Latest / Renovate & Real Estate / From centre stage to stunning interiors: Meet Donna Watson-Boyd

Transcript

From centre stage to stunning interiors: Meet Donna Watson-Boyd · Renovate & Real Estate

0:00
Welcome to More Than Renovating a Renovate and Real Estate podcast.
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Our founder, Belinda Smith, talks to industry experts to provide you
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with the knowledge and information
0:10
you need to make renovating for love and profit your reality.
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Belinda will also chat to some of her Renovation Mastery members,
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who are just everyday people doing extraordinary things,
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following their passions in the renovation and property space.
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So let's jump straight into the episode.
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Enjoy! Yeah.
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Hi everyone.
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I'm Belinda Smith from Renovate and Real Estate on today's podcast episode,
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which you'll also catch on YouTube is my guest, Donna Watson-Boyd.
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Donna and I've been working together for quite a few months now.
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Donna is an interior designer and a renovation
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consultant based on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
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She's available for client work both locally and remotely across Australia.
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She brings a creative instinct to every renovation
0:59
a sharp eye for scale, proportion and design consistency
1:03
while keeping a firm handle on budget and timeframes.
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Donna's approach is listening
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first, understanding how a client or potential homeowner actually lives
1:11
before making a single design decision so the end result feels considered
1:16
rather than generic and alongside her interior and renovation work.
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Donna comes from a musical background.
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She also creates and sells original fluid
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acrylic art, which is also another creative outlet.
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It's this combination;
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a designer’s eye, a project manager’s discipline and an artist's creativity
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that's behind the way she works with every client and every space.
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How's that for an intro, Donna?
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That's amazing. I would hire me.
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I would hire you too.
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It's been so good to watch you grow your business in the renovation space.
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I know you've just completed a project which has been really nice
1:55
for me to follow.
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The outcome was just gorgeous.
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So let's start right at the beginning.
1:59
Where did you grow up and what was your childhood like
2:03
and how early did you recognise your creative skills?
2:07
Oh gosh, I'm a Sydney girl originally, grew up in Sydney
2:11
and I had a very interesting sort of spread of where I lived in Sydney,
2:16
because my mum's parents actually lived on Goat Island
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in the harbor, and we had all school holidays and things.
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So when the reenactment of the First Fleet
2:27
sailed into Sydney Harbor, I was sitting on Nana's laundry roof
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with my with my cousins and my sister watching the fleet pass.
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So I grew up there
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and also Patonga on the Central Coast.
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They had a holiday home up there,
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and then my other Nana was down on the south coast, and I think
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I've always been really visually aware of my surroundings.
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So we went from, you know, living in, in a little house
2:58
in Sydney, a brick house in Sydney and then blond brick house in Sydney,
3:03
and then, you know, Nana's place on Goat Island
3:09
had all of these beautiful old homes because the men, when they were on duty,
3:14
would sleep in the barracks,
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and they put all of the families up in these gorgeous homes.
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And so, yeah, there was a lot of different architectural things to, to notice.
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And they were beautifully furnished
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with mid-century modern stuff, and it was just gorgeous.
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And then, you know, they had a fibro shack up at Patonga
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and with all the fishermen's cottages
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and then the other Nana down in the south, closer to the mining cottages.
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And so, yeah, it was a really interesting and I noticed all of that, you know,
3:47
like I just used to really take it all in right from the word go.
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Even as a child.
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And so and it's all about the like, you just explained that it's all the way
3:56
about the way that home makes you feel and your memories and and.
3:59
Absolutely. Yeah. Locations.
4:02
So so that's when you kind of recognised your creative skills
4:06
and when you were young, you were also musical.
4:09
Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah.
4:13
I, I have always been one of
4:16
the least coordinated and very clumsy people in the world.
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And so during school, you know, when your parents go,
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you must have a hobby, you have to have a hobby.
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And everybody else had sport.
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And my parents were like, yeah, don't, don't do that. So.
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So I was always singing.
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We used to dad was a great driver.
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We used to go to Cairns just in school holidays and stuff.
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He’s just love driving and the second we get in the car I would start singing.
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So Mum and Dad said that's it.
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You’re having singing lessons after school.
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So I started at ten and
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just always, always sang just yeah.
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I then went to do Talent Quest in the clubs and.
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Excuse me, I've done some musical theater.
