It’s no secret that everyone in the TDF office has a crush on our art director, Annie Portelli. It’s hard to go a day around here without someone asking where she got her shoes, how she made that delectable-looking meal last night, or which picture-perfect camping spot she spent her weekend at.

But although she makes it all look rather effortless, under the surface, Annie works insanely hard for all of these things. Routine, time management and forward planning are a central part of Annie’s approach to work and life. Her partner Simon even coined the nickname ‘Plannie Portelli’ on account of Annie’s rigorous list-making ! ‘I write them for everything and anything, and not necessarily to ‘tick things off’ but more so just to get things out of my brain’, Annie says.

Every day is different for Annie, and her workload can be intense – but she always finds a little moment for herself in each day.  Today we’re following her on a typical day… hoping some of that Portelli magic might rub off!

FIRST THING

My body wakes up at 6.00am. I can’t seem to break the early bird habit!

First things first: I switch on the radio. I’ve always had a portable radio within arms reach of my bed since I moved out of my family home. It started off as a nostalgic thing to hear the ABC pre-news orchestra blast out of a crackly radio each morning, like a soundbite of my childhood – but now it’s just how I get my daily news.

I have also recently started getting into boxing classes before work (6.00am class means 5.15am wake up, two to three days a week). It’s a pretty intense way to start your day, but by 9.00am you totally forget it even happened… until you lift the kettle to make your tea, and you have sudden flashbacks to the drop sets that morning!

In the morning I am at my peak of productivity and enthusiasm, often much to my partner’s dismay. Imagine living with someone who bursts out of bed, blasts the talkback radio, vacuums the entire apartment, waters the garden and sometimes re-arranges the house – all before 8:00am?! It’s a Portelli thing, I think I’m stuck with it for life.

MORNING

I ride or walk to work most mornings. It takes me about 40mins door-to-door so usually, I pop my headphones in and call my Mum – every day! We talk about anything and everything that’s been going on since the day before. You’d be surprised what we can cover. She’s usually on the other line walking our dog back at our family home so we ‘do our walk together’ which I find sweet.

Once I get to Gertrude street, Mum wishes me a nice day, and I step into my local favourite cafe of all time, Burnside, and say hi to Jona and the crew who have been serving me coffee and the occasional muffin since my first day at TDF five years ago!

Once I arrive at work, we usually spend the first 10 mins (or half an hour) or so gasbagging about our evenings, before putting our headphones on, our heads down and getting on with the day ahead.

LUNCHTIME

Sometimes lunch breaks are outside, some are at my desk – it really depends on what’s going on in the land of TDF. We have some weeks that are non-stop where we’re all deep in the midst of a campaign roll out or event planning, and sometimes it’s more chill and I’ll take myself for a little walk down Smith Street and inevitably bump into a friend or two.

On days where I’m out shooting homes with one of our photographers, lunch breaks are a gamble. Sometimes we have time to sit down with the homeowner and eat lunch together, and other times we’re racing to the next house with our snack packs under arm, eating on the go. It’s all part of the fun!

AFTERNOON

When I’m in the office, my responsibilities are mainly based around our large, long lead projects such as Open House, TDF Design Awards, TDF Collect exhibitions, or any big styled shoots or events that we have on the go. So I am constantly working on a couple of things at once, depending on priorities and deadlines.

Time management is absolutely crucial, I usually work back from a monthly plan or timeline, and break it down into bite-sized pieces to ensure I’m chipping away at the big picture projects.

On days where I’m out of the office, I’m with one of our talented photographers shooting our beloved weekly homes. I could be anywhere from Mt Macedon, to Warrandyte to Armadale or Collingwood. We photograph two houses in one day. Those days are usually long, but fast, and are often my favourite days! 

EVENING

I don’t often bring my ‘work home with me’. I hear of people doing this all the time, but even when there is lots going on, I’ve usually been thinking about it all day, so I try really hard to stop my brain from thinking about it when I leave the office.

LAST THING

I usually aim to get into bed at around 11:00pm. Generally, I can quite easily run off very little sleep. I am sure one day it will all catch up to me, but I’ll try and get away with it for as long as I can.

Right now I’m listening to/watching/reading…

Watching: CHEER on Netflix – I’m so into this!

Listening: The New Yorker Fiction Podcast

Reading: Normal People by Sally Rooney (aren’t we all)

One important thing I do every day is…

Can I make it two important things?

1. Gotta make the bed – a made bed makes me feel like I’ve got my sh*t together, so I can’t leave the house without having this done! 

2. Every day, I try to squeeze in an ‘Annie moment’, whether it’s on my walk home from work, or during my lunch break, or whenever. A moment where I don’t speak to anyone, or listen to anything, just hang out alone in my brain. I only need 20 minutes or so. Just a moment of peace, think about nothing necessarily. But it’s an important moment.

I get my best work done when…

There is lots to do, the deadline is near and we’re all working together towards a big, exciting goal!

A philosophy I live and work by is…

When you’re at work – work hard. When you’re not at work – do something totally different, take yourself out of the city for the weekend, go for a hike, swim in a beach, go somewhere where there is no reception if you have to!

My productivity tip/tool is…

Manage your time! There’s nothing worse than feeling overwhelmed by a looming deadline (or several) that you don’t feel on top of. Make detailed timelines, lists, have a strong understanding of what the end goal is, and how you can work together to achieve it.

