August 17, 2026 • 23 mins
After decades spent renovating for profit, Cherie Barber is doing things a little differently.
In Part 2 of her conversation with Home Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Elle Lovelock, Cherie takes us inside The Farmhouse, her sprawling Western Sydney project blending modern farmhouse style with her love of mid-century design. She explains why even a deeply personal home still needs to make financial sense, and how she decides where to follow her heart and where to think about resale.
Plus, Cherie reveals why she starts her days at 3:30am, how she solves renovation problems in her sleep and the incredible story of how she came tantalisingly close to owning Elvis Presley’s Palm Springs honeymoon home.
This episode covers:
- Inside Cherie Barber’s Western Sydney farmhouse
- Mixing modern farmhouse and mid-century design
- Taking colour inspiration from the surrounding landscape
- Renovating for yourself vs renovating for resale
- Why Cherie avoids design trends
- Her surprising 3:30am morning routine
- Solving renovation problems in her sleep
- Cherie’s love of Palm Springs and mid-century architecture
- The extraordinary story behind Elvis Presley’s honeymoon home
- The property deal that got away
You can find Cherie on Instagram here.
Read about Tinnie, Cherie’s humanoid robot here.
Check out Cherie’s 7 Top Renovating Tips here
🎧 Listen to The Edit and follow on Apple Podcasts
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👀 Watch and subscribe to The Edit on Home Beautiful's YouTube
Credits:
Host: Elle Lovelock
Guest: Cherie Barber
Edited by: Leah Porges
Head of Vodcasting: Rachel Fountain
With thanks to our wonderful Home Beautiful team.
The Edit is a production of Home Beautiful and Are Media.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is an our media podcast. I actually solved my
renovation problems in my sleep. So like, for example, if
I've got something where I'm not sure how something's to
get going to come together, I solve it in my sleep.
It's really bizarre. Or I'll come up with really great
(00:25):
design ideas in my sleep.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So do you have a notepad beside your bed or
how do you I'll.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Just get up, it's not doing them.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We're back with part two of my chat with Shari Barber.
If you're rejoining us after listening to part one, welcome back.
And if you happen to already listen to part one,
scroll back up in your feed, listen to part one
and then join me here again. So her expertise is
in renovating for profit, Shari Barber's current project is more personal.
(00:59):
After thirty plus years of buying and selling, she's putting
everything she knows, plus a few new lessons learned, into
a modern farmhouse located in western Sydney, a place where
she spent the first part of her life. This next
chapter involves rethinking a six hundred square meter floor plan,
why she wakes up at three thirty every morning, and
(01:21):
what it's like living next door to your builder. Sheari
also shares a wild story about the time she almost
bought Elvis Presley's honeymoon home and reveals the greatest property
regret of her life. I would love you to take
us on an audio tour of the farmhouse as you
see it completed.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So if you walk through the front door and the
farmhouse is all ready to go, yep, what does it
look like? What do we see?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Okay, So, as we're walking up to the house, it's long,
so it's about seventy meters long the front facade. Yeah,
so quite different to most houses, but it's not an
overly deep house. The current window the old house had
little tiny windows. This house is full of floor to
ceiling glass windows. So you've got three point nine meter walls. Wow,
(02:16):
and then the ceilings reaching up to eight meters high.
Beautiful big gable exposed rafters. Is incredible, big floora ceiling
glass windows. It's a modern farmhouse style mixed with modern
mid century because I'm obsessed with everything from the fifty
sixty seventies. So it's going to have the farmhouse five,
(02:38):
which sits the rural, rural sort of acreage property, but
mixed with the modern mid century and those two styles
work really well together.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
They do.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's got lots of earthy colors, so sort of going back,
nothing polished, nothing manufactured, so there's no shiny chromes or
anything like that. It's all terra cottas, chocolate browns, green
colors of the earth. So and it's so beautiful, like
there's so many trees and the rolling hills there that
(03:08):
I wanted the indoors to feel like, you know, the
outdoors coming inside. So yeah, lots of greens. And in fact,
I've actually taken my color inspiration from the bark of
the trees out there. So I looked at the trees.
I think that's a good tip for people, like if
they're wanting like a home that feels very relaxed and
(03:28):
natural and organic, look to the colors in nature. So
I literally looked at the trees, and you know, sometimes
how bark pills off trees, it reveals the most amazing colors.
So you get like your brown's, your grays, your creams.
So I'm using that as the color palette for inside
(03:50):
the house.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
What a wonderful idea. So what do you need from
this house? How many bedrooms? Do you have multiple living
rooms or is it open plants.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yes, you've just raised a really interesting point. So it's
myself and my hobby living in the house, and then
obviously my daughter will live in the guest house. That's
her little house, and when she moves out, it will
become a guest house. And that's only sixty square meters,
like the average size of a granny flat. But on
the main house it's big. It's six hundred square meters
and it is way too big. Yeah, way too big.
(04:25):
It's excessive for what two people need. So we will
have a lot of bedrooms that just don't get used.
