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.
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Design Anatomy
Top 5 Things We're Loving Right Now
Ever noticed how certain design elements grab your attention and refuse to let go? In this delightfully candid episode, Lauren and Bree dive into their current design obsessions, sharing the colours, objects, and details that are making their creative hearts race.
The conversation kicks off with exciting news about their upcoming design tour to Paris and Milan, where they'll be leading a group of design-minded individuals through exclusive apartment tours and unforgettable experiences. With only a few spots remaining, this intimate journey promises to forge lasting connections among participants who share a passion for exceptional design.
As they explore their favourite things, Bree reveals her current colour crush – a specific yellowy-green reminiscent of banana leaves that pairs beautifully with burgundy accents. Lauren swoons over Herman Miller's Comma Chair designed by Michael Anastassiades, describing how its perfect circular seat and embracing curves achieve that rare balance of sculptural elegance and genuine comfort.
Both designers share their admiration for exceptional ceramics, from Astrid Salomon's bulbous vessels to Patricia Urquiola's architectural Batossi pieces with their tactile glazes. The conversation flows naturally to practical elements that elevate everyday living – Sussex Taps with their beautiful tumbled brass finishes and sustainability credentials, innovative lighting designs from Marlo Lyda, to the transformative power of patterned flooring.
In a charming detour, they confess their fragrance obsessions, including a mystery scent that had Bree surreptitiously snapping photos in Milan. Their enthusiasm is infectious as they discuss these sensory elements that contribute to truly memorable spaces.
What design elements are you currently obsessed with? Share your favourites with Lauren and Bree – they'd love to hear what's capturing your imagination right now.
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Welcome to Design Anatomy, the interior design podcast hosted by friends and fellow designers.
Speaker 2:Me, Lauren Lee and me, brie Banfield, with some amazing guest appearances along the way.
Speaker 1:We're here to break down everything from current trends to timeless style.
Speaker 2:With a shared passion for joyful, colour-filled and lived-in spaces. We're excited to share our insights and inspiration with you, and we are going to talk about what we're loving right now, our top five or I don't even know if we can say top five, because there's too many and I've just chosen five.
Speaker 1:Exactly all day long To try and narrow it down. There's too many things.
Speaker 2:But before we jump into that, Lauren, what have we got happening next year? That's big.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, it's actually starting to sink in now that we're going to do it again. We're going to Paris and Milan and we are taking some legends with us. I'm so excited because we've got some really cool women on the list a few that I've met before and a few that I haven't. Just really gorgeous, generous, clever women that are in the design realm, designers or sort of design adjacent. But we do have a few spots left.
Speaker 2:We do and I'm excited that we've got as many as we do because we know it's definitely happening. But those last couple of spots spots we're about to start, basically, you know, screaming about it on social media. So if you, listening to this today, do want to be involved, please send us a message. We'll send you the information, because I think once we start talking about it, those last couple of spots are going to get snapped up very quickly so true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it was just so great. I was looking through some photos and thinking about, you know, the experiences that we had. It was just the best and those kind of exclusive, you know apartment tours. I think that was probably the thing that everybody loved the most, because it's just something that you can't experience if you go over there by yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think the other thing that we've talked about and if you want to listen to a little bit about the tour and what we got up to, there is an episode that we recorded that sort of gives you a bit of an insight into what's involved. But one of the other big things that you cannot get when you just hop over there on your own is the experience of the people on the tour with you and making those connections with amazing design-minded whether they're designers or design adjacent people who you know you don't often get to spend that much time with, particularly in amazing places. So you sort of have this bond that's created. I think you know friendships for life. It was so cool, that's nice.
Speaker 1:It was really nice. I mean, it's weird, one of the memories that sort of just popped into my mind then when you were saying that I think it was the last day people were starting to. You know, it was the day after our tour had finished and we were just kind of wandering around. I was exhausted I think we all were and one of the ladies in the tour in our group chat said oh, we're meeting for a drink and we're just sitting outside in this kind of court. Yeah, do you want to join us? And it happened to be just around the corner from where we were and it was just such a nice moment of being able to catch up with people that you know we sat under a tree in the sun and we drank Aperol Spritz Like it was just really relaxing and it was just beautiful, so that was a really nice little farewell moment.
Speaker 1:that was unplanned. Well, I guess we could gasbag about our tour forever, but let's talk about our topic today. So yeah, as you said, I think that was a great idea that you had Brie to talk about some five favorite things that we're just loving right now, because it's the kind of thing that we're like, hey, look at this, this is cool, and you want to share those with other people. So do you want to go first, Brie?
Speaker 2:What kind of things have just popped into your mind that you're loving right now. Well, because after I went, let's just do that. I went oh God, how do I decide? So I tried to kind of come up with little categories, and so my first one, probably quite obvious, is a color that I'm loving right now we're shocked probably quite obvious is a color I'm loving right now.
Speaker 2:We're shocked and it's not a new. It's not a. It's not a new color. I guess it's just something that I've been seeing a little bit of, or maybe it's that thing of you know how you go. I've been seeing this a lot, but sometimes you're just noticing it more because you're just particularly attracted to that at the time. Yeah and I even have that.