We’re often working towards 2 or 3 major events a year, which we are all involved in at different points throughout. That’s on top of our daily content, our weekly shoots, our monthly events. In order to drive this huge ship with ease, we all need to understand our role within each project, and manage our time leading up to it. When one person is stressed out, we all feel stressed out. We’re all about the shared Google sheets and multiple Slack channels here at TDF!

Something I learned the hard way is…

I still doubt myself every day, and that’s ok. I am learning every day. There is nothing more terrifying to me than a self-assured 27-year-old who has already mastered the ropes of the world, and seems to have nothing left to learn! I can only hope that I continue to doubt, and question myself everyday because so far, that’s all I know. And I think it’s working! 

A  delicious dose of the Dorney today, that is Esmond Dorney, perhaps Hobart’s most under-the-radar hometown boy, whose body of residential work nonetheless continues to keep popping up and enthralling all of us on the mainland. This home in particular is a sensational circa 1958 residence, having undergone a respectful reno that clearly took utmost care to preserve some signature features, not least of which is that insane rounded timber and stone fireplace – a touch of panelled magic from a man who loves a good curve (as seen in his own, now heritage-listed, house). Kudos to whoever was responsible.

It’s not every day you get the chance to own a slice of Tasmanian MCM mythology, let alone one with unbeatable orientation basking in the full southern sunshine and already refreshed with simple elegance. So we say, if a move’s been on your mind, now is the time to step up.

View the listing here, and original Modernist Australia article here.

Run by Patricia Callan and Pete Bakacs, Modernist Australia is the passion-project/website dedicated to raising the profile of mid-century design and modernist principles in Australia. For more swell eye-candy, visit Modernistaustralia.com.

Architect Brad Wray’s vision for this Phillip Island house was a respectful design, celebrating the surrounding landscape. The co-founder and creative director of Branch Studio Architects explains, ‘The area is a fairly eclectic mix of strange styles. There are some nice ‘60s coastal fibre-cement bungalows, but the majority of houses are brick veneer… so I couldn’t have cared less about the design of the house fitting in with the surrounding houses. What I really wanted was the house to be a good example of how to meaningfully and sensitively respond to site and context, even at a larger scale.’

Working with a huge amalgamated block (over 1700 square metres), Brad set out to test the possibilities of what a residential space looks like, by designing various ‘moments’ throughout. This desire was partially driven by the client’s love of Moroccan architecture that plays with light and dark qualities. ‘I like the fact the house in moments has the qualities of a cathedral-like space, then in other moments has the openness of a public art gallery, then, just a couple of metres away, a low-compressed, residual space like a nook in a library where one can curl up and read a book’ Brad says. The integration of a varied roofline with pop-up skylights throughout helps achieve this effect.

The floorplan of the home was devised as three separate wings – one housing the main bedroom, one with the guest wing, and the other containing the main living areas. These wings open to a central courtyard, with a deck and pool facing sand dunes on the property’s north boundary. 

A combination of Australian spotted gum with red and black Colorbond cladding on the exterior references black volcanic granite rocks near the home, which build up with a reddish, coarse sediment over time. ‘We were able to achieve a really nice warm silvery brown-black which still exposes a great deal of the timbers natural grain. It has a really nice organic quality,’ Brad says. ‘The house has been designed to be almost silhouetted in the landscape. It will age gracefully, and grey more and more into the landscape with time.’

Emma Bartik came to her ceramics practice in a bit of a roundabout way. Spending the last decade as a successful freelance makeup and special effects artist, she initially studied ceramics at UNSW Art and Design as a way to improve her sculpting for making prosthetic pieces. For Emma, these two creative pursuits are inextricably linked. ‘I can’t separate my art or ceramic practice from my work as a makeup artist now even if I tried’, she explains. ‘It has informed the way I make, both technically and conceptually.’

After producing a small collection of pieces for an exhibition just over a year ago, Emma made an on-the-spot decision to throw herself into making ceramics. Shortly after, Emma launched Voluptuary Ceramics. Her curvaceous, pot-bellied mugs and vases have a distinctly humanlike quality to their brightly coloured forms – right down to a belly button-like indentation in their rounded midsections. An exploration of fragility and what it means to be feminine underscores Emma’s work, a palette of sorbet pastels and fluffy, visceral textures offering an element of escapism and whimsy.

Working from her spare room in Sydney (which she’s almost outgrown), Emma now works on Voluptuary Ceramics (almost) full time – and even landed her first exhibition at a commercial gallery, Saint Cloche, last year. ‘The possibilities of making in ceramics is its own addictive labyrinth’, Emma says. ‘As a makeup artist, I could spend weeks of preparation of hours and applying makeup, only to wash it off moments later. Ceramics has a tangible nature with an end result that exists in the real world’.

Emma produces ceramics in small batches, available via her website. Keep up with her collection drops + market dates via her Instagram!

As you make a left from the main road into Michelle Dixon and Chris Miller’s long gravel driveway, it takes a second to realise the scale of their home. With its simple, rectangular form that neatly integrates into the luscious and rambling hills of Bena, South Gippsland, it’s almost as if it’s been dropped from the sky. In a way, it has.

This home was created via prefabricated construction – meaning it was factory-made before being transported and installed in sections on site. Given the relatively isolated location of the property with limited access to local trades, a prefab home made sense for Michelle and Chris. This carried the added benefit of minimising construction delays (due to the controlled environment), and allowing any material waste to be stored in the factory for later use. The Prebuilt factory this particular home was built in runs off a 97kW solar array, further adding to its green credentials.