But you know what, it's the suburb expectation. So in
that suburb of Molgoa, the average house is between Most
houses are between four to five hundred square meters two
a thousand square meters in size. So if I didn't
(04:48):
build a house, I'm at the lower end six hundred
square meters. But if I came in and bought a
built a house that was maybe say only two hundred
square meters, I would absolutely get crucified on the property value. Yes,
it would become a buyer objection. When I ultimately sell,
and I will ultimately sell because I never sort of
stay in one spot forever forever. When it comes time
(05:10):
that I will ultimately sell that property, it'll be a
major buyer objection. They'll say, this house is just too small.
So it's a shame really, And I sort of thought
about that. I thought, well, it's incredibly sort of wasteful
sort of building a house. It's expensive to build the
house for a lot of it that I'm not going
to be using. But I know that ultimately it won't
be my forever home. I'll stay there definitely, maybe a
(05:33):
year or two or three, I don't know, who knows.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So that's a really good insight into when you are
renovating or building, how do you choose where to put
your personality in what you want and what decisions do
you make for resale because so often people will just
everything painted white and let's just prepare it for sale,
(05:59):
but then they might live in it for two years.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, this is the big difference between renovating for profit
and renovating your own home. Like one is based on
return on investment, the numbers, yep, and renovating your own
home is based on emotion. So what I tell my
students For example, a lot of my students will buy
their own home and they'll renovate that first. They'll create
equity in that they don't have separate living expenses, so
(06:24):
they might live in their renovation project. They might do
it a room at a time, or you know, they
might live in the front of the house and do
a structural add on, altraation extension at the rear. So
I always say to them, renovate that home, even though
this is going to be a home that you might
live in for the next five or ten years. Renovate
it so in a way that it's not polarizing in
(06:45):
any way. Renovate it to the market. Renovate it so
that if something changes tomorrow, you get sick, your hobby
get sick, something happens, and you've got to do a shift.
That property is easy to sell, but instead to make
it feel like your own home, painted the color that
make you happy, because paint is such an easy thing
to change. Knocking out walls, putting structural beams in, that's
(07:06):
time consuming, expensive counsel approval. Don't do that right. So
just you know, get it, Get the structure right and.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
The floor plan to suit the area.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
The floor plan. You got to make it functional, You're
got to make it practical, So all those basic things
you've got to do. But in terms of personalizing it,
paint it to the colors that you know make you happy,
and then really use styling to you know, the styling
things that bring you joy, to make it feel like home. Obviously,
(07:37):
I've worked on the show's Space Invaders for the last
six years, so we're a decluttering show and I can't
love you. Yes, it's very popular, but you know what,
a lot of people collect stuff, stuff, and that stuff
doesn't make them happy. So I work with Peter Walsh,
who I absolutely adore. He's one of my really good friends,
(07:59):
and he has a really great saying that everything that
you bring into your home should bring you joy and
get rid of the stuff that doesn't bring you joy,
because otherwise it's just clutter and clutter bogs you down,
and clutter is hard to keep clean and makes your
spaces feel, you know, not as freeing.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
That's true. Do you have stuff?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I have no stuff? You know what, since I've been
working on Space in that is, I've become very conscious
about what I buy now. So I was sort of
the sort of person that I would just if I
saw something that I love, I'd buy it and not
really think about it. And I've never been a hood
or anything far from it. I'm that person that sort
of has a home that's more like a show home.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yeah, well, let's talk about you in the home and
how you live. I'll ask some questions and just tell
me the first thing that comes to your mind. So
something you always have fresh in your home?
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Fresh fruit, yes, I don't know, boring fresh veggies? Yeah,
so I do. Every week. I just go to the supermart.
We've got a old fashioned fruit and vegetable shop where
I'm doing the property. So I just go and buy
a big box of fruit and veggies and literally just
go buy a couple of dozen organic eggs and some
(09:11):
goat cheese and that's my diet. So I have like
veggies for breakfast, normally veggies for lunch and dinner. And yeah,
I know it sounds really boring. Obviously I go out.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So what about things like shoes on.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Or off, shoes on, work boots on. Yeah, I've always
got clumps of dirt around my house because I walk
in from sight, particularly when it's been muddy, and you know,
I wipe my feet on the map. But often you'll
find these clumps of bits, you know, they get stuck
in the soles of your work boo, yeah, always swiping
those up.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Do you like to have people over or do you
prefer to go to other people's homes.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I prefer to go out to like venues, like all
like restaurants. I'm quite a quiet person. I know probably
find that hard to believe, but I'm always talking, like
in my job, and so I like being a public speaker,
being a TV presenter, being on site all the time.
Like literally, my jaws do not stop. I know.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I hear this more often than people would expect. For example,
Darren Palmer, we were having a chat and he said
he's an introvert, and I said, how does that work?
And he said, well, you know, if I'm filming, I'm
behind a camera. If I'm presenting, I'm on a stage,
and there's still I'm not with everybody. And I feel
(10:29):
that is quite common for people who are in the
public eye, that they are introverts.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Exactly, like out of the same mold it is, And
my my hobby is quite social. And then when I
get home from work, he just wants to like chin way,
and I'm so I'm just like so normally like we
jump into bed and then we'll talk, but then I
fall asleep like five minutes late. As he says, I'm megaboring.
