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Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Introduction  Rachel Luchetti has spent 17 years building one of Australia's most prolific hospitality and retail design studios, Luchetti Krelle, without ever settling on a signature look. In this episode, we talk about responsiveness, designing for feeling over awards, and what it has meant to build something in her name, in her way, on her terms.    In This Episode We Explore  * Why having no signature style is the strategy  * Designing for the end user, not other designers  * Why bad acoustics can ruin a beautiful space  * Expensive mistakes and what they taught her  * Growing a studio slowly and leading through crisis  * Red flags, free concepts and choosing your clients    Why This Conversation Matters  Rachel shows that quiet, unhurried conviction can build something that outlasts a trend.    About Rachel Luchetti  Co-founder, principal and creative director of Luchetti Krelle, based in Surry Hills. Follow her: @luchetti_krelle    Proudly Supported by Tappeti Fine Hand-Crafted Rugs.    Follow @buildbeautiful_podcast for a new conversation every fortnight.    #BuildBeautiful #RachelLuchetti #LuchettiKrelle #InteriorDesign #HospitalityDesign #DesignPodcast To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Introduction  In a small studio above McClay Street in Potts Point, Alexandra Kidd has spent more than 20 years shaping how Australian homes can feel. What began as a solo practice has grown, slowly and deliberately, into an all-women studio of twelve. But beneath the elegant, celebrated work sits a story most successful founders never tell: a breakdown at the end of 2018 that stopped her mid-conversation on a building site, and the slow, honest rebuild that followed.    In This Episode, We Explore:  * Her childhood roots in design, and the belief that a "perfect home" could heal a broken one  * Scaling from one project to thirty, and holding every decision herself  * The 2018 breakdown, and why a friend reframed it as a breakthrough  * What twelve months of recovery actually looked like  * The shame she carried, and speaking about it publicly for the first time  * Rebuilding the business with real structure, delegation and boundaries  * Launching her Atelier, a passion project in collectible glass, after 20 years in business   Why This Conversation Matters  Most founder stories celebrate the climb. This one is honest about the cost of it. Alexandra built one of Sydney's most respected design studios by believing she had to do everything herself, until her body made the decision for her. Her recovery wasn't about bouncing back. It was about becoming someone new, someone who asks for help, sets boundaries, and stays authentic in both business and life.   About Alexandra  Alexandra Kidd is the founder of her eponymous Sydney-based interior design studio, now an all-women team of twelve. In 2024, she launched Atelier, a passion project creating collectible, Australian-made glass lighting in collaboration with local artisans.    🎧 Listen to the full episode now.    Follow @buildbeautiful_podcast for a new conversation every fortnight.    Proudly supported by Tappeti Fine Hand-Crafted Rugs. To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Introduction   Somewhere along the way, ambition began to look like a larger studio, a bigger team, a longer list of projects. Simone Mathews, founder of Soul Home, decided to walk the other way. Alongside her builder husband Ben, she's quietly built one of Australia's most interesting design and development practices, including Soul of Gerringong, The Bower and The Pause.    In This Episode, We Explore:  * Why she rejects "balance" in favour of shifting priorities  * Her accidental first job at 19 as PA to Rodney Adler  * The unplanned path from marketing to real estate to interior design  * The story behind Soul of Gerringong  * Building brand partnerships on authenticity, not free products  * Her design philosophy: creating a "holiday feeling" at home  * Straddling developer and designer roles without losing herself  * Why she deliberately shrank her studio instead of scaling it   Why This Conversation Matters   Most business stories celebrate growth for its own sake. Simone's challenges that quietly and convincingly, choosing energy over empire, and proving that a smaller, more intentional business can be the more successful one.    About Simone   Simone Mathews is the founder of Soul Home, an interior designer, property developer and mother of four. Alongside her builder husband Ben, she has built one of Australia's most distinctive design and development practices, including Soul of Gerringong, The Bower and The Pause.    🎧 Listen to the full episode now.     Follow @buildbeautiful_podcast for a new conversation every fortnight.    Proudly supported by Tappeti Fine Hand-Crafted Rugs. To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Introduction There is a kind of artist whose career you can summarise in a paragraph: the school, the prize, the gallery, the rise. Antonia Perricone Mrljak is not that artist. She came to painting late, in her 40s, as a mother, after a first life as a fashion stylist. She walked into Sydney College of the Arts when most of her classmates were half her age, graduated with first class honours, and a year later stood in front of nine metres of blank canvas at Sydney Contemporary and painted, live, for the room. From there, the career people now recognise began. In This Episode, We Explore: * Growing up Sicilian-Australian in Sydney's western suburbs, and what it meant to be raised "not Australian" * Rebelling through fashion as a teenager, and accidentally