April 5, 2026 • 43 mins
If you’ve ever stood in the middle of your place, scrolling inspo pics and thinking, “I have no idea where to start,” this episode is your shortcut to a home that actually feels like you live there - not like you borrowed it from a display village.
Design and real estate expert James Treble (yes...you’ve seen him give excellent advice on The Living Room and his own reno series) sits down with Editor Elle Lovelock to decode how to turn any house, yes, even the ugly red‑brick, asbestos‑ridden one, into a calm, character‑filled home with a story. He starts with the artwork he literally pulled off his own wall, explains why your partner’s signed footy jersey still counts as “art”, and shows you how to build an entire colour scheme from one picture, op‑shop find or kids’ drawing.
From there, James walks you through his Central Coast renovation: the bright yellow double doors, the breeze‑block wall, the terrazzo‑look tiles and the decision to completely flip the kitchen, bathroom and entry layout because “you do not have to stick to the original floor plan.” He breaks down which eras of Australian houses are secretly goldmines, how to know if a place has good bones within 30 seconds at an open home, and why you should almost always start with a hallway or bedroom before you even think about the kitchen.
Moments you'll hear:
Why “homemaking” is making a comeback and how to tell your own story at home without spending a fortune.
James’s simple method for using art as your colour roadmap (including what to do if your partner’s taste is…challenging).
A tour of his once‑hideous red‑brick house and the exact moves that turned it into a light, layered, mid‑century‑inspired haven.
The eras and house types he’d buy in a heartbeat, and the structural red flags that should have you walking straight back out the door.
How to create an overarching “story” (coastal, modern farmhouse, mountain escape) so every room decision stops feeling random.
Why having two bathrooms is the new non‑negotiable and clever ways to carve one out of a laundry or awkward corner.
If you’re renting, renovating or just itching to repaint one room and see what happens, this episode will give you the confidence, language and starting points to finally make your home look like the life you’re actually living inside it.
Thank you for listening ❤️
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Credits:
Edited by Propod
Production by Thomas Crnkovic
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is an our media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What is Our Right? It's a telling a story of
a time, or a place or something that means something
to the person.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I think homemaking is making a huge comeback in popularity.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Create a story that works for your home. Do start
with a story that's overarking on what your home's going
to look like. Through social media and magazines, there's almost
too much to see. Which avenue should I go down?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
This episode is brought to you by Luxeflex, transforming homes
with beautiful, functional window coverings designed to change your life
and lifestyle. Today's set has been thoughtfully curated by OZ Design,
sharing life with you since nineteen seventy nine. Hello and
welcome to the edit. We are a brand new podcast.
(01:02):
I'm l Lovelock, the editor of Home Beautiful. Today, we
have a real treat. We've got James Treble. He is
an interior design and real estate expert. You'll probably know
him from shows like The Living Room and his own
TV series, James Bought a Guest House and James Bought
a House. I'm really excited about this episode because I
(01:23):
think it's going to give you some confidence in how
to create your own home and James. He has all
the tips and tools that he's about to share. If
you are in the market to buy, you are really
going to love this episode because James has the best
tips on what era is to buy and what to
look for. James Treble, you are back.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm back. It feels fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Thanks for joining us again.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, thank you. It's exciting and I'm so glad that
the podcast is doing incredibly well. I've got a lot
of colleagues telling me they've been watching and listening, so
well done.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Thank you. Well, we're changing things up today. We're going
to get straight into the mystery draw.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The mystery draw or we need like a drum roll,
I know.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So you remember from last time this is where you
bring something from your mystery draw in your home, something
we don't know about you.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yep, this one's a little bit different. It's actually not
a mystery draw. It's a mystery war because I've taken
this off the wall of my house. Okay, I've wrapped
it up in a beach tower.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Fantastic, what's in your mystery down.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Mystery beach Town. So I think today we want to
talk about how to create a home and what a
home means, and I think it's about personalizing things. So
I have brought an artwork.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Oh, I recognize this scene.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You might recognize this scene any Sydney Siders. I think
people can recognize it from around the world. So this
is a painting from my partner. So he is a
painter and a sculptor. I'm very spoiled to have such
a talented artist as a partner. We argue about color
and contrast and texture because the world of an artist
(03:03):
and the world of an interior designer overlaps. But he
thinks green is a primary so it's really strange. And
what's interesting about this piece is that he's normally a
figurative painter, so it's under won the Sulman, which is
part of the Archibald and a lot of people don't know.
And unless we fake his death or chop off his
ear like Van Goorch, you know, the love of an
artist is quite tricky. But he's doing a lot of
(03:24):
painting again, he's going to be having a show this
year and he does sculpture. So the reason I brought
it in is that it's just so quintessential. This is
on the walls of our house, on the central coast.
So it's not in Sydney, it's an our north, but
it tells the story. I love the color, and I
think when people are creating their own home. Of course,
when you've got to watch budget, you might get some
generic art from a store, right, but you know, go
(03:45):
to little galleries and ask to go through their draws
and their backlogs, and you find things that are not
overly expensive to get something that tells your story. When
you go on holidays, go to the markets, go to
you know, the second hand store as the salvos and
the bargain shops and look through and sometimes, you know,
sometimes we buy old pains just for the frame because
(04:06):
something really beautiful.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
But I do the exact same thing. I absolutely love
rummaging through a brick a brackshop.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Now I do, I'm shocking, and I stop and curb,
you know, go really slowly past coups or pick up
too curb crawl. That's not right, do you know when
I don't know, it sounds seedy, but I don't mind.
Creatives can be seedy. And do you know what when
people are creating color schemes, sometimes people get overwhelmed, But
can you see all of the color inspiration in there,
Like I could pull out these colors and put them
in a cushion or put a throw, or pull something
(04:33):
out into a lounge chair or an notoman or an armchair,
a feature. Like there's so much inspiration to create a
scheme off the artwork.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Do you see artwork and then just visualize a room.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I have done. I think it's great to do with
children's rooms too, to get them involved. I think young
girls are really awake. For boys aren't so into it,
but when they're little, they seem to be. And then
they get really cool and I don't want to talk
about that stuff, you know, but when they're quite young,
let's get an artwork and it could be their favorite picture, whatever,
it could be Bob the builder, and just let's pull
colors out of here. And that's the throw and that's
the cushion on your bed. And so that's my little
(05:07):
start off point. And look, I love it. And we're
very spoiled to have a week wake up in the hallway.
And do you know another thing with artwork, el is
we move our artwork around our house.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I do too. I store some under the bed because
you know, I don't always have all the walls, Yes,
to accommodate the art, but I don't want to pass
up a great artwork.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
And when people come over, it's weird to see that
they interact differently. And I think you feel differently when
you go down the hallway and you go hang on
that artwork's not normally there, it's in another room. It
changes completely how the house feels to you. So I
think it doesn't have to be a spring clean. It's
great for the new year to be positive, you know,
and transform your home. So take me on a.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Tour of your home. So this is where we home beautiful.
You know that we are known for our home tours,
so this is a bit of a tour for the sensors.
Talk us through. I want to know when you open
your front door, what is the first thing you see?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Well, the first thing I see is a double set
of yellow front doors, and that's my front doors are
bright yellow, and I open those and walk through, I
look through glass. We've got an entry foyer into our
deck area off the house, and on the left we
do have a really large artwork, another one of Sundra's. Actually,
so our house is not just an ode to him.
We have lots of art or work. Do you do us?
(06:19):
I can draw, I can draw in three D upside down.
I've made things, I've doubled. I've done some pottery.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I think, are you allowed to put it up in
the house.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
When Sundra On I first met twenty one years ago,
I had a print of Starr in Ights of Mango
and Sandra said, this to work, that's going no prints
in our house? Right? It was the hierarchy of its
not very of artwork. Yeah, don't worry, we all do that.
And do you know what, I don't see anything wrong
with that because I like that particular painting. And you know,
(06:49):
I went we went together to the opening of the
Vangof Museum in Amsterdam when it just opened. I think
art is really individualized. And do you know what, I'm
really open minded because I get clients. I understand for
the blokey blokes, their version of an artwork is assigned
footy jersey in the game's room, and I'm okay with
that because it still tells their story. I am.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
My husband is a mad golfer and he's this awful.
He's got some of his golf trophies his own that
he's won, and they're in these big frames and I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
You can't have it. But do you know what if
that goes into that room, that man cave room, right,
that Fred Flintstone room. I still think that what is art, right,
it's a telling a story of a time or a
place or something that means something to the person. So
for me, it's still their artwork. And I would look
in and go, Okay, it's a I don't know, a
Paramatta or Sharks or whatever footy team or soccer team,
(07:45):
and maybe okay, let's look at that and look at
the color of that, and can I put that in
the room somewhere else to make this room feel aesthetic
somehow instead of just like not matching it all and
looking really shocking. So I think it can still tell
us story because I work with lots of different clients, right,
and I wanted to tell their story and anyway back
to your story. So going through our house, Yeah, we
(08:06):
bought a really ugly red brick house and I transformed
it and we did an online show about it, and
we transformed this house. So it was an ugly red
brick house on the central coast of New South Wales,
it's now north of Sydney, and we moved up. I've
still got a family home in Sydney, so I travel between.
I've still got a lot of clients in Sydney, so
I travel all over the place. The real estate agent
I said, well, we're going to renovate this and he laughed.
(08:27):
I aays, yeah, right, and I said no, we are
and he go said, come on mate, you've got to
knock this down. It's shocking. I said, do you know
what I do for a living right, So it was
a three bedroom, one bathroom house that is now a
three bedroom, two bathroom house, but it is completely transformed.