Michelle and Chris’ house is one of Prebuilt’s custom projects, designed by architects Pleysier Perkins. The brief was to create a high quality ‘farmhouse’ as a weekender for the family and their regular additional guests.

The design draws on modernist design principles, with a low, single-level profile that Nicole O’Reilly, residential sales manager at Prebuilt, says ‘aims to sit quietly in the landscape, rather than making any grand design gestures.’ The left hand side of the house is built into a hill, so you immediately feel elevated from the ground when you enter. This is most noticeable in the living area, where a floor to ceiling window frames the landscape like a picture. As you walk up to the window, you get a sensation that the house is levitating, as you cannot see the ground below. It’s quite a feeling! The main bedroom shares the same illusion, with a corner window offering a 180 degree view of the incredible landscape.

The floorplan of the house was carefully considered to offer a solar passive design with an extensive northern verandah. This deck features large panels that can be slid to offer privacy and shade to the house as desired. Another impressive sustainable feature are the two 23,500 litre water tanks concealed under the home. This is connected to a tank of the same size near the shed, and there is another 10,000 litre tank reserved for CFA firefighting.

Light fills the main living space, with views from every angle across the landscape. Whether you’re lying on the window seat, sitting at the dining table or cooking up a storm in the kitchen, you can’t help but stop, stare, and take a little moment to get lost in thought.  ‘We love the whole house, but our favourite feature would probably be the day bed’ says Michelle. ‘It has amazing views of the rolling hills to the south and extraordinary colours of pinks and purples in the late afternoon at sunset. If you look the other way you can see right through the house to the most beautiful old manna gum to the north.’

From the living area, the house extends to a wing with the children’s bedrooms (for Max, 13, Indigo, 11, and the couple’s former foster child Jaime, 24, who lives with them on and off), guest rooms, another bathroom, and study off the hallway. The size of this hallway is wider than the standard size, enabling space for a bookshelf extending across its entire length.

While this house is only a weekender for the busy family, they have fully leaned into the South Gippsland lifestyle, getting to know the community and local farmers. It’s a place they can get stuck into gardening, growing veggies and spending quality time together, all with the lightest touch on the landscape.

Australian skincare company Sukin do everything they can to ensure our environment is protected. From partnering with Reef Aid to ensure the Great Barrier Reef has a future, to fully offsetting their carbon footprint. Discover the world of natural, and read more about their sustainability efforts at the Sukin Journal. 

Playing with perspective and a loose-handed approach to realism, Kiata Mason’s work is filled with visual references from her life and family. Her paintings portray nostalgic vignettes, and collections of objects that evoke memories of small yet important moments in her life.

Kiata’s upcoming exhibition at Arthouse Gallery, The Artist’s Table, is heavy with personal meaning. Several years ago Kiata returned to her family home to care for her Grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Surrounded by familial objects and the memories embedded within them, the artist began creating paintings to document and celebrate her family history. While these objects might not seem noteworthy at first – a deck of cards, a loose fig, or a collection of silverware, for Kiata there was great importance in ‘rejoicing in the history shared, and learning from that history.’

Works in The Artist’s Table mine Kiata’s family history and personal memories for visual and symbolic references. The green and red plaid tablecloth in a painting title Vogue Nectarines is not just a tablecloth, but an offcut found in her family’s sewing drawer, from a dress Kiata’s mother made her for a wedding when the artist was a small child. It’s a similar reference in Soup and Stories, where the tablecloth pattern is inspired by a dress her mother wore to Kiata’s fourth or fifth birthday party.

‘The work is about bringing together different personalities and ways of thinking, and having an acceptance of all – a feeling of inclusion, and of respecting the different ages’, Kiata reflects.

The Artist’s Table by Kiata Mason
Arthouse Gallery
February 13th – 29th 
66 McLachlan Avenue
Rushcutters Bay
New South Wales

Finding a great rental property is like searching for a needle in a haystack, especially in regional areas where supply is limited. The best houses are usually sourced via word of mouth, which is exactly how Lisa Hodge came across this property early last year.

Lisa lives here with her children Jirra, 8, and Maisie, 6. According to Lisa, the family were particularly drawn to the property’s ‘rustic vibe, timber tones, use of recycled materials (old wharf posts), concrete heated floors, the blend of indoor-outdoor living spaces, the natural light, the garden design with the birch forest and olive grove, the rosemary hedge’… the list goes on! ‘I also love that it feels like you’re in the bush, but it’s walking distance to town and to the local cafe (Mr Macedon), restaurant (Ida Red), and train station,’ says Lisa. 

Being a rental, Lisa’s knowledge of her home’s history is based entirely on hearsay, but rumour has it the land was once owned by an artist who lived next door. The artist subdivided the block, selling half to her lover, who built the house Lisa now calls home. ‘That’s why there’s no back fence. There’s a good balance of privacy and access to the next door property,’ she says. 

The handcrafted nature of this home means there are several quirks and unfinished elements throughout, but that’s all part of its charm. Lisa has styled the space with an eclectic mix of mid-century and ‘80s furniture finds. ‘I try to make an effort to be a conscious consumer, shop less, [buy] locally and secondhand. This means that I am constantly on the hunt for cool, high-quality things. The hunt is part of the fun!’ 

