Quiet Reflections

One couple’s story of finding a home where they left it

Words by Miranda O’Rourke Photography by Luisa Brimble

She encouraged being alone, being still and being content with your own company. As I have grown older and life has gotten busier, I truly appreciate my own company and understand the importance of being still.

Growing up my mum always encouraged quiet reflections. She encouraged being alone, being still and being content with your own company. As I have grown older and life has gotten busier, I truly appreciate my own company and understand the importance of being still. We built Lotte’s while I was studying full time and in the midst of opening a café in the heart of Sydney, which Harrison and I ran together. We worked long and early hours and when I wasn’t working hours in the café or studying for my bachelor’s degree, we were dreaming up this cottage.

On our weekends we would drive down (after work) and renovate the cottage, getting it up to scratch for guests. Life was busy and we forgot to take time out. Our relationship was tested, we spent all of our time working together, all of our projects were done together and we didn’t make time for ourselves. Lotte’s has encouraged us to slow down and be present in the moment. Although working towards the future is important and having goals is healthy, when we are in the cottage we are reminded how important it is to appreciate the simple things in life and slow. One of my fondest memories of the cottage was when we had a little bird nesting in the roof of the courtyard under the vines of ivy.

Harrison and I would stand in the kitchen and watch this bird for hours – collecting, nesting and being still. It was quite a symbolic time in our lives as we were so content just standing and watching this bird nest. Time passed quickly but we remained present at the moment. We sipped our tea slowly and took it all in. We reflected on the busy few years we had and although extremely proud of what we had achieved, we knew it wasn’t sustainable. We needed to find the courage to say no to projects and to learn to enjoy the stillness. It was a quiet reflection in the cottage, and it wouldn’t be the last.

Fast forward a few years and our guests have said similar things about the cottage. They are encouraged to slow down and reflect. They take time out from their fast-paced life and enjoy the art of doing nothing, whether it be drinking tea slowly, drawing a long bath or reading a book by the fire. The cottage was made in the hope that people would be comfortable to just be. We purposely stock endless cookbooks in the cottage to inspire people to cook. We have bikes in the courtyard so people ride overdrive. We have lush bed linens so people don’t want to wake. We have built a garden so people will stop to smell the flowers. The main feedback we get from guests who holiday in the cottage is that there is so much to see and do on the Sapphire Coast, but they didn’t want to leave the house. We love this because we built this house with the hope that people wouldn’t want to leave. They would enjoy slowing down and that they would thank their bodies for taking some time out. They would reflect quietly and make changes in parts of their life that the needed to. They would make time for people but also celebrate being alone. They would reflect.

“The cottage was made in the hope that people would be comfortable to just be. We purposely stock endless cookbooks in the cottage to inspire people to cook.”