The kitchen became a bedroom, a smallest bedroom became a bathroom,
the bathroom became a hallway.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I moved you don't have to stick to the same
floorplane and you moved everything.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, because we were on Bears and Joy, so it's
raised off the ground. It was. It was an actually
I thought it was the seventies house because that would
have set on title. It was actually an asbestos field
fifties house. So that was like a good money trip,
you know, there's like, let's spend twenty something thousand on
a report and then getting all the asbestos removed, which
you have to write. It was in all the eves
and it was in particular rooms, so that's all gone.
(09:10):
But the house was solid. It had solid bones. And
I started life as a real estate age and I
love houses, and so when I look at home, I
can look in and I look straight at the corners
of the windows, the corners of the doorways. Internally, if
there's any cracks in those openings those corners, that means
there's movement, and that means there's a structural issue which
will open up opportunity or negative opportunity for costs. In
(09:34):
this case, it was the perfect ugly duckling because it was.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Ugly but no cracks.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
But no cracks so cosmetically, I saw an opportunity to
elevate it. It had two point seven high ceilings, which
was really unusual. That's good. The front door was on
the side of the house and I needed to change that.
So the entry foyer is the only addition in the
floor plan to pull the doors to the front facade,
which also elongated my facade. And I added a wall
(09:59):
of breeze blocks, a whole wall of stone, random stone
like Brady Bunch stone like mid century to transform it
externally and internally as well.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
So we're in are we in a hall?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
We're in an entry for you, and then you just
step up. The stone wall continues from the outside inside
and then you step up to timber floor. So on
the floor of the entry for you, and the front
steps is to razzo tiles. It's a porcelain tile but
looks trazzo. I've got to say tarazzo because my partner's Italian,
so I've got to say terazzo originally from Venice, but
it's you know, it's everywhere in Italy and Australians love
(10:30):
it as well. And it's I like, what color is
your It's a little bit of a mishmash. It's a
it's an off white base with sort of a darker
fleck and a little almost a terra cotta fleck, a
black fleck and a little tiny bit of bluey gray.
But again it creates that jump off point for clean
white walls and something that's visually interesting.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
So you have clean white wolves.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, we do. And there's lots of artwork and I
have feature walls in my house. You know what's interesting
because you'd be in the world as I'm when you
speak in this so many people feature wars are out
their day. I love when people say this is in
and that's out, because I just go, I don't know
what you mean.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
No, exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Things merge things if it's if it's out and it's in.
It wasn't a trend, it was a fad. It was
really fast. So I understood point. I understand the placement
of things. I think that colors can change, you know,
and evolve. I've been in a room where I was
talking about Burgundy. Burgundy's back, you know, and I say, Burgundy,
it is one of my least favorite colors. And this
girl in the front row she's got going like this
(11:29):
to me, pointing, and I went, oh, shits, I'm wearing
a burgundy jumper. And I said, well, there you go.
You got to merge right with the colors. It was
really interesting process well, because you know, when you do
your own house and you you want to tell your story,
and when you're a client and the designer, it's interesting
and you've got a partner and you're watching budget and
all of those things, and of.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Course I have to do that really involved in the decisions.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
When he's allowed to be look his patron's sculptor. He's
got particular taste. I don't want this. He won't say
it to my face, but at a dinner party, I
won't mimick him because you know he's is Rome, He's
born in Italy and he's been here half his life.
But he says So we argue about things, James goes
off and does it anyway. I don't like it. He
does it and it looks good. What am I supposed
to say? And I went, is that sorry? You know,
(12:13):
it's like Phonsie. He can't say sorry. So inside the house,
because I opened up and removed some walls and closed
some wars, I had a floor issue, so I went
over the top of the timber floors with new hybrid floors,
which are solid fixer, they're glued down, and that let
me have a whole new floor and finish internally, which
sort of blurred the lines between old and new.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
And I find it's calming on the ice.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It's really comfortable. Timber can be a lot of things
that a lot of people been in Australia. Australians love timber.
We're surrounded by it. Were really well connected with the
outside because our country is so huge. You know, we're
only twenty seven million people in you know, this massive country,
and we live like a donut around the outside. There's
not many in the middle, so we have that connection
between trees and the outdoors. I've got an American oak
(12:59):
on the floor, quite a blonde, but it's lots of
neurling and knots and texture. It's rich and it's almost
like the story of this table. You like this beautiful character.
Then you step into the lounge dining and I built
a wall used to look through that doorway straight at
the kitchen. It was an L shaped lounge dining. I
(13:19):
put a wall there to create a bedroom, and the
kitchens moved into what was an extension at the back,
like another dining room. The room is a good size,
but I've got high ceilings, but I put three skylights
in and they open with the blind and there's this
immediate sense of space and light flooding in. So people
who have heard me speak or come to home shows
(13:41):
or watch shows that I'm on, I do say this
a lot. Natural light and airflow are the two things
that I look at in every client's home, whether it's
a renovation or a rebuild our initial appointment. If I
don't have that in a house, it's hard to replicate.
So I can give you marble and gold and gorgeous
finishes and do clats and it's all amazing, and it
(14:02):
feels like you just want to leave because there's no
connection between inside and out or airflow.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
And I think it's so important, especially here in Australia. Yeah,
the connection between indoors and out with your place because
you're you're a keen gardener.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, I do like gardening. I grew up in a
house where in Cartfofo, where Dad would rip up our
lawns every season and grow tomatoes and we'd sell them
out the front of our house. I know that was
our pocket money. I know, Oh I do.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, you are you picking about which type?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
No, We've got a few different types of tomatoes. But
in my house, I've got two get ready, I've got
two lime trees. I've got two apple trees that are
both grafted. So I've got Johnny Jonathan Apples and Grannysmith
on one tree, Grannismith and Golden Delicious on another. I've
got mandarin, two lemon trees, an apricot tree. I know
how long. It's not a big block. It's it took
(14:54):
a good eighteen months to get little apples. We've just got.
I've got a passion fruit vine. I was watching my
passion fruits and guess what they when? I' night because
we have a possum.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Oh, we have a possum. And I only possums. I
would never hurt the possum, but I'd rather they visited
another I.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Know I would too, but it's that battle. It's like
feeding our native ducks. And then I go somewhere and
someone gives me a duck pancake, and oh god, it's
so good. Oh, I just feel bad. Have I eaten
one of the family, But I don't tell them. So
I've got lots of food and VENs. And do you
know why I work in the space with clients. I
do work a lot. I work ridiculous hours, and I
work pretty much six days a week. I travel a
(15:30):
lot for work, and you know I work with the
TV shows never stop. But when I'm at home, I
can switch off and I get outside. We collect all
our coffee pods. I scrape all the coffee out and
mix it through and put it in the garden. I know,
we've got a worm farm. I get the worm juice
and put it on the pot plants, And so.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
How do you get from inside the house to outside?
What's the connection there?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So the house itself, it was a big issue when
we had that. When we bought it, there was the
front door on the side elevation, there was two big windows.
We were three and a half meters off the side fence,
so literally the plasters drove straight up the side of
the house to bring things into the house. So I
could build the entry foyer onto that and behind that
a deck, and I took out the two big windows
(16:13):
and turned them into a big fixed panel and sliding
glass door, so we have a connection to outside. The
courtyard which was ugly as had a hills hoist that
was damaged and broken the laundry door that now I
have PAVs with dichondra growing between it, which is a weed.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Oh but quite nice.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
It's so easy to maintain and I re kept. I
kept the hills hoist clothesline which is older than me,
and restrung it. I restrung up myself and I bought
the clamping tool and put the new standard still wire,
and I painted it the same yellow as the front door,
so we have a yellow hills Hoist. I know. I
told my daughter with some of her friends. She's now twenty,
(16:52):
but this house, it's two years old now. I told
her that I was going to create a fans only
page four hills Hoists and go and film them and
all her girlfriends lave and because I loved, you know,
the two gay dads. And Francesca just looks at me
and goes, you are so disturbing, but it's I love
a hills Hoist, right. And we kept the kitchen sink
and I put that into that courtyard and are built
(17:12):
and outside sink. So I've got two outside sinks, one
on the ol fresco near the barbecue and our pizza oven,
and one is in the courtyard. And that's where we do.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
You have different uses that yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
One's the potting one. So we pot plants there and
we propagate and we go past people's houses. We like something,
we snap a bit off like my dad used to do,
and we give it to other people too. And you know,
I'm always potting and planning and so sound it all.
And I know we sound like these two little old
retired women, don't we But there's something really grounding about
being in soil and being outside. And it's such a
(17:44):
step away from my client's work, which is all clean
and computers and plans and discussions on joinery and expectations
and deadlines with builders and developers and all those things.
I can switch off be outside here. The cockatoos go
over the top, plant and dig, and you know, we
have a banana tree. We got our first lot of
bananas and they were tiny, and they were so fresh,
(18:05):
and we had so many at once that we had
to freeze them. So they're turning into banana bread.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Fine, yeah, coming up, James and I get into a
bit of a debate about what is a homemaker these
days back in a bit Oz design blends style and
practicality to enhance every day living. The New Winter Collection
embraces warm tones, sleek finishes, and smooth silhouettes, offering timeless
pieces designed to transform your home throughout the cooler months.
(18:33):
Thoughtfully curated, each piece layers comfort, character, and effortless style
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The collection helps you create a home that feels truly yours,
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(18:54):
store or online with us Design Paula. Welcome to the
Editor's so lovely to have you with us and to
talk all about trends.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Thanks El, It's fabulous to be here.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Trends can feel quite overwhelming, definitely absolutely. Whether should I
buy into a trend? Should I let it pass me by?
