Interior designer Darren Palmer, who himself shot to fame on a reality TV show, appears on tonight’s The Block. Interiors Addict had a quick Q&A with him about his thoughts on this season.
Photo L-R: Block judges Neale Whitaker and Shaynna Blaze with Darren Palmer.
It’s the latest magazine for those of us who love interiors, exteriors, renovating or just nosing around other people’s homes! The Grand Designs Australia magazine launch issue came out this week and it’s one chunky publication!
If you loved the TV series (both UK and Australian versions, and I’m afraid, as a Pom, I’m going to have to say I prefer the original!), you’re bound to enjoy this. Its panel of expert contributors include Interiors Addict favourites Shaynna Blaze and Darren Palmer, as well as real estate boss John McGrath, architects Robert Harwood and Justin Quinlan, sustainability expert Emine Mehmet and more.
The first few pages discuss the latest trends in furniture, homewares and technology. Darren Palmer has written a fantastic feature on planning your interior. If you have no idea where to start, this is perfect for you and walks you through the entire process, whether you’re doing it yourself or getting a professional in to help. There’s a feature on the latest colour trends by managing editor Kate St James, and interior designers Greg Natale, David Hicks, Stacey Kouros, Alexa Nice and Shareen Joel are profiled as the taste makers of 2012. All that before you even get to the architecture!
Last month I interviewed Greg Natale, Thomas Hamel, Jason Grant and Darren Palmer about the business side of their job, for Dynamic Business magazine. There’s been huge interest in this article, so if you haven’t been able to get hold of a copy at your local news agency, I’ll happily send you a PDF, free of charge. Just email me at [email protected] with DB in the subject line, and I’ll send it to you tomorrow. Enjoy your Anzac Day, readers! Jen x
I hinted at this exciting project the other week and now I can finally tell you what it was all about! For those of you who don’t know, for my day job I’m editor of Dynamic Business magazine. I recently started thinking about the business side of being an interior designer and what it takes to really make money, go far and have longevity in this industry. Nobody really talks about the perhaps less glamorous business and admin side of the creative industries so I thought it’d be a great idea to interview some people at different stages of their design careers.
The article came together really well (if I don’t say so myself!) with some great insights. I spoke to Thomas Hamel, who has been in the game for 20 years and Greg Natale, who just celebrated ten years of having his own practice. Then there’s Darren Palmer, who shot to fame on homeMADE and The Block (he’s a guest judge on the new series too) and whose business is really starting to take off, and Jason Grant, the freelance stylist working the personal brand with his Murobond paint collections, blog and various collaborations.
The mag’s in news agencies from tomorrow. I hope you enjoy the read. It was a really fun photoshoot!
Are you an interior designer with a head for business or do you find that side of it challenging?
Photography by Chris Walsh.
(L-R) Greg Natale, Jason Grant, Interiors Addict Jen, Thomas Hamel and Darren Palmer.
I’ll tell you the story behind this shoot next month…
It was a full house at the launch of iconic British furniture brand ercol into Australia at Temperature Design in Sydney tonight.
Interior stylists were out in force, including Glen Proebstel, Jason Grant, Kirsten Bookallil, Darren Palmer and Stacey Kouros.
Top Design judge Amanda Talbot MC’d proceedings and ercol managing director Nick Garratt flew in from the UK.
Some timeless pieces were on disaply, including the well known butterfly chair and Studio lounge (which was designed when Elvis was at the height of his fame!). Old classics continue to be popular and have been given a modern twist with on trend colours like orange. These simple, gorgeous designs, with some pieces by Sir Terence Conran, certainly caused a stir.
(Interiors Addict, Mr Jason Grant and Kirsten Bookallil)
(Interiors Addict and Glen Proebstel)
Ok, so February is in danger of becoming Darren Palmer Month on Interiors Addict but I just couldn’t not share this transformation when he gave me the go ahead. And hey, when there’s all this design goodness to share, why not?
