Home Visit: Inside Brahman Perera’s Opulent Country House Surrounded by Elm Trees

Interior designer Brahman Perera never set out to own a holiday house. Instead, he envisioned a true second home – splitting his life between city and country. For Perera and his partner, restaurateur Jason Jones, the week is divided between two bases: their Melbourne residence and a 1.4-hectare property in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges.

“It’s part of my plan to live a slightly slower paced life,” Perera says. “I feel like Melbourne tends to increase the frenetic energy and immediacy that people are becoming a bit too used to, and I’m very actively making decisions in my life to negate all of that.”

After selling their previous country home nearby in Carlsruhe, the pair stumbled upon Elm Park and purchased it in the same month. Named for the majestic elm trees that frame the property, it serves as Perera and Jones’s countryside retreat – originally built by architect Gary George as his own home. Despite its sense of grandeur and expansive gardens, Perera describes the home as relatively modest: two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a single main living area, with no ancillary rooms.

“The whole house is geared around looking at the views,” he says. “That’s the point – nature is the art piece, really.” Inside, you can see the interior designer’s deft hand at play. An “eclectic” mix of furniture, artwork and other objects collected over time exemplify Perera’s signature quiet opulence.

There’s a delicate Fornasetti bar cabinet, Grecian busts, a singular Murano glass chandelier from luxury Italian lighting company Barovier & Toso, a BMDO floor lamp made from archival Liberty fabrics, artwork by Billy Gibney and Marnie Haddad, and a grand piano that Perera and Jones both play. 

Name: Brahman Perera
Lives: In Elm Park, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom country house in the Macedon Ranges
Since: March 2025With: His husband, Jason Jones, and their two poodles, Billie and Ella

What are some of the changes you’ve made to the house since you moved in?
We came up with a master plan for what we wanted to do, and it’s undergoing quite a bit of work now, including some new terraced gardens. We’re building a conservatory as well for a dining room.

What we did first, though, was open up a few walls, repaint, recarpet and install entirely new light fittings throughout the house – wall sconces and chandeliers and pendant lights – which gave it its initial layer.

Can you describe the vibe of the house, and your approach to decorating it?
The house is multifaceted in that, because of its size, it’s perfect for the two of us and our two dogs – it still feels quite intimate and not like two people rambling around a huge country manor. But because of the scale of the rooms and the way in which we furnished it, it flexes quite neatly for us to entertain in. We have a lot of friends and family that come to the house.

The majority of pieces in the house are ones we’ve had for many, many years, slowly collected over a decade – they’ve travelled with us. I think there’s a certain eclectic flavour to the house.

What’s your favourite room?
We opened up a small side space that was used as a library to create a little breakfast nook, which is actually the only dining space we have at the moment, until this conservatory room is built. It’s such a gorgeous intimate spot adjacent to the main and only lounge room. We’ve enveloped it in this glossy ox blood paint, and there’s a built-in banquette so it ends up being a really cosy nook to have a meal in, rather than sitting in a big space together.

We end up working there a few days a week, eating, playing games, playing cards with friends. I think people tend to add rooms and rooms and rooms to their house for different functions … sometimes it can feel a bit excessive.

Speaking of the living room, can you tell us about your couch?
We customised the Haven sofa from King Living in two different fabrics. It helps to break up what is essentially this really monolithic, sculptural piece that anchors a lot of the smaller things in the room. It feels generous, and doing the two fabrics makes it a bit more interesting and personalised.

How about your favourite object?
We have a really beautiful Fornasetti bar cabinet there near the kitchen, with an amazing Fornasetti print on the front of it. I love that it’s decorative and very useful, but also quite modest. Do you need a huge bar, or is it enough to have this gorgeous, beautifully curated bar? I’m leaning more towards the latter. I love that, because this house is actually quite small, we have to be really specific about what we put in it.

What is the outdoor space like?
Essentially the reason we were so drawn to the property was the beautiful elm trees and the established nature. There’s a 360-degree arrangement of spaces outside to use. Much of the time, the way we use the house is basically about tracking where the sun is. We will follow the sun around at different times of the day, and we’re lucky enough to not just have one table outside where we have to sit – we can move around the house and garden, and follow the best light to most enjoy the outdoors.

Favourite places to buy homewares and art
We’ve engaged a lot with Sophie Gannon Gallery. Sophie has an incredible stable of artists. I love Ma House Supply Store, curated by a gorgeous man named Ben [Mooney]. It’s become my go-to for gifts and any odd [objects] I want to find for a project.

What do you love about your neighbourhood
It’s a beautiful spot. There’s a roaming market between the different towns that we always like to visit. There’s a community hall every second Sunday that does charity coffee and cakes – Jason sponsors that coffee, which is just a very, very small contribution that we make towards community life.

Daylesford and Woodend are full of incredible restaurants that we love. The Daylesford Hotel is owned by some friends, and they’ve done an incredible job reinventing that as a real local hub in town. And often, really, it’s about having dinner parties at home and having friends come over and enjoying the beautiful house.

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