Is it a good idea a bad idea? How do
you guide customers when they come into store saying I've
seen this and I really love it, but I don't
know what to do with it. Yeah, look, I think.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
That's a great place to start to get in store
and to talk to the teams and to just get
feedback from them as well. Often you don't want to
ask family or friends because it's sort of a personal moment, right,
and everyone has an opinion, and I think it's sometimes
nice to sort of supprise everyone with where you take things.
(19:53):
So I think it's good to go and talk to,
you know, all of the sales teams across all of
the retailers and start to understand that they can give
you solid advice because they've been talking to customers day in,
day out and really putting together the elements that are
drawing attraction to people. So you know, from our perspective
(20:14):
in our furniture stores, we will piece the trends together
in subtle ways. So it might be that it's a
color blend, so we might use our torp or oatmeally sofa,
and then we'll bring in that little hint of mustard
or that little hint of rust. It could be that
we want to be a little bit bolder in one
area with color mixing, and it might be that we
(20:35):
take the rusts and burgundies and offset those against a
deeper charcoal, So it could be color play that we
work to create. One of the trends that we're noticing
and seeing is a shift or movement to having a
coffee table be a dominant piece in the home, So
that sort of layering of two coffee tables together rather
(20:56):
than just traditionally having a rectangle coffee table. In this case,
it could be a beautiful organic shape that's mirrored or
sits against the side table. So you're then starting to
layer your pieces and starting to sort of create a
bit more interest at sort of a lower level within
the room.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
A real feature piece.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Material textures a big sort of trend, so utilizing natural
stones and blending those with beautiful oak vineeres or walnut veniers,
and sort of piecing materials together so that it doesn't
necessarily have to be all of the one finish.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
And I love those two points because often people think
trends and I think color. Yes, it's not just color.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
No, it's not just color. It could be it could
be the material you use. It could be taking a
beautiful solid table like this one here and utilizing the
fact that you're taking it into a deeper, darker tone.
And so then you combine that with a really lovely
rataarn chair, or you team that up with things that
just start to work within the same color tones, but
(22:04):
they actually add interest because you're not looking at the
same piece. In totality, all of this it makes me
think about I'll say it's a dirty word.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Oh I don't think it is. But homemaker, homemaker, homemaker
makes people feel uncomfortable say homemaker. But I think homemaking
is making a huge comeback in popularity. I see it
all over social media. I see content creators. You know,
yourself included. But it's really whether it is about being
(22:39):
in the garden, or whether it's about making a sour dough,
or whether it's about sewing your own curtains. There's something
happening in the world at the moment around homemaking. What
does homemaker mean to you?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Good?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Bad or otherwise?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, it's funny, isn't it. It's a sort of a
turn that we might picture with this really sort of
fifties image of the apron and baking and the husband
comes home and she's got his slippers and there she's
sits out and howur's work, honey, And of course that
doesn't exist.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
How do we get rid of the connotation?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Do you know? I think that it's the experience is
shared now. I think that a big turning point was COVID.
We were stuck inside vertical people who live vertically in
apartments were really disconnected between inside and out. That term
mental health is said all the time. Now. I never
heard that word when we grew up. If I said
to Mama or I never said I've got bad mental health, Mum,
(23:31):
and would say like, get off the lounge and bloody,
get outside, and we grew up with veggies and everything.
I go pick the carrots for dinner from our yard, right,
get out on your pushbar. I don't want to see
you come home when it's dark or when skippy finishes.
I'm I'm showing my age and go home, right. Or
the woman or the barnet man or whatever we used
to watch when we come home from school. So now
(23:53):
men and women I think are needing a sort of
that opposite that. It's it's a term of interior design
to the busy life, the fast paced social media. Everything's
in our palm of our hands. We're watching everyone living
these amazing lives or expectation. It's really hard on our
kids generation. Like my kids twenty and twenty one, there's
(24:15):
a ten months between them. The expectation to be perfect
is thrown at them. We never had that growing up.
We had a magazine and we had people on TV.
It wasn't in our face every day, every minute of
the day. So now I think women are seeing pleasure
in this. I think people are realizing the power of
being able to entertain at home and not have to
go out, and that's beautiful to live at home, make
(24:38):
something and share that with your friends or resemble.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
You don't have to be a good cook. No, you
can just put some it's on a platter, and.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I'm great with a platter. I'm great at styling, great
at staging the table. And do you know how important
it is now? My dad was at work all my life,
and I am pretty guilty of missing some of the
things with the kids growing up too because I was
working some that or could go. There was two mums
and two dads, and we like the modern family, like
the TV show. But I'm the only funny one, and no,
that's not true. My son's funny to Actually, we're all
(25:08):
pretty funny now when you go to a park an
how or outside, especially on weekends, so even weekdays, because
we all live weird times now, there's no nine to
five month at a Friday anymore. That doesn't exist. How
many times do you see dads with their kids a
lot of the time, And when I grew up, I don't.
It was never like that, you know, because dad was working.
So that's a really powerful thing. And I think the
(25:28):
homemaker is not the wife with the apron anymore. It's
mum and dad or the kids and learning to be
involved and enjoying the home, enjoying the home and having
a go at making things with our kids, you know,
when they're special times, Christmas or birthdays or something. Sundra
is actually the one who says this to the kids.
Don't spend money on us. We've got we don't need anything.
(25:51):
Make something. And our daughter, with the help of the mums,
you know, made jam and we were like so excited.
And then Sundro straight away goes how much sugar's in
this this looking at him like you told her, You
told her to make something. So that was really powerful experience,
and I think that that's wonderful. And I've got cards
that the kids have handmade and written things, And.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Did you ever display their special artworks?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
When they were little? We used to stick them on
the fridge. I'm I'm the I hate things on a
fridge I have it's my magnets. And I don't need
to know where you've been on holiday. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
There's nothing on our fridge, fridge in so I could
avoid the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
No magnets on the door panels, so it's really I
just go no, I don't do that. But I'm otherwise
pretty easy going I've still got lots of their cards
and things that they've drawn, and something handmade. You can't
keep everything, it's too much, but something special. So the homemaker,
I think is even The word home is when I
have when I meet with clients and I get a
(26:50):
set of plans, or it's a developer, or I'm doing
display homes for one of my builders, and I get
these plans. What I'm actually looking at is a house.
But people don't live, you know, don't go, oh, I'm
just going to duck house and grab a pair of shoes.
We duck home. And the word home is different. It's
got an emotional attachment. It's got a connection between space,
(27:11):
you know. I remember Mum looking at this floor plan
that I had and I said, Mum, do you realize
the size of this house? Rights It's insane. You need
nearly a golf cart to go through. It was huge.
And she said, how come people are spending their money
with you to pick everything for their house, Because when
your father and I built, we had to do it
all ourselves, you know, I said, Mom, because when you built,
you had antique white basin or white basin, you had
(27:34):
three tap where they were all chrome like there was
no choices and there wasn't options. You know, Dad built
half of our house because he was a sparky and
he worked on his friend's houses and they came in
turn and built. That's how our house was built. There's
so many choices now. The cost of real estate is biggest,
our biggest investment we own, and I go, I take
(27:55):
my car to a mechanic to get it fixed because
I'm not an expert at that. But I am good
at housing and I'm not arrogant about it. I'm confident
because I've been doing this a long time. I get
builders and developers paying me, and clients of course to
help them with their house journey because it's such a
big investment. We're dealing with expensive things, and the decision
(28:15):
I'm making on this works that the works or that
doesn't work, to put it together as a scheme has
big impacts. But I'm not just creating a home that
I like. You know, many times they say what's your style, James, Well,
my style is to interpret yours because I like mid
century Modern with a bit of Italianate and a little
bit of palm springs and like, you know, like it's
a mish mash right, and so I've got to understand
(28:38):
for it to be your home, and that's the interpretation.
And I think that's where people get it wrong and
why they do need some help in creating their own homes.
They're almost overexposed now through social media and magazines. There's
almost too much to see which avenue should I go down?
It can be too So it's funny that your podcast
is the edit because it needs sometimes that sperience set
(29:00):
of eyes to overlook to help edit to go what
do we like here, Let's edit it into one direction
that's going to work for you, not what your best
friend has or what you're told you should have.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
So, James, we've been talking about homes and it's not
a house, it's a home. What advice do you have
for people who are creating their own homes but they
don't know how? You and I are fairly well versed
in how to do this, but what about people who aren't.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
I think people get a little bit overwhelmed, especially because
there's so much information flooded through social media of the
expectation of what you're supposed to look like. Yeah, I
actually helped renovate my sister's kitchen and a butler's pantry,
which was an addition during COVID. And she said to me,
they call me Jamie and my family. She said, Jamie,
is pantry porn really a thing? And I was like, well, yes,
(29:49):
And she'd watched Greyneth Paltrow's pantry porn right where everything
was labeled and it was perfect. I said, do you
think she actually does that? Like she goes, I don't
have time to take all my shopping out and put
it into a container and make organized, so it's got
to work for the people in the house. I almost
sort of segue back to where we started with the artwork.
So this says a lot. And I think if people,
(30:09):
for clients, if they go somewhere or they fall in
love with something that tells their story, no matter what
that is. Maybe it's not the footy jersey, but it's
something a nice piece of artwork, then there's so much
that can be drawn from that by a design professional
to help put it together for clients who are doing
the DIY journey. And I was doing this as a
kid before I had any training and was into being
(30:31):
qualified as a designer and working in that space. You
learn and you put together things. And I think people
if they're inspired by something, so an artwork can help
maybe direct the story and get colors. Otherwise, I think
I've had a client. I think of this as you
asked me the question. I remember, I'm trying to think
of her name. She turned up unlike any other client.
They were downsizing, so the family had grown. They've sold
(30:53):
this large home and moved to a big home but smaller.
She brought cushion covers. She brought this set up of
knives and forks that had really interesting turn detail on
the hand ors, like she brought all these things that
I had never had any client bring so much before.