But yeah, I just I love just like quiet, like
(10:56):
my the only time I'll get really peace and quiet
in my life is I get a bar every morning.
So I get up at three thirty every morning. So
I'm normally in the bath at four and I'll just
sit in the bath for about fifteen minutes and that's
my time for me. So I literally, especially in winter
when so cold, oh I was like scorching hot. I
inched myself in and then I just sit there. So
(11:18):
I love that. I just love not having to speak
to anybody at that time in the morning. And my
brain is like on at that time, and as the
days goes on, I get like more dopey.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
That is that why you get up at three point thirty,
because that you are, Yeah, the brain's on, the brain's on.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I actually solved my renovation problems in my sleep, so like,
for example, if I've got something where I'm not sure
how something's to get like going to come together, I
solve it in my sleep, it's really bizarre. Or I'll
come up with really great design ideas in my sleep.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So do you have a notepad beside your bed or
how do you.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I'll just get up I start doing them. So yeah,
I'm not like Yeah, like my builder who's working with
me on my current project, he just happens to live
next door. Yeah, and so he was like, oh, I
can see the lights on at two o'clock this morning,
what were you doing? And like I was working, I
was doing emails.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
All the question is what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, so yeah, it's weird. So yeah, I don't have
you know, my friends are always welcome at my house.
And as I've got older too, I've sort of made
a conscious decision to have less friends as well. Yes,
because you're just busy and time ashure, and so I'd
rather have less friends. I can sort of count my
(12:40):
true friends on one hand now, and I'm actually really
happy with that. So I'd rather invest my energy and
time in those people definitely, and have really solid quality relationships,
yeah than have lots of people. I know lots of people,
but they're not sort of the people that I would
if I had a problem, I would call on. So yeah,
I've just sort of reached that stage where I don't know,
(13:02):
maybe it's maturity or slowing down a little bit. I've
just made that decision. So I do. I do love
just being home and not talking to anybody. That's my relaxation.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
I can't believe Shari solves reno problems in her sleep
would be back in a bit. Is there a design
trend or an architectural style that you wish would come back.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I've never been one to follow trends because trends come
and go, and it's always something that I said to
my students around the country. Don't follow trends, you know,
create a scheme that is, you know, if you're renovating
a house, particularly if you're renovating for a profit, you've
got to renovate to the market, renovate to what the
expectation is on that suburb. But yeah, for me, like
(13:53):
as I've said, I love, I'm just like psycho obsessed
with mid century and so I'll just look for any
excuse to go vintage shopping. I go to Palm Springs
at least once a year. I almost bought the Elvis
Presley Honeymoon House in Palm Spring. Yeah, so I did this.
It's a funny story.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Have we got time, Yes, of course.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So I went to visit my friend Peter Walsh. He
lives in Australia and Palm Springs half the year, so
I went to see him and I found out that
the Elvis Presley Honeymoon House was for sale. And because
I'm like a kid in the candy store with property,
so I went and saw the house. But they wanted
some crazy price. It was like US twelve million dollars,
(14:39):
so it was just way out of my price league.
And so I literally just saw the house, loved it,
flitted away, flew back to Australia, and then I just
watched the listing over the course of a year and
a half. So like when eleven million, ten million, nine
and a half, like I just kept going.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Boom boom boom boom boom boom Boom's game show.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, so I was like okay. So then it got
down to three and a half million US and then
I flew over. I was like okay, gay mind okay.
So then I went over, like we did a really
detailed inspection of the house, and then I sort of
worked out with the currency. The currency wasn't great, so
it was going to be like US four point nine million,
(15:19):
and I was like, I don't need that house. It
would sort of like mess me up a little bit
for my investment strategy. I would have had to have
sold a couple of properties here in Astraana. I thought,
this is really not the smartest thing to do. But
I loved the house, and I thought, you know what,
it's okay to like, maybe buy a property that doesn't
make financial sense. That's not all about return on investment.
(15:41):
That's for fun. So and I thought, you know what,
I really want to restore this house back to its
former glory. There'd been some unsympathetic renovation changes to it,
and I thought, okay, I'm the person to bring this
house back. So I thought I might rent it out
Airbnb so lots of people in America could enjoy the
Elvis Honeymoon House. Anyway, cutlong story shop. But I didn't
(16:02):
really want to pay three point five because it was
like five million dollars and I just thought that would
have been I would have had to have sold a
really good property here to buy that. And Matt was saying,
my partner, Matt was saying you're an idiot, like what
are you doing? So what I did is I made this.
I got dressed up in all my retro like a
beautiful retro dress. I have like all wardrobes full of
(16:25):
retro dresses that I've got made out of fifties bed
sheets and stuff like that. So I had my one
of my beautiful retro dresses, my retro headband, and I
made this made two signs. So the vendor originally said no,
it's three and a half, and I just didn't want
to spend us three and a half. So I made
these big signs and I did in big letters it's
(16:46):
one for the money, two for the show. Sell me
this house, baby, don't say no. And I was literally
like shaking the sign and then I made this other signs.
