From economics to interior design…
From lead pencils to pencils with colour these days …
I have always loved interior design.
When I was a little girl, my idea of a fun playdate would be going to my best friend Tracy’s house and re-arranging her bedroom, whether or not she liked it. When I was five, I decided to move Tracy’s bed across the room. Of course beds are a bit larger than the average five year old girl and my bright idea was to lean against her bedroom window and push the bed with my legs. What could go wrong?
Unfortunately, quite a bit as I found out. At some point I found myself outside of her bedroom, tangled up in the rose bushes… I had broken through the window (imagine a little girl sized hole in the window pane!). Amazingly I didn’t have a single cut on me. Who knew interior design could be such an extreme sport!
The years went on, and my mind turned to other things (boys, bad 80s tv, Aha, Sting and somewhere down the list school). However, my love of a good room refurb did not fade.
When I was about 15 I managed to badger my parents into letting me completely redecorate my room, from flooring, to walls and drapes. Looking back now, I can’t believe my parents indulged me so much, but I was seriously stoked. I spent hours at the local wall paper and decorating store, endlessly borrowing sample books and considering different colour themes. In the end, I chose a rather timeless grey, white and cornflower blue look that was certainly an upgrade from my Disney wall art and Raggedy Anne themed wall paper…
However, once again, interior design faded out of my life and I went off to university to study economics (inspired by my love of Family Ties and that seminal 80’s character, Alex P Keaton).
Fast forward 15 years and I was married with two little sons and a career in the public service. Life was good.
Like many new mums though, I started to feel as though I needed a more creative outlet… In 2016 we decided to build a new investment property. The timing couldn’t be better. Our sons were little, I was still on extended maternity leave, and I was desperate for a ‘project’ outside of the home (something not related to wiping bottoms or soothing booboos).
This new house was to be built in one of Perth’s oldest and greenest suburbs and I was really keen to manage the interior design side of the build. I hummed and aard about colours for some time, and then one day, like a bolt of lightning, I woke up with a ‘country eucalyptus’ theme in mind. It worked perfectly with the local flora and even better came with a ready set colour theme of sage greens, browns and cremes. It felt like joining the dots – once I had figured out a colour scheme, everything else seemed to fall into place. A fire had been re-lit!
In 2018, back at work full-time, and now with two growing boys, I started to realise that our main house, as large as it was, was in desperate need of a renovation. The house had started its life as a 3*1 but had then been extended by the previous owners into a 5*2. The problem was the way the new part of the house had been ‘clumped’ onto the old part. It just didn’t work, with weird little corridors, a fully open air master bathroom (complete with bidet!) and a guest bedroom with two entry doors (hello race course for the boys).
Anyone who has met my husband knows that he is no fan of spending money. I knew I needed to start small so planted the idea of a kitchen reno on him. That was easy to sell and so I started talking to builders. However, in doing so, I discovered two things. 1. Builders build great homes, but creating an aesthetic is not their thing; and 2. I wanted to do a much larger renovation!
Auspiciously, in September 2018, my husband’s beloved West Coast Eagles made the Australian Football League’s final. Suddenly thousands of crazed West Coast fans in Perth were desperately trying to make their way over to Melbourne for the grand final, costs be damned… Thankfully for me, that included my husband who nervously asked me if I minded him spending a small fortune to get over there. Given my plans for a full house renovation, who was I to say No!
Even though I am not a football fan, the 29 September 2018 is forever etched in my mind. On that glorious day, the West Coast Eagles won their first grand final in over a decade and I used that wonderful timing to confirm with a euphoric husband that he was now on board for a full house renovation… How could HE say No 😉
So over the next few months we engaged an interior design firm (RJ Design Studio) to draw up a new floor plan and most excitingly to start developing a colour and style theme for the ‘new’ house. I was very lucky to hit it off so well with our designer and over the coming months was able to learn so much from her. Once again, I had those old vibes for design, but this time I felt as though it might stick. So not only did I pester our lovely designer with questions and thoughts (honestly, she had the patience of an angel) but I also enrolled in a few short interior design courses.
And then the planets aligned, in the strangest of ways… Half way through the renovation my husband was offered a fabulous work opportunity overseas. As a trailing spouse (legalese for not allowed to work) I would not be able to work in Jakarta. For a woman used to working full time in a senior role, I knew this was going to be a bit of a shock!
On January 7th, we left Australia… one day after we had done handover on our renovation! As sad as it was to leave our beautiful renovated house in the hand of renters, we looked forward to new adventures and I looked forward to focusing more intently on my passion for interior design – starting a new blog following my work updating our new Jakarta House and any beautiful local décor finds. In anticipation of this, we deliberately sold or donated most of our university-era furniture. All I needed was to find the perfect house.
After two months and viewing at least 40 houses (seriously) I finally found it – a very large, two story home, in a beautiful expat compound in South Jakarta. I was ready to go!
And then Covid 19 happened. In late March, 10 days after moving into our new home, we were evacuated back to Australia, where we have now been for over 2 months. Life interrupted!
With both Australia and Indonesia now re-opening their economies and borders, we are hopeful to return before too long. This journey from economics to interior design has hit a few road bumps over the years, but I do hope that this time, once and for all, I can start to give it the attention I have so long desired. I hope that you enjoy the trip.
A.