It’s not every day that a homeowner converts a six-bedroom property into a one-bedroom penthouse, but there’s nothing cookie-cutter about Chyka Keebaugh. Since she and her husband, Bruce, founded a renowned catering and events firm in their mothers’ kitchens in the early ’90s, the couple has always taken the path less travelled. It’s led to la dolce vita and this palatial inner-city apartment, which is brimming with vintage treasures and mementos collected from around the globe.
“I love pattern, colour and texture,” says Chyka.
“And I go to a flea market wherever I am in the world.”
Home Profile
Meet & Greet: Chyka Keebaugh (entertaining doyenne, author and TV personality, co-founder of a catering and events company), her husband Bruce Keebaugh (co-founder of a catering and events company) and cavoodle, Otto.
The Property: One-bedroom inner-city penthouse in Melbourne.
A few years ago, after selling their family home – the Keebaughs still have a beach house for the weekends – Chyka and Bruce invested in two three-bedroom apartments in a popular inner-city suburb, off the plan.
“The kids were studying and working overseas,” recalls Chyka.
“We didn’t know whether they were coming back and if we should buy another house.” When it became clear that daughter Chessie, now 31, and son BJ, 29, weren’t returning any time soon, Chyka and Bruce pivoted. “We wondered, ‘Why don’t we just live here?’” says Chyka.
Since the empty nesters didn’t need all those bedrooms, they consolidated the apartments into one sprawling penthouse tailor-made for entertaining. At one end of the apartment is a vibrant living room and
a separate library; a central kitchen, dining and cocktail zone leads to a formal sitting room; and at the other end is one generous bedroom, dressing room and ensuite. Concealed behind the kitchen is a butler’s pantry and laundry.
Two powder rooms round out the floor plan. An idyllic terrace runs the length of the penthouse: “Of course, I’ve stuffed it with as many plants, pots, wicker baskets and cushions as you possibly can,” says Chyka.
WE LOVE… colour drenching
Chyka has curated an art-filled, kaleidoscopic home featuring a green-drenched library (above), a fuchsia-toned living room and a sitting room dubbed the ‘gold room’. The ‘pink room’ is her favourite. “It’s a very happy space and surprising. You can’t imagine someone could shove so much colour into such a small area.”
The couple added skylights and, in place of walls, steel-framed glass doors and windows to wash the interiors with light. Every corner is filled with antiques and curiosities that tell a story, from Chyka’s cache of green cabbageware to a taxidermy peacock that greets guests in the foyer.
Then there’s the 120kg haul of gleaming French copper pots hanging above the kitchen island bench.
“They were still wrapped in 17th- and 18th-century newspapers,” says Bruce.
“One is from King Louis XV’s kitchen,” says Chyka. “Of course, no one’s allowed to use that one.”
Chyka has been a collector since she was little and had amassed a glory box filled with treasures gathered on her travels before she was wed. It’s been more than three decades since the couple married in 1992, and some of those childhood keepsakes are still proudly on display.
“We’ve given this home a lot of personality,” she says.
“It tells our story – the life we’ve lived together and all the travel we’ve done.
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