Design Anatomy
Welcome to Design Anatomy, where we examine the world of interiors and design. With a shared passion for joyful, colour-filled, and lived-in spaces, Bree Banfield and Lauren Li are excited to share their insights and inspiration with you.
YouTube channel launching soon.
Design Anatomy
Safe Interior Design Versus Innovation with Jono Fleming
Discover the intricate dance between safe design and innovation in interior design with our special guest, Jono Fleming. We hope that you’ll learn how designers balance the allure of creativity with the comfort of client expectations and cultural nuances. Jono shares his wisdom on building trust with clients, helping them unearth their unique style while navigating the complexities of social media influences that both inspire and complicate originality. Through engaging discussions, we unpack how emotional resonance and problem-solving are pivotal in crafting spaces that echo personal stories.
Ever wondered how Australian coastal vibes can harmoniously blend with Italian summer aesthetics? Jono takes us on a journey through innovative design concepts that marry these influences beautifully. With a focus on strong concepts and thoughtful twists, he unveils the process of creating groundbreaking designs that remain true to Australian roots. You'll gain insights into working with open-minded clients, using mood boards to decode their preferences, and infusing Italian elements like tiles and colors to enrich spaces. Jono also delves into the art of designing functional family spaces that honor historical design references, ensuring timelessness and livability.
Embark on an exploration of nostalgia and innovation in home interiors, reflecting on bold 80s and 90s palettes and the intriguing "cottage punk" style. Jono advocates for pushing clients beyond conventional design choices driven by property value concerns, encouraging spaces that celebrate personal expression. Through anecdotes of blending vintage and modern styles, we highlight the balance between rebellious creativity and respecting client budgets and preferences. Join us in this lively chat as we embrace the joy of meaningful conversations and shared interests, emphasizing community and learning within the design field.
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YouTube launching very soon subscribe for the visual experience DESIGN ANATOMY PODCAST
Welcome to Design Anatomy, the interior design podcast hosted by friends and fellow designers me Brie Banfield and me, lauren Lee, and with some amazing guest appearances along the way. We're here to break down everything from current trends to timeless style, with a shared passion for joyful, colour-filled and lived-in spaces. We're excited to share our insights and inspiration with you, and if you're loving what you're hearing, then jump into the show notes. You'll find a link there to sign up for my soon-to-be-released pre-selected furniture collections and also just some great trend information and future courses on styling and trends too.
Speaker 1:Sounds so good, bree. Would I be right to guess? There's some gorgeous color combinations going on in there? Oh, of course, would there be any other expectation? Exactly?
Speaker 1:And if you would love to create your dream home and make it the best it can be, I am helping you in a course called the Style Studies Essentials and for all of these designers out there listening if you're listening in I can help you with your business, marketing, bees, all of those things within the Design Society community. There's a link in the show notes, as per usual, for all of that stuff. Also fantastic and say the Design Society has helped me with lots of stuff, and today we are talking to Jono Fleming, and we're going to be discussing with Jono the challenges of creating innovative interior design spaces versus safe spaces and balancing originality with client expectations, as well as cultural influences and the importance of trust too. Today, our chat highlights design's emotional impact, the role of trends and empowering clients to find their own unique styles. We talk about emphasising problem solving and collaboration throughout the design process, and I feel like we covered a lot right. My goodness, all of that was a bit of a mouthful, but it is super interesting.
Speaker 1:If you want more of a visual experience, this will also be over on YouTube, so pop over there. You'll be able to see the interiors we're talking about and other things. All right, shall we dive in? We shall. We are really excited to be talking to our fabulous friend, jono Fleming today, and we have a topic that we are diving into, and it's about safe versus innovative design. His project was on Inside Out front cover last month and I found there were a lot of original elements in there. So let's dive in, let's talk about this. I think this is a really great topic for design. Yeah, I feel like original design is something that we all kind of aspire to, but it can be really tricky to achieve. Right, jono? Is that something that you just do, or do you really have to think about it? That you just do or do?
Speaker 2:you really have to think about it. Look, I think it's designers. Oh, thanks for having me, by the way, very excited to chat with you guys. You're welcome. But yeah, look, I think, as designers, I feel like maybe we all walk through life thinking we have incredible ideas. All of us have these unique, unique, amazing, incredible ideas, and that's what makes us a great designer, and I think everyone brings something to the table right. But I think it's really easy for people to fall into patterns that we've seen before. Or you get swept up in trends, or your clients ask for you want to throw something really wild at them and they say, no, we'd love the white walls, thanks. So there's so many layers to creating a project, a design, a styling set. Whatever you're doing, that feels original, it feels innovative and I guess that's the biggest challenge for us right To get our vision across, put our voice on something and put something out into the world that people haven't seen before or might spark some type of, you know, inspiration for someone. How do we do it?
