August 31, 2026 • 44 mins
In 2020, Lisa Burdus packed up her life in Australia and moved to the Cotswolds for what was meant to be three months. Six years on and she's still there, running her interior design business across two continents and calling it her "gap chapter."
In this episode of The Edit, Lisa tells Home Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Elle Lovelock about hunting down a decades-old British rock star for Jeremy Clarkson’s man bar, why trust is the one non-negotiable in every client relationship, and how a stint working behind the scenes on Domestic Blitz taught her to be fearless with colour.
Plus, Lisa shares the story behind the 150-year-old Italian tiles she tracked down solo on a weekend trip, and why food will always be her love language.
Sending thanks to our partners at Kaboodle Kitchen.
Explore kitchen and laundry inspiration at kaboodle.com.au
This episode covers:
- Packing up her life in Australia for a six-year "gap chapter"
- Running a business and raising five kids
- What she learned working behind the scenes on Domestic Blitz
- Designing Jeremy Clarkson's man bar, and tracking down a long-lost artist
- Bringing UK fabric and wallpaper brands into Australia
- Why trust is the most important part of any client relationship
- Cooking, entertaining and a lifelong dinner set obsession
- Hunting down 150-year-old splashback tiles in Italy
- Mystery drawer: the Paris-made journals she scrapbooks her travels into
- Her biggest design pet peeve
- What makes a home beautiful
Find Lisa on Instagram here.
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Credits:
Host: Elle Lovelock
Guest: Lisa Burdus
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
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is an R Media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with, Caboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I think you can never pretend to know everything. And
I think having a business these days, you've got to
be marketing department, the accounting department, or you've got to
be across it all. I can't pretend to be an
expert at everything.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I'm not. And I'm I still can't do.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
A, is it a reel? On CapCut?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm Elle Lovelock, Editor-in-Chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome to The Edit,
where we bring you into beautiful homes with the people
who create them. Today, I'm sitting down with Lisa Burdis,
the interior designer behind Burdis & Co. Back in 2020,
Lisa packed up her life in Australia and moved to
the Cotswolds for three months. Six years on, she's still
(01:05):
in the UK, loving what she refers to as her
gap chapter, but she does relish any chance she has
to come back to Australia too. Her home in the
Cotswolds is everything you'd imagine from a house in this
part of the world, and yet it's a relatively new build,
a 1990s stone cottage that she has renovated from top
(01:26):
to bottom in her own cosy and colourful style. In
this chat, Lisa shares a story about one of her
most famous clients, how she runs a business across continents,
and why everything she does comes back to one thing,
being brave. Lisa, welcome to The Edit.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm
very excited to be on here.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I can't wait to pick your brain because though I'm
an Aussie, I'm also an absolute Anglophile. Actually, I'll stretch
that to the whole of the UK. I married a Brit.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I love everything about the history, the environment. I just
think it's beautiful over there. And you moved there.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I did.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
You did it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I did it. I did it on a bit of
a whim, really. It wasn't so much a plan for
a career idea. It was more a personal thing. So
I'd raised... well, with my ex-husband, five children, and they
were all sort of on their way and off at
uni and in their 20s. And I never, ever had
(02:32):
the opportunity when I was younger to sort of backpack
around the world or do any of that. So I
thought if I get to when the youngest one goes
to university and I'm single and, you know, I'm going
to go to the other side of the world where
I don't know anyone. I didn't, yeah. And I didn't
know where. And one of my daughters was living in London,
so I thought, well, I'm not going to go to America,
so I'll go to the UK. And I could get
(02:54):
an ancestry visa. And I'd been to the Cotswolds once
for a weekend and thought, I could do this. I'll
just give it a go. Six months. You're kidding. So
I got an Airbnb in this place called Great Roll
Right and stayed there for two weeks and met the
most incredible people who owned it. And they said to me,
(03:14):
if you're going to get a cottage, you need to
be somewhere between, you know, here, here and here, Chippy
Burford and Stoke. And it all meant nothing to me.
And so I did. I got a little cottage and
it had no furniture. So I went to the little
secondhand place in Chipping Norton. Rather than going and buying
new knives and forks and plates and stuff, I bought
(03:34):
everything secondhand. Brilliant. And a bed off from Benson's for
beds that was off the floor because it was a
six-week wait. And I said, no, I need that one there.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
And then I just walked into the local pub, Checkers
at Churchill in the Cotswolds, and there was two guys
sitting or two older men, obviously, you know, the ones
that go to the pub every night. Oh, yeah. And
I just walked up and I went, hi, I'm Lisa.
I've just moved here from Australia. And they went, what?
And I went, yeah. And we started chatting. And unbeknownst
(04:03):
to me, they'd sent out a WhatsApp message to everybody
in the village, new Aussie girl just moved into Churchill.
So the stories are true.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Village news travels fast.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And then I saw them again on the Thursday night
and more people were there and they said, we're having
Sunday lunch, would you like to come? And I went, yes.
I thought, I'm just going to say yes to everything.
And I just met the most incredible people right from
the word go. And it was, so that was 2020,
July 2020, in and out of lockdown. And six months
(04:35):
turned into a year and then after a year I thought,
I love it here. I'm not ready to go back.
But if I'm going to be here, I have to
do something creative. So I sold everything here and bought
a house in a little village nearby. And I thought,
and I gutted it and renovated it. And anyway, here
(04:55):
I am still there. But it was, and then I
just met so many, honestly, the people over there were
so kind and so friendly and just invite you to everything.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
But I think because I was on my.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Own, it was actually easier than if I came with
husband and kids or partner or something. So it's your
gap year. It was my gap year that's turned into
a gap chapter.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
A gap chapter.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
A gap chapter. I love it. Chapter 47 of Lisa's life.
But it's kind of six years later, it's coming to
an end, that chapter.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Where are you going next?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I don't know. I think partly back here.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah. But I'm also at a stage of life where...
You know, the kids have grown up and there's no
ties really to anything except my little dog. And why
not have both? So I'm kind of thinking, you know,
six months here, six months Europe, UK. I don't know.
I just sort of go with the flow. But it's
a wonderful feeling to be at that point in life
(05:55):
where you've got options. And so then that's the personal
side of things. And then it's like, well, how am
I going to make this work? For work and business.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Because I'm working in the UK and I've got clients here. Yeah.
But also the sourcing. I mean, the things that I'm
finding over there are just that I can use here
and also bring to other designers or people here.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And so my brain's just going, I've got so many
ideas and so many things I can do. I need
to actually kind of knuckle it down a bit.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
What is your approach to business then for a creative...
whose mind is always buzzing, how does that marry with
running a business?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I ended up in the industry that I'm in because
I love it and I'm naturally drawn to it, I guess,
and I've got an eye for it. But I think
the way I ran my business was very much because
I had a lot of children and I needed to
be around, you know, of an afternoon. So I started that,
I mean, this is back in the 90s. No, yeah,
(06:54):
late 90s, early 2000s. And... So it meant that I
could be there for them but I could also have
clients and run business and stuff like that. But what's
happened now is they've grown up and I don't want
to do that anymore. I don't want to be working
at home or working alone. I'm ready now to sort
of be part of a team, whether that's creating something,
(07:17):
you know, still doing what I'm doing or just starting
another business where we're actually bringing things here to Australia.
I've already got that. I have a company called Bertus &
Co where we're bringing in fabrics and wallpapers. through suppliers
that I meet while I'm over there. But I'd like
to expand on that, I think.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
How do you decide what you think will do well
here or is it based on just what you love
and what might be missing in Australia?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, I guess it always starts with what I love. Yeah.
But I've often felt that my decorating style or my...
I always felt like a bit of a square peg
in a round hole here. And I did always love
the fact that Home Beautiful would love my stuff because,
you know, I just felt that my look wasn't Australian.
And so whatever that is.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
How would you describe your look? What are you drawn to?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Colour, pattern. To me, it's more about how it feels
and warmth. I just love a cosy home where you
can stick your feet up on the sofa.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I love modern contemporary interiors, and I will do them.
If clients want that, I do whatever the client wants,
not what I would do. But sometimes the sofas look
good in the photo, but you sit on them.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I just want to stick my leg up. So back
to your question, I guess I choose, or sorry, not choose.
For me, the fabric and textiles that we bring, it's
relationship-based with who the designer is that's doing it.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I've probably been buying it from them for projects here.
And I was like, why aren't, you know, it started
off with Name Same. Name Same is a fabulous, beautiful
textile brand. And I was talking to John, who owns it, saying,
you know, I was ordering here. And I said, you're
not here in Australia. And he said, no. And he said,
why don't you do it? And I was like, oh, well.
(09:08):
That's not a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
This was in 2019. And he said, but you'll need
a couple of other brands as well. You can't just have,
you know, the one. And at the time, one of
my daughters was working for Christopher Howe in London for
36 Bourne Street. And so I spoke to Christopher and said, hey,
you want to come to Australia? He goes, yep. And then, yeah,
it's sort of just gradually gone from there. And now
(09:30):
I guess because I'm there, I'm finding things that I
think The latest one is these Tatiana Tefer window coverings,
which are made out of abaca leaves. Oh, wow. Yeah,
so they're hand-woven in the Philippines. And it's just the
most beautiful texture that you can be. It arrives like fabric,
but it can be made into a soft Roman, a
hard Roman, or whatever. It filters light.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And it's very, it can be elegant or it can
be beachy coastal.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Is it quite instinctual?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I think so. Yeah, it is. But, you know, I
think there's a lot of great, there's so many fabrics
on the planet. I mean, where do you stop and start?
