There is much to love about the renovated inner west Sydney home formerly belonging to NRL legend Benji Marshall, his media personality and podcasting wife Zoe and the couple’s super-cute kids – curly topped (now) four-year-old Fox and baby Ever.
Take the personalised “The Marshalls” welcome mat out front, the chic, soothing palette throughout, a fabulous black and white photo wall near the entranceway, filled with family memories, and then there’s that gorgeous garden out back that looks like it’s been there for decades.
Following the addition of daughter Ever to the Marshall family mid 2021, the couple sold this beautiful home for $2,815,000 in Feburary 2022 and purchased a new home in Hunters Hill for a reported $4.75 million.
With five bedrooms, four bathrooms and plenty of entertaining space, the couple carried out a luxe renovation to the property, where Home Beautiful visited them recently.
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“I wanted our home to be beautiful but still really liveable,” says Zoe, who worked with architect and interior designer Laura Stanton of Stanton Architects to give the home a makeover.
The pair switched out lights for contemporary styles, fitted luxurious drapes to replace blinds and swapped around the dining and lounge rooms to make the most of that beautiful outlook out back.
“I believe that you need to have artwork that makes you feel a certain way,” says Zoe. “I’m quite into manifesting and visualisation and if you have something that is dark, that has a bit of angst in it, I feel like you’re bringing that into your home. With these pieces there was complete calm and a sense of joy.”
While Benji happily admits to deferring to his wife in all things decorating – “She’s the boss,” he says. “I know that I don’t really have an eye for anything that looks good, so I just leave it up to her” – there are some things that called for compromise. Firstly, the couch. “As a man who loves to watch his sport on the TV, the couch is the number one thing for me, everything else is fine,” he says.
The couple also have their own bedrooms, as Benji was “sick of being kicked in the ribs to get out for snoring,” Zoe says. “I go to bed early and he’s late to bed,” says Zoe. “And I wasn’t on to him about cleaning his room and crap everywhere.” Feminine colours and fabrics, including luxurious bed linen, fill Zoe’s room (below), while a repurposed lamp using a Kmart shade ticks the bargain buy box.
The result is a masculine space of Benji’s own, filled with deep navy linen and enough space for Benji and the couple’s two dogs, Lucky and Mila, to have a good night’s rest.
“There’s just an energy about the house that is really good in here now,” says Zoe of her made-over home. “And I had it blessed again by a beautiful friend of mine who knows how to sage. The last time I ‘saged’ in New Zealand we got robbed – so don’t sage if you’re not sure what you’re doing.”
While Benji is a fan of the very stylish spaces his wife has now created, home will always be where his favourite people are. “It sounds cheesy, but home is where the heart is,” he says with a smile. “And when I’m away from these guys, it’s never going to be home.”
