New renovations, retro vibes: reviving Australia’s rundown motels

The pool area at Berry View Hotel in Berry, NSW. Fun, feminine and retro aesthetics are shared across most of the motels now being refurbished across Australia. Photograph: Lynden Foss

Motel Molly is giving vacay vibes. It’s giving idyllic. It’s giving “hot girl summer” lives on in Mollymook, a town on the New South Wales south coast.

I’m in an oceanside room in one of four colour-themed buildings called Capri, Olive, Limoncello and Rosé. My room in the latter comes in pinks from powder to peach, coral and mauve with – squee! – a Smeg fridge and kettle in a high-gloss fairy-floss colourway. Elsewhere are rattan chairs, Scandi-style ceramics, glasses etched with frosted cursive font and a throw tufted with designs that vaguely evoke the US south-west.