Her Pinterest pages were done by a professional, so she
really had all this time. They were retired, and it
(31:13):
told so much of her story through these objects that
said who she was and what her house was about.
That is key, and so sometimes for people who are
a bit lost, maybe go to your wardrobe and think
some pull out some outfits that you like that for
you know, I think women, it's the skirt or the
scarf or that I don't know, that crazy camilla that
(31:34):
you wear. Or for the guys, you know, it can
be clothing as well, or it's an object. It might
be I don't know, the race cars or fishing rods
or whatever it is, right, it doesn't matter. It's inspiration
for what the home means to you. Then you need
to have the overlay, remembering that you are dealing with home,
so there's a structural real estate overlay. What does the
(31:54):
house look like, what is the architectural style of the house,
where is it located? So if you happen to love
Coastal Hampton's, Hampton's is sometimes a swear word for me,
but I like Coastal Hampton's, right, I don't like too
Hampton's because it can be a bit too structured for me.
And I do create those homes for clients. But if
the floor plan of the house or the architecture has
(32:16):
skinion roofs and it is much more contemporary, how do
I get that well? Understanding the look you like, maybe
we can do some a modern version of Wayne Scotting
instead of paneling, maybe with elements of it correct the
essence of it instead of the too literal. You're not
creating a theme park. You're creating something that has the
(32:37):
feel of that space or the style that you're putting together.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
True. I think confidence comes into it as well. And
I like to say everybody gets dressed in the morning.
I hope every company gets dressed in the morning.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
If you look good, maybe you don't need.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
To exactly what you were saying. If you can put
together an outfit, you can decorate a home. Yep, it's
the same concept, but it's on a completely different scale.
And I'm saying this not in a sense that you
will create a professional, standard home, but you'll create a
home that means something to you and it makes you
(33:11):
feel good. Because you wear things that make you feel good.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
You might surprise yourself if okay, you're going to start cooking.
You know you've got a child who wants to start cooking.
They watch Master Chef and they get all excited. You're
not going to throw them into doing a four course
or twelve course degas station media right crazy? So the
same thing for a house. Why not start with a
bedroom or guest bedroom? Your bedroom? See how you go
(33:35):
a hallway. The hallway is really interesting because it's a
transition space where is artwork. Think about how the light
shines through that room onto that one walk. Can I
bounce light off there. Can I create a focal point
at the end of that long hallway? Is it a mirror?
Is it an artwork? Is it a darker color? Is
it something to draw my eye? If you start with
(33:56):
one small room and you work, then I think that
you can create and overall. Look, but here's another weird
analogy for you. I'm a Star Wars freak, right and
love it to like crazy. I watched all the time.
I know, so in my generation, for people who aren't
Star Wars freaks, they know star Wars the term for
(34:17):
my gen what is now? Episode four was episode one,
So the first episode was started. George Lucas wrote this story,
but he had the whole story written and he knew
he didn't have the technology to make the first three,
so he started with the middle story first, and then
he made the next three, and then he went back.
And the reason I'm using this parallel is create a
(34:37):
story that works for your home and start where you
feel comfortable, get your confidence, get the colors right, maybe
pulled together the inspiration, but do start with a story
that's overarking on what your home's going to look like.
Is it coastal getaway? Is it a modern farmhouse. It
is it a mountain escape, is it something that's got
(34:58):
an overview of a star and that keeps you on
track and then when you build your confidence, I would
usually leave the living, dining, kitchen area till last, especially kitchen,
because it's an expensive room as far as joinery. If
it's cosmetic and styling, that's different. If it's an esthetic,
but if it's to put it together, I think it's
(35:19):
a bigger thing. Once you've got a story that you're telling,
then it allows you to stay on track.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
What are some genres of houses that are not popular
at the moment that you think these are a bargain.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
I think the seventies houses are fantastic. I think the
seventies were such a great design decay. I think sixties
homes are pretty strong as well. Some of the eighties stuff.
We started to build things quicker, and they started to
be aware. They builders and mass production housing started to
be aware of how to create properties that were based
on the sizes of materials. So we can get so
(35:54):
many sheets of plasterboard in this product, we can get
so many lengths of timber, and houses started to be
designed in the eighties based on materials to maximize the
amount of material and made them more cost effective to build,
not necessarily cheaper to buy. Skirting and architravees became shorter
and therefore more cost effective. Well, it was budget, it's contemporary, ride,
(36:14):
it's time. You know, all the mass housing that happened
after World War Two, without getting too intense, A lot
of it was fibro and cheap. And then because we
needed mass housing cheap, so its timber frame, plad it
with fibro and get people into houses, and we cleared
bushland and built suburbs. Then we started to become a
bit more affluent into sixties and seventies, and the triple
(36:35):
fronted red brick house appeared in cream brick, and there
was more design, and we all wanted to have the
Brady Bunch House, but we didn't quite have all of
the technology in the budget for that yet. And then
we came into eighties where we had the big boom
and bust of the eighties, you know, shoulder pads and
heaps of hair and money, money, money, and then it collapsed.
We had a recession, and so then nineties and into
two thousand, so it's really interesting to see the cycle
(36:57):
of style if you buy in a good location, then
you are as far as a good suburb where there's amenity.
It doesn't have to be by the beach or by
the ocean or you know.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
What makes a good location. How do you find out?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
You would look at the I generally look at house pricing,
how it's going in that area. I think that everyone
can do that these days. You can go on one
of the websites you realize that home or just listed
or something, and see how houses are selling. You need
to find an area that works for you, for your location,
for your schools and your work. That's the reality. If
you're working from home, you can travel further now and
(37:32):
be more remote. So that opens up the regional centers
and you've seen that particularly in Victoria with Bendigo and
Ballerat where those town centers have grown because people can
be there and still go to the main city of
Melbourne if they need to, but not every day. So
I'd look at what works for you as a person.
Then you need to look at what else is happening
in that street. Ideally, I don't want to build my
(37:52):
beautiful new home or renovator an existing house next to
a quarry next to a garbage tip next to car park,
so you need to know how that relates to the
rest of the suburb. Then you need to look at
the structure itself. In our case, the house had good bones,
so I could renovate it cosmetically. And I knew because
(38:13):
we were raised off the ground with bearers and joists.
It's called get under the ground and move plumbing to
relocate those things. If I was on a concrete slab
on the ground, I can still do it, but it's harder.
I've got to cut the slab and put pipes to
remove plumbing.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
That's a real budget thing.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, it makes it an easier process. Otherwise the step
becomes how much am I going to transform this place
before it becomes too cost prohibitive that it makes sense
to knock it down and start again. And then, of
course I work with builders who do exactly that and
build new homes. You know, if we both go on holidays.
You're younger than me, so you don't need anything done,
(38:50):
but I might. You know, I don't know. I say
to people now keeping sev Yes, the good lighting's working
for you. Oh you know. I have a good friend
Dara down in Melbourne, and we you know through COVID,
we spoke to each other. She has a tile store,
and we say, anyway, keep your chins up because we
both joke about getting older. We have model chins. If
I get so much work done on this body of mine,
(39:12):
how much am I going to go before it's like
I'm looking I'm not looking like what I'm thinking I'm
looking like. So if I renovate a house, how far
can I go before I'm not realizing the dream and
it's not what I'm trying to replicate for me. The
floor plan, the number of rooms, adding another bathroom to bathrooms.
I think this is fundamental for any house, Like we're
living in one bathroom. One bathroom house is really tricky
(39:34):
these days.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Good idea to look for a house that has one
bathroom but the potential to have two.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, and that could be a laundry. Maybe in lots
of homes people want to butt what's important freestanding bath
butler's pantry everybody loves, but a butler's pantry might actually
be a laundry because the laundry is usually located near
the kitchen. So why can't I have a butler's pantry
that has a washing machine in it, I've got a
sink I put storage, and now I've got a less pantry,
(40:00):
which has added huge value to my house. Or in
my case, like I did with our guesthouse, why can't
the laundry be taken out and put into two doors
in what is presently a linen cupboard in a hallways
it deep enough. It has to be deep enough to
closed doors behind a washing machine, So I need about,
you know, seven hundred or seven fifty deep. But if
I could do that, do I need a whole room
for a laundry. Maybe I could just relocate that and
(40:23):
I've gained this extra room without knocking down any walls
or extending the building. It's always cheaper to go out
than up in real estate. But if you can, it's
about reconfiguring the floor plan to make it more functional
for you. And there's another term we use a lot
called multifunction rooms. And for me, the biggest one might
be a study that has a fold out bed like
(40:45):
so far, so it's a work from a home space
that is also a guest accommodation instead of needing that
extra room. And if you're renovating these days, for a
two story house especially, I would always try to put
a shower in a powder room so that it can
become a guest bathroom if there's another room next to it,
rather than a power room where there's no shower. So
when mum and Dad come to stay all that friend
(41:06):
or family from overseas, they have to go upstairs to
a bathroom. That's an investment, all.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Right, James, I have the big question, the big question,
big question, what makes a home beautiful?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
In your opinion, I think a beautiful home is one
that tells a story, and I think it should be
visually interesting. I think that it should be a home
that you can walk through doors and be inspired. You
don't have one focal point to look at. You maybe
have multiple so that you find yourself skimming through the space,
(41:39):
and that's achieved by interesting shapes or textures or contrast
or color, and that should work through all of the rooms.
But that story should be unique to the people who
live there, and it should relate also to the architectural
type of the house. So I think people engage with
that when you walk in there. It's that feeling inside
(42:02):
that you go this is interesting even for me. I
talk a lot as people might know by now. When
you're walking in you you're almost silent because you look
instead of go, oh, there's a fireplace, like oh, fireplace artwork,
I'll look at that color and the cushion. Really, you
almost find yourself skimming around through the space. That's powerful.
