Get It Right With Undercover Architect

My guest for this episode is Craig Thomas, Managing Director of Caribou. With over 20 years in the industry, he is SUPER passionate about lighting and the impact it can have on how our homes look, feel and function. He’s got loads of helpful tips to share with you. SHOW NOTES: Homeowners often create their lighting design through early conversations with their electrician. By then, you can already have missed the opportunity to create a beautiful, functional result in your home, through successful (and affordable) lighting design. Craig Thomas, Managing Director of Caribou, has over 20 years in the business, and has a huge wealth of knowledge and experience to share when it comes to achieving brilliant results with your lighting design and selections. Caribou is a professional, dedicated and experienced team providing lighting solutions for residential, retail, commercial and industrial projects. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Caribou works directly with architects and designers, lighting engineers, deve

This episode is the second of a 2-part interview I have with Evan Montero, Co-founder and managing director of DIY Blinds … so if you haven’t listened to the last episode, stop now, and go back and listen to it now. Or, stay tuned to listen to part 2 of my conversation with Evan. SHOW NOTES: Plantation Shutters have become a popular choice for window furnishings. They’re a big investment, and so getting it right is essential to avoid disappointment and cost blowouts. DIY Blinds is an online ordering site for window furnishings. With a huge range of products from blinds, to curtains, to plantation shutters, you have the ability to request fabric samples, choose your fabric, learn how to measure and install your blinds, and order them online … all from your sofa.  The DIY Blinds website does a great job of stepping you through the things you need to consider, and how to make your selections. And they’re made in Australia, mostly available within 2 weeks, and also have a 5 ye

People who are renovating or building new will often leave window furnishings until the last minute, or until after they’ve moved in. As a result, they miss huge opportunities.  So, this episode and the next will be brilliant for you to see what’s possible, and why thinking about them during the design phase is so important. DIY Blinds is an online ordering site for window furnishings. With a huge range of products from blinds, to curtains, to plantation shutters, you have the ability to request fabric samples, choose your fabric, learn how to measure and install your blinds, and order them online … all from your sofa.  The DIY Blinds website does a great job of stepping you through the things you need to consider, and how to make your selections. And they’re made in Australia, mostly available within 2 weeks, and also have a 5 year warranty. Evan is really passionate about homeowners knowing what they need to know, and also what’s possible in really elevating the deta

Choosing the best paint product can seem confusing. Are they really that different? The answer is “YES”, and this episode shares why. Josh is the Interior Products Technical Manager at the DuluxGroup. What does that mean? Well, Josh and his team are the ones responsible for all the science and technology behind the paints and products created by Dulux. If you’re picturing labs and white lab coats, you’re not far wrong.  Josh has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemistry and has worked as an Industrial Chemist. He’s won awards for his skills as a technologist, and I’m super excited to be bringing him to the UA Community. I see homeowners get really focussed on their colour and material selections for their interiors, but then will often not get involved in the actual product specification process.  This is particularly relevant for painting, when you may be using a painter for your project, and often simply going with the product and brand they use and recommend.&

Frances and I see homeowners regularly make some common mistakes when it comes to their interior design.  This can be related to  who they choose,  how they go about their design and selections,  decisions they make about specific elements of their interior design elements they forget to consider in the design phase that then get stuffed up during construction right through to missed opportunities and expensive errors So, it made sense for us to talk about the ones we feel are not only regularly made, but have the most significant impact in diminishing the feel and functionality of your home. Listen carefully, so you can learn how to avoid these for your project, and hopefully save yourself money, stress and drama not only in the process of your interior design, but in the result you create in your finished home. I hope you enjoy this episode. Listen now. INTERIOR DESIGN 101 Would you like to simplify your choices, and have total clarity and confidence that your interior design will help