landing a career at David Jones * Standing in a harbourside home at 16 and having no idea what a Picasso was * The catalyst that led her back to study, wanting to be an example for her own children * Painting nine metres of canvas with zero experience, and the clever trick that got her noticed * Why she walked away from gallery relationships to work independently * The fear of being "figured out," and how she talks herself through it * Her biggest advice for any young artist: put everything in writing Why This Conversation Matters Most artist stories follow a familiar shape: talent discovered young, formal training, a steady climb. Antonia's story doesn't follow that shape at all, and that's exactly why it matters. She spent decades not knowing she was creative, mistaking her own instinct for something ordinary. Her path shows that reinvention has no age limit, and that the years spent surviving, adapting and quietly observing can become the very material an artist draws from later. About Antonia   Antonia Perricone Mrljak is a Sydney-based painter. After a first career as a fashion stylist, she enrolled at Sydney College of the Arts in her late 40s, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with first class honours in 2018. The following year, she painted live across nine metres of canvas at Sydney Contemporary, a moment that launched her painting career. She has since exhibited independently across Australia and internationally, including with a gallery in Auckland.   🎧 Listen to the full episode now.   Proudly supported by Tappeti Fine Hand-Crafted Rugs. To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Introduction There's a particular kind of honesty that's hard to find in any industry, the kind that looks at something widely admired and says plainly, this is not good enough. This week on Build Beautiful, we're joined by Georgina Wilson, registered architect and founder of Georgina Wilson Associates. Once a ballet dancer and flutist, she found her way into architecture, spent a decade training under one of Australia's finest residential architects, and started her own practice after returning to Sydney during the global financial crisis. Three years ago, almost by accident, she posted a video questioning bad design, and woke up to 3 million views. In This Episode, We Explore: * Why she posted her first video where "none of her friends were on it" * Why she calls her audience "normies," and means it as a compliment * The mindset that got her past the fear of being seen: "it's gotta be bad before it's good" * What most people misunderstand about designing a home they'll love living in * Balancing a bespoke 1:1 practice with an audience of millions * Why she's avoided the typical influencer monetisation model Why This Conversation Matters Most industries are full of beautiful photos and very little honesty. Georgina built her audience by doing the opposite. For anyone building a business, a practice, or a voice online, this conversation is a reminder that clarity and courage often matter more than credentials. About Georgina Georgina Wilson is a registered architect and founder of Georgina Wilson Associates (GWA), designing and renovating considered homes in Sydney for over 15 years, now followed by hundreds of thousands online for her honest, plain-spoken take on good design. Listen to the full episode now. Proudly supported by Tappeti Fine Hand-Crafted Rugs To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Every beautiful thing you've ever loved was iterated into existence. This week on Build Beautiful, we're joined by Grace Miller, Head of Failure & Experimentation at FlightStory, Steven Bartlett's media company behind The Diary of a CEO. She joined the team in January 2022, when it was just a handful of people around one table, and over four years helped grow it into a global operation followed by millions. In This Episode, We Explore: * What "Head of Failure & Experimentation" actually means * The research behind failing well and psychological safety * Why data sometimes overrides brand guidelines * What it takes for a podcast to get backed by a major media company * The mindset shift that came with leaving the Gold Coast for London * Real lessons on ambition, sacrifice and self-doubt Why This Conversation Matters We rarely see the failed experiments behind a finished, polished brand. Grace's role exists to formalise something most industries avoid saying out loud: excellence is iterated into existence, and failing well is a craft worth taking seriously. About Grace Grace Miller is the girl who's paid to fail. She's Head of Failure & Experimentation at FlightStory, Steven Bartlett's media company behind The Diary of a CEO — a department she founded on a simple, uncomfortable idea: the fastest way to grow is to fail more often. Originally from the Gold Coast, Australia, she moved to London in 2022 as part of the founding team that grew Diary of a CEO to over 18 million subscribers in four years, alongside shows including We Need To Talk with Paul C. Brunson, Begin Again with Davina McCall, and Hot Smart Rich with Maggie Sellers Reum. She now leads innovation and testing across the entire FlightStory ecosystem. With a background in marketing and social media in aviation, Grace moved into media and turned experimentation into a discipline — running more experiments, letting go of weak ideas quickly, and treating every failure as information. She's now one of the most distinctive voices on experimentation, failure, marketing and growth in the creator and podcasting world, with a LinkedIn community of over 27,000 people, and has spoken and advised organisations including YouTube, Red Bull, 1 Billion Followers Summit, SEMrush, and leading healthcare organisations. Grace has since founded two businesses: Grace Experiments, her mission to shift how people and companies think toward an experimentation mindset through speaking, advisory work and content; and Experiment Media, where that thinking becomes action — helping people and companies test, learn, and grow. 