Here, for your viewing pleasure, a before and after (you can guess which is which) of a Potts Point home Darren designed. I know, it had a WATER COOLER! And the less said about the shiny-shiny chairs, vertical blinds and tiles the better. But just look what it became! A room full of depth and texture in Darren’s trademark natural-but-not-neutral palette. While I usually prefer a bit more colour myself, I could move right in!
Styling. “It’s the icing on the cake. It’s pointless without the cake but the cake is pretty darn boring without the icing!,” said Darren Palmer at his Coco Republic Design School session on Wednesday.
Everyone can have a go at styling, not everyone gets it right. But it’s fun and non-committal and you can usually use things you already own, just displayed and arranged differently. I personally never get bored of styling up my home.
Darren’s suggested essentials for styling:
Tray (wooden/metal/rustic/contemporary)
Flowers and greenery
Assortment of vases
Options for blankets, linens and throws
Objets and sculptural items
Candles: an assortment of sizes
More cushions than you can use (Yes!)
Bowls, plates, decorative vases
Books! Great to complete the picture.
My own coffee table has a tray (to collect the messy remotes and annoying little things my boyfriend leaves around), a vase of fresh flowers, two piles of design books and a big old candle (Glasshouse) on it. What’s on yours?
As promised yesterday, I’m sharing some more of the most useful things I picked up from Darren Palmer’s session at Coco Republic Design School on Wednesday. Today: the idea!
“Like the best advertising, idea-driven design has the most impact,” says Darren. “The idea helps you sort through finishes and schemes to achieve your look and represent your vision.” Your idea might be “fuss-free family home” or “stylish Hamptons”. He advises using interiors magazines, the internet (including blogs like this one, of course!) to search for inspiration and create a scrapbook or an online moodboard with Pinterest (Are you pinning yet? I knew it!).
Now an idea and a theme are two very different things. The way he explained it, a kids’ birthday party might have a theme, while a wedding, something altogether more classy, should be about an idea instead. And we all know people who make the mistake of going with a theme (in weddings and in homes) and taking it so far it becomes ridiculous. I’ll risk upsetting a lot of people here but French country? What’s that all about?! (I flirted with shabby chic myself a few years ago. Patchwork and roses EVERYWHERE. In hindsight? Terrible! But I loved it at the time).
Another boring but absolute necessity that Darren talked a lot about was planning, highlighting the importance of function and flow in a home. A scale floor plan enables you to see the space configuration and hopefully any major issues will jump out at you and you can look at solutions. He advises allocating some of your budget to fixing planning and layout issues (badly located doors, restriction of light etc). Pay attention to proportions, which can really have an impact on flow and liveability. Darren says priority number one (assuming you’re revamping your entire home) should be to improve the layout of poorly positioned rooms, particularly kitchens and bathrooms (“They sell houses!”). An accurate floor plan will also help you discover the best place for pieces of furniture.
“Don’t be afraid to block out a window or change a doorway here or there. These small, yet dirty changes, can yield transforming results,” he says.
Come back tomorrow to learn about styling. Everyone loves that bit, don’t they?
It’s amazing how much you can pack into three hours. I left last night’s Coco Republic Design School session with Darren Palmer feeling three things: impressed (by Darren’s amazing work), inspired (to make my own home even nicer employing his expert tips) and just generally excited (because that’s how I get when I’m around anything interiors, especially surrounded by other interiors addicts!).
It was a full house for the session (there’s another tomorrow) which was all about how to work with your home to show it in its best light, covering the most common problems, offering solutions and advice. And Darren made it a really enjoyable experience by being a natural, warm presenter with a sense of humour who shared countless before and afters (you can never have too many before and afters in my opinion; interiors or weightloss!) and answered many questions.
Now I couldn’t possibly share it all here in one blog post (which is why I’m going to do one a day for the rest of this week) and I’m going to pick out what I took most from it and hope you find it useful too.