If you’re designing your new home or renovation, have you started thinking about the lighting design?  I find many homeowners will leave their lighting design quite late in their project. Some even leave it as late as construction, waiting for their walk-around with their electrician at frame stage to finalise their choices on lighting numbers, types and positions. As you can imagine, waiting until your walk-around can cause extra costs and disappointment, as often your contract will not have a sufficient allowance for light fixtures, and you’ll be hit with a variation … and the higher margin to go along with it. Lighting can and should be a design process you work through similarly to the rest of your interiors. Considering how it will work functionally, as well as the feeling and mood it’s capable of creating, means you’ll optimise what’s possible for your budget and your home.  There’s a lot of terminology when it comes to lighting, and specific things t

How do you create the ideal Interior Design ‘look’ for your family home? Liz Hayward from Hayward & Co gives us tips on moodboards, creating interior palettes, and making confident choices for your interior design. Liz is a firm believer that a quality, thoughtful, tailored interior should be available to everyone and that amazing results can be achieved on almost any budget. Following her years spent in professional roles working in and around the interior design sphere, the establishment of a bespoke interior decoration agency represents a new and exciting phase in Liz's creative journey. Based on her instinctive ability to see the possibilities of any space she enters, Liz has developed a design process that is as calm and considered as the interiors she ultimately creates. Combining the many snippets of inspiration she collects from the decors she encounters each day with the tastes and input of her clients', Liz designs timeless interiors that reflect the unique personas of the people tha

What do you need to know about choosing your bathroom fixtures? Daniela Santilli, Bathroom Marketing Leader for Reece tells us. Your bathroom fixtures - the basin, vanity, bath, shower and toilet - are all very permanent choices in your home’s bathrooms. Getting them right at the beginning is critical to a functioning home.  Daniela Santilli is the Bathroom Marketing Leader for Reece Plumbing, and has been with the business for 11.5 years. Heading up the bathroom marketing business at Reece brings together her passion for beautiful, functional design and architecture with her commitment to outstanding customer experience in retail. The Reece group operates Australia’s largest plumbing and bathroom supplies business, as well as 8 others in allied industries. Reece’s plumbing and bathroom products are sourced both locally and internationally which you can find in over 600 locations across Australia and New Zealand. They’re continually expanding into fresh areas, developing new techn

How can you, as the homeowner, draw up 3D models of your new home or renovation design? So you can be sure you’ve got it right inside a computer BEFORE you commit to building it? You can learn Sketchup. (Check out https://undercoverarchitect.com/sketchup) Sketchup is a great piece of software that’s available both as a free and paid version, that enables you to draw you design in three dimensions, generate views and walk-throughs so you can experience it inside the computer before committing to it for your real life, and also generate drawings from. Clare Le Roy is an interior designer, educator and Mum of 3 boys, and her business is The Little Design Corner. And she’s also the creator of “Sketchup for Interior Design - Beginners Course”. And now, Clare is an approved training partner for Sketchup. Clare created this course because she wished it had been around when it had first started her business. It would have saved my hundreds of hours of searching YouTube videos and making

In my experience, bathrooms often follow kitchens as an area where a huge amount of deliberation happens as homeowners work through their interior design selections. Many homes these days will have more than one bathroom. There may be a separate toilet or powder room as well. And so you can be juggling the selections for not one room, but several. Do they all need to be matchy matchy? Can they be different? And how does what you select here then relate to other wet areas such as your laundry as well. In this episode, France and I talk through the various selections you’ll need to make for your bathroom, and what to know so you’re choosing things that are durable, easy to clean and will function well. We dive into detail into shower screens, freestanding vs built-in baths, and selecting all the fixtures so that they’re timeless and well-coordinated.   During our conversation, we dive into … + shower screens + freestanding vs built-in baths + fixtures such as your towel rails, tapw

