They had no plans to move from the beach to the Adelaide Hills but when the perfect site presented itself, Frank and Sharon Templeton set about creating their spectacular new home amongst the treetops designed around luxury, lifestyle and family life.

Words Genevieve Meegan | Photographs Christopher Morrison

Frank and Sharon Templeton were happily living at West Beach, enjoying the seaside lifestyle, when an overseas trip in 2021 changed everything. The couple visited Geneva, staying at a ski resort near an ancient gorge bursting with beech trees.

“It was so spectacular,” says Frank.

“We went for a walk and then just sat for hours taking it all in. When we came back to Adelaide, I was looking at real estate and I saw this block in Stirling and I thought straight away, it looks exactly like that gorge.

“Sharon and I got in the car and came up here and there were trees everywhere, and we walked around and thought there’s got to be a way to build a house here.”

As the CEO of his family building company Templeton Built, Frank was perfectly placed to build the couple’s dream home, but the sloping hills site was going to have its challenges. The 5500 square metre block, which was sold off by a neighbour, was very steep and covered in trees.

Sharon was intrigued at how they would build a house here but Frank was confident saying “I just feel like this place was meant for us”. After purchasing the block, the couple would visit the site together and do what they did in Switzerland – sit in a couple of deck chairs and quietly absorb the beautiful surroundings. Having grown up in Mount Gambier, Frank had always wanted something more than a suburban block but had never seriously considered a tree change.

“It was beautiful being near the beach, but it was a triple storey place, and the neighbours were right there,” he says.

Sharon adds: “We really loved West Beach and it was a great chapter in our lives, but it was time to move. The kids were older and we just both thought we want to be in the Hills.”

When it came to choosing an architect, Frank had collaborated with Black Rabbit Architecture + Interiors through his building business and liked their approach and designs, so he and Sharon met with director Sean Humphries.

The brief was simple: to create a contemporary home that optimised the Hills vista and sat comfortably within the environment. The house also needed to be cosy and intimate to accommodate Frank and Sharon, but versatile enough to cope with bigger numbers when family and friends gathered.

The couple has three adult children between them, Kristy, Jordan and Sam, plus a grandson, Henry, four months, and another grandchild on the way. Frank and Sharon lead busy lives, Frank with his building company and Sharon as the founder and director of Temple Day Spa with locations in Unley and the newly opened Semaphore. The couple’s home needed to be a place of peace, retreat and respite away from the demands of work.

“Our brief to Black Rabbit was all about our personalities and how we’ve lived for the past 15 years together,” Sharon says. “I think what was nice is they got to know us as a couple, it wasn’t about the building, it was about the functionality of our home and how we live in it.”

Some of the other core considerations at the heart of the design included Sharon and Frank’s love of entertaining. Frank is a keen chef who has a passion for cooking over coals, so the outdoor entertaining area needed to accommodate this.

The house design also needed to allow for some large lifestyle elements – Frank is an avid golfer and wanted to incorporate a games room where he could install his favourite toy – an enormous Trackman golf simulator system. As a well-respected member of Adelaide’s wellness community, Sharon’s must-have inclusion was a far infrared sauna as well as ample room for when their extended family came to visit.

“So, we had this initial discussion with Black Rabbit and their approach was very personalised,” Frank says. “Then they went away and created this house design and apart from a couple of very minor tweaks, I don’t think we changed anything.

“The only thing was that we were not allowed to get too close to the forest nearby, we couldn’t get within 27 metres, so we had to change the design slightly, but not much.”

The build took 14 months to complete and included moving 650 tonnes of soil and clearing 27 trees from the block.

Today, the house and garden sit comfortably within the hillside surrounds, thanks largely to the texture and tone of the rustic brickwork (San Selmo Smoked Opaque Slate).

The sheer scale of this build, including an oversized front door and floor to ceiling windows throughout, gives a sense of grandeur, but as the house gradually reveals itself, its footprint feels unobtrusive and homely.

The areas that Frank and Sharon use every day – the kitchen/living/dining, the laundry/butler’s pantry and the master suite – are all contained on one level, creating a sense of intimacy, almost like a luxurious apartment.

An enormous glass splashback in the kitchen, a concept designed by Sharon, reflects the beautiful Hills scenery and the cabinetry in warm timber creates a frame around this part of the kitchen.

“When our friends and family are sitting at the island bench, the reflection of the scenery really helps to bring the outside in,” Sharon says. “We used spotted gum on the deck and then to keep the consistency, Black Rabbit’s interiors team came up with this design for the kitchen with the same timber,” Frank says.

Large sliding doors lead from the open plan living space to a deck with views to the spectacular treescape, and the branches of a nearby beech tree are literally within arm’s reach. As per the brief, the deck allows for Frank’s Fenwesco custom-made Argentinian grill where he loves to cook for guests, adding warmth and atmosphere with the wood-fire device.