(42:23):
If you can get people emotionally engaged in a space,
it adds huge value. If you're selling, and I used
to do that as a job, silent to sell. If
it's your forever home, it's utterly important for you to
feel like you just love to I just love my house.
And if you can say that, wonderful it is. And
it doesn't matter where that house is or how much
(42:43):
it's worth. It's valuable to you and it's your home.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
That's what makes it home.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Beautiful, home, beautiful.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
James, you have shared so many incredible pearls of wisdom
with us and we're going to put them all in
the show notes so that everybody can help themselves to
all your advice.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Thank you, pleasure back look, I love being here and
I love the podcast. Congratulations to you and the team.
I know it's a big thing and it's wonderful to
have conversations about housing. We could do it all day
and hopefully people benefit. Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
This episode is brought to you by Luxeflex, transforming homes
with beautiful, functional window coverings designed to transform your light
and lifestyle. Thank you to OZ designed for our beautiful set.
Come and visit the experienced team in store and see
the collection for yourself.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
This is an Our Media podcast
This is an our media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What is Our Right? It's a telling a story of
a time, or a place or something that means something
to the person.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I think homemaking is making a huge comeback in popularity.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Create a story that works for your home. Do start
with a story that's overarking on what your home's going
to look like. Through social media and magazines, there's almost
too much to see. Which avenue should I go down?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
This episode is brought to you by Luxeflex, transforming homes
with beautiful, functional window coverings designed to change your life
and lifestyle. Today's set has been thoughtfully curated by OZ Design,
sharing life with you since nineteen seventy nine. Hello and
welcome to the edit. We are a brand new podcast.
(01:02):
I'm l Lovelock, the editor of Home Beautiful. Today, we
have a real treat. We've got James Treble. He is
an interior design and real estate expert. You'll probably know
him from shows like The Living Room and his own
TV series, James Bought a Guest House and James Bought
a House. I'm really excited about this episode because I
(01:23):
think it's going to give you some confidence in how
to create your own home and James. He has all
the tips and tools that he's about to share. If
you are in the market to buy, you are really
going to love this episode because James has the best
tips on what era is to buy and what to
look for. James Treble, you are back.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm back. It feels fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Thanks for joining us again.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, thank you. It's exciting and I'm so glad that
the podcast is doing incredibly well. I've got a lot
of colleagues telling me they've been watching and listening, so
well done.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Thank you. Well, we're changing things up today. We're going
to get straight into the mystery draw.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The mystery draw or we need like a drum roll,
I know.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So you remember from last time this is where you
bring something from your mystery draw in your home, something
we don't know about you.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yep, this one's a little bit different. It's actually not
a mystery draw. It's a mystery war because I've taken
this off the wall of my house. Okay, I've wrapped
it up in a beach tower.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Fantastic, what's in your mystery down.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Mystery beach Town. So I think today we want to
talk about how to create a home and what a
home means, and I think it's about personalizing things. So
I have brought an artwork.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Oh, I recognize this scene.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You might recognize this scene any Sydney Siders. I think
people can recognize it from around the world. So this
is a painting from my partner. So he is a
painter and a sculptor. I'm very spoiled to have such
a talented artist as a partner. We argue about color
and contrast and texture because the world of an artist
(03:03):
and the world of an interior designer overlaps. But he
thinks green is a primary so it's really strange. And
what's interesting about this piece is that he's normally a
figurative painter, so it's under won the Sulman, which is
part of the Archibald and a lot of people don't know.
And unless we fake his death or chop off his
ear like Van Goorch, you know, the love of an
artist is quite tricky. But he's doing a lot of
(03:24):
painting again, he's going to be having a show this
year and he does sculpture. So the reason I brought
it in is that it's just so quintessential. This is
on the walls of our house, on the central coast.
So it's not in Sydney, it's an our north, but
it tells the story. I love the color, and I
think when people are creating their own home. Of course,
when you've got to watch budget, you might get some
generic art from a store, right, but you know, go
(03:45):
to little galleries and ask to go through their draws
and their backlogs, and you find things that are not
overly expensive to get something that tells your story. When
you go on holidays, go to the markets, go to
you know, the second hand store as the salvos and
the bargain shops and look through and sometimes, you know,
sometimes we buy old pains just for the frame because
(04:06):
something really beautiful.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
But I do the exact same thing. I absolutely love
rummaging through a brick a brackshop.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Now I do, I'm shocking, and I stop and curb,
you know, go really slowly past coups or pick up
too curb crawl. That's not right, do you know when
I don't know, it sounds seedy, but I don't mind.
Creatives can be seedy. And do you know what when
people are creating color schemes, sometimes people get overwhelmed, But
can you see all of the color inspiration in there,
Like I could pull out these colors and put them
in a cushion or put a throw, or pull something
(04:33):
out into a lounge chair or an notoman or an armchair,
a feature. Like there's so much inspiration to create a
scheme off the artwork.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Do you see artwork and then just visualize a room.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I have done. I think it's great to do with
children's rooms too, to get them involved. I think young
girls are really awake. For boys aren't so into it,
but when they're little, they seem to be. And then
they get really cool and I don't want to talk
about that stuff, you know, but when they're quite young,
let's get an artwork and it could be their favorite picture, whatever,
it could be Bob the builder, and just let's pull
colors out of here. And that's the throw and that's
the cushion on your bed. And so that's my little
(05:07):
start off point. And look, I love it. And we're
very spoiled to have a week wake up in the hallway.
And do you know another thing with artwork, el is
we move our artwork around our house.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I do too. I store some under the bed because
you know, I don't always have all the walls, Yes,
to accommodate the art, but I don't want to pass
up a great artwork.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
And when people come over, it's weird to see that
they interact differently. And I think you feel differently when
you go down the hallway and you go hang on
that artwork's not normally there, it's in another room. It
changes completely how the house feels to you. So I
think it doesn't have to be a spring clean. It's
great for the new year to be positive, you know,
and transform your home. So take me on a.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Tour of your home. So this is where we home beautiful.
You know that we are known for our home tours,
so this is a bit of a tour for the sensors.
Talk us through. I want to know when you open
your front door, what is the first thing you see?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Well, the first thing I see is a double set
of yellow front doors, and that's my front doors are
bright yellow, and I open those and walk through, I
look through glass. We've got an entry foyer into our
deck area off the house, and on the left we
do have a really large artwork, another one of Sundra's. Actually,
so our house is not just an ode to him.
We have lots of art or work. Do you do us?
(06:19):
I can draw, I can draw in three D upside down.
I've made things, I've doubled. I've done some pottery.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I think, are you allowed to put it up in
the house.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
When Sundra On I first met twenty one years ago,
I had a print of Starr in Ights of Mango
and Sandra said, this to work, that's going no prints
in our house? Right? It was the hierarchy of its
not very of artwork. Yeah, don't worry, we all do that.
And do you know what, I don't see anything wrong
with that because I like that particular painting. And you know,
(06:49):
I went we went together to the opening of the
Vangof Museum in Amsterdam when it just opened. I think
art is really individualized. And do you know what, I'm
really open minded because I get clients. I understand for
the blokey blokes, their version of an artwork is assigned
footy jersey in the game's room, and I'm okay with
that because it still tells their story. I am.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
My husband is a mad golfer and he's this awful.
He's got some of his golf trophies his own that
he's won, and they're in these big frames and I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
You can't have it. But do you know what if
that goes into that room, that man cave room, right,
that Fred Flintstone room. I still think that what is art, right,
it's a telling a story of a time or a
place or something that means something to the person. So
for me, it's still their artwork. And I would look
in and go, Okay, it's a I don't know, a
Paramatta or Sharks or whatever footy team or soccer team,
(07:45):
and maybe okay, let's look at that and look at
the color of that, and can I put that in
the room somewhere else to make this room feel aesthetic
somehow instead of just like not matching it all and
looking really shocking. So I think it can still tell
us story because I work with lots of different clients, right,
and I wanted to tell their story and anyway back
to your story. So going through our house, Yeah, we
(08:06):
bought a really ugly red brick house and I transformed
it and we did an online show about it, and
we transformed this house. So it was an ugly red
brick house on the central coast of New South Wales,
it's now north of Sydney, and we moved up. I've
still got a family home in Sydney, so I travel between.
I've still got a lot of clients in Sydney, so
I travel all over the place. The real estate agent
I said, well, we're going to renovate this and he laughed.
(08:27):
I aays, yeah, right, and I said no, we are
and he go said, come on mate, you've got to
knock this down. It's shocking. I said, do you know
what I do for a living right, So it was
a three bedroom, one bathroom house that is now a
three bedroom, two bathroom house, but it is completely transformed.
The kitchen became a bedroom, a smallest bedroom became a bathroom,
the bathroom became a hallway.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I moved you don't have to stick to the same
floorplane and you moved everything.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, because we were on Bears and Joy, so it's
raised off the ground. It was. It was an actually
I thought it was the seventies house because that would
have set on title. It was actually an asbestos field
fifties house. So that was like a good money trip,
you know, there's like, let's spend twenty something thousand on
a report and then getting all the asbestos removed, which
you have to write. It was in all the eves
and it was in particular rooms, so that's all gone.
(09:10):
But the house was solid. It had solid bones. And
I started life as a real estate age and I
love houses, and so when I look at home, I
can look in and I look straight at the corners
of the windows, the corners of the doorways. Internally, if
there's any cracks in those openings those corners, that means
there's movement, and that means there's a structural issue which
will open up opportunity or negative opportunity for costs. In
(09:34):
this case, it was the perfect ugly duckling because it was.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Ugly but no cracks.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
But no cracks so cosmetically, I saw an opportunity to
elevate it. It had two point seven high ceilings, which
was really unusual. That's good. The front door was on
the side of the house and I needed to change that.
