THE GOOD LIFE

Byron Bay has long held a special place in the heart of interior designer Justine Hugh-Jones and her family. Now, they have another reason to run to paradise.

- Victoria Carey

All it took was a cup of coffee to put Justine Hugh-Jones on the path to owning a house in the lush Byron Bay hinterland. But not exactly in the way you might think. “My husband Paul was very keen on buying a coffee plantation. He is so passionate about coffee,” this UK-born interior designer – and committed tea drinker – tells me. “And I have a family of surfers, so we spent many years coming up to Byron for holidays. They always want to be close to the water but once I discovered the hinterland, I was hooked. I just yearned for the green space,” says Justine, who is the founding principal of interior design firm Hugh-Jones Mackintosh.

The couple began a search that lasted three years and saw them come close to buying a 20-hectare coffee plantation and a macadamia farm before settling on this property. “We jumped on a lot of planes to look at places. We originally wanted more land, but Paul and I realised it was a bit of an impractical dream while we were still living in Sydney,” says Justine. 

In 2020, they finally found the right place – two hectares in the foothills of the Nightcap National Park, with everything on > their list: stunning views, north facing, great potential for a garden, good surfing beaches nearby and only a short drive to the nearby towns of Mullumbimby, Brunswick Heads and Byron Bay. There was just one thing missing: the house was built of brick. “I really wanted a weatherboard home,” she remembers ruefully. “But Paul said, ‘You can easily transform it’.”