As a child, we lived in an Australian Heritage stone house. My dad owned a second-hand furniture shop with different eclectic pieces and was also passionate about antique pieces, which must have rubbed off on me. Later, as I was building my first home with my partner as a young adult, all of our money went into our mortgage and we didn’t have much to spend on furniture. So, I’d buy pieces at garage sales or Facebook Marketplace and do them up to suit that home. We sold a lot of that furniture with the house, which meant we got to start again with the next home.
I think about the season of life were heading into and family-focused design… and then consider how I can make it beautiful. Subconsciously, I design around my value system. For instance, I value relationships and this happens around our dining table when we sit together for dinner as a family, or when we invite others over. In this home, the dining table is in the centre of our house. Also, I want my three boys to have a close and lifelong relationship, so I designed a room they can share comfortably, even as they grow (pictured below with the Manor single beds).
Be you. Don’t follow trends. Really think about what you like and then go for it. Styling and decorating take time. It’s about collecting the old, adding in the new, receiving the hand-me-downs, upcycling the second hand, saving for the special pieces and building the project, all without blowing the budget. I love classic pieces that don’t age, with a few antiques thrown in. I don’t follow the trend, I follow styles that move me.
Landscaping. We’ve been saving to start our backyard and I am so excited to do so. I already have my eye on an Early Settler gazebo!
(Images courtesy of @MyFamilyOurHome, including the Diamond Trellis Hand Woven Wool Viscose Grey Rug in dining room and Manor single beds in the boys’ bedroom)