Design Anatomy

The Home of Lauren Egan: A Masterclass in Colour & Material Harmony

• Bree Banfield and Lauren Li • Season 2 • Episode 21

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What if your home felt like the first moment of autumn—warm, grounded, and quietly fresh? We sit down with colour-obsessed designer Lauren Egan to unpack how a single, emotive brief can guide every choice, from timber and tile to paint and furniture, and deliver a space that breathes. 

Did we mention it appears in the latest issue of The Design Files magazine?

Lauren’s new home is a masterclass in material harmony: spotted gum floors and panelling from one supplier for continuity, pink travertine with beautiful movement, and a glossy burgundy tiled island that’s equal parts durable and nostalgic. She explains why stark white can fight with warm timber, how “dirty” colours with brown or black create calm, and why ceilings painted to match walls can make square-set spaces feel seamless. If you’ve ever stood under fluorescent lights choosing a “white,” you’ll love her undertone method—A4 swatches, side-by-side comparisons, and decisions guided by light, not labels.

We also explore the human side of design. Lauren starts with who lives in the home and builds three themes to steer concept and colour. She shares furniture obsessions (hello, lounge-worthy sofas), the art of balancing caramel warmth with fresh greens, and practical wins like colour-matched grout and sealed tile tops. Her surprising path—from ice cream innovation to interiors—reveals a process-driven, sensory approach that turns brave palettes into livable rooms. Through Designologists & her creative partnership with designer Alison Lewis , she teaches the crucial middle: how to run a colour consult, select stone and tiles, and style with intent.

This is a warm and deeply practical guide to colour confidence. If you’re ready to rethink white, embrace cream, and let your materials lead, press play. Subscribe, share with a design-curious friend, and leave a review telling us the boldest colour you’d try at home.

Web & Socials for Lauren:

Lauren Egan Design + @heylaurenegan

Designologists + @designologists

Bree is now offering a 90-minute online design consult to help you tackle key challenges like colour selection, furniture curation, layout, and styling. Get tailored one-on-one advice and a detailed follow-up report with actionable recommendations—all without a full-service commitment.

Bookings now open - Book now

Join Lauren online for a workshop to help break down the Design steps to run your project & business a little smoother with the Design Process MasterClass, opening 15th October!

For more info see below

The Design Process MasterClass ONLINE

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Design Anatomy, the interior design podcast hosted by friends and fellow designers, me, Bree Banfield.

Speaker 1:

And me, Lauren, Li, with some amazing guest appearances along the way. 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 before we jump in, Lauren, what have you got going on at the moment that you need to tell us about?

Speaker 1:

Um, what's been going on? Um I've had some really fun consultations and stuff the past few weeks. Um, so I've been doing that and I've been doing my stuff in the design society. I'm starting the design process course online. So if you you're a designer listening and you're wanting to figure out like how fees work, when to charge clients, procurement onboarding, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We go through all of that stuff. So that's that's easy online. What's going on with you, Brie?

Speaker 2:

Uh look, honestly, probably a lot of the same. Lots of um consults at this time of year for people who want to just get those last minute things done before Christmas. Everyone's always thinking about um Christmas as some sort of some sort of crazy deadline, aren't they? At this time of year. Like that's the end of the world. You know what's weird as well?

Speaker 1:

It's weird sometimes, clients have this big deadline for Christmas and you really bend over backwards to get everything done for their home and then they go on holidays. They're not even in their home.

Speaker 2:

Don't spend, don't spend any time there. I guess they want it ready for when they get back. Um, but if you're uh not quite sure what to do with um spaces and it doesn't have to be an extensive renovation, it could just be styling a few rooms and working out what's missing, sourcing some product to finish it off. I have a gorgeous client at the moment who I'm sourcing. She's done a lot of the work, the rooms are beautiful, but they're just not quite finished. So I'm just finessing that for her in time for her um big housewarming in November. So that's exciting. That's cute. So just things like that towards the end of the year, I think, is fun to work on, and it's really nice to have those smaller, short-term projects sometimes, isn't it? Like that aren't taking like years and years. Which I agree.

Speaker 3:

I agree, I agree.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so if you're after that, jump in and um or send us a DM on Instagram, and yeah, so fun. Um, how excited are we today to be talking to a fellow colour-obsessed designer? We're talking to Lauren Egan, and we are all believers in the power of colour and how that can affect how you feel in your home. So if this chat won't convert you to living a life immersed in colour, I don't know what will. Welcome, Lauren. That's so true. Hi, Lauren.

Speaker:

Thank you. It's nice to be amongst our fellow colour lovers. Yes, and amongst Laurens, always.

unknown:

True.

Speaker 2:

Surrounded by so many Laurens, it's like it was a big thing in the 80s.

Speaker:

It was, you know, Laurens or Lauras all the way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. We're coming for you, all of the Laurens. So, how do you know Lauren Bree?

Speaker 2:

Uh, I think we've just met through um industry events, but also um you used to assist the beautiful Ruth Wellsby, who's um an amazing stylist, and that's how I would have first known who you were, and then yeah, and then we've caught up a few times now, and you're great to hang out with at um at events. I think we kind of got like-minded likewise that we're that we were drawn to the uh cheese table. Yeah, that's the that's the like-minded thing. It's wine and cheese. Exactly. Yeah, you know your people pretty quick when you enter the room. Exactly. Yes. What about you, um, Lauren Li?

Speaker 1:

I think I first saw that gorgeous house that you've now sold because it was like featured in the design files and it got some really beautiful coverage, and it was gorgeous. The for your own home, it was the kitchen, it was all the furniture curation, and then I don't know, we just sometimes hang out and go see comedy and stuff. Did we do that once? Let's see.

Speaker:

We did go and see comedy together. Was it Allie Wong? Yeah, Ali Wong. Yeah, yeah. I missed out, remember?

Speaker 2:

I was supposed to go back.