So the entry foyer is the only addition in the
floor plan to pull the doors to the front facade,
which also elongated my facade. And I added a wall
(09:59):
of breeze blocks, a whole wall of stone, random stone
like Brady Bunch stone like mid century to transform it
externally and internally as well.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
So we're in are we in a hall?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
We're in an entry for you, and then you just
step up. The stone wall continues from the outside inside
and then you step up to timber floor. So on
the floor of the entry for you, and the front
steps is to razzo tiles. It's a porcelain tile but
looks trazzo. I've got to say tarazzo because my partner's Italian,
so I've got to say terazzo originally from Venice, but
it's you know, it's everywhere in Italy and Australians love
(10:30):
it as well. And it's I like, what color is
your It's a little bit of a mishmash. It's a
it's an off white base with sort of a darker
fleck and a little almost a terra cotta fleck, a
black fleck and a little tiny bit of bluey gray.
But again it creates that jump off point for clean
white walls and something that's visually interesting.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
So you have clean white wolves.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, we do. And there's lots of artwork and I
have feature walls in my house. You know what's interesting
because you'd be in the world as I'm when you
speak in this so many people feature wars are out
their day. I love when people say this is in
and that's out, because I just go, I don't know
what you mean.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
No, exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Things merge things if it's if it's out and it's in.
It wasn't a trend, it was a fad. It was
really fast. So I understood point. I understand the placement
of things. I think that colors can change, you know,
and evolve. I've been in a room where I was
talking about Burgundy. Burgundy's back, you know, and I say, Burgundy,
it is one of my least favorite colors. And this
girl in the front row she's got going like this
(11:29):
to me, pointing, and I went, oh, shits, I'm wearing
a burgundy jumper. And I said, well, there you go.
You got to merge right with the colors. It was
really interesting process well, because you know, when you do
your own house and you you want to tell your story,
and when you're a client and the designer, it's interesting
and you've got a partner and you're watching budget and
all of those things, and of.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Course I have to do that really involved in the decisions.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
When he's allowed to be look his patron's sculptor. He's
got particular taste. I don't want this. He won't say
it to my face, but at a dinner party, I
won't mimick him because you know he's is Rome, He's
born in Italy and he's been here half his life.
But he says So we argue about things, James goes
off and does it anyway. I don't like it. He
does it and it looks good. What am I supposed
to say? And I went, is that sorry? You know,
(12:13):
it's like Phonsie. He can't say sorry. So inside the house,
because I opened up and removed some walls and closed
some wars, I had a floor issue, so I went
over the top of the timber floors with new hybrid floors,
which are solid fixer, they're glued down, and that let
me have a whole new floor and finish internally, which
sort of blurred the lines between old and new.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
And I find it's calming on the ice.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It's really comfortable. Timber can be a lot of things
that a lot of people been in Australia. Australians love timber.
We're surrounded by it. Were really well connected with the
outside because our country is so huge. You know, we're
only twenty seven million people in you know, this massive country,
and we live like a donut around the outside. There's
not many in the middle, so we have that connection
between trees and the outdoors. I've got an American oak
(12:59):
on the floor, quite a blonde, but it's lots of
neurling and knots and texture. It's rich and it's almost
like the story of this table. You like this beautiful character.
Then you step into the lounge dining and I built
a wall used to look through that doorway straight at
the kitchen. It was an L shaped lounge dining. I
(13:19):
put a wall there to create a bedroom, and the
kitchens moved into what was an extension at the back,
like another dining room. The room is a good size,
but I've got high ceilings, but I put three skylights
in and they open with the blind and there's this
immediate sense of space and light flooding in. So people
who have heard me speak or come to home shows
(13:41):
or watch shows that I'm on, I do say this
a lot. Natural light and airflow are the two things
that I look at in every client's home, whether it's
a renovation or a rebuild our initial appointment. If I
don't have that in a house, it's hard to replicate.
So I can give you marble and gold and gorgeous
finishes and do clats and it's all amazing, and it
(14:02):
feels like you just want to leave because there's no
connection between inside and out or airflow.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
And I think it's so important, especially here in Australia. Yeah,
the connection between indoors and out with your place because
you're you're a keen gardener.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, I do like gardening. I grew up in a
house where in Cartfofo, where Dad would rip up our
lawns every season and grow tomatoes and we'd sell them
out the front of our house. I know that was
our pocket money. I know, Oh I do.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, you are you picking about which type?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
No, We've got a few different types of tomatoes. But
in my house, I've got two get ready, I've got
two lime trees. I've got two apple trees that are
both grafted. So I've got Johnny Jonathan Apples and Grannysmith
on one tree, Grannismith and Golden Delicious on another. I've
got mandarin, two lemon trees, an apricot tree. I know
how long. It's not a big block. It's it took
(14:54):
a good eighteen months to get little apples. We've just got.
I've got a passion fruit vine. I was watching my
passion fruits and guess what they when? I' night because
we have a possum.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Oh, we have a possum. And I only possums. I
would never hurt the possum, but I'd rather they visited
another I.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Know I would too, but it's that battle. It's like
feeding our native ducks. And then I go somewhere and
someone gives me a duck pancake, and oh god, it's
so good. Oh, I just feel bad. Have I eaten
one of the family, But I don't tell them. So
I've got lots of food and VENs. And do you
know why I work in the space with clients. I
do work a lot. I work ridiculous hours, and I
work pretty much six days a week. I travel a
(15:30):
lot for work, and you know I work with the
TV shows never stop. But when I'm at home, I
can switch off and I get outside. We collect all
our coffee pods. I scrape all the coffee out and
mix it through and put it in the garden. I know,
we've got a worm farm. I get the worm juice
and put it on the pot plants, And so.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
How do you get from inside the house to outside?
What's the connection there?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So the house itself, it was a big issue when
we had that. When we bought it, there was the
front door on the side elevation, there was two big windows.
We were three and a half meters off the side fence,
so literally the plasters drove straight up the side of
the house to bring things into the house. So I
could build the entry foyer onto that and behind that
a deck, and I took out the two big windows
(16:13):
and turned them into a big fixed panel and sliding
glass door, so we have a connection to outside. The
courtyard which was ugly as had a hills hoist that
was damaged and broken the laundry door that now I
have PAVs with dichondra growing between it, which is a weed.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Oh but quite nice.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
It's so easy to maintain and I re kept. I
kept the hills hoist clothesline which is older than me,
and restrung it. I restrung up myself and I bought
the clamping tool and put the new standard still wire,
and I painted it the same yellow as the front door,
so we have a yellow hills Hoist. I know. I
told my daughter with some of her friends. She's now twenty,
(16:52):
but this house, it's two years old now. I told
her that I was going to create a fans only
page four hills Hoists and go and film them and
all her girlfriends lave and because I loved, you know,
the two gay dads. And Francesca just looks at me
and goes, you are so disturbing, but it's I love
a hills Hoist, right. And we kept the kitchen sink
and I put that into that courtyard and are built
(17:12):
and outside sink. So I've got two outside sinks, one
on the ol fresco near the barbecue and our pizza oven,
and one is in the courtyard. And that's where we do.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
You have different uses that yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
One's the potting one. So we pot plants there and
we propagate and we go past people's houses. We like something,
we snap a bit off like my dad used to do,
and we give it to other people too. And you know,
I'm always potting and planning and so sound it all.
And I know we sound like these two little old
retired women, don't we But there's something really grounding about
being in soil and being outside. And it's such a
(17:44):
step away from my client's work, which is all clean
and computers and plans and discussions on joinery and expectations
and deadlines with builders and developers and all those things.
I can switch off be outside here. The cockatoos go
over the top, plant and dig, and you know, we
have a banana tree. We got our first lot of
bananas and they were tiny, and they were so fresh,
(18:05):
and we had so many at once that we had
to freeze them. So they're turning into banana bread.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Fine, yeah, coming up, James and I get into a
bit of a debate about what is a homemaker these
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(18:33):
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(18:54):
store or online with us Design Paula. Welcome to the
Editor's so lovely to have you with us and to
talk all about trends.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Thanks El, It's fabulous to be here.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Trends can feel quite overwhelming, definitely absolutely. Whether should I
buy into a trend? Should I let it pass me by?
Is it a good idea a bad idea? How do
you guide customers when they come into store saying I've
seen this and I really love it, but I don't
know what to do with it. Yeah, look, I think.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
That's a great place to start to get in store
and to talk to the teams and to just get
feedback from them as well. Often you don't want to
ask family or friends because it's sort of a personal moment, right,
and everyone has an opinion, and I think it's sometimes
nice to sort of supprise everyone with where you take things.
(19:53):
So I think it's good to go and talk to,
you know, all of the sales teams across all of
the retailers and start to understand that they can give
you solid advice because they've been talking to customers day in,
day out and really putting together the elements that are
drawing attraction to people. So you know, from our perspective
(20:14):
in our furniture stores, we will piece the trends together
in subtle ways. So it might be that it's a
color blend, so we might use our torp or oatmeally sofa,
and then we'll bring in that little hint of mustard
or that little hint of rust. It could be that
we want to be a little bit bolder in one
area with color mixing, and it might be that we
(20:35):
take the rusts and burgundies and offset those against a
deeper charcoal, So it could be color play that we
work to create. One of the trends that we're noticing
and seeing is a shift or movement to having a
coffee table be a dominant piece in the home, So
that sort of layering of two coffee tables together rather
(20:56):
than just traditionally having a rectangle coffee table. In this case,
it could be a beautiful organic shape that's mirrored or
sits against the side table. So you're then starting to
layer your pieces and starting to sort of create a
bit more interest at sort of a lower level within
the room.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
A real feature piece.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Material textures a big sort of trend, so utilizing natural
stones and blending those with beautiful oak vineeres or walnut veniers,
and sort of piecing materials together so that it doesn't
necessarily have to be all of the one finish.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
And I love those two points because often people think
trends and I think color. Yes, it's not just color.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
No, it's not just color. It could be it could
be the material you use. It could be taking a
beautiful solid table like this one here and utilizing the
fact that you're taking it into a deeper, darker tone.
