Williamstown Garden

Gina and Ian McVicar searched for a long time for a house to serve as both a home and a business base. Then one day they saw an old fisherman's cottage made of bluestone, and fell in love with it immediately. Even though the house had rising damp and was very run down, the McVicars decided it deserved to be rescued. Gina is an interior decorator and Ian a landscape designer, so they put their skills to work to create a home and garden with charm and style.

History

The cottage was built in 1850 and consisted of three rooms linked by a hallway. In 1895 a kitchen and bedroom were added, then as the years passed several lean-tos were tacked on at the back. The McVicars re-blocked the house and replaced all the windows. They removed all the plaster from the walls, which were then rendered and painted in a pale primrose colour. The lean-tos were demolished and a kitchen and family room added.

Decor

The house is furnished with an eclectic collection of antiques including a 1920s cream and turquoise kitchen sideboard, a Coolgardie safe and a dark wood 1920s kitchen cabinet. The McVicars once ran a business called Reminisce Design and Decoration which sold silk flowers, and the bluestone cottage is decorated with Gina's trademark silk roses. The kitchen is the heart of the house where Gina's love of French provincial and Australian country decor come together in a unique look. Amazingly Gina has managed to find time to combine interior decoration with training for gruelling iron-man events, including the 1999 iron-man championships in Hawaii.

The garden

A small courtyard at the back of the house features a fountain and reconstituted paving from Western Australia called Urbanstone. This area is perfect for alfresco dining but there's not really much room to plant anything, so Ian has turned his front nature strip into a cottage garden. After poisoning the grass he dug the whole area over and then replanted with lavender, salvia, daisies, evening primrose, bulbs and roses. Ian says that gardening on the nature strip is a wonderful way to meet the neighbours, who are always ready to stop by and have a chat.

Further information

Urbanstone costs around $45 per square metre. To find out about regulations regarding nature strip gardens, check with your local council.

Copyright CTC Productions 1999