You know what my biggest issue with decorating my home is? IMPATIENCE. This is why I rush into choosing and buying things, only to get them home and find they don’t quite work, or love them for two weeks and then want a completely different scheme (we don’t talk about the orange bedroom anymore). So although I found it hard to hear, I totally agree with Darren’s advice to put a good deal of planning into your interiors before you even start parting with any cash. He threw around words like focus, control and EDITING which are hard for a girl who wants everything done by yesterday to hear, but I have to admit he is so right and had I been at this session last year I could have saved myself a lot of time, money and frustration (not to mention arguments with the boyfriend about wasting money).
We’ve all been there. There is SO much choice you don’t know where to begin. Darren says: “The more constraints you can put on an interior the better. An interior can’t be all things to all people,” and adds: “it’s important to have a consistent, considered and cohesive approach to the items you choose.” My approach is so the opposite of that, I have to laugh. Sometimes I’ve got it terribly wrong. Other times I think I’ve been blessed by a bit of luck. Just when I thought Darren was already sounding way too serious, he says: “Be diligent, focused and controlled. It’s not that fun!” Spoilsport or what?!
He is absolutely right though isn’t he? How often have you wished you’d waited until you could afford the coffee table you really wanted or wished you hadn’t rushed into that ‘trendy’ colour scheme that really didn’t work for you in reality?
So, today’s lesson is patience and planning. Tune in tomorrow for some more fun stuff…
(Did I mention what a pleasure it was to finally meet Darren in real life?)
Following last night’s great design session with Darren Palmer at Coco Republic Design School, I’ve already signed up for the session with Steve Cordony from belle magazine next month. Last night Darren said Steve is one of the most amazing stylists he has ever seen! High praise indeed! Read my interview with Steve here, sign up for his session at Coco Republic Design School here. Read more about last night’s session with Darren later today. I have so much to share with you!
I’m bursting with inspiration and ideas after a three-hour session with Darren Palmer at Coco Republic Design School in Sydney this evening. The sell out session with the former star of homeMADE and The Block was all about making your own home the best it can be. This guy seriously knows his stuff. Anyone who has a snobby view of reality TV should think again because he really is extremely talented, and charming to boot. He shared some stunning before and afters with us, was very generous with his knowledge and answered a LOT of questions. I seriously recommend you attend his next session on Friday if there are any places left.
I’ll be writing up everything I learned over the next few days. There’s SO much!
Darren and I in a fab Kelly Hoppen chair at Coco. Excuse the grainy phone photo. I forgot my camera…
I’m lucky enough to be going along to Darren Palmer’s session at Coco Republic Design School on Wednesday night. Anything you’d like me to quiz him on? Any burning interiors questions you’d like a bit of expert help with? Let me know by commenting below! I’ll be writing up what I learn for a future blog post. Jen
I’m attending Darren Palmer’s design session at Coco Republic Design School on 15 February and the two of us thought it would be really cool to ask you, the readers, to ask his expert advice on your interior design dilemmas. We’ll pick the best/most popular topics and he’ll answer them during the session. Even better, why don’t you come along too and hear the answers for yourselves? If you have a question for Darren, please post it in the comments section below, even if you’re not coming along to the session.
In Design Solutions for Your Home, Darren will show you how to work with your home and add interest through design, decoration and a coherent concept.
Darren’s work is in the issues of Belle, Luxury Home Design, Renovate Mag, GQ and Design Decoration on news agency shelves now. You can read my interview with Darren here.
Book your ticket for Darren’s design session here. Tickets for the three-hour session are $95. Hope to see you there! There’s also another session with Darren (which I won’t be at) on Friday 17 February.
Interiors Addict interviewees Darren Palmer and Steve Cordony will both be inspiring students at Coco Republic Design School this February and March. Darren rose to fame on HomeMADE and The Block and his work has since been featured in many top interiors magazines. Steve is the chief stylist at belle magazine. At $95 for a three-hour session, I think they’re great value for money. Might see you there! More details and online booking here.
In this guest post, interior designer Darren Palmer, who rose to fame on homeMADE and The Block, adds an interesting view, and a possible solution, to the replica furniture debate.
“We had an industry debate at Corporate Culture a few years ago to try and decide whether replicas had value. I was on the affirmative, only for the sake of discussing a point that seemed worth debating: that there is clearly a great deal of value in the market given there is so much revenue made from it.