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I then decided I do tend to make rather bold decisions
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that make perfect sense to me, and possibly make everybody else
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very confused, but I then decided I would move to England,
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and so I ended up living in England for only about four months.
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But because I got a job singing in in America and Florida,
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and so I ended up living in States
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for another seven and a half years.
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So yeah.
5:39
Yeah, just and Mum and Dad were always, always incredibly supportive.
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I, I remember my first real job, cos
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singing couldn't possibly be a real job. I
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got a job in the bank.
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And the fact that it's a.
5:58
Real job, that's a proper boring job.
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Yeah, well, the bank manager, the first year, I guess I was singing a lot.
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And the first Christmas he went and rented a grand piano
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and let me play and sing Christmas carols in the
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in the branch.
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And so I was working full time and also gigging full time,
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and all of my music friends all had families who sat them down
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and said, you know,
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you really need to think about getting a real job and planning for your future.
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My parents sat me down and said, we really think you need to quit the bank
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because you're just you're doing so well.
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There was television.
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There was all sorts of opportunities in those days.
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And so I was doing all of that and they just went,
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look, just forget the bank. Just keep singing.
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So that's what I did.
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And you did that for how many years altogether?
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Oh, I don't know,
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30 something.
6:57
Yeah.
6:58
Well, I'm just trying to think it was because it kind of overlapped at the end.
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We hit Covid and I had actually just written and produced an Olivia
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Newton-John show, and we just recorded all the video, the promo stuff,
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and we were just gearing up and honestly, it was just amazing.
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All the gigs were just flooding in.
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We had a full day, had an awesome band and it was really exciting and Covid
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hit and everything got cancelled.
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And I just kind of thought, you know what?
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I think it's a sign.
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I think, I think that's okay, I'm done.
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I figured out I finished the gigs that were in the book
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that that did keep those bookings.
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And then.
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Yeah, that was that was it really.
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So you felt like you needed something a little bit more tangible and.
7:50
Yes. Doable and something that wasn't so reliant on bookings and events.
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And yeah, well, the industry changed so much
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that the overheads were just horrible.
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So whereas before you get a guaranteed fee after Covid,
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you have to rent the room and then, you know, pay for the bar staff and like
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and give them a percentage of tickets, it just wasn't worth it anymore.
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So yeah, it was a shame. It's really a shame.
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Like music really took a hit, which was really sad.
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It did.
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But you know, plenty of creative people are creative across a number of genres
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which is where you started to move more into the interior space.
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Tell me a little bit about that and how that began.
8:35
Okay. I well,
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being a muso for years,
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I could never really afford a really flashy house.
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So I used to renovate them.
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I used to find my friends are really sick of me
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saying I found the perfect house, and then I would just change it all and
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I couldn't help myself.
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But I would do that.
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And gradually I think I'd done, I think I'd done maybe
9:00
five of them or something before Covid hit.
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And then I was talking to a friend and I said, you know what?
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I think I need to finally get a real job.
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And I said, oh, you know, there's jobs for interior decorators.
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And they said, well,
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why don't you just why I don't understand why you don't do that.
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And I thought, I don't know either.
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And so I went to TAFE
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to study interior decorating.
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And then the teachers at the end of that,
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told me I should stay and do the diploma
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in interior design, so I did that.
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I guess one regret because I had just bought a house I'm
9:43
currently in on the Central Coast, and I guess one regret would be
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they asked me if I would please do my teaching certificate and teach
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interior design at TAFE,
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and I didn't follow through.
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I think because I actually love my little house, and I had just moved in,
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and the thought of trying to commute all the time down to Sydney,
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you know, it was just and I really needed to start working and get some money in.
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So I do have a bit of a regret about that.
10:17
But, you know, there's always there's other stuff that'll happen in the future.
10:21
You never know what's around the corner.
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Yeah I agree.
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And then you took on a renovation project.
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And was that how Interiors by Donna really came to life?
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Like, is that like, where's your business heading in relation to interiors? Yes.
10:37
Yeah it is.
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It's I mean I've done I registered Interiors by Donna
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in a number of years ago and it already had information
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from existing renovations, but I
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excuse me, I managed to get a funding partner
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for a project, a renovation project, and I thought, okay, great.
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This is sort of the launching pad for my business.
11:01
So rather than you get to the end of a renovation and think, oh damn,
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I should have taken a photograph of that, you know, like all of that kind of stuff.
