The Design Files Talks – Details, episodes & analysis

Voice actor Sarah Aubrey is a bit of an accidental expert in sustainability, who started posting educational videos on Instagram after being astonished by how much she saved when she got off the gas and turned her draughty old home all-electric. Now with more than 68k followers, she's on a mission to educate others to do the same! 

In this episode, Sarah shares how much she spent retrofitting her house, how she's already earning back the investment, and why she's so passionate about electric vehicles.

Read the article featuring the highlights from this episode here, and follow Sarah at @electrify_this.

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This episode of TDF talks is brought to you by Momentum Energy.

Tamara DiMattina is passionate about promoting low-waste, sustainable living. So much so, that she actually hasn’t bought anything new for more than 20 years — aside from food and the occasional personal hygiene essentials. Instead, she’s been shopping for her clothing, shoes, furniture, and (literally) everything else, second hand! 

In this episode, Tamara shares how she founded the annual Buy Nothing New Month, The New Joneses, and her journey to change people's attitudes about excessive consumerism.

Learn more about Tamara's work in the full story on The Design Files here, and head to The New Jones website to watch their free episodes on sustainability.

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This episode of TDF talks is brought to you by Momentum Energy.

In the final episode of our sustainability series, Momentum Energy’s managing director Lisa Chiba helps us understand how Australia will make the transition from fossil fuels to renewables! 

As the managing director of one of Australia’s ‘greenest’ energy retailers, Lisa breaks down some of the challenges facing our energy sector and shares how we can help make a difference — in addition to saving some money on your power bill. 

You can read the full story on this episode here, and visit Momentum Energy's website here to learn more.

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Could Melbourne become a self-sufficient city powered by its own energy by 2030? Environmental engineering consultancy Finding Infinity’s ambitious project 'A New Normal' is hoping to turn this vision into a reality, and the organisation's Will Young joins us in this episode to share how! 

Will explains the innovative architectural and building projects that are already underway, how much it will cost, and how these 'pilot' projects could be applied across the city to electrify our buildings, reuse water, and transition to renewable energy.

You can find a written recap of this episode on our website here and you can find out more about A New Normal here.

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Been wondering how you can save money on your energy bills? In this episode of our sustainability series, chemical engineer turned energy advisor Tim Forcey tells us everything we need to know about improving the efficiency of the average Australian home! 

Tim is the founder of the popular Facebook group My Efficient Electric Home (MEEH) that’s about to welcome its 100,000th member, and he reveals his practical tips for reducing your energy consumption for the benefit of your wallet, health, and the environment.  

You can find a written recap of this episode on our website here and you can find out more about Tim's services here.

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We kick off our new mini-series on sustainability with this episode featuring Jeremy McLeod, founder of Breathe Architecture and one of the driving forces behind Nightingale Housing! He joins Lucy to speak about Australia's housing crisis and how sustainability and affordability can coexist, with the help of thoughtful design.

Hear his expert tips for getting into the property market, the importance of designing houses for people instead of profit, and so much more. 

Take a look at one the amazing Nightingale apartments here, and in our recap of this episode here. You can also find out more Goodbye Gas, who Jeremy recommends for electrifying your home here!

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In the final episode of our four-part renovating series, serial renovators and The Block favourites Josh and Jenna Densten talk about the incredible transformation of their 1800s heritage homestead in regional Victoria! They reveal the challenges of restoring a run-down property (which they found on Facebook Marketplace!), how their family has found living in a shed during the renovation, and the hidden costs they uncovered in the process.

After almost two years it's finally coming together, and you can take a look inside their finished rooms of their charming country home in this article here!

Keep up with Josh and Jenna on Instagram at @joshandjenna, and find more on their business Plan Proofing here!

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Today we chat with Leigh Ellwood, an interior designer behind some of the most special homes we've ever featured on TDF. Having completed 10 personal renovation projects in the last 24 years, safe to say she knows a thing or two about renovating! 

But what we really love about Leigh is her magic creative touch that turns each property into a warm, perfectly styled home, with lived-in interiors. Leigh shares some words of wisdom on how she finds the right tradespeople, the right properties, and her intuitive approach to designing spaces with a good ‘feeling’ about them.

To see what we mean, take a look at Leigh’s amazing apartment in South Yarra’s iconic Beverley Hills complex and her dreamy beach house on the Great Ocean Road in this story here!

You can follow Leigh on Instagram @leigh_ellwood. 

Follow us at @thedesignfiles and subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you don’t miss a thing. Thank you so much for listening! 

In this episode of our renovating series, we chat with Sydney-based interior designer Jono Fleming to hear about how he recently transformed a 1980s suburban home using budget-friendly hacks at every turn!

With a decade-long career in magazines, styling and design, Jono shares how Bunnings engaged him to renovate every room of the dated house, working with ONLY products from the hardware store, and how you can elevate these off-the-shelf pieces with some creative solutions.

The completed home is so impressive, and you can see it in the full story on our website here! For more design inspiration, follow Jono on Instagram here.

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Welcome back to The Design Files’s podcast TDF Talks, and our new 4-part series on renovating!

We kick things off with a chat between our founder and host Lucy Feagins and art director, Annie Portelli — who’s taken on a massive DIY home renovation in the last two years. Annie shares how she and her husband Simon ‘accidentally’ fell into renovating their Melbourne home themselves, the budget mishaps, and what she would do differently if she had her time over again…

They’ve finally moved into the half-renovated property (which looks amazing!) and you can see it in the full story on our website here!

To see more of Annie’s renovation journey, find her on Instagram @annieportelli. You can also see our feature of her beloved first apartment here.

Follow us at @thedesignfiles and subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you don’t miss a thing. Thank you so much for listening!