property in spring, and the whopping big tree in the backyard. “I’ve
strung heaps of lights through it, and it’s just the best place to lie
down or have a nice meal,” Bec says.Like most houses, though, it’s not perfect – not that Bec is particularly
fussed. She reckons “creativity is born when you have to make do
with what you’ve got”. She’d love to paint some of the walls a different
colour, and isn’t mad on the orange-tinged timber in the kitchen.
Given half the chance, she’d add a quick whitewash or replace it
with something “more rustic and earthy”. A few more hooks for her
artwork would be good, too – favourites include pieces by her mum;
Western Australian painter Susanna Hawkes; and Californian
Daren Thomas Magee, aka Real Fun, Wow!The windows might be nice and big, but they also have some
“ugly aluminium frames, which I’d get rid of, for sure,” Bec says.
Unfortunately, it’s not possible – so the next best thing is to disguise
them, and Bec’s super-creative on that front. Some days she’ll hang
dresses in front of them; others, she’ll raid her collection of textiles
(she used to have a business making clothes out of retro fabrics)
and attach them to the curtain rails with clips from IKEA. Turkish
towels do the trick, too, she says. “I found a whole bunch of them in
lovely colours like pinks and mustards, with a bit of metallic thread
through them. They’ve got tassels – I love tassels, they should
be on everything.”Things don’t stay in one place for long in the Williams-Foster
household. “I don’t want to spend lots of money buying new stuff
when I can just move things around and make them feel new again,”
Bec says. “I’ve been a nester since I was a little kid – my weekendsIt’s pretty easy to find somewhere to rent in the seaside town of
Dunsborough in Western Australia – if you’re after somewhere
for a holiday, that is. If you live there, though, like photographer
Rebecca Williams, it’s a bit more of a struggle. “There are never
more than a few places available at any one time,” she says.
Bec’s first place – a little pink house she called the “Sugar Shack” –
was a beauty (so sweet, in fact, that we featured it in SPACES volume
two). The next one was definitely on the darker side. “I tried to make
it work, but couldn’t,” she admits. While looking for a lucky third
abode last year with her daughter Zavian and partner Clay Foster,
she came across a house on a 10-acre block that was bigger than
they needed, with rent way out of their league. One look at the
kitchen, though, with its working AGA cooker, and “I pretty much
stopped thinking about anything else,” Bec says.
Fortunately, there was a little cottage on site, which the family was
able to sublet to help pay the bills. Even luckier is that Amy and
Shannon, the couple who now live there with their little boy Milo,
“grow exotic Chinese mushrooms and are beautiful people,” Bec
says. “It’s so nice to have them here; it’s become like a little family.
I’ll be having a bath, and Amy and Milo will come and sit in the
bathroom, and Milo will jump in after me. I love it, it feels so homely.”
There’s a lot to love about the seaside abode, which Bec guesses was
built in the past 20 years. The spacious proportions of the rooms;
the light streaming in through every window; the whitewashed floors
“that have been trashed and scratched up, so they’re not precious”.
(They’re also a great backdrop for Bec’s favourite possessions – her
collection of rugs.) Then there’s the wildflowers that blanket the
around the house