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I really tried to focus on the befores so that I would have the photos
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of the afters and use them to show people what I do, what my process is.
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And yeah, so I'm just pushing ahead with the business now.
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Yeah. Which is brilliant.
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And as a result, you're getting noticed online
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and you're starting to connect with people for, you know,
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either client work in interior design or renovation consultancy work
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and, you know, larger projects, renovation, etc..
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So which is really, really exciting for me to watch.
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So congratulations on the work you're doing.
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Thank you.
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Background.
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Guys, if you wanted to follow Donna in Interiors interiors
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where are you on Instagram?
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Interiors by Donna.
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@InteriorsbyDonna1
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On one on Instagram.
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You can have a look at those projects and follow along.
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So what's the biggest thing you had to learn or unlearn?
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Moving from being a creative performer to running your own business?
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Do you know what I was thinking about this.
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There wasn't really because as I was also a songwriter and I was teaching music
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and all of that and basically under the umbrella of my own business.
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So moving to be a renovation
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consultant, interior designer is still running my own business.
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There's always people only ever see with musicians.
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People only ever see the end product.
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But there's an awful lot of work and production that goes into that.
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So yeah, there's not really that much difference.
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Yeah.
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Just creativity and me
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through through all the different businesses.
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Which is how you can help people remotely as well.
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So I know that you're based in the Central Coast and hands on project.
13:00
That's fabulous.
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Or for anybody wanting interior design locally,
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you can hold hands and shop together and do all of those fun things.
13:07
Yeah.
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But remotely, how can you help people remotely?
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I've just actually helped the client in Sydney
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with furnishing their new apartment.
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And what I did, my my biggest thing is to listen to people
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and as they tell you what they're trying to achieve,
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because usually when somebody sits down
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and thinks, I want to redecorate, but I don't know where to start.
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They're just really, really overwhelmed.
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And one of the most important things
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you have to do is figure out how you want to use the space.
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You know, like what?
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What is it that you need?
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That functionality is so, so important.
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So Zoom meetings and phone calls and emails are fine for all of that.
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Have lots and lots of photographs.
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When I'm working remotely,
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I ask them to walk through the house and video the house, and then I will more
14:02
than often get back to them and just say, okay,
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can you please stand in your living room and take a photograph of this wall?
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So, yeah.
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And, and this particular client,
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his partner
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thought, you know, his dining chairs were ugly.
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And of course, they were beautiful, solid timber and mid-century modern.
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With that beautiful square cut cane
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ratan backing and just stunning.
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But the table got damaged in the move and it was pretty old anyway.
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So I started by,
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well, first of all, I said you'd be keeping those chairs and then.
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Then I said, okay, look, I'll get back to you.
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Those chairs are beautiful.
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Let's do the dining room around that.
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And so then I started looking for furniture that would work,
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because you can't get a dining table that is going to
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completely match those chairs, but you can still figure it out.
15:00
And then I put together renders, which I emailed through to them
15:04
so they could see how the room would look, because most people can't,
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there's no point in sending a photograph of a table
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because they don't understand how that will fit in that space.
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So the photograph of that wall, and then
15:20
set up the table and the chairs around it, did a render and sent that down.
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And so they've ordered their table like good children.
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So yeah, same with lighting throughout the living space and...
15:35
Yeah, yeah, that's just how it works.
15:37
It's easy. Yeah.
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Communicating in a way that your clients can see the end result of a project.
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Like they've got a visual, so they'll be happy
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and they can agree to that visual.
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So they'll be happy when everything comes together.
15:53
Yeah.
15:54
And I usually give different options as well.
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You know, like do you like this or do you like this?
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I don't give too wider range of options because I think that only confuses people.
16:05
Yeah.
16:05
So I tend to do a design
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a lot of my past renovations and designs,
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colour wise, have been around a painting that I love or something
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that's going to take a focal point in the room.
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And these particular chairs.
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The gentleman did love those, so that made it really easy
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to go, okay, let's use that and then we'll branch out from there.
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As a bouncing off point.
16:32
Yeah. Yeah absolutely.
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And like you say it looks finished in the in the picture.
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And so they understand what you're actually aiming for.
16:43
Why do you think people get
16:44
overwhelmed with their own homes?