Speaker 2:I guess I have some clothes in this color as well and I don't know, maybe it's just popping up a little bit more in some textiles. I saw a couple of side tables, but it's a green, so it's a very yellow based green. I wouldn't say it's puce. Puce is like really quite like vomity, isn't it?
Speaker 1:God, that's so funny.
Speaker 2:Vomity. Quite like vomity, isn't it? Oh, that's so funny, vomity. Oh, hues can be quite full-on, whereas this is a bit softer, but it's not. I would say it's like a, um, like a banana leaf green. You know, banana leaves quite yellowy um tone and I've got a couple of examples, like Dulux color examples, so you guys can reference it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm curious.
Speaker 2:Probably one of the most, I guess, popular ones in that realm of green is Rodham, which is R-O-D-H-A-M, but I particularly like Rickrack, dulux Rickrack, which is just got. Yeah, it's just that sort of I don't know, it's like it's fresh but it's not too zesty that it couldn't use it on a piece of furniture or upholstery, and then you can kind of go a bit further with it. So for me you could go a little bit zestier. I like that. So go further into that sort of really yellowy, more citrusy green, almost a lime, but more yellow, like a lime that's still on the tree and is starting to go yellow in that color.
Speaker 1:I love the specificity.
Speaker 2:I miss my lime tree. And the other one that I really like at the moment is Olive Reserve, deluxe Olive Reserve, so that's a little bit cleaner, but they're these grains that look amazing with Burgundy you would have seen that combination. We started to see it, I think, last year at Milan, when Gucci did it with that sort of really lime kind of green carpet and then burgundy furniture in their installation and everyone was like what is this that pops? Yeah, neutral room, and you've got some, you know, sort of green based browns or tans, that as a hit of color in a side table, even a cushion, an upholstered chair, and then with some red.
Speaker 2:I like it with a little bit of red and maybe a little bit more green. So you could take, like, put it with all, so you could have like this beautiful neutral scheme that's like olive, greens, browns, with, you know, like a little green undertone and then tan, and it could be quiet, calm and neutral. And then you can add that green in and it just lifts the whole scheme but it still keeps it quite neutral and still quite calming, like it doesn't make it crazy. And if you want to take it to the next level, then that's when you can add the red as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that picture that you've just painted, when you were describing that zesty green. Remember when we went to the Zanotta showroom in Milan? Yes, yes, that was probably quite electric, that green. It's taking it really to the next level. But it's a showroom like it's, not a home.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yeah, and I think you know, I think I I would do it in a whole room, on all walls, in a space where you want to feel sort of energized. I don't know that I'd do it in a. I think you could do it in a bedroom, it's just. It's one of those colors that the tiniest nuance can take it from being wow, this feels great to oh, this is a lot kind of thing. So it's like just the nuance of how much kind of yellow is in it and how clean it is. But you know, making it a little bit dirtier, you could totally do a whole room in it and it would be quite beautiful, like almost luxury. It can be quite a luxury colour, I think if you take it into that sort of dirtier space.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, I just looked up olive reserve. Yeah, that's a beautiful colour too. Yeah, and I can see how you could pair it nicely with the tans and the more neutrals, just to kind of calm it a bit and yeah bring it into that more luxury.
Speaker 1:But then you could have, you know, a side table with a burgundy or, as you say, like red or something and it could just be that little accent, it's just that little hint of that unexpected and the contrast, that bit of tension, could just make it feel really exciting. Yeah, I'm loving it, loving that, love that. Thanks for sharing that, no worries. I wanted to talk about this chair that I have been coveting. It's called the Comma Chair and it's by Herman Miller.
Speaker 1:It's a dining chair and it's just very elegant in the form. It's a sculptural sort of chair, but it doesn't look like it's going to be uncomfortable to sit on, which, I feel like, is a really clever balance to get that right. So it's made up of, you know, a frame, obviously four legs, and on top sits a round, perfectly round seat and then it's got a rounded backrest and armrest, that sort of. You know they're really comfortable when they sort of hug you around your body when you sit in them. But it's so simple, but it's still quite elevated and it makes that restraint look really luxurious. And I think you know we say that that term timeless is overused, but I don't know what do you think? I feel like it is quite a timeless chair.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I get what you mean by timeless. I guess, when I look at it it's shapes and forms we've seen before, but I think the way they've refined it and kept it is, I guess, a simplicity to it. Yeah, and sometimes with simplicity it can kind of transcend across different eras, so it can be timeless, I think.
Speaker 1:I think so it could be timeless. And it's designed. I love the colours too. Right, the colours are beautiful, so they have obviously a gorgeous natural oak, but then there's this beautiful petrol blue and an oxblood sort of red colour. It's designed by Michael Anastasiadis, who is a London-based designer, and he does nail that quite minimalist, clever design beautifully.
Speaker 2:He is one of my favorite designers, actually, yeah.
Speaker 1:In terms of that, they're not boring, they're just clever. No, never yeah.
