensuite decorated in marble with twin vanities, dark timber cabinetry and a standalone bath.

The combination of marble and dark timber cabinetry extends to the powder room, while marble is replaced with a granite vanity in the upstairs, pool house and lower ground family bathrooms.

Upstairs sees the other four bedrooms, one of which is privy to an ensuite, private balcony and walk-in-robe.

On the lower ground floor arrives an expansive family room which houses a cellar servicing 144 bottles. Elsewhere, the showroom style garage houses five vehicles and boasts its own rear-lane access. A further two car spots are also available on the property

The outdoor area truly impresses with an incredible in-ground heated pool alongside a pool house which acts as a covered resort-style pavilion complete with its own bathroom. It is further complemented by the alfresco dining area – ideal for entertaining – arriving with an in-built BBQ, tap, sink and mini-bar fridge, detailed with stone benchtops.

The home is fitted with multiple CCTV security cameras, with back to base monitoring, accessible via mobile while a 14 zone Sonos sound system is found throughout.

1 Shakespeare Grove, Hawthorn, Melbourne is listed with Jock Langley (+61 419 530 008) and Emma Pierson (+61 409 182 310) of Abercromby’s Real Estate and is set for auction Friday 11 December. Price guide; $8.8 million.

Abercrombys.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.

One Of Hawthorn’s Finest Hits The Market

Inspired family living in a coveted Melbourne location.

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