Our Stories
At Home in Byron Bay with Interior Designer Olive Cooke
The multi-talented creative shares how incorporating the outdoors into housing design shapes her family’s lifestyle.
Interior designer and multi-talented creative Olive Cooke travels all around the world sourcing unique items for clients, working on collaborations and searching for inspiration for upcoming commissions. But her favourite place – and project – is the home where she lives with husband Henry Tervenski and daughter Paloma.
Nestled in the Byron Bay Hinterland, Field House is a collaboration between Cooke and Tervenski; a native timber-clad sanctuary inspired by the simplicity of Japanese and Scandinavian design but built for a lifestyle that is uniquely Australian.
“We designed our home to really interact with the outdoors so there’s a lot of outdoor dining spaces,” she says. “Each of the bedrooms look out to the garden, it’s something that was really important to us when designing our family home.”
One of the main things I love about living here is there’s a real connection to nature. We spend a lot of time outdoors especially in the spring and in the changing seasons, it feels like a really open home. I feel in every space in this house you can see out, you can see the garden, you can see the birds.
Cooke’s interior design brings together the twin demands for home to offer quiet and tranquillity in private moments while also incorporating areas for gathering with loved ones.
“Home is a place where you feel safe and grounded and you can retreat at the end of the day, while equally opening it up to the people you love and enjoying outdoor dining spaces, spending time with family and friends. It’s equal measures a soft and calm space but a joyous and fun, vibrant place as well.”
“A house feels lived in when you can see spaces are used, there is beautiful mess and there are friends around, there’s noise and laughter, and you can really bring those people that you love in.”
As the days grow longer, Cooke looks forward to the sense of potential and excitement that the new season brings, both in the garden and inside the home.
One of the main things I love about living here is there’s a real connection to nature. We spend a lot of time outdoors especially in the spring and in the changing seasons, it feels like a really open home. I feel in every space in this house you can see out, you can see the garden, you can see the birds.
