When your partner’s an interior designer, you’d expect that they’d always win an argument when it came to what furniture and homewares to put in the house.
The Block’s resident nice guy Darren Palmer has a foolproof philosophy to navigate through possible decor disagreements with partner Olivier. Take a leaf out of his book the next time this conversation comes up at home!
“I’ll basically give Olivier two choices,” Darren explains, “One that I want and one that’s never going to happen and he can choose! In reality though, he has brilliant fashion sense so I do respect his opinion. We are a great team”.
When it comes to shopping local to create some wow factor in his home and those of his clients, Darren turns to some amazing brands.
“Jardan is a brilliant Aussie design company, as is Mark Tuckey. Some friends of mine have a great company called Catapult that represents independent Australian designers too with some brilliant stuff”.
Darren is also a fan of Globewest, Space Furniture, Poliform, Coco Republic and many more. “The list could go on and on,” he says.
When it comes time to clock off from work and hit his local haunts, Darren is a fan of a few well-known Sydney eateries.
“I live in Bondi, so there are plenty of amazing new spots popping up in the Hall Street precinct.,” he explains. “I’ve lunched around Woollahra a bit too and the Centennial, Chiswick and Bellevue all have really smart takes on a classic interiors, but with an edge. That’s probably the look I like the most in restaurants at the moment”.
Going back to interior design in homes, I ask Darren what style he thinks it’s time to let go of and leave well and truly behind.
“Personally, I’m not fond of Scandi,” he admits. “Whether that will stay as fashionable I don’t know, but I don’t necessarily want to see the back of it. Everything has its place”.
So what is his home like and what decor confessions does he have to tell TLC Interiors?
“Haha seriously, my home doesn’t look like a photoshoot. The running joke is that I live in fixer uppers and sell beautiful homes that I don’t get to enjoy. That’s the life of a renovator though”.
>>> What’s your decor confession? And how to do you navigate through decor disagreements at home? Drop a comment below and share!
LOL, I wanted to change the style of our living room, as you do from time to time 🙂 and hubby didn’t want to get rid of the huge sofa that was cluttering the whole room as he said it was ‘comfy’,,, I listed the sofa for sale without telling him and someone came to pick it up one weekend, so I had to eventually confess that we were selling that sofa :):)
hahaha I love it Vanesa. So, the general rule is “just sell it” 😉
My hubby and I could not agree that our relatively new kitchen needed a bit of re designing, so when he chuffed off to US for a few weeks I was on the phone to my kitchen guy and a splashback supplier. By the time hubby returned the kitchen was transformed with streamlined overheads and a new splashback. After the initial shock toned down by his severe jetlag he had to admit it looks amazing and I’m a happy wife. Its all in the timing!!
haha you had me laughing there Karen. So the clear message is: wait until they go away and do what you want lol. I love it!