And so then you combine that with a really lovely
rataarn chair, or you team that up with things that
just start to work within the same color tones, but
(22:04):
they actually add interest because you're not looking at the
same piece. In totality, all of this it makes me
think about I'll say it's a dirty word.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Oh I don't think it is. But homemaker, homemaker, homemaker
makes people feel uncomfortable say homemaker. But I think homemaking
is making a huge comeback in popularity. I see it
all over social media. I see content creators. You know,
yourself included. But it's really whether it is about being
(22:39):
in the garden, or whether it's about making a sour dough,
or whether it's about sewing your own curtains. There's something
happening in the world at the moment around homemaking. What
does homemaker mean to you?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Good?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Bad or otherwise?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, it's funny, isn't it. It's a sort of a
turn that we might picture with this really sort of
fifties image of the apron and baking and the husband
comes home and she's got his slippers and there she's
sits out and howur's work, honey, And of course that
doesn't exist.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
How do we get rid of the connotation?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Do you know? I think that it's the experience is
shared now. I think that a big turning point was COVID.
We were stuck inside vertical people who live vertically in
apartments were really disconnected between inside and out. That term
mental health is said all the time. Now. I never
heard that word when we grew up. If I said
to Mama or I never said I've got bad mental health, Mum,
(23:31):
and would say like, get off the lounge and bloody,
get outside, and we grew up with veggies and everything.
I go pick the carrots for dinner from our yard, right,
get out on your pushbar. I don't want to see
you come home when it's dark or when skippy finishes.
I'm I'm showing my age and go home, right. Or
the woman or the barnet man or whatever we used
to watch when we come home from school. So now
(23:53):
men and women I think are needing a sort of
that opposite that. It's it's a term of interior design
to the busy life, the fast paced social media. Everything's
in our palm of our hands. We're watching everyone living
these amazing lives or expectation. It's really hard on our
kids generation. Like my kids twenty and twenty one, there's
(24:15):
a ten months between them. The expectation to be perfect
is thrown at them. We never had that growing up.
We had a magazine and we had people on TV.
It wasn't in our face every day, every minute of
the day. So now I think women are seeing pleasure
in this. I think people are realizing the power of
being able to entertain at home and not have to
go out, and that's beautiful to live at home, make
(24:38):
something and share that with your friends or resemble.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
You don't have to be a good cook. No, you
can just put some it's on a platter, and.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I'm great with a platter. I'm great at styling, great
at staging the table. And do you know how important
it is now? My dad was at work all my life,
and I am pretty guilty of missing some of the
things with the kids growing up too because I was
working some that or could go. There was two mums
and two dads, and we like the modern family, like
the TV show. But I'm the only funny one, and no,
that's not true. My son's funny to Actually, we're all
(25:08):
pretty funny now when you go to a park an
how or outside, especially on weekends, so even weekdays, because
we all live weird times now, there's no nine to
five month at a Friday anymore. That doesn't exist. How
many times do you see dads with their kids a
lot of the time, And when I grew up, I don't.
It was never like that, you know, because dad was working.
So that's a really powerful thing. And I think the
(25:28):
homemaker is not the wife with the apron anymore. It's
mum and dad or the kids and learning to be
involved and enjoying the home, enjoying the home and having
a go at making things with our kids, you know,
when they're special times, Christmas or birthdays or something. Sundra
is actually the one who says this to the kids.
Don't spend money on us. We've got we don't need anything.
(25:51):
Make something. And our daughter, with the help of the mums,
you know, made jam and we were like so excited.
And then Sundro straight away goes how much sugar's in
this this looking at him like you told her, You
told her to make something. So that was really powerful experience,
and I think that that's wonderful. And I've got cards
that the kids have handmade and written things, And.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Did you ever display their special artworks?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
When they were little? We used to stick them on
the fridge. I'm I'm the I hate things on a
fridge I have it's my magnets. And I don't need
to know where you've been on holiday. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
There's nothing on our fridge, fridge in so I could
avoid the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
No magnets on the door panels, so it's really I
just go no, I don't do that. But I'm otherwise
pretty easy going I've still got lots of their cards
and things that they've drawn, and something handmade. You can't
keep everything, it's too much, but something special. So the homemaker,
I think is even The word home is when I
have when I meet with clients and I get a
(26:50):
set of plans, or it's a developer, or I'm doing
display homes for one of my builders, and I get
these plans. What I'm actually looking at is a house.
But people don't live, you know, don't go, oh, I'm
just going to duck house and grab a pair of shoes.
We duck home. And the word home is different. It's
got an emotional attachment. It's got a connection between space,
(27:11):
you know. I remember Mum looking at this floor plan
that I had and I said, Mum, do you realize
the size of this house? Rights It's insane. You need
nearly a golf cart to go through. It was huge.
And she said, how come people are spending their money
with you to pick everything for their house, Because when
your father and I built, we had to do it
all ourselves, you know, I said, Mom, because when you built,
you had antique white basin or white basin, you had
(27:34):
three tap where they were all chrome like there was
no choices and there wasn't options. You know, Dad built
half of our house because he was a sparky and
he worked on his friend's houses and they came in
turn and built. That's how our house was built. There's
so many choices now. The cost of real estate is biggest,
our biggest investment we own, and I go, I take
(27:55):
my car to a mechanic to get it fixed because
I'm not an expert at that. But I am good
at housing and I'm not arrogant about it. I'm confident
because I've been doing this a long time. I get
builders and developers paying me, and clients of course to
help them with their house journey because it's such a
big investment. We're dealing with expensive things, and the decision
(28:15):
I'm making on this works that the works or that
doesn't work, to put it together as a scheme has
big impacts. But I'm not just creating a home that
I like. You know, many times they say what's your style, James, Well,
my style is to interpret yours because I like mid
century Modern with a bit of Italianate and a little
bit of palm springs and like, you know, like it's
a mish mash right, and so I've got to understand
(28:38):
for it to be your home, and that's the interpretation.
And I think that's where people get it wrong and
why they do need some help in creating their own homes.
They're almost overexposed now through social media and magazines. There's
almost too much to see which avenue should I go down?
It can be too So it's funny that your podcast
is the edit because it needs sometimes that sperience set
(29:00):
of eyes to overlook to help edit to go what
do we like here, Let's edit it into one direction
that's going to work for you, not what your best
friend has or what you're told you should have.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
So, James, we've been talking about homes and it's not
a house, it's a home. What advice do you have
for people who are creating their own homes but they
don't know how? You and I are fairly well versed
in how to do this, but what about people who aren't.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
I think people get a little bit overwhelmed, especially because
there's so much information flooded through social media of the
expectation of what you're supposed to look like. Yeah, I
actually helped renovate my sister's kitchen and a butler's pantry,
which was an addition during COVID. And she said to me,
they call me Jamie and my family. She said, Jamie,
is pantry porn really a thing? And I was like, well, yes,
(29:49):
And she'd watched Greyneth Paltrow's pantry porn right where everything
was labeled and it was perfect. I said, do you
think she actually does that? Like she goes, I don't
have time to take all my shopping out and put
it into a container and make organized, so it's got
to work for the people in the house. I almost
sort of segue back to where we started with the artwork.
So this says a lot. And I think if people,
(30:09):
for clients, if they go somewhere or they fall in
love with something that tells their story, no matter what
that is. Maybe it's not the footy jersey, but it's
something a nice piece of artwork, then there's so much
that can be drawn from that by a design professional
to help put it together for clients who are doing
the DIY journey. And I was doing this as a
kid before I had any training and was into being
(30:31):
qualified as a designer and working in that space. You
learn and you put together things. And I think people
if they're inspired by something, so an artwork can help
maybe direct the story and get colors. Otherwise, I think
I've had a client. I think of this as you
asked me the question. I remember, I'm trying to think
of her name. She turned up unlike any other client.
They were downsizing, so the family had grown. They've sold
(30:53):
this large home and moved to a big home but smaller.
She brought cushion covers. She brought this set up of
knives and forks that had really interesting turn detail on
the hand ors, like she brought all these things that
I had never had any client bring so much before.
Her Pinterest pages were done by a professional, so she
really had all this time. They were retired, and it
(31:13):
told so much of her story through these objects that
said who she was and what her house was about.
That is key, and so sometimes for people who are
a bit lost, maybe go to your wardrobe and think
some pull out some outfits that you like that for
you know, I think women, it's the skirt or the
scarf or that I don't know, that crazy camilla that
(31:34):
you wear. Or for the guys, you know, it can
be clothing as well, or it's an object. It might
be I don't know, the race cars or fishing rods
or whatever it is, right, it doesn't matter. It's inspiration
for what the home means to you. Then you need
to have the overlay, remembering that you are dealing with home,
so there's a structural real estate overlay. What does the
(31:54):
house look like, what is the architectural style of the house,
where is it located? So if you happen to love
Coastal Hampton's, Hampton's is sometimes a swear word for me,
but I like Coastal Hampton's, right, I don't like too
Hampton's because it can be a bit too structured for me.
