realestate.com.au
Laura Sharrad’s Henley Beach home has officially sold, with the MasterChef Australia winner and restaurateur preparing to farewell the much-loved beachside home where her daughter Florence spent her first years.
The sale is now unconditional and out of the cooling-off period, Laura has exclusively confirmed to Home Beautiful. And while she and husband Max Sharrad are excited about their next chapter, the reality of saying goodbye to their family home has been bittersweet.
“As soon as we signed the papers, the emotions really hit me,” Laura said. “Knowing this has been Florence’s home and that she probably won’t remember this beautiful home, made me quite emotional.”
“It’s been such a beautiful place to call home and we are so excited for the next family who bought this to make it their own forever home.”
Laura and Max have lived in the circa-1915 character villa for the past four years, transforming it into a relaxed family home where original charm meets contemporary spaces designed for cooking, gathering and entertaining.
And if parts of Laura Sharrad’s Henley Beach home look familiar, there’s a reason. The kitchen and outdoor entertaining area have regularly appeared in Laura’s cooking content.
Before Laura, Max and Florence swap their beachside lifestyle for a new chapter in the Adelaide Hills, let’s take one last look inside.
WHO LIVES HERE?
Who: Laura Sharrad, MasterChef Australia winner, chef and restaurateur; her husband Max Sharrad; and their daughter Florence, two.
Where: Henley Beach, South Australia.
Home: A renovated circa-1915 character villa with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, multiple living spaces and a generous outdoor entertaining area.
Known for: Laura appeared on MasterChef Australia three times before winning the competition in 2025. Together, Laura and Max are also behind Adelaide restaurants Nido Bar & Pasta and Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room.
Laura Sharrad’s Henley Beach home had them at hello
There’s plenty to fall for before you even make it through the front door. Set on a quiet street within walking distance of Henley Beach, the character villa’s classic frontage – complete with an iconic white picket fence – gives the home an almost storybook sense of arrival.
When the property first hit the market, Laura revealed the couple had initially fallen for its charming beachside location, proximity to the water and character facade. Four years later, those same things remain among the hardest to leave behind.
“The proximity to the beach, our wonderful neighbours, the beach lifestyle & my white picket fence!” Laura says of what she’ll miss most.
But the house also came to represent something much bigger for the couple: it became their first family home with Florence. Bringing their daughter home after she was born and watching her grow up by the beach have been among Laura’s most treasured memories here.
The rooms filled with memories
While there are plenty of beautifully designed spaces inside Laura Sharrad’s Henley Beach home, her favourites reveal just how personal the house became. “Florence’s nursery was one of my favourites,” she told Home Beautiful.
There’s also the sitting room, where wine bottled labelled with special memories form their own kind of family time capsule, and, naturally, the outdoor pizza oven area. But it’s not necessarily the rooms themselves Laura will remember the most. It’s what happened inside them.
“Celebrating Florence’s first birthday and second birthday here, as well as a large family Christmas, was truly special,” she says.
They’re the kinds of moments that turn a beautiful house into a home – and make leaving one so difficult. Florence may be too young to remember the house herself, but for Laura and Max, it will always be the backdrop to some of their earliest memories as a family of three.
The heart of Laura Sharrad’s Henley Beach home
Of course, in the home of two chefs, all roads lead to the kitchen. The kitchen in the home has doubled as both a family hub and workspace, appearing regularly as the backdrop to Laura’s recipes and cooking content. Its important comes as little surprise to anyone who heard Laura chat with Home Beautiful’s Edior-In-Chief Elle Lovelock on The Edit podcast.
While discussing the kitchen she hopes to create in her future home, Laura made her priorities very clear. “I’m not sparing. I’ll spare on the expenses anywhere else, but not in the kitchen. That’s my happy place,” she revealed on the podcast. Laura’s love of food is firmly rooted in the family. During her appearance on The Edit, she spoke about growing up in a big Italian family and how those traditions have influenced the way she cooks and entertains today.
That extends right down to the pantry staples. When asked to name the best tinned tomatoes in Australia, she nominated Annalisa – the brand her mum always bought – alongside Mutti.
The Henley Beach home was made for entertaining
If there was ever any doubt that this was the home of two hospitality people, Laura quickly clears it up.
“We are HUGE entertainers,” she said. “To be able to build that outdoor space to host our friends and family was very us.”
The home’s open-plan living, dining and kitchen zone allows gatherings to flow between spaces, while the outdoor entertaining area offers even more room to bring everyone together. “To have that open living, dining and kitchen meant no gathering felt too spaced out and everyone was in sight and able to enjoy themselves,” she said.
And then, of course, there’s the pizza oven. The built-in wood-fired pizza oven was created by specialist stonemason and wood-fired equipment builder Samuel Fraraccio of The Brick Chef and became one of the home’s defining features. Laura previously joked that she wished she could take it with them when they moved. “The new owners have already had a little lesson from Max on how to use it,” Laura revealed.
WE LOVE…
The pizza oven handover. Forget instruction manuals – Max has already given the new owners a lesson in using the couple’s beloved wood-fired oven. And Laura and Max aren’t giving up their pizza nights for good. An even more spectacular version is already on the wish list for their future Adelaide Hills home.
A home designed around family life
Despite its culinary credentials, Laura’s Henley Beach home has always been first and foremost a family home. Across two levels are four bedrooms, two bathrooms and multiple living spaces, giving the character villa the flexibility required for the couple’s busy life as parents, restaurateurs, and content creators.
Why they sold
The decision wasn’t made overnight. Laura previously revealed that finding the family’s next home had been about a year in the making, with the Sharrads setting their sights on an entirely different lifestyle in the Adelaide Hills. The dream is to create somewhere Florence can grow up surrounded by homegrown food, ducks and chickens, with acreage and eventually a forever home.
There are professional ambitions wrapped up in the move, too. Laura has spoken about creating a property that could become a backdrop for her work, potentially accommodate a future television series and include a productive garden to supply future ventures.
The Henley Beach home sells before auction
Laura and Max’s home hit the market with a $1.8 million price guide and was originally scheduled to go to auction on August 20. Instead, selling agent Thomas Crawford Doran called for best and final offers ahead of the scheduled auction, with the property placed under contract within three weeks of hitting the market.
The final sale price has not been disclosed. Laura has since confirmed to Home Beautiful that the same is out of its cooling-off period, making the family’s next chapter official. For the Sharrads, it closes the door on four very special years by the beach and opens another on what sounds like a dreamy new era. A sprawling Adelaide Hills property, a kitchen built on pasta parties, vegetable gardens, chickens and, eventually, an even bigger pizza oven?
We will happily take the tour when it’s ready. And while Florence may not remember the beachside house where she celebrated her first two birthdays, her parents certainly will.
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