Speaker 1:That's the question we're going to answer today, right, well, will we? Well, we'll certainly talk about it and try our um collective minds. But, um, yeah, I think it can actually be something quite tricky to do these days because, um, you know, I often see great things that feel different, innovative and original in styling and design. But the issue, I think, is that we see so much now I mean, if you're, if you're on Instagram kind of see everything and you're paying attention um, that it's hard to know what you've absorbed and how it's coming back out. I like to think it kind of, you know, obviously goes in and then comes out in a different way. But I know that it can be really tricky because you can be quite influenced by that, don't you think, lauren? Yeah, and I think that it is a cycle and the algorithm feeds us things that we already like.
Speaker 1:And I think also, when we see something innovative for the first time, some sort of new design, we might actually not like it. We might be like, oh my God, that looks really strange, that's really weird. Those colors don't go together or that space shouldn't be designed like that. So that's when something is really innovative and we're just not used to it and it takes a while to become familiar with something so that we might still find it exciting and new, but we actually have seen it a few times before and it can be quite challenging.
Speaker 1:You know, you might have this great idea and you've really taken on board the client's lifestyle and their places. They've travelled and just you know they what, the way that they live with their family, with their pets or whatever, and you've created this design and you're like, actually I don't know, I've never seen a room like this before, but I think it will work for you. And they might even be like, oh wow, I've never seen anything like that. I'm not ready for that. And that can be a bit challenging because you feel like you've answered the brief, but not everybody really wants something that is so innovative as well.
Speaker 2:I think it can take a while to warm up. Totally, I think there's so much trust in yourself as a designer and what you're offering and how you're communicating, that there's so much trust in the client going. Yeah, I'm just gonna take the leap with you. I hired you for a reason, and don't get me wrong. I definitely have been hired by clients that are like we need an interior designer. Someone said you're an interior designer and they go with me and I'm at two meetings in and I'm like you actually haven't seen any of my work, you don't know what I do. You just want someone to buy you a sofa, and sure, but that's not the job that I'm going to you know, post about and be proud about to the extent that it doesn't reflect what I do as a designer. So look for this job that I did in Newport, on the Northern Beaches in Sydney. That I did in newport, on the northern beaches in sydney. That was. I'm so proud that it, you know, got on the cover and got a beautiful feature in inside out.
Speaker 2:Um, we actually I knew the clients for a really long time. I've known them for over a decade. They actually had another interior designer at the start and I think there was a level of we've been friends for a decade. We don't want to mess up a friendship because renovations are hard and this was a huge one, stressful, um, and they got this other designer in who's a great designer. They've been in you know published. They have beautiful work but it's very, I think, very safe.
Speaker 2:For what they were looking for it was very northern beaches, lots of beautiful oak, lots of white walls, nice stone textures. It's definitely the elevated version of that. But what they were looking for was, I think, their original inspiration, they said to us, was it's Holcine House. They loved Holcine House and Cabaret to Beach. So straight away you're in a world of Anaspiro and you're in a world of texture and pattern and that very blue and white, navy blue, white Hamptons-y type of over-the-top pattern, white Hamptons-y type of over-the-top pattern. And that was the jumping off point for us and I'm like, looked at the you know work of this other design firm and I'm like that's not even close to you know, that's not their style, isn't it interesting?
Speaker 1:Sorry, yeah, I do find that happens sometimes. Right, there are designers who they have the brief, but they have a some, they have a comfort zone, yeah, um, and it's their aesthetic as well. Like, I mean, I think everyone still tries to, you know, push themselves, but when things like that happen and there has been a brief and it was supposed to be this and it ends up being that, I feel like that's when they've kind of stayed, they weren't able to kind of step out of that comfort zone and actually achieve what the brief was asking for. So they've gone to whatever their aesthetic is, because they know they can do that really well, because there's a risk involved, right, doing something that's more innovative and original that you don't do all the time totally and like.
