An Eclectic Sanctuary Reveals a Couple's True Colours
Poppy and Scotty Gibson love coming home for their bright and airy cabin. “Our house is a small sanctuary in the center of a bustling, activity-filled location. However, as soon as we close the front door, there’s this instant separation from all of the noise and energy of this street,” says Scotty, speaking to Smith Street, a vibrant, eclectic shopping district in suburban Melbourne, Australia.
Poppy, a floral stylist, and Scotty, a plumber, invest most of their nights and days toiling away in their eponymous Pop&Scott Workshop Cooperative, in which the crafty, artsy and trade-oriented gather to exchange ideas, assemble furniture and also work on projects. Though they love the community sense of their warehouse co-op, they crave the relaxing vibe of their house after a day of working with their hands on.
“There’s all this frenetic energy at work and even close to our cabin; Scotty and that I have such big personalities as it is. It’s just nice to come home and unwind with our cat and dog after a very long day,” says Poppy.
in a Glance
Who lives here: Poppy and Scotty Gibson
Location: Collingwood, a suburb ofMelbourne, Australia
Size: 650 square feet
That’s intriguing: The house was built in the early 1800s. “It had been one of the first Collingwood workers’ cottages in the region, home to laborers constructing the town centre of Melbourne,” says Scotty.
Lisa Sorgini
Lisa Sorgini
Poppy and Scotty bought their midcentury couch from a shop round the corner and picked the teal custom upholstery, which adds a cool and earthy palette into the crisp, white living room. Throw pillows from Mexico remind them daily of their travels abroad. Poppy sayss, “I wish I bought heaps of them, but I figure that means we have to return for another experience and purchasing excursion.”
The natural reach and bend of these potted plants as well as the vintage artwork give this living space corner some motion.
Lisa Sorgini
An eclectic composition fills a massive stretch of white wall above the sofa. Poppy discovered the oil painting . Artist and friend Jessica Tremp gave the couple the taxidermy squirrel. Another trinkets and spiritual totems came from excursions to Mexico and the USA.
Hint: A few accessories and decor may give your space a worldly, international twist. Meaningful tokens and memorabilia blended in with this home’s eclectic style function.
Lisa Sorgini
The adjoining living room couch was a present from Scotty into Poppy. “I had my eye on the couch for a few weeks already; one day that he just surprised me,” she says.
Flooring lamp base: out of Scotty’s aunt; turquoise color: thrift shop
Lisa Sorgini
“I’m always picking flowers, leaves and branches out of roadsides and friendly neighborhood gardens,” says Poppy. She also heads into the Melbourne Flower Trade Market twice weekly.
Lisa Sorgini
The couple filled a lonely corner with a motley team of musical instruments, vinyl records, a crate box plus a jar of freshly picked euphorbias. Scotty, that comes from a family of fortune tellers and magicians, indulges his imaginative side with music and plays the didgeridoo.
Hint: Bring your musical instruments out of their instances. Here, instruments fill this corner and reveal bits about the homeowners’ individuality and heritage; they also add to expand the woodsy, organic character of this space.
Lisa Sorgini
Poppy designed the table, along with the couple built the table together. It has a steel grate throughout the center, which she fills with strands of fresh herbs. The eat-in kitchen hosts intimate parties of “wine, food and good friends,” she says. Bigger get-togethers occur in the exterior courtyard, in which a table and chairs host summertime cookouts and that which Scotty fondly calls “good times”
The couple homes their china cupboard in the fresh recessed space of their fireplace — just one of the ways they save valuable floor space in kitchen.
Lisa Sorgini
A industrial light hovers over the table and herb garden. A reddish tin jar homes walnut branches and picks up on the scarlet colour of this light ring and freshly picked flowers.
A portait overlooks the eat-in table. “I discovered it for just a buck, and I can not imagine the space with no. It’s one of my most prized possessions,” says Poppy.
Hint: Recall that one-of-a-kind artwork can up any home’s artful composition — even when the artwork only costs a buck. Fantastic taste trumps expensive and impersonal daily.
Lisa Sorgini
Paella nights occur in summer and the spring. “Poppy’s been known as one of the best paella manufacturers in Melbourne,” says Scotty.
Lisa Sorgini
Lisa Sorgini
The couple decorated their bedroom. “When we moved into our small cabin, we needed to downsize significantly. It’s been a lesson in prioritizing and surrounding ourselves just with matters that we genuinely love around the house,” says Scotty.
Lisa Sorgini
Laid out and folded piles of blankets in different prints and patterns lend the space a cozy, warm feel.
Hint: Invest in your blankets and throws so you can use them for a long time — and also for uses outside of keeping you warm on a winter’s night. Cascade them over a wingback chair, or drape 1 lengthwise over a chair arm across the end of the bed, just like Poppy and Scotty have done in their bedroom.
Lisa Sorgini
Cacti, succulents and creeping fig weaving through a gas mask lend the exterior courtyard a lush charm and reveal a little the couple’s unusual strategy. “As a florist, I work and genuinely love surrounding myself with texture and color all day. Scotty and I love to have fun and do not take ourselves too seriously. I believe this comes through in our house,” says Poppy.
Lisa Sorgini
Morning Glory peeks out of a crack at the entrance. “It grows like a weed and covers most of the rear of the house. Even though it’s a pest, I truly love the way that it creeps in. It had been one of the reasons why I wanted to live here at the first place,” says Poppy.