And I do create those homes for clients. But if
the floor plan of the house or the architecture has
(32:16):
skinion roofs and it is much more contemporary, how do
I get that well? Understanding the look you like, maybe
we can do some a modern version of Wayne Scotting
instead of paneling, maybe with elements of it correct the
essence of it instead of the too literal. You're not
creating a theme park. You're creating something that has the
(32:37):
feel of that space or the style that you're putting together.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
True. I think confidence comes into it as well. And
I like to say everybody gets dressed in the morning.
I hope every company gets dressed in the morning.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
If you look good, maybe you don't need.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
To exactly what you were saying. If you can put
together an outfit, you can decorate a home. Yep, it's
the same concept, but it's on a completely different scale.
And I'm saying this not in a sense that you
will create a professional, standard home, but you'll create a
home that means something to you and it makes you
(33:11):
feel good. Because you wear things that make you feel good.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
You might surprise yourself if okay, you're going to start cooking.
You know you've got a child who wants to start cooking.
They watch Master Chef and they get all excited. You're
not going to throw them into doing a four course
or twelve course degas station media right crazy? So the
same thing for a house. Why not start with a
bedroom or guest bedroom? Your bedroom? See how you go
(33:35):
a hallway. The hallway is really interesting because it's a
transition space where is artwork. Think about how the light
shines through that room onto that one walk. Can I
bounce light off there. Can I create a focal point
at the end of that long hallway? Is it a mirror?
Is it an artwork? Is it a darker color? Is
it something to draw my eye? If you start with
(33:56):
one small room and you work, then I think that
you can create and overall. Look, but here's another weird
analogy for you. I'm a Star Wars freak, right and
love it to like crazy. I watched all the time.
I know, so in my generation, for people who aren't
Star Wars freaks, they know star Wars the term for
(34:17):
my gen what is now? Episode four was episode one,
So the first episode was started. George Lucas wrote this story,
but he had the whole story written and he knew
he didn't have the technology to make the first three,
so he started with the middle story first, and then
he made the next three, and then he went back.
And the reason I'm using this parallel is create a
(34:37):
story that works for your home and start where you
feel comfortable, get your confidence, get the colors right, maybe
pulled together the inspiration, but do start with a story
that's overarking on what your home's going to look like.
Is it coastal getaway? Is it a modern farmhouse. It
is it a mountain escape, is it something that's got
(34:58):
an overview of a star and that keeps you on
track and then when you build your confidence, I would
usually leave the living, dining, kitchen area till last, especially kitchen,
because it's an expensive room as far as joinery. If
it's cosmetic and styling, that's different. If it's an esthetic,
but if it's to put it together, I think it's
(35:19):
a bigger thing. Once you've got a story that you're telling,
then it allows you to stay on track.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
What are some genres of houses that are not popular
at the moment that you think these are a bargain.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
I think the seventies houses are fantastic. I think the
seventies were such a great design decay. I think sixties
homes are pretty strong as well. Some of the eighties stuff.
We started to build things quicker, and they started to
be aware. They builders and mass production housing started to
be aware of how to create properties that were based
on the sizes of materials. So we can get so
(35:54):
many sheets of plasterboard in this product, we can get
so many lengths of timber, and houses started to be
designed in the eighties based on materials to maximize the
amount of material and made them more cost effective to build,
not necessarily cheaper to buy. Skirting and architravees became shorter
and therefore more cost effective. Well, it was budget, it's contemporary, ride,
(36:14):
it's time. You know, all the mass housing that happened
after World War Two, without getting too intense, A lot
of it was fibro and cheap. And then because we
needed mass housing cheap, so its timber frame, plad it
with fibro and get people into houses, and we cleared
bushland and built suburbs. Then we started to become a
bit more affluent into sixties and seventies, and the triple
(36:35):
fronted red brick house appeared in cream brick, and there
was more design, and we all wanted to have the
Brady Bunch House, but we didn't quite have all of
the technology in the budget for that yet. And then
we came into eighties where we had the big boom
and bust of the eighties, you know, shoulder pads and
heaps of hair and money, money, money, and then it collapsed.
We had a recession, and so then nineties and into
two thousand, so it's really interesting to see the cycle
(36:57):
of style if you buy in a good location, then
you are as far as a good suburb where there's amenity.
It doesn't have to be by the beach or by
the ocean or you know.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
What makes a good location. How do you find out?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
You would look at the I generally look at house pricing,
how it's going in that area. I think that everyone
can do that these days. You can go on one
of the websites you realize that home or just listed
or something, and see how houses are selling. You need
to find an area that works for you, for your location,
for your schools and your work. That's the reality. If
you're working from home, you can travel further now and
(37:32):
be more remote. So that opens up the regional centers
and you've seen that particularly in Victoria with Bendigo and
Ballerat where those town centers have grown because people can
be there and still go to the main city of
Melbourne if they need to, but not every day. So
I'd look at what works for you as a person.
Then you need to look at what else is happening
in that street. Ideally, I don't want to build my
(37:52):
beautiful new home or renovator an existing house next to
a quarry next to a garbage tip next to car park,
so you need to know how that relates to the
rest of the suburb. Then you need to look at
the structure itself. In our case, the house had good bones,
so I could renovate it cosmetically. And I knew because
(38:13):
we were raised off the ground with bearers and joists.
It's called get under the ground and move plumbing to
relocate those things. If I was on a concrete slab
on the ground, I can still do it, but it's harder.
I've got to cut the slab and put pipes to
remove plumbing.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
That's a real budget thing.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, it makes it an easier process. Otherwise the step
becomes how much am I going to transform this place
before it becomes too cost prohibitive that it makes sense
to knock it down and start again. And then, of
course I work with builders who do exactly that and
build new homes. You know, if we both go on holidays.
You're younger than me, so you don't need anything done,
(38:50):
but I might. You know, I don't know. I say
to people now keeping sev Yes, the good lighting's working
for you. Oh you know. I have a good friend
Dara down in Melbourne, and we you know through COVID,
we spoke to each other. She has a tile store,
and we say, anyway, keep your chins up because we
both joke about getting older. We have model chins. If
I get so much work done on this body of mine,
(39:12):
how much am I going to go before it's like
I'm looking I'm not looking like what I'm thinking I'm
looking like. So if I renovate a house, how far
can I go before I'm not realizing the dream and
it's not what I'm trying to replicate for me. The
floor plan, the number of rooms, adding another bathroom to bathrooms.
I think this is fundamental for any house, Like we're
living in one bathroom. One bathroom house is really tricky
(39:34):
these days.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Good idea to look for a house that has one
bathroom but the potential to have two.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, and that could be a laundry. Maybe in lots
of homes people want to butt what's important freestanding bath
butler's pantry everybody loves, but a butler's pantry might actually
be a laundry because the laundry is usually located near
the kitchen. So why can't I have a butler's pantry
that has a washing machine in it, I've got a
sink I put storage, and now I've got a less pantry,
(40:00):
which has added huge value to my house. Or in
my case, like I did with our guesthouse, why can't
the laundry be taken out and put into two doors
in what is presently a linen cupboard in a hallways
it deep enough. It has to be deep enough to
closed doors behind a washing machine, So I need about,
you know, seven hundred or seven fifty deep. But if
I could do that, do I need a whole room
for a laundry. Maybe I could just relocate that and
(40:23):
I've gained this extra room without knocking down any walls
or extending the building. It's always cheaper to go out
than up in real estate. But if you can, it's
about reconfiguring the floor plan to make it more functional
for you. And there's another term we use a lot
called multifunction rooms. And for me, the biggest one might
be a study that has a fold out bed like
(40:45):
so far, so it's a work from a home space
that is also a guest accommodation instead of needing that
extra room. And if you're renovating these days, for a
two story house especially, I would always try to put
a shower in a powder room so that it can
become a guest bathroom if there's another room next to it,
rather than a power room where there's no shower. So
when mum and Dad come to stay all that friend
(41:06):
or family from overseas, they have to go upstairs to
a bathroom. That's an investment, all.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Right, James, I have the big question, the big question,
big question, what makes a home beautiful?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
In your opinion, I think a beautiful home is one
that tells a story, and I think it should be
visually interesting. I think that it should be a home
that you can walk through doors and be inspired. You
don't have one focal point to look at. You maybe
have multiple so that you find yourself skimming through the space,
(41:39):
and that's achieved by interesting shapes or textures or contrast
or color, and that should work through all of the rooms.
But that story should be unique to the people who
live there, and it should relate also to the architectural
type of the house. So I think people engage with
that when you walk in there. It's that feeling inside
(42:02):
that you go this is interesting even for me. I
talk a lot as people might know by now. When
you're walking in you you're almost silent because you look
instead of go, oh, there's a fireplace, like oh, fireplace artwork,
I'll look at that color and the cushion. Really, you
almost find yourself skimming around through the space. That's powerful.
(42:23):
If you can get people emotionally engaged in a space,
it adds huge value. If you're selling, and I used
to do that as a job, silent to sell. If
it's your forever home, it's utterly important for you to
feel like you just love to I just love my house.
And if you can say that, wonderful it is. And
it doesn't matter where that house is or how much
(42:43):
it's worth. It's valuable to you and it's your home.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
That's what makes it home.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Beautiful, home, beautiful.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
James, you have shared so many incredible pearls of wisdom
with us and we're going to put them all in
the show notes so that everybody can help themselves to
all your advice.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Thank you, pleasure back look, I love being here and
I love the podcast. Congratulations to you and the team.
I know it's a big thing and it's wonderful to
have conversations about housing. We could do it all day
and hopefully people benefit. Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
This episode is brought to you by Luxeflex, transforming homes
with beautiful, functional window coverings designed to transform your light
and lifestyle. Thank you to OZ designed for our beautiful set.
Come and visit the experienced team in store and see
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Speaker 2 (43:35):
This is an Our Media podcast
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