Georgina Jeffries was afforded an unusual amount of freedom from her clients when she received her brief for the Mizu House in Lorne. The original structure was built 13 years ago, but the same owners wanted their beach house to accommodate a growing extended family over holiday periods.

‘The brief was more about what the client wanted to fit into the space, rather than how they wanted the house to look,’ Georgina explains. Together with her team, Georgina re-choreographed the existing interiors to create two extra bedrooms (including cosy built-in bunks!), and a rumpus room upstairs for the grandchildren.

Aside from the logistics required for fitting everyone into the space, Georgina wanted to create an unpretentious and inviting retreat that would suit all generations of the sprawling extended family. ‘We knew we could get the planning to work, so our biggest goal was to inject warmth and calm to the spaces,’ explains Georgina. The result? A light-filled contemporary beach house filled with smooth joinery and refined materials.

Views of the ocean stretch out through native trees from the balcony, and were the key to informing Georgina’s pared-back palette for the interiors. Tadelakt plaster is a waterproof finish applied by hand, which Georgina and her team used in the bathrooms to render a stone-like texture to the surfaces. Natural timber, lining board, sisal and wool carpets complete the restrained yet earthy palette the lime plaster lends to wet areas.

‘Our clients gave us a lot of freedom and trust with the design, but now I look back at the project, I think we’ve created something reflective of them: charming, understated and graceful.’