This isn’t the first home Lisa has rented in Macedon, having lived in the area for six years after making the tree change from Melbourne. ‘The country lifestyle was more alluring with a young family. We were dreaming about fresh air, clean water and a garden to grow medicinal herbs and veggies,’ she says. Lisa now splits her work between nearby Gisborne and North Melbourne. ‘I have to say, it’s just bliss driving home to the hills after a day in Melbourne,’ she says. ‘Once I reach the Macedon Ranges, there’s an instant feeling of calm. My home and my garden are essential to creative expression. Some weekends I find it hard to leave.’

Milly Dent returned from a work trip in China with one intention for her new body of work: to detach the cliché associated with porcelain. This meant deconstructing the idea of ‘permanency’, and allowing the material to break down and decay, just like the unfinished and fragmented pieces she had discovered in the abandoned porcelain factories in the Jingdezhen province.

The domed and bulging pieces that make up Milly’s new show, Wishful Thinking, evoke ‘the power of tactility and texture’, and reference ‘the complex matrices found in nature’ that served as her inspiration. Sculpted vessels are dominated by anemone-like spines, fingers of coral and bunches of seaweed droplets. Iridescent vases glimmer in the style of mother of pearl shells, and an arch of concave pale blue pellets cover a cylindrical porcelain tube. Each piece is complex and precise, designed ‘to give off a dynamic sense of something taking shape’ and almost breathing with tidal rhythms.

‘I’ve used porcelain to highlight temporality’ Milly explains. The surface finish of these pieces shifts along a subtle spectrum, from raw and unglazed porcelain, to traditional Chinese Celadon gloss glazes.  Meanwhile, an interactive component of the exhibition invites the audience to pour water over her unfired ceramics, and observe the slow process of erosion and decay that occurs. In her third solo show, Milly has attempted ‘to embrace and empower the temporary nature of the unfired material’ with this series of undulating works.

Wishful Thinking by Milly Dent
Saint Cloche
37 Macdonald Street
Paddington, NSW
12th – 23rd of February

In an old Fitzroy building from the 1950s, originally designed as nurses’ accommodation for the nearby hospital, lies the sleek and compact studio apartment of architect Douglas Wan. Working within a tiny footprint, the WHDA architect asked: ‘What does it take to live not just comfortably, but with a few luxuries?’

The answer, it turns out, is minimal interventions, and clever partitioning. New plumbing and steel beams (one being 750kg!) were the few additions Douglas made in order to enhance the liveability of his tiny home, and maximise natural light. All internal walls were demolished, and the steel beams craned and keyed into place to support plywood room dividers. In the name of space efficiency, the living space forgoes conventional furniture, instead opting for a floating platform that sleeps two, or seats six, alternately.

Giving the utility spaces a distinct separation from the open living area was a priority, so plywood cladding and partitions tunnel through to compartmentalise these zones. Shifting from dark to light, and between open and compressed spaces, Douglas played with contrasting atmospheres and depth of views to delineate between sleeping, bathing and living areas.

Floor-to-ceiling black ceramic tiles and crimson grout achieve Doug’s vision for a ‘Sith Lord bathroom’ (!), while pale plywood softens the sheen of polished black surfaces that continue through the kitchen. A 1.8m-wide black linoleum benchtop doubles as a mise-en-place section and servery, allowing ample space for appliances and storage below.

In designing his apartment, Douglas fused inspiration from the traditional Japanese tokonoma – an elevated platform used to receive guests and display art – with the ‘Isokon Flats‘ designed by Wells Coates in London in 1933. This ‘ocean liner-esque’ block of concrete studio apartments was designed as an early prototype for minimalist mass housing, and is where Douglas derived the name for his design: ‘Existenzminimum’.

Most people would not stumble upon a rundown holiday village in Esperance, Western Australia, over 3000 kilometres from their home and think, ‘I should buy that and bring it back to life,’ but most people aren’t Fiona Shillington. 

Fiona was working in the media and living in Manly, Sydney when she decided to move back to her hometown and give this very tired camp a major facelift. Clearly, it was love at first sight. ‘We were completely smitten,’ she says, upon discovering the site with her family by chance five years ago. ‘It resembled an overgrown and very gloomy scout camp, with mozzies the size of small cars.’ 

Having grown up in the area, Fiona immediately saw the potential of the location and land, being close to town and set on eight acres with a creek. ‘Esperance is a thriving little tourism destination, with some of the best beaches in the world, and to have 17 rooms sitting vacant, we knew with hard work we could turn it around.’ 

Upon taking ownership, Fiona and her husband moved into the main A-frame house on the property with their four children. The family set about updating the entire village, making small changes that would make a big impact. ‘We really had to work with what we had – certainly the A frames had me stumped in the early days. Small spaces are challenging. But once we’d painted, built in some furniture, and ditched the bunk beds, we could see the transformation,’ says Fiona. 

The first summer of Esperance Chalet Village saw the family’s home turn into village HQ for the 35 children who were staying on site with their families that summer. ‘They were everywhere!’ Fiona says. ‘My kids thought it was the best thing ever. They didn’t want to leave the village – just hang out with all their new mates.’ While some of those families became friends who return every year, Esperance Chalet Village now caters predominately to couples seeking a weekend escape. ‘We’ve got the balance a little better now, with four family rooms, says Fiona. ‘Guests love the privacy and tranquillity… The chalets are like being in a comfy and romantic cubby amongst the trees.’

