Modern farmhouse interior: The update of an old homestead (2024)

It’s the sprawling park-like gardens at Ledgworth that draw attention, even before the newly painted crisp white farmhouse with a modern interior comes into view.

Despite the worst drought in decades, the garden is still a showpiece of Katie and Michael Walker’s 607-hectare property, located 10 minutes from Yass on the NSW Southern Tablelands.

From the looming walls of a 100-year-old hedge and Boston ivy that creeps possessively over one corner of the house, to the majestic pin oaks and English elms that cast broad-reaching shadows over the lawn, it’s easy to see why their daughter Victoria plans to get married there in November, on the property her great-grandmother was given on her wedding day.

But for 30 years it was a view Katie could never enjoy whenever she needed to cook.

“The kitchen was enclosed so whenever I had to cook I just looked at four walls,” she explains. “It was built during a time when they would have had servants working in the kitchen and the family would be served in the formal dining room, but times have moved on… I would be in the kitchen by myself while the rest of the family was in the living room.”

That all changed five years ago when the couple completed a long-awaited renovation.

They demolished the former fibro staff quarters built onto the back of the house, and created an open-place living space with a gourmet kitchen at its heart.

They also added an office, filing room, guest bedroom, extra bathroom, an entrance area, and remodelled the original kitchen into a butler’s pantry, storage area and hallway.

“When we first moved here we did a bit of painting and carpeting but that’s it,” Katie says.

“Because the renovation wasn’t an easy job we waited until the kids had finished school before we took it on. I love cooking and now when I stand at the bench I can look out over the gardens. That’s all I ever really wanted.”

While the intention was to make the home more modern in a functional sense, Katie says they were careful to retain the original character of the double-brick Federation home, which has soaring 3.6-metre ceilings.

“It was a beautiful old home but it needed modernising,” Katie says.

“We were lucky because our builder was a perfectionist. He had great ideas to make sure it didn’t look like a new renovation. He matched architectural details and helped us reuse original windows and doors wherever we could.”

Katie also gives a nod to the home’s heritage by balancing darker antique furniture such as the exquisitely carved pedestal card table set under the windows in the formal sitting room, against neutral colours and furnishings.

“I like a neutral palette — kind of Hamptons with a twist. Because it’s an older house, you need things that won’t date,” she says.

Ledgworth has been in the Walker family for three generations. The house was built in 1915 on land given to Michael’s grandmother by her parents when she married.

But had you asked 22-year-old Katie (now 65) where she would raise her family, she admits the answer probably would have been the city.

Growing up in the small village of Breeza (located on the Liverpool Plains about 45 kilometres from Gunnedah in northern NSW), she attended boarding school in Sydney and got a taste for metropolitan life.

She was working as a personal assistant at Time magazine when she met Michael, now 71, who had worked on the family farm for four years before studying to become a solicitor.

They married in 1976 and had their first daughter, Jessica, in 1981 in Sydney before moving back to Ledgworth in 1984.

“Both Mike’s parents passed away within two years of each other. We received the homestead in the settlement so that meant moving back here,” Katie says.

“Michael always wanted to move back to the country — he didn’t like being cooped up in an office — so I knew it was on the cards.”

While adjusting to rural life with a toddler (soon joined by daughter Victoria in 1985 and son Alex in 1989) was not without its challenges, Katie says she now couldn’t imagine it any other way.

“I do remember it was very, very cold that first winter,” she says with a smile.

“It took me a little while to adjust, but now I would never live back in the city. Country people are just more relaxed and they have time for each other. Yass is very generous; it’s a very giving community. It’s growing, too, and the dynamics are changing — there are more types of people here now.”

These days, Michael continues to manage the property’s fine wool enterprise, while Katie remains actively involved in the Country Education Foundation of Australia and Yass Aged Care Foundation.

The couple has also recently renovated a two-bedroom worker’s cottage on the property to operate as bed-and-breakfast-style accommodation.

Naturally, gardening takes up a lot of time, much to the delight of Max the Jack Russell, who is always happy to keep Katie company as she tends plants, pulls weeds and clips hedges.

“The garden has always been beautiful,” she says. “Michael’s mother loved it and it has always been well maintained. I have probably made it less formal and opened it up more. We pulled out 25 metres of the 100-year-old hedge so we could put in a pool and open up the view.”

When they do relax, Katie’s favourite room is the sunroom, where a large open fire and a comfortable sofa and chairs beckon on cold afternoons. But there won’t be much time for that in the months ahead.

For Victoria’s wedding guests a large marquee will be erected on the former tennis court. By November, the garden will be at its best, with roses, peonies and salvias in full bloom.

But this time it won’t be the garden that commands all the attention — on this occasion that honour will go to the bride.