A Foot In Two Continents

Living in a black-and-white home offers space and a sense of heritage. We meet a Belgian family who have made this beautiful house in Alexandra Park their home.

- Kel Flanders

The Van Gyseghem-Peters family home is impressive. It’s located in the low-key residential pocket of Alexandra Park, and if you didn’t purposely go for a drive around its leafy streets, you wouldn’t even know there were houses here.

I meander down the driveway, taking in the vastness of the house and property, then knock on the open door. Nothing. I knock again. Nothing. I knock again and shout “hello” as loud as my British- Australian politeness will let me. I can hear people inside. I wait a little while and try again.

After what seems like an eternity (in reality, a few minutes), a tall and elegant-looking lady click-clacks down the stairs in a fabulous pair of green heels.

Charlotte Peters doesn’t look like a mother of three teenage children who runs an international recruitment company. She’s immaculate, open and friendly, and we’re soon laughing that her house is just too big to hear anyone at the front door.

After water, tea and alcoholic drinks are offered (I choose the water option this time, as it’s a Thursday!), we settle into the family room. Jackson the Golden Retriever makes his presence known, and I am temporarily distracted by scratching the ears attached to his fluffy, 10-kilogram head resting on my lap.

The furniture in the home is diverse and I also notice there is no television. “I think a TV is the ugliest object. And it takes away communication, so we don’t have one in this room,” Charlotte tells me.

We start talking about some of her favourite pieces in the room. “This is a Vitra couch that we’re sitting on. Tom and I got it on sale in Belgium. We queued up outside the store on their annual sale day.”