Speaker 2:So when they came to us and they were like, yeah, okay, we're going to trust it was myself and my partner, ryan, who did the, you know, did the job with them. They came to us, we gave them a mood board and she's Italian, he's Australian, they live on a beautiful coastal home I was like, okay, we're doing a concept that is not groundbreaking, we were not reinventing anything, but it isralian coast meets italian summer. That's it. That's sounds like a dream. What it's like? Like I said, it's not.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're doing an australian coastal house and your concept is australian coast wow, but layering italian summer there. And all of a sudden you get a little bit of like. You can hear the music, you can see the sun rippling on the sort of Mediterranean and all of a sudden it's taking you somewhere and having that strong concept immediately, when Australian design everything you know about Australian coastal, put that tiny little twist on it, throw something in there and that's a good starting point to go. Let's start to do something innovative because at the end of the day, there aren't that many probably coastal homes with an australian italian mixed family that have tried to capture that aesthetic and all of a sudden you're doing something. It sounds really self-serving to sort of talk like this, but you are doing something innovative in that coastal home space on the northern beaches.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's not. Yeah, sorry, lauren, you go, I'll hold that. No, no, no, I was just going to say that's why we wanted to speak to you, jono, because when I saw that cover and saw that home, I was like this is such an exciting interpretation of Australian, coastal and, you know, mixing in that Italian element, I mean, and also Italy. It's not one homogenous, you know, aesthetic, it's so varied as well. So, sorry, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, um, please don't hold back the whole self-serving thing and feeling like, oh, it's not because you're creating that, you're meeting the brief. You're actually giving the client sorry, you heard indy yawning then, uh, you're meeting the brief and giving the client this amazing space that is original and innovative but still nails the brief for them. Like what more can you do when you're working with someone on their interior? That's kind of like the least self-serving in a way. I mean it's just a bonus, right that it's also amazing and you love it. Um, but yeah, I don't think it is. I think I think there's a bit of um. I mean not selflessness that goes into design, because obviously we're in it for a reason, but when we're doing it we are thinking about that client and we want them to love it. So there is this kind of like giving element to creating something that is, you know, quite original, like that absolutely, and I think they were look, we got lucky.
Speaker 2:You gotta get lucky with your client who is willing to go on that journey with you. Yeah, um, and it's not like they said, yes, carte blanche to everything, whatever you want. No, like they had a lot of personal tastes as well. Um, you know, they gave us all their mood. I did say go away, go away. Go on Pinterest, go on Instagram, make yourself a mood board for me. Give me all your inspo images, cause I want to know where your head is at so often. Um, and it's hard. Not every client can do that, but if you have a client that can at least articulate, give me anything, give me three words that you want your house to feel like. Lauren, you and I have talked about your house. It's about the feeling, not the colour at the start.
Speaker 2:Yes. So what is that feeling? And they gave me all these images. You know, the husband was really good at articulating what he didn't like in design, not so great at putting together what he loved. But it's like I'll take it. Give me the list of no's, then I'm not throwing that in the mix. At the end of the day, we got this house. That was really laid. There was a lot of tile in there. As you said, lauren, italy is huge. There's a lot of different styles in there. We just didn't necessarily go with where she was from either. Um, we went with. We're like this is you know? Uh, she's from milan, we're not, we're inland, we're not coastal. So we're like what are the best coastal places in Italy? And I looked at the Sirinus in Positano, which is the most incredible hotel. If it's not on your bucket list, it should be. It's on mine.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And it's the use of tile and colour and richness and depth in it and I was like, how do we bring a little bit of Positano, without it being cheesy, into an Australian?
Speaker 1:home.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's a working home for five people and a dog and you know there's a lot happening all the time there. It needs to be livable. This isn't actually a luxury resort, so there's so many fun little challenges. We had to come up with this and where we landed was a really australian palette when it came to the sort of overall palette. But these little flourishes of italy through tiles and detail and trim and even you know, little tile trims at the capping tiles at the very top, that kind of also reference this daggy 70s 80s home that it used to be, and it's like just taking that language and updating it. Don't have to reinvent the wheel, just do something fun and different.
Speaker 1:But that's funny that you're saying not reinvent the wheel, when I feel like some of those ideas they seem so original. But I suppose what is original?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a good question, right? What hasn't been done before? It's like I think we've had this conversation, Lauren, where, you know, when you go for a little wander through the museum and you see an urn from the you know Egyptian era or something, and you go, that looks like something that I could pick up at Papi tomorrow. It's so true, isn't it? Yeah, I think that's. You know, sometimes we think that we're conjuring up some incredibly original thing, but yeah, you can look back 30 years or maybe 3,000 years and see something in that. I don't really think there really is a lot of original idea. I think there's an interpretation or a juxtaposition, putting two things together that maybe haven't really mingled before in that way, but I think it's really hard and something that really is truly original. I think there's a lot of pushback on that, because we're so like freaked out by how weird it could look.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. I think there's such a good point there because, in one hand, when we're putting together the mood board for this project, I'm looking on Pinterest, we're looking through magazines, we're looking at film that's you know where we get all our inspiration from. And I'm like that's you know where we get all our inspiration from, and I'm like I cannot find a single image that is articulating what I want in my head. Oh my gosh, I've created this completely unique design and then, sure enough, it is just molding other things together, though like what I am doing is just taking a and b and smashing it together to create the new thing. And so interesting.
Speaker 2:Like around the same time that this project got released in the mags and stuff, ysg put out a project as well, and it is. It's a bathroom, because this is it was a very bathroom heavy sort of project that I did, but ysg did this bathroom in this project and it has beautiful blue tiles all throughout. There's red detailing in it. There's sort of like a deep sort of um, burgundy sort of inlay in the bathtub, um, the tiles, sort of amazing. Go to seeing this. Let me.
