MY HOME
SHARING THE DESIGN LOVE
Creating the right feel is essential when undertaking home renovations, especially when you want a value increase to match your investment. Award-winning designer Adrian Ramsay will give you a glimpse into how it’s done. WORDS: Roxanne McCarty-O’Kane.
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ward-winning fashion and interior design guru Adrian Ramsay started his journey with humble beginnings, growing up on a farm outside Wellington in New Zealand. Although he lived in a rural town, he developed a passion for fashion and architecture at a young age, sketching the buildings he imagined from scenes in the Wild West novels that captivated him as a 10-year-old. He then went on to start designing custom-made formal trousers for his school friends. Both passions have developed into successful careers after Mr Ramsay quickly discovered a tendency towards innovation as opposed to following the grain. As a trained expert in the TRIZ methodology of systematic innovation, he spent several years at Airbus training engineers in innovation and problem solving across Europe, America and Australia before settling on the Sunshine Coast to start his own business, Adrian Ramsay Design House, in 2007. Mr Ramsay has since been involved in more than 100 home design projects throughout Australia, England, France, New Zealand and India. While it takes many years of study and hands-on experience to reach the heights of Mr Ramsay’s skill, he regularly hosts workshops to impart his knowledge with DIYers of all skill levels. His newest workshop is inspired by his latest USA design tour where he met with architects, interior designers and builders to discover design ideas and trends. “I was looking for a way to share my design knowledge to empower people to take on renovations and build homes that work for their lifestyles, families and environments,” Mr Ramsay says. “I understand what points they should be aware of when it comes to trends and
An Adrian Ramsay design outcomes. I see so many people who have the skills and passion and are just missing the experience and knowledge. “If I can share mine, this gives them the guidance to create a better home and environment. It benefits the whole family, which makes the world a better place.” Previous workshops have covered the topics of pools, bathrooms, kitchens, working with brick, rammed earth, and tropical trends and have attracted participants from across the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and further afield. “I have worked with architects, other interior designers, builders, suppliers and people looking to tackle a project of their own at these workshops,” Mr Ramsay says. “Some are in their 20s, others in their 60s, with build budgets ranging from $10,000 to $2 million. While there isn’t a typical attendee, the common factor is
they love design and want to know more about it.” Mr Ramsay says a passion for designing living spaces is similar to those who get a thrill out of choosing what to wear. “You get to unpack the things that support you emotionally and wrap them around you in your home – it’s very satisfying and creates a place that’s you,” he says. “Also, there are a lot of homes that are poorly designed to start with that need reworking to meet personal needs and wants. “We expect a lot more these days than we did 30 years ago, so houses need to be altered to bring them up to the market and lifestyles. If you do it right, you’re adding great value to an investment so it’s smart to maximise any investment you have.” While on-trend styles might give homes
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Adrian Ramsay’s latest Design House Workshop is at Art Nuvo Gallery, 25 Gloucester Road, Buderim on November 15 from 6.42pm to 8.43pm. To register for the free workshop, visit facebook.com/AdrianRamsay DesignHouse/.
Helping you to
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a more modern look, Mr Ramsay says homeowners need to remember the old adage “form follows function”. “When function is king, we get to enjoy what has been created as we interact with it,” he says. “We should always elevate beyond function to form, so that we add emotion to what we create. This is what design is really about. “When you have great function and form, you create ‘flow’, and this is special.”
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