Is choosing the right colour for your home something you’re enjoying, or overwhelmed by? Dulux have been helping homeowners do this with their colour forecasting for over 20 years now. I speak with Andrea Lucena-Orr, Colour and Communications Manager for the Dulux Group, about choosing colour, and their annual Colour Forecasting.  Andrea joined the company with a strong background in colour and design. Her role at Dulux Group encompasses trends and colour forecasting and presenting her findings to trade, retail and media – and of course her recommendations play an integral part in Dulux Group marketing strategies. A member of the international Colour Marketing Group (CMG) and International Color Association (AIC), Andrea scours the globe in pursuit of her passion – colour forecasting. Dulux has been officially colour forecasting for 21 years.  In September 2019, they released their latest: 2020’s colour forecast, which is united by the theme “Essence”.  There

Join the free 5 Day Home Design Challenge (it’s running from 29 Jan - 2 Feb 2020) >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/challenge And check out Home Design Masterclass for more help and support in your floor plan design >>> www.howtodesignahome.com It can be common for homeowners to get really caught up in worrying about the finishes, the builder, the quality of construction. But one thing I know for sure is this: you can have a home with all the high-end finishes, built by the most amazing builder to the highest quality, and still have a terrible design that makes the home horrible to live in on a day-to-day basis. I firmly believe that those lines on a page, the drawings that you’re creating either by yourself, or in working with someone, will dictate how you get to live, feel and function both in and beyond your home for years and years to come. And I think it can be the most frustrating and slow part of the renovating or building process for homeowners, for a few reasons. Sooo

Hello! In the last of our special Q & A episodes, Brett has a brilliant question about working out costs early in his project, and Patricia wants some info on skylights. So, let’s dive in. Want to get it right in your home design? Watch my free online workshop, where I share 5 key ways (plus lots of other tips and strategies) >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/5ways/ THIS EPISODE’S QUESTIONS ... Brett has this question: “Good day Amelia, my name's Brett. I'm from Perth in Western Australia. We've got a young family, two little kids, and we're in the process of planning and designing our future forever home.  Being a mechanical engineer, I'm big with planning, designing and quantifying decisions. While the technical stuff I'm comfortable with, what I'm having trouble with is the costing side.  There's a lot of information out there on general square meterage cost of a typical home for this and that what I'm wondering what resources and how would one go about getting a

Want to get it right in your home design? Watch my free online workshop, where I share 5 key ways (plus lots of other tips and strategies) >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/5ways/ THIS EPISODE’S QUESTION ... Laura’s question: “Hi, Amelia. My name is Laura. I live in Perth in Western Australia. Firstly, I just want to say thanks so much for your podcast. I've gotten a heap of great information and ideas from it. I guess we've got a bit of a situation where we would really love your advice or just thoughts on best ways to move forward. We bought our house six years ago in Perth, right before the market crashed. We bought in a high point, it's since crashed, hence we have no equity in our home. We also bought our home sight unseen, which sounds crazy, but it was actually built by my husband's Pop (grandfather) in 1949. We always used to drive past the outside and we kind of thought how bad can it be inside. Well, let's just say it needs a lot of love, attention, and money spent on it

Want to get it right in your home design? Watch my free online workshop, where I share 5 key ways (plus lots of other tips and strategies) >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/5ways/ THIS EPISODE’S QUESTIONS ... Teri has this question: “Hi, my name is Teri Mason. I'm in Oklahoma in the United States, and we are building a family and event centre, and we're wanting to do it in biophilic design. We've done a tremendous amount of research. It's been quite a process, but with it being a little more unknown, obviously, the resources are a little more scarce, and I would love to hear your input as far as what would you do to bring in more natural elements? Looking for shapes or inspiration areas or resources or just anything you could just speak to that, just make it a great place, I would truly appreciate it.” And Felicity is curious about her windows: “Hi, I'm Felicity from Victoria, doing a renovation. Just wondering whether or not cathedral or highlight windows up high facing nor

