The golden hour house: Why a designer banned every colour but yellow from her garden

Creatives are notoriously hard to please when it comes to their own homes. They see too much, sense too much and know too quickly when something is off.

So when Claire Perini – director and lead interior architect of Composition, a practice devoted to crafted interiors and curated vintage pieces – stepped inside this mid-century home on Elouera Road in Sydney’s Avalon Beach, the surprise wasn’t that she admired it, but how swiftly she felt at ease.

• Owner: Interior architect Claire Perini
• The property: Renovated mid-century home near the coast
• Address: 18 Elouera Road, Avalon Beach, NSW
• Price guide: $3.9 million–$4.1 million
• Agent: Shores, Stephanie Hammond 0414 997 328

Oregon shiplap ceilings drew her in. Tallowwood boards glowed underfoot. Maple panelling held its own history.

The place felt grounded and unpretentious, perched on the low side of a coveted street where the block spills towards the north and the village hum sits a short stroll away.

The home’s original mid-century features shine. Credit:

“From the moment I first walked in and saw the ceilings, they almost acted like a guide, leading me into the home,” Perini recalls.

Two oversized skylights flood the living spaces with natural light.

“The ceilings alone were enough reason to purchase the house. Then there was the brick, the render in patches, the orange vinyl joinery with dolphin contact paper in the pantry. There were so many mid-century traits I fell in love with.”

Instead of rushing into renovation, Perini let the house speak first. Light became the priority, and two oversized skylights transformed the interior.

The green-tiled bathroom is a nod to the gum trees enveloping this coastal haven.Credit:

She gathered natural materials slowly over the years, adding what felt right rather than what was fashionable.

Living in the house, as she first found it, allowed Perini to “let the house speak” before she began making changes. Credit:

It was an approach rooted in patience – the same instinct that anchors her design practice.

“I clad the brick chimney in sandstone flagging from Eco Outdoor and chose a yellow-toned grout to marry it into the existing brickwork,” Perini says.

“I got so excited by the chimney that I asked my friends – talented landscapers – to help me construct the freestanding outdoor fireplace at the base of the property. These elements were added to heighten the home’s softness and emphasise the beauty already there.”

The property is a world unto itself with a lush, vibrant garden. Credit:

That instinct for harmony also shaped the palette. Greens borrowed from the gums. Warm yellows echoing sandstone and sun. Brass catching the afternoon light without shouting for attention.

Even the garden became part of the design language. In its earliest days, Perini planted only yellow-flowering species so that the whole property glowed at golden hour.

“I initially went completely over the top and decided that no plants in the garden could have anything but yellow flowers so that the garden glowed alongside the house – I have since expanded my colour palette to allow for purple,” she laughs.

But the soul of the home lies in the life carried through it. Perini’s son Otis, 5, was born here, and the early years of raising a child in these rooms shaped the house in ways materials never could.

Claire Perini with her five-year-old son, Otis.Credit:

“I purchased this home from a lovely, very elderly lady – Avalon’s first female GP, who lived here for more than 60 years,” Perini says.

“It worked for her all those years, and it worked just as beautifully for us when Otis was a baby and now as a little boy. It’s the kind of house that’s simply easy at every age.”

The ease extends to gatherings as well. The home can be serene midweek, then come alive at the weekend – long tables pulled onto the deck beneath the trees, relaxed drinks by the fire, friends drifting between levels and terraces as the night loosens.

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It’s a house that rises to any occasion – a quality that will serve its next custodians just as well.

“My work is shifting back toward the city, and Otis is nearing school age, so the timing to sell feels right,” Perini says.

“We will miss this home and this community. Everyone who lives in Avalon agrees – nothing beats strolling down for a swim on a balmy summer afternoon. You can even collect ice-cream for the stroll home.”

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