And everybody knows where to buy their planes and their things. Yeah.
But so most of ours are pattern and colour and texture.
So it's good. It's fun.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Talk to us about, in a sense, community.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So you're mentioning that you don't want to work by
yourself anymore and whether that's expanding your own business with
a team or whether that is talking to suppliers or
other creators.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
In the industry, what does that do for you?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I think you can never pretend to know everything and
I think having a business these days, you've got to
be marketing department, the accounting department Well, you've got to
be across it all. And there's parts of it, I'm
interested in all of it and I love the business
side of it, the project management.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
The software.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
I really do love that side of it. But you can't,
I can't pretend to be an expert at everything. I'm not.
And I'm, I still can't do a, Is it a reel?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
On CapCut. Don't worry me either.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I've got a team for that.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I don't want to know how to change the tyre
on my car.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
No, that's true.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
There's some things I don't want to do.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And so I know what I'm good at. Yeah. And
I would love to, now that I don't have to work,
you know, be at home or I had a studio
for a little while with, you know, a few staff
before I went to the UK, which was great, but
I just think collaborating is so much more interesting and fun.
And I'm so open to other people's point of view.
(11:42):
I mean, I look at the interior architecture here in
Australia and it's incredible. I think I was reading the
last issue of Bell and every single one of those
houses was like, people here are so good. I'm a
great decorator. I'm good with color and design and all
those sorts of things, but I can't do the joinery
as well. clever as these people that are doing it
(12:03):
and I don't ever want to pretend that I can.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
What do you wish clients knew about the interior design
and decoration process coming in.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Ah what do I wish they knew I wish they
knew that I think they do know in the end
because they've come to you yeah that it's not as
easy as it looks everybody it's a bit like cooking
everybody thinks like well we can everybody can do it
and everybody can decorate but it's I truly think it's
something you're born with. You either have an eye where
you can see, and maybe it's my background in TV
(12:37):
as well. I started off as a television producer straight
from school. Did you? Gosh. And so you're used to
looking at every angle.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
And a homeowner doesn't really do that. So what do
I wish they knew? That it's harder than it looks. Yeah.
It takes longer. But for me the most vital thing,
And I won't take a project on unless I feel
this with a client, and that is trust. They have
to trust me and I have to be able to
trust them because it's such a long process.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
And you're with them for such a long time. And
when you've got that, oh, gosh, it's good. It's so good.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What are some of the best client relationships you've had?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Well, I've got these lovely clients here in Sydney that
I've done– a couple of houses for them now and
it's sort of gone on for about eight years. And
I think because we know each other so well and
we've done so many things and I'll push them a lot.
I think you need to, you know, do something up here.
And in the early days they might be a bit
(13:41):
kind of, oh, I don't know about that, you know,
whether it was the cost or the– but now it's
like go for it. So that's one of the reasons
I'm here actually at the moment is we're installing sort
of a man bar. I'm doing a lot of man
bars at the moment.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
What's in a man bar?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Well, I think it's just where they go to get
away from everybody else. And I have learned that when
you're doing a presentation to a client's couple, always tell
the man, give the man his room first and once
he's over the line, then he'll kind of kick back
into his interest and then she kind of gets everything
she wants. Anyway, so I'm doing this lovely man bar
(14:19):
which is coming together and I've just done one in
the U.K., For Jeremy Clarkson in his house. That is incredible.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So what's his brief?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
What does he want?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
He's funny. He was such a joy to work with
because he knows what he wants. He just didn't have
time to do it. And so he had this one
room which was huge, an enormous room. And he said,
you know, everybody stands around the bar area but no
one goes over there to sit down. And I could
(14:51):
see why. It was sort of like this enormous space
with no kind of thing. Anyway, so I was left
with the– I had to work with the bar, which
he'd seen in the elephant bar in Phnom Penh, I
think it was called. And so I had to work
with that and I had to work with the joinery
down the end. But the rest of it was fairly
up to me, what we did.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
So I said, okay, well, what.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Are your favourite colours? What do you like? What do
you don't like? And he said, I love orange and green.
I was like, okay.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Orange and green. Okay. I'm thinking, you know, Tirana 1970s orange.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
You know, trying to get the car thing in. Anyway,
so I, look, I paired the orange back a little
bit so it wasn't so orange.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
A gentler orange.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
A gentle orange. Anyway, it looks... It's not my style
by any means but it's him. That's not your home.
It's not my home and that's my job. My job
is to sort of get enough from him or from
the client to work out what they like. And I
find it way more challenging anyway to do somebody else's taste.
And I think my favourite part of that story was
(16:01):
of doing his house. He had this cabinetry where he
needed artwork in there, six pieces of art that were
going to be a certain size. I mean, and trying
to work out, I mean, art is so personal. It's
like jewelry or clothes. You either like it or you don't.
And so anyway, after about four or five months, I
said to him, you know, you're really into your music.
(16:22):
You know, maybe we go down some music theme. And
he said, oh, yes, I loved this artist called Roger
Dean who did album covers for Yes, I think, in
the 1970s. But he's probably dead now. And I went, oh, okay. Anyway,
I left the meetings. And I did some Googling. Anyway,
I ended up on the phone with this lovely old
(16:43):
man going, oh, yes, it's Roger Dean. And I messaged
Jeremy and I said, guess what? He's not dead yet.
So we got all these things. And it looks amazing.
And you walk in there. But most importantly to me,
it means something to him.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And obviously those albums meant something to him. It's not
album covers. But, yeah, so that was really special, to
give people what they want.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Oh, dear.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
So you do walk into this room now and go, wow,
it just feels like.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
How does he use the space?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Mates.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
The ultimate man bar.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So it's sort of, you know, after whatever they do
all day, racing around in cars, I guess they go
in there. But it was really, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was rather nervous. I thought, oh, I can't get
this wrong. I don't want to open the newspaper.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
That's so true.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
But it was great. It was great.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So how often do people bring you in to fix
something versus starting from scratch?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Not often.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Not often. To do something like that, it's got to
be a bit, you know, you want chunky projects. Yeah, definitely.
As in to get your teeth into.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Because I get as into it. It's as though it's
my house, you know, like I'm involved. It's such a
personal thing. Totally.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
I think maybe 10 years ago, you know, we were
sort of busier running eight or 10 at the same time.
But I don't want that sort of factory sort of, oh, right,
this is this sofa and this thing. And I prefer
to do it totally bespoke to whatever the client is. Sorry,
whoever the client is and wherever it is in the world.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I am back here a lot if I'm working here.
There's certain times that you need to see it. But presentations,
it's okay. It's sort of as long as... They can
touch and feel all the fabrics and things like that. But,
I mean, the opportunity that I have to source stuff
that you wouldn't find here, and I do, and I
bring it back in my suitcase. I have a thing
(18:44):
for dinner sets.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Me too. What do you collect? What are you drawn to?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I don't know. I just walk into a shop or
it could be in a brocante or some little. I
don't care if it's expensive or not expensive or whatever.
I'm drawn to it because I love to cook and entertain.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Oh, yeah. If I wasn't in interiors, I'd be in hostessing,
fabulous parties all over the place. Yeah. Talk us through that.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
If we were to come over, what.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Would you do?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
What would you serve?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Look, I think food for me is my love language.
If I like you, if I love you, I want
to cook for you. And I think that's through having
a big family and One thing that you never really
sort of know that's coming when your kids, everyone wants
them to grow up and get on their way and
stuff like that. But gosh, it's such a tough time
(19:36):
when they go.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It's like, what am I going to do?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Nobody needs me. But the table setting is just such
a great opportunity to really do what you would do
in a whole house, just in a confined space. And it's, yeah,
it's a love language for me, cooking and sharing and entertaining.
And what's the point in having this lovely house with
nobody in it? Do you remember the.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
First time you had people over in the UK, the villagers?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Oh, yes, actually I do. How did you feel? And,
you know, they're such homely, warm people. people and the
women I met there were just so generous, I think,
and they actually thought my cooking was amazing and I
like their cooking. I've learnt all sorts of, you know,
how to nail a roast now and hot toddies, all
(20:23):
these sort of unusual little things and drinks that they
have and do. When people are moving to new countries
and settling in and stuff like that, to open your
house and be kind. I'll never forget it. Never forget it.
Some of those people that I met early on, the
ones at the bar, for instance, I still see and
(20:44):
I'll still invite over, you know, once every three or
four months or whatever. I will never, ever forget the
kindness and the hospitality in the people that I met there.
They were just lovely.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
When it comes to the home, there are so many
decisions to be made every day.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And here at The Edit, we want.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
To make those choices that little bit easier. Sharing advice
from our guests and experts like Caboodle Kitchen, who I'm
happy to say have helped me find solutions for our
listener dilemma this episode. Today, we've received an email from
Kiara in Torrens Park. She says, I've decided to do
the spring clean of my life, and I want to
(21:26):
overhaul every part of my home, starting with the kitchen.