I did that little video and then I did this
other saying please sell me this house. I will restore
it back to its former glory. I will not like
rip it apart. I want to share this house with
(17:08):
generations to come, that everybody can experience this beautiful house.
I'll do the right thing. It's like literally this whole
big poster and I literally like stood out the front
of the house took photos of it.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
This is like love actually meets Elvis.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
It's crazy stuff, right, And I then sent those through
to the real estate agent. He had a giggle and
he was like, oh, go send it to So I
offered two point four Yeah, and he goes, look, I
don't think they're going to do it, but look I'll
just try. Anyway, he sent the images the videos, and
the vendor said.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yes, you're kidding. No, So then what happens?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So I was so excited. So I'd been dealing with
a finance broker and I'd done ten I'd bought ten
houses in America for my American show five Day Flip.
So he said, Yep, everything should be fine, no worries.
You chuck in twenty percent. I think I had to
chuck in thirty percent, and then they were gonna lend
me set ten percent. I thought, I just pay that
off long term, long term. Anyways, I rang the broker
(18:05):
all super excited. Yeah, the Elpas honeymoon house. And then
he went he processed the loan application and then he
literally read me, goes, we got a major problem. And
I was like what And he goes, those ten houses
that you bought in Minnesota for your American show. They
were done under a commercial loan, not a residential loan,
so I had no established credit rating in America that
(18:26):
we thought I had, And so he said, we can't
lend you twenty percent. You're going to have to literally
chuck in seventy percent cash and we can lend you thirty.
And I just at that time, I couldn't scrape the
money up like it was.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
You know, it would have got money.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And they eventually onsold it to somebody and they just
they did not do a good renovation job. But I
spent hours, hundreds of hours in the National Archive. I
found all the original photos of the house, the House
of Tomorrow, and freaking yeah, so I go now every
time I go to Palm Springs, I just literally stand
out the front of that house still like like some
(19:02):
crazy lonely stare.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Now ladies back again, you know, from Australia. I am
learning so much from Scharene. We'll be back with more
tips soon. This feels like a really good point to
find out your mystery draw item, because that story was
(19:26):
so incredible, yes that I am curious, what have you
brought from your mystery drawer?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well, you know, I love everything from the fifties and
sixties and seventies. I would have brought my Chevy in,
but I can't fit it on this table right, So
is where you go?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Oh I know what this is?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, I don't know. I thought maybe it's a generation
gap here between me and I wasn't sure if you'd
know what that is?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Not at all. This takes me back to my childhood.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
That's exactly why I've got it.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
So everybody who's listening, share with them, what have you
brought in?
Speaker 1 (20:08):
So I've bought in an original telephone from the nineteen
seventy years, so this is before iPhones come out. This
is how people used to communicate. Remember the dog do
the dial?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Which have we got the ASMR going here? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And then you wait for that. Do you know why
I love this? Because this? Yeah, this is and yellow
is my favorite color. So we had this exact telephone,
not this particular one, but the exact yellow color when
I was growing up. And I remember using this telephone
to dial my grandparents. Oh, and so there was something
(20:48):
nice about having a telephone like this. Dialing. It was
actually fun dialing the numbers, yes, and they're just sort
of they're waiting and waiting for them to answer. And
because like now we have our iPhones, it's so destructed.
I don't know if you're like me, but like I'll
be multitasking. I'll be on the phone, like I'll be
like getting groceries out of the car or checking something.
So you'll go, but you're multitasking, whereas back in those days.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
You had to stay in one spot.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, you were just like it was a slow dial.
You couldn't move from the kitchen bench, which is where
this told. You know, this was always so you were
like focused on the conversation, you know, that art of
communication back then. And I love this because Peter Walsh
gave this to me. So this actually came from a
homeowner on Space Invaders when they were decluttering. They didn't
(21:34):
want it. So Peter, he knows I love everything from
the fifties, sixties and seventies, so he grabbed this for me.
He took it back home, he cleaned it like in
pristine condition over a couple of days, and then he
brought it to set and I almost like weed my pants.
So I was so excited.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
This is gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So that's on my big media wall. With all my
other fifties and sixties and seventies memorabilia. I love it.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
It is absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
To you.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
What makes a home beautiful?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I think a space that you can come home and
it doesn't have to be glamorous, and it doesn't have
to be expensive, and it doesn't have to be large.
A space where you come home. As soon as you
walk through that door, you go, exhale, I'm just gonna
get in my pajamas, sloth around in my pajamas. You know,
(22:26):
you don't care what you look like. You've got things,
you know, little ornaments that you know that trigger memories,
family photos where you just look at those things. Your
home truly doesn't need to be glamorous. It doesn't need
to be designer. It can be the most simple house
but brings you, brings your family joy, and it brings
(22:47):
you closer together. That's for me, it's home.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, sure, you've brought me joy today.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So with my crazy story, crazy the best.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I can't wait to retell some of these. Honestly, it's
been so much fun and we can't wait to see
more of the farmhouse.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, it's gonna be great. So to be finished, hopefully,
December seventeenth. Nothing like a deadline.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Nothing like a deadline. We'll be watching.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I had so much fun chatting with Shari about the farmhouse.