Esperance Chalet Village remains a work in progress, with Fiona’s husband, a builder, doing most of the construction works to continue improving and maintaining the place. The couple is currently looking to develop the village’s communal space in order to cater for larger groups and weddings, and maybe (a big maybe), buying the local pub! Fiona says, ‘There has been lots of love go into this place over the years, and we are merely continuing that, slowly bringing the old girl back to life.’ Stay tuned!

Explore the Esperance Chalet Village here.

‘These are a few of my favourite things,’ says Julia simply. She’s talking about the pieces that make up Moroccan Treasures, a new homewares collection she has sourced for her homewares agency and online store, Greenhouse Interiors.

From colourful threaded rugs and hand stitched cushion covers, to raw and unglazed ladles that complement deep green ceramic tableware, the collection flows between colours, textures and function in an organic and easy way. It’s only when you look closer that you can see the complexity in each detailed piece.

While the rugs are the central items in this collection, textiles, earthenware and a small range of clothing accompany them in the colour-popping lineup. Each handmade piece has been sourced from Morocco, with a careful and considered approach to its maker and quality.

‘The people who make the items are […] incredible craftsmen and women,’ Julia explains. ‘They don’t think they are making anything miraculous, and probably find my enthusiasm amusing, but I drool every single stop I make.’

With a blazing love and admiration for the country she continues to return to, she cites her deep passion for colour as the connective thread running through this collection. ‘Each piece has a story or tells a story, and celebrates longheld craftsmanship,’ Julia explains. But she knows they will have a new story to tell with their next owner.  ‘They are treasures looking to be buried in other people’s homes!’

Shop Julia’s Moroccan Treasures collection exclusively at Greenhouse Interiors! 

Cassie Byrnes has got the IT factor. The young designer (and new Mum!) only finished her studies five years ago, but she’s already kicked some seriously impressive career goals.

In addition to running her own much-loved fashion label, Variety Hour, Cassie has worked on a number of high profile collaborations and international projects, including with massive US brand Anthropologie, and more recently with Nike, to produce an incredible collection for the recent Australian Open – which was worn by almost EVERY major tennis star at the event, including Serena Williams!

I was keen to chat to Cassie about how this dream collaboration came about, and to learn a little more about how she’s managed to carve out such a stellar career in such a short space of time. Not to mention juggling all of this with her new baby, Charlotte, who is just 4 months old!

Notes and Links

Visit cassiebyrnes.com for a closer look at Cassie’s incredible painterly textile designs, and head to varietyhourstudio.com to shop her latest collection.

Cassie’s incredible collaboration with Nike is called The Melbourne Collection – you can still find it at Nike.com, as well as at Nike stores in Melbourne (according to Cassie the Melbourne Central store has the best range!).

You can also follow Cassie on Instagram at @cassbyrnes and @varietyhour

Gemma Leslie has a strategic brain, balanced by a creative heart. It’s easy to see why working for Lucy Folk, a local brand with a global following that is constantly pushing the boundaries of design and retail, is the perfect place for these skills to flourish.

As a ‘super hands-on learner’, Gemma decided to pursue TAFE out of high school, where she applied for a Diploma of Business and Public Relations. It was here she figured out that the creative side of things was more her jam (although, her Mum already knew that, when Gemma started making fake IDs for the family dog at age 10 – more on that later!).

Halfway through the course she wrote a ‘spontaneous’ application to go study abroad – ‘I wanted to go literally anywhere’, Gemma says! Her ‘anywhere’ turned out to be Calgary in Canada, where she studied Journalism with a major in Photography. When Gemma came home, she was hungry for more creativity, and went on to study a Bachelor of Communications majoring in Design – a course that gave her ‘the knowledge and tools to achieve my dream of working as a graphic designer specialising in the fashion industry’.

Since then, Gemma has gone on to intern and work at some major fashion and lifestyle brands – her impressive resume includes FAT, Handsom, Búl, Modern Times, Manon bis, and even the launch of her own French bed linen label, Scottie Store.

But it’s in her current role that Gemma has found her Dream Job – where creativity, kindness, and an honest passion for all things Lucy Folk drives her day-to-day!

The most important verb in the get-your-dream-job-lexicon is…

Learn!

I landed this job by…

There’s no romantic story here. I applied for the Lucy Folk role on a whim following a conversation with a friend who had worked there. I wasn’t even really looking for a role, but I went through the application and interview process for an E-commerce Coordinator role. The more I learned about the brand, the more I felt drawn to it. Lucy Folk herself actually did my second-round interview – it was a bit random because it was in the back courtyard of a record store in Collingwood! I was on my lunch break and it was a 45-degree summer day.

I started a couple of weeks later, and spent two years in this role before being promoted. I was fortunate enough to be offered the Marketing Manager position a year ago and whilst it’s been a huge learning curve so far, it’s been truly amazing.

A typical day for me involves…

I have no morning rituals. My partner, Mike, would tell you that a typical day begins with me asking him to put the coffee on while I decide what to wear. I never know how I’m going to feel in the morning, so I don’t choose an outfit until I rise – it drives him mad.

Typical isn’t a word anyone should associate with Lucy Folk! Our CEO, Di Laws, and Creative Director Lucy challenge us to think about how we can better connect with our customers through communications, our product and customer service both in-store and online, and generally, to think differently!

Some days I try and get to our beautiful store at Crossley Street, it’s always great to start the day with a Pellegrini’s espresso – I enjoy the theatre of it! For most other days, it starts at our Head Office. The first thing I do is make a coffee for our jewellers – I do the rounds, walk through The Salon, have a few meetings here and there (or sometimes not!,) and cover the lunch break in the Lucy Folk Salon on Thursdays.