🎧 Listen to the full episode now. Proudly Supported by @tappeti fine crafted rugs + carpets To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Yasmine Ghoniem's father left for Kuwait for what he said would be a couple of months. Seven months later, her mother still did not know if he was alive. He had arrived in Kuwait the day the Iraqis invaded. Yasmine was ten. Today, she is the founder and director of YSG Studio, was named Interior Designer of the Year 2025 by Vogue Living, and co-hosts ABC's Grand Designs Transformations. This conversation goes somewhere most design podcasts do not. We talk about what it costs to build an award-winning practice while quietly building a family — including seven years of unexplained infertility before her daughter Sahara arrived. Yasmine's work is inseparable from her nomadic childhood across Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Sydney, and she explains, for the first time, how that displacement became the foundation of everything she designs. In this episode, we explore: * Growing up mostly indoors in 50-degree heat, and how that shaped her relationship to light, materials, and a room's feeling * Her father's seven months missing in Kuwait during the Gulf War, and the radio station her mother called for news of the missing * Why the color of a childhood kitchen she hated still shows up in her work today * Building "the Bible": the eight-pillar document she wrote so her team could learn what makes a project unmistakably hers * Splitting from her sister's studio, Amber Road, and building YSG from scratch alongside her husband * The performer who never left: dance, singing, an American Idol audition, and talking her way backstage at a choir she had no business joining * Why YSG does zero marketing and treats Instagram as its website * Seven years of unexplained infertility, and the dates she cannot explain — her studio's founding day and her daughter's birthday, worked out almost to the hour * Hiring the final piece of her team, and finding out she was pregnant a month later * What she wants her daughter Sahara to grow up knowing, and what "Build Beautiful" really means to her Why this conversation matters In an industry that markets glossy outcomes, Yasmine offers something rarer: an honest account of the private cost behind public success. Her story is a reminder that the most original creative work is rarely built on trend or formula — it comes from the specific, sometimes painful details of a life, translated into rooms other people get to live in. About Yasmine Yasmine Ghoniem is the founder and director of YSG Studio, the Sydney design practice she launched in February 2020 out of a former warehouse in Darlinghurst. Before YSG, she spent seven years running Amber Road with her sister, landscape architect Katy Svalbe. Born in Kuwait and raised between Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Sydney, Yasmine studied visual communications before earning a scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design, then worked in architecture in Portland, Oregon. YSG's work has been recognised by Architectural Digest and Australia's leading design industry awards, and Yasmine was named Interior Designer of the Year 2025 by Vogue Living. She co-hosts ABC's Grand Designs Transformations alongside Anthony Burke. Season 3 is proudly supported by @tappeti fine crafted rugs + carpets To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! The bank told Nicholas Karlovasitis they could not give him a business loan. No trading history. So he called back and told them he needed $30,000 for a pool party. An epic one. Just the once. They offered him $50,000. That was 18 years ago. Today, Design By Them — the studio Nicholas built with his co-founder Sarah Kay from a Newtown apartment — has a team of 35 and dealers across Dubai, the UK, the Netherlands, and the US. When their accountants recently asked about their exit strategy, Nicholas and Sarah walked out of the meeting laughing. They do not have one. They just really love what they do. This conversation goes somewhere most design podcasts do not. We talk about what it means to be given the gift of choice — and what it costs to build a business that tries to pass that on to other people. Nicholas is the son of migrants who watched his mother count hours at a paper factory and his father work 16-hour days to pay off a home loan in four years. Everything he has built is quietly shaped by that. Including the royalty model that puts real money in the hands of Australian designers who have been treating their work as a side project for too long. In this episode, we explore: Growing up as a child of migrants and what that instilled — the optimism, the relativity, and the lifelong obsession with a better futureA conversation with his father in Year 7 that removed the burden of expectation and gave Nicholas the gift of choiceDeciding on industrial design at 13, and why passing up a Qantas avionics engineering programme was the best decision he almost did not makeWorking school holidays at a paper factory with his mother — and the moment he understood what an hour of someone's labour was worthThe pool party loan: how Design By Them was founded on $30,000 a bank was happy to hand over for an epic one-time eventBuilding a furniture brand in a market that barely existed — and why 'if there's