This week on our Home Life Series, we head to the beauty Barwon Heads and step inside the home of ceramic artist Sophia Legoe. Nestled among fruit trees and coastal flora, Sophia’s home is a warm and welcoming blend of 1970s charm and modern ease, brought to life with handcrafted details, earthy tones and an unmistakable creative spirit. Designed in collaboration with friends and built with family life at its heart, it’s a space that celebrates the slow, the soulful and the beautifully imperfect.
From handmade tiles and vintage finds to sun-dappled garden workstations and a studio tucked beneath the house, every element of Sophia’s home tells a story. Drawing inspiration from the land and sea around her, this is a home where art and nature meet- layered, lived-in and full of heart.
Hey Sophia! Thanks so much for letting us peek inside your gorgeous home on the Bellarine Peninsula. For anyone who hasn’t met you yet, can you tell us a bit about who you are and who you share your space with?
Hello! Great to have the Kip&Co crew around! Such a bright and friendly bunch! I’m Sophia, a ceramic artist living in the coastal Victorian town of Barwon Heads. I live here with my husband Matt and three kids, Francis, Ned and Violet. Oh, and also our Jack Russel Tilly and a growing collection of fruit trees and flowers!
Your home is such a beautiful mix of 1970s charm with a modern extension. Can you share the story behind the renovation and what made this special spot the perfect place for your family?
We bought this 1970s house over a decade ago. We were previously living just around the corner. We were drawn to the property for its large overgrown block with big trees and unique aspect that looks over the mangrove system towards the Barwon Heads River.
The previous owner had named the property ‘Chenardo’, which apparently means ‘second home of trees’. This meaning appeals to me, but when the kids were little, we used to call it ‘THE JUNGLE!’ Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked….. We happily lived in the three-bedroom 1970’s house for a number of years with just some freshening up, but no structural changes. However, the house was calling out for an extension that allowed for views to the river system and big morning skies. So, we engaged MBA (Murray Britton Architect) our friends from Adelaide days, together with local friends, builder and designer SouEast Homes and Linear Studio. And now we have the friendly and beautiful space that we spend most of our time in.
You’ve been creating ceramic artwork since high school, and you’ve recently returned to ceramics after some time away. Can you tell us how your creative journey began and what inspired you to get back into this beautiful art?
I love clay, it does get beneath your fingers, so to speak. I’ve been playing with it since primary school, on and off, between full-time jobs and part-time jobs and raising three kids. At one point I went back to study a Fine Arts degree with a major in ceramics in the late 90’s and also completed an honours degree at Victorian College of the Arts.
In recent years I have returned with more time and focus to this lifelong passion. This is to do with my age and time in life, and also very helpful to be able to work from home. But the recent return to the world of clay more seriously was probably precipitated by my wee tile venture and making tiles for this extension. It really gave me the taste for experimentation with some of the beautiful colours and effects you can get with glaze chemistry.
Your ceramic pieces feel both sculptural and deeply tactile. Where do you find inspiration for your forms and surfaces? Are there particular themes, references, or ideas that shape your work?
Nature is a constant, it's big, it's inspiring, it's open, it's beautiful. I grew up in a farm around swamps and swans and tadpoles and stringybark trees. Now I live by the sea with a bluff and a marine sanctuary.
I love swimming and body surfing and goggling (swimming around the reefs with a pair of goggles on). These experiences, which are often tactile in themselves, influence my work both on an emotive and intellectual level.
The tiled kitchen wall and bathroom both take centre stage, with the tiles, handle and hooks all handmade by you. What draws you to experimenting with colour and texture, and how do you approach the tile-making process?
I love colour. I used to really love turquoise, then I really loved green and now I love all the soft pinks and oranges and other colours in between! I love all Kip&Co’s colour too! But you can get some really cool colour and depth with glaze chemistry. It’s a science and I enjoy experimenting with it. I have a lot more experimenting that I would like to do!
It takes time and it is laborious, but some of the results are really worth it! The actual tile making process itself is fairly rudimentary – cookie cutter type technique. Again quite labour intensive and time consuming! I’m part of the slow movement- haha
Balancing creative pursuits with family life can be a beautiful, if sometimes chaotic, dance. How do you carve out time to stay connected to your practice while also being present at home?
This is the first time that I have had a studio at home. Ceramics is such a process driven sport, so I feel it makes a huge difference to have such accessibility to my work space. I’m often putting a kiln on later at night or re-checking work at various stages of drying during the day. I can also duck into the kitchen to start the dinner. There is no commute time, plus the kids are getting older- that helps!
Tell us about your at-home studio, how have you designed the space to support creativity? And how does the surrounding Bellarine landscape influence your work, both in your ceramics and in the way you’ve styled your home?
I moved into an existing room at the bottom of the house that looked like an old store room. I decked it out with some unwanted office shelves from my husband's work and cupboards from the 70’s kitchen here. It gets morning light and can be a bit dark at other times. So often I work outside, weather permitting, which I prefer anyway.
I have various different old tables that I move about the grass and either try to hide from the wind or chase the sun. The Bellarine landscape is a big presence which influences natural colour and texture selections in my work and in the house. The smoky charcoals, matte jades and opalescent blues on the kitchen splashback tiles are all directly inspired by views absorbed from the surrounding landscape.