I put forward the idea that given there is such a high demand for luxury, fake or otherwise, surely there are ways to take advantage of that market with integrity whilst hopefully denying the fake furniture market a slice of the pie.
The thinking I had was this: there is high demand for luxury at consumer level and there is a great deal of revenue to be made from it. Replica furniture meets this market. Surely there is a way for legitimate design and established designers to meet the market too?
An example I gave in this discussion was what Stella McCartney achieved with her alliances with Target and H&M. What she was able to do was offer a product at a price point that was accessible without affecting the rest of her brand, or dragging down her high-end perception. I wonder whether there isn’t some way for established, high end furniture manufacturers (the same ones who are affected by the replica furniture market like Eames, Mies Van der Rohe, Hans Wegner, Florence Knoll et al) to offer versions or new offerings using techniques and materials that allow product to be produced at a price point that captures that demand.
My personal view is that there are so many products that already exist in the market at an achievable price point, that are made and sold with integrity, that you can buy and enjoy for years to come, that there is no need to desire a replica of anything. Great design does not only mean design classics but for those that manufacture the real thing perhaps there is a way to cut into some of that great stream of revenue worldwide.
I’m no expert on the business models of the likes of Eames and other design classic manufacturers, and I do not claim to be, though I do think the question is an interesting one, at least as part of this greater issue.
As a footnote I would like to mention two personal experiences of the replica furniture market. The first was when I was trying to use a Tom Dixon beat light in a high end residential project. The beat lamp is a beautiful and original design at a really great price point and was loved by myself and my client. But the lead time on it was 12 weeks. My client wasn’t willing to wait so he purchased a replica instead for not that much less than the original. It was the delay alone that lost a sale for the original and I couldn’t understand why, with such a popular product at such a low price point, there wasn’t stock in Australia. A shame but also understandable from my client’s point of view.
The other experience was with a friend of mine who purchased the expensive version of a replica Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman that’s sold for $1895. When it arrived, the arm was detached from the chair, which had pierced the leather in a few places. When my friend notified the company selling it they sent him a replacement one, however when he asked when they would pick the other one up they told him to just put it on the street. It was worth so little to them that it wasn’t even feasible to send a courier to pick it up and repair it. That should give some indication of the value that the retailers of replicas put on the product they’re selling.
That chair was fixed by me and now sits in my office and I’m ok with having it purely because I have saved another piece of disposable furniture from hitting the rubbish tip.”
Read an earlier interview with Darren here.
Following yesterday’s interview with Darren Palmer, here’s a quick Q&A on what he hates in décor trends, his tips on getting it right yourself and who inspires him.
Q: What do people most commonly get wrong in their own homes?
A: I think one of the big mistakes people can make is to choose things that they like. What I mean by that is I often have people say I love this item, like a sofa or something, and I love this rug, and I really love this chair, but nothing seems to go together. The reason for that is you need to always start with the end in mind, have a focus, have a goal and have a concept or an idea to put into your interior before you even look at buying a single item. When you have an overview of what the finished outcome will be you can choose pieces that fit within the scheme, knowing that they will work before you get them home. And if you can’t, I can do that for you. The idea though is to start with the end in mind always, always, always. (Interiors Addict advises you to make yourself a mood board before you start, whether it’s a physical cut and stick or pin version, or using something online like Pinterest).
Q: Do you have any pet hates in other people’s home décor?
A: Feature walls. I speak about this from time to time and there are always exceptions to the rule but generally speaking you should avoid feature walls like the plague. Any design solution without a well thought out reason is probably not going to have the outcome that was intended. It’s great to make a statement, but like when you say something verbally, you need to think about what you saying before making any statement. Design needs rules.
Q: Who do you admire in Australian interior design and styling?