no industry for us, we'll create one' became the founding philosophyThe white t-shirt principle: the early business advice that shaped how they thought about products, cashflow, and creative ambitionThe copied letterbox incident that sharpened their supply chain strategy and changed how they thought about protecting designers' workThe real economics of manufacturing locally versus overseas — and why the debate almost always misses the most important argumentBuilding a supply chain in China over five years, and what quality control actually looks like when you are doing it seriouslyRunning a business by designers for designers — and why they put prices on their website when no one else didExhibiting at 3 Days of Design Copenhagen and the patient, deliberate path to global reachWhy Nicholas and Sarah walked out of a meeting with their accountants laughing: no exit strategy, no Porsche, just the work Why this conversation matters In a world where scaling fast is celebrated and soul is usually the first casualty, Nicholas Karlovasitis offers a different model. Design By Them has grown from two people to 35 without losing what it set out to be: a brand that pays designers properly, builds for the long term, and believes that clarity of purpose is not a luxury — it is the strategy. His story is also a reminder that the most meaningful businesses are often built not to be sold, but to outlast the people who started them. About Nicholas Nicholas Karlovasitis is the co-founder and creative director of Design By Them, the Sydney-based furniture design studio he built alongside Sarah Kay from a Newtown apartment in 2007. He studied industrial design at UTS, where he also taught for a period, and has spent nearly two decades championing Australian designers while pursuing global reach. Design By Them manufactures across China, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, the US, and Italy, operates a royalty model for the designers it represents, and is currently expanding into the UK, Netherlands, and US markets. Nicholas describes the business simply: it was built by designers, for designers. He still does not have an exit strategy. Watch / Listen ▶️  Watch the full episode on YouTube 🎧  Available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts If this episode resonated, please like, subscribe and share — it helps Build Beautiful continue to tell deeper stories from the world of design, architecture and creative life. RESOURCES MENTIONED Design By Them: designbythem.com Instagram: @designbythem 3 Days of Design Copenhagen: 3daysofdesign.dk To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Your agent wants to sell. Your valuer wants the truth. And most people — designers, renovators, developers — never call the valuer. They call the agent, they trust the gut, they make decisions without one crucial piece of information: what will the market actually pay, with no skin in the game, before you've already spent the money. Belinda Botzolis has been the missing voice in that conversation for 17 years. She is done being missing. Belinda Botzolis is the founding director of Add Value, a property valuation consultancy. She has inspected more than 15,000 Australian homes, assessed nearly $12 billion in real estate, and spent 17 years translating complex property and tax concepts into plain, actionable language — including the 2026 federal budget changes and the rarely-understood six-year capital gains tax rule. This is a conversation for every designer, renovator, and developer who has ever made an expensive decision without a valuer in the room. About the ceiling on every property — the number the market won't cross regardless of how beautifully you design it. About demographic-led renovation strategy, the mistakes a bank valuer will never reward, and why the person with no stake in the outcome is sometimes the most important person you can have on your team. In this episode, we explore: Why every property has a ceiling — and why crossing it in renovation is one of the most common and costly mistakes homeowners and developers makeThe demographic analysis Belinda runs before recommending any renovation: from kosher kitchens in Rose Bay to prayer rooms in Lakemba and courtyards in the inner westThe 2026 federal budget decoded: what actually changed for investors, what's grandfathered, what to hold off on, and why Belinda compares the policy to a school group assignmentHow the property valuer fits inside the design team — and why most designers have never thought to include oneFlipping vs. forever home: why the design rules are completely different depending on your exit strategyThe budget blowout scenario: why a neutral valuer can sometimes say the things a designer can't — and why clients hear it differently from a third partyThe six-year CGT principal place of residence rule — and why Belinda used it herselfWhy the new negative gearing changes might make your primary home the most tax-efficient place to hold capital in the current landscapeInvestment property renovation strategy: why neutral and durable beats trendy and cheap every timeBuilding a business on social media before going solo — and the grandmother story that explains her entire philosophyWhy this conversation matters Property is where design and money converge. Most people make their biggest financial decisions without a valuer's perspective, relying instead on agents, friends, and gut instinct. Belinda Botzolis is changing that. In an industry where valuers are almost invisible to the people whose homes they assess, she is quietly doing something radical: explaining it clearly, accessibly, and without an agenda. About Belinda Belinda Botzolis is the founding director of Add