‘Patience is a Virtue’ and 7 Other Interior Design Lessons
Over the IN BED Journal’s 10 year span, we’ve gleaned pearls of wisdom from owners, renters, and artists-in-residence the world over. Some have stripped their place back to studs, while others have embraced the quirks of their centuries-old masterpiece, but no matter the process of creating a home, the same advice seems to emerge - speaking to the pleasure of patience; how inhabiting a space helps to realise what it could benefit from, and what can be left behind. Whether you're in the throes of a renovation, or simply seeking a new year refresh, now is the time to take heed of the advice we’ve been so fortunate to receive.
1. Patience, patience, patience
Homeowners Tabitha Stoodley & Oliver Hammerton discovered a 1970’s time capsule at their South Bowenfels address: “brick, timber, vintage tiles, vaulted ceilings, and windows everywhere”. On the subject of decorating, Tabitha implores “we’ve decided not to rush to fill the house but to be comfortable with empty spaces while we wait for the pieces we really love. This house has taught me that not everything needs to be done yesterday… patience, patience, patience.”
2. Trust your instinct
We’ve followed furniture designer, Tilly Barber across multiple abodes - first visiting her bushland studio and most recently at High Noon: a sprawling Alistair Knox-commissioned property on Wurundjeri land. Of her impressive, yet restrained collection of wares, Tilly muses “I like to be guided by instinct which can have some unexpected outcomes - I trust that if I love an object, artwork or piece of furniture it will find its place and settle in.”
3. Never stop searching
When we stopped by mon house founder, Lucienne Van Sebille’s Eltham place - of course our first question was ‘where do you find all of your treasures?’ “That’s absolutely the question I am most asked” replies Lucienne “... and there is no simple answer. Sourcing is always, always searching and in many, many places. At times you find nothing, at times you find more than you can invest in or fit in a vehicle and that’s kind of the joy of it. And sometimes the frustration.”
4. Look for the silver lining
After Stanislava Pinchuk & Ennis Ćehić purchased their Sarajevo apartment, the owners took it upon themselves to do a DIY demolition. “It was a disaster. A total disaster! The kitchen was gone, the taps were gone, the toilet bowl and bathtub were smashed into pieces. The lights were stripped out of the whole place. The walls looked like they had been in a fire, the radiators were held together with sticky tape… and on top of all that, there was a fresh death notice for the previous owner taped to the front door.” Seeing it now, you would never know its storied past; a space the couple have now come to live and work in. Ennis recalls; “the previous owners assumed we would be renovating and thought they were doing us a favour by doing a bunch of demolition… and so, we just decided to see it as a silver lining.”
5. Ask for help
Sarah Godden’s life ambition was to renovate a warehouse, and taking on a commercial lease (following the success of her pre-loved furniture business, Soft Focus House) allowed her to do just that. “My instagram community is truly responsible for us even being able to do this in the first place - and I have absolutely loved everyone’s support and advice along the way. It can be a bit lonely working for yourself to begin with, and then there are so many decisions to make when renovating - having likeminded people who share the same passions and taste to go to when I need advice has been actually amazing! It can also be helpful to just confirm what I already feel in my gut, whether I agree with everyone... or not."
6. When you own a lot of things, they own you, you don’t own them
Receiving this piece of advice from chef and Feisty Feast founder, Julia Khan Anselmo stopped us in our tracks. Speaking from her airy, two-story Amsterdam apartment “I think I used to be more of a maximalist than I am now,” Julia shared “...moving from Vancouver to Amsterdam, we brought a lot of things with us. When you own a lot of things, they own you, you don’t own them. Now, I try to be much more discerning with what I bring into my home and my life, I don't know where I’ll end up next!”
7. Change up the (floor) plan
We were initially sceptical of this advice from Ma House founder, Ben Mooney, but as with all things - there’s method to his madness. His striking home and shop is living proof, and like Sarah, Ben enjoys the freedom of a commercial lease. “The building was so run down when I got it that anything I’ve done has kind of been a major improvement anyway. The biggest challenge was removing a wall upstairs. I didn’t have the budget to do it all at one time and living in dust and decay for a long time gets pretty depressing. But it’s turned two sad small sized bedrooms into a really beautiful living room that can accommodate my furniture collection. Another challenge was the kitchen. It used to just be a bedroom. Everything for the kitchen came off Marketplace from the cupboards, to the sink, to the range hood. I’m not a trained designer and the way a kitchen is laid out is a little more mathematical than you think so getting that balance of space and ergonomics has been a lesson but also so great to have a kitchen that functions just the way I like it.”
8. And finally: embrace imperfection
Julia Eshaghpour and Kevin Hollidge can be found on the lively border of Chinatown and the Lower East Side in Manhattan, where they share their home and multidisciplinary art & design practice Sunfish. “Our style is colorful, elemental, and lived-in. We enjoy idiosyncrasies that reveal process, a human gesture, the passage of time, or the individual character of a material. Nothing in our home is too perfect.”
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