Casa Campana Brings Mediterranean Chic To The Tweed Coast Hinterland

One would forgive you for thinking Casa Campana was transplanted from the Mediterranean Coast to the rolling green hills of the Tweed Coast hinterland.

Designed by Peppa Hart in collaboration with Three Birds Renovations, the 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 2-car garage residence brings a luxurious slice of Mediterranean style to Northern NSW through its arching design, whitewashed walls and breezy, open-plan layout.

Once through the aforementioned archways, the open plan living and dining area is the star. Boasting enormous scale, custom panelling overhead, and concrete hard finishes — including the kitchen workspaces — Casa Campana is effortlessly cool.

Complementing the custom concrete additions are the handmade balustrades, door handles, and joinery throughout while modern comforts such as a double-sided gas fireplace and a butler’s pantry.

Secluded by its location and sprawling 1.31-hectare plot, the European feel extends outside via oversized bi-fold doors to the smashed tiling underfoot (whitewashed, of course) and further use of concrete leading to the heated saltwater pool.

Beyond the pool sees a poolside cabana that inspires hosting, complete with a woodfired pizza oven and sink and two heated outdoor showers.

There’s also a kids and adults cubby area — one featuring a rooftop slide and servery the other a built-in daybed and wet bar.

Back inside, the upper level of the home hosts the master suite – complete with a large walk-in robe, built with custom joinery and brass handles and an opulent design, open ensuite complete with concrete benchtops.

The upper terrace wraps the master suite and accompanying studio space.

The remains of the accommodation is found downstairs, each with built-in robes alongside laundry and a separate media room.

Built with the purpose of never needing to leave, there’s a range of smart home fixtures including smart home lighting and an inbuilt sound system throughout – controlled from the butler’s pantry – alongside electric Luxaflex blackout blinds in multiple rooms.

While secluded in its orientation, the residence is in a coveted pocket of northern NSW, due to its proximity to Byron Bay, Cabarita beach and its array of cafes, restaurants and boutiques.

The listing is with Luke Savage of LS Properties (+61 477 122 559) with a price guide of $4 million. Lsproperties.com.au

A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.

The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.

“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”

The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.

It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.

In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.

“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.

The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.

“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.

He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.

The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.

“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.

His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.

“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.

When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.

They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.

The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.

For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.

“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”

As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.

“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”

Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.

Casa Campana Brings Mediterranean Chic To The Tweed Coast Hinterland

Step inside this unique take on a family home.

Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.