Want to get it right in your home design? Watch my free online workshop, where I share 5 key ways (plus lots of other tips and strategies) >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/5ways/ THIS EPISODE’S QUESTIONS ... Meredith’s question: “Hi, Amelia. My name is Meredith. I'm really enjoying your podcast. Thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge.  We're currently living in Queensland. We plan on building a retirement/holiday home on acreage in Victoria in the next couple of years.  We've been looking at the option of building a modular home and wondering if you will be covering this subject (modular and prefab homes), in any future podcasts.  Also, at any particular things I need to look out for when designing and planning a modular home. Thank you.” And Gabrielle had this question: “Hi Amelia. My name is Gabrielle. I live on the South coast of Victoria. We've recently bought a block, a beautiful block. It is South-looking, it overlooks a river. It's g

Want to get it right in your home design? Watch my free online workshop, where I share 5 key ways (plus lots of other tips and strategies) >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/5ways/ THIS EPISODE’S QUESTIONS ... Elizabeth got in touch: “Hi Amelia. My name's Elizabeth. I'm in Castle Hill in New South Wales. First up, thank you for producing such a fabulous podcast, and providing so much fantastic, informative, entertaining and helpful information. It's made a huge difference to how I'm approaching the design of our new home. And that new home we're planning to build in 2020, just as soon as we settle the sale of our current home, and find the right block of land. I will be living in that home with my husband and our three boys who will be 16, 14 and 11 by that stage, and our two very boisterous Standard Labradoodles, and six budgies live in a large cage in our house. I'm very passionate about this home, embracing all things sustainability, and I'm quite intrigued by some of the alternative

What do you need to know about shopping online for tiles? We talk with Floss Kelly, co-founder, about TileCloud. If you’re selecting and ordering tiles, there are key things to know so you don’t run into issues on site. Shopping online can be a great alternative. Florence (or Floss as she first introduced herself to me!) is the Brand Director and Co-Founder of online store TileCloud, and she is one of three faces, of the tile store that Australian's love. And Floss is definitely the design savvy of TileCloud. She has a Bachelor in Design from the College of Fine Arts in Sydney, majoring in Ceramics. Using her design and ceramics background and impressive history in global retail - she and the TileCloud team have changed the Home Renovations and Interior Industry. If you haven’t come across TileCloud yet, you’re going to love (love!) it. TileCloud is an online tile supply business. With a beautiful website, an incredibly gorgeous, curated collection of tiles to choose from, and the abil

In this episode, I speak with Karen Haller. Karen Haller is the leading international authority in the field of Applied Colour Psychology - how colour affects and influences our behaviour. With over twenty years of experience, she teaches, consults for businesses, interiors, healthcare and wellbeing; and has worked with prestigious global brands such as Marks and Spencer, Dove and AkzoNobel Dulux. She has also been interviewed for Cosmopolitan, Stylist and The Times, contributed to the Huffington Post, and appeared on London Live and Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch. I was personally researching colour psychology, and came across Karen’s newly published book, “The Little Book of Colour”. It has the subtitle: How to use the psychology of colour to transform your life … which is a big promise, but the book totally delivers.  I’m so excited to be speaking with Karen in this episode of the podcast, and sharing her wisdom with you. I know it’s helped me look at colour very

In this episode, Frances Cosway of White Pebble Interiors and I go into more detail about some of the other materials and fixtures you’ll need to choose for your kitchen.  You’ll learn how to assess these choices not only for their aesthetic appeal, but more importantly, for how they’ll handle the punishment they’re about to endure in your family kitchen! Frances and I talk about: Benchtops Choosing for durability Tapware Your kitchen sink And how to choose your appliances well I hope you enjoy listening to this episode!  INTERIOR DESIGN 101 Would you like to simplify your choices, and have total clarity and confidence that your interior design will help create your beautiful, functional, feel-good home? Interior Design 101 is a self-study, DIY program. It contains the full version of all interviews from the podcast, plus extra content specifically created for Interior Design 101.  In this full interview featured inside Interior Design 101, Frances and I also talk in m