BEAUTY AT HOME WITH

Nicole Bonython-Hines is a Sydney-based stylist with over 40 years of experience shaping the style of some of Australia’s most iconic fashion and creative figures. She recently welcomed us into her newly renovated, light-filled Newtown terrace — a home that reflects the same sense of confidence and individuality that defines her enduring influence in the fashion industry.

We spoke to Nicole about why beauty at home is not a luxury, but an essential and the stories behind her most treasured family heirlooms and significant artworks.

I cannot live surrounded by ugliness; beauty at home is vital to me. I remember in my late twenties, renting a house with lovely bones but lino floors, poorly chosen wall colors, and a garden that was mostly dirt and weeds. I spent money to lift the lino and polish the boards, repaint the walls, lay turf in the yard, and plant it with proper greenery. My friends were incredulous that I would invest so much in a rental, but my response – and it will always be the same – was that I might be hit by a bus tomorrow, and I refuse to live my life in an ugly home.

Florals by @Grandiflora

Probably much the same, though I’d say my style in design and at home is even more varied than my fashion sensibilities. In fashion, I tend toward simple and modern – and that’s true of my home as well – but every now and then I nudge back to my Adelaide roots, and I also have a fondness for things that are old and pretty. It’s quite contradictory to everything else I like, yet somehow it all works.

I have a large Syd Ball painting, which is incredible and probably belongs in a state gallery, but it brings me so much joy that I can’t part with it. It features bold blocks of color and is from his Canto series. Remarkably, it survived the 1983 bushfires that destroyed my father’s entire collection of significant Australian modern art, so I consider myself very lucky.

More recently, I purchased a painting from my friend Christina Zimpel, who has been living in New York for many years. Christina and I were colleagues at the very start of our careers – me in the fashion department at Vogue, and she in the art department. Her work demonstrates an incredible sense of color, and her fashion background is evident in every piece.

I truly love all my art, and since my terrace is so tiny, most of it lives in the main living space. That said, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking and entertaining, though I don’t think either space directly influences my work. These days, my research is mostly online. I used to have a lot of books, but I simply don’t have the space for them anymore.

Florals by @Grandiflora | Platters by @dinosaur_designs

I have a beautiful leather swivel chair by Karuselli (the 412 Karuselli Easy Chair) with its matching footstool. It’s also a family heirloom—a hand-me-down from our family home that I repurchased after the fire. It’s incredibly comfortable, and I have so many memories of my children spinning around in it whenever we visited Mum and Dad in Adelaide.

I came rather reluctantly at first. At the time, my two youngest children were still living at home and at university, keen to be close to campus, friends, and social life. I made the decision with them in mind, assuming I might eventually move back towards the east once they’d left home—though now, I’m not so sure.

There’s an ease to life here I’ve come to love: wonderful places to eat, friends happy to make the journey to try them all, and the quiet comfort of having found my favourite cafés and Pilates studio. I feel quite settled now. That said, the ocean still calls—so who knows what the future holds.

I wanted to maximise storage, having previously lived in a six-bedroom house and accumulated many things. Finding enough space – while also incorporating external storage – was essential. At the same time, I wanted the home to feel clean and uncluttered, with a balance of modern and classic elements. Hopefully this has been achieved- it does make me feel aesthetically happy. And my pink carpet makes me very happy!

@nbonython