Speaker:

I remember the first time I'm I think I met you in person the first time, Lauren was I knew I was like, when I first entered the design industry, I was really bottom-runging it. Um, and I knew that I was like, I need to meet some people, I need to just kind of get out there. And I remember sending you an email and saying, I can help out in an event, or I can, you know, I don't know, come along and be your Girl Friday for what something but not get in your way. And you said, I'm having some industry drinks at my studio. You can come and help serve the drinks if you like. So that's what I did. I came along and I served around champagne and I met a bunch of people, and yeah, it was really fun. And it was, it was a good icebreaker for me because you were like, This is Lauren, she's you know, studying design school, and you know, it wasn't yeah, it was just a nice kind of hey, how you doing without it being, you know, too stuffy or you know, oh god. Yeah, so that was nice of you to yeah, yeah. It was early days when you were still back at South Yara.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh, so fun. Um, welcome to the Design and Anomie podcast. So fun to chat to you, but I just want to start by saying congratulations about the beautiful feature in the Design Files magazine. Thank you.

Speaker:

Yes, it's gorgeous, it's a really beautiful, it's a beautiful edition, but it's a beautiful magazine. It's it is really exciting for me to to be in the pages in real life.

Speaker 1:

I guess you've had a bit of digital coverage, but yeah, as you say, like to be on the pages, and yeah, it's such a it's such a meaty issue, it's such a beautiful issue. This third one. Yeah, yeah. Sandwich can they know in between two.

Speaker 2:

I think it's in my great post office box. I need to go get it now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't know. I for some reason get two. I think I subscribed annually, and last one I I bought it as well because I'd forgotten, but I'm still getting two. I'm not complaining. Um, but anyway, um one for different rooms of the house.

Speaker:

Yeah, I feel like I need to get a second one because I keep schlapping this one with me everywhere. Many pristine of them.

Speaker 2:

I know. What do you mean? So okay, now I've got a vision in my head of you walking around just the supermarket going, hey, this is my house. See, I'm in a magazine, the cashier, the guy doing the fruit in the deli.

Speaker:

Yeah, I've had friends come around. I'm like, come and have a look at the magazine in the kitchen that's in the magazine.

Speaker 2:

That's so cool. Kind of, yeah. Um, we don't need to look at the magazine, we're actually in the house at times.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is very exciting. Can you tell us a bit about this house? How did it all come about?

Speaker:

Yeah. So uh wow, we we we bought it about three years ago and we were sort of gung-ho. We were like, let's get in there and we'll start doing it, and we'll you know, um, we'll get our architects on board and um, you know, do a beautiful design. And then sort of three years later, we um were ready to move in. Three and a half. I think it takes it was a really long process. It takes longer than you think.

Speaker 2:

It always is.

Speaker:

It takes longer than you think. Uh and yeah, it it was um a really collaborative process um with Project 12 architecture. They've been great. They did our last house as well, and we have a really good um flow. So I don't like to do um a lot of joinery detailing, and I don't like to do a lot of the um kind of I can't well, I don't do walls as a rule. So they were amazing with the internal kind of layout and a lot of yeah, the joinery layout, and then I kind of swooped in with materiality and colour, obviously, and all the soft things and then the things I love, like furniture and art and all those sort of pieces that I've been collecting along the way. So yeah, it was all you know, I really love doing my own house, and some people don't love doing it. Um, find it really intimidating and scary to kind of make those final decisions. But for me, it's just yeah, it's just a really fun thing to do.

Speaker 1:

So no doubt.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's on your own project. I find um I can make decisions really quickly and quite decisively for clients. I seem to know exactly what needs to be done. But for my own house, I can procrastinate forever about like choosing between two colors or is this what I really want here? I don't know what it is. Maybe because we're exposed to too many choices and we don't have you almost, I think the way I would have to do it is create a brief for myself and then refer back to it to keep me on track. Did you find that hard when you're working on your own house? Or did you just instinctively know what you wanted to do?

Speaker:

Some things were really easy. So hard materials I found really easy. I had a clear vision, I wanted it to have that feeling of when the leaves start to change in autumn. That was kind of my like yeah, sort of big picture, what I wanted it to feel like. So warm tones, but still cool, you know, still like, you know, a bit fresh. Um and so that made it really easy to, you know, burgundies and timbers, um, sort of muted colours. But the harder things were like the colours, it took a little quite a bit of finessing for me to do that final leap and that final, yes, this is what we're going with. Um and furniture, I guess most of the furniture is stuff I already had. So there's a couple of pieces that I found that were perfect. But yeah, the things that I do every day were harder than the things that I do sort of more sporadically. As early as a nice. Yeah. But it it definitely helped to have that big picture in mind and that sort of one key idea, which is something I do in my projects as well for my clients, because you really have to get in people's heads.

Speaker 2:

And what a beautiful concept, too. I absolutely love that. The feeling of when the leaves first start to change. Is that what it was?

Speaker:

Yeah. Gorgeous. Yeah, so everything's kind of like hot colours, but browning as well. Yeah. So yeah. Um, and that was part of the breef for the garden as well. We worked with Mud Office and doing a garden, and um, yeah, so they've got some beautiful things that'll turn in autumn and are now sort of budding out out in the window at the moment at the moment. So yeah, special part of the the build is the garden.

Speaker 1:

Actually, Mira, it's Miri, isn't it? Yeah, she just goes around the corner from me. She's she's dropped in. Can you just describe some of the finishes for somebody listening?

Speaker:

Yeah. So there's a lot of spotted gum in here. Um, and we've used the same supplier, um, big river timber on the floors, the wall panels, and the joinery. So there's there's a lot of timber, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. It just feels, you know, you can be surrounded by a lot of beautiful kind of foresty eras, uh timber, woody areas, and not feel overwhelmed. So it does feel quite natural. So that was kind of the the starting point for the materiality. And that was something that Project 12 came to us with the idea for to use that a lot in the wall panels and kind of thing. And to use um, I guess to match that as well, we use lots of tiles and different types of um burgundy kind of tiles and very textural tiles, um, which was really fun to choose. But because we're using such such sort of um materials with depth, it was really important to me to choose colours and textures that added to that rather than, you know, for if there were white walls there, it would feel like a really strong distinction between quite a heavy spotted gum timber and white. And I think that that would feel quite stark, too highly contrasting.

