Jackie Frank

Editor of marie claire Australia Jackie Frank considers style on the catwalk and in the home with WA Archicentre AIA architect Daniel Walton.

When I caught up with Jackie Frank she was in between meetings, camera shoots and a series of interviews connected to Channel Seven’s Make Me a Supermodel reality TV show. By rights the magazine editor should have been breathless and not a little stressed. She wasn’t.

In taking time out to consider what it takes to be the nation’s top model, Frank reflects that what it comes down to is that element present in all good design when several factors combine to raise something above the ordinary: it’s commonly known as the X factor.

Born and raised in Melbourne, Frank has had phenomenal success in the world’s top magazines: Mademoiselle, in London and New York for Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and today Marie Claire Australia. Awarded for her ability to understand what is takes to excite and entertain readers she once explained simply: “I am my reader.”

Having featured numerous homes, or at least sneak peaks into opulent mansions or purposefully stark apartments in the pages of her magazines, Frank reveals a classical leaning for her own dream home.  Something between a traditional Queenslander and French Provincial, she says, if such a hybrid could be made without architectural offense and stand tall in its own right – much like a top model should.

Archicentre AIA architect Daniel Walton saw Frank’s dream home site close to the sea.  “Somewhere like the Nowra on the south coast of NSW, or Bunker Bay on WA’s south west where the site has only a sand dune and some coastal scrub separating it from the shoreline. The house would feel spacious and welcoming, pulling the ocean vista’s in wherever possible.”

The architect has taken a stylistic middle ground, taking elements of French Provincial, Queenslander and New Hamptons looks to produce a classic home with lightweight elements to break down the scale of the design.

Jackie Frank lives with husband Stephen and their two children Ella 10 and Charlie 8. Four bedrooms are required for her perfect home plus a guest suite for when her parents stay. Frank is not a lover of spas: the three bedrooms must include en suites with big bathtubs installed.

Light airy spaces appeal to the editor, mainly open plan with the exception of a requested formal and traditional dining room. “ The kitchen, though, I see as steel and polished stone and I think it should have a casual meals nearby.”

The architect has broken the house into formal and informal zones on either side of the entry foyer, which in turn rolls into the lap pool and out to the ocean.  “The foyer acts as a great gallery and captures its own amazing views.”

The living spaces are located to the north and open to the deck areas at the front of the house. With the majority of family life taking place in the informal meals and family rooms, it means the formal living and dining rooms are kept clutter free “for a bit of parental sanity and separation from the office space,” adds Walton. Frank’s break-neck schedule and her husband’s job in computer trade practices meant two home offices were needed.”

Two other rooms Jackie Frank stipulates are a family room where the children can happily exhaust themselves playing table tennis and a home theatre where the clan can gather for a stay-in night of family movies.

In these plans the self-contained pool house cum guest room connects to the house via an alfresco area off the family room.  Upstairs, the master suite is located separately to the children’s bedrooms, studies and theatre room.

Built with stone walls and reverse brick veneer for strong thermal properties, the architect has designed the foyer to provide cross ventilation, pulling cool air from the pool into the house on hot afternoons.  “The alfresco area and veranda provide protection from summer sun, strong sea breezes and winter storms.”

Frank’s dream décor is white. “I love white,” Frank says. “I would like whitewashed timber floors and white stucco plaster walls - lots of white with splashes of colour.”

The brief wouldn’t be complete without accommodating the magazine editor’s fashion orientated lifestyle.

“It’s true. I need a fabulous, big walk-in robe and good storage for all my bags and shoes.”

— Story by Helen Crompton