Her advice about personalizing color palettes but tailoring the floor
planned to suit the suburb is absolute gold. I also
really admire the way she separates a motion from the build,
but she still has fun along the way. We'll pop
some links in the show notes for more of Shuri's
excellent renovating advice. If you enjoyed this chat, tell your
(23:39):
friends and subscribe to home Beautiful on YouTube or follow
us on your favorite podcast app so you never miss
an episode. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
This is an our Media podcast
This is an our media podcast. I actually solved my
renovation problems in my sleep. So like, for example, if
I've got something where I'm not sure how something's to
get going to come together, I solve it in my sleep.
It's really bizarre. Or I'll come up with really great
(00:25):
design ideas in my sleep.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So do you have a notepad beside your bed or
how do you I'll.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Just get up, it's not doing them.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We're back with part two of my chat with Shari Barber.
If you're rejoining us after listening to part one, welcome back.
And if you happen to already listen to part one,
scroll back up in your feed, listen to part one
and then join me here again. So her expertise is
in renovating for profit, Shari Barber's current project is more personal.
(00:59):
After thirty plus years of buying and selling, she's putting
everything she knows, plus a few new lessons learned, into
a modern farmhouse located in western Sydney, a place where
she spent the first part of her life. This next
chapter involves rethinking a six hundred square meter floor plan,
why she wakes up at three thirty every morning, and
(01:21):
what it's like living next door to your builder. Sheari
also shares a wild story about the time she almost
bought Elvis Presley's honeymoon home and reveals the greatest property
regret of her life. I would love you to take
us on an audio tour of the farmhouse as you
see it completed.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So if you walk through the front door and the
farmhouse is all ready to go, yep, what does it
look like? What do we see?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Okay, So, as we're walking up to the house, it's long,
so it's about seventy meters long the front facade. Yeah,
so quite different to most houses, but it's not an
overly deep house. The current window the old house had
little tiny windows. This house is full of floor to
ceiling glass windows. So you've got three point nine meter walls. Wow,
(02:16):
and then the ceilings reaching up to eight meters high.
Beautiful big gable exposed rafters. Is incredible, big floora ceiling
glass windows. It's a modern farmhouse style mixed with modern
mid century because I'm obsessed with everything from the fifty
sixty seventies. So it's going to have the farmhouse five,
(02:38):
which sits the rural, rural sort of acreage property, but
mixed with the modern mid century and those two styles
work really well together.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
They do.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's got lots of earthy colors, so sort of going back,
nothing polished, nothing manufactured, so there's no shiny chromes or
anything like that. It's all terra cottas, chocolate browns, green
colors of the earth. So and it's so beautiful, like
there's so many trees and the rolling hills there that
(03:08):
I wanted the indoors to feel like, you know, the
outdoors coming inside. So yeah, lots of greens. And in fact,
I've actually taken my color inspiration from the bark of
the trees out there. So I looked at the trees.
I think that's a good tip for people, like if
they're wanting like a home that feels very relaxed and
(03:28):
natural and organic, look to the colors in nature. So
I literally looked at the trees, and you know, sometimes
how bark pills off trees, it reveals the most amazing colors.
So you get like your brown's, your grays, your creams.
So I'm using that as the color palette for inside
(03:50):
the house.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
What a wonderful idea. So what do you need from
this house? How many bedrooms? Do you have multiple living
rooms or is it open plants.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yes, you've just raised a really interesting point. So it's
myself and my hobby living in the house, and then
obviously my daughter will live in the guest house. That's
her little house, and when she moves out, it will
become a guest house. And that's only sixty square meters,
like the average size of a granny flat. But on
the main house it's big. It's six hundred square meters
and it is way too big. Yeah, way too big.
(04:25):
It's excessive for what two people need. So we will
have a lot of bedrooms that just don't get used.
But you know what, it's the suburb expectation. So in
that suburb of Molgoa, the average house is between Most
houses are between four to five hundred square meters two
a thousand square meters in size. So if I didn't
(04:48):
build a house, I'm at the lower end six hundred
square meters. But if I came in and bought a
built a house that was maybe say only two hundred
square meters, I would absolutely get crucified on the property value. Yes,
it would become a buyer objection. When I ultimately sell,
and I will ultimately sell because I never sort of
stay in one spot forever forever. When it comes time
(05:10):
that I will ultimately sell that property, it'll be a
major buyer objection. They'll say, this house is just too small.