I only want to dedicate a weekend to it, so
no renovating, just easy hacks and ideas to make my
kitchen feel more organized and beautiful. I see influencers do
it all the time online. Can you give me the
basics so.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I can do it too? Yes, we sure can, Kiara.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
And you're absolutely right. The home reset is an ongoing
trend for good reason. Basically, we all feel better for
living in a more organized home. But before you start styling,
you need to do a cupboard and pantry audit. So
just a side note here, have a look at our
YouTube shorts for some videos on just how to do this.
(22:09):
Before you start reorganizing, make a list of what you
need to store. So once you're left with only what
you want to keep, dry food that's in date, dinnerware,
pots and pans, etc., write another list of what you
need to buy. Now, this might be to stock up
your pantry or replace any kitchenware. It's really important that
(22:31):
you do this as it's going to help you figure
out how much storage you really need. Now, the problem
in many kitchens is the deep dark abyss that is.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
The corner cabinet.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
But believe it or not, this problem is actually the
key to creating a kitchen design that feels bigger and
more functional without swinging a sledgehammer. Kaboodle Kitchen does these
amazing inserts for tricky spots like those corner cupboards. You see,
these inserts, like tiered storage baskets, they create extra shelving.
(23:05):
And better yet, the basket inserts rotate so you don't
waste space in the back of the cupboard and everything
is really easily accessible just at the flick of a wrist.
Not Every corner cupboard has a full opening, however. Some
of them have that annoying dog-leg layout where you can't
reach anything, so you just don't bother. I find this
(23:29):
is usually where the slow cooker and the ice cream
maker go to die. But to maximize this space, you
need a blind corner swing shelf. This is a double
shelf that's secured to the inside of your cabinet and
you can, it swings around the corner when you open
and close the door. It is absolute genius. Now, the
(23:50):
last thing I'm going to recommend to get your kitchen
feeling spacious and new is a swing pantry pullout. It's
similar to the blind corner swing shelf in that it
attaches to the inside of the cabinet and pulls out
when you open the door. But this one is pantry height.
So there's no more reaching into a pantry to rummage
(24:12):
around for the tomato paste that's four cans deep. This
insert gives you shelving within the pantry and on the door. Seriously,
you need to check these out. I promise they will
save you space and probably your sanity too. Explore kitchen
and laundry inspiration at caboodle.com.au. For anyone listening who is
(24:39):
thinking about doing something similar.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
A big wildlife change. Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
What did you call it? A gap chapter.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Gap chapter.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Anyone considering a gap chapter, what do you recommend? What
is something that helped you feel at home in a
new place?
Speaker 1 (24:55):
My little bits and pieces, my books, my photos. It
was a brave thing to do. Really brave. There's no
doubt about that. A midlife kind of. it was a,
you know, eat, pray, love chapter, whatever you want to
call it. It was like, I just needed to close
the door on chapter one of my life and, and
not close the door on it. My family and I,
(25:17):
and my friends are incredibly tight, but it was time
for me to do something for me. I'd never done
that before. And I wanted to, and I was so
comfortable and so happy here that it was like, I
think I need to get a bit uncomfortable. And I did,
I did a lot of crying, you know, like lonely crying.
You meet someone, you know, in the pub or the
cafe and, You can't ring them the next day and say,
can we have another coffee? They'll think I'm a weirdo stalker.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
So that's true. At what point can you do that?
How do you get there?
Speaker 1 (25:44):
I'm a mad exerciser, so I sort of met people
in Pilates and all those sorts of things and having coffee.
And I don't know. And then I started meeting various–
it was always women. And then I'd say to another one, oh,
you know, to Iona, I've just met Rose. Oh, we
went to school together. Like they all know each other
over there. It was quite odd. I sort of, yeah.
(26:05):
And I don't know. It's just, I'll never forget it.
It's been the most wild experience. I don't know. It's
tough work-wise, establishing your business over there. I didn't do
it for work reasons. I did it for me, but
obviously I have to work. And I have worked there,
but they run their businesses quite differently over there. Tell
(26:27):
us more.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
A bit more about your home there.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I'd love for you to take us on a tour.
So if we show up to your place for a
Sunday roast, for example, what would we see?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
What's the first thing we'd see?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
It's stone floors as you come in. And then I
do like, one thing we don't do a lot of
timber floors here, but over there we sort of don't.
It's either stone or... You know, carpet, sizily carpet. Yeah,
that's interesting, isn't it? The way I've decorated my house
over there, I wouldn't do it here. You know, it's different.
It doesn't quite– well, maybe I would, but not in Sydney.
(27:03):
Maybe something in the Southern Highlands or in the country.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
So there's something in that to decorate in a way that.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Suits the environment.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Suits the environment.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
But so the house that I bought, as much as
I would have loved some period– you know, classic, what's
that movie that Cameron Diaz was in?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Oh, The Holiday.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yeah, The Holiday, one of those sort of things. I
was like, I don't really want to be in the roof,
you know, getting bats out and there's no man here
to do that. So I bought something that was, I
bought a house that was only built in the 90s,
but it's still made of Cotswold stone and it's, but
it was, it didn't really have any character. It was
sort of kind of, not contemporary, but it just had no,
(27:43):
So I gutted it. I absolutely gutted it. I was
out for a year and put in, you know, new
architraves and doors and skirting boards and, you know, put
a little bit of soul into it. And then because
it was downstairs was solid walls but upstairs wasn't and
so it felt a bit sort of see-through to me.
(28:03):
So I wallpapered every inch of it, which cost me
a bomb. But it's kind of, you know, you start
with the layer and And no, it's not. But I
kind of thought this was going to be my forever house.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I did it for me as though I was staying there.
Typical me. I'm not. But anyway. So the layering of
the wallpaper gave it a lot more depth. Yeah. And then, yeah,
I started off with this one rug. I found this
chartreuse rug, which is in the sitting room. I looked
(28:36):
at that colour and that's probably my favourite colour. So
I decided to make that the, bring that into the house.
So I did the kitchen in that colour, the chartreuse.
And then I thought, well, I can't just have it
here and there. There's got to be some sort of
thread throughout the house of it.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And there is.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
So no one else had noticed it. It sounds ridiculous,
but I know.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
No, I understand what you're saying. And quite often we
talk about you can walk into a room or a
home and And it doesn't feel right. And you don't
know why, but it.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Just doesn't feel right.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I think there's sort of got to be cohesive something.
So I guess the wallpaper is in this particular colour.
And it only pops up a tiny bit in some
of the other rooms, but it's there. For me, things
like sanitary wear and door handles and there's certain things
that have got to be quality and feel it. And
(29:27):
then there's other things that you can get away with.
Like I found these fabulous flashback tiles in the kitchen
in Fort DeMami in Italy. Oh, that's right. This is
the crazy stuff I do. I looked in my diary
one week I was like, I've got nothing on. It's
a bit cold here. I think I need to go somewhere.
So I sort of looked up flights and I flew
to Pisa and then half an hour away is Fort
(29:49):
de Marmi. And I just hired a bike and stayed
for two days by myself and rode around Fort de
Marmi and found these tiles there. That were, you know, some,
I don't know, 150 years old or something.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
And I just loved them. The texture.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
They're just beautiful texture. And I thought I'm going to
use them in my splash bag. And back they came.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
So I do kind of– How did you get them back?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I can't remember. On your bike? No, I just– They
came back on a pallet. I do remember that. And–
But that's what I love and that's why I went
there so that I can do these sorts of things. Like,
you know, for so many years I couldn't travel. I
had five children. One of them had a disability so
it wasn't like we could just hop on a plane
(30:33):
and it was too expensive with five of them. So
now it's like, honey, I'm out there. I'm going, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Lisa, your zest for life is just incredible.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Well, you know, this is your chat but... I would
hope that anybody listening... Oh.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, do it. Do it, girls.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Or boys.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Whatever it is, whether it's a day trip or a
gap chapter.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Do it. Just do it. And I think.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I mean, I love Australia and this is where I
will settle. This is my home and this is where...
And my children are also, you know, one's in Germany,
two are in the UK, two are here.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
So that kind of keeps me moving about.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
But.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
it's such a long way and I never had the
opportunity and I didn't travel in my twenties. So I'm
doing it now. And it's, so that's why the UK
was my base, but the artisans and the people I'm
finding that I can use in my work is, um, invaluable.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Life is a bit of a mystery and there's a
lovely segue there into our mystery drawer item.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
So you've brought something in today.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I have.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
So share what has come in.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
I couldn't bring anything from home obviously because it's not here.
But what I did bring is something that I absolutely.
It's a combination of something I love and it's also
very me. And I don't know how I got onto it,
but there's this place in Paris called Louise Carmen who
makes these beautiful sort of journal-y things, which I could
(32:03):
get stuck in Bunnings or a stationery shop. You know,
like I just love those sorts of things. But I
love my Louise Carmen because it's, This gorgeous leather and
you get to choose your little charms on there. I've
got my star sign and my little spiritual thing. Isn't
that beautiful? But rather than just uni, at first I
thought I'm going to use it as a work, you know,
to write all your notes in.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
So the first book is my– because I'm a mad cook.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
And I travel a lot. But there's certain things that
I love to– and I cook always when I'm away.
