A white weatherboard home in an idyllic country setting, imbued with romance and vintage charm ... Could this be the ultimate hideaway?

STORY MEREDITH MCKENDRY Photography and Styling HILARY WALKER

Lazy summer afternoons spent horse riding, picking vegetables fresh from the garden, relaxing with friends on beautiful Indian daybeds beneath a cherry apple tree ... Just 40 minutes from Melbourne's CBD, this peaceful three-bedroom cottage, nestled into 12 acres of rolling countryside, is the stuff of daydreams. Light and airy, with lots of windows looking out to amazing views of the Dandenong Ranges, it's the perfect country hideaway for Kerrie, her partner Peter and their 11-month-old son, River.

After more than a year of searching in the area, Kerrie knew instantly that the white weatherboard cottage, built in the 1950s, was for her. "I just fell in love with it," explains Kerrie. "I had quite a contemporary house before this, but it wasn't me. This is very much my style and I can be myself here."
The cosy cottage has been left exactly as it was when they bought it, apart from a coat of Dulux Vivid White to the exterior. Two big chapel doors open from the verandah to a wide hallway, with Kerrie and Peter's bedroom and River's bedroom to the left, and the spare room-cum-office to the right. At the back, the house opens out to a spacious L-shaped living room, dining room and kitchen. "The layout works fine for us now, but as River gets a bit older, it will be too small," Kerrie says. "I'm such a neat freak, so I need a playroom where I can have mess without taking away from how the house looks."

It's Kerrie's innate sense of style – she's the head of visual merchandising for a fashion retailer – that makes this place so inspiring. Simple milky-white walls and pale Baltic pine floorboards keep the focus on the exquisite mix of ever-so-slightly-shabby painted furniture, rainbow-bright patchwork cushions and curtains, and artfully arranged collections of blue and green glassware. "Everything is in groupings in my house, I never buy one of anything," says Kerrie with a laugh. "I always have to buy three or five or seven. Sometimes I over-buy because I'm so consumed with buying things in odds!"

Weekends are spent fossicking though local markets, antiques stores and op-shops for pre-loved glassware, jewellery, handbags and furniture. Treasures are also picked up on Kerrie's biannual buying trips around the world for work – to glamorous destinations including London, Tokyo, New York, Brazil and India – although she admits she doesn't really need much more. "I've run out of space now," Kerrie says. "But if I see something I like, I get so excited I hyperventilate!"

And after a frantic week at work, cruising home along the country roads from the city is precious unwinding time for Kerrie. "I love it, I find it relaxing driving home because I can just switch off," says Kerrie. "I can get away from work and the hustle and bustle. If I lived in the city I don't think I'd ever turn off."