So it's a shame really, And I sort of thought
about that. I thought, well, it's incredibly sort of wasteful
sort of building a house. It's expensive to build the
house for a lot of it that I'm not going
to be using. But I know that ultimately it won't
be my forever home. I'll stay there definitely, maybe a
(05:33):
year or two or three, I don't know, who knows.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So that's a really good insight into when you are
renovating or building, how do you choose where to put
your personality in what you want and what decisions do
you make for resale because so often people will just
everything painted white and let's just prepare it for sale,
(05:59):
but then they might live in it for two years.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, this is the big difference between renovating for profit
and renovating your own home. Like one is based on
return on investment, the numbers, yep, and renovating your own
home is based on emotion. So what I tell my
students For example, a lot of my students will buy
their own home and they'll renovate that first. They'll create
equity in that they don't have separate living expenses, so
(06:24):
they might live in their renovation project. They might do
it a room at a time, or you know, they
might live in the front of the house and do
a structural add on, altraation extension at the rear. So
I always say to them, renovate that home, even though
this is going to be a home that you might
live in for the next five or ten years. Renovate
it so in a way that it's not polarizing in
(06:45):
any way. Renovate it to the market. Renovate it so
that if something changes tomorrow, you get sick, your hobby
get sick, something happens, and you've got to do a shift.
That property is easy to sell, but instead to make
it feel like your own home, painted the color that
make you happy, because paint is such an easy thing
to change. Knocking out walls, putting structural beams in, that's
(07:06):
time consuming, expensive counsel approval. Don't do that right. So
just you know, get it, Get the structure right and.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
The floor plan to suit the area.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
The floor plan. You got to make it functional, You're
got to make it practical, So all those basic things
you've got to do. But in terms of personalizing it,
paint it to the colors that you know make you happy,
and then really use styling to you know, the styling
things that bring you joy, to make it feel like home. Obviously,
(07:37):
I've worked on the show's Space Invaders for the last
six years, so we're a decluttering show and I can't
love you. Yes, it's very popular, but you know what,
a lot of people collect stuff, stuff, and that stuff
doesn't make them happy. So I work with Peter Walsh,
who I absolutely adore. He's one of my really good friends,
(07:59):
and he has a really great saying that everything that
you bring into your home should bring you joy and
get rid of the stuff that doesn't bring you joy,
because otherwise it's just clutter and clutter bogs you down,
and clutter is hard to keep clean and makes your
spaces feel, you know, not as freeing.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
That's true. Do you have stuff?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I have no stuff? You know what, since I've been
working on Space in that is, I've become very conscious
about what I buy now. So I was sort of
the sort of person that I would just if I
saw something that I love, I'd buy it and not
really think about it. And I've never been a hood
or anything far from it. I'm that person that sort
of has a home that's more like a show home.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yeah, well, let's talk about you in the home and
how you live. I'll ask some questions and just tell
me the first thing that comes to your mind. So
something you always have fresh in your home?
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Fresh fruit, yes, I don't know, boring fresh veggies? Yeah,
so I do. Every week. I just go to the supermart.
We've got a old fashioned fruit and vegetable shop where
I'm doing the property. So I just go and buy
a big box of fruit and veggies and literally just
go buy a couple of dozen organic eggs and some
(09:11):
goat cheese and that's my diet. So I have like
veggies for breakfast, normally veggies for lunch and dinner. And yeah,
I know it sounds really boring. Obviously I go out.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So what about things like shoes on.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Or off, shoes on, work boots on. Yeah, I've always
got clumps of dirt around my house because I walk
in from sight, particularly when it's been muddy, and you know,
I wipe my feet on the map. But often you'll
find these clumps of bits, you know, they get stuck
in the soles of your work boo, yeah, always swiping
those up.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Do you like to have people over or do you
prefer to go to other people's homes.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I prefer to go out to like venues, like all
like restaurants. I'm quite a quiet person. I know probably
find that hard to believe, but I'm always talking, like
in my job, and so I like being a public speaker,
being a TV presenter, being on site all the time.
Like literally, my jaws do not stop. I know.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I hear this more often than people would expect. For example,
Darren Palmer, we were having a chat and he said
he's an introvert, and I said, how does that work?
And he said, well, you know, if I'm filming, I'm
behind a camera. If I'm presenting, I'm on a stage,
and there's still I'm not with everybody. And I feel
(10:29):
that is quite common for people who are in the
public eye, that they are introverts.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Exactly, like out of the same mold it is, And
my my hobby is quite social. And then when I
get home from work, he just wants to like chin way,
and I'm so I'm just like so normally like we
jump into bed and then we'll talk, but then I
fall asleep like five minutes late. As he says, I'm megaboring.
But yeah, I just I love just like quiet, like
(10:56):
my the only time I'll get really peace and quiet
in my life is I get a bar every morning.