Speaker 2:No, he's clever. Yeah, I love the upholstered version of that. The seat looks like a cute little button, like with the little it does. It's probably got a little button in the middle, but the overall sort of shape it's got there it's beautiful, isn't it yeah? And a beautiful chest.
Speaker 1:And don't you think around a table that repetition of that circular armrest would just be quite pleasing to see that repeated.
Speaker 2:So if you've got the budget, for Herman Miller. Well, I'm going to jump into furniture then as well. Now I was showing this yesterday so and I was like that is very cool. I don't know if you know the artist, stephen Baker, who I guess his work is. It's very sort of graphic. It's really simple shapes, but they're usually kind of in the form of a person, so it's like you'll see people in the shapes and it's very simple kind of colour, what?
Speaker 1:was the name again.
Speaker 2:I would say it's sort of modernist. Stephen Baker oh cool, you would have 100% seen it before. So he's actually done a collab with Ulta, which is a furniture company, I believe, in Melbourne, and they've used those shapes that he uses in his artwork to create these sun lounges. So it's called the Lola Sun Lounge and at first you sort of glance at it and go, oh, that's kind of cool. But you see it from the side and they look like women, but not too. It's just abstract enough that it's quite cool without it being a bit like tacky, like why is that in the shape of a woman?
Speaker 2:that's so clever, because you have to kind of look twice a little bit at how it works. Yeah, they're really, they're really interesting. And it was our my friend, kelly, who I'm sure people know, kelly thompson, who she's actually working with them on something at the moment. She said, oh, have you seen these? And I went I've not seen them. So that was exciting. You know we love a new thing. I've not seen them, so that was exciting.
Speaker 1:You know we love a new thing?
Speaker 2:I've not seen them either. Yeah, I think, go have a look, everyone at those, because they're just quite a cool, interesting collab, especially that whole collaboration between an artist and a furniture maker. And in this particular case, the artist has taken literally the way that they create and their forms and been able to translate it into a furniture piece, which is, I think, not always the case. Usually, the artist will maybe I don't know work on something that's maybe reminiscent of how they want to do a design, but it's not normally quite as obvious as this is in terms of the shapes.
Speaker 1:Anyway, yeah, but it's also I've just looked it up as well it's also if I saw that sun lounger, I'd be like oh, that's really lovely the shape. I like how that looks as a sun lounger. You mentioned the artist and you're like oh it doesn't hit you in the face. It's quite subtle. It's really sophisticated the way it's done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's why I thought it was quite clever. I feel like that could have been not so great. It could have been not so great Like, it could have been a bit like, but they've just nailed that fine line between kind of copy paste of a shape on furniture to actually it's functional, it's elegant and it still reflects his work. So, yeah, I think they did it really well.
Speaker 1:I love it. It's a great find. Thanks for sharing that. I wanted to talk about some ceramics that I have loved for a while. They're made by Astrid Salomon, her brand is called Bastard Ceramics and her pieces are sublime.
Speaker 2:Bastard Ceramics.
Speaker 1:I know it's a funny name. I met Astrid at an event maybe a year or so ago and she was just beautiful and lovely. But her pieces are these big, almost bulbous ceramic. Some of them are vessels, some of them are sculptures. She did a wall relief I saw on her Instagram yesterday and I want it. I just want it in my home. So badly yesterday and I want it. I just want it in my home so badly. So they're those really incredible statement pieces that you would just have sitting on your dining table or sitting on your console entry area or something like that. They're really. They're artworks. They're not functional type of ceramics.
Speaker 1:And yeah, and she's based down on the mornington peninsula and she creates these incredible pieces just. They're just beautiful and the glazes are natural and natural tones and they're just.
Speaker 2:She's so, so talented yeah, I have seen her work, I think at pepite as well, in melbourne. I think they often have her pieces yeah um, but yeah, it's very organic too, isn't it? Some of her pieces almost look like they're kind of melted forms or she's got is she and I could be wrong here the one with the beautiful, as you said, like bulbous forms. But then there's like kind of shapes, like little two-dimensional kind of shapes that are layered on top of that to kind of create even extra, almost like buttons.
Speaker 2:Yeah Buttons again, or studs is probably the right word. Yeah, she does. Those ones, the big vessels.
Speaker 1:She's done something like that, but the glazes, I think are really stunning.
Speaker 2:They're stunning that sort of metallic glaze. She does as well that kind of maybe not bronze, but like that sort of blackened metal look to ceramics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, it's very cool, yep. Well, I'm just on her website now and she says that she stocks through Studio Gardner in Sydney, st Closh Gallery in Sydney as well, and Craft Victoria. Oh, craft, yeah, yeah, yep.
Speaker 2:We'll look out for her pieces, and I love the idea that you know ceramics. I guess it's an art form, and so some of those pieces are like buying a piece of fine art.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of work that goes into those pieces, especially the big ones, because they don't always work. You know, I worked with ceramics before and it just amazes me sometimes the, the faith even. It is quite technical, it's quite scientific, the glazes in particular, but also just the firing of things, and sometimes you just don't know and it's just gonna explode in the kiln and then you lose that whole piece like it's crazy, it is.