Value, a property valuation consultancy. With 17 years of experience, a degree in Property Economics, and dual registration as a certified valuer and tax agent, she has valued nearly $12 billion in Australian real estate across residential, government acquisition, and investment work. She built her reputation online by translating complex property and tax concepts into plain, accessible language — driven by a belief that everyone deserves to understand the rules of the game they are already playing. Watch / Listen ▶️  Watch the full episode on YouTube 🎧  Available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts If this episode resonated, please like, subscribe and share — it helps Build Beautiful continue to tell deeper stories from the world of design, architecture and creative life. To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Her water broke on the last day of filming The Great Gatsby. She had spent years inside Baz Luhrmann's creative world — researching Moulin Rouge in Paris, drinking absinthe in the streets, helping Catherine Martin dress Beyoncé, designing over 200 rugs for the Faena Hotel in New York. And she did all of it as the black sheep of a Lebanese-Australian family where everyone else became a doctor, a surgeon, or an engineer. She was the one who took the detour. As it turned out, the detour was the whole thing. Silvana Azzi Heras is the founder of House of Heras, a Sydney-based textile and interior design studio known for its maximalist, emotionally rich patterns rooted in folklore, flora, and cultural memory. Before founding her studio, she spent over a decade as head designer at Bazmark — Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin's creative company — working across Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby, La Bohème on Broadway, and The Get Down for Netflix. This is a conversation about what it means to follow an instinct when the world expects something safer from you. About heritage and culture as the raw material of a creative life. About the phone call that changes everything — and what happens when you finally say yes to yourself. About maximalism as a philosophy, not just an aesthetic. And about the strange, glittering, unglamorous work of building something entirely your own. In this episode, we explore: Growing up Lebanese-Australian: arriving in Sydney at age two, navigating identity, and returning to Beirut at 35 to understand her parents' resilienceBeing the 'black sheep' youngest of five — how family pressure shaped the long road to designStarting with a Bachelor of Welfare Studies, meeting her husband there, and going back to university as a mature-age student to study designThe phone call that changed everything: how a university lecturer put her name forward for Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin's studioLife inside Bazmark — researching Moulin Rouge! in Paris, drinking absinthe, walking the streets, and building a world from scratchThe Gatsby baby — her water breaking on the last day of filming The Great GatsbyGoing to Cannes twice and the Oscars twice, including helping Catherine Martin dress BeyonceDesigning over 200 rugs for the Faena Hotel New York, in collaboration with Peter MikicFounding House of Heras — filling a gap for maximalist, culturally rich design in a minimalist marketPre-visualisation as a design practice, the art of knowing when to stop, and why there are no shortcutsWhy this conversation matters In a design world that often rewards restraint and minimalism, Silvana Azzi Heras is doing something rarer: making work that holds memory, carries culture, and takes emotional risks. Her story is also a reminder that the creative path is rarely linear — that detours, late starts, and unexpected phone calls are often the beginning of something extraordinary. About the guest Silvana Azzi Heras is the founder and creative director of House of Heras, a Sydney-based design studio specialising in textiles, rugs, wallpaper, and interior design. She spent over a decade as head designer at Bazmark, the production company of Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, working across some of the most visually ambitious films and productions of the past two decades. Her textile collections are stocked internationally and she has designed for the Faena Hotel New York, Designer Rugs, Milton & King, and CB2 in the United States. House of Heras is expanding into commercial interior design, and a new Axminster rug collection is due for release later in 2026. RESOURCES MENTIONED House of Heras website: houseofheras.com Instagram: @houseofheras and @silvanaazziheras Designer Rugs: designerrugs.com.au Milton & King wallpaper: miltonandking.comCB2  (US): cb2.com Faena Hotel New York: faena.com/new-york Peter Mikic: mikicdesign.com To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Helen Lynch and Karyn McRae, co-founders of McRae & Lynch Design, have been in business together for thirty years. They met on the first day of design school, started taking on projects while they were still studying, and have since built one of Sydney's most quietly enduring interior design practices, spanning residential, medical, hospitality, and even cruise ship interiors for Carnival. In this episode of Build Beautiful, Helen and Karyn share what three decades of partnership has taught them about resilience, reinvention, and charging your worth. It is a conversation about friendship as foundation, the unglamorous parts of building a creative business, and what it really means to design for the long game. In this episode, we explore: How a chance hand wave on the first day of design school became a thirty-year creative partnershipHelen's path from primary