So I get up at three thirty every morning. So
I'm normally in the bath at four and I'll just
sit in the bath for about fifteen minutes and that's
my time for me. So I literally, especially in winter
when so cold, oh I was like scorching hot. I
inched myself in and then I just sit there. So
(11:18):
I love that. I just love not having to speak
to anybody at that time in the morning. And my
brain is like on at that time, and as the
days goes on, I get like more dopey.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
That is that why you get up at three point thirty,
because that you are, Yeah, the brain's on, the brain's on.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I actually solved my renovation problems in my sleep, so like,
for example, if I've got something where I'm not sure
how something's to get like going to come together, I
solve it in my sleep, it's really bizarre. Or I'll
come up with really great design ideas in my sleep.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So do you have a notepad beside your bed or
how do you.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I'll just get up I start doing them. So yeah,
I'm not like Yeah, like my builder who's working with
me on my current project, he just happens to live
next door. Yeah, and so he was like, oh, I
can see the lights on at two o'clock this morning,
what were you doing? And like I was working, I
was doing emails.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
All the question is what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, so yeah, it's weird. So yeah, I don't have
you know, my friends are always welcome at my house.
And as I've got older too, I've sort of made
a conscious decision to have less friends as well. Yes,
because you're just busy and time ashure, and so I'd
rather have less friends. I can sort of count my
(12:40):
true friends on one hand now, and I'm actually really
happy with that. So I'd rather invest my energy and
time in those people definitely, and have really solid quality relationships,
yeah than have lots of people. I know lots of people,
but they're not sort of the people that I would
if I had a problem, I would call on. So yeah,
I've just sort of reached that stage where I don't know,
(13:02):
maybe it's maturity or slowing down a little bit. I've
just made that decision. So I do. I do love
just being home and not talking to anybody. That's my relaxation.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
I can't believe Shari solves reno problems in her sleep
would be back in a bit. Is there a design
trend or an architectural style that you wish would come back.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I've never been one to follow trends because trends come
and go, and it's always something that I said to
my students around the country. Don't follow trends, you know,
create a scheme that is, you know, if you're renovating
a house, particularly if you're renovating for a profit, you've
got to renovate to the market, renovate to what the
expectation is on that suburb. But yeah, for me, like
(13:53):
as I've said, I love, I'm just like psycho obsessed
with mid century and so I'll just look for any
excuse to go vintage shopping. I go to Palm Springs
at least once a year. I almost bought the Elvis
Presley Honeymoon House in Palm Spring. Yeah, so I did this.
It's a funny story.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Have we got time, Yes, of course.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So I went to visit my friend Peter Walsh. He
lives in Australia and Palm Springs half the year, so
I went to see him and I found out that
the Elvis Presley Honeymoon House was for sale. And because
I'm like a kid in the candy store with property,
so I went and saw the house. But they wanted
some crazy price. It was like US twelve million dollars,
(14:39):
so it was just way out of my price league.
And so I literally just saw the house, loved it,
flitted away, flew back to Australia, and then I just
watched the listing over the course of a year and
a half. So like when eleven million, ten million, nine
and a half, like I just kept going.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Boom boom boom boom boom boom Boom's game show.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, so I was like okay. So then it got
down to three and a half million US and then
I flew over. I was like okay, gay mind okay.
So then I went over, like we did a really
detailed inspection of the house, and then I sort of
worked out with the currency. The currency wasn't great, so
it was going to be like US four point nine million,
(15:19):
and I was like, I don't need that house. It
would sort of like mess me up a little bit
for my investment strategy. I would have had to have
sold a couple of properties here in Astraana. I thought,
this is really not the smartest thing to do. But
I loved the house, and I thought, you know what,
it's okay to like, maybe buy a property that doesn't
make financial sense. That's not all about return on investment.
(15:41):
That's for fun. So and I thought, you know what,
I really want to restore this house back to its
former glory. There'd been some unsympathetic renovation changes to it,
and I thought, okay, I'm the person to bring this
house back. So I thought I might rent it out
Airbnb so lots of people in America could enjoy the
Elvis Honeymoon House. Anyway, cutlong story shop. But I didn't
(16:02):
really want to pay three point five because it was
like five million dollars and I just thought that would
have been I would have had to have sold a
really good property here to buy that. And Matt was saying,
my partner, Matt was saying you're an idiot, like what
are you doing? So what I did is I made this.
I got dressed up in all my retro like a
beautiful retro dress. I have like all wardrobes full of
(16:25):
retro dresses that I've got made out of fifties bed
sheets and stuff like that. So I had my one
of my beautiful retro dresses, my retro headband, and I
made this made two signs. So the vendor originally said no,
it's three and a half, and I just didn't want
to spend us three and a half. So I made
these big signs and I did in big letters it's
(16:46):
one for the money, two for the show. Sell me
this house, baby, don't say no. And I was literally
like shaking the sign and then I made this other signs.
I did that little video and then I did this
other saying please sell me this house. I will restore
it back to its former glory. I will not like
rip it apart. I want to share this house with
(17:08):
generations to come, that everybody can experience this beautiful house.
I'll do the right thing. It's like literally this whole
big poster and I literally like stood out the front
of the house took photos of it.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
This is like love actually meets Elvis.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
It's crazy stuff, right, And I then sent those through
to the real estate agent. He had a giggle and
he was like, oh, go send it to So I
offered two point four Yeah, and he goes, look, I
don't think they're going to do it, but look I'll
just try. Anyway, he sent the images the videos, and
the vendor said.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yes, you're kidding. No, So then what happens?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So I was so excited. So I'd been dealing with
a finance broker and I'd done ten I'd bought ten
houses in America for my American show five Day Flip.