Speaker 2:

Yes, spotted gum can be very tricky to work with, I think. Yeah, it's very warm and it has a lot of variation, doesn't that?

Speaker:

Lots of variation, yeah. And the technique that they use for the panels is that they kind of um sort of scrape it as a big roll so that they're really big, wide, almost stretched panels of veneer. Um, and so you do get a lot of grainy movement in there, and sometimes they're a bit yellow, and sometimes they're a bit brown.

Speaker 2:

What makes it so beautiful though, isn't it, with spotted gumlet? I think if you if you like that, I can't I struggle with it for myself, it's got way too much warmth in it. Yeah, but um I can see how people love it because it's just got that I think the variation and all the grain and it's such a beautiful timber, like it has so much character.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Yeah, I really and it and it, you know, exactly that's exactly the point is that if you do have it with quite a um, you know, a I guess a modern kind of approach to your interiors, then maybe it's not the the right material to use. But when it's um paired with lots of sort of very muted colours, and um that's what we made, you know, a lot of uh decisions were made around making that timber feel settled um and not and not sort of too contrasty.

Speaker 1:

And you've got this beautiful pink trap pink travertine bench top and splash back, which again it's it's a it's like it's an equal weight of um character, which it just works. And you mentioned the tiles before, and people just cannot fathom tiled bench tops, but I am so here for it. I love tiled bench tops. Beautiful. So, how did you decide on that material for your bench top, your sort of main island bench?

Speaker:

Well, I think because we were using that pink travertine and there's a lot of movement and um in that stone, um, it was really cool to have something that was quite slick in the space as well. So the tiles that are quite a burgundy sort of brown tile that we've got, um, and they're highly glossy. So it's a really nice contrast to you know the timbers and the the pink travertine that are, you know, got a lot of movement. It's very kind of calm sort of contrast to um the rest of the the products in there. So um, yeah, the tile bench top, everybody loves it. They come in and they just want to touch it. Touch it. It's very nostalgic for people. There, you know, my mom had yeah, or we had it back in our house, or my man had it. Um, so yeah, I mean, there is a bit of a 70s kind of colour palette and a bit of a colour, a bit of feel about it, um, the house. So the the tiled bench top kind of makes sense. But it's beautiful. People should do it. It's easy, it's fine, it's great. Right. I mean, what you'll love it. That's quite the worst could happen. Yeah. Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

Speaker:

What colour grout have we got? Colour matched grout, so you don't sort of see any spots or anything like that. And then it's um it's all been sealed as well. So I mean, there was anything. There's a bit of upcape.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um I think that's it. Yeah. It's like any kind of stone too is going to. I think with a tiled bench top, it is super durable. Obviously, the tiles are really durable generally. But as long as you're yes, sealing the ground, and then it's not like a really I think if it's like a paler colour or something, maybe you might get some stains in it. But as long as you don't expect it to be perfect. Yeah. And I think if you have a tile surface like that, you're not expecting it to be. You want a bit of kind of like five to be okay with it. Right. Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. You have to, you know, know what you're going in for before you start. One of the original plans was that we were going to have a um a copper um bench top um instead of the full trevatine. Yeah, which would have been amazing, beautiful. But also, that's not for everyone either.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it would pertain to be like crazy, right? And it's very when you first start out, it's gonna change. But I think that's why it's amazing. That would be like by the time you'd gone a few years down the road, it'd be like a different bench top, but it would have, I don't know, or hold all the memories of all the things that had happened in that kitchen, basically.

Speaker:

It's a nice way. Exactly. Yeah. So I feel like I'd like it after the two years. The two years in between, I'd be like, oh, so many, so many. Yeah, because it's the first scratch on the timber floor.

Speaker 2:

Like, and you're like, no, but you just gotta kind of let it once they all join up.

Speaker 1:

Um is there a single white wall in your house?

Speaker:

No, no white walls. Um weird. The painters found it a bit weird. Um but no, and no, you know, the ceilings are the same colour as the walls. The um pretty much the build went back to um the frame and the roof. So all of the um ceilings are square set and um so there's no cornices or you know, ornate ceilings or anything like that. So it made sense to paint the walls and the ceilings the same colour. So no, and it doesn't nobody walks in and goes, Oh, it's really it's too much colour. We need we need some white in here. Yeah, oh, I need some relief. Um there I I think was there four internal colours, which is not that many. I mean, I do a lot of colour specifying and I've done way more than that. Yeah, yeah, and two outdoor colours, two exterior colours. So yeah, and it's just that we've used colour, you know, my daughter's bedroom is the same colour as our bedroom, but they've got different aspects, so they look very different. Yes. Um, the same with the hallway compared to my son's bedroom or the office that I'm in now. And I mean, if you can see anything um on the visuals, it looks like a neutral white-ish kind of colour. But when you sort of come into the space, it's actually kind of a um neutral green in this space. And what colour is that, Lauren? Do you know I've had um Sir Julux Kahlua milk?

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, I know the one. Beautiful. It's quite warm, right? But like the tiny imprints of green.

