Blog
When you hear the words coastal home, it’s easy to picture white interiors, light timbers, soft blues and natural textures. But there’s a difference between decorating a home in a coastal style and designing a home for coastal living. For us, designing for coastal living goes beyond how a home looks. It’s also about how […]
One of the more difficult questions to answer early in a custom building project is also one of the most important: what is it going to cost? It’s a question we’re asked regularly by clients planning a custom home in Forster, Tuncurry and the surrounding areas, and understandably, they want an indication as early as […]
A few weeks ago, Jake and I met with prospective clients at their home to talk through some ideas they had for their property. We spent the next hour walking through the house, discussing what they wanted to achieve and whether a major renovation or knockdown rebuild would ultimately be the better option for their […]
A well-built home should be the standard. The experience of getting there deserves just as much attention. When people talk about building a home, they usually talk about the finished product. The kitchen. The facade. The floor plan. The day they finally get the keys. And understandably so. But after years in the industry, we’ve […]
When designing a custom home, the first instinct for many people is to engage a designer or architect and begin drawing plans straight away. It feels exciting. The ideas start flowing, the layouts look beautiful, and the vision of your future home begins to take shape. But there’s one major problem with this approach. Without […]
A well-designed custom home doesn’t start with finishes, floor plans or Pinterest boards. It starts with understanding how you actually live. Before deciding how many bedrooms you need or whether you want a butler’s pantry, it’s worth thinking about the routines that happen every day. Where mornings get busy. Where bags and shoes end up. […]
The new year has a way of highlighting the small frustrations within your home that have been easy to push aside. Once the holidays are over and everyday routines resume, mornings get busy again. Bags are dropped at the door, everyone needs the bathroom at once, storage suddenly feels inadequate and the parts of the […]
Updated September 2026 Manning Homes officially began in 2024, but the idea had been around for quite a bit longer. Jake had always wanted to run his own building company. He left school in Year 10 to start working in construction and spent the years that followed building his experience on the tools and eventually […]
Sometimes the problem isn’t where you live. It’s the house you’re living in. You might love the street, the neighbourhood, the outlook and the backyard. The location still works perfectly for your family, but the house itself doesn’t. Maybe you’ve outgrown the layout. The living areas feel disconnected, there isn’t enough storage or natural light, […]
If you’re starting to plan a custom home or major renovation, one of the first questions you’ll probably have is: How much is it going to cost? It’s a completely reasonable question. And naturally, getting a few quotes from builders can seem like the obvious place to start. The difficulty is that early in a […]
We’re incredibly excited to announce that Manning Homes has been named a finalist in the Outdoor Project over $300,000 category at the 2025 Hunter Region HIA Awards. This recognition is especially meaningful as it represents our first official project under the Manning Homes name since starting our family business just 18 months ago. To […]
You’ve Got the Vision… But Where Do You Start? You’re finally ready to start planning your custom home in Forster, Diamond Beach, Tallwoods or the surrounding area. Your inspiration folder is overflowing, you’re following all the right design accounts on Instagram, and your camera roll is packed with screenshots and videos of ideas you’d love […]