Decorating your own home can be a rewarding and frustrating challenge. Sometimes it’s important to look back, and reflect on where you’ve come from and what you’ve achieved. Decorating a home is a gradual process. Your tastes and styles change over time.
Here, I’m sharing my decorating journey. I’ve been renovating and decorating for 20 years, and I’ve learnt a thing or two along the way. Watch the video to see inside the houses.
An Apartment in Glebe
1994 – 1998
Our first apartment was a basic but spacious 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment in Glebe, in Sydney’s inner west. It was definitely a fixer-upper. Imagine a Chinese restaurant with gold foil and velvet wallpaper, fake timber laminate panelling, a vermiculite (popcorn) ceiling and no carpet on the floor. Make sure you see the padded palm toilet seat – it’s special!
The Brisbane Brown House
1998 – 2000
Mission brown on the outside. Apricot and lace curtains on the inside. This house in Brisbane was also a fixer-upper. Check out the blow-fly lights in the lounge room. I was brave here and painted the kitchen blue. Not something I would probably do now, but sometimes you just have to go for it.
The Henley Builder’s Home
2000 – 2013
This was the big family home in the suburbs. On a quarter-acre block, with a pool and backing onto 10 acres of parkland, it was a great place to raise children. These were the years where we entertained at home most weekends. The house was big, but there was nothing flash about it. All the fixtures and fittings were builder’s grade.
The London Terrace (Rental)
2008-2010
Living in a rental house was a challenge for a serial decorator used to owning the home I live in. Lucky it was London and there was far too much to see and do to worry about the decor of the house.
The Queenslander
2013 – Present
And so, we’ve arrived in our current home. Each home is unique, and what works in one house doesn’t necessarily work in another. The stage or season of life you are in also influences your decorating choices.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my decorating journey. Where are you in your decorating journey? Renting or buying your first apartment? Moving into your first family home? Or maybe the kids have grown up and left home and now your downsizing. I’d love to hear about your decorating journey and see some of your pictures.
Kylie, this is one of the BEST posts you have ever done. I was captivated by your video and it brought back childhood memories of interior styles that I remember in the homes my parents built. Off to share this on my page because it is brilliant. xx
Thanks Bec. You can’t miss that blue kitchen!
Hi Kylie, I love this video – thanks so much for sharing your decorating journey. The ‘brown’ house is exactly what we’ve just bought in Melbourne….I’m cautiously optimistic we can transform it into a beautiful family home. Fingers crossed 😉 Thanks again, Tracy x
This is awesome Kylie, I absolutely love your home, though your blue kitchen was a standout! What a great idea for a post.
Thanks Nicole. Sometimes we have to be brave don’t we? xx
Tracy, I’m sure you will transform that brown house into something beautiful. Perhaps minus the bright blue kitchen 🙂 Kylie
Such a great post! We lived in a Henley too and I had no idea you owned Little People’s Linen – I shopped there on more than one occasion back in the day! Absolutely loved your video and listening to your very practical DIY decorator tips. You’re a natural in front of the camera x
Little People’s Linen was back in the day all right. Where have the years gone? Thanks for your continued support and words of encouragement. You always know just what to say.