Buderim Edge is a home that captures views of spectacular Sunshine Coast beaches and the lush Glasshouse Mountains hinterland is filled with light, warmth, modern conveniences, and a generous splash of luxury.
The small 1980s brick single-storey dwelling that sat on the block has been completely transformed into a modern contemporary home filled with treasures from far-flung places.
This delightful home that featured on TV’s Grand Designs Australia is, indeed, in a class of its own. It’s home to Natalie Clark Faid and Stuart Faid, their two daughters Matilda and Delilah, and the family pooches Boo and Bindi. The family felt an instant connection to the original house when they fi rst saw it. “We didn’t want to hide the origins of the home in our renovation — we wanted to embrace its history and incorporate it into its future,” they said. “We wanted the story of the home’s evolution to be overtly visible throughout the design.”
We love the artful way this home respects its history and adds to it with finesse
The brief was to design a residence that embraced and maximised the views on a block with limited flat land available. “The idea was to create an unobtrusive, single-storey home that orients itself to the view while providing an abundance of living, entertaining and leisure space,” explained the owners.
Key to the entire project was positioning the swimming pool at the same elevation as the house so the adults could see their kids while they were splashing about in the pool. The slab and a few existing brick walls were to remain from the original dwelling. “The history of the home is visible in the original slab, and we wanted to showcase that,” note Natalie and Stuart. “Too many homes are levelled to accommodate an ‘in vogue’- style house instead of working with the beauty of what was there.”
Where possible, elements from the original dwelling were retained and reused, including timber panelling, door handles and light fi ttings. The home now has a generous four bedrooms, three bathrooms, modern open-plan living spaces and a butler’s pantry, laundry and mudroom. It is light-filled and modern, with a fresh palette throughout. It is tastefully decorated with the couple’s finds from their travels.
The deck is the perfect vantage point to take in the sweeping views beyond
Given the steep elevation and the challenges that came with that, this project was an exercise in supreme patience, meticulous attention to detail and precision. Everything had to be craned in, including tradies’ tools and equipment.
Natalie and Stuart were happy to give a shout out to their wonderful chippy ‘Junior’, who completed most of the build. “He was a one-man army at times,” they say. “We had some great trades supporting him and of course our amazing crane driver and his dogger, who were onsite more than some of the other trades at times.”
The shipping container pool is a conversation point and a bespoke design feature. This unique offering was born out of both functional necessity and a desire to retain the original planting and landscape. To elevate a pool to the same height as the house, an 8m-high concrete-filled block wall was required, which equated to digging a long way down and 14m across the property. “When we saw the impact that would have, it completely conflicted with our minimal touch ethos,” say the duo. They’d ringfenced and protected native plants and mature trees, designing the build around them.
Homeowners Natalie Clark Faid and Stuart Faid
So that idea was scrapped and the container pool concept was born. “So, you could say that our desire to protect and preserve the established trees and plants was the catalyst for what became a truly unique design,” say Natalie and Stuart.
For this couple, there were many unforgettable moments in the project, but one was a heart-stopper. “Craning the elevator and the shipping container pool high above the neighbouring houses and dropping them into place was a nerve-wracking and exhilarating moment in the build,” recall the couple.
