Into the light

A love of sunshine is teamed with streamlined sophistication in the family home of fashion personality, Kellie Hush.

- Elizabeth Wilson

Fashion maven Kellie Hush is famous for her precision-cut hair and clean-lined outfits. Whether she’s dressed for business or weekends, she radiates effortless chic. Not surprisingly, a similar clean aesthetic and style confidence defines the renovated home she shares with her husband David Bugg and their daughters Amelia, 14, and Lola, 11.

Kellie, former editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar Australia, and David, a podiatrist, bought their semi-detached home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in 2006. “At the time, we were living in a two-bedroom apartment down the road. We had a baby and we’d walk around the area, dreaming about where our next home would be,” Kellie says. When they came across this house, it had just been passed in at auction and was consequently up for sale. The couple made an offer, which was accepted. “We stretched ourselves to buy it,” she adds.

Built circa 1910, the east-facing brick home was located on the high side of the street, on a corner block. The front facade bore original Federation features – timber fretwork and panelled leadlight windows – while the interiors had been updated in the early 1980s. “What attracted us was the light, and being a corner block meant it would never be built out,” Kellie says. “It needed a lot of work, but it had great bones.”