Speaker 1:It's like what you say it's you know, the art that, the forms that, that form that she's created, and the science, the glazes, the, the firing temperature, all of those things can go wrong and it's such an ancient craft, or art as well. Is it a craft? Is it an art like? Yeah, it's a bit. I think her is really pushing yes to the fine art realm more than craft. But yeah, sublime, she's cool yeah, love her, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:I think it's always this weird line between uh well, not weird, it's a. It's a line between craft and art and I definitely think they cross over, and more so of late, with a focus on the skill involved in ceramics and large pieces or particular glazes or the forms that can be created and the work that goes into them kind of I don't know goes past being a crafty thing, because we sort of maybe don't put that on the same level, sometimes as a fine art thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's a lot of amazing ceramicists or artists whatever they're calling themselves now, and Craft Victoria is a great place to go and have a look at some too.
Speaker 1:Oh, incredible Great collection.
Speaker 2:Well, I actually also have ceramics in mine, which is the Batossi pieces by Patricia Archeola.
Speaker 1:Do you remember those?
Speaker 2:Yes, they're kind of like architectural sort of shapes. So I think it's called the. The collection is malate or it might be malati if it's italian, I'm not sure oh, they're gorgeous she has quite big pieces like there's stools oh yeah, but there are also these kind of smaller vessels and I think she basically says they're like architectural forms, like micro architecture, and love it.
Speaker 2:it's the texture on them that's amazing. So which is what I guess is this thing about ceramic and glaze and what you can create in terms of tactility with something that's actually quite hard. So these all have like ridges in their shapes and that's kind of referring to that kind of architectural shape, but the actual texture is like stone, like really textured, and then amazing colors, because Patricia does beautiful colorways and then you kind of get that beautiful nuance in the glaze where the colors shift and the corners and the edges of the architectural forms are accentuated because of the way that the glaze is kind of taken to the form. So it sort of just adds to that tactility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're delicious. Those are my favorites.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you?
Speaker 2:In fact, they do look slightly edible.
Speaker 1:They do, don't they Like icing the way you described? It with the you know the edges of that glaze revealing a sort of another color underneath. Oh, they're so gorgeous. Can I tell you a funny story about Botossi?
Speaker 2:Of course, we love a funny story.
Speaker 1:You know my funny client where every time I go there I come back with a funny story. She collects Bitossi. So if you're not familiar, bitossi is an Italian ceramic studio brand. I mean, they're worldwide, they're probably. What comes to mind are those gorgeous blue. What do you call that colour, bree that?
Speaker 2:really bright.
Speaker 1:Not the cerulean, the east plain blue. It does go into that, doesn't it? That's a really strong, beautiful blue and they're ceramic pieces. Imagine a cylinder, and it's got almost like an embossed pattern that's sort of repeated around, just Google it, but anyway. So I'm talking to my client and we're in the kitchen and she opens up her appliance cupboard we just worked with her about a year ago, so it's all finished, it all looks great Opens up her appliance cupboard and it's filled with Botossi ceramics, just like where is your? Toaster.
Speaker 2:Where's your toaster?
Speaker 1:Where is your kettle?
Speaker 2:I can't make toast with any of these things.
Speaker 1:So hilarious. Like she is obsessed, she buys it from First Dibs and from wherever I was going to say so.
Speaker 2:The pieces you're talking about are like the. I think it was the 50s, when they were quite big right 50s, 60s they're like in gorgeous mustard colours oranges, the blues and the greens, like it was so funny. I love an obsession with things.
Speaker 1:I didn't expect to see that in her appliance cupboard. I mean, I don't think she is much of a cook, but just to give that such a priority of storage in the house, Anyway.
Speaker 2:so yeah, people and I've actually found one in an op shop before, so that was pretty cool I like I get so excited about like side of the road facebook marketplace op shop finds like, even if it's not me, I just get like actually super excited like I'm like oh my god, I can't believe you found that so amazing and then I just wish I go, hopefully one day I know we should go.
Speaker 2:We should go on a, an op shop crawl actually I think let's do that, but also let's do an episode and we'll just tell all the stories we know about op shop finds. I mean we could get all the different people on, but I think we just do all the stories that that would be so fun.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, that's why I love Antiques Roadshow. I know it's a grandma's show, but it's so comforting and I love it when someone's like I bought a chair and I was reupholstering it and I found a diamond ring and a brooch and earrings inside the upholstery. I like live for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no is. That is a highly amusing show too. It is especially when um people think that something's, it's, it's amazing, when it's like, oh, this is worth a lot more than I thought. But also I love the ones where they think it's really it's worth something oh, it's a family.
Speaker 1:Early I wasn't gonna sell it anyway.
Speaker 2:It's like yes, you were now, it's worth nothing.
Speaker 1:You're like oh, it's fine, no, I don't care, I don't care well, I love that range with batasi that you mentioned with our friend patricia erciola. Um, yes, and it's cool that a brand like that can evolve and can work with new designers and yeah, and they have done that very well.