Speaker:

Yeah, exactly. I love all those very dirty colours, they're very earthy. They've always got a bit of brown in them, a bit of black, just to kind of mucky them up a little bit. They're my favorite colours. They make me feel yeah, comfortable.

unknown:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, they're quite calming. It sounds like a very calming house to me. Like having all the warmth and um, I guess, natural, natural timber, which Lauren has talked about Laurelie's talked about a bit, is such a calming, like it grounds us, right? We're calm around those natural materials.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah. And I guess there is the danger of being cloying, um, that everything feels a bit too like, you know, bit caramel or a bit sort of sickly. Um, so we tried to have some fresh sort of green colours throughout and the beautiful dining table, which is um made by um Maid Design in Melbourne. Um, we coloured that in a in a green colour as well, just to like you need some relief sometimes. Yeah, it's a beautiful contrast. Brown and yeah. Did you do many custom pieces? That was the only piece that we had um that we needed for the space. The dining and the kitchen are quite near each other, and um it needs to be a bit of a thoroughfare as well. So the dining table we had just wasn't appropriate, so you have to get something made.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's cool. You sort of mentioned then, you know, it could be quite a lot of that caramel, like sickly thing. Do you have any like rules of like I would never use a colour like that or something? Do you have any like colour don'ts that you wouldn't do?

Speaker:

Yeah, probably. Um I I re I find um very primary colours everywhere are really intense. Sometimes it's fun to be, you know, in a in a space that needs to be very bright, vibrant. Um, you can get away with it in there, but I always tend to err with clients um on those sort of earthier sides of things. Um in the last house that I did that we lived in, there was an electric blue study nook, and that was really fun, but I I wouldn't do a whole room in that that would feel really intense and just not very relaxing. So, unless it's for a purpose, um, I probably wouldn't do really intense primary colours. Um, and I'd probably try and steer someone towards a more earthy tone that might make them feel a bit calmer. Depends what they're using the room for always.

Speaker 1:

Um I think it's those colours that you you sort of use, and I've seen you you use in projects, they've got like a bit of that dirtiness to it that just makes it like really interesting as well. And in different lights, they change. So it's that's kind of cool.

Speaker:

Yeah, those chameleon colours that they just change through the day the best. Do you have any colour predictions? Um, I was thinking about that um because all the Paris Fashion Week is sort of happening at the moment, and that's always a bit of a sign of what's to come. Um, I know red is really in at the moment, and I've used red um in this house a little bit. Um, but I feel like that might start to sort of push towards sort of oranges a little bit more, um, sort of those hotter oranges, and then paired with really soft caramelly kind of tones. But there there's also lots of like creams going on. So I wonder if creams might start coming back in if we, you know, and the world's so crazy at the moment, who knows what we'll decide to do. Maybe we'll go back to like vivid white. Please don't.

Speaker 2:

No, I would agree on the creams. It sounds really daggy too when we talk about creams because I think there was a long time where a cream was considered to be very jaggy, and there's like I think there's a colour or it might be a powder colour or something that was on a lot of those aluminium frames, that clotted cream colour, and it's the worst name too. Um so that there's definitely some some icks around cream. But then if you think about when we started to see browns again, everyone's like, oh, brown, mission brown, rah-rah. I think cream is kind of just basically we're just softening the whites. So it sounds like a scary word, cream, but I think all the whites are becoming way more complex when they're being used, and there's going to be a lot less of a vivid, vivid white lexicon quarter situation. I think it's definitely gonna kind of start going into that sort of more ecru and um yeah, no, I agree. And it's because of like this, you can't, I think when we have so much, so many warm colours being on the rise and continuing to be, you know, definitely a trend, the whites have to move with it. You can't kind of all have all these sort of blue-based lights next to that because it just doesn't work, right?

Speaker:

That's right. Yeah. And I and I I mean I'm interested in your thoughts too, you guys, but what's what's a white these days? Because I mean, I sound like I'm poo-pooing white, but you know, white's great. You know, you just it's the the the right white for the right purpose.

Speaker 2:

Um I don't even know what's true.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah. And I think white is still a colour in paint land. Um, it's just and it's finding the right white for how people want to be able to do that. Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, people who have had to go and select a white understand exactly what you're talking about. Because in layman's terms, people will go, well, I'll just paint my house white. And I've talked about it being, it's a default colour, it's not actually a choice. People just go, oh, it's like you don't choose a colour, it ends up being white, but then they don't realize exactly that. What is white, which one, where do you want to go? And you can kind of keep going away from white right to a point where you then you sort of go, Oh, is it now a neutral or a beige? Like it's there's this line there of what's considered to be white.

Speaker:

Yeah, I feel like that's why.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure there's a technical definition for it. It's probably how much colour gets added to the formula before it's not a white anymore. I'm gonna ask one of my dual as friends that question.

Speaker 1:

Be prepared. But I think it was in well, I was just gonna say it was interesting what you said before with your home and you've got that figured uh spotted gum, which is like a beautiful warm walnut colour. People would think, okay, well, that's quite busy. Let's counter that with a vivid white, with quite a stark white. Oh, sorry. But that's what people think we need. Yeah. That's quite warm. Let's do something really fresh. But in actual fact, it's so highly contrasting, it causes more.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Whereas I think, you know, it doesn't feel settled.

Speaker 2:

It's like, did you use that word? Yeah, that was beautiful. Settling the timber in the space. That's exactly what you need to do by surrounding it with colours that are closer to its tone. And it doesn't have to be really saturated, but even if it is a white, choosing the right one to sort of, I don't know, counter it a bit, right?

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I mean, I if if I'm helping a client choose a white, I've got, you know, 30 whites in my kit, and the way we do it is um put a bunch of the colours that I think will work in the space up on the wall in A4 um swatches, and then take away the ones that you don't like. Yeah, kind of magically left with maybe one, but it's two or three that work in the space. And um inevitably they sometimes even put the same colour up and they'll leave the same colour on the wall. So there is, they are choosing the thing that they like the best that looks best to their eye in that space. And it's still a white though.

Speaker 2:

Like if you show it to them flat, you know, on the horizontal, they like without being compared to it's like you know, obviously we all know between the three of us that white, uh particularly white, but any colour is all about comparison and what it's next to as to how it looks. So you could say, Oh, that's white, and then you put it next to like a bivid white, and then you go, Oh wow, hang on, this has a lot of colour in it. But on its own, you go, yeah, it's a white.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, people will say, Oh, that looks purple, and then they look at you like you're crazy.