I mean, I do go out for dinner, of course.
But I'll cook in my Airbnb or wherever I am.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
And so– and I– When I was younger, it sounds
so daggy, I used to love sort of scrapbooking. So
now I kind of scrapbook my recipes. So when I travel,
I've got, oh, this is my lemon caprese cake. And
this was wallpaper. And so I stuck the wallpaper on
there and then wrote the recipes out on the wallpaper.
(33:02):
And then, so I've got all my little favourite recipes here.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
And I get to do silly.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Drawings and play. So I have that. That's one. And
then the second one is because I travel so much now. Yeah.
I have this little, I started off, I was in
Florence and I forget where I go and I forget
who I meet. I mean, seriously. So I went to
one of the most fabulous things I've done recently. I
(33:26):
went to Tuscany and did a painting retreat and cooking
with Amber Guinness. I don't know if she's a fabulous
cookbook writer.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
So I took photos and then I started colouring in
and then I wrote down all the food that I liked.
And to remind me of where I was, I actually
wrote down everybody's name who was in the painting class
because I'll forget. Oh, gorgeous. And then this was like
a little business card of a place that I found
that made incredible woodwork in Florence that I'll use for cabinetry.
(33:58):
And this was paper that I bought there. So it's
sort of like my little scrapbook. That was in Munich.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
One of my sons, that was the map of Munich.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
One of my sons was living there.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
This is joyful.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It is absolutely joyful. And then I went to Malta
because I wanted to. So I did a Maltese page.
And then I went to Hydra. And so, yeah. So
that's my.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
And it continues.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
So as much as I love.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
You know, everything in my home, I'm actually about, the
heart a lot. And so this means a lot to
me and it comes everywhere with me. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
What do your kids think of your adventures?
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Do you know what? They are so proud of me
and so supportive, which, you know, is the best thing
ever because if they weren't on board, I wouldn't do this.
And I think if anything, it kind of gives them
the courage to do things themselves. You know, one's gone
to Germany. One of my sons is over there now
and he's working there and doing, you know, corporate stuff
(34:59):
in another language. And he's, you know, he's brave and
he's doing that. But they are, I don't know, they've all,
they've all, right from the word go, because I said
to them, I'm just going to go for three months.
I won't be long. I'll come back. And, um, and
I didn't. And that sounds so bad. We, we are
so tight as a family and, um, And my oldest
(35:21):
daughter actually lives near me now in one of the
villages out in the Cotswolds, which is great.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
That is lovely.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
And my other daughter, who's in London, she's out, you know,
probably every three or four weeks for a weekend, and
then I go to Germany and see Tom, and then
I come here and see Charlie and Chloe. Yeah, I
don't know, but they are incredibly supportive and they just
go for it, Mum, whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
How tidy are you? Are you a tidy person or
are you a.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
That's a good one for me.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
keep it in piles or shove it all in the
cupboard and don't look?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
What's your style?
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Part of the way I feel.
In control, which we all want to, right? Yes. I
need to be organised in my home. I need to know,
I don't know, it's a weird thing. And yet get
me cooking or doing some sort of craft and there's
mess everywhere. So I'm either one or the other and
it's kind of how I dress. I'm either, you know,
all chic and polished or I'm, Not. So, yeah, my
(36:14):
drawers are organized because I don't have any kids in
the house or anyone to mess it up for that matter.
I mean, this is the first time ever I've been
able to do a house where you open the makeup
drawer and there's little departments for the mascara. I mean,
I've had time to do it and I've put the
effort into it and I want to be able to
offer that to my clients.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Actually, when I went to see my son in Munich,
found the best felt place. Ever.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I've never seen, I didn't know they were into felt.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Really?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
And I just was drawn to the colours of this
felt shop. And I went in there and I was like,
I need to buy metres of it. I don't know
what I'm going to do with it, but I need
to because the colours were incredible and the different thicknesses.
We don't have things like that here.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
No, we don't.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Well, I know where to go.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
And so I brought it back and I lined all
my make-up drawers and my jewellery drawer with these. And
it's not expensive and it just makes such a difference.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
I can do that in my clients' houses or in
a lovely little hotel, boutique hotel, when somebody gives me
a job to do their boutique hotel. Because that's what
I'd really like to do, like everybody else. That's what
we want to do.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
So that's the dream job, boutique hotel.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Well, not necessarily, but I think from the point of
view that I like to do spaces where people relax.
That's my kind of genre.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
So back to your home, what does it sound like?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I always sleep with my window open. I don't know
if I should say that, but I do. Burglar.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Burglar.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Anyway, there is an alarm. And so, and I do
that because I like air, but the birds, oh my gosh,
the little birds over there are so, we don't, well,
in the Sydney, we don't have them. These tiny little
sparrows and they just make the most beautiful sound. So
it sounds beautiful because of the birds. It, smells lovely
(38:01):
because I'm cooking or I smell nice and the garden
smells nice so I don't know are you a candle
person yeah I'm very aware though of the the sense
in candles but I am very much so so actually
while I've been in Sydney I've been trying to find
some candle that smells like a beach so I can
take it there because I really miss that and I
(38:22):
haven't found one yet That's true.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
I can think of a candle that smells like the bush.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
There's lots of eucalyptus and bushy things, but I haven't
found that kind. I probably want coconut oil that I
used to rub on my body when I was 20. Yes.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Coming up, Lisa reveals her most loathed fabric. What do
you see as.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
A design crime that....
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Let's say Australians have in their home that you think,
please stop doing that?
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Boucle. Boucle! White boucle. I mean, come on. It reminds
me of, I think there was some suede back in
the 2000s. I'm loving seeing when I come back here
and in magazines that there's more colour coming in. It's
like it was so boring for so long. But I
(39:20):
think it wasn't boring. I just think there's a lot of,
about what other people are going to think, so you
don't want to be too out there. Or the fear
that doing something out there costs a lot of money. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
No. It doesn't. I mean, I've worked on a budget
all my life. I'm not on the same budget as
some of my clients. I don't have that. But I
can do it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
And just be brave.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
It's just paint.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I think.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
I might have mentioned earlier that I worked in TV
in the first part of my life, and then I
went into interior design. And then I ran into an
old friend who was in TV, and I hadn't been
in it for 10, 15 years, told her what I
was doing. Anyway, I ended up on Domestic Blitz doing
all of the design for the TV show. I wasn't
(40:07):
on camera. Lovely girl. Behind the scenes. Chantal was on camera,
but I did all the designs of the interior section.
So my job was to come up with the, you know,
people would get ill and they'd move out and we'd
do their house up in a couple of weeks. So
it was very fast paced. And because it was TV,
you couldn't do beige and white everywhere. No, exactly. It
was just not going to show up. So I think
(40:28):
that's where I got my real confidence from because we
did 40, I did 40 episodes over a couple of years. Mm-hmm.
So I wasn't scared to do sort of some really
brave out there things and that was good. But what
I did also learn to do was how to make
something when it's not expensive furniture or, you know, you're
(40:49):
working on a bit of a budget, how you can
kind of.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Elevate.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Elevate it, fake it, whatever you want to call it.
And so, yes, with my home it's a mix. There's
some things that I really have gone all out on
and that's the sanitary wear and things like that. It's
the things that you're touching and handling. And certainly a
couple of rugs. One I bought from here actually from
Cadry's and shipped it over. And then it's like anything, jewellery, art, whatever.
(41:18):
You just mix it up and kind of work it out.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I think a lot of people are afraid as well
because open plan is so popular here in Australia.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
How do you work colour into open plans?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Well, luckily, colour drenching's in. Yeah, that's true. So just
go for it. Just do it all. Just go for it.
And it's only paint, right?
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Like, if it doesn't, you've got to get the colour right.
There's no doubt about that. There's ways of, and I'd
probably get some, you know, ask some advice if you
don't know how to do it yourself.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
But it just makes for such a more, I think
it's like clothes.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
So.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I go to the gym every day, but if I
sat in my lycra all day, for me it doesn't work.
I'm not judging other people. I don't care what they
look like. For me it's about how I feel and
what mode I'm in. So if I want to go
to work and put my business head on, I want
to dress up and do it. And then when I
want to have fun or go to a festival, I
(42:14):
get in, that's another costume. Do you know what I mean?
So for me my home is, needs to be something
that's expressive of all my personality, which is very like everybody's.
There's so many sides to us.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Right? We're not just one. What you see here now
is not just Lisa. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So what, in your opinion, makes a home beautiful?
Speaker 1 (42:36):
It's about how it feels and how welcome I would
feel in that home. It doesn't, I don't care what
style it is. There's no such, I don't, as I said,
I don't judge whatever style you like. It's about how
I feel when I'm in there and I want to
feel welcome, warm always. And I don't really want to
(43:01):
look at one particular object like, wow, look at that chandelier.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
It's just sort of a cocoon of, and I can
tell people's personalities straight away by their home, so.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Be brave with it and don't be scared to show
it off.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Show who you really are. It's like take the mask off.