16:48
Honestly, working with clients
16:51
I usually tell people to as a way to
16:57
distill because everybody is sort of bombarded
17:00
with images of perfect homes all the time now, and they're all quite different.
17:05
So it's very hard for somebody without design experience
17:10
to figure out, you know, which way to go.
17:13
And and if you don't zero in on a theme,
17:17
it's just going to be a disaster because, you know, it just it won't all match.
17:21
And it, a home needs to be cohesive for it to feel calm.
17:26
And it's my advice.
17:30
My starting advice is to tell clients to start looking on
17:36
searching on Pinterest and Instagram, let's say, for bathrooms.
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And then once you're bombarded with bathroom images, you start to see
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maybe there's a view that you like to save them to an album.
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Then after a little while, go into your album and go through it again
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and see which ones are your favorites and delete the ones that aren't.
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And then you will start to notice
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which of those favorites have a common thread through them.
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And if you don't notice, I will notice and I'll be able to help you narrow it down.
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And I think it's just they're bombarded by just too much information. Now.
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If you start to listen to clients at that level, Donna,
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that's that's why you're very successful at getting inside their head
18:18
a little bit and producing a result that they're pleased with.
18:21
Right?
18:21
Because you're really working or starting with what they're already aligned to?
18:27
Yes, yes.
18:28
There's no point in designing a fabulous,
18:33
beautifully stunning kitchen that ends up being completely not functioning at all
18:38
for the, you know, for their particular lifestyle
18:41
or is in a colour that they're really not happy with that
18:44
you've kind of cajoled them into because it's trendy, that doesn't work at all.
18:50
So yeah, you want you have to listen to what people
18:54
are telling you about their lifestyle, the functionality required
18:58
and then their colours and things that make it feel like home for them.
19:02
And their budget.
19:04
Oh very important.
19:05
Yeah.
19:06
It's surprising what you can do with Ikea, with Kmart
19:12
now, you know, like it's amazing what's out there
19:16
and you can achieve not it's like jewellery, man.
19:21
If if you were always wear diamonds and then you start to buy a few key
19:25
pieces, no one notices.
19:27
And if you have beautiful pieces, yes, if you have
19:32
beautiful pieces around your house and then you have,
19:37
you know, more affordable things, people don't notice
19:40
if they're the right things and they are the right accent, and they
19:43
fit with the colours and they don't, they don't stick out like a sore thumb.
19:48
Then it all adds to the look and feel of the home.
19:51
Yeah I agree.
19:53
All right.
19:53
So your recent project, let's have a bit of a deep dive into that.
19:56
You've just wrapped up a project on the Central Coast.
19:59
Tell me about the house.
20:01
I love the house.
20:03
So do I.
20:04
It's a beautiful house.
20:06
It was built.
20:06
I love me a good arch.
20:09
Yes. Me too.
20:11
Love arches.
20:13
It was built in the
20:15
90s, and it was kind of, on the,
20:19
the exterior was bagged and rendered and it was a white kind of going a bit grey.
20:24
And it had, excuse me, it had the brown
20:28
brick arches out the front and it had a generic,
20:32
probably 1990s front door with the, the light.
20:38
And, and then I went inside and it still had arches inside, which I loved.
20:43
And the walls were either a mid grey
20:47
which made everything really dark or I'm going, yeah, yeah.
20:51
And someone had gone through it and painted the kitchen and the living room.
20:56
So kitchen, dining, living room was vivid white and so.
21:01
Oh okay.
21:02
And, and then they'd done some flooring, which was interesting.
21:06
The kitchen had a grey laminate flooring
21:10
like a grey oak and, but a mid grey.
21:13
Again these people love mid grey.
21:15
And then a sage green kitchen which was confronting.
21:20
And then the carpet in the rest of the house
21:24
was blue and a deep blue, and then the
21:29
living room had a lovely,
21:32
really dark navy blue carpet tile.
21:35
So a whole mix of a whole bunch of.
21:38
Different styles.
21:39
And also colours that lean cool. Yes. Yeah.
21:43
And it really made the house feel, you know, very closed in.
21:47
There was also a sunroom out the back.
21:50
Cell number one a Central Station prisons. Yes.
21:54
From my old police days.
21:54
So they just used to paint them, I call it prison grey.
21:57
Sorry. Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
21:59
Well I think I think that's valid.