As marketing manager, I am usually across several different projects at one time. The only constant is ensuring I am connected across the entire Lucy Folk team, so that I understand what our customers want and how best we coordinate our product and campaign launches.

The most rewarding part of my job is…

I love seeing how our customers react to what we do. So many of them are genuinely excited when we launch a new product or campaign. Knowing that I contribute to making customers feel excited and happy while developing a connection with the Lucy Folk brand, is rewarding.

I also love the story behind our products. It’s amazing to work for a company that enables so many artisans across the world to make the things they do – from the handwoven clothes in Morocco, to our eyewear in Italy, and beautiful jewels here in Melbourne.

And lastly, the learning curve. I feel like I have worked through a degree in the past year!

On the other hand, the most challenging part is…

Strangely this is linked to another rewarding aspect. Being a small to medium-sized business, you’re required to undertake lots of different roles and learn a lot of different skills. From managing people and budgets to developing brand loyalty, there’s no shortage of things to do.

The biggest challenge I face is balancing all of these things while trying to push the boundaries creatively.

The culture of my workplace is…

On show for everyone to see.

You see it in our product, our campaigns and in our stores. We have fun. There’s a big emphasis on enjoying coming to work.

What makes Lucy Folk a special place is the passion the team has for the brand. We’re all devotees – we love Lucy’s vision and style. She’s so talented!

Lucy and Di [Lucy Folk’s CEO] are always challenging us to think outside the box. Balanced with that is a focus on discipline – making sure we all understand how the business operates and what it takes to keep being successful.

When I was younger I wanted to be…

I had to ask my Mum this question … she said that I wanted to be lots of things. In my memory, I just wanted to be what my older brothers wanted to be (a basketball player). But she knew I was heading down a creative path when I was making beautifully designed fake IDs for my dog, designing and painting my room half sunflower yellow and half-burnt orange, ripping up the carpet and sanding the floorboards myself – and I was only 10 years old.

I think the highlight of my junior graphic design career was designing my school yearbook in grade 1.

The best piece of advice I’ve received is…

I tend to focus more on behaviours and role models rather than advice.

The biggest impression that’s been left on me is the importance of respecting and helping others, even when you don’t feel you have the time or headspace to do so. I think it’s important to be kind and to help others. That rubs off on people and makes for a more accepting world (and workplace).

That said, if I were to choose a piece of advice it would be, ‘it’s what you do next’, which is some advice that our CEO Di gives me daily. Whether it be in business, or even just your personal life.

Over the years, Lucy Folk has evolved by…

The business has matured and become more focussed. Importantly the culture has evolved with that. It’s not like we’ve become serious, but we have become more disciplined. I love that. We now have the best of both worlds – we get to have fun, be super creative and be part of an exciting, growing business.

We’re still a small business, and we want to focus on doing things differently and doing them well. The landscape of retail has changed, so we are working hard to adapt and change with it along the way. Our mantra is ‘Be the Change’.

In the next five years, I’d like to..

There is so much! I have so many things to learn and achieve in a professional environment. I learn through the experience of getting my hands dirty, pushing the boundaries and most of all working with others. I’m excited about the idea of that … and I hope to learn new tricks, new lessons along the way.

Apart from developing professionally, I think it’s SO important for me to develop creativity in my personal life. Travel more, see more, read more, meet new faces, less screen time (unless it’s a movie!), more doing time!

When engaged to design a holiday house for two families spanning multiple generations,  Tom Robertson Architects took an unorthodox approach. Instead of designing the one large or multi-level space, the practice imagined this home as a pair of near identical pavilions, joined by a central breezeway. The reasons for this floorplan were twofold, as director Tom Robertson explains, ‘Rooms were arranged along the central axis, creating a hierarchy of spaces. In addition, the final floorplan allowed a level of flexibility for each of the families.’ 

The pavilion forms of the house were influenced by the local farming vernacular, as previously explored singular forms felt ‘too embossing’ says Tom. ‘A more articulated series of pavilions was preferred, sitting comfortably in the landscape.’ The use of timber cladding on the exterior adds to the barn-like aesthetic. 

At its core, this is a robust, versatile and low maintenance home, offering a calm retreat from city life, and incredible views across the Phillip Island landscape. It’s a home that’s highly functional, but full of joy.

One night sometime in the 1990s a young couple named Heather and Jeremy went to a party at South Yarra’s Beverly Hills apartment complex. There was music, some fizz and a few Neighbours TV stars. Almost 30 years later, Heather and Jeremy would return to the same complex. But this time, as its newest residents!

The Beverly Hills apartments were designed by architect-builder Howard Lawson in 1935, who wanted to bring some of that 1930s Hollywood glamour and Spanish Mission style back to Melbourne. His idea was to create a place for communal living, where people could connect and live in close quarters.

“The apartments were built during the Depression-era and the ‘Whelan the Wrecker’ period, where lots of Toorak mansions were being torn down because people went broke,” explains Heather. “A lot of Beverly Hills is actually built from recycled brick and stuff Lawson salvaged from these demolition sites headed for the tip.”

Heather and Jeremy became reacquainted with the apartment complex around two years ago, when they were looking to downsize from the family home they previously shared with their two daughters, dog and cat for 20 years. “We’d joked for 20 years that we’d renovate and when we were finally a position to do so, the girls had grown up and we were ready for a new adventure,” says Heather.