Let's have a look at what, you know, I just
showed you my scrapbooking, for God's sake.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
I know.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
How personal is that? I mean, really, that's embarrassing. Any
artist would look at that and go, I'm ready for
our club.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
I don't think so. I think this is ready to
be published.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
It's just being brave to show yourself.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
What you see is what you get. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Thank you so much for coming over and having a
chat with me.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Pleasure. Anytime. I loved it.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
I can't wait to see more.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
That was Lisa Burtis, decorator, dinner set devotee, and proof
that the best interiors come from being unapologetically you. Thank
you for listening to the Edit by Home Beautiful. If
you want to see Lisa's home and discover even more
of her decorating tips, we'll put a link in the
show notes. hope you enjoyed this episode of The Edit.
(44:13):
We'd love for you to follow, subscribe, and leave us
a review.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
We appreciate each and every one. I'm Elle Lovelock. We'll
see you next time.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with, Caboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
This is an R Media podcast.
This is an R Media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with, Caboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I think you can never pretend to know everything. And
I think having a business these days, you've got to
be marketing department, the accounting department, or you've got to
be across it all. I can't pretend to be an
expert at everything.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I'm not. And I'm I still can't do.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
A, is it a reel? On CapCut?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm Elle Lovelock, Editor-in-Chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome to The Edit,
where we bring you into beautiful homes with the people
who create them. Today, I'm sitting down with Lisa Burdis,
the interior designer behind Burdis & Co. Back in 2020,
Lisa packed up her life in Australia and moved to
the Cotswolds for three months. Six years on, she's still
(01:05):
in the UK, loving what she refers to as her
gap chapter, but she does relish any chance she has
to come back to Australia too. Her home in the
Cotswolds is everything you'd imagine from a house in this
part of the world, and yet it's a relatively new build,
a 1990s stone cottage that she has renovated from top
(01:26):
to bottom in her own cosy and colourful style. In
this chat, Lisa shares a story about one of her
most famous clients, how she runs a business across continents,
and why everything she does comes back to one thing,
being brave. Lisa, welcome to The Edit.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm
very excited to be on here.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Me too.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I can't wait to pick your brain because though I'm
an Aussie, I'm also an absolute Anglophile. Actually, I'll stretch
that to the whole of the UK. I married a Brit.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I love everything about the history, the environment. I just
think it's beautiful over there. And you moved there.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I did.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
You did it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I did it. I did it on a bit of
a whim, really. It wasn't so much a plan for
a career idea. It was more a personal thing. So
I'd raised... well, with my ex-husband, five children, and they
were all sort of on their way and off at
uni and in their 20s. And I never, ever had
(02:32):
the opportunity when I was younger to sort of backpack
around the world or do any of that. So I
thought if I get to when the youngest one goes
to university and I'm single and, you know, I'm going
to go to the other side of the world where
I don't know anyone. I didn't, yeah. And I didn't
know where. And one of my daughters was living in London,
so I thought, well, I'm not going to go to America,
so I'll go to the UK. And I could get
(02:54):
an ancestry visa. And I'd been to the Cotswolds once
for a weekend and thought, I could do this. I'll
just give it a go. Six months. You're kidding. So
I got an Airbnb in this place called Great Roll
Right and stayed there for two weeks and met the
most incredible people who owned it. And they said to me,
(03:14):
if you're going to get a cottage, you need to
be somewhere between, you know, here, here and here, Chippy
Burford and Stoke. And it all meant nothing to me.
And so I did. I got a little cottage and
it had no furniture. So I went to the little
secondhand place in Chipping Norton. Rather than going and buying
new knives and forks and plates and stuff, I bought
(03:34):
everything secondhand. Brilliant. And a bed off from Benson's for
beds that was off the floor because it was a
six-week wait. And I said, no, I need that one there.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
And then I just walked into the local pub, Checkers
at Churchill in the Cotswolds, and there was two guys
sitting or two older men, obviously, you know, the ones
that go to the pub every night. Oh, yeah. And
I just walked up and I went, hi, I'm Lisa.
I've just moved here from Australia. And they went, what?
And I went, yeah. And we started chatting. And unbeknownst
(04:03):
to me, they'd sent out a WhatsApp message to everybody
in the village, new Aussie girl just moved into Churchill.
So the stories are true.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Village news travels fast.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And then I saw them again on the Thursday night
and more people were there and they said, we're having
Sunday lunch, would you like to come? And I went, yes.
I thought, I'm just going to say yes to everything.
And I just met the most incredible people right from
the word go. And it was, so that was 2020,
July 2020, in and out of lockdown. And six months
(04:35):
turned into a year and then after a year I thought,
I love it here. I'm not ready to go back.
But if I'm going to be here, I have to
do something creative. So I sold everything here and bought
a house in a little village nearby. And I thought,
and I gutted it and renovated it. And anyway, here
(04:55):
I am still there. But it was, and then I
just met so many, honestly, the people over there were
so kind and so friendly and just invite you to everything.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
But I think because I was on my.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Own, it was actually easier than if I came with
husband and kids or partner or something. So it's your
gap year. It was my gap year that's turned into
a gap chapter.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
A gap chapter.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
A gap chapter. I love it. Chapter 47 of Lisa's life.
But it's kind of six years later, it's coming to
an end, that chapter.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Where are you going next?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I don't know. I think partly back here.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah. But I'm also at a stage of life where...
You know, the kids have grown up and there's no
ties really to anything except my little dog. And why
not have both? So I'm kind of thinking, you know,
six months here, six months Europe, UK. I don't know.
I just sort of go with the flow. But it's
a wonderful feeling to be at that point in life
(05:55):
where you've got options. And so then that's the personal
side of things. And then it's like, well, how am
I going to make this work? For work and business.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Because I'm working in the UK and I've got clients here. Yeah.
But also the sourcing. I mean, the things that I'm
finding over there are just that I can use here
and also bring to other designers or people here.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And so my brain's just going, I've got so many
ideas and so many things I can do. I need
to actually kind of knuckle it down a bit.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
What is your approach to business then for a creative...
whose mind is always buzzing, how does that marry with
running a business?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I ended up in the industry that I'm in because
I love it and I'm naturally drawn to it, I guess,
and I've got an eye for it. But I think
the way I ran my business was very much because
I had a lot of children and I needed to
be around, you know, of an afternoon. So I started that,
I mean, this is back in the 90s. No, yeah,
(06:54):
late 90s, early 2000s. And... So it meant that I
could be there for them but I could also have
clients and run business and stuff like that. But what's
happened now is they've grown up and I don't want
to do that anymore. I don't want to be working
at home or working alone. I'm ready now to sort
of be part of a team, whether that's creating something,
(07:17):
you know, still doing what I'm doing or just starting
another business where we're actually bringing things here to Australia.
I've already got that. I have a company called Bertus &
Co where we're bringing in fabrics and wallpapers. through suppliers
that I meet while I'm over there. But I'd like
to expand on that, I think.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
How do you decide what you think will do well
here or is it based on just what you love
and what might be missing in Australia?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Well, I guess it always starts with what I love. Yeah.
But I've often felt that my decorating style or my...
I always felt like a bit of a square peg
in a round hole here. And I did always love
the fact that Home Beautiful would love my stuff because,
you know, I just felt that my look wasn't Australian.
And so whatever that is.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
How would you describe your look? What are you drawn to?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Colour, pattern. To me, it's more about how it feels
and warmth. I just love a cosy home where you
can stick your feet up on the sofa.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I love modern contemporary interiors, and I will do them.
If clients want that, I do whatever the client wants,
not what I would do. But sometimes the sofas look
good in the photo, but you sit on them.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I just want to stick my leg up. So back
to your question, I guess I choose, or sorry, not choose.
For me, the fabric and textiles that we bring, it's
relationship-based with who the designer is that's doing it.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I've probably been buying it from them for projects here.
And I was like, why aren't, you know, it started
off with Name Same. Name Same is a fabulous, beautiful
textile brand. And I was talking to John, who owns it, saying,
you know, I was ordering here. And I said, you're
not here in Australia. And he said, no. And he said,
why don't you do it? And I was like, oh, well.
(09:08):
That's not a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
This was in 2019. And he said, but you'll need
a couple of other brands as well. You can't just have,
you know, the one. And at the time, one of
my daughters was working for Christopher Howe in London for
36 Bourne Street. And so I spoke to Christopher and said, hey,
you want to come to Australia? He goes, yep. And then, yeah,
it's sort of just gradually gone from there. And now
(09:30):
I guess because I'm there, I'm finding things that I
think The latest one is these Tatiana Tefer window coverings,
which are made out of abaca leaves. Oh, wow. Yeah,
so they're hand-woven in the Philippines. And it's just the
most beautiful texture that you can be. It arrives like fabric,
but it can be made into a soft Roman, a
hard Roman, or whatever. It filters light.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And it's very, it can be elegant or it can
be beachy coastal.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Is it quite instinctual?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I think so. Yeah, it is. But, you know, I
think there's a lot of great, there's so many fabrics
on the planet. I mean, where do you stop and start?
And everybody knows where to buy their planes and their things. Yeah.
But so most of ours are pattern and colour and texture.
So it's good. It's fun.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Talk to us about, in a sense, community.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So you're mentioning that you don't want to work by
yourself anymore and whether that's expanding your own business with
a team or whether that is talking to suppliers or
other creators.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
In the industry, what does that do for you?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I think you can never pretend to know everything and
I think having a business these days, you've got to
be marketing department, the accounting department Well, you've got to
be across it all. And there's parts of it, I'm
interested in all of it and I love the business
side of it, the project management.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
The software.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
I really do love that side of it. But you can't,
I can't pretend to be an expert at everything. I'm not.