22:02
There was also a sunroom just outside the kitchen dining room,
22:06
and it was all
22:10
walled in with shade cloth and well shade cloth
22:15
at one end and windows at the other end.
22:19
And it just it was all painted in that beautiful mission brown.
22:23
And it was just so dark.
22:27
It's contributed to nice and how dark enclosed in the house felt.
22:31
Yeah.
22:32
So during the renovation, where did you start?
22:37
Where did you start doing what did you start doing first?
22:41
The very first thing I did was up the flooring.
22:43
To be honest, I was dying to say what was under it.
22:46
Yeah. And and it was beautiful.
22:48
Cypress pine in a really good condition, which was great.
22:52
The danger with cypress pine
22:55
is that it can go orange, you know, when it's refinished.
22:59
Yeah. Yeah. So, so you've got to be careful of that.
23:01
So I ended up having that lime washed. Yeah.
23:03
Which brought it up.
23:04
And it's got beautiful peachy, light grey colours through it.
23:07
It's gorgeous.
23:08
And I changed the vivid white and the mid grey paint to natural white
23:14
which is a warmer.
23:17
Yeah. Yeah.
23:18
And it just picks up the beautiful colours in the timber.
23:21
So timber floors throughout now which is gorgeous and demolished
23:25
the kitchen and the bathroom
23:28
and the ensuite the and the laundry.
23:32
The ensuite was one of those lovely
23:37
ensuites where it's not even a meter deep,
23:41
but it goes the full width of the bedroom,
23:44
so I'm not.
23:47
I'm not sure how a full grown man would actually have a shower
23:50
in that shower, because it was just, yeah, it was 99, 90mm deep.
23:57
So I ended up,
24:00
I came home and had a fabulous time on SketchUp and drew up the plans,
24:03
and I was able to knock down the wall into the ensuite,
24:07
and I got an extra half a meter by moving it out alongside the wardrobe,
24:11
so that that change just made heaps of difference.
24:16
Yeah, yeah, just means you can move in the bus.
24:20
So yeah, I was able to.
24:22
Oh, sorry.
24:23
Your gift is identifying that it's not just what things look like.
24:26
It's spatial awareness. It's movement through a house.
24:29
It's the design, the feel of what it's going to be like to live in there.
24:33
Yeah. Yeah.
24:34
I wanted to give the.
24:36
Because the house is gorgeous.
24:38
It's a family home.
24:39
And so therefore there's going to be
24:41
I mean I'm envisaging a young family with kids.
24:43
So I kind of really it was an opportunity to provide the parents with a,
24:49
with a beautiful master suite, you know, and they have
24:53
the front of the house has this little sort of cut out with a beautiful date
24:58
palm and stuff in the window in front of that master bedroom.
25:03
And I just felt it could be so zhuzhy, it could be fabulous.
25:08
And I, I always use porcelain tiles
25:12
and really good quality fittings and fixtures.
25:16
And so with this I moved the wall out and then I was able to give them a walk in
25:20
shower and I had an arch screen so that that takes in the arches
25:26
in the other end of the house because there was no arches down this end.
25:29
So I just felt sad for it.
25:32
So put in arch, a beautiful arch,
25:37
frameless shower screen so you can just walk in through the shower
25:41
and then with all the arches everywhere and the
25:45
I just felt it was design wise, it really needed to be Spanish Revival.
25:50
It just looked so like it was ready for it.
25:53
So with that and I had beautiful porcelain travertine-look tiles that I used.
25:58
So I used brushed, copper
26:01
fittings and fixtures as well, just for that Spanish sort of feel.
26:04
It’s about the vibe, Belinda.
26:08
So it's about well, in that circumstance
26:11
and I'm a bit the same, I will look at what a house already brings.
26:15
Like a house already has some character.
26:18
There are so many people, Donna, who would have got, who would have grabbed
26:22
hold of that house and squared off arches and done a whole lot of different things.
26:26
But I really like to lean into design and character.
26:28
I think that keeps a home looking unique and special when it's all done up and and.
26:34
Yeah, I don't see the point
26:37
in taking the character out of it because then just go and buy a new house.
26:41
Don't take your house generically like every other house.
26:44
And that's.
26:45
Just yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:47
Actually, that was how I chose my builder.
26:50
One of the, one of the builders came in and he said, well, the first thing I’d do
26:54
is square off those arches.
