Wonder Wharf

After a boatload of challenges, walls of glass welcome in a treehouse vibe to a relaxing crash pad wreathed in bush.

Accessed by boat, this private idyll on Pittwater, NSW, is the perfect place for cooking, reading and communing with nature, sundowner in hand. Interior designer Louella Boîtel-Gill played up the treehouse vibe with loose, linen furnishings and splashes of jade set against the romantic Australian landscape.

What was the brief? I was in a meeting with the client about something entirely different and he asked me out of the blue if I’d be interested in working on a house he’d bought on Pittwater. I knew the house, which was in my favourite bay, so it was an immediate yes. It was at a time when the idea of site visits by boat appealed even more than usual. The brief was essentially to create a crash pad, somewhere the owner could stay when he was working in the area instead of having to head back into town, somewhere that felt a little bit akin to a treehouse.

The boatshed was a big part of the brief and is set up so they can cook and sleep there, and just hang by the water. It had to be simple and airy, but homely. It needed to feel comfortable but not cluttered, and he didn’t want storage!

What were the challenges of the site and how did you resolve them? The fact the house is offshore means logistically it’s a bit of a puzzle. The wharf is only accessible to the bigger barges that carry building materials at the highest tides, so there was this tight window of a few hours every couple of weeks when we could make deliveries happen.