And I'm, I still can't do a, Is it a reel?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
On CapCut. Don't worry me either.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I've got a team for that.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I don't want to know how to change the tyre
on my car.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
No, that's true.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
There's some things I don't want to do.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And so I know what I'm good at. Yeah. And
I would love to, now that I don't have to work,
you know, be at home or I had a studio
for a little while with, you know, a few staff
before I went to the UK, which was great, but
I just think collaborating is so much more interesting and fun.
And I'm so open to other people's point of view.
(11:42):
I mean, I look at the interior architecture here in
Australia and it's incredible. I think I was reading the
last issue of Bell and every single one of those
houses was like, people here are so good. I'm a
great decorator. I'm good with color and design and all
those sorts of things, but I can't do the joinery
as well. clever as these people that are doing it
(12:03):
and I don't ever want to pretend that I can.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
What do you wish clients knew about the interior design
and decoration process coming in.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Ah what do I wish they knew I wish they
knew that I think they do know in the end
because they've come to you yeah that it's not as
easy as it looks everybody it's a bit like cooking
everybody thinks like well we can everybody can do it
and everybody can decorate but it's I truly think it's
something you're born with. You either have an eye where
you can see, and maybe it's my background in TV
(12:37):
as well. I started off as a television producer straight
from school. Did you? Gosh. And so you're used to
looking at every angle.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
And a homeowner doesn't really do that. So what do
I wish they knew? That it's harder than it looks. Yeah.
It takes longer. But for me the most vital thing,
And I won't take a project on unless I feel
this with a client, and that is trust. They have
to trust me and I have to be able to
trust them because it's such a long process.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
And you're with them for such a long time. And
when you've got that, oh, gosh, it's good. It's so good.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What are some of the best client relationships you've had?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Well, I've got these lovely clients here in Sydney that
I've done– a couple of houses for them now and
it's sort of gone on for about eight years. And
I think because we know each other so well and
we've done so many things and I'll push them a lot.
I think you need to, you know, do something up here.
And in the early days they might be a bit
(13:41):
kind of, oh, I don't know about that, you know,
whether it was the cost or the– but now it's
like go for it. So that's one of the reasons
I'm here actually at the moment is we're installing sort
of a man bar. I'm doing a lot of man
bars at the moment.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
What's in a man bar?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Well, I think it's just where they go to get
away from everybody else. And I have learned that when
you're doing a presentation to a client's couple, always tell
the man, give the man his room first and once
he's over the line, then he'll kind of kick back
into his interest and then she kind of gets everything
she wants. Anyway, so I'm doing this lovely man bar
(14:19):
which is coming together and I've just done one in
the U.K., For Jeremy Clarkson in his house. That is incredible.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So what's his brief?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
What does he want?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
He's funny. He was such a joy to work with
because he knows what he wants. He just didn't have
time to do it. And so he had this one
room which was huge, an enormous room. And he said,
you know, everybody stands around the bar area but no
one goes over there to sit down. And I could
(14:51):
see why. It was sort of like this enormous space
with no kind of thing. Anyway, so I was left
with the– I had to work with the bar, which
he'd seen in the elephant bar in Phnom Penh, I
think it was called. And so I had to work
with that and I had to work with the joinery
down the end. But the rest of it was fairly
up to me, what we did.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
So I said, okay, well, what.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Are your favourite colours? What do you like? What do
you don't like? And he said, I love orange and green.
I was like, okay.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Orange and green. Okay. I'm thinking, you know, Tirana 1970s orange.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
You know, trying to get the car thing in. Anyway,
so I, look, I paired the orange back a little
bit so it wasn't so orange.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
A gentler orange.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
A gentle orange. Anyway, it looks... It's not my style
by any means but it's him. That's not your home.
It's not my home and that's my job. My job
is to sort of get enough from him or from
the client to work out what they like. And I
find it way more challenging anyway to do somebody else's taste.
And I think my favourite part of that story was
(16:01):
of doing his house. He had this cabinetry where he
needed artwork in there, six pieces of art that were
going to be a certain size. I mean, and trying
to work out, I mean, art is so personal. It's
like jewelry or clothes. You either like it or you don't.
And so anyway, after about four or five months, I
said to him, you know, you're really into your music.
(16:22):
You know, maybe we go down some music theme. And
he said, oh, yes, I loved this artist called Roger
Dean who did album covers for Yes, I think, in
the 1970s. But he's probably dead now. And I went, oh, okay. Anyway,
I left the meetings. And I did some Googling. Anyway,
I ended up on the phone with this lovely old
(16:43):
man going, oh, yes, it's Roger Dean. And I messaged
Jeremy and I said, guess what? He's not dead yet.
So we got all these things. And it looks amazing.
And you walk in there. But most importantly to me,
it means something to him.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And obviously those albums meant something to him. It's not
album covers. But, yeah, so that was really special, to
give people what they want.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Oh, dear.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
So you do walk into this room now and go, wow,
it just feels like.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
How does he use the space?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Mates.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
The ultimate man bar.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So it's sort of, you know, after whatever they do
all day, racing around in cars, I guess they go
in there. But it was really, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was rather nervous. I thought, oh, I can't get
this wrong. I don't want to open the newspaper.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
That's so true.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
But it was great. It was great.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So how often do people bring you in to fix
something versus starting from scratch?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Not often.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Not often. To do something like that, it's got to
be a bit, you know, you want chunky projects. Yeah, definitely.
As in to get your teeth into.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Because I get as into it. It's as though it's
my house, you know, like I'm involved. It's such a
personal thing. Totally.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
I think maybe 10 years ago, you know, we were
sort of busier running eight or 10 at the same time.
But I don't want that sort of factory sort of, oh, right,
this is this sofa and this thing. And I prefer
to do it totally bespoke to whatever the client is. Sorry,
whoever the client is and wherever it is in the world.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I am back here a lot if I'm working here.
There's certain times that you need to see it. But presentations,
it's okay. It's sort of as long as... They can
touch and feel all the fabrics and things like that. But,
I mean, the opportunity that I have to source stuff
that you wouldn't find here, and I do, and I
bring it back in my suitcase. I have a thing
(18:44):
for dinner sets.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Me too. What do you collect? What are you drawn to?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I don't know. I just walk into a shop or
it could be in a brocante or some little. I
don't care if it's expensive or not expensive or whatever.
I'm drawn to it because I love to cook and entertain.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Oh, yeah. If I wasn't in interiors, I'd be in hostessing,
fabulous parties all over the place. Yeah. Talk us through that.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
If we were to come over, what.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Would you do?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
What would you serve?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Look, I think food for me is my love language.
If I like you, if I love you, I want
to cook for you. And I think that's through having
a big family and One thing that you never really
sort of know that's coming when your kids, everyone wants
them to grow up and get on their way and
stuff like that. But gosh, it's such a tough time
(19:36):
when they go.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It's like, what am I going to do?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Nobody needs me. But the table setting is just such
a great opportunity to really do what you would do
in a whole house, just in a confined space. And it's, yeah,
it's a love language for me, cooking and sharing and entertaining.
And what's the point in having this lovely house with
nobody in it? Do you remember the.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
First time you had people over in the UK, the villagers?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Oh, yes, actually I do. How did you feel? And,
you know, they're such homely, warm people. people and the
women I met there were just so generous, I think,
and they actually thought my cooking was amazing and I
like their cooking. I've learnt all sorts of, you know,
how to nail a roast now and hot toddies, all
(20:23):
these sort of unusual little things and drinks that they
have and do. When people are moving to new countries
and settling in and stuff like that, to open your
house and be kind. I'll never forget it. Never forget it.
Some of those people that I met early on, the
ones at the bar, for instance, I still see and
(20:44):
I'll still invite over, you know, once every three or
four months or whatever. I will never, ever forget the
kindness and the hospitality in the people that I met there.
They were just lovely.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
When it comes to the home, there are so many
decisions to be made every day.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And here at The Edit, we want.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
To make those choices that little bit easier. Sharing advice
from our guests and experts like Caboodle Kitchen, who I'm
happy to say have helped me find solutions for our
listener dilemma this episode. Today, we've received an email from
Kiara in Torrens Park. She says, I've decided to do
the spring clean of my life, and I want to
(21:26):
overhaul every part of my home, starting with the kitchen.
I only want to dedicate a weekend to it, so
no renovating, just easy hacks and ideas to make my
kitchen feel more organized and beautiful. I see influencers do
it all the time online. Can you give me the
basics so.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I can do it too? Yes, we sure can, Kiara.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
And you're absolutely right. The home reset is an ongoing
trend for good reason. Basically, we all feel better for
living in a more organized home. But before you start styling,
you need to do a cupboard and pantry audit. So
just a side note here, have a look at our
YouTube shorts for some videos on just how to do this.