26:56
And I thought, well, I do, yes.
26:59
First thing I do is say, bye bye.
27:02
Get rid of you.
27:03
Yeah.
27:05
So, yeah, the other builder
27:07
that the builder I ended up with was fabulous.
27:11
And yeah, I did things like there was a linen cupboard in the hallway
27:15
that ate into the space in the master in the main bathroom.
27:20
So I took the linen cupboard out to increase the space
27:22
so you can have a full size bathtub in there and,
27:25
you know, all of those kind of things.
27:27
And then just added extra storage.
27:29
There was an unused corner of the kitchen,
27:33
and I just did a pantry,
27:37
a corner pantry, and then another tall cabinet, floor
27:40
to ceiling for all of the linen storage that you were just losing,
27:45
which was twice the size of the one they used to have, you know.
27:48
Yeah.
27:48
So yeah, yeah, it was lovely.
27:50
It was really good.
27:51
Sometimes it's just shuffling a few things around.
27:53
While you've got the chance, particularly
27:56
if you were pulling a few wall apart or pulling some gyprock off.
27:58
It's very easy
27:59
to reconfigure a few things like that that make all the difference between,
28:04
you know, being usable and enjoyable or not.
28:07
And don't you just love that part when things start coming down.
28:12
When you're sitting there looking at night
28:13
time at the plans and you come up with an idea
28:15
and you think, oh, I'm a genius, look what I just worked out
28:21
absolutely brilliant.
28:21
All right so during the renovation, what was your most challenging moment
28:25
with the build?
28:27
I was really lucky. What did you.
28:29
What did you do?
28:31
Well, I didn't really.
28:33
Excuse me.
28:34
I'm just gonna get some water. Sorry.
28:36
I didn't really have a difficult.
28:39
I think, with good planning.
28:40
With good design.
28:42
I spent a lot of time from when.
28:44
When we bought the house to when it settled.
28:47
I spent the whole time working on the plans and
28:51
simple little things, like changing the toilet direction.
28:55
It was on that wall.
28:56
And it just meant that
28:57
because you've got to have
28:58
a certain amount of clearance for people to be able to get off the toilet
29:01
if they have a heart attack and paramedics come in, you know, you need the access.
29:06
That meant that the shower just was so tiny.
29:10
If I wanted to keep the bathtub where I wanted it.
29:12
And so I ended up just swinging the toilet around
29:16
to center it under the bathroom window.
29:19
And that meant you.
29:20
That gave me another 300ml straight away,
29:23
because you only need 900 there instead of 1200.
29:27
So yeah, things like that.
29:29
But yeah, I think if you spend a lot of time
29:32
on your design and I did, I was aware that one of the joists under the main
29:37
bathroom had some rot from water damage,
29:40
but we were ripping all of that out anyway, so it didn't.
29:44
Yeah, I was I guess I was fortunate I didn't I didn't hit any difficulties.
29:48
So the challenges were just working through the things as they come up,
29:52
which is which happens on every renovation.
29:54
There's always something
29:55
where in the business of solving problems one by one I think.
29:59
Yeah, absolutely.
30:00
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:01
And then you're right, there will always be things that come up.
30:04
But I was none of them were major you know.
30:07
Yeah. Which is awesome.
30:08
All right.
30:09
So what did it feel like walking through
30:12
the finished space when it was all styled?
30:15
It was on the market.
30:17
How? Like, what did it feel like for you who’d spent a few months on the project?
30:22
Yeah, I actually got a bit teary.
30:25
I think I know I'm hopeless, but I think
30:31
we've discussed that.
30:32
I'm sort of from creative roots, and I think creative
30:35
people are very emotional.
30:37
And yeah, I just was so happy.
30:40
It just looks so beautiful.
30:43
One of the things that I did outside, that it didn't dawn on me
30:48
until I actually looked at a photograph from the photographer and I was.
30:54
So I resealed the driveway in the front path
30:58
and doing the Spanish Revival thing.
31:00
If I was really honest, it would have been a crushed gravel, you know?
31:05
And of course I wasn't going to do that.
31:08
So I did the paths
31:10
and the driveway in a very light colour called paperbark,
31:14
which toned in with the correct colours for the Spanish Revival,
31:17
and then did the white marble chip in the in the garden beds as well.
31:23
And then the plantings were Mediterranean, just to,
31:27
just to tie all of that theme through.