“I use different types of wood and experiment with the tastes they create,” says Frank, explaining that the Fenwesco grill is made by an Adelaide-based company.

The master suite, with walk-in robe and ensuite, takes full advantage of this stunning location with floor-to-ceiling windows capturing views to the treetops.

“Something that was really important to us was the ability to be able to look out and see the trees,” Frank says. “The master is not a massive room, but it feels the perfect size, just the way they have created this volume with the windows.

“It is such a great feeling in the morning to wake up and open the blinds and look out to this view. The whole place is about bringing the outside in and the architects did such a great job of that. You just look out of all these floor-to-ceiling windows, and you get an immediate sense of where you are. It’s what’s spectacular about this home.”

The views continue downstairs where there are two spare bedrooms, an office, bathroom and a wine room featuring cladding that has been created using some significant timber.

“We had lots of exotic trees on the property that we had to cut down and the timber on a couple was just so beautiful we thought we should try to use it,” Frank says. “One of those was a Moroccan cedar and we asked one of the logging guys to keep one for us, cut it up and keep it for when we are ready.”

Now, that timber lines the walls of the wine room and as you descend the stairs to the lower level, a lovely cedar aroma fills the air.

Opposite the wine room is the unique games room which houses Frank’s golf simulator system with its enormous screen measuring five by three metres.

“It’s the same system that Tiger (Woods) has at his place,” Frank says proudly as he gets ready to take a swing. “When we lived at West Beach getting to the golf club at Kooyonga was easy but getting down the freeway now takes a bit more effort, so it’s been great to have the Trackman. I use it with mates and my son and his friends come and have a hit as well.”

While the couple worked with Black Rabbit on the interior choices, Sharon took the lead here. She had a vision for what they wanted to achieve, going for a neutral “Scandi” feel with lots of texture and taking the time to combine flooring, soft furnishings and colour palettes to complement the architectural build. That texture has been created with layers of natural finishes such as brick, timber, concrete, glass and oak flooring.

The home is a testament to Sharon’s attention to detail; soft furnishings in creams and earthy tones add more texture and warmth with the neutral palette broken up by pops of colourful artworks.

Frank’s company built the home and he and his son Jordan, who works in the business, were on site almost every day.

“We still had a company to run but we were here in between all the other stuff,” Frank says.

The couple moved into their beautiful new home in 2022, with everything finished except the landscaping. Then an unexpected deadline helped to get things moving outside as well.

The couple’s daughter Kristy, who works at Temple Day Spa with Sharon as the general manager, was due to marry her fiancé, ex-Brisbane Lion’s player Jesse O’Brien, within a few months.

“We moved into the house in August and that’s when our daughter said, ‘I’d like to get married here’,” Sharon says. “We said, ‘Okay but you’re getting married in November’, and we’d had so much rain that year that it was just sludge. We suggested she have a plan B but she had her heart set on getting married here so we just made it happen.”

The entire family pitched in to get the landscaping and garden ready in time for the wedding just three months later.

“They got married under an arbour on the bottom lawn and we had a marquee on the top lawn, with the caterers in the garage,” Sharon says. “We had fairy lights in the trees which were in full bloom, it was about 25 degrees; it was just perfect, such an incredible day. It is very special too because each time she comes here now we think of that day.”

Kristy and Jesse’s son Henry loves to visit his grandparents here and takes special interest in the enormous beech tree which forms the centrepiece of this architectural beauty.

“It’s more than 100 years old,” Frank says. “If you stand at the bottom and look up at the branches it looks just like Jack and the Beanstalk. Henry loves staring up at the branches.”

The local wildlife also make themselves known in the garden and the couple says they have regular visits from kangaroos, rabbits, koalas and echidnas.

“The garden is structured but it propagates itself, so once the lawns are done and the leaves are cleared with the blower, it’s done,” Sharon says. While this home boasts luxury at every turn, Frank says it is the lifestyle it has provided, and the way it makes them feel, that really defines the success of this project.

“At the end of the day, when you are driving up the freeway and you go through the tunnel, it sort of just changes your mindset as you head into the Hills,” he says.

“We get home and often we’ll just sit in our lounge chairs with a glass of wine looking out to that view and just debrief on our days. We call these our deck chairs – just like the ones we sat on when we first saw this site.

“Sharon and I are very busy people and this house and setting just helps us slow down and unwind. You feel that connection with nature and with each other. 

“After all our hard work, we had no idea that we were going to feel as settled as we do living amongst the treetops. We were just really clear about how we live and what we love and this house captures that in every way.”

 

This article first appeared in the July 2024 issue of SALIFE magazine.