(22:09):
Before you start reorganizing, make a list of what you
need to store. So once you're left with only what
you want to keep, dry food that's in date, dinnerware,
pots and pans, etc., write another list of what you
need to buy. Now, this might be to stock up
your pantry or replace any kitchenware. It's really important that
(22:31):
you do this as it's going to help you figure
out how much storage you really need. Now, the problem
in many kitchens is the deep dark abyss that is.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
The corner cabinet.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
But believe it or not, this problem is actually the
key to creating a kitchen design that feels bigger and
more functional without swinging a sledgehammer. Kaboodle Kitchen does these
amazing inserts for tricky spots like those corner cupboards. You see,
these inserts, like tiered storage baskets, they create extra shelving.
(23:05):
And better yet, the basket inserts rotate so you don't
waste space in the back of the cupboard and everything
is really easily accessible just at the flick of a wrist.
Not Every corner cupboard has a full opening, however. Some
of them have that annoying dog-leg layout where you can't
reach anything, so you just don't bother. I find this
(23:29):
is usually where the slow cooker and the ice cream
maker go to die. But to maximize this space, you
need a blind corner swing shelf. This is a double
shelf that's secured to the inside of your cabinet and
you can, it swings around the corner when you open
and close the door. It is absolute genius. Now, the
(23:50):
last thing I'm going to recommend to get your kitchen
feeling spacious and new is a swing pantry pullout. It's
similar to the blind corner swing shelf in that it
attaches to the inside of the cabinet and pulls out
when you open the door. But this one is pantry height.
So there's no more reaching into a pantry to rummage
(24:12):
around for the tomato paste that's four cans deep. This
insert gives you shelving within the pantry and on the door. Seriously,
you need to check these out. I promise they will
save you space and probably your sanity too. Explore kitchen
and laundry inspiration at caboodle.com.au. For anyone listening who is
(24:39):
thinking about doing something similar.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
A big wildlife change. Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
What did you call it? A gap chapter.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Gap chapter.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Anyone considering a gap chapter, what do you recommend? What
is something that helped you feel at home in a
new place?
Speaker 1 (24:55):
My little bits and pieces, my books, my photos. It
was a brave thing to do. Really brave. There's no
doubt about that. A midlife kind of. it was a,
you know, eat, pray, love chapter, whatever you want to
call it. It was like, I just needed to close
the door on chapter one of my life and, and
not close the door on it. My family and I,
(25:17):
and my friends are incredibly tight, but it was time
for me to do something for me. I'd never done
that before. And I wanted to, and I was so
comfortable and so happy here that it was like, I
think I need to get a bit uncomfortable. And I did,
I did a lot of crying, you know, like lonely crying.
You meet someone, you know, in the pub or the
cafe and, You can't ring them the next day and say,
can we have another coffee? They'll think I'm a weirdo stalker.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
So that's true. At what point can you do that?
How do you get there?
Speaker 1 (25:44):
I'm a mad exerciser, so I sort of met people
in Pilates and all those sorts of things and having coffee.
And I don't know. And then I started meeting various–
it was always women. And then I'd say to another one, oh,
you know, to Iona, I've just met Rose. Oh, we
went to school together. Like they all know each other
over there. It was quite odd. I sort of, yeah.
(26:05):
And I don't know. It's just, I'll never forget it.
It's been the most wild experience. I don't know. It's
tough work-wise, establishing your business over there. I didn't do
it for work reasons. I did it for me, but
obviously I have to work. And I have worked there,
but they run their businesses quite differently over there. Tell
(26:27):
us more.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
A bit more about your home there.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I'd love for you to take us on a tour.
So if we show up to your place for a
Sunday roast, for example, what would we see?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
What's the first thing we'd see?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
It's stone floors as you come in. And then I
do like, one thing we don't do a lot of
timber floors here, but over there we sort of don't.
It's either stone or... You know, carpet, sizily carpet. Yeah,
that's interesting, isn't it? The way I've decorated my house
over there, I wouldn't do it here. You know, it's different.
It doesn't quite– well, maybe I would, but not in Sydney.
(27:03):
Maybe something in the Southern Highlands or in the country.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
So there's something in that to decorate in a way that.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Suits the environment.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Suits the environment.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
But so the house that I bought, as much as
I would have loved some period– you know, classic, what's
that movie that Cameron Diaz was in?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Oh, The Holiday.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yeah, The Holiday, one of those sort of things. I
was like, I don't really want to be in the roof,
you know, getting bats out and there's no man here
to do that. So I bought something that was, I
bought a house that was only built in the 90s,
but it's still made of Cotswold stone and it's, but
it was, it didn't really have any character. It was
sort of kind of, not contemporary, but it just had no,
(27:43):
So I gutted it. I absolutely gutted it. I was
out for a year and put in, you know, new
architraves and doors and skirting boards and, you know, put
a little bit of soul into it. And then because
it was downstairs was solid walls but upstairs wasn't and
so it felt a bit sort of see-through to me.
(28:03):
So I wallpapered every inch of it, which cost me
a bomb. But it's kind of, you know, you start
with the layer and And no, it's not. But I
kind of thought this was going to be my forever house.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I did it for me as though I was staying there.
Typical me. I'm not. But anyway. So the layering of
the wallpaper gave it a lot more depth. Yeah. And then, yeah,
I started off with this one rug. I found this
chartreuse rug, which is in the sitting room. I looked
(28:36):
at that colour and that's probably my favourite colour. So
I decided to make that the, bring that into the house.
So I did the kitchen in that colour, the chartreuse.
And then I thought, well, I can't just have it
here and there. There's got to be some sort of
thread throughout the house of it.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And there is.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
So no one else had noticed it. It sounds ridiculous,
but I know.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
No, I understand what you're saying. And quite often we
talk about you can walk into a room or a
home and And it doesn't feel right. And you don't
know why, but it.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Just doesn't feel right.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I think there's sort of got to be cohesive something.
So I guess the wallpaper is in this particular colour.
And it only pops up a tiny bit in some
of the other rooms, but it's there. For me, things
like sanitary wear and door handles and there's certain things
that have got to be quality and feel it. And
(29:27):
then there's other things that you can get away with.
Like I found these fabulous flashback tiles in the kitchen
in Fort DeMami in Italy. Oh, that's right. This is
the crazy stuff I do. I looked in my diary
one week I was like, I've got nothing on. It's
a bit cold here. I think I need to go somewhere.
So I sort of looked up flights and I flew
to Pisa and then half an hour away is Fort
(29:49):
de Marmi. And I just hired a bike and stayed
for two days by myself and rode around Fort de
Marmi and found these tiles there. That were, you know, some,
I don't know, 150 years old or something.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
And I just loved them. The texture.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
They're just beautiful texture. And I thought I'm going to
use them in my splash bag. And back they came.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
So I do kind of– How did you get them back?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I can't remember. On your bike? No, I just– They
came back on a pallet. I do remember that. And–
But that's what I love and that's why I went
there so that I can do these sorts of things. Like,
you know, for so many years I couldn't travel. I
had five children. One of them had a disability so
it wasn't like we could just hop on a plane
(30:33):
and it was too expensive with five of them. So
now it's like, honey, I'm out there. I'm going, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Lisa, your zest for life is just incredible.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Well, you know, this is your chat but... I would
hope that anybody listening... Oh.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, do it. Do it, girls.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Or boys.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Go for it.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Whatever it is, whether it's a day trip or a
gap chapter.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Do it. Just do it. And I think.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I mean, I love Australia and this is where I
will settle. This is my home and this is where...
And my children are also, you know, one's in Germany,
two are in the UK, two are here.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
So that kind of keeps me moving about.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
But.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
it's such a long way and I never had the
opportunity and I didn't travel in my twenties. So I'm
doing it now. And it's, so that's why the UK
was my base, but the artisans and the people I'm
finding that I can use in my work is, um, invaluable.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Life is a bit of a mystery and there's a
lovely segue there into our mystery drawer item.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
So you've brought something in today.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I have.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
So share what has come in.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
I couldn't bring anything from home obviously because it's not here.
But what I did bring is something that I absolutely.
It's a combination of something I love and it's also
very me. And I don't know how I got onto it,
but there's this place in Paris called Louise Carmen who
makes these beautiful sort of journal-y things, which I could
(32:03):
get stuck in Bunnings or a stationery shop. You know,
like I just love those sorts of things. But I
love my Louise Carmen because it's, This gorgeous leather and
you get to choose your little charms on there. I've
got my star sign and my little spiritual thing. Isn't
that beautiful? But rather than just uni, at first I
thought I'm going to use it as a work, you know,
to write all your notes in.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
So the first book is my– because I'm a mad cook.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
And I travel a lot. But there's certain things that
I love to– and I cook always when I'm away.
I mean, I do go out for dinner, of course.
But I'll cook in my Airbnb or wherever I am.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
And so– and I– When I was younger, it sounds
so daggy, I used to love sort of scrapbooking. So
now I kind of scrapbook my recipes. So when I travel,
I've got, oh, this is my lemon caprese cake. And
this was wallpaper. And so I stuck the wallpaper on
there and then wrote the recipes out on the wallpaper.
(33:02):
And then, so I've got all my little favourite recipes here.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
And I get to do silly.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Drawings and play. So I have that. That's one. And
then the second one is because I travel so much now. Yeah.