31:29
And there's this beautiful photo I did carriage lights.
31:33
All all of the external lights are all beautiful
31:36
black carriage lights and with bevelled glass in them.
31:40
So they cast that those beautiful marks on the walls.
31:43
And I changed the the front door to a merbau
31:48
front door, which tied in with everything, because over that window
31:52
where the date palm was outside the master bedroom, there were
31:55
some really old beams that were looking very past
31:58
their used-by date, and I got the guys to replace them with merbau as well.
32:02
And then the back deck that I put on.
32:05
I knocked all the walls out of the sunroom,
32:07
and then we put a back deck on in merbau and it just tied it all in together.
32:11
And I got rid of the mission brown from the sunroom as well.
32:15
So the black carriage lights along the back
32:18
wall in the new deck outdoor living area.
32:21
I painted the pergola in monument, so, you know, it just all tied through.
32:26
And I didn't really see it until I saw
32:30
the photograph from the photographer, and I was just so thrilled.
32:35
I just thought that’s perfect.
32:37
That's exactly what I wanted.
32:38
Yeah, it's just funny when you're in it, you don't see it as well.
32:42
Yeah. You know.
32:44
Because you're in the doing and you're making decisions along the way.
32:46
And to see the final picture,
32:48
when it's all styled, it's one of those things for renovators.
32:52
There's a lot of talk out there in the market about its flip for profit.
32:55
It's this is that.
32:56
No one talks about how it makes you feel to go from a project
33:01
like right through the journey.
33:02
The journey is just rewarding as the as the outcome.
33:07
Yeah, absolutely.
33:09
I mean, you have those days where you just want to go home.
33:15
It's a messy middle where you think, when will this end?
33:20
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.
33:22
And you're questioning your life choices and you're painting your fourth
33:26
kind of vivid white or undercoat over a horrendous mid grey.
33:32
It just won't go away and just miserable.
33:35
And then you get to the end and go, oh yeah that's yeah. Yeah.
33:37
That was so worth it.
33:38
I do that again in a heartbeat.
33:40
Next project.
33:41
Yeah absolutely. Yeah.
33:43
Brilliant.
33:44
All right.
33:45
So you're also create
33:48
some fluid art on the side.
33:50
Explain what you mean by fluid art. What does that look like?
33:53
If you're on YouTube guys you'll see Donna's background which is just gorgeous.
33:56
That is her work.
33:59
Okay.
34:01
Well, fluid, fluid art is literally, as it says,
34:04
you use acrylic paint and some people use water.
34:08
Other people use something like, you know, Floetrol, some kind of medium.
34:12
And it's all about a lot of it is about the chemistry
34:16
and the different effects that you can get from using different paints
34:20
and things together.
34:21
And it's swiping, pouring, blowing, it's all sorts of things.
34:25
So yeah, so you can see my painting from some of my paintings behind me.
34:30
Yeah. Yeah I love it.
34:31
Absolutely love it. Yeah.
34:33
Well you're creative and you get I'm sure you get lost.
34:36
Lost for hours just by or do you, you know.
34:41
Yes I do, I do, I, I mix paints,
34:45
I decide which colours I'm going to go for,
34:48
and then I mix them one day, and then the next day I.
34:53
And again, you know, this is why I live on my own.
34:56
I just completely put drop sheets down everywhere.
35:02
And, you know, I lose my dining room for,
35:05
for quite a few days while the paints dry and everything.
35:10
I have a, I have a huge mural on my dining room
35:14
wall goes around the corner and it
35:17
I have to it looks like a scene out of Dexter or a CSI
35:22
sort of thing, because I put plastic tape that up all around all the walls
35:26
so I don't blow paint onto my mural, and it's quite funny, but yeah.
35:32
And then I have a lovely time just painting and seeing how the colours
35:35
flow into each other and what effect it all has.
35:39
Yeah, yeah. Wonderful. And you've got a great eye for colour.
35:41
It's just beautiful. Oh thank you. Fabulous.
35:43
All right, so as someone stood on stage and you sing in front of people,
35:47
and now you stand
35:48
in front of people in their homes helping them make all the big decisions.
35:52
What have you learned about people along the way that surprises you?
36:01
It’s the business of people, Donna.
36:03
Yeah, some of the the biggest surprise for me
36:07
was how people can actually hide their,
36:12
their true personality.