Speaker:

Yeah, what it's like when they do, when they do start to see those undertones, they're like, Oh, I see why this is like useful to do, and how I could have just walked into Bunnings and looked at that big giant wall of colour and be intimidated by it. Um, how you can just choose something that's like looks good in bunnings with fluorescent lighting overhead, but you can't.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure that happens all the time, right?

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

How much light affects colour is crazy.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Like you said, you've got the same colour in two different rooms in your house, and yes, it it still reads us two different colours.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Yeah. Um, when you're working with clients, Lauren, and you you know you mentioned the paint colours, but where do you start with the concept? Is it colour or is it the architecture or is it artwork? Does it depend? I mean where do you sort of start or is it last? Is colour last?

Speaker:

Um I I think it's always in my brain what colours might work, but if I'm doing a project that sort of colour and furnishings, uh then it's me trying to figure out, you know, what kind of person or people live in this house. And, you know, um, I I tr always try and do um three themes, three key themes for my clients. So it's kind of getting to the crux of who they are, but you know, obviously they've come to me for some professional advice. So I guess they like the style that I produce as well. So it's a bit of a mash of that. So yeah, it's getting into their brain, and then I tend to be able to just kind of um know what will work thereafter. But I always like to do that colour process with them, kind of um makes people feel like they're um involved in the process and that they're being listened to and that it's how their space wants to feel. Um, but maybe I do put in a few like that are more in the realm of where I'm hoping for it to move, just to, you know, people want to be challenged as well and and not winky cutter. Um so yeah, I think it's it's a it's a bit of everything. If they've got a key piece that they really want to, you know, continue to use, then that's definitely part of um if you've got a sofa that's already in there, or you know, maybe they've got three dogs and it's really important that you know we choose.

Speaker 2:

You need to match the fabric colour to the dog.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

To the dog firm.

Speaker:

Or consider the the fiber guard protection on the fabric.

Speaker 1:

There is that too. Easy just to match the sofa colour to the dog though. That's a good one, Bree. Yeah, I'll write that down. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker:

Um, yeah, so uh it's a bit of a mixture. It depends, it depends on the client, but it is always the client is kind of the key. And I when I first um when someone first contact me contacts me, I will give them a quick questionnaire just to find out a little bit about them before we have a chat, so I can kind of get a sense of what they are after and who lives in the house, that kind of thing.

Speaker 1:

Which yeah. And it is, it is funny. You might have a colour in your mind, but and you might grab your swatches or whatever and think, oh, it's not going to be that colour, but I'll just bring it in case. And then you put it in the room and you just go, Oh my god, this looks so different. And it was the sort of the wild card, and it ends up being the amazing colour. So it's yeah, I think it's so as as you said, you know, the Bunnings light, this light, it's so informs what it's gonna be. It's cool.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I think what I got to chat to with you, Lauren. Remember how we had that styling project? Was um it was a really tough one. You were so amazing, you were so not on that. That's right, on that shoot. Yeah, that shoe. Yeah, it was really big. It was like and I had like an under one-year-old baby, like I was trying to breastfeed, Phil came in, all of it. But um, you brought in some gorgeous pieces and you just held the whole thing together. It was amazing. But we were we were chatting on the sofa and I did not know about your previous career. Can you tell us a bit about how you got into interior design?

Speaker:

Yes, it was a natural progression from um food science um into interior design. Totally, yeah, it happens all the time. Side step. Yeah. Um, yeah, I I yeah did a science degree um at uni and got into food science, and um a lot of my career was spent working in ice cream um and colour, which I'll maybe get to in a minute.

Speaker 2:

But you let that go. I would have loved to have worked with ice cream.

Speaker 1:

I know. I sometimes say if everything turns pear-shaped, you'll see me at the local ice cream place scooping ice cream, don't I? Because everyone's happy, like get getting, but you weren't doing that though. You were right at the the top of the I don't know, ice cream command chain.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I was. I was yeah, captained the helm of ice cream. Um I'm sure people would dispute that. Um, yeah, there's so I worked in innovation department, and that's sort of in between marketing and um production, and it's kind of nuancing flavors and then upscaling things um into the factory. And yeah, it was really fun. I worked on some really cool projects, pun intended. And um I guess I sorry, that just took me a second. So it's an old school ice cream gag. Um, yes, so of those are gonna scoop you up.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, sorry.

Speaker:

I mean, this the shine does come off being um a technologist in an ice cream factory when you go to taste ice cream at eight o'clock in the morning every day.

Speaker 2:

But I was about to say, so does that wear off? Because I'm quite ice cream obsessed.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And the idea of having a job where I just get to like taste ice cream and check it out. You're is there times though when you've tasted it and going, oh my god, that's horrible? Like, do you have to go through that as well? So it's not all good.

Speaker:

Yeah, when you're doing new flavours for sure, you you're like, oh, that one's got a little bit of a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Well, what's the craziest you've had to taste? Can you think of well?

Speaker:

I mean, there were some projects where you're sort of trying to match something, so you put in sort of all sorts of combinations of things. I mean, same with you know, smelling perfume after like three or four, you're like, oh no, it's all it's all strawberry now. Um, but I it I mean, you have to when you go for the tastings, you have to be quite objective as well. So you're kind of eating it and you know, is there a taint in that or is there a graininess to it? Is it too icy? So um, yeah, that everyone wanted to do the afternoon shift ice cream tasting. Yeah, but fewer people turning up for the 8 a.m. Yeah. It really wakes you up. Um, and you do certainly I came away with a sugar habit for sure.

Speaker 2:

Um I already have one, it would be enabling me.

Speaker:

Um, but yeah, and then I moved away from ice cream into a different section of that business, and it was uh yeah, it was just a more of a business shift, and I it just didn't work for me and I had a couple of kids in the meantime, and that was challenging with you know lifestyle. Um and yeah, I just sort of thought to myself one day if I reimagined what I wanted to do, if it wasn't even in this industry, what would I do? And it was um a a field in in sort of interiors um or architecture, and I'd been back to uni. Had you always been interested in it?

