Author Shannon Edwards // Place New Farm
Nestled amongst the leafy streets of St Lucia, 83 Hawken Drive embodies the sense of ‘home’.
With a playfully chic style, the home boasts a unique quality and demonstrates the love of the family who have built and lived in the home over the years.
We asked the owners, David and Bridget Catterall, about the process of constructing the unique home and what they’ve loved about living in the suburb of St Lucia.
Here’s an insight into the story behind 83 Hawken Drive, St Lucia.
Tell us about the process of building the home?
Our fabulous house is not only a pleasure to live in, but it was also a great build project.
Designed by Ross McMillan and inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s style, the house fits extremely well with the St Lucia style houses and the streetscape.
The builders of the home are the award winning Knowlman, McMillan and McDonald.
Many of the trades people who worked on the house had been with the building company for generations and had years of experience and knowledge.
Some of the key design features are the windows, all made from solid wood and the long hung doors by Finlayson’s wood merchants Brisbane.
The bricklayer for the home was third generation in the business – he was a perfectionist and made sure everything was placed perfectly. He told us that his Grandfather once told him that if the brickwork doesn’t look as perfect as wallpaper, then you have to start over.
We must say that the individual quality of each person who worked on the house was simply amazing, everything was done perfectly.
Talk us through the layout of the home?
Interior decorators from Black and Spiro were involved with the design of the house from the planning inception stage and had a lot of say in terms of bathroom and kitchen specifications.
The home features unique styling, quirky wallpaper, furniture pieces and art work, all from Black and Spiro.
The layout of the house is flexible and is particularly suitable for families with growing teenagers and also families of various configurations.
The house has separate entrances which again this facilitates very flexible living arrangements, providing the parents with their very own living space.
The home has a number of living rooms that were designed specifically to be multi-purpose.
In the middle of the house, there’s a central sliding door, which when used, can divide the home in half.
What have you enjoyed about living in St Lucia?
St Lucia is a fabulous place to live and we have really enjoyed our time here, so much so that we’re going to stay local to the area.
Locals can enjoy and access all of the UQ sport facilities gym, pool, sporting clubs.
Straight down the staircase next to this property is the St Lucia Golf Club and 100 Acre bar.
UQ is currently planning the development of a fabulous retail food and entertainment precinct which will further boost the appeal of the area.
St Peters Lutheran College is a short walk from the house as is Ironside State School.
St Lucia also has bikeways and walkways along the river, which provides leisurely outdoor activity.