“I Googled ‘older style apartments in Melbourne’ and an ad for this place came up, we took one look at each other and were like, yes,” she describes. It was the arched stained glass window that hooked them. “We knew we were in big trouble, we really wanted it and had to act quickly to make it happen.”

Now, after living in their apartment for the last year and half with their daughter Allie, Dougal the dog and Sugar the cat, Heather is dead serious (with a smirk) when she tells me: “I’m never moving again.”

Onto their good room, and Heather tells me “it’s THE room of the house”. The open-plan living dining area is very much in its original state, except for its colour – now a beautiful deep, dusky grey. “Choosing a colour was the hardest part because I knew we would be spending so much time here,” confesses Heather. The room is filled with the family’s treasures from their old home, including a much-loved Arite Kannavos abstract painting (given to Heather by her family as a birthday present), and a few new additions, including the Featherston lounge chair Heather found dirt cheap at an op shop, new lighting fixtures, and what she describes as her “first proper grown up couch” (a Mario Bellini for C&B Italia sofa) and floor-to-ceiling Italian ‘Grazie Zia’ vintage film poster.

But the ‘stuff’ isn’t really the reason why this room is so dear to Heather. She loves the character of this space, not to mention the seriously swoon-worthy views. “The first night we moved in, we took off the curtains and saw this view to the city all lit up, of course I cried,” she says of the moment she knew she was home.

Heather loves the neighbours too, and the feeling of belonging to this intimate community – she often leaves the windows open and chats to those passing by. “I garden lots too, and our friendships grew from hellos, to my name is, to swimming laps in the pool with each other in the mornings.” In Heather’s experience, Beverly Hills residents really care about each other, and the history and preservation of the complex itself.

Sitting in her ‘good room’ comfortably at ease, it’s easy to see Heather’s found her happy place. “This is the room where we come together – mostly the three of us – but I did manage to squeeze in 50 friends for my birthday party last year! It was tight but very good fun.” And in case you were wondering, no Neighbours stars were in attendance, instead just the good, real and regular live-next-door kind.

The creation of this Woolooware garden was a dream collaboration between client and landscape designer Grant Boyle of Fig Landscapes, particular given his client’s passion for native plants.

A day spent picking out native plants together at Exotic Nurseries delivered all the goods needed to complete the outdoor space, as most of the hard landscaping materials were already on site. Large sandstone boulders, recycled railway sleepers, an old driveway slab that was used to create concrete steppers, and old flooring joists leftover from demolition were all incorporated into the design. Luckily for Grant, he loves a good rock. ‘The bigger the better!’

Without means for irrigation, it was vital to select plants that could hold water for extended periods of dry weather. This conscious approach to the native conditions allowed Grant to work with succulents, cacti and other drought tolerant plants, which he’s been utilising more and more in his gardens, as dry periods get longer and more intense. To complement these robust, textural plantings, rusted Corten steel edging borders the lawn, delineating the native plant palette and grass trees that sprawl throughout.

‘I love the way the ground covers have taken over the pathway, creating a meandering journey to the hidden fire pit,’ says Grant of his favourite feature of the garden. ‘And the way the Pennisetum (Fountaingrass) sway in the wind and catch the afternoon light in their flowers.’

Although tomatoes are synonymous with summer, I would almost consider them an Autumn fruit, at least here in Melbourne anyway. The best ones are usually had in February or March, so sweet from the warmth of a long summer. One of my favourite ways to enjoy them is in this delicious soup, which is so simple to make and requires very little active time in the kitchen. Roasting them makes them even sweeter, and paired with the basil and mozzarella, it’s just a lovely pure dish.

This soup is incredibly rustic and rather thick, so feel free to place the soup into a pot and thin out with some stock if you would like it to stretch a bit further. If you’re keeping it as it is though, and blitzing the tomatoes right away from the oven, you won’t need to heat it in a pot at all. While I’ve suggested adding the mozzarella directly into the soup, sometimes I sandwich slices of the milky cheese in between two slices of bread to make creamy grilled sandwiches which are also a sure winner. Make this soup when tomatoes are at their best, bursting red and full of flavour.

This recipe celebrates all that is good about easy summer eating.

JULIA’S Roasted tomato soup with basil and mozzarella (serves 4)

2kg Roma tomatoes
8 cloves garlic, left whole in their skin
3 shallots, roughly chopped
2 stems of basil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt

Basil oil
Large handful of basil leaves, finely chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Red wine vinegar

Sea salt, to taste

250g buffalo mozzarella, to serve

Grilled bread, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. 

Halve the tomatoes and remove the core from the top. Arrange them cut side up onto a large roasting or baking tray. Tuck in the garlic, shallots and basil amongst the tomatoes and drizzle with the olive oil. Scatter generously with sea salt and roast for 1 1/2 hours or until the tomatoes have collapsed and have caramelised in spots. Remove the basil and discard. Squeeze the garlic from their skins and place in a food processor or blender along with the roasted tomatoes, shallots and any liquid at the bottom of the tray. Blitz until very smooth and season to taste 

Meanwhile, for the oil, simply place the chopped basil in a small bowl and pour in enough olive oil to make it a spoonable consistency. Add enough red wine vinegar to give it some sharpness, a few teaspoons should be enough, and season to taste with sea salt. 

Ladle the soup into serving bowls and tear in some mozzarella. Drizzle over some of the basil oil and serve with grilled bread.

What else I’m eating this month:

The fried shallot, cashew sour cream and pickled jalapeño at Old Palm Liquor in East Brunswick!

