A trusted Mr & Mrs Smith tastemaker has just returned from a trip to this Central Coast stunner, and as soon as they’ve unpacked their deck shoes and designer linens, a full account of their stay at the Bouddi Peninsula will be with you. In the meantime, just to whet your wanderlust, here’s a quick postcard from Pretty Beach House…
You know there's something special about Pretty Beach House the moment the private gate clicks open to reveal a black-run-steep drive up to the main house. By the time you arrive, you are at the top of the escarpment, high in the trees and looking back through lush bushland to the oyster farms of the sparkling Brisbane Waters. Once inside, and refreshed by chilled ginger tea, it's only slowly you realise that there's an Arthur Boyd on the wall and a huge, timelessly smooth old angophora poking through the polished timber deck outside and providing shade to the emerald blue infinity pool. Natural materials abound – polished sandstone, bamboo walls, recycled timber buttresses, twig screens, twine balustrades – but this is ravishingly refined rustic. Sofas are deep and plush, daybeds shaded and serene, and everywhere objects of desire make their stylish presence felt (from 1930s travel trunks to sculptures crafted from fallen branches). The grounds are also an intelligent mix of subtle manicure and a leave-it-alone exuberance of rock and eucalypt, presided over by an inscrutable lizard. Pretty Beach House is that rare thing: a smart, relaxed, exclusive, unstuffy, sophisticated place in a magical setting. It doesn't come cheap, but this is real Big Occasion territory. Think birthdays with zeros, make-up anniversaries, or best of all, a champagne and strawberries proposal on the solitary daybed high up in the bush on the edge of the property.
