The Design Files Talks

Today we chat with Leigh Ellwood, an interior designer behind some of the most special homes we've ever featured on TDF. Having completed 10 personal renovation projects in the last 24 years, safe to say she knows a thing or two about renovating! 

But what we really love about Leigh is her magic creative touch that turns each property into a warm, perfectly styled home, with lived-in interiors. Leigh shares some words of wisdom on how she finds the right tradespeople, the right properties, and her intuitive approach to designing spaces with a good ‘feeling’ about them.

To see what we mean, take a look at Leigh’s amazing apartment in South Yarra’s iconic Beverley Hills complex and her dreamy beach house on the Great Ocean Road in this story here!

You can follow Leigh on Instagram @leigh_ellwood. 

Follow us at @thedesignfiles and subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you don’t miss a thing. Thank you so much for listening! 

In this episode of our renovating series, we chat with Sydney-based interior designer Jono Fleming to hear about how he recently transformed a 1980s suburban home using budget-friendly hacks at every turn!

With a decade-long career in magazines, styling and design, Jono shares how Bunnings engaged him to renovate every room of the dated house, working with ONLY products from the hardware store, and how you can elevate these off-the-shelf pieces with some creative solutions.

The completed home is so impressive, and you can see it in the full story on our website here! For more design inspiration, follow Jono on Instagram here.

Follow us at @thedesignfiles  and subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you don’t miss a thing. Thank you so much for listening!

Welcome back to The Design Files’s podcast TDF Talks, and our new 4-part series on renovating!

We kick things off with a chat between our founder and host Lucy Feagins and art director, Annie Portelli — who’s taken on a massive DIY home renovation in the last two years. Annie shares how she and her husband Simon ‘accidentally’ fell into renovating their Melbourne home themselves, the budget mishaps, and what she would do differently if she had her time over again…

They’ve finally moved into the half-renovated property (which looks amazing!) and you can see it in the full story on our website here!

To see more of Annie’s renovation journey, find her on Instagram @annieportelli. You can also see our feature of her beloved first apartment here.

Follow us at @thedesignfiles and subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you don’t miss a thing. Thank you so much for listening!

See more about Ngarrimili here: https://www.ngarrimili.org.au/. 

See more about Strong Brother Strong Sister here: https://www.strongbrotherstrongsister.com/.

Read our 'Family' story with Cormach, Coco, Waari and Winnie here: https://thedesignfiles.net/2020/08/family-cormache-evans-coco-eke/

This episode was brought to you by Nelson Alexander Real Estate. See more about them here:  https://www.nelsonalexander.com.au/

Read more about Sarah Ellison studio and shop the collections here.

Visit the BuildHer Collective website here. 

Book a free 20-minute consult here.

Read our 2018 profile on Rebeka and Kribashini (when BuildHer Collective was just in her infancy!) here.

This episode of TDF Talks is brought to you by Fujifilm instax, whose new Link WIDE instant printer allows you to print photos directly from your smartphone. Find out more here.

Find out more about YSG Studio here: https://ysg.studio/

See Yasmine's excellent Bondi apartment here: https://thedesignfiles.net/2021/09/homes-yasmine-ghoniem-bondi/

Kelly Thompson has done it all - from fashion photography and artist management to commercial illustration and keynote event speaking, she’s been running her one-woman small business for pretty much her entire creative career.

But in the last year, Kelly has settled into a part of the industry that really feels like home. Her online store of handcrafted treasures, Makers' Mrkt, has grown from a small but productive online store to a fully fledged marketplace in the last twelve months . Setting up a small biz in the middle of a pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise!

In this episode of TDF Talks, Kelly talks to managing editor Sally Tabart about levelling up, knowing when to change direction, and finding her feet in a sometimes cut-throat game. She’s the best!

Shop Makers' Mrkt here: https://makersmrkt.com/

Learn more about Kelly's freelancing work here: https://kellythompsoncreative.com/

Louise Olsen is a true icon of the Australian design industry. Not only is she the daughter of legendary artist John Olsen, but she is also the co-founder of Dinosaur Designs and a formidable artist in her own right. 

In this conversation with host Lucy Feagins, Louise talks about her creative upbringing with two painter parents, the humble beginnings of Dinosaur Designs, and the ways she’s seen the industry shift in the last few decades.

Lauren Li's approach to accessible interior design  makes her trend guides and interiors pieces some of the most popular stories on The Design Files, so if you hang out for her monthly column you'll love this in-depth conversation between Lauren and host, Lucy Feagins!

Before she was the founder of Sisällä Interior Design studio, Lauren worked in big commercial interior design firms locally and overseas, acquiring the skills and knowledge (and some deft software skills!) that formed the foundations to set up her own small business. Here, she talks about her creative career, the secrets to creating a personal interior specific to you, and her predictions for future trends.

Alongside her design and columnist skills, sign-ups for Lauren's new project - an online community and learning hub for designers named The Design Society - are open now! 

LINKS:

Keep an eye on Lauren's monthly interior design column at thedesignfiles.net/interiors

Sign up for The Design School here.

Learn more about Sisalla Interior Design Studio here.