They had a beautiful home on the Mornington Peninsula, but the idea had long been seeded: to build a house from scratch, entirely by hand. “I had always wanted to design and build a house with my own hands,” he says. “Deb and I had been coming to this area for many years. We have friends in the district. And being a renowned food bowl - and food being a large part of our life and work - we simply started looking at land.”

The Woods is the home and studio they’ve built with love over the past 10 years in Bullarto - a place they’ve been drawn to since the ’70s - shaped by their journey so far and filled with plans for what’s still to come.

In Bullarto, where the winters are “very cold,” the trees stand like sentinels, and it’s where Colin and Deb discovered a forgotten block hidden beneath thickets of blackberry. “What we could see beneath the blackberries was something quite special.”

The vision was clear. “We wanted to create the house we had always wanted, without compromise,” he says. “And we felt the only way we could achieve that was to do everything ourselves.” That included a working studio - space for their photography and styling work, and for the workshops they now host. “The land informed the design,” he explains. “It’s essentially remained unchanged since my original concept.”

They are, by nature, makers. “This home and studio is simply the largest thing we have made,” he says. “I do the design, the building and the landscaping. Deb does the painting, the fittings and finishes… and nearly all of the gardening.”

Challenges, naturally, were many. “Living in a caravan for nearly two years, with a camping shower outside in the snow and a microwave as the only cooking device,” he says, was only the beginning. The bushfire regulations added another layer - “a BAL40 fire rating, the second highest.” They were early adopters, building under new rules with no handbook, limited materials, and the improvisational demands of trial and error. Then came the pandemic. “A two-and-a-half-year plan blew out to five.”

But the rewards, he says, are “very clear.” They now live in “the most beautiful home,” one that reflects their rhythms, instincts, and conversations. “We could do exactly as we pleased. And most importantly, we could work organically. If we weren’t sure about something, we simply waited until the answer magically came. It always does.”

The aesthetic is what they call “contemporary farmhouse” - a warm, calm space with large windows opening to the woods. Key elements: “Window seats, herringbone oak floors, unique paint finishes, custom lighting and metre-thick whitewashed stone walls.” Deb worked with Porter’s Paints - “soft French washes and textural elements” - and a local fabricator, Luke Browne, built steel staircases and frames that feel both raw and refined.

Now, their studio hosts workshops in still life, plating, and food photography. “Sharing our knowledge and skills,” He says, “is one of the most rewarding things we do.”

Asked what they’d tell others dreaming of such a space, he doesn’t hesitate: “If you can ignore the ‘resale’ dilemma, please do so. Design it for yourself. It’s a huge amount of work, so make sure you still love it by the end. And if you don’t know something? Google it. Someone, somewhere, has answered nearly every question that has ever been asked.”

THE WOODS
DEBORAH MCLEAN & COLIN DOSWELL
STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZAL
PHOTOS BY PETER TARASIUK

The Woods - Photographic & Styling Studio
Deborah McLean & Colin Doswell
@thewoodsdaylesford
thewoodsdaylesford.com.au