Interior Design Mistakes That Stop Your House Feeling Like A Home, with Petrina Turner

They listed the house six months after renovating it, and of all the rooms the photographer chose to lead with, it was the one everybody had warned them was too bold. A tealy green vanity, marble Ming green fan tiles, wall to wall. It sold the house, because people could feel the quality. 

In this episode of House of Meaning, Simon Clark sits down with Petrina Turner of Petrina Turner Design, an accredited interior designer and educator with thirty years behind her. Petrina names the mistake she sees again and again: people design their homes for a stranger, the future buyer who may or may not turn up in five years, instead of for the people actually living there. That single habit is what stops a house ever feeling like home. Petrina started not as a decorator but as a draftsperson, and that technical brain still underpins everything she does, but her real subject is why colour is an emotional tool, not decoration.

Petrina explains why even neutral isn't neutral, how every white paint shifts with the light and the direction a room faces, and why she starts a project with your favourite holiday and your core memories instead of a spec sheet of sinks and ovens. We hear how she found the "DNA" of a heritage home in its raw stud walls and soot-stained chimney bricks, why a bold tealy green bathroom was the room that sold a house, and how her volunteer work with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre showed her that colour and design are really about dignity.

You'll learn:

• The one mistake that stops a house ever feeling like home, and what to do instead
• How to start a renovation from your own story and memories rather than paint charts and tick boxes
• Why even neutral paint carries an undertone, and how light and orientation change it hour to hour
• How texture and material can do the heavy lifting when you're not ready to commit to colour
• Why biophilic design, bringing nature indoors, measurably supports wellbeing and how to apply it at home

Who it's for: Melbourne homeowners planning a renovation, extension or forever home who want a space that feels like them rather than a safe resale box, plus anyone curious about the psychology and craft behind great interior design.

If you'd like to know more, please reach out to Sustainable Homes Melbourne or call us on 1800 683 697.