Speaker 2:

Like or is that just yeah, okay.

Speaker:

I had, yeah. Like my my third preference to go to uni was architecture, and like oh wow. I don't know, no one's gonna go, oh third preference, great, yeah, you're in, um, no worries. But what was the second? I I think one the first one was food science, and the second one were earth sciences and okay that's a throw.

Speaker 2:

Science, science, architecture.

Speaker:

I know there's a bit of um a little bit of an earworm I think.

Speaker 2:

I guess it's creativity though. I feel like for me, science is about curiosity, and I in my the way I approach things, it's definitely, I don't know, from a curiosity perspective. So it's it is kind of creative trait to be curious, right?

Speaker:

Yeah, I think so. And that the jobs that I landed in food science world were were creative roles, you know, and um finally being sort of in marketing roles, that kind of thing. So um, yeah, there there's always a way to kind of for your, you know, natural state to kind of find its place. But yeah, it was just time for me to do something different. And I thought, okay, well, I'll just do I'll do it for a year and see how I go. And at that time, he also had um my partner had a photography studio. Um, he's a photographer, and I kind of started helping out with that part of the business, and then I started doing style assisting, and I really just it was so fun. It was it it was uh backbreaking, but it was really fun.

Speaker 2:

And I just not an easy one, is it?

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah. I just enjoyed the people that I was around and it was um a really nice industry to be a part of, and so it made it easier to do something that I loved and that I was like invested in and and be in a community that I was really um happy to be in.

Speaker 1:

Was it what you expected when you started?

Speaker:

Yeah, I did I I honestly I kind of went in pretty blind and I was like, I'll just do this course and I'll, you know, meet some people and maybe the you know the ultimate dream was to well, I sort of didn't know if I wanted to be a business owner or if I wanted to work for someone, but I just sort of started doing my own things and that first project that you mentioned before, which was my house, did get a bit of momentum, and so you know, you then you get your first client and your second and then you're sort of doing it. But yeah, I mean there were times that it was really slow and I was like, what have I done? We all think you know, yeah, yeah, it certainly wasn't like great, you know, um hitting sixes all the time. It was, you know, hard work and putting yourself out there in awkward situations and putting yourself out there with social media and oh it's exhausting. Yeah, that's hard.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. But also, you know, to enter into the interior design industry, you know, you said that um your home was sold on uh the last lockdown, is that right?

Speaker:

Yeah, so after the last lockdown.

Speaker 1:

So, I mean, yeah, you we've had COVID and lockdowns, and then post-COVID, and then this cost of living crisis. So it's really been quite turbulent out there. So you just enter into a new industry and you're like, um, is this normal? Or is I I don't know if it's normal. It's kind of I guess what they say, the new normal. But um, so were you wanting to, you sort of said you took on one job, you tried to take on another job, and then before you know it, you're like, oh my god, I'm running my own business. Was that kind of what you thought it would be?

Speaker:

Or I probably thought that I would work for someone else. Um and yeah, then I I think COVID was the real sort of, well, I don't know about that kind of that's not gonna really fly in the next couple of years. Um I was lucky that I was able to work in partnership with Glenn and he's been amazing at being supportive. So that was, you know, without having his kind of backing, um, it would have been really difficult. Um, but I guess because we had that sort of pause for COVID, I was able to do some, I guess it was like then I sort of slipped into marketing a bit maybe and just went, okay, how how do I want to be thought about? If I've got this little bit of time on my hands, how do I want my brand, which is also me, to be perceived? So yeah, it that took a bit of that gave me the space to to do those backgrounds. Yeah. That's really smart.

Speaker 2:

Working on the business and yeah. Especially before you kind of sometimes that just happens organically, and you don't if you don't sort of take control of that at the start, it can kind of go off in a direction that you don't necessarily want it to go into.

Speaker:

So yeah, yeah, totally. You're like, oh, just jump on Canva and create a logo and there you go. I sort of was able to to do it and you know, do a bit of, you know, who do I want to work with and um how do I want people to understand the work that I do? So I think that was, you know, fortuitous. I mean, I wasn't getting, I didn't have that really sharp uptake in clients that some people did during COVID because their brand was sort of what more well established and understood and their businesses. So yeah, I guess uh Glenn always says you gotta zig when people zag. And um so I guess you gotta just kind of find your spot, find your niche and figure out you know where to push.

Speaker 2:

Um, and yeah, that's that's how I we uh you were working, I think you mentioned before that you did end up kind of in marketing when you were in food. So do you feel like that's helped in the way you've approached how to work out? Because not, I think you know, we talk about it all the time that um when you study design, we don't really get taught all of that stuff if you're working for yourself. Like, and even if you work for a firm watching how they decide to market themselves, there is a whole, there's all the roles in one when you're yourself in a business. So has that really helped to kind of have a bit more of an understanding of, I guess, marketing in general?

Speaker:

I think so. And I think it it's to understand that it is a brand. I mean, it is tricky when the brand is you, but um, it's what's the essence? Like what's your point of difference? And without it being too, you know, it doesn't have to be too navel gazing. Um, it's just how do you fit into the world and how does the person that wants to work with you find you? And how do they it's it's again like the same as colour, it's you know, it's a feeling that you get when you find that person that you want to work with. And I guess it's making doing the right things to make sure that they have enough information so that you've got an Instagram page that helps people, and I'm terrible at updating my Instagram, but you know, it's a a reference point for people, but maybe they're getting most of their information from your website. So your website has to be really informative and maybe you know, have lots of imagery to demonstrate, you know, final outcomes. And then you do have to have a presence outside of those, which you know, something like Design Files magazine, um, an article that you maybe you've quoted in, and that gives people confidence that okay, she knows she knows things, what she's talking about, and your branding.

