Hey DIY Queen,

 But first—let me pull back the curtain and share how I got here.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t go to design school.

I’m not a qualified tradie.

And I’ve had more than a few “well... that didn’t go to plan” moments.

But let's start at the beginning........

I left school at 17  

I was way more interested in getting into the work force and creating something for myself than chasing an ATAR for a degree I wasn’t even sure I wanted.

School structure? Not my vibe.

So I did the unthinkable—I left.

And yep, people thought I was absolutely bonkers.

“You’ll regret it!” they said.

Spoiler alert: I never have. Not even for a day.

I worked in retail

I worked in administration,

I worked in Financial Planning.

I worked in a legal office.

I even worked as a pole dancing instructor—yes, really!

(And let me tell you, that job gave me more confidence and strength than any office job ever did!)

But.... no matter what I tried, nothing felt like it fit perfectly.

Growing up, my parents introduced me to the world of DIY and renovating—but at the time, I never imagined it as a career.

What it did spark, though, was a deep love for all things homes.

And no matter how many jobs I tried, one thing never changed: my obsession with all things home related.

It didn’t matter what my “official” job title was; the second I clocked out, I was knee-deep in a DIY project, rearranging furniture like a game of Tetris, or creating vision boards that looked like Pinterest had exploded. 

 And when I worked as a Conveyancer in property law?

Oh, that was like getting the backstage pass into the real estate world.

I got to peek behind the curtain at all the juicy details—planning permits, subdivisions, building restrictions—it was like reading the rulebook to Monopoly, but in real life.

And the best part? I got to snoop (legally, of course) on what people bought their homes for and what they sold them for.

Let’s just say, I loved being deep in the back end of the property world.

But all that sitting around at an office desk still had me hoping that I could get my hands a little more dirty day to day.

Now, I have to give credit where it's due.

My dad—his name is Noel, but in our family, we lovingly call him ‘Know-it-All Noel’—is the one who taught me how to use power tools.

He’s an electrician by trade but also a wizard at fixing anything and everything.

If it needed to be built, repaired, or wired up, he could do it (except plumbing... plumbing is not his specialty, and we’ve all agreed to never speak of that one time again).

My mum, on the other hand, was the styling Queen.

While my dad did the heavy lifting during renovations, she transformed the spaces into something out of a magazine. And me?

I was right in the middle, learning, watching, and soaking up every skill I could.

Put those two influences together and BOOM! My love for DIY was born.