school teaching into interior design, and Karyn's beginnings in architectural drafting at Inscand DesignWhat makes a design partnership actually work, and why mutual respect, shared values and morning therapy sessions matter more than rigid role descriptionsDesigning cruise ships for Carnival across five years: dry dock, IMO certification, boiler suits, and being the only women on the shipWhy they had to rebuild the business from scratch after the cruise ship era ended, and what that humility taught themThe reinvention behind going back to study during COVID to become registered building designers, and why interior designers still fight for recognition in AustraliaThe two-year nudge from their business coach into podcasting, the imposter syndrome that nearly stopped them, and the moment they realised authenticity outperforms polishGoing on Aussie Build for Channel 9 Life, finding sponsors in six weeks, and what television taught them about being themselves on cameraCharging your worth: the spreadsheet that changed everything, the twenty percent contingency rule, and why a one hundred percent strike rate means you are underchargingWhat 'build beautiful' means when you have spent thirty years designing for other people's lives, and why the goal is shoulders dropping at the front door Why this conversation matters In an industry obsessed with overnight success and polished feeds, Helen and Karyn offer something quieter and rarer: a thirty-year case study in patience, partnership and reinvention. Their story matters now because the path they walked, slow growth, hard pivots, going back to study late, learning to charge what you are worth, is the one most creative business owners are actually on, even if no one talks about it. About the guests Helen Lynch and Karyn McRae are the co-founders of McRae & Lynch Design, a Sydney-based interior design and building design practice they have run together for thirty years. Their work spans high-end residential, medical and dental fit-outs, hospitality and clubs, and a five-year body of cruise ship interior work for Carnival. They are also the hosts of Two Gins in a Designer's Perspective, which won Best Design Podcast at the 2025 Australian Podcast Awards, and recently appeared as the design duo on Aussie Build for Channel 9 Life. Both are newly registered building designers, certified to work on Class 2 buildings, an accreditation few interior designers in Australia hold. RESOURCES MENTIONED McRae & Lynch Design: mcraelynchdesign.com.au Instagram: @mcraelynchdesign Two Gins in a Designer's Perspective podcast (Best Design Podcast, 2025) Aussie Build, Channel 9 LifeDesign Centre Enmore (formerly the Randwick design school referenced in the episode) Design Institute of Australia (DIA) To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! For years, she was running her architecture practice on passion alone. The work was good. The clients were happy. And the money wasn't working. She described it as being "happy but broke" — a phrase so clean and so honest that it stopped being hers the moment she said it, because everyone who builds something creative knows exactly what she means. Brooke Aitken is an architect and the founder of Brooke Aitken Design, a studio she has led for 21 years. She works alongside her sister and a team that has come to feel like family — a flat, trust-based structure held together by craft, devotion, and a slowly-earned understanding of what it takes to stay financially and emotionally viable in creative work. This is one of the most generous conversations Build Beautiful has had. About what longevity actually costs. About how you learn to charge your worth after years of not. About the strange rhythm of a creative life — the wearing of every hat, the love that keeps you going, and the business that had to grow up alongside the art. For anyone building something slowly, with heart: this one is for you. In this episode, we explore: Why Brooke walked away from a place in medical school to pursue architecture — and the moment she “cut my hair off, dyed it white blonde” and went all inInside the legendary DCM years: being project architect on the interiors of the Melbourne Museum at the very start of her careerFounding Brooke Aitken Design in 2004 with no business training, no marketing, and clients already waiting at the door“I was happy but broke” — what rock bottom actually looked like ten years in, while going through IVF, undiagnosed endometriosis, building her own home, and paying her staff before herselfThe Business of Design podcast moment that changed everything — and why Brooke now sits in a peer mastermind comparing real figures every six monthsDaniel Priestley’s “11 touchpoints” rule, and how Brooke rebuilt her entire marketing engine around it after a decade of hiding her work behind bad photography“Soft Modernism,” slow architecture, and why she’ll usually fight to save a 70s building rather than knock it downInside the studio: a sister, a “design alumni” WhatsApp group, design charrettes, and why “no one has just one problem”“Systems will set you free” — the Asana templates and operating system every creative business owner should stealChatGPT, Midjourney and how an architect known for craft is quietly experimenting with AIWhat she would tell her younger self — and why she still insists success “hasn’t happened yet”Why this conversation matters In a design industry that polishes every portfolio and hides every struggle, Brooke Aitken does something rare: she tells the truth. For any architect, designer or creative business owner who has ever wondered why beautiful work isn’t translating into a beautiful life, this is the conversation that names the gap — and shows