Speaker 1:

Your branding is so beautiful and it is kind of so you, like it's really cool and it's beautiful colours. And do you can you share with us, if you don't mind, who you worked with on that?

Speaker:

Um, that was the beautiful Annie Portelli, who's on front design files full circle.

Speaker 1:

It's so it's so beautifully done. Um, you mentioned before about you know zigging and zagging and finding your own niche. Like, what is your niche? What do you see your niche as being?

Speaker:

I think it's definitely got colour in it. And that was really fortuitous that I I ended up working with Ruth on a lot of the Haymes photo shoots. And then as I was coming out of doing um style assisting, they were like, Okay, well, we've got this colour consultant job that we'd like you to help us out with. And so that gave me sort of um, I didn't know that you thought with Haymes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so that gave me some grounding and some sort of background in and how to do colour consultations, and that kind of became a nice platform for me. And and then from there it meant that I was able to push more into soft furnishings and and furnishings, which is, I guess, my one true obsession.

Speaker 2:

Um it's your one true obsession. Okay, you need to expand on that comment.

Speaker:

What okay, what is it?

Speaker 2:

Fabrics and things, like what is it?

Speaker:

I just think furniture is so cool. That's it.

Speaker 2:

Is it the soft furnishings part of furniture or is it just furniture in general?

Speaker:

I think it's the shapes and the colours and how and I like being able to, you know, I kinda I quite like doing SketchUp myself still and figuring out what piece to go where and how it all fits in and dimensions and still a bit sort of, you know, bit of a science brain that still needs to be um massaged every now and then. So yeah, the the so I guess I'm found it's I I've been really lucky that the things that I really love um were things that I could sort of push into the the business that I wanted to create. So yeah, I don't know which came first, but probably the obsessive bit.

Speaker 1:

All of it above all of the above. Um do you have any, like, are you coveting any furniture or can you share any places where you source furniture?

Speaker:

I mean, I think about couches a lot. Um and I know that the modern cloud is one of your favorites as well, Lauren.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's extremely comfortable. Extremely comfortable. It's really, really hard to find something else once you've sat in that. So yeah, this sofa, it's by Casino and it's designed by Patricia Ochiola, and you can get it from Mobilia. And I've taken clients in there, and we we just sat on that thing for a good 20 minutes. We we didn't want to move. My clients are obsessed with it. Yeah, they literally don't have a house yet, but we know we're having that sofa. But they're building the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's a pretty the house is being designed just around the slab.

Speaker 1:

Pretty much we literally had to move some of the the slab was affected. We had to really yeah, because we had to fit in the three-seater MonCloud, like it had to be done. So um, yeah, and it's sustainable.

Speaker:

Snew clients that I'm meeting this week, and I've already said I I think I know the couch. I know I don't want to pigeonhole you guys, but what's it like?

Speaker 1:

Like Oprah, you get one, you get one.

Speaker 2:

I need to get on board. I have not gone down this route yet. Oh, but I keep hearing about it. I'm like, okay, I need to put it into the repertoire. It takes a few boxes for sure.

Speaker:

I mean, yeah, yeah. And I also love, you know, not everyone's buying a MonCloud, not everyone's able to shop.

Speaker 2:

What's the price point? Like it's are we talking kind of okay? So if I'm going to Jardan to buy something of the same size, is it still more expensive than that? Compared to about the same. It's affordable. I think that's why doing well, I think. It sits into that bracket where I think all of us have clients that would invest that much in that key piece, right? So it's sort of yeah, okay.

Speaker:

Yeah. And I feel like, you know, the way we sit on sofas has changed a lot in the last 10 years, you know, is you don't sit on a sofa these days that much. You lounge on a sofa. It's a really great lounging sofa in and but it's a great sofa to lounge on that's just in a sofa configuration. Elegant still. Not yeah. Sometimes you have to go for a more modular, but this is quite nice as a single standalone. Yeah. Um, so that's very special. I I one day, like the couch that I have at the moment, I've had since 2011 or something. So it's been, you know, good stint. Um, and but I just I can't make that decision. That's what you were talking about earlier, Brie where you just can't do your own thing. It's really hard.

Speaker 2:

That's not one that you're gonna change again for a while once you've seen it.

Speaker:

No, that's right. And then is the more important thing. So some people the design is more important, and some people the fabric is more important. And maybe I could find a sofa that's like very reasonably priced and get an amount of fabric. And that's right. Sort of, I don't know which way to turn. Yeah, tough life. First world problems.

Speaker 1:

Oh well, I for my sofa, it probably is not the most expensive sofa. So when I um went to Ikea the other day, went down to Freedom, my girls sat on a recliner for the first time, and they will not stop talking about it because of the comfort. We're not having a recliner. Damn recliners. I know, but different priorities, still that's right.

Speaker 2:

I feel like you can achieve it. Sorry, I mean I'm very much against a recliner too, but like um, I might as well mention my sofa now. So I have an EVA every day, and it's one of the best affordable sofas. It's quite comfortable. But what I love is like I have the ottoman, so I just slide that. It's not that hard. And I can kind of lay down and watch, like it just changes the whole thing. So a little bit of modularity is good.

Speaker:

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, yeah. And it yeah, it has to be loungy. It has you have to be able to lay on it in my house.

Speaker 2:

The sitting room is for sitting and the living room is for lounging. Yeah, yeah. If you have a sitting room. So for the becoming more beds for sure. Yeah, yeah, right. That's so true.

Speaker 1:

Um, Lauren, you're really great at, I guess, nurturing a community, an interior design community in some ways, like you know, events and things. And you have a sort of, would you say it's like another business? Could you talk about the design knowledge? Side hustle. Yeah, it's a design knowledge.

Speaker 2:

I love the word. Yeah, it's so great. Yeah, it's a little science-y, actually, isn't it? That's not not even sure that's not by accident.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah. And that's with um my mate Allison Lewis, and she has a background in finance, so we are a little bit, you know, we're both a bit. I love Allison.