Speaker 2:I think like brought themselves into into the now and not just been. I mean, they've got the heritage, so I guess they're a heritage brand yeah but yeah, to be able to do that and, and that's, I love that range so one day I'll own one of those pieces.
Speaker 1:totally. I want to talk about Love, a good tapware story. I love this tapware brand for a few reasons, so Sussex they're called. I don't know if you're familiar with Sussex Taps.
Speaker 2:I am.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So their designs are beautiful, quite minimalist, but they have a good range, something for everyone, maybe. I love the tumbled brass finish. It's beautiful. I love the design. Number two is I love the tumbled brass finish it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:I love the design.
Speaker 1:Number two is I love it that they're made in Melbourne and they are B Corp certified. So it's really really difficult to become B Corp certified. I don't understand all of it, but it means that you are really following strict sustainability protocol throughout the whole business. So they achieved that, which I think they're one of the only tapware companies to achieve that. Number three it's run by a woman. Her name's Vanessa. She is so gorgeous and lovely. It was started by her father, I believe, and so she's taken over the family business and really elevated that and they're always they're always, uh getting better yeah, so they're just my they're my go-to tapware company, so and they're available, I think, throughout australia.
Speaker 1:Reese roger seller winnings all of that so yeah that's. That's my tip for tapware and am I?
Speaker 2:I might be wrong, but I think they also do custom colors, don't they? I?
Speaker 1:think, so Do they have the ability to do that.
Speaker 2:Because they are a locally made I assume most of it's made here, if not all tapware brand. I think they maybe have a little bit more leeway for custom options compared to, say, a mass-manufactured, offshore brand.
Speaker 1:Definitely, am I right? I think so. Well, you know, I I love the tumbled brass and when we had our place we did all sussex tapware and that the kitchen tap. I loved it like. I know that's weird to say I loved my kitchen tap. No, I love taps too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially when you think you know it is the thing. It's the feel and the touch and the way they work. It actually changes your life.
Speaker 1:It's so satisfying and the touch and the way they work it actually changes your life it's so satisfying, but with the tumbled brass they literally tumble it in a big tub of rocks to get that finish yeah, I was like oh, that's interesting. And when they are creating all those brass taps, it's all solid brass, all the mechanisms behind and everything sound like I'm going to spill here. This is not a sponsored post, I just genuinely like sussex.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, no, no, none of this is. However, we are very open to sponsorship. You're getting an. I just double check. I just double check that. Um, yes, they do do customisation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what Sussex bespoke and that's, I think, how they sort of got on my radar initially was seeing like coloured tapware when it first became a bit of a thing and they were one of the first manufacturers doing it because they were able to, and I was like, ooh, this is cool. But I've done quite a few tapware and bathroom wear shoots over the years and their products have always been I don't know, they're very shoot worthy, let's say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they look good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gorgeous, gorgeous. Well, I'm a bit torn between my last two, so I'm going to keep the last two as interior related, but I'm going to throw in a bonus. That's sort of not interior, just because I'm obsessed with it at the moment. So my next one I'll talk about lighting. I came across marlo lighter's beautiful work at melbourne design week this year. Um, some people may already know her work, but she just exhibited this year these stunning lamps that some of them are really big, as in like kind of oversized, so accentuated scale, and some are sort of smaller but still have the same, I guess, feel of the larger ones, just due to the scale she's used in terms of the form, and they're called the toil lamps. They're made of calico, so it's like a remnants. I believe it's remnants because she's quite she you may remember she also did those remnant tables from could have been the year before at melbourne design week, you know with the all the marble pieces. So they're literal marble remnants and they do remember that little collection of tables yeah
Speaker 2:um, so I think I think hopefully I'm correct on this, because I couldn't find a lot of info when I was doing my quick research that the calico is also calico remnants.
Speaker 2:Sorry, marlo, if I'm wrong, but they just have this rawness to them but also the softness, because calico I guess has has enough form to be able to create these, you know, stunning lights and they're kind of a take on a very traditional base which is sort of slightly cone shaped and then a quite a traditional lap shade in that sort of again cone shape again, but the all the seams are expressed and kind of raw. So where she's joined the calico together, you get sort of the you know the threads starting to pull apart and so you get that just a little bit of texture on all those joins. I don't know, they're just. I think she just perfectly nailed this beautiful sort of tactile look that's sitting in this space at the moment, where we're seeing a lot of softness come into interiors and they're just that kind of perfect representation of that. So yeah, the Toil Lamps by Marlo Leiter she's a Sydney designer, very cool woman, by the way.
Speaker 1:Well, I remember seeing Also. Yeah, she does seem really cool. I remember seeing that lamp at the 100 Lights exhibition during Melbourne Design Week as well. And I just had the urge to steal it.
Speaker 2:I could have walked out with quite a few lights there. Same Mine was. I'm throwing this in there Jordan Fleming's light that has to sort of lean on the wall and it's made of um exhaust pipes like chrome exhaust pipes. Oh yes, she knows I want that, but it's a one of a kind and she won't tell it. Oh, oh, I love it that one's a good one too. Yes, so the toil lamp.
