Doors are more than mere entryways, they are essential elements of design and functionality in any space. Acting as barriers between different areas, doors offer security, privacy, and create aesthetic appeal. They also endure significant wear and tear as families and occupants rush through them daily, often without a second thought. Perhaps it’s time we paid more attention to our doors, as they are as much blank canvases as our walls. Historically, doors have been adorned with bold and intricate decorations. Step through to our door blog to rediscover the potential of them to be bold and create intrigue, especially when you redecorate what you have.

Isolation. Isolation. Isolation. We’re all sick of it for sure. But have you ever considered that your home is designed to be antisocial due to the location, location, location of your spaces within? With living spaces, kitchens, dining rooms and lounges, the spaces we spend most of our waking time, all orientated to the back, our home design shuts us off from the world outside. But with no ability to lift our homes and reorientate them 180 degrees like a carousel, what can we do to make our home more social? Changing how you use your front garden is one option, If we integrate them and you into your community, both socially and environmentally, then theres no need to feel quote so isolated during isolation.

It took a trip around Melbournes Western Ring Road to make me want more “twinkles”. It also made me write this blog, the first in twelve months. The world may have been ‘on slow’ during that time, but at 100km an hour, I realised we’re still just too much, our barometer is telling us so. When did society start to accept such low standards in our external environment when we expect such high ones in our internal one, our homes..

With freedom removed, choices reduced and emotions on high, our homes really do have their work cut out as its four walls are going to be everything to everybody within them. After many conversations, at arms length, about how people are coping with the new way of life that Covid19 has brought, we thought we would share some ideas that we have picked up to help reduced the drama in your domestic domain. This blog isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list of top tips or provide all the answers on how to run your new home, but it’s a start. It will hopefully be a space where people can add their ideas and findings to help others to deal with living in what, essentially, feels like a snowglobe (but without the snow).

There was so much energy at the Student Strike for Climate Change today it was amazing to feel. But as future or young consumers, I wondered if the young people there realised their ability to use their" “Choice Voice” as well as their “Activist Voice” Under 18 and unable to vote you maybe, but as future consumers you have power to vote with your feet and your dollars.

You would of had to have been under a rock not to have seen or heard about the Marie Kondo Netflix show thats sweeping the nation. I was going to write a blog about it. Then I decided I wouldn’t because others had said what I thought. But then I had one of those moments. This one was outside an opp shop with a teary volunteer. At breaking point I couldn’t ignore her or the mountain of mess she had to sort threw. I thought about bacon and eggs and sang about bacon and eggs and it all came flooding out. So what has the “Marie Kondo effect” got to do with “bacon and eggs”. Well you’re just going to have to read the blog. It’s tenuous I give you that. But it made me smile, when what I really felt like doing was, joining my opp shop volunteer, and cry.

First of two, this blog looks at what happens when you need to sell and move out of your nest. Seeing a local cafe being renovatd for the umpteenth time made me question the house selling cycle and the escalating preparations we subject our homes to. With pressure to showcase your home like a display home, everything needs to be clean, fixed, neutralised and styled. Granted. But increasingly, some go further, installing new fixtures and fittings and even creating new spaces. As the new owners are likely to want to make your home their home, it begs the question how far you should go when preparing your house for sale and recognising when enough is enough.

We had a light bulb moment in our home this week and its changed how I feel about my parenting guilt as an environmentalist.  Your home, and how you run your life within it, plays a big role in passing on knowledge, skills, and equipping your kids for their life. But you need to be consistent, so taking these beliefs into the outside world is a must if you want to really make a difference in practicing and normalising behaviour. Especially when it comes to sustainable choices. This often involves saying no. And as I’ve learnt, that’s OK. If kids are a mirror, then you need to be the best reflection you can be.

When it comes to interiors, size really is everything.  It's also the biggest issue I find my clients struggle with. Taking the digits and visualising the object in the space is hard for many.  But when you break it down and understand the issues at play, it makes the confusion slip away.  This is becoming increasingly important as internet shopping is becoming the norm, even for the major purchases. Help is at hand...