In a sleepy coastal town south of Sydney, this little green ‘pottering’ shed sits at the end of a garden filled with native flora. Daylight breaks over the ocean and rays split through Angophoras in the Royal National Park. It’s here in the heart of nature that inspiration is first found by designer/interior stylist Sibella Court.
Inspired by the natural beauty around her home, Sibella Court has filled her garden with endemic Dharawal plants including blueberry ash (Elaeocarpus reticulatus), black wattles (Acacia mearnsii) and Casuarina, alongside potted non-natives such as geranium, nasturtium and herbs. (Photography: Hannah Puechmarin | Styling: Sibella Court)
The purpose-built studio is a small room, intentionally simple with a few classic nautical touches. Its walls are clad in raw plywood, the soft timber grains a neutral backdrop for Sibella’s collections that span a lifetime. The morning light enters through the rear louvres, down the walls, mirroring the angle of the ceiling. Bifolds allow the breeze to flow through and a Rajasthani-style tent provides additional space for any studio overflow.
Sibella paints eucalyptus leaves found on her morning walk. (Photography: Hannah Puechmarin | Styling: Sibella Court)
The most eye-catching feature of the space is the studio’s rear wall shelves made from repurposed Baltic pine cheese boards. The shelves are amassed in bewitching organised chaos with keepsakes from the ocean and forests, and kept in jars and beneath cloches. Wooden drawers catalogue Sibella’s lifelong crafting career – watercolour paintings and journals are compartmentalised here, with vintage beads from teenage years and souvenirs from overseas sojourns.
Sibella’s shed at the end of the garden is a micro-museum of natural curiosities and past crafting careers. Collected artworks are displayed on walls, including a still life by Helen Redmond, a wolf print by Petrina Tinslay and a hanging owl sculpture by Anna-Wili Highfield. (Photography: Hannah Puechmarin | Styling: Sibella Court)
Currently, a curiosity with the ocean is converging with Victorian-era crafts in the studio. Skeletons of molluscs have been fashioned into booklets – the papers are bound with twine and cut to match the outline of their casing. (Photography: Hannah Puechmarin | Styling: Sibella Court)
In the garden she grows nasturtiums (her mother’s favourite) in concrete pots bought at auction. The nasturtiums tumble from vessels around the house, alongside geraniums, herbs and native Dharawal plants.
Sibella regards nature as “forever giving gifts”. Seed-pod collecting has become a recent fascination. (Photography: Hannah Puechmarin | Styling: Sibella Court)
Currently, a curiosity with the ocean is converging with Victorian-era crafts in the studio. Sibella collects seaweed specimens from local shorelines, returning to her studio to identify them before pressing and preserving them between handmade papers. She has also taken up hiking in the surrounding national park and has honed a self-proclaimed superpower in plant identification. Living by the philosophy of ‘leave no trace’, she often takes photographs of forest plants, opting to draw these or paint them with watercolours.
Sibella imagines filling the pages with some of her smaller seaweed pressings. (Photography: Hannah Puechmarin | Styling: Sibella Court)
Watercolour painting is a hobby that Sibella travels with, enabling her to document flora and fauna wherever she goes (Photography: Hannah Puechmarin | Styling: Sibella Court)
On a few occasions recently, Sibella has enjoyed sharing the studio space with daughter Silver, teaching her how to make paints from local clays – the creative process often spilling out of the studio and into the garden.
Mighty Angophoras stand tall. (Photography: Hannah Puechmarin | Styling: Sibella Court)
Edited extract from The Garden Room: Outdoor Spaces Reimagined for Creative Living by Hannah Puechmarin (Thames & Hudson, $59.99), an ode to garden dwellings. Here, stylist Sibella Court’s studio, in Bundeena, NSW, is home to her creative process.
Photographer & Writer
Hannah Puechmarin
Hannah is a photographer, stylist and author inspired by the unique stories of layered spaces, humble homes and soul-driven brands. Over the last decade, she’s built a career by following her heart and curiosities – documenting private homes and creative worlds, and seeking the deeper meanings behind someone’s craft. Her lens is drawn to capturing the quiet in-between moments and led by the sun, my photographic style is natural, instinctive and down-to-earth. When she’s not on the road shooting dream jobs nearby to home and beyond, you’ll find her at home in a 1920s Queenslander house in Ipswich, in South East Queensland.
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