A stylish house in Mykonos combining bold mid-century pieces with natural materials

The huddle of glistening Cycladic limewashed buildings is surrounded by gardens looking over the bay of Elia and across the Aegean to the far islands of Paros and Naxos in the south. It is the Mykonian home of Rebecca Körner, her husband and their two young boys.

With its labyrinthine twists and turns, the vernacular architecture of Mykonos Town has, over the centuries, baffled both pirates and the meltemi, the notorious north wind that sweeps over the Cyclades each summer. Rebecca’s story has its own twists. ‘When I was island hopping 20 years ago, Mykonos seemed remote – more of a Greek secret,’ she recalls. Newly married, she returned a decade ago with her husband and their twins, then aged one. ‘We loved renting this house each year but the Italian owners, who built it in 1995, announced five years ago that they were selling it.’

Rebecca got her zest for sunny climes from growing up in Australia. Thanks to her European heritage and passion for travel, France beckoned. Having spent eight years working in the magazine world in Paris, she later moved to London and founded Körner Skincare. After settling down, she fell into interior design: ‘I decorated our townhouse in London and a client of my husband, who came round for drinks, liked what he saw and asked who we had used. His house became my first project.’

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As Körner Interiors, she has since worked on London houses, boutiques and recently on Muse, Tom Aikens’ new Belgravia restaurant. While Rebecca’s husband was keen to buy the Greek house, she hesitated: ‘Unlike him, I knew what was going to be involved.’ They went ahead with the purchase and, armed with a rather limited Greek vocabulary, Rebecca sailed forth. ‘I planned to do the architecture one year and the interiors the next – and with monthly site visits, I managed to achieve this.’

Approaching from the north side, you now pass through a pale blue painted wooden gate onto a narrow white path, flanked by outbuildings, towards a courtyard herb garden scented with basil, lavender, thyme, oregano, parsley and lemon balm. The house is deceptively large. From the outside, it resembles a small bundle of smooth iced wedding cakes, with a covered area swathed in bougainvillea and a bespoke Olympic-sized white marble dining table. A garden path leads round the hill to the expansive pool area

Once inside, the hall on the ground floor opens into a study area and a sitting room, and up a step to a snug, all with new south-facing french windows. ‘I was happy to leave the uneven floors, so although we’ve opened up the living areas, the original rooms are still delineated with steps,’ Rebecca says. At one end is a spare room used for guests and, at the other, a newly enlarged kitchen-dining room. ‘We expanded the terrace to the south, adding a timber and bamboo pergola for shade.’ The lower ground floor now houses the boys’ bedrooms, while upstairs – accessed via a narrow staircase – there is a dressing room, main bathroom and bedroom with a sea-view balcony.