The Making of 'Grounds of Cabarita'
Where it began…
For those of you who don’t know, Grounds of Cabarita is our house in Cabarita Beach, Northern NSW, which used to be our home and is now permanently available to rent on Airbnb.
We bought the house in August 2015, and moved in later that year. The first stage of renovations started in February 2016, which took approx. 6 weeks, then did the second stage in August 2016, which also took 8 weeks. More recently, in October 2018, we finished doing the backyard and put a pool in.
The house that we bought was a 1960’s fibro beach shack, which had seen two higilty pigilty renovations before us, that mostly involved adding random rooms on without much thought. For example, there were external windows coming off the bathroom into the living room, there was a fly wire door separating the lounge room from the laundry. The house was a dusky blue, the kitchen was a bright turquoise and the lounge room had barely any sunlight.
Throughout the renovation we didn’t change the external footprint at all, but we made lots of internal changes.
Stage 1 (Feb 2016, approx. 6 weeks):
Re-floored the house
Re-painted the entire house inside (white) and outside (changed the dusky blue to a crisp white)
We moved the kitchen location from the torquoise blue one that was in the entry way of the house into the old dark living room
Re-did the main bathroom and joined what was a separate toilet room and shower room into one big bathroom.
Made the front entry way into the living room
Turned a largely unused second living area into the master bedroom
Added bifold doors along the whole back of the house (meaning the master bedroom and kitchen could completely open up onto the patio)
Second stage (August 2016, approx. 8 weeks, finished the day before our wedding!):
Cut into the second bedroom and created a second bathroom and laundry
As we had no laundry after the first stage of renovations we used the laundromat down the road for a number of months!
Redid the back deck into a concrete patio, put in the pergola and the pizza oven
The decision was made to do a concrete patio as the height between the back of the house and the ground was too small, meaning any timber deck we did was at great risk of bowing, like it had previously
Third stage (October 2018):
Put in the pool area
Pebble crete pool with white concrete around it and a glass fence
Relaid the turf out the back
BEFORE AND AFTER PICS:
Becoming “Grounds Of Cabarita”
Our intention when renovating the house was for us to live in it. We started, as a joke, hash tagging #groundsofcabarita whenever Nick or I would post pictures on our instagram pages. People seemed really interested in the house, so I created its own instagram page @groundsofcabarita.
The page started to get lots of enquiries about how to stay at the house, how to shoot at the house, and even sometimes when I would post pics of Nick’s cooking, people would assume it was a cafe/restaurant, so lots of enquiries about how to eat there too haha! Don’t worry we never had anyone on the doorstep actually looking for a feed!
Due to this interest, Nick and I decided to give Airbnb a go and were blown away by the response. Because it was just the two of us (pre-Poppy) we would move in and out around bookings. Generally, our bookings were on weekends so it was a nice excuse to go camping for a weekend or go interstate. When the bookings were longer it was harder to juggle… there were quite a few days that I would roll up to work straight from a camp site, but no one seemed to notice haha!
We decided to stop taking bookings from the beginning of 2018, as I was approx. 30 weeks pregnant and we wanted enough time to nest, create a nursery and chill before our baby arrived.
In November of last year, once the pool was finished and Poppy was by then about 8 months old, we decided to relaunch our house back onto Airbnb and we were blown away with the response. Due to the amount of bookings and now having Poppy, we knew we were no longer going to be able to move in and out. So moved out completely and have started renting while we await the build of our new house (more updates on that soon)!
We absolutely love having guests stay in our house and photographers/brands rent our house out for shoots. For us it is a really creatively and financially reward “job”.
I am going to do a post really soon about Airbnb, the pros and cons and frequently asked questions!
Style inspirations
Grounds of Cabarita is, as we say, “barefoot luxury”. A place where you feel comfortable but also feel special! The style is very coastal, with lots of neutral tones. Due to the location of the beachside location of the house, the bones of the house and the feeling in the air, we felt that the style spoke for itself!
We got most of our style inspiration when undergoing renovations from Pinterest and Instagram. Pinterest is great for creating boards to ensure that a style flows through a house and for getting a general feel. While I find Instagram is better for looking for actual specific products. I create little collections in the “saved pictures” function that I can go back to when I am ready to shop.
When we travel we also like to stay in Airbnb’s or boutique hotels that often offer up a lot of interior inspiration, as do cafe interiors, restaurant fit outs, retail shop interiors etc.
I think when a place is rented out or on Airbnb, it is good to be very specific when styling and make sure that every item fits the brief. As people are only staying a short time, having a consistent style has a great impact without the risk of getting sick of the vibe. However, in a home I was to live in full time, I would be a bit more lax with thematic styling.
I am going to do a post really soon showing a break down of each room and the products etc. that are in them!
If you have any questions please comment below!
Thanks for reading along,
