Herald Sun Dream Homes 2010 - Portsea

Dream Homes - 190 Franklin Road, Portsea.

With seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, this shaker-style home complete with shingles is reminiscent of the Hamptons homes favoured by New York's rich and famous.

In Portsea, like many playgrounds of the rich, owners tend to want their houses to stand out - it's a way of showing the world they've made it.

So it's refreshing to note a house that exists purely for the pleasure of its owner, Margaret Porritt, and her family.

Margaret has transformed a clearing in the native scrub, just a stone's throw from Portsea's moody backbeach, into a hidden enclave of tranquillity and style.

Despite its luxurious appointments and grand scale, the unique home with its barn-like styling has the same timeless and understated quality for which Margaret's boutique fashion chain, Feathers, has become known.

"Really this is my hideway," Margaret says.

"I don't need to go to Bali, I don't need to go to Port Douglass, I just get in my car and come back here and life all of a sudden becomes very simple."

A certain degree of local knowledge is required to navigate the scientifically concealed staircases and doorways between an underground guests' carpark and the entrance to the home.

The creative genius behind the stunning home is Margaret's son David Porritt, who doesn't have any formal qualifications but whose talents speak loudly for themselves.

David drew inspiration from the shaker-style homes popular in the Hamptons which, fittingly, is New York's answer to Portsea.

"The use of the timber and particularly shingles is a theme David picked up when he was living and surfing near the Hamptons and I just love the way that style has been interpreted in a modern, Australian way," Margaret says.

Unlike many architectural homes with seemingly endless internal space, Margaret's exudes a warmth achieved through the liberal useof natural finishes, ranging from leather door handles and limed French oak floors to the red cedar shingles that dominate its exterior.

Also unlike many of its contemporaries, the property doesn't appear to celebrate space for the sheer sake of it.

It is divided into four "pavillions", essentially separate buildings bound together by a 3m-wide glassed hallway running 35m through the centre of the house.

Its showpiece pavilion houses an enormous open living, dining and kitchen area looking north over lush lawns and a stunning infinity pool to native bushland.

"This space is like the glue that binds us all together at the end of the day," Margaret says.

"First and foremost, this is a beautiful space but it's also practical in every sense of the word."

The kitchen has an old-style black enamel Aga stove which stands out amid the stark white Corian cabinetry, which is finished with leather and stainless steel handles.

The kitchen even boasts a lift to ferry groceries from the 10-car garage hidden below the house.

Another pavilion houses a master suite with a pair of mirror-image ensuites, two dressing rooms and a plush carpeted formal lounge.

The "second pavillion" has four bathrooms, five bedrooms, including a second master suite, and an enormous laundry.

Another, called the "children's pavillion", includes a rumpus room, a dormitory, bathroom and dressing room.

"It's a very effective way to ensure the parents can get some peace and quiet while the kids are free to yell and scream and do what kids do," Margaret says.

"That's what beach houses are for."

OFF THE PLAN

Area: Portsea

Floor size: 920sq m

Land size: 4000sq m

Features: Infinity pool, children's pavilion, tennis court, 10-car garage with a lift to the kitchen, plant room, seven bathrooms, seven bedrooms, including a master suite with two ensuites

What it's worth: $6.5 million

Brush with fame: AC/DC promoter Garry Van Egmont hired it during the band's recent tour but, thankfully, says the owner, the band didn't stop over.

Quirky fact: The house is an upscaled version of an existing home up the street that was formerly owned by Ms Porritt before she sold it to the late Crazy John's founder John Ilhan.