Speaker 2:

She's beautiful.

Speaker:

Um, yeah, I think and the whole premise with designologists would that sometimes you get the the book knowledge from design um courses, but maybe not like how to put into practice. Like that first day that you go and see a client, what do you do? Like you walk in the door and you're like, I'm here to do a colour consult. And then what how do you do that? Like, you do you walk in and go, This is a colour for you? Probably not. You probably go in, so it's it's explaining to people the concept of like what I was explaining before of putting the cards up on the wall, the nuts and bolts of like how you arrive at a colour. And then it's imparting that confidence to somebody that they can walk in to a client's house and they know more than that client, and it's you know, it takes a bit of building up um over time. But yeah, yeah, if you if you're willing to put yourself out there and you want to, you just need those kind of couple of little like light bulb moments and a bit of um history and how other people have done it. Totally. So that's how we sort of came up with a designologist. So it was um a colour workshop, and then Alison's um background is in more materials, so stone and tiles. And so she really sort of imparted a lot of great knowledge about how to make selections of those things with clients. Um, and then the last one we did was with the um and she did a styling session, which was really fun. So maybe it's styling, yeah, for sale of a home, maybe it's styling for a magazine, maybe it's styling for your own brand and just kind of giving people, I guess, more than just, you know, here's the idea and here's the finished product. Like, how do you actually go about doing those things and why would you do them? So yeah, it was really fun. And I think we'll continue to do those in person for a while and maybe we'll sort of convert some of that information into some downloadable information as well for people because it is hard to do in person all the time because people are all over the place.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a big ask as well for to have somebody take a day out of their busy lives to meet up in person. But that sounds like a great idea if you can download something and take in that information and then off you go. Because you're right. I mean, you do cover a lot when you're studying interior design, whether it be a certificate or a diploma. But actually, what does it look like stepping into a client's home? I mean, shouldn't that be like the first day one 101?

Speaker 2:

But no, we don't really get taught that at all. No, no, there's so much of that that's not taught. I mean, it's yeah, I get it. There's also a lot of other stuff that we need to learn. So maybe it's just yeah, the next step, which is great that now we have um like both of you are doing things where there's access to that for people who are in the industry and need a little more guidance on kind of the practicalities of the business side of things, right? And how we do stuff.

Speaker 1:

It's fun too, isn't it? To talk about colour all day with people.

unknown:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

The best time. Yeah. So what is next for Lauren Egan? That's a good question.

Speaker:

I think um picking up the kids, no. Yeah, I do.

Speaker 2:

Actually, I'm leaving right now for you later.

Speaker:

I but it actually mentioning the keys, I think it it does there is a balance that needs to be held. I mean, I do have, you know, great ambitions to do beautiful work and work with clients that that we're both getting something out of it. And it'd be fun to do maybe a commercial project here and there. But it's also got to be the balance between my life and my work life. Um, and that's always been key for both Glenn and myself that we have enough time to be with the family and have um, yeah, still, still we're not just sort of like a duck in a pond, kind of paddling away furiously. And yeah, so I think it's working towards a good life balance, but also, you know, having enough work that keeps coming in and and and being fulfilled by by both aspects of life.

Speaker 1:

Well, if you figure it out, could you please let me know? Yeah, I will. Yep.

Speaker:

There's a few of us who need to know.

Speaker 2:

Spreadsheet.

Speaker:

Oh, it's so Ebon. How old are your kids, Lauren? They're um 11 and 9. Yeah. Yeah. So kind of coming into independence. Yeah. Lots of activities. Um high school next year.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I think people forget. I mean, I've been through quite a few phases now, but it's funny how even when people sort of say to you, Oh, and the kids go back to school, you can go and do XX next. But with that comes, I mean, obviously, there's a period during the day when the kids aren't around that disappears like sands through the hourglass like crazy. But I feel like also there's all of the other stuff. There's like then comes homework and supervising that. And you know, there's a lot of stuff that people forget. Like, you don't, the kids just don't kind of exist on their own. You've got to factor that in. And I love the fact that you're both looking at it also from a partnership of how that works. And that's like I love that that was your answer because I don't think I think most people would have just gone straight to a career thing, and then you're saying, Well, no, life is integrated with that.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah. Especially in our house where we both work from home and so the kids do see us at work all the time, and we're sort of like off you go and watch TV while we sit here in front of a computer screen.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, no, I'm familiar with that.

Speaker:

Yeah. Like that. Yeah. But that you know, that we do have flexibility to go, okay, well, it's you know, time to go to basketball training or um, you know, it's the best down to the shops.

Speaker 2:

It's probably one of the pros, right? Of working definitely. Yeah. There's lots of cons too, but I think having younger children and that flexibility to and you know, having said that, it's also extremely difficult the nights of working until I mean, I don't know about you, but I've done many, many a night where I'm up extremely late or even into the morning because there was all the other stuff that had to be done for the family. So it's hard, but it does give you that at least. You've got that flexibility. Yeah. Flexibility, but no time off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's that? I forget it. I've the whole thing of like it's a public holiday and you don't know, and everyone's like, oh, no one's gonna be around me. Like, what? No, but on the flip.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's like, you know, as you say, staying up till ridiculous o'clock to get something done, having the client presentation and going, you know what, I'm gonna go out for lunch and I'm just gonna take the rest of the day off. Like, you know, it's yeah, you can try to enjoy those moments. But uh so good, Lauren. Thank you so much for such a fun chat. Thank you.

Speaker:

Always nice to hang out here guys.

Speaker 1:

I don't know. It's nice just to like hopefully see you again soon in person. Yeah.

Speaker:

Thanks, Lauren. No, it's been really fun and thank you. Thank you for inviting me on. It's um you never sort of when you work for yourself, you very rarely get to have these chances to kind of in you know, reflect and and talk to other people about what you do. It's really nice to do that. So thank you for the opportunity to do that. Thanks, Lauren.

Speaker 1:

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.