I have this little, I started off, I was in
Florence and I forget where I go and I forget
who I meet. I mean, seriously. So I went to
one of the most fabulous things I've done recently. I
(33:26):
went to Tuscany and did a painting retreat and cooking
with Amber Guinness. I don't know if she's a fabulous
cookbook writer.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
So I took photos and then I started colouring in
and then I wrote down all the food that I liked.
And to remind me of where I was, I actually
wrote down everybody's name who was in the painting class
because I'll forget. Oh, gorgeous. And then this was like
a little business card of a place that I found
that made incredible woodwork in Florence that I'll use for cabinetry.
(33:58):
And this was paper that I bought there. So it's
sort of like my little scrapbook. That was in Munich.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
One of my sons, that was the map of Munich.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
One of my sons was living there.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
This is joyful.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It is absolutely joyful. And then I went to Malta
because I wanted to. So I did a Maltese page.
And then I went to Hydra. And so, yeah. So
that's my.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
And it continues.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
So as much as I love.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
You know, everything in my home, I'm actually about, the
heart a lot. And so this means a lot to
me and it comes everywhere with me. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
What do your kids think of your adventures?
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Do you know what? They are so proud of me
and so supportive, which, you know, is the best thing
ever because if they weren't on board, I wouldn't do this.
And I think if anything, it kind of gives them
the courage to do things themselves. You know, one's gone
to Germany. One of my sons is over there now
and he's working there and doing, you know, corporate stuff
(34:59):
in another language. And he's, you know, he's brave and
he's doing that. But they are, I don't know, they've all,
they've all, right from the word go, because I said
to them, I'm just going to go for three months.
I won't be long. I'll come back. And, um, and
I didn't. And that sounds so bad. We, we are
so tight as a family and, um, And my oldest
(35:21):
daughter actually lives near me now in one of the
villages out in the Cotswolds, which is great.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
That is lovely.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
And my other daughter, who's in London, she's out, you know,
probably every three or four weeks for a weekend, and
then I go to Germany and see Tom, and then
I come here and see Charlie and Chloe. Yeah, I
don't know, but they are incredibly supportive and they just
go for it, Mum, whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
How tidy are you? Are you a tidy person or
are you a.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
That's a good one for me.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
keep it in piles or shove it all in the
cupboard and don't look?
Speaker 3 (35:46):
What's your style?
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Part of the way I feel.
In control, which we all want to, right? Yes. I
need to be organised in my home. I need to know,
I don't know, it's a weird thing. And yet get
me cooking or doing some sort of craft and there's
mess everywhere. So I'm either one or the other and
it's kind of how I dress. I'm either, you know,
all chic and polished or I'm, Not. So, yeah, my
(36:14):
drawers are organized because I don't have any kids in
the house or anyone to mess it up for that matter.
I mean, this is the first time ever I've been
able to do a house where you open the makeup
drawer and there's little departments for the mascara. I mean,
I've had time to do it and I've put the
effort into it and I want to be able to
offer that to my clients.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Actually, when I went to see my son in Munich,
found the best felt place. Ever.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I've never seen, I didn't know they were into felt.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Really?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
And I just was drawn to the colours of this
felt shop. And I went in there and I was like,
I need to buy metres of it. I don't know
what I'm going to do with it, but I need
to because the colours were incredible and the different thicknesses.
We don't have things like that here.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
No, we don't.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Well, I know where to go.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
And so I brought it back and I lined all
my make-up drawers and my jewellery drawer with these. And
it's not expensive and it just makes such a difference.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
I can do that in my clients' houses or in
a lovely little hotel, boutique hotel, when somebody gives me
a job to do their boutique hotel. Because that's what
I'd really like to do, like everybody else. That's what
we want to do.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
So that's the dream job, boutique hotel.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Well, not necessarily, but I think from the point of
view that I like to do spaces where people relax.
That's my kind of genre.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
So back to your home, what does it sound like?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I always sleep with my window open. I don't know
if I should say that, but I do. Burglar.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Burglar.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Anyway, there is an alarm. And so, and I do
that because I like air, but the birds, oh my gosh,
the little birds over there are so, we don't, well,
in the Sydney, we don't have them. These tiny little
sparrows and they just make the most beautiful sound. So
it sounds beautiful because of the birds. It, smells lovely
(38:01):
because I'm cooking or I smell nice and the garden
smells nice so I don't know are you a candle
person yeah I'm very aware though of the the sense
in candles but I am very much so so actually
while I've been in Sydney I've been trying to find
some candle that smells like a beach so I can
take it there because I really miss that and I
(38:22):
haven't found one yet That's true.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
I can think of a candle that smells like the bush.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
There's lots of eucalyptus and bushy things, but I haven't
found that kind. I probably want coconut oil that I
used to rub on my body when I was 20. Yes.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Coming up, Lisa reveals her most loathed fabric. What do
you see as.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
A design crime that....
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Let's say Australians have in their home that you think,
please stop doing that?
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Boucle. Boucle! White boucle. I mean, come on. It reminds
me of, I think there was some suede back in
the 2000s. I'm loving seeing when I come back here
and in magazines that there's more colour coming in. It's
like it was so boring for so long. But I
(39:20):
think it wasn't boring. I just think there's a lot of,
about what other people are going to think, so you
don't want to be too out there. Or the fear
that doing something out there costs a lot of money. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
No. It doesn't. I mean, I've worked on a budget
all my life. I'm not on the same budget as
some of my clients. I don't have that. But I
can do it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
And just be brave.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
It's just paint.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I think.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
I might have mentioned earlier that I worked in TV
in the first part of my life, and then I
went into interior design. And then I ran into an
old friend who was in TV, and I hadn't been
in it for 10, 15 years, told her what I
was doing. Anyway, I ended up on Domestic Blitz doing
all of the design for the TV show. I wasn't
(40:07):
on camera. Lovely girl. Behind the scenes. Chantal was on camera,
but I did all the designs of the interior section.
So my job was to come up with the, you know,
people would get ill and they'd move out and we'd
do their house up in a couple of weeks. So
it was very fast paced. And because it was TV,
you couldn't do beige and white everywhere. No, exactly. It
was just not going to show up. So I think
(40:28):
that's where I got my real confidence from because we
did 40, I did 40 episodes over a couple of years. Mm-hmm.
So I wasn't scared to do sort of some really
brave out there things and that was good. But what
I did also learn to do was how to make
something when it's not expensive furniture or, you know, you're
(40:49):
working on a bit of a budget, how you can
kind of.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Elevate.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Elevate it, fake it, whatever you want to call it.
And so, yes, with my home it's a mix. There's
some things that I really have gone all out on
and that's the sanitary wear and things like that. It's
the things that you're touching and handling. And certainly a
couple of rugs. One I bought from here actually from
Cadry's and shipped it over. And then it's like anything, jewellery, art, whatever.
(41:18):
You just mix it up and kind of work it out.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I think a lot of people are afraid as well
because open plan is so popular here in Australia.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
How do you work colour into open plans?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Well, luckily, colour drenching's in. Yeah, that's true. So just
go for it. Just do it all. Just go for it.
And it's only paint, right?
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Like, if it doesn't, you've got to get the colour right.
There's no doubt about that. There's ways of, and I'd
probably get some, you know, ask some advice if you
don't know how to do it yourself.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
But it just makes for such a more, I think
it's like clothes.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
So.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I go to the gym every day, but if I
sat in my lycra all day, for me it doesn't work.
I'm not judging other people. I don't care what they
look like. For me it's about how I feel and
what mode I'm in. So if I want to go
to work and put my business head on, I want
to dress up and do it. And then when I
want to have fun or go to a festival, I
(42:14):
get in, that's another costume. Do you know what I mean?
So for me my home is, needs to be something
that's expressive of all my personality, which is very like everybody's.
There's so many sides to us.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Right? We're not just one. What you see here now
is not just Lisa. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So what, in your opinion, makes a home beautiful?
Speaker 1 (42:36):
It's about how it feels and how welcome I would
feel in that home. It doesn't, I don't care what
style it is. There's no such, I don't, as I said,
I don't judge whatever style you like. It's about how
I feel when I'm in there and I want to
feel welcome, warm always. And I don't really want to
(43:01):
look at one particular object like, wow, look at that chandelier.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
It's just sort of a cocoon of, and I can
tell people's personalities straight away by their home, so.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Be brave with it and don't be scared to show
it off.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Show who you really are. It's like take the mask off.
Let's have a look at what, you know, I just
showed you my scrapbooking, for God's sake.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
I know.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
How personal is that? I mean, really, that's embarrassing. Any
artist would look at that and go, I'm ready for
our club.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
I don't think so. I think this is ready to
be published.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
It's just being brave to show yourself.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
What you see is what you get. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Thank you so much for coming over and having a
chat with me.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Pleasure. Anytime. I loved it.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
I can't wait to see more.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
That was Lisa Burtis, decorator, dinner set devotee, and proof
that the best interiors come from being unapologetically you. Thank
you for listening to the Edit by Home Beautiful. If
you want to see Lisa's home and discover even more
of her decorating tips, we'll put a link in the
show notes. hope you enjoyed this episode of The Edit.
(44:13):
We'd love for you to follow, subscribe, and leave us
a review.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
We appreciate each and every one. I'm Elle Lovelock. We'll
see you next time.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
This episode is brought to you in partnership with a
brand I truly love and live with, Caboodle Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
This is an R Media podcast.
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