Explore Petrina's work at https://www.petrinaturnerdesign.com.au/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you're planning to build or renovate and want a home that's sustainable, considered, and do we care, you're in the right place. This is House of Meaning for Sustainable Homes Norway, and I'm your host, Simon Clark, an Australian builder with a passion for meaningful design. Since 2014, we've had our boots on the ground designing and building homes that are beautiful to live in, firmly comfortable, and built to last. In each episode, we'll share practical advice, design insights, and real stories from experts in the industry to help you plan and build your dream sustainable home. So I remember sitting in my dad's car about eight years old. We're at the farm. It was rainy, wet day. And for whatever reason, dad told me not to touch the cigarette lighter. I'd never thought of it previously. But of course, he went out, checked the cows or whatever he had to do, and I had to touch the cigarette lighter. I pushed the cigarette lighter in and waited for it to pop. It popped, then I opened it up, I looked at it, it didn't look hot at all. So I thought, oh, it's not hot. I had to touch it. I touched it with my thumb, and I remember my thumb was just, it went like a rock. It just calloused and burnt just immediately. I mean, I was an eight-year-old kid, but what I really understand from this is that some things just need to be experienced. No matter how good intentioned, well-intentioned somebody is in explaining the do's and don'ts, the pros and cons of things, it doesn't always make sense unless that process or that experience is really felt. Client that we spoke to had a budget then, of course, and for whatever reason decided not to go with us and move forward with a designer. They got this client actually got plans approved through town planning again, and then their designer went liquidated, which is unfortunate. So, but ultimately, great, they have approved plans. But then they went to three builders, vastly different budgets come back or costings come back. I'm not sure how, whether it was a tender or how those builders were approached. I'm not too privy of that. But I would encourage you if you if you're gonna do it, do it properly, because back of the envelope, square meter rates, forget about it, it could lead you up the garden path. Anyway, this client, you engage three builders, vastly different numbers, but they still needed design documentation, interiors, and much more documentation to get to construction or get to a place where a contract could be signed. So then engaged a second designer, and for whatever reason, there wasn't getting far with them, wasn't getting things resolved. I imagine it's probably got to do with budget. We'll get to the bottom of that. Wasn't getting to a point where the design could proceed into construction. So hopefully we can help them. Now that they've got design, they've got a town planning design, and we actually have another client similar to this at the moment as well. They've got a design, it's not quite perfect from someone else, but it's a good starting point with us. So if a if a person comes to us with a design, even if it's not perfect, if it's 80, even if it's 80%, it's because what we want to do is we want to ensure the project's feasible before we take them on for our design and build service. So if somebody comes with a plan or even comes without a plan, we do a feasibility first. And with a plan, that feasibility is easier because we've got that starting point. So our approach for this client will be okay, let's price this plan that you have, even if it's needs to change somewhat, price it, is it on budget? Does it work? We can value manage and provide some options and iterations at this early point via estimation, or via estimating, I should say, via budget-driven updates rather than design-driven updates. And once the client's comfortable, it can move into design. And likely these projects can skip a bit of the design stage, of course. Of course, if we're not changing too much with that plan that's already approved in council, we can move straight into design documentation, engage engineers, interior design, and away we go. It's a lot of work's done. Uh, with this other design, it it's a similar process. The work that has been done, whatever it's been, and just that wisdom and understanding the discernment that you have after being through that process, you know what a designer build firm can do and how different the process is and whether that suits you or not. And then just a quick my third quick story is I know very little about, but the writing was on the wall with this one. A lady from Hawthorne just inquired and uh I I spoke with her. She'd had a design just approved from planning. I asked her, Had you got a builder's price before you went to planning? She said, Oh yeah, we did. We spoke with two other builders, and I said, Okay, yeah, what did they say? She said, Oh, yeah, we got vastly different numbers again. And she gave me the information. She said, one builder priced it at 900,000, another builder priced it at 1.8 million. Well, they're hugely different numbers. And for whatever reason, I get it. No, I know the reason. People have just such optimism when they're going about construction, and it's it doesn't always meet reality. So this lady getting two prices, one at 900,000 and one at 1.8 million, her budget was 900,000. So proceeded with planning with some optimism that the lower builder was actually right, which is so rare. It's so rare that the person that gives you the lowest budget is right. Because like it's like filling up, it's like filling up a water jug. You can fill it to a point, but there's so much to know that that can easily go up. Budgets just don't come down, they just do not. For whatever reason, I can go into that. It's a very there's a bit to it. I won't go into it now, but budgets just do not go down. So I the writing was on the wall. This lady, of course, with her own design, didn't want to engage a builder, wanted to go to tender. I actually would be interested to follow her up to see where she got to. Who knows? Um, they might be building. I doubt they'd be building for 900,000. I would bet a lot on it. But yes, look, they might be building. That is probably what happened with some of these other clients in 2021 and seven years prior to getting to contract signing, that they just didn't take the price, getting a price seriously enough. I think that's a crux of it. But after all of this experience that all these three clients have taken, they now, at the end of it, they now have clarity. They now have clarity of what can work for them, and they've stopped chasing a number and they're chasing now an outcome. And that's what will move them into seriously getting a getting from where they are now with uh an old home that doesn't serve their purpose or or wanting a new home that is their dream home, that'll be the thing that gets them from where they are now to into that new home and moving on with the rest of their lives. So I want to leave you now with three questions to