Where do you live? (YK)

In the misty Blue Mountains, just an hour and a bit west of Sydney (NG)

What made you choose this place/area?

My partner and I were living in Erskineville back in 2019 and, after a big trip through India, realised we needed to live in amongst nature as it’s such a huge inspiration to both our work. We made the move shortly after that and ended up building a house here in 2022, where we now live with our daughter and cat.

Using three words, describe your preferred style in interiors and life.

Authentic, grounded and adventurous. 

What was inspiring you when you designed your place? What was it like to design it?

When we started designing our home, it was the middle of COVID lockdowns, so I guess we wanted the house to transport us to all the different places we couldn’t visit through the light, materiality and mood. I was born in Ukraine, and my partner Damien is from Belgium, so we bring lots of influences from our backgrounds and experiences of living between places, cultures and languages. Damien is a photographer, so he had a clear vision for the natural light of the house, while I adored experimenting and exploring the materiality of the interior.

The house had to comply with strict bushfire regulations, so I feel like our exterior was very much led by that and other development restrictions of the national park area so we concentrated on the experience within the interior.

Your earliest memory related to a piece of furniture or an interior?

Not my earliest, but a memory I always go back to is the beautiful little cottage (dacha) my grandparents built in the Ukrainian countryside. They used lots of old window frames for the walls, so it felt like a greenhouse on one side, and there were always beautiful flowers, nuts, and garlic that they had grown hanging all over the place. Every time we came back from Sydney, this interior transported me to another time, and I felt held there. Each season revealed something new.

Tell me about your favourite interior moment/feature/piece in your home that brings you joy every day. Are there any nostalgic/extra-special pieces in your home you particularly treasure? What are they? 

Our entire home is a collection of sentimental art, furniture and rugs, and there is a story behind almost every object. From our early days living together, Damien and I decided to only have objects that brought us a lot of joy and truly meant something to us in our home. We packed our Moroccan rug, bought together in Tangier (in Moroccan tradition, you buy a rug together when you marry, so it was a big deal apparently) into our car during the bushfires so it's definitely an important and sentimental piece. The print of one of Damien's photographs from Olkhon Island, a place we fell in love with while spending a couple of months travelling from Belgium through Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia and China to make our way back to Australia, takes me back to our wild nomadic days on the road. Our sunken living space and the delicious Jardan couch that fits into it perfectly transports us to the 60's and brings our family so much joy as it's a magic place to hang together and for our almost three-year-old to practice her parkour technique.

I adore our kitchen; it met the criteria for being able to handle beetroot juice stains and messy veggies from the garden with its tiled, caramel coloured benchtop and feels earthy yet fresh, thanks to the beautiful birch ply joinery handmade by a local Blue Mountains joiner and mate Jan.

What do we find outside of your place? Is there a connection between your home and the outdoors?

We are on a bush block along the escarpment in the Blue Mountains, so from our windows, you can see the cliffs and even Sydney beyond on a clear day, giant gums in the distance and looking closer, we have some monster tree ferns bumping up against the balustrades and into our windows. They are what attracted us to this piece of land, and we worked very hard to protect them during construction. The main connection is a deck running all around the house that allows you to experience the tree ferns and the sloped piece of land in a really interesting and immersive way, almost like a little tree canopy walk. Our house has a skillion roof which has been angled to capture the last bits of sunshine on a winter’s day. 

Do you notice changes to your place with seasons? Over the course of the day?

So many, it's a wild rainbow light show/rave inside, especially in the afternoons, as we decided to have some fun with varying textures of glass on the Western side to provide privacy and a sense of playfulness. The first year that we lived in the house, there was a snowstorm at night, and it was amazing to wake up and experience the house completely white. 

How does your place sound? Give us some of your most played tunes :)

Lots of Simon and Garfunkel on the record player as El Condor pasa is my daughter’s favourite song, but also lots of Jungle, AIR and Khruangbin. Also, there were lots of kookaburras laughing, cockatoos screeching, frogs, cicadas in deep summer and our cat meowing for attention.

Being clad completely in colourbond (for bushfire compliance) also means that when it rains, there is a magical sound that connects us to the outdoors and lulls us into a cosy sleep at night. We love camping, so it’s a very comfortable camping situation in some ways.

What's in your dream shopping cart? (fashion/interior/lifestyle)  

Wire C cabinet and the duo seat and lamp by Muller van Severen, a Belgian designer whom we adore. Damien’s family organised one of their lamps for his 40th birthday which brings so much fun into our space, so I’d love to have more of their gorgeous playful pieces around. Also, a Lucy Folk boiler suit would be a dream to live and work in! 

What is the main purpose of interior design from your perspective?

I think Interior design has the power to transport us, surprise us and to help us understand our deepest desires in life. Creating a space that allows people to dream and feel at ease with themselves is truly my goal as an interior designer.

I don’t follow trends because I think there is so much depth and richness in every individual/ business that, when explored in the right way, can create a wildly magical and authentic interior (and life). 

What do you think is the most overlooked interior design element, principle or item?

The acoustics of a space, so often I’m in a gorgeous space but the echo and sound are too distracting. 

What is your alter ego, and where would they live?

An old friend and I often joke about this, so I have to mention Sky Florence, a poet living in the desert in Morocco surrounded by her goats, growing weird and wild plants and writing hilariously terrible poetry.