Speaker 1:That's my next one that was a great exhibition and there was such a great representation of female designers in that. Yes, I remember you working it out. I know I was like I think it's like 50-50. I'm just not sure. Let me just add it up we're doing maths.
Speaker 2:We're there on the party the opening night party or whatever it is and Lauren's counting yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm like Go you guys for organizing that. Because I have to say, like, when it comes to industrial design, it is such a male-dominated industry, like when I studied it. Well, I studied interior design, but they put us a lot of the time with the industrial design guys. They were 90% Anyway. So I thought that was really encouraging to see, like in the past 20 years, how much that's really grown. Yeah, I also have a lighting designer that I want to talk about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was really encouraging to see, like in the past 20 years, how much that's really grown yeah I also have a lighting designer that I want to talk about, yeah, and it's lana lune, so you might know her pieces because she does these kind of light totems. So imagine like a, a sort of a sphere at the top. Underneath that you've got maybe, maybe like a cylinder, and then you've got an elongated sphere and they're sort of stacked on top of each other.
Speaker 1:So it's like a totem type of light I'm waving my arms around but no one can see me and the whole thing is illuminated and it looks like she uses different materials for her lighting. She uses lace like, almost like a doily lace in a new, a new range work. I remember now you'll know it, and fabric that's sort of stretched across these, uh, these shapes.
Speaker 2:She's got timber in her pieces and um yeah again, she used paper as well, because I'm trying to remember, because I think some of her forms have that feel of the Japanese lantern, but just in a different sort of different take. But it might be fabric, it might not be paper, I know.
Speaker 1:It says here that chooses those washi papers, those Japanese papers, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that I adore the Vitra range of lights, the Akari range.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too. They are gorgeous. They're having a huge moment, but I think they've always been beautiful A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:But it's so great to see something that's they're not like the Akari lights, but they do.
Speaker 2:You can see the inspiration of the background where those came from.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's faithful to its references, kind of thing you know it's like without it's, they're not a copy no way reinterpretation or definitely. It's probably more based on the skills of how those are made. So you know, I love it when designers kind of, I guess, look at craftsmanship and and how things are made, you know in the past, and take that and then make it into something of their own kind of making. I feel like that's potentially where it came from definitely hey, they look cool.
Speaker 2:I'll do something like that. It's usually to do with that kind of like how, how it's pulled together and what the materials are, and stuff like that you're right, like these are very original, but there's similarity in the, in the material perhaps, but also you know the.
Speaker 1:As much as I love those kari lights, sometimes you do see them a little bit often and this is a good, a good alternative. That's like oh wow, that looks new, that looks really original, like that's something different that can fill that same spot.
Speaker 2:I love it. And also they're original because because of that nature, of that being like a totem that you described, and there's the different shapes, I think you can reconfigure them however you like. So if you buy one, it probably isn't going to look like the same one that someone else bought, even though it's the same elements. So you mix it up or do it the way you like.
Speaker 1:So it's very, very clever, very clever. Love her. So she's based in Sydney and Los Angeles. Oh clever love her. So she's based in sydney and los angeles.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't know that, yeah, it's quite cool. It is very cool, isn't it? Oh, um, well, so I said I'd stick in to interiors, even though my fifth one was originally not really interiors related. But I am looking at buying a piece of art at the moment for myself. I got given some vouchers from friends for a birthday and they've been sitting there and I've been going.
Speaker 2:I just go and look every now and then because art for me is something that I don't always see what I want. Like. You can look at lots of beautiful art, but unless for me it's like it hits this little heart moment, it's not for me. I might buy it for other people because it's beautiful and I know it's going to work there, but for me artwork is like I fall in love, like I go oh, that's it, that's the one. So I just go and look every now and then and go is there anything at the moment that I like?
Speaker 2:And I came across Louise Knoll's work and because I don't have lots and lots of money to spend, I was looking for sort of smaller pieces and I think she's actually about to have an exhibition with Studio Gallery, but I came across these little series of artworks that it's very abstract, you can probably imagine. It has a lot of colour in it for me, but it's quite expressive. Still. There's a lot of texture in the work. There's sort of lots of layer of colour, so there's like maybe really strong pink underneath but with other layers of color, so you just get little bits of that strong pink kind of peeking through, and then there's really dark moments as well. So there's enough contrast that it's not just pretty, it's actually for me it's really beautiful.
Speaker 1:but oh, there's a little edge to it.
Speaker 2:Yes, they're stunning. And then what kind of almost sold me, and I don't know about you, but framing is part of the artwork in my opinion, like the way you frame something, no doubt, and these particular ones. So they're about like 50 odd centimetres, probably about 40 something, but they're framed in the fluoro, perspex, the pink fluoro, and I was like yeah, yeah, okay, that that's great, I want one of those. So I'm in, I'm in the, I'm in the midst of purchasing one.