Speaker 1:Let me give you the picture well, what we're going to do is we are also showing this on youtube. So if you're listening on the podcast, you can have a look on youtube and we'll be showing up these images that we're speaking about, but you'll know what we're talking.
Speaker 2:We will describe them for you the best we can yeah, um, but it's this very like blue, white and red bathroom and it's really fun. You know they've got sort of these playful tiles. It is definitely in that yaz ysg world where it gets to push to that next level, like a really next level. But our bathroom for the kids bathroom that we did in this house all blue, red tiled countertop, and I was just like isn't that weird that like around the same time I'm struggling to find this color combination in Spoh online and you've got someone like YSG and me and Ryan over here in our little corner doing similar sort of ideas and those references are different. The houses are different, the houses are different. But now all of a sudden you've got two houses that have two blue and red tiled bathrooms at the same time. Trend alert guys.
Speaker 1:It's literally what happens. So I get excited by stuff like that because that's literally what I look for when we're doing, um, trend forecasting, and I love coming across. This has happened to me many, many times. Coming across. I mean, you guys are literally both in Sydney, so you're having maybe a lot of the same influences that you don't realize. You probably read a lot of the same magazines, watch the same movies, et cetera, but I come across designers that live on opposite sides of the world who I've chatted to them about their influences or their design and how they came to something, and they'll talk to me about, you know, these ideas and they have the same influence and it's just.
Speaker 1:I love it because it's literally the best example of how a trend begins. There are innovators that are influenced by whatever it is, but the reason it becomes a trend is you're not in a bubble. There's other people being influenced by the same things as you, and that's what happens. When it collectively comes out of people and looks similar, or we pick up on similar combinations or a material or a shape or whatever it is, it's because that's what's happening and then it obviously keeps going. But yeah, I love hearing stuff like that that's kind of. It's exactly what I live for.
Speaker 2:I need to put pride on that, because I now look at this bathroom that we designed and in hindsight I'm like I think there's something almost nostalgic, that it feels like a bit of an 80s 90s bathroom where those sort of color combinations maybe would have been there a bit more. But obviously we've added our modern twist to it, we've added our italian twist to it, but it could look a bit like one of those old school colorful, colorful 80s, 90s bathrooms where people are so scared to put color into a bathroom again now, and so maybe that's what's giving it the nod. You know, we also have a striped Roman blind above the bathtub. It's giving a bit of all of those vibes and hey, the 90s trend has been here and that influence of the 90s is big in trends at the moment. So maybe there is that subconscious thing that's happening when we're designing it. But also, I think it's something to it's not timeless design and I know you've talked about this before, lauren.
Speaker 2:It's not timeless design, but it's design that references. It's design that gives you emotions. It makes you remember things. It's nostalgic. It's design that references. It's design that gives you emotions. It makes you remember things. It's nostalgic. It's nostalgic, yeah, and I think that's when design and home can really connect with people. It's storytelling. So this might not be the bathroom that her kids grew up with, but it might be a bathroom that I grew up with, and then it's like oh, they're sort of getting the new, shinier, nicer version of that yeah, nicer now, but then you know, when they reflect back on it you may give them um, that thing where people go oh no, it's too soon for that color combination.
Speaker 1:I grew up with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what you've done you know what Lucky kids nowadays they're like. Hopefully they just go back and go oh, my white on white shiny tile bathroom or my plain white walls in my house. I can't go back there. It reminds me of my childhood and, hey, maybe we're moving into a whole generation of like colorful people. Hopefully.
Speaker 1:God, I hope so. I'd be happy. I'd be very happy with that. Yeah, I guess, like, what I find interesting too is how to find a client that's happy to kind of push out of that zone and not be in that safe zone, because I think that that is probably one of the trickiest things, isn't it? I mean, there's obviously a level of trust when you're working with someone, whether that's a brand or a client that's doing the interior design, whether it's styling. It's getting them also out of that kind of safe zone because they're spending money, there's like a big investment there and it's their life, particularly when it's a home.
Speaker 1:But I feel like people do get really stuck in that, don't they? What feels safe? I think Australia's obsession with the property value plays into that a lot. I think it's really safe to go with the white walls. It's really safe to go with the Carrara marble. We've seen it before. People like it, it's nice. Sometimes it's a bit dull, though, because we have seen it so many times before that people are so afraid to actually spend their money in investing in a home that actually makes them feel good reflects a bit of their own personality and I guess that brings that innovation and originality.
Speaker 1:So I mean, yeah, it is frustrating at times, isn't it? When you're just like I hear what you're saying that one day maybe 10 or 15 years you might want to sell we don't know who to yet, but let's not think about them. Why don't you just go for it a bit and dive into what you want? And yeah, it's a struggle.
