Photography: Jessie Prince courtesy of Hardie Grant Books
If you followed lifestyle blogger Courtney Adamo on Instagram in 2015, you’ll know that it was the year her life changed. It was the year that the Adamo family sold their London home and packed up their lives to travel the world for a year, homeschooling their five kids as they journeyed through the United States, Peru, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka and Italy.
It was on this trip that the Adamos first visited Byron Bay in northern New South Wales. It’s a coveted area where plenty of famous Aussie personalities reside, including Shelley Craft who has a home inspired by Tuscan villas.
Courtney and her family fell for the area’s laidback lifestyle: surfing in the morning, hot coffee on the walk home, cooking family dinners in the evening under a syrupy Byron sunset. At the end of their sabbatical, the family of seven decided to leave London behind and put down permanent roots in Australia.
They chose Bangalow, a town just outside of Byron, famous for its bustling farmer’s market, and had been living there for some months before Courtney and her husband Michael spotted the house they now call home.
“I came to see it out of curiosity, with zero expectations,” she recalls. “When I walked into the house, I felt immediately at home. Having lived in London for 12 years, always in old Victorian homes, I felt right at home in this old house with its creaky floors and old windows, tall ceilings, and rickety old doorknobs. I felt like I was being hugged.”
Some pretty serious renovations were in order: the Adamos remodelled the house, moving the kitchen to the rear of the home so it would overlook the garden, and added a laundry room, second bathroom and one extra bedroom.
In terms of decoration, Adamo went for simple, open and inviting, hanging the family’s treasured pieces of art from their travels on every wall and letting in as much light as possible through big, open windows.
The result is an airy and relaxed family home, full of life and love. A place where kids can cook in the kitchen with their father, or grab a surfboard and head out to the beach. It’s also where Courtney works, sitting at her little desk overlooking the garden and crafting e-courses on motherhood and pregnancy, or sharing snapshots of the family’s life on Instagram.
“I wanted to create a home that felt unique to our family, with mementos from our travels, favourite art on the walls, favourite books on display, most-loved toys in baskets, plants in pots,” she explains. “It gives me so much pleasure creating a place that feels like home to our family.”
This is an edited extract from The Makers by Bed Threads, published by Hardie Grant Books.