what’s possible on the other side. About Brooke Brooke Aitken is the founder and Principal of Brooke Aitken Design, a Sydney-based studio she has led for over 20 years from her base in Ultimo. A registered architect and interior designer — one of the few in the country who delivers both — she is known for an aesthetic she calls “Soft Modernism”: contemporary, considered, deeply liveable spaces shaped by the brief, the building and the way people actually live. Her work spans heritage homes in Sydney’s east, sustainable rejuvenations of mid-century houses, and award-winning international projects in San Francisco and Palo Alto. She is also the founder of Rill + Stone, a homewares brand whose internationally awarded rug collection is made in collaboration with Tsar Carpets. To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! There's a version of living with art that most people never reach. They buy something. They hang it. They look at it sometimes. And then there's the other version — where the piece you chose changes the way you see the room, then the way you see yourself, and then, if you're lucky, the way you move through the world. Kym Elphinstone has spent her career in that second version, and she's working to bring other people there. Kym Elphinstone works across art, cultural strategy, and storytelling, advising collectors and collaborating with designers on how to bring art into spaces with intention. Her work sits at the intersection of intuition and meaning — built on the belief that art is not an accessory to life, but a reflection of it. This is a conversation about the difference between buying art and living with it. About how to start a collection without being paralysed by the decision. About why the best choices are rarely about taste and almost always about feeling. For anyone who has ever stood in front of a piece of art and felt something shift — this one is for you. In this episode, we explore: Kym's unlikely path from law in London to a life in contemporary artThe "baptism by fire" years at MCA Australia working on 12–15 exhibitions a yearFounding Articulate sixteen years ago — with the Biennale of Sydney as first clientWhy she wrote Collecting and Living with Art — and the foreword by John Kaldor"There are no wrong answers" — the biggest myth about how to start collectingWalking into a gallery for the first time — why gallerists genuinely want you thereFostering, not owning: collecting as a form of custodianship for future generationsThe King's College London study proving art physically changes us — heart rate, cortisol, inflammationUnderstanding the value of art — artist reputation, galleries, career milestones and the marketWhy emerging artists need collectors most, and how to spot a singular point of viewSydney Contemporary as "time travel for art" — 45 minutes to take the pulse of the sectorAdvice for designers and architects: commission artists early in the design process, not at the endHow to help clients see the value of a $50,000 artwork the way they see a $50,000 sofaKym's most cherished piece — an Oliver Wagner canvas made from house-paint dustWhy this conversation matters In design and architecture, art is too often the final decorative layer — if it is considered at all. Kym Elphinstone offers a quietly radical counterpoint: art should be part of the conversation from the very beginning of a home, a career, a life. For designers, architects and anyone wondering how to begin collecting, this is an expert, unintimidating invitation into the art world — and a reminder that living with art changes how we feel inside our own spaces. About Kym Kym Elphinstone is the founder of Articulate, a Sydney-based agency specialising in contemporary art, culture and design. A lawyer who left London for the arts, Kym held senior roles at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia — including on secondment at New York's New Museum on the Bowery — before launching Articulate sixteen years ago. Articulate's clients span the Biennale of Sydney, the Australia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (including the 2024 Gold-Lion-winning Archie Moore / kith and kin presentation), Sydney Contemporary, the NGV, Nonsingular in the Southern Highlands, and a growing roster of private collectors. Her book, Collecting and Living with Art, features 26 Australian collectors and opens with a foreword by John Kaldor. Watch / Listen ▶️  Watch the full episode on YouTube 🎧  Available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts If this episode resonated, please like, subscribe and share — it helps Build Beautiful continue to tell deeper stories from the world of design, architecture and creative life. To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! Most designers listen to the brief. Alexandra Donohoe Church listens to what's beneath it. She reads desire, not just preference. Habit, not just taste. The gap between what a client says they want and what they actually need — and she has spent 16 years navigating that gap with a restraint and precision that most designers spend a career trying to acquire. Alexandra Donohoe Church is the founder of Decus Interiors, a studio she began alone from her apartment in 2009, building from landscape architecture into interior design. Sixteen years later, she leads a team working on some of Australia's most exquisite residential projects, with work published in Architectural Digest, Elle Decoration, Vogue Living, and Belle. This is a conversation about the psychology of design, the discipline of restraint, and what 16 years of creative leadership actually teaches you. About how to read between the lines of what a client is really asking for. About the spaces