Speaker 2:Totally. I was at a client's maybe prospective client's house doing a sort of consult with them the other day. Beautiful big home built in the mid 2000s, early 2000s, and how can you tell? Because it's a look, it's a lot of white walls, a very sort of warm, a very warm ready orangey sort of floorboard going um, those beautiful sort of silver, sperm shaped big handles on the like doors and they're like, oh, that's so funny. Like you know, they're very ergonomic. But like I was like, oh gosh, they're like what? What are the easy upgrades we could do this place? I'm like get rid of them, change those change the handles.
Speaker 1:I'll just take them off now, shall I?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'll just rip them off. Um, you know the front door with the like three bits of frosted glass slits cut out into it. My god, I have that here not by, not by choice my favorite was in their foyer. When you walk in and they have three incredibly tall skinny nooks cut out into their entry wall and I'm like it's so creepy.
Speaker 1:I also have some nooks here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you either need three very, very thin canvases or three very elegant tribal.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're talking about like a niche in the wall, like a recess, a recess, yeah, I don't have that I don't know.
Speaker 2:You need to get very.
Speaker 1:Or a vase, you know, a vase with like tall reeds.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Tall as thin. But maybe just wait, maybe we're laughing now. We're laughing now, but maybe in a few years' time we're like we're going to do three skinny niches here, absolutely. And it's so different and innovative. I've never seen this before. It's so fresh.
Speaker 2:It's funny because I was looking through that house and they're like, how do we get our style into it and what do we do? And how do we update it? Do we, you know, paint the balustrades? Do we do this, do we do that? And I'm like, look, I hear them. They're also saying this may not be their forever home. And so here we are saying design for now and design for you. But people do move into places going. I know I'm selling in five years when the kids finish school, so it's just a for now.
Speaker 2:And so I was trying to sort of say to them, instead of trying to make sure that the home feels like you know, instead of trying to figure out, okay, this 2000s home, how do we get our stuff into it? And, you know, do we need to change the home? Heaps A home like that I think you can do minor tweaks to. You can change the handles out, you can put in some curtains to add a bit of softness, the handles out, you can put in some curtains to add a bit of softness. But I was like what I really would love to do and work with them on is really solidifying. What is their style? What is your original style, what is your aesthetic? And that, no matter what home you move into, no matter what style of home you move into, you'll be able to put your stamp onto that. I'll give you a color palette. Here are your colors. They can change over the years but, like, here's your groundwork, I'm going to give you your framework to work into.
Speaker 2:If you're buying something, does it fit in with this mood, does it fit into this sort of formula? And I don't love designing by formula, but for people to understand, it'm like let's make the home feel like you from all the beautiful things you're putting into it. Then, if you do move in five years, that next time you move into it still feels like you because you've really chosen all these right pieces. And, yeah, it's a hard one, because you know you want to be like paint the walls, let's go, let's go crazy, but there is a practical sense. I understand the kitchen that's a rip out, start again because, yeah, that is a dated kitchen. By the time you sell it it's a 40 year old kitchen and that's a good investment.
Speaker 1:That's an investment, yeah, um, even if you're selling in five years, you know that doing a new kitchen that's maybe more functional as well. Let's face it, most older kitchens will have things that can be improved on, not just the aesthetics.
Speaker 2:So updating that is gonna add that value but you can still be original in a home without changing the entire home, without a knockdown rebuild, I think yeah absolutely, and it's that personal. You know it's a whole other conversation of how do you find your own personal style, but I'm just writing that down.
Speaker 1:I have a quiz that you can download and find your own style Link in the notes. Yeah, exactly, I'll put a little link in the show notes that you can. But I find that it's really great, Jono, what you're saying, because you're empowering the client to. You know, find your own style. And that's why I created the quiz, because people like to have a little label to the style that they like.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:And if you can give them that framework, that it's this, it's this, it's not that, and you're you know it's nothing wrong with having a little bit of a formula, a little bit of a framework to work within and then off they can go and they've got a bit of a sense of a clear direction. And you know, putting together the quiz that I did, it's not like everybody fits into one neat box. It might be a bit of this, you know, of australian coastal, plus a bit of italian, and how do they come together?
Speaker 1:and yeah, um I think that's yeah, it's great, it's really just a starting point. Is that it is to build on. I feel like, um, that's really important to know absolutely, and getting someone to help you do that is is going to open up those ideas. That, because I think people think they know their style or they're a bit confused about what it is, so you can kind of hone that down, but you can also kind of open them up to, I guess, things they hadn't realised were their style, if that makes sense. So like building on something, having that base, and then that's part of the job, isn't it? To try and kind of open up oh wow, I love that, what you've done, even if I've never seen it before. That's me Exactly, and a lot of clients won't go to you saying my style is Australian, coastal with an Italian twist. They don't know how to say that in such a clear way and it does take a lot of teasing out. I'd be a bit shocked if that happened. That'd be so funny. You'd be like, oh, that's so easy.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a hit the road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've had some pretty wild briefs. And yeah, you have to tease out that information from clients and yeah, it's all part of the journey. It's a cliche to say, but it is. It's not like we meet you and then we put together a design concept, like. It does take a bit of time, doesn't it? Just to unravel what they're about and what their aesthetic is, what their taste is. So yeah, it's interesting. We're doing a half Sorry.
