Step Inside a Creative Couple’s Australian Forested Getaway
What other property has its own logo, letter-pressed stationery, and resident wallaby roaming the grounds? Welcome to Jacky Winter Gardens, an exceptionally dreamy retreat.
Photographs by Sean Fennessy
Illustrations by Marc Martin
Jeremy Wortsman and Lorelei Vashti occasionally get texts from guests in the middle of the night. Not about the typical stuff — a leaky dishwasher, accidentally lost keys — but about strange noises outside the house. “People think they’re being burgled,” says Wortsman. “They’re not familiar with the possums in the area.” Apparently, the nighttime visitors like to bang around on the porch or hang down from the roof and look in the windows. Even travelers from Melbourne, which is only an hour’s train ride away, can feel like they are in unfamiliar, critter-filled territory when they visit Jacky Winter Gardens. And that’s exactly the point.
Located in Belgrave, a suburb of Melbourne tucked in the Dandenong mountain range, Jacky Winter Gardens is named for a common indigenous bird in Australia, the jacky winter. It’s also a nod to the Jacky Winter Group, Wortsman’s business, which represents artists in Australia and New York, where Wortsman grew up. (Getting confused between Jacky Winter and Jeremy Wortsman? Just wait: His kids are named Jeronimo and Winifred.) “The distance from the city center isn’t huge, but when you get here, you’re in the middle of a national forest. You’re in a completely different place,” says Wortsman. There is a creek running behind the house; lemon, grapefruit, and peach trees in the gardens; and a shy wallaby that wanders the grounds like a stray cat.
When Wortsman and Vashti bought the property about three years ago, the idea was to open another source of income while starting a family, as well as to create a backdrop to show off the work of local artists that Wortsman represented. “I like having different arms of my business, and I love being in the hospitality arena. My background was working in bagel stores and coffee shops in New York City,” he says.
The couple was living in a nearby town and knew that the Belgrave area was a prime travel location, especially for artists, but slim on modern, stylish rental properties. They snapped up a neglected shack that was practically being eaten alive by overgrown gardens and got to work pruning, restructuring the interior, and crafting a curated experience that would draw visitors into a magical, otherworldly state of mind. “You can walk from the train station. You’re on a main road, but as you approach the house through the gardens, all of that busyness falls away,” says Wortsman.
The feeling of descending into nature continues inside the house. There are three main rooms, and as you step through them, closer to Clematis Creek in the back, a stripe of dark navy paint gets deeper, as if you’re wading into water. “It starts at shin height in the kitchen and living zone, becoming hip height in the bedroom,” says interior architect Sarah Trotter of Hearth Studio, who redesigned the space to have garden views from almost every room. “The house is really just a small snippet of shelter in the huge grounds.”
Trotter and Wortsman put thoughtful, whimsical details everywhere, starting with the front door. The Jacky Winter logo — a bird in a birdhouse, surrounded by curlicue vegetation — is painted in gold leaf, mother-of-pearl, and abalone by glass artist Will Lynes. Bright green plant-peppered wallpaper by Marc Martin covers the kitchen. Artwork from other Wortsman clients hangs around the house. Every guest receives a screen print of one piece, an illustrated map of the gardens by James Gulliver Hancock. In the separate studio next to the main house, there is an old-fashioned typewriter and sheets of letter-pressed Jacky Winter Gardens stationery. “One of the best travel experiences I ever had was at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. They had stationery in the rooms. So we made our own rip-off Chateau Marmont stationery!” says Wortsman. Vashti, a writer, raided her personal library to stock the one at Jacky Winter Gardens, making sure “every type of book you might be tempted to pick up and read over a weekend stay is there,” from graphic novels and children’s books to essay collections and books about film.
Trotter also made smart, practical moves to keep the property a smooth-running rental. “Designing accommodation relieves you of some of the day-to-day details, like wardrobes and pantries, so we could open up the plan even further,” she says. The bathroom, gorgeously decorated in pale blue penny tile, is able to be a fully “wet area,” as Trotter explains, making it easy to clean and maintain.
Since Belgrave is a popular spot to get married, the house is often booked by small wedding parties, and couples sometimes return for anniversaries. Wortsman and Vashti also run an artist-in-residence program, fielding applications and donating the entire property to an artist working on a commercial project. Occasionally, shop owners from the town have stayed, connecting the couple more intimately with the community. But most visitors are singles and couples looking for a break from the city. “They want a tranquil getaway, but with all the creature comforts,” says Vashti (who loves one such comfort — the king-size mattress — so much that she bought another for their own house).
If the frequent doodles in the guest book are any indication, many visitors are creatives like their hosts. “Jeremy and I know firsthand how moving it is to be close to nature,” Vashti says. “So we hope our guests go back to their daily lives more inspired and excited than they were when they arrived.”
Spalike amenities
The breathtaking blue-tiled bathroom offers guests a relaxing sanctuary with a rain shower head, a soaking tub, and Sonos. Wortsman preloads a house iPad with an eclectic playlist of jazz classics and local artists.
Serenity now
The couple made sure to incorporate several quiet spots to sit and just be. “We like to think of this house as a place where nothing happens,” says Wortsman. “And the more nothing that happens, the better.”
A cozy corner
“It has always been a dream to have a library in my house,” says Vashti, who stocked this one with her own books (she’s the author of Dress, Memory and How to Choose Your Baby’s Last Name), plus novels, art, and games.
All in the details
It’s the little things that make a place feel like a home (away from home). That’s why Vashti includes plush robes, convenient spots to stow clothing and luggage, and plenty of local handmade soaps from Soap Club.
At the front door
The Jacky Winter Gardens birdhouse logo, painted by artist Will Lynes, greets guests. It’s also printed on a welcome mat. “It acts as an amuse-bouche to whet your appetite before venturing inside,” says Vashti.
A space-saving sanctuary
In addition to the blue border that rises as you walk through the house, the wood floors darken from the front door to the bedroom. A wall-mounted nightstand and hanging bars offer storage with zero footprint.
About the author: Elizabeth Passarella covers interior design, food, travel, and parenting. She has written for Real Simple, Parents, Vogue, and The New York Times, and is a contributing editor at Southern Living. She lives in New York with her husband and three children.