that do their most important work quietly — holding people without them ever knowing why they feel held. In this episode, we explore: Growing up between Sydney and Seattle — and how living across cultures shaped her eye for spaceThe unexpected path from landscape architecture to interior design — and why she never looked backHow she reads between the lines of a client brief: decoding desire, not just preferenceWhat clients think they want vs. what they truly need — and the art of delivering both with integrityCreating 'tension in a space' — why conversation between art, furnishings and architecture matters more than matchingThe psychology of restraint: why editing is her most powerful design toolRunning a studio for 16 years — what she's outgrown, what she's fiercely protected, and what's kept her goingThe emotional weight of creative leadership — and the discipline required to carry it with graceHer obsession with detail: the proportions, edges, and grooves most people will never consciously noticeWhat 'building beautiful' means to Alexandra — in work, and in lifeWhy this conversation matters In a design world saturated with trend cycles and visual noise, Alexandra Donohoe Church offers something rare: a practice built on discernment, psychology, and restraint. Her philosophy — that great design is an extension of the client's inner world — is a reminder that the most enduring spaces are not designed to impress, but to hold. At a time when authenticity is more sought-after than spectacle, this conversation is a masterclass in what truly matters. About Alexandra Alexandra Donohoe Church is the founder of Decus Interiors, a Sydney-based interior design studio she established in 2009. Over 16 years, she has built a reputation for creating luxury residential interiors that balance refined beauty with the unexpected — resisting signature style in favour of deeply personalised spaces that feel like extensions of their inhabitants. Her work has been published in Architectural Digest, Elle Decoration, Design Anthology, Vogue Living, and Belle. She leads a team of 10–12 designers on high-end residential projects across Australia and internationally. Decus Interiors website: www.decus.com.au Instagram: @decusinteriors As featured in: Architectural Digest, Elle Decoration, Design Anthology, Vogue Living, Belle To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].

Send us your feedback, thoughts or comments! When Darren Genner started his career, he was on a production line in western Sydney — making 34 kitchens a day. Not designing them. Making them. Fast. Somewhere in that sawdust and volume, he developed something most design school graduates never acquire: an absolute, granular understanding of how things are actually built. That foundation — unglamorous, physical, humbling — became the bedrock of a 24-year design practice that has won more awards than he can easily count. Darren Genner is the co-founder of Studio Minosa, one of Australia's most respected interior design studios, built alongside his partner Simona starting with $400 and a shared vision of what design could do for a life. Over 24 years, they survived the GFC, a studio robbery, and the fog that followed COVID — and came out the other side with a clearer sense of who they are and what they are building. This is a conversation about craft, resilience, and the love story at the heart of a great creative partnership. About what it means to design life better — not just for clients, but for yourself. About the discipline of doing fewer things exceptionally, the courage of having hard conversations, and why the best design practices are built not just on skill, but on survival. In this episode, we explore: How a kitchen factory apprenticeship on a production line became the unlikely foundation of a world-class design philosophyThe mentor who told a young Darren: "A chef will never tell you the ingredients" — and why watching became his greatest toolMeeting Simona at a Poliform showroom — the chance connection over Italian kitchens that changed everythingStarting Studio Minosa with $400, a shared dinner idea, and a water-conscious Corian washbasin called the Puddle ScoopThe white box method: stripping all colour from 3D renders so clients can truly understand space, function and scale before choosing materialsWhy being an early adopter of 3D visualisation — long before SketchUp — gave Studio Minosa a 24-year competitive edgeThe bad client experience that forced them to rethink contracts, communication, and the courage to have hard conversationsHow the GFC, a studio robbery, and the post-Covid slump each tested — and ultimately forged — their resilienceThe "Design Life Better" tagline: not a catchphrase but a moral compass, developed with a Nike brand strategist in 2016Hiring for personality over skill, building a team that stays for 10+ years, and why fewer clients done better is now the goal Why this conversation matters In an industry that often chases aesthetics over substance, Darren Genner is a reminder that the most enduring design practices are built on craft, curiosity, and the courage to put process before polish. Twenty-four years in, Studio Minosa is proof that when you genuinely design life better — for your clients and for yourself — the work takes care of itself. If this episode resonated, please like, subscribe and share — it helps Build Beautiful continue to tell deeper stories from the world of design, architecture and creative life. To get in touch with Build Beautiful or to follow us head to our socials:   on Instagram on Facebook on LinkedIn If you'd like to be on the podcast, or want to collaborate with Build Beautiful feel free to contact us on [email protected].