Speaker 2:John, I don't know. We're doing a half to friends at the moment and it's, you know, a blended family with a new baby, and we were walking around doing sort of the first walk around, three little girls running around, screaming, and then she's got a baby and she and her partner are walking around there and we're like this is a lot Beautiful, beautiful house. And she was like so what's the concept? What's the theme of my like? What do you guys see? Is it? Is it country? Is it? Is it coastal? And I'm like, well, okay, well, first of all, let's just keep walking. Tell us what you need, tell us what you want.
Speaker 2:And then I went away and put together the document, that the sort of mood board, all of that sort of initial document that I put together for them, and I really love finding those words. And it might be as basic as people being like I love warehouse living, but I try to find words that will be that grounding concept that I can always keep going back to if you're ever unsure about. Is that the right color? Go back to that word, go back to that phrase. And what I came up with is incredibly vague, but it works for me and it worked for them when I told them which was blended heritage. And it's a really beautiful little heritage house with the heritage tiles at the front, but then by the time you get to the back it's the really bad add-on extension We've got.
Speaker 2:Blended heritage is a bit of a mix. It's a play on their actual living situation, their family life, but also like, what do they want to see, what do they want to move forward? So by using the word heritage, I'm like this place into my color palette now does it sort of hit those sort of heritage home notes without it? Again, I think by explaining that to them, we're starting with the back bathroom. We're bringing in a lot of really deep terracotta-type tones and I think that can always be a bit of a leap for people to go with something like that.
Speaker 2:We're doing a checkerboard terracotta floor and I'm like, but that hits that sort of heritage style. It's blended, it's a bit of modern, but those heritage colors, those, yeah, it's so contemporary too, right, yeah, and it hits those heritage colors. So you and maybe it's becoming my thing, but kind of sick for it at the moment. So I'm going to keep doing it. But you know, we got some beautiful white tiles on the wall with a really great sort of terracotta trim tile all the way along. And again it's that heritage thing where you have the data rails. You have these old bathrooms that have that, but it's a really fun modern tile.
Speaker 1:So I love that. I just love that. Going back, yeah, yeah, and I think it really is important. So with some clients they need those words and we've had a similar project. This is a few years ago. It's a beautiful old sort of mock Tudor house and they have lived in New York so it's a big part of their identity.
Speaker 1:We called the project Cottage Punk and you write these things on your project, on the front page and whatever you're describing it and everything, and off you go and the client really remembered it and he's like I'm going to get a key ring made that says cottage punk. Did he? I don't know if he did, as long as he didn't do word art with cottage punk. Then you know we're getting that framed on the wall Neon, neon, neon. But yeah, they really sometimes you do need those words. It depends on the client what they kind of like. I totally do the same thing.
Speaker 1:So I think having that also helps me too to not go off on a tangent. Like you know, there's so much if you're sourcing, say, furniture or materials. There's so much greatness out there that you can get distracted right. So I love having a really solid concept that I've pitched to them that they love and then when we're going through those other selections, you can refer back to that. I think it just also cements it in their mind that it's all kind of been cohesive and working together as well.
Speaker 1:One thing I think that I find quite tricky is when you're doing something that is quite original. It's like you said, jono, like you're looking for stuff to show the client, and I hate it when you've because you literally spend hours Pinterest, whatever it is you're looking for something that just like nails, that mood that you're trying to convey. That drives me crazy sometimes. So it can be kind of easier sometimes to just like revert back to the stuff you can find. You have to communicate what you're trying to say visually so that they understand it, but sometimes it's just not out there to do that it, but sometimes it's just not out there to do that tightly.
Speaker 2:I think our um, I really love putting together when it's the right project, it's um, I love doing a old school sort of collage in photoshop, um, but a real collage type thing.
Speaker 2:And we did it for our italian australian project where we had this very vague sort of like feelings sort of page on and it had italian women in beautiful fashion and it had coffee and it had, you know, pasta and australian surfers and I made this sort of collaged image and it's like I can't find the interior or reference that matches that. But this is the vibe. This is the vibe I love that I'm still stuck on cottage punk at the moment. I'm like, oh, my god, sounds like the funnest brief and I want to make that mood board and it you're saying, cottage punk reminds me of a pub that I went to in the cotswolds and it's funny that we both so it's not cottage punk, it's cotswold punk cotswold punk, but it had this beautiful sort of very classic um floral dark wallpaper but it did have a neon sign on it that said love but I'm like.
