Australia in Hod Hasharon

One wonders if all Australians are as attached to their previous homeland as these two homeowners.

By GLORIA DEUTSCH
Australia in Hod Hasharon 521 (photo credit: Uriel Messa)
Australia in Hod Hasharon 521
(photo credit: Uriel Messa)
With didgeridoos on the coffee table in the lounge and boomerangs splayed over the walls, there’s no doubt as to the origins of the people who live in this house in Hod Hasharon. One wonders if all Australians are as attached to their previous homeland as these two.
The home belongs to a couple who always wanted a place of their own, and started married life in rented accommodation in Tel Aviv. When they heard about a new development being built in much cheaper Hod Hasharon, they jumped at the chance to leave the city and own a place with a garden in the small, bucolic town not far from Kfar Saba.
They took the house more or less as the builder intended it, adding only an extra carport and opening up the two windows to the lounge by adding a third. By the time they moved in, they had no money left to make any serious improvements, and were stuck with the basic kitchen, a few Formica-covered cabinets and some plain marble tops and floor.
Fortunately the wife has masses of artistic talent and set about improving her standard kitchen to make it seem new.
“I painted the cupboards in mottled blue, and the idea for the cows came from an illustration in a children’s book,” she says. “Everyone said you can’t paint with oil on Formica – but I proved them wrong. It’s lasted 10 years with a few touch-ups here and there.”
She put up matching blue and white curtains, stuck a couple of iguanas on the upper cupboard, hung an apron with an Australian flag, and the result is a cheerful work environment that makes up in color what it lacks in sophistication. Improvisation is the key – and a sense of humor.
The house is a mixture of modern, comfortable furniture and some splendid antiques, the result of a serendipitous family connection.
“My husband’s aunt had an antique shop in Tel Aviv for years and acquired quite a number of good pieces,” she says. “When she closed it, we inherited all the remnants. I think the woodwork – the carving and inlay – is amazing, and one doesn’t see that kind of work today.”
The living room contains several of the antiques their aunt gave them. The sideboard with inset flower and grape carvings could be French, she thinks, and the striped couch also has intricate carvings on its wooden frame. These pieces blend seamlessly with the modern brick couch and the glass coffee table, on which are perched no fewer than three authentic, playable didgeridoos, some South African metal birds and a Botero-style sculpture that the owners’ daughter made.
Around the walls are mainly paintings that the woman did herself. In one corner, in front of an antique lamp, is what looks like a bronze figure playing a saxophone.
“It’s actually ceramic and painted to look like bronze,” she explains.
The dining corner is also a display area for more of the owners’ oil paintings, and the corner window is draped with flimsy red curtains tied into a knot to allow in more light.
The staircase up to the bedrooms is lined with an attractive wrought-iron banister, and this is the wall on which the boomerangs are displayed, as well as an ancient rake acquired in Spain and more paintings and sculptures.
“Space is beginning to be a problem,” says the owner. “We send works of art to my office or the hospital where my husband works.”
Outside, a wild, unkempt garden is home to several sculptures and is reachable via a wooden deck and patio that the husband built himself. He also built the fishpond at which appears, in the undergrowth, a sculpture of a boy fishing, also created by the couple’s daughter.
The front entrance wall outside is decorated with masks that the woman made, ceramic fish and iguanas.
“There was a climbing plant which unfortunately died,” she says. “We left the remains, as we liked the lacy look of it.”
The entrance is separated from the kitchen by an open wall with a step formation at the top.
“I didn’t want the kitchen cut off,” she explains, “but at the same time I didn’t want the visitors to be greeted by a sink full of dirty dishes. So a half-wall seemed a good compromise.”
The area is home to an antique French inlaid chest of drawers with brass mounts and a green marble top. Many paintings hang here, as well as ornaments perched on the steps of the half-wall.
“I often put things in pairs, as I’m told that is conducive to harmony in the home,” she says.
Certainly this home, with its all-pervasive art, exudes warmth and embodies a comfortable lifestyle surrounded by homemade, beautiful things and constant reminders of the old country.