H&G AT HOME WITH
22 / AUSTRALIAN HOUSE & GARDEN
ABOVE / In summer, the family f lings open
the doors and spends most of the day out
on the north-facing terrace. Nicki bought the
teak table from Coco Republic and sells
the wicker chairs through her business.
Metal lanterns, Barbara’s Storehouse.
OPPOSITE / “We use every room of the
house so we don’t have ‘good’ rooms as
such,” says Nicki. Her living space includes
a sofa from Town & Country Style,
coordinated with a coffee table from
Suzie Anderson Home. Heirloom mirror.
FOR WHERE TO BUY, SEE PAGE 194.L
ike many expectant couples
looking for their first home, the
clock was ticking for Nicki and
Chris Dobrzynski. In 2012, the
landlord of their rental property in
the NSW Southern Highlands announced
she was selling just a few months out
from Nicki’s due date. The Dobrzynskis- who’d left Sydney just a year earlier –
knew they wanted to stay in the area and
were prepared to move quickly when they
found ‘the one’.
Nicki, a commercial interior designer
who had just established a residential
design practice called Cottonwood
Interiors, and Chris, a property valuer,
began inspecting local homes. They loved
the generous plots, which range between
2000-4000m2, and the shaded streets but
it was something entirely different that
drew them to the house they decided to
buy; an elegant 2m-high hedge and
country-style gates. “Chris and I joke
about buying the property because of the
hedge,” says Nicki. “But one like ours, a
cotoneaster, would take 15-20 years to
mature. The 2200m2 gardens were also
lovely, though overgrown.”
Unfortunately, the 1980s-era house
wasn’t as alluring. “It was red brick with
mustard-yellow windows and doors, but
the windows were big and timber so I
knew we could work with them,” says
Nicki. A month later, the Dobrzynskis
moved in and began a hasty makeover.
“We painted the inside of the house
ourselves and had the three bedrooms
recarpeted, just in time for Eva’s birth.”
Four years on, a lot more has been
done and the 200m2 home is almost >