ask any professional that you're considering engaging. And this could be an architect, designer, builder, designer build firm. I think all these questions, these three questions are critical for you to understand and then make an informed judgment call. There's no right and wrong decision, and experience pays greatly in this game. So the first question is when can you expect a real price on the cost to deliver your project? Not a square meter eight, not a square meter, whether it's a builder or whether it's an architect, even whether it's a quantity surveyor, I've I still wouldn't take that. I still wouldn't value that. A real price from a builder that does the work that you do. And that price, it won't be a contract price, it can't be it. Well, maybe it can be. And maybe that's the problem. People are getting it at contract estimate. That's just too late, and that's where it's three times over budget, and you can't do it. I believe you should be getting it is at the end of concept estimate, is at the end of concept design. So you've got a design, you're happy with it. Gauge a builder or get a builder to put a real price to it. That price will typically be, I'd have to say, within five percent. Ours are within one to two percent of the homes that we design and build. One to two percent, gotta expect it within five. You should have a contingency of at least 10. So that's the question you want to ask. When are you gonna get a real serious price from somebody that does this type of project that you do? That's a critical step in this process. Understand that. If you don't, you're running through this design process on hope, like this lady in Hawthorne that's hoping the guy that priced it at 1.8 million is wrong, or the girl that priced it at 900,000 is right. That's just hope. The next question to ask is who is accountable if the design is over budget? It is a critical question. Now, when design and building is separated, especially who is responsible? Most architects, I mean, I'd say most or all architects and designers genuinely have the intention of bringing your design in on budget. Again, there's a lot of optimism. Humans have a lot of optimism, but it's just a hopeful optimism. But they aren't skilled or enough to understand construction costs. I'm a builder, I deal with this stuff every day, but projects are so specific. It's not uncommon for me to get surprised. And I'm I live it. We're looking at costs weekly, if not daily. Architects just aren't doing that. That they might be building five projects a year, but they're not looking at the real life actuals. This is surprising to me. But the Architects Institute of Australia, the client and architect agreement actually removes liability from the architect for cost overruns. And I know a lot of clients sign this without carefully reading it. And so they've got no leg to stand on when costs blow out. And so when costs do blow out, I think there's three options, two or three options. It's either we've got a value manage and the architects and the architect would be required to revise that those drawings. They're not going to do that for free. You can throw the project away or you can find money from somewhere else, which a lot of people can't. So ask directly if this cost comes back over budget, who is responsible? When it's design and build, again, we are it's one roof holding a designer and a builder. And we're the only ones responsible. We encourage people to throw their wish list at concept design, give us everything and we can reel it back. That's the approach. So at concept design, then we go to concept estimate and we put a budget to everything. We had a project recently where it came in a mil one and fifty thousand or something, the budget was nine hundred thousand. We were able to get it back to nine thousand easily. Then the clients decide to move forward, and then you get into design documentation and the client adds everything back in. So they've added back in a lot of work to the existing home. Obviously, that's been subtracted from the first price, from the price that they moved ahead with. So now they're adding it back in. It's obvious that that will then equal more money. We're not silly, we're not trying to be silly here. So it's just about understanding, though, that with that clarity along the journey of what changes and how it impacts your budget. And then the third question is pretty obvious, but speak with past client that's done a similar project to yours. Don't focus so much on the finished product because because most people, once they get into a beautiful home, they can forget the process to get there. Humans forget pain pretty quickly, which is sort of funny, which is good. Otherwise, we live in trauma. But ask them about the process that it took to get there and would they take the same process? This is probably this is a great fact-finding mission, I think, to speak with past clients, not to say anybody's right or wrong, but just to pick up what their experiences were like, not what the finished product is like. Most builders and architects are pretty good with finishing products with the finished quality of their home, I should say. But the process to get there can be significantly different. And again, like I'm saying here, we've got a client that's taken seven years, and whereas another one that the one I was talking about before, that's adding things back in to design documentation that was subtracted at concept estimate. They purchased a home, I think it's settled in October or November last year, and we'll be getting on site in July. So that's a really quick and smooth process. They were again comparing us with an architect. They made the judgment call. They did come. I mean, we came referenced from friends of theirs, so they had the confidence there, but they can respect and understand, and I hope we'll see real great value in the design and build model that's getting them from A to B really quickly. So that's it from me. I hope no matter where you are in your journey, whether you're at the very start or whether you've been through and engaged professionals already, designers, architects, or builders to, you know, whether you've got plans that are three years old, five years old, whatever it may be. But that experience that you've had, take the lessons, use these three questions that I hope can help you better understand your options when you're choosing a custom home design and custom home to be built ultimately. I hope these help. I hope they can save you the heartache and thousands of dollars and time that it may take to, I suppose, experience any missteps yourself. But I understand sometimes we as humans just need to touch the flame to feel it for ourselves. I hope this helps. Until next time, this is the House of Meaning. Thanks for listening to the House of Meaning podcast by Sustainable Homes Melbourne. If you got something out of this episode, subscribe so you don't miss the next one. And if you know someone planning a renovation or new build, send it their way. You can find us at sustainable homesMelbourne.com.au. Thanks for listening. This is House of Meaning. Until next time.