A: My mentor (who would probably prefer to remain nameless) is definitely number one. You’ve featured a few other people who I’m constantly inspired by in terms of what they manage to achieve, like Greg Natale and the amazing Sibella Court. That woman is a powerhouse. Every time we see each other I ask her how the world domination plans are going! My dear friend Stacey Kouros is a major talent (she was also on HomeMADE with me and WOW is she doing some great work). Steve Cordony from Belle Magazine is one super creative human too. I’m always amazed by how he brings things together and keeps pumping out new ideas.Gregory Mellor is very talented. He’s between South Africa and Australia now but I still think he’s one of the major design talents in the country.
Now running the successful Darren Palmer Interiors, with his work published in respected magazines, a regular interiors column in GQ and teaching at Coco Republic Design School, he’s come a long way since growing up in country Queensland and just quietly, we think he could be the next big thing.
At 27, after working in graphic design and advertising, Darren decided it was time for a career change. Around the same time, he bought and renovated his first apartment. “A dear friend who is an interior designer really loved what I’d done with the place. His business partner was overseas for three months and I asked if I could work with him and learn the ropes. He was really happy to include me in some projects. Belle Magazine published my apartment in their renovation issue and it all grew from there.”
Darren caught the public’s attention on Channel 9’s HomeMADE and also appeared on The Block this year. Wisely, he has focused on making the most of the exposure from HomeMADE, which even he admits, didn’t do brilliantly. “I came out of the reality TV world with a really positive experience. TV exposure helps you to build rapport with people that you haven’t met and it’s a great pre-qualifier as they’ve seen your work and feel comfortable with you because there’s credibility that comes along with exposure.”
Since the show, his business has grown, along with his personal style. “I’ve been featured in Belle’s kitchen and bathroom issue and named as one of their Mood Makers for 2011. I’ve had work featured in Luxury Homes Magazine and taught at the Coco Republic Design School. I was also fortunate to be a part of this year’s hugely successful The Block, which all probably would’ve been a lot harder had I not been given a start on HomeMADE.” Humble Darren is no celeb though. “Generally people forget who’s been on TV and for what within six months. You stop being recognised after a while!”
He simply describes his interiors style as natural, drawing from the colours and textures of nature.“Things like a sunset when the sky is those beautiful muted, desaturated colours after the sun is gone, to the textures of wood, stone, leather and sisal. I love anything that’s textural and real, not synthetic. I really like to create spaces that are inviting, relaxed and texturally diverse and layered yet refined, slick and sophisticated.”
Darren thinks this year’s reality renovation TV verged on overkill. “I think people only have enough space to care about a few shows at a time and fortunately the one I was involved with was that show, though I really feel for The Renovators’ contestants as this was a big deal, that would’ve taken a lot of energy and effort, with not as big of a reward after it finished as they might have enjoyed.
“In terms of the industry it’s a double-edged sword with the up side being that the viewing public are more literate in design, exposed to new ideas and are in some ways able to see how much work goes into design. On the flip side it does make design accessible which can make people think “Oh I can do that” which can tend to make it a little harder to sell your level of skill.
“I think as long as there’s integrity behind the way the genre is managed, and the products that are used, it’s more good than bad, and it’s certainly a great way to get noticed and get experience from a participant point of view. It was certainly my steepest learning curve to date.”
What’s next? “I have loved the direction that my career has taken in terms of speaking and writing so that’s definitely somewhere I will be putting energy and I would really love to be back on the box again. There’s a few focuses there but I’m confident I can manage it.”
Outside of work, he’s a self-confessed “massive dork”, married with a two year-old son, two dogs and a cat. “I like to train at the gym and generally be one of the least interesting people you’ve met. My big goals personally amount to trying to get a sleep in and being a good dad. Pretty boring but kind of wonderful.”
He recently bought an apartment in North Bondi which has new paint and floors but will one day have a major overhaul, plans for which are constantly ticking away at the back of his head. “For now it’s a really nice cosy home for my family with high ceilings and nice big 1930s proportions. I intend to make it the ultimate kid and pet-friendly designer house – an interesting brief but I have a good insight into how to fuse functional and beautiful.”
Tomorrow: Mistakes people make with decorating, how to get it right, why he hates feature walls and who he admires.