Speaker 2:And then it had, like you know, this dead taxidermy goose on the wall and things like that. But it was a really incredible modest goose.
Speaker 1:How do you do a podcast where you've managed to mention a goose two completely separate times? There's something for you. I think goose is just trending. Geese are trending. It must be, it is. It's trending. Oh, we're going to go back to to. You know, like the geese on the wall, you can put it in your blended heritage. I love it, I'm all for it it's tiles.
Speaker 2:I love it and that's it like something as strong as the words cottage punk. It takes you somewhere. It's something wild. No one's going to do that to it. The same way, there's something original.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true too. There's the interpretation of right, and then that's kind of what makes something original is it's what we're talking about, like blending different things and bringing lots of things together. But you could give all of us mean we might be slightly similar, but let's say, three very different designers that same term, and they would come up with something original from that.
Speaker 2:That's their point of view, right if we said and it's funny, I reckon we'd have really similar references. So if you say cottage punk, part of me goes okay, there's a bit of vivian westwood in there because of the tartan and then the punk of it all. Yeah, there's a bit of tim walker in there as well and those shoots he used to do for vogue where there's that sort of fantasy element, but it was a bit tim burtony, but it's very yes at the same time, and so yeah, there's an english element for sure, right?
Speaker 2:so you pick up on those sort of things and then all of a sudden you're like you're forming this original mood board concept, something like that, um, and I think that's it. It's finding those key words can really push it to that next level, like Like Mediterranean is not enough.
Speaker 1:No, no, it's not enough. But you go straight to the UK for punk, whereas with my client because that was New York, it was Deborah Harry it was sort of getting into the Beastie Boys like early era. Like I found all of these awesome old, like vintage photographs. You know, rooftops in New York and yeah, and we sort of wanted to conjure up the. It didn't have to be such a literal interpretation, it didn't have to be a New York skyline, but it was the essence and the vibe of that clashing with this gorgeous old house and we did the traditional wallpaper and then we've got these cool mid-century pieces in there and we're putting a patterned carpet up the staircase and actually I wonder how that's going. I've got to chase that up with the builder. Oh I want to see that.
Speaker 1:I want to see it yeah what sort of? Pattern, is it I'm slightly digressing chevron sort of pattern?
Speaker 2:oh cool yeah, old wallpaper from like forever ago. I think it was when I was in uni. It's that long ago. But timorous beasties, I think I love timorous beasties. They did their twirl series, so they did brooklyn twirl, that's right with the tiny little illustrations like people doing a drug deal yes, yes, god, I loved that so much.
Speaker 2:That was very cool, but like really getting holed up on the whole cottage. Punk of it all, but like punk as well means you either go like you can go with the visuals of punk and piercings and ripped t-shirts. But punk is also about rebellion and punk, yes, concept is about like going against. You know mainstream, so it's an attitude. It's an attitude, so it's not meant to be like we're putting safety pins on the curtains. Literally. It is about contrasting furniture and styles.
Speaker 1:Yes, Breaking the rules. Right, it's breaking the rules.
Speaker 2:I've got to move on from cottage punk.
Speaker 1:I think it comes back to that, I think that's now the name of this podcast is going to be cottage punk. I think it comes back to the theme, though, doesn't it? You know it's a cottage, it's not original A punk theme. Well, that's kind of been done before, but yeah, putting two ideas together maybe there is a bit of originality into that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I suppose, like talking about doing those kind of trying to mash up something, trying to create something original, you know, I did propose some ideas that were like the client was like we get what you're saying, we like the idea of it, but it's too far. This bright yellow, you know mid-century cabinet, it's just not right for us living in every day, but we like the idea of it. So you know, I always try to push a little bit. You should always pull back right, but it's hard to go that extra I sort of say that at the beginning, sorry, jono of any kind of relationship with a client and even a brand client is it's not my job to give you exactly what you want or what you think you want.
Speaker 1:It's my job to push you out of your boundaries and out of your comfort zone and give you something that you absolutely love, more than what you would do yourself, that you already know you would do. So that's kind of how I see the role of a designer is actually to make sure you are pushing them out of their comfort zone. If they're, if they, I mean, it's great if they love it, but you almost want them to like have that tiny little bit of hesitation, but like, oh, is it? I love it, but like you, just so you. So it is kind of pushing them so that it feels like, yeah, it feels like they own it, like you might have come up with that idea, but when that house is done, that cottage park back there again, um, they will feel like they own that idea. Well, I think it's their space, right? Yeah, he's, oh, he's probably trademarked it. We might not be allowed to say it.
Speaker 2:Link out the whole episode.
Speaker 1:Just be all these like blacked out sections in the show notes and redacted.