36:15
You know, I mean, in a first meeting,
36:17
for example, a very, very happy go lucky, easygoing
36:21
person cannot can actually end up being the most stressed person
36:26
you've ever worked with who is going to completely stress over
36:30
every little thing during the, you know, during the process?
36:35
I think that's it.
36:37
I think it's I've gotten better at reading people,
36:39
but I'm still always surprised by how they are.
36:42
And that's under stress.
36:44
Because let's face it,
36:45
if you're renovating someone's house, it's stressful situation for them.
36:49
Yeah, well, it can be, which is why they're calling you.
36:52
To help, right?
36:53
So it's not something they're really comfortable.
36:55
It's not something they do with confidence and ease,
36:57
which is why they're reaching out for help.
37:00
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
37:02
I did you know a house in Sydney, a three way bathroom, I guess you would call it.
37:08
Not really, three way bathroom.
37:09
It sort of had a beautiful sort of foyer.
37:12
And they had actually designed and commissioned their own
37:16
stained glass window at the end of that, and then a toilet on one side
37:20
and then a bathroom on the other side, and it was all black slate and cedar.
37:25
It was really, really dark.
37:27
Yeah.
37:27
And I went in and said, okay,
37:31
I think that if we do one of one
37:35
of the whites, you know, all these beautiful whites that are out now
37:40
with some vj panelling on the foyer
37:42
as you walk in that stained glass window is going to be stunning.
37:47
It's just really.
37:50
Yeah. Yeah.
37:51
You know, so
37:51
we did we did all of that and my goodness it looked beautiful at the end.
37:56
Really happy. Yeah.
37:57
And they would be happy with that because that's obviously a piece
38:00
that they've had commissioned.
38:01
So they've got
38:02
they've put their energy and their pride into that that that appealed to them.
38:05
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
38:08
And at first I only wanted to do sort of
38:12
1200 and 2100 high tiling and stuff.
38:16
And, and as we went through the process and I did a bunch of elevations
38:21
and drawings for them and renders, they ended up going
38:25
for the ceiling tiling in the bathroom, which is just fabulous.
38:28
It looks beautiful.
38:29
It really does.
38:30
So yeah, look, I just love,
38:36
I love it's kind of like having a secret,
38:38
if that makes sense, because you know what it's going to be at the end.
38:44
You already know, but they don't. They understand.
38:47
They've seen the pictures.
38:48
And no matter how many times do you send somebody a render,
38:51
they will still go, oh, I didn't think it was going to look like that.
38:54
That's amazing.
38:56
And yeah, so it's a visualisation thing, but it's lovely having a secret
39:01
because you know that they're going to be so thrilled at the end.
39:05
It's a secret. It's a gift, Donna.
39:07
Some people have it and some people don't.
39:09
And you have it in spades. Oh.
39:11
Thank you.
39:12
Yeah.
39:13
To walk, to walk through a house and already visualise what can be
39:16
is not something everyone can do.
39:19
So that's why it's important to work with people like you, Donna.
39:23
You like you guys.
39:28
If someone sitting at home right now staring at a room
39:30
and they don't love but they're feeling stuck, where to start?
39:33
What's the one piece of advice you would give them?
39:36
This is our closing question. Okay, okay.
39:39
You need to be very, very aware of the desired functionality of the room.
39:45
Yeah. And that's everything. How you use it.
39:49
How how much light is in it.
39:51
You know, all of those things.
39:52
You need to be aware of that before you even start looking for how to change it.
39:58
Fabulous.
40:00
Thank you.
40:00
Donna, everybody is listening.
40:03
You are so welcome to contact Donna.
40:05
I'll give you her direct email address.
40:08
Donna@InteriorsbyDonna.com.au
40:13
Donna@InteriorsbyDonna.com.au.
40:16
Don't forget to follow Donna
40:18
on Instagram @InteriorsbyDonna1,
40:22
and you can find her website at InteriorsbyDonna.com.au.
40:27
You'll find pictures of the renovation that we just spoke about,
40:31
the Spanish house,
40:32
the Spanish Revival house,
40:34
and lots of other stuff that Donna’s produced over the years.
40:37
And thank you so much for joining me, Donna, today.
40:40
Oh thank you.
40:41
Thank you so much for inviting me.
40:43
It's lovely. It's pleasure.