So he said, Yep, everything should be fine, no worries.
You chuck in twenty percent. I think I had to
chuck in thirty percent, and then they were gonna lend
me set ten percent. I thought, I just pay that
off long term, long term. Anyways, I rang the broker
(18:05):
all super excited. Yeah, the Elpas honeymoon house. And then
he went he processed the loan application and then he
literally read me, goes, we got a major problem. And
I was like what And he goes, those ten houses
that you bought in Minnesota for your American show. They
were done under a commercial loan, not a residential loan,
so I had no established credit rating in America that
(18:26):
we thought I had, And so he said, we can't
lend you twenty percent. You're going to have to literally
chuck in seventy percent cash and we can lend you thirty.
And I just at that time, I couldn't scrape the
money up like it was.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
You know, it would have got money.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And they eventually onsold it to somebody and they just
they did not do a good renovation job. But I
spent hours, hundreds of hours in the National Archive. I
found all the original photos of the house, the House
of Tomorrow, and freaking yeah, so I go now every
time I go to Palm Springs, I just literally stand
out the front of that house still like like some
(19:02):
crazy lonely stare.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Now ladies back again, you know, from Australia. I am
learning so much from Scharene. We'll be back with more
tips soon. This feels like a really good point to
find out your mystery draw item, because that story was
(19:26):
so incredible, yes that I am curious, what have you
brought from your mystery drawer?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well, you know, I love everything from the fifties and
sixties and seventies. I would have brought my Chevy in,
but I can't fit it on this table right, So
is where you go?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Oh I know what this is?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, I don't know. I thought maybe it's a generation
gap here between me and I wasn't sure if you'd
know what that is?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Not at all. This takes me back to my childhood.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
That's exactly why I've got it.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
So everybody who's listening, share with them, what have you
brought in?
Speaker 1 (20:08):
So I've bought in an original telephone from the nineteen
seventy years, so this is before iPhones come out. This
is how people used to communicate. Remember the dog do
the dial?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Which have we got the ASMR going here? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And then you wait for that. Do you know why
I love this? Because this? Yeah, this is and yellow
is my favorite color. So we had this exact telephone,
not this particular one, but the exact yellow color when
I was growing up. And I remember using this telephone
to dial my grandparents. Oh, and so there was something
(20:48):
nice about having a telephone like this. Dialing. It was
actually fun dialing the numbers, yes, and they're just sort
of they're waiting and waiting for them to answer. And
because like now we have our iPhones, it's so destructed.
I don't know if you're like me, but like I'll
be multitasking. I'll be on the phone, like I'll be
like getting groceries out of the car or checking something.
So you'll go, but you're multitasking, whereas back in those days.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
You had to stay in one spot.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, you were just like it was a slow dial.
You couldn't move from the kitchen bench, which is where
this told. You know, this was always so you were
like focused on the conversation, you know, that art of
communication back then. And I love this because Peter Walsh
gave this to me. So this actually came from a
homeowner on Space Invaders when they were decluttering. They didn't
(21:34):
want it. So Peter, he knows I love everything from
the fifties, sixties and seventies, so he grabbed this for me.
He took it back home, he cleaned it like in
pristine condition over a couple of days, and then he
brought it to set and I almost like weed my pants.
So I was so excited.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
This is gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So that's on my big media wall. With all my
other fifties and sixties and seventies memorabilia. I love it.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
It is absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
To you.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
What makes a home beautiful?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I think a space that you can come home and
it doesn't have to be glamorous, and it doesn't have
to be expensive, and it doesn't have to be large.
A space where you come home. As soon as you
walk through that door, you go, exhale, I'm just gonna
get in my pajamas, sloth around in my pajamas. You know,
(22:26):
you don't care what you look like. You've got things,
you know, little ornaments that you know that trigger memories,
family photos where you just look at those things. Your
home truly doesn't need to be glamorous. It doesn't need
to be designer. It can be the most simple house
but brings you, brings your family joy, and it brings
(22:47):
you closer together. That's for me, it's home.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, sure, you've brought me joy today.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So with my crazy story, crazy the best.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I can't wait to retell some of these. Honestly, it's
been so much fun and we can't wait to see
more of the farmhouse.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, it's gonna be great. So to be finished, hopefully,
December seventeenth. Nothing like a deadline.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Nothing like a deadline. We'll be watching.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I had so much fun chatting with Shari about the farmhouse.
Her advice about personalizing color palettes but tailoring the floor
planned to suit the suburb is absolute gold. I also
really admire the way she separates a motion from the build,
but she still has fun along the way. We'll pop
some links in the show notes for more of Shuri's
excellent renovating advice. If you enjoyed this chat, tell your
(23:39):
friends and subscribe to home Beautiful on YouTube or follow
us on your favorite podcast app so you never miss
an episode. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
This is an our Media podcast
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