Speaker 2:On that. Sometimes maybe I'm wrong. We're not always right as well. You're never wrong, jono, as a designer, we might be putting our taste in there. You know, and I think it's funny. You know, in our italian australian coastal home we were like, okay, when we're doing the bathrooms, yep, let's do some beautiful, like um venetian plaster, all of this sort of stuff. Hey, it's super trendy at the moment, but it makes sense. We've got this italianate thing going and couldn't do it budget that's expensive.
Speaker 2:Oh no, it's just painting now, yeah just to do that and you're like but I'm not tiling, I'm gonna save on tiling. No, the amount of times you need to render a room, it becomes expensive.
Speaker 1:So I mean, if I can afford it, it's so worth it. Right, it's such a beautiful finish. But yeah, I totally get that it doesn't raise room for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there was a block there, not necessarily even a taste thing. It's just, we can't do that. Problem solve. Your client doesn't want the purple. So far problem solve like, how do we get that around that? And I think if it was all yeses, our jobs would be far too easy. It'd be nice, don't get me wrong well, we love a challenge.
Speaker 1:I think that's part of a challenge why we love what we do Like I love problem solving. I love that. I love when there's something you hit a wall or you've got a budget issue and you go like, how do we still nail this vibe? And you're really good at that, jono, in coming up with great solutions. That, like on a shoestring, I've seen you do it. Pull noodles is a good one. I'll have to post that on the show notes. The video, the pool noodle it's famous. Can you describe that, jono?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was for a project I did with Bunnings a few years ago where we were just transferring a 1987 suburban home. But I wanted to just not do your basic home and look, if there's one thing I love more than anything in this world, it's a banquette seat. Oh my god, I am obsessed, and I think they're just especially in small spaces. They're such a good solution for getting maximum seating around the dining area. You can add so much colour and pattern and fun into something a bit more temporary, into some upholstery. So love a banquet seat. Don't have a budget for an upholsterer on this bunning show. Don't have a budget for custom upholstery. And so I got a couple of pool noodles, covered them in some foam, backed them on some MDF and put some fabric on from spotlight and stuck them on the wall. But you get this beautiful sort of ribbed backing and it looks great.
Speaker 1:Do you know how that's um? Did that? Did that house get sold? What should they?
Speaker 2:do with that. They still got it.
Speaker 1:Bunnings are still still shooting in there because I kind of wanted to know how the pool noodle thing because that's something. I've done this as well um, many, many years ago, but for a shoot. So you know, shoots are temporary. It was a set and I and I I did the same thing. I had, um, had like a banquet seating that I basically did the pool noodle thing and um, yeah, yeah, it was funny when I was telling me I'm like, yeah, I literally I still have the pool noodles with the fabric on them on the top shelf in my garage.
Speaker 1:I was like we'll put up my styling shop from it was for Porter Timber at the time and then we'll put up Jono's as well and you can see how effective it is. Jono's would have been done far better than mine because I like just like hot glue Gundam, like cause I didn't have to, didn't have to stay like that for very long, but I'd love to, I'd love to know whether you know that one in the banquette seating for that house actually like endured. That'd be really interesting to see.
Speaker 2:I think I'm going to probably do something similar for my own place when I finally get around to doing things at my own place. Um, because it is like it is one of those things where I'm like that was almost the prototype version I did, I want to do the real, perfect it, yeah next.
Speaker 1:So we'll see, who knows so you'll do the pool noodle with a little feather wrap around the yeah, exactly it, with a little feather wrap around the.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, it's a little more comfort A bit more comfort.
Speaker 1:I feel like we probably need to wrap up. What do you think, guys? I mean we could keep going. We could keep going For the rest of the day. I'm sure we'll all chat again too. We have much to say, but thank you so much for joining us. Oh, we do. Yeah, long list, long list, expect Jono.
Speaker 1:To be back here regularly, I would say, is a fair bet, safe bet. What other birds can we talk about? But thank you so much, sweet chickens. Thanks, jono. Thanks for the great chat, always always a pleasure and always fun. Thank you, I think, brie. We could just chat with jono for hours and hours. He's just so easy to talk to and I feel like the three of us, we're so much on the same page. So it's so fun.
Speaker 1:It's very true and, um, I think we going to have to edit this one back a bit. Yes, we could definitely go on. It could have been a two hour podcast, maybe Totally, totally. So thank you guys for listening in. And just a quick reminder if you would like some help with the interiors for your own home, I can help you in a course called the Style Studies Essentials. Or, for designers out there, come into the Design Society for business and marketing and all of the things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in the same show notes you'll find a link to sign up for my soon to be released furniture collections pre-selected furniture collections and cool trend information, and then, in the future, some short courses on styling and trends as well. So good Bree. We've got the utmost respect for the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. They're the OG custodians of this unceded land and its waters, where we set up shop, create and call home and come to you from this podcast today. A big shout out to all of the amazing elders who have walked before us, those leading the way in the present and the emerging leaders who will carry the torch into the future. We're just lucky to be on this journey together.