A Home Fit for a Champion

Six time World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea and his Australian wife Tatia reveal how they turned an 8,000 sq. ft house in County Antrim into their family home.

- LORRAINE WYLIE

World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea and his Australian wife Tatia, known as Tarsh, are well used to a jet-setting lifestyle. However, as their sons Jake and Tyler neared school age, the couple decided to put the brakes on family travel and find a place where the children could enjoy the stability of a settled routine. They found their ideal home, a contemporary two-storey, five bedroom property, near the village of Dunadry in scenic County Antrim.

With a degree in creative marketing and a flair for interior design, Tarsh,, set about turning this 8,000sq.ft property into their home. As she explains, ‘Thanks to the use of traditional building materials, the contemporary design of the property sits comfortably in the rural landscape. Although, as a very ‘tree huggy’ sort of person, having 37 beautiful mature trees on site made the place completely irresistible! There’s also a lot of glass and stone in this house which appeals to my Aussie roots. The Australian lifestyle tends to revolve around the outdoors so when I came here, I wanted to create that feeling of being at one with the natural world by bringing the outdoors into our home.’

This concept of incorporating elements of nature with the living/working environment was popularised back in the eighties by American biologist and naturalist, Edward Osbourne Wilson. Known as Biophillic Design, the idea is to blur the lines between the interior and exterior space, creating a more holistic approach to design.

‘I do love the clean lines of contemporary design but, for me the most important thing was to create a space that reflects us as individuals and as a family.’