The Pause by Soul Home

Balmoral was used to achieve the desired design aesthetic and ensure the home would thrive in a coastal setting.

The Pause, a holiday property located Gerringong, is a reimagining of the classic weatherboard beach escape. According to homeowner and designer Simone Mathews, material selection is key to creating a home that will instantly catch the eye of holidaymakers, while keeping maintenance costs to a minimum.

Simone and her husband Ben, who constructed the home, selected Cemintel’s Balmoral for ‘The Pause’, to achieve the desired design aesthetic and ensure the home would thrive in its coastal setting.

“Being in a coastal area, we definitely needed to use materials that could withstand the salt in the air. While we’re not on the beachfront, we are definitely exposed to the elements, so we needed materials that would hold up to that because the property has to be low maintenance to be profitable.

“One of the things we love is that when using a weatherboard that’s made from fibre cement, is that it won’t shrink and crack, and will ultimately hold the paint longer than traditional timber boards, so we won’t have to pay to have them painted as often. We know they’ll stand the test of time,” says Simone Mathews.

For Simone, the clean horizontal lines, woodgrain texture and the shadow created with Balmoral take the property from being just a standard renovation to a real nod to the beach holiday homes of the past.

“I am so happy with how this house looks. It really is demanding street attention. I joke that out the front we can start selling tickets because everyone’s stopping and looking! What I just love about this home is that we’ve really created our own unique take on an Australian coastal home,” says Simone Mathews.