What else I’m cooking with:

Incredible Elberta peaches from Howieson Farm which I buy at the Flemington farmers market. They taste like peaches used to and should taste like! I just blanch them to take off their fuzzy skin and have been eating them with muesli, on top of pancakes and baked in galettes and cakes! ‘Tis the season!

You can follow Julia’s food adventures on Instagram and find more fab recipes via her website! 

Apart from the obvious logistical complications of completely demolishing and rebuilding a house in an inner-city Sydney suburb, there is the ever-evasive problem of light. Where to find it when the boundary line runs against a Victorian terrace on the south, and a 1980s apartment block on the north? How to maximise it once you do?

Tony Chenchow and Stephanie Little of Chenchow Little Architects took on answering those questions with vigour in this new residential project in Glebe. While ‘on a typical inner-city site, the centre of the house is often dark and introverted with a poor outlook’, the pair were determined to create ‘a serene, sculptural space flooded with light’ for a family of five.

The resulting compact two-storey dwelling pivots around void-like central spaces that open up the middle of the house to light-filled, bright caverns. ‘By incorporating voids and double height windows into the centre of the building, we were able to focus views away from the closely sited neighbouring dwellings into the surrounding treetops’, Tony explains. The custom built and designed windows align with arched cut-outs in the floor plate, so that light enters from openings all around the house, while the open staircase allows the ceiling to retain its height and connects the two storeys.

The most exciting thing about this house however (apart from the innovative way light has been squeezed in from every angle), is the glamorous use of curves. From the arch of the spiral staircase to the mid-century parabolas of the glazing, the voluptuous bend in every surface is alluring and almost romantic.

Despite demolishing the dilapidated cottage that existed on the block before it, Tony and Stephanie designed the Glebe residence around arched openings to mirror the architecture of the Victorian terraces typical of the suburb. This nod to the site’s context awards the new building an identity loaded with history and imagination.

When Briony Goldsmith and Robert Jurcec set out to find their first home together, they were looking for somewhere big enough for their children, that would also allow working from home. When they discovered this Hawthorn home, it didn’t just fit the bill, it was perfect! ‘We found it and couldn’t believe how perfect it was for us, it had everything that we wanted and needed,’ Briony says.

Briony has lived in older Victorian homes in the past, but has come to love the lightness and energy of this recently-built modern home. Among her favourite features are the lush rear courtyard framed by floor-to-ceiling windows, the high ceilings, and how unassuming the house appears from the outside. ‘Everyone gets a shock at how large the place is when they walk in!’ she says.

Living in this house marks the first time Briony and their respective children Maya Jurcec, and Gretchen Ryan, both 9, have lived together. So far it’s been smooth sailing, except for arguments between the grown-ups about whose furniture gets to be in the home! ‘We both had complete homes separately, and we couldn’t fit both of our furniture in,’ explains Briony. Fortunately for her, the home has a Scandinavian feel ideally suited to Briony’s existing Danish furniture pieces. ‘In the end, I won,’ she admits!

Dotted throughout the space are beautiful objects and art that provide a personal touch. ‘I love the energy that gets created when an artist births their vision, whether it be furniture or a painting. By collecting objects and furniture that I love, created by someone that made it from their soul, there is a beautiful energy,’ Briony says. She also has a fondness for crystals, explaining ‘they add to how my home feels, and remind me that I am connected to the earth’.

Other beloved items include Briony’s couch (‘It has stains on it from when I was breastfeeding my daughter, the puppy has scratched it, but it still looks good,’ she says), and the butterfly artwork by Melbourne artist Carla Fletcher. ‘It doesn’t matter where I live, people often comment on the feel of my home,’ Briony says.

Briony is the director and founder of Soul Star Festival – a boutique wellness and spiritual celebration on March 1st. Find more information about the event  here!

Fleeting scenes of spontaneity flicker through Baden Croft’s work: a koala sitting in contemplation, bushland reflected symmetrically on the surface of a billabong, a morose fox caught mid-hunt. The melancholy and beauty of the Australian ecosystem is captured in exquisite detail, stillness and gore.

Baden works out of a studio on the Mornington Peninsula, where a converted art space houses eight studios and a gallery. The presence of this coastal creative community helps Baden’s practice – the ebb and flow of ‘everyone coming and going’ – but also situates him in the landscape he prefers to paint.

‘I have never liked big crowds or cities; they make me feel like a sardine squished into a claustrophobic little tin,’ he explains. ‘I don’t really find concrete or bricks very aesthetically pleasing either.’

He finds the poetry of the bush richer in detail and plot. ‘Much of my work has been quite driven by the environment; there are new subjects and stories to make paintings about each waking day.’

Baden’s work recalls the kinesis of Brett Whiteley and the emotion of Ben Quilty, while still managing to stay totally his own. Now working as a full-time painter, he is keenly aware of the artistic tradition of painting the Australian landscape he sits in, but it’s an awareness that looks to the future rather than the past for inspiration. ‘I feel as though people who like to make things with their hands are always going to find something new to motivate them to keep creating.’

The artist’s upcoming show Navigating Cook will explore this constant oscillation between Australia’s past and present, by interrogating the shifting mythology around the colonial explorer. It will open at Michael Reid in May, as will his solo show at art2muse in Double Bay. Also, keep an eye on the digital horizon for Baden’s work in an online group show next month at Michael Reid, where his still lifes will show alongside other exciting, original artworks.