Speaker 2:I had there was a few in Sydney I went to have a look at, because I always love to go and have a look at the pieces. It's very easy to buy online but they never look exactly as you think they're going to. But it either confirms, or you know or you go. It's not quite right. And I saw her work and I didn't see the piece that I wanted because it wasn't there. But I knew that I would like the piece that I wanted, just from looking at the way those pieces kind of came together. I'm a bit of an abstract art fan as long as it's expressive, and for me there's still a story being told, but I get to decide what the story is kind of thing.
Speaker 1:I love how you said that. I love that. Well, these are very lively and there's a good energy in them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, energy is a good word. Yeah, I love them. Yeah, so I have been looking at those a lot. It's sublime.
Speaker 1:Love them. There was another thing I wanted to talk about, which is about tiles. I'm a little bit obsessed about tiles because I went to the I am so I literally dreamed about the mecca flagship store. It's so sad I did.
Speaker 1:I had the best morning there I went, um, I took phil, took my husband phil on on the morning after the weekend it opened and I was like some weird, like the security guys were watching me, like what is she doing, are you okay? Because I was bending down. I was looking at the floor. They're like, oh, have you lost something, an earring or something? I'm like no, I'm just looking at the floor. They're like oh, okay. Or sales assistants they wanted to help me. I did not want to talk about skincare or makeup, I'm just like looking at the joinery and everything. I like just soaked it up. I. I want to go back there, but I'm gonna go back there on the weekend I I went to look as well.
Speaker 2:I won't hijack your tile story, but yes, it is amazing. For all those reasons it it's worth it.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, it was just on so many levels. It's, the fact that a department store's opened up in the middle of Melbourne is just quite a miracle, because it's a bit like a tumbleweed kind of vibe sometimes down Bourke Street. Maya David, I love David Jones, but it's just not what it used to be.
Speaker 2:They've lost their. You know, when I used to go, I used to trek into the city. I grew up in the country and I'd go often into the city because I didn't really want to be in the country, I wanted to be in the city. And those, the stores then, were iconic and designed very well and beautiful. And you know, yes, there was always like one floor that was maybe a bit hectic, but always, in particular, that ground floor that you walked into was always stunning. And I feel like they've definitely lost that. They've come a bit kind of common and I don't know common's a terrible word sounds like I'm looking down my nose.
Speaker 2:I just mean they're not special anymore, like I think it's, and that's what I was excited about with the Mecca store was that building itself has been given no love for so long. And did you hear the story about them taking down the covers of the windows? And how, all of a sudden because those windows are amazing, the big arch windows, yeah, at the front of the building, but they were all covered because department stores didn't have windows right, everyone, it was all blocked off. I think it was the old menswear david jones menswear building for a while. So when they pulled those down, the hoardings that were, they were like, oh my god, and all this light flooded in. So there's all these great stories, and did you also notice that there's all female artists as well?
Speaker 1:yeah, the artwork is amazing. There's like a massive judith wright. She's one of my favorite artists and it's set against this wall color. I'm going to take my fan deck in there. I'm just going to go for it.
Speaker 2:I'm going to build out the finisher schedule.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's so gorgeous, I mean yeah.
Speaker 2:It is good.
Speaker 1:I just loved it. So it took me down this huge, big rabbit hole of flooring which I have been just diving in for, because I think that if you go there it's not about copying what the floors are, it's just that whole excitement of matching and contrasting pattern, color, texture. It's really cool. So I have gone looking at flooring, especially terrazzo. I mean terrazzo is not anything new and I mean in the building there's literally that existing terrazzo which I was just losing my mind over how special that was. But I found some beautiful flooring tiles from Tiento, from Riva Ceramics, I think she's down in Brighton, I'm not familiar.
Speaker 1:I just met her the other day and I loved what she has Lots of handmade or hand-painted Italian ceramic tiles, artidomus, amazing marble pattern tiles, tiles of Ezra, you know, amazing Zalige patterns, like. It's just so exciting and I think that you just get so much joy from experiencing a space through a patterned floor. I do, anyway, obviously.
Speaker 2:I need to calm down.
Speaker 1:I need to calm down.
Speaker 2:I totally get it, especially floors, and I have a bit of an obsession with terrazzo, kind of I don't know what. It has always been, I think, because I love that kind of pattern. I like kind of graphic, whether it's dots stripes, I like those kinds of pattern. I like kind of graphic, whether it's dots stripes, I like those kind of patterns. I've always loved them. So for me, before I was even in interiors, I had a weird obsession with terrazzo, like how cool it was.
Speaker 2:I just thought I was the only one who thought it was cool.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean to be fair, it wasn't cool for a while. Well, it's actually such a why you see it in all these old buildings is? It's actually such a? It's just why you see it in all these old buildings. It's a super practical, very, very durable floor. So, you know, and it wears in that beautiful way. Like you know, I guess, when you're in italy or europe, then you really see it at its absolute best. But yes, the one of the first things I noticed in the mecca stall was the tarats yeah, so remember, like going to cole's new world as a kid it was like that floor, these big rectangular checkered pattern
Speaker 1:and actually years ago I went to a terrazzo factory in melbourne where they made terrazzo. It was so interesting because they made floors for like the italian restaurants on ligon street they are still there, yeah so wild? Have you seen greg natalia's tile range? He does great.
