jeff copolov – The Interiors Addict

Our 10 best interviews from the heartfelt to the hilarious

After two years and over 1,000 articles(!), my time at Interiors Addict has come to end. It truly is bittersweet. To think I started as the editorial assistant, still at uni, working one day a week and feeling very out of my comfort zone… and now I’m here, the outgoing features editor, off to tackle the big bad world as a news producer at Sky News. Goodbye cushions, hello current affairs, business and politics (wish me luck!).

So to mark my departure, I thought I’d do one more list post. Below, I’ve put together my favourite interviews, from the motivational and heartfelt to the hilarious and oh so juicy.

Maisie Callcott is one inspiring teenager. Starting her business at the mere age of 12, the now 16-year-old runs Maypole Design, an online business selling wall hangings, rope-based jewellery and accessories and clay bowls. They’re beautiful and crazy affordable.

Now this was one interview I was quite nervous about. I made Jen read it and then re-read it again. After all, you can’t have any grammatical errors in an article about the editor-in-chief of Vogue Living, Neale Whitaker! He talked all things The Block, life in magazine-world and his many varied inspirations.

I had the fortune of interviewing Shaynna Blaze on more than one occasion, but this interview was certainly my favourite. As a Block judge, resident designer on Selling Houses Australia, author and so much more, Shaynna got very honest as she opened up about her favourite contestants, copping flak and how she juggles it all.

What a life Jeff Leatham has led! As the go-to florist to the stars, he’s designed floral arrangements for some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities and his stories, unsurprisingly, are juicy!

There’s nothing quite like a story where someone loses it all but bounces back stronger and better than ever. It makes for some good motivational reading and the story of Claire Falkiner, founder of Merci Perci, is just that. Losing her job just days before Christmas and two weeks before her husband lost his, she decided to change paths and is now a successful artist doing what she loves.

With so many homewares businesses out there it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. But one small business which has been able to do so is Hunting For George, who recently celebrated their fifth birthday. So it seemed only natural we ask: how do sisters Jo Harris and Lucy Glade-Wright do it?!

While I’ve interviewed many interior designers it’s hard to compete with the impressiveness of Jeff Copolov, interior design director at Bates Smart. With the firm having a 162-year-old history (now 163!) the projects Jeff has been involved in are absolutely jaw-dropping.

Demian Carey Gibbins has a story many will envy. Feeling like his corporate career was ruling his life, he decided to hand in his resignation and return to his childhood love of painting. Having been a finalist in a range of renowned awards, his most interesting venture has been coordinating a successful exhibition of Bali 9 ringleader Myuran Sukumaran’s paintings.

The making of Incy Interiors is quite the fairytale. Starting with humble ambitions, founder Kristy Withers began the business when after a fruitless search for a bed for her son she decided to design one herself. Now, she’s runs a business of 13 people, has a new flagship store in Sydney’s Chatswood Chase and sells both kids and adult furniture.

No one likes to talk cleaning, but for Murchison-Hume we will make an exception! What started as a local Sydney business has now well and truly gone international, but founder Max Kater’s mission has remained the same: for her products to be the trifecta of safe and green, looking and smelling great and performing well.

We hope you liked this list.

Being one of the oldest architecture practices in the world, Bates Smart has a very impressive 162-year history! It’s safe to say they’re one of the most respected in Australia. With projects spanning from the Australian Embassy in Berlin, the Crown Towers Hotel at City of Dreams in Macau and the New Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne (which alone won a whopping 23 awards!), no project is too large.

Jeff Copolov is one man who knows this all too well. As Bates Smart’s interior design director, he leads a team of 45. Working at the firm for the last 20 years, he joined after a stint as a set designer at the ABC and Channel 9, before deciding interiors was the way he wanted to go.

Working across commercial, health, hospitality and residential, Jeff believes Bates Smart’s point of difference is their ability to fuse interior design with architecture: “In our office, we deliberately don’t have one floor with interior designers on it and one with architects,” explains Jeff. “In fact, we see that as a fundamental part of how we do our interiors; it’s a seamless process where interior designers are on the job from literally day one. They’re not decorators, they’re interior architects, first and foremost that’s really what they are.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 2.40.01 pm — Crown Towers Hotel, City of Dreams, Macau

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 2.44.33 pm — Crown Towers Hotel, City of Dreams, Macau

An acclaimed interior designer in his own right, Jeff took out the IDEA Gold Medal in 2013 and won IDEA Designer of the Year in 2010. And while he has worked on a myriad of projects (he normally overseas 20 at a time!), Jeff always finds his latest projects the most exciting. “I know it’s a corny line and everyone says that their latest projects are always the most interesting, but it’s true. It keeps your mind active and if you become jaded by it, you might as well give up.”

Currently working on such projects as a nursing home, a high-end multi-residential project called 35 Spring Street, Heston Blumenthal’s latest restaurant at The Crown and the new Club Stand for the Victoria Racing Club at Flemington, Jeff loves that design allows him to explore areas he previously knew little about. “The great beauty of working as an interior designer or architect is that you get a glimpse and an insight into the workings of a diverse range of organisations,” says Jeff. “I didn’t know much about nursing homes before, but now I know a lot more about the people, how it works, what the priorities are and what the health department is after.”

While Jeff does find it hard to name a favourite project, he does admit he’d be remiss not to mention the New Royal Children’s Hospital. “We produced a really outstanding product that changed the way people looked at hospitals,” explains Jeff. “We really looked at the recuperative benefits of natural healing through the introduction of the natural environment. So we brought in a lot of natural light, soft colours of the landscape and a lot of courtyards. As much as possible, we tried to bring in the benefits and healing processes of nature into the hospital and make it a nurturing and relaxing environment.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 2.36.47 pm — The New Royal Children’s Hospital

Screen Shot 2014-07-09 at 2.37.17 pm — The New Royal Children’s Hospital

Working on such large projects from the initial masterplans to the final soft furnishings, Jeff sees the high calibre of projects he gets to be a part of as the biggest benefit of working for Bates Smart. With a style that is contemporary, forward-looking and clear of any gimmicks, all of their work is of the highest quality, which is why Jeff believes they continue to win such exciting projects. “I think we also have a strong niche: a combination of architectural rigour, relentless attention to detail and producing interiors of lasting quality. I think our interiors feel significant, they have substance and depth and I think that speaks for itself.”