Speaker 2:I haven't seen it in person, but yes, I don't think I have either, but just online the patterned to right.
Speaker 1:So, as you say, when you said stripes, I was like, oh he does. Amazing stripes, graphic patterns, amazing mosaic patterns as well.
Speaker 2:It's really fun I should order some samples same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're from pirelli, I think, perini. Yes perini, oh, perini, perini and di lorenzo, I think, in sydney. Anyway, it was fun well, funny enough.
Speaker 2:My bonus thing that I'm obsessed with at the moment is to do with mecca oh, weirdly so, um hi, I was talking to a beautiful woman in milan this year and I just I was so distracted I couldn't listen to what she was saying because she just smelled so good and I had to say to her I'm sorry, what is that you smell?
Speaker 2:I don't need. I don't think I've ever smelt anything like this, and she was very reluctant but did tell me in the end what it was. She was sort of a bit, a little bit gatekeeping, but then going it's this? And she did this thing where she kind of like, showed me the bottle and I went I can't even take a photo and when I took the photo she pulled the bottle away, not deliberately, and I didn't want to say to her I didn't get it, cause I was just embarrassed at that point, to the point where I was taking a photo of her perfume, and so I had this blurry photo of the perfume and all I knew was like the color of the bottle and that it was apparently exclusive to Mecca, and so I had to go down this deep dive of trying to find it. Anyway, I found it and unfortunately for me it is very expensive um, I'm surprised, I'm shocked why does this?
Speaker 1:happen to me. Why do?
Speaker 2:I like beautiful, expensive things. Um, you know I'll get it one day, but I don't. I don't, do not own a bottle at present.
Speaker 2:So when I went into the store, one of the first things I did was okay, I'm gonna go smell that and spray it on myself and the days after you know, like the pants I was wearing were just sitting in my cupboard and I'd walk past and I'd go there it is. So it's quite. It's quite. It's nothing like I'm normally like a citrus based scent person. It's like a kind of almost has like a vanillary tone and there's a little bit of sort of dirtiness to it.
Speaker 2:I don't know how I'll look up how to describe it. It's probably a little bit of a tobacco, which is not generally my vibe at all. But the name of it is um maison francesse. Did you say francesse? Or francais, francais, maybe francais caugion, caugion, it's a french name and and the particular one because there's a few different ones in that brand is it's oud o-u-d is the name of the actual, which I think people will know what that is.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of a spiced vanilla. It is woody but it's very, it's quite, actually it's probably quite. What do you call it? Uh, women and men could wear it, kind of thing yeah, right yeah, cool anyway. So that's my side note of I think about it. That's the sort of thing I'm probably having dreams about at the moment I'm excited. Is owning that perfume.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I've become obsessed, so we should start a GoFundMe for our sessions. Sessions, I love that idea $881.
Speaker 2:Do you think people would feel sorry?
Speaker 1:enough for us. Yeah, yeah, there's a link in the bio.
Speaker 2:That's funny.
Speaker 1:Link in the show notes. Yeah, they look sublime, those fragrances. You know, the other night I went to a event for the Italian Center of Commerce or something like that in Australia and it was about design and it made me. They had fragrances there and it was one of those things that I thought oh, how come we don't see many Italian fragrances, when they have amazing fragrances? I got a sample they gave me some on the way out, which was very cool of them, and it's a a room spray, because I know that you're not a big fan of scented candles.
Speaker 2:but I do like the spray.
Speaker 1:Okay, I could do a room spray it's called Dr Varanges and it's from Florence. I'm probably obviously pronouncing that terribly, but I thought that was a super gorgeous gift that they gave me on the way out. And they also have a Atelier Versace fragrance line. It's not your usual one that you see in Maya, it's more of the high-end line and, as you said before they last the fragrances. They last.
Speaker 2:I think that's a really good sign of it. You don't need as much. No, I could probably still have it wash those pants. I reckon if I went upstairs now it'd still be a lovely little smell there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, love it. Have a nice smell of your pants.
Speaker 2:That does sound a bit weird, but smelling the crotch and I'm like it's's not that, it's definitely the perfume.
Speaker 1:You had to go there. You had to go there sorry, sorry, everyone um so anyway well, that was good.
Speaker 2:We both had fragrance stories yeah, yeah, I love it oh okay, oh, thanks, it's been good. What should we do should?
Speaker 1:we put a little like story together or something on our insta, if you wanted to see what we're talking about. Yeah, um, I think I think we should do that or just have your. Maybe you've been googling and stuff as you've been listening, but thanks for thanks for joining us on this chat I know it's.
Speaker 2:Hopefully it was descriptive enough not to have the visuals right in front of you, but yes, we'll definitely yes we'll put links in we'll put links in we'll put it on the socials yeah, and you know what.
Speaker 1:Tell us what your current obsession is as well. I want to know what are we?
Speaker 2:yeah. What are we frothing over? What do you love?
Speaker 1:yes, share, share, yeah good thanks, brie thank you 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.