If you peruse the Instagram account of Three Birds Renovations, you’ll get an immediate feel for what these fabulous, creative women behind the company are all about in terms of home, style and life—the images and inspiration displayed there are light, bright, airy and livable. They are the renovation queens - Bonnie Hindmarsh (left), Lana Taylor (centre) and Erin Cayless (right).
Lana serves as the Marketing Director of Three Birds Renovations, a company founded by lifelong best friends who wanted to do what they loved and also have more work-life balance. The company has now renovated a number of beautiful properties, and the Three Birds Team offers a popular online course called The Reno School.
We spoke with Lana about what she loves in terms of interior style, and what her everyday motivations and interests as well.
1. How did you all get started with your design business?
Bonnie, Erin and I have been best friends for almost 20 years and have seen each other through all the ups and downs of life: meeting and marrying our husbands, starting families (we now have nine beautiful kids between us) and juggling busy careers. But in 2014, we took a leap of faith together, quit our jobs and created Three Birds Renovations in pursuit of a more fulfilling life - working for ourselves, doing something we loved, and with more family time.
Within a few short months of starting out we had successfully bought, renovated and sold our first property. Fast-forward to today and we have transformed nine houses (including 32 bedrooms, 18 bathrooms and 11 kitchens), amassed a gorgeous group of followers who make it all worthwhile and learned more than we ever could have imagined.
We’ve poured all that hard-earned knowledge into our online renovation course, The Reno School. We started out flipping houses and then reno’d our forever homes … now we are wholly focused on inspiring and empowering women, anywhere in the world, to turn THEIR renovating dreams into REALITY.
2. What is the most challenging part of your job?
Coordinating the three of us! With nine kids between us, we’re all busy juggling ‘mum life’, so after taxiing our troops to extra-curricular activities and keeping up with our day jobs, there’s not much time to get us all in the same place at the same time. The beauty of our distinct roles within the business is that we’re able to work flexibly and remotely, but consistent, quality time in the same place can be a bit of a challenge.
3. Is there an interior design style you favour and do you have your own design aesthetic?
We see the beauty in lots of different styles, so when we design a home we put big emphasis around the way you want to feel in the space, not just how it looks.
We do all agree that feeling like you’re on holiday at home is always a good idea, so you might say that inspires our design style. We love anything coastal - think light, white, bright, airy, beach house… who doesn’t want to feel like they’re on vacay every day?
4. Who are other designers you admire?
We’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazingly talented Australian creatives who we admire. Artist Jai Vasicek, Garden Guru Mon Palmer and Stylist Crystal Bailey are amongst our faves. And Textile Queen, Grace Garrett who has taught us so much about bringing colour and pattern to life. We collaborate with her on most of our projects.
5. What inspires you?
From a business perspective, we’re inspired by the opportunity to help other women create their own dream homes. In fact, this was the reason we developed The Reno School. It’s an online course which educates and inspires women to bring their reno dreams to life.
Design-wise, we gather inspiration from all around. Travel, hotels, glossy mags and Instagram are all great sources of inspo for us.
6. What do you think is the essential piece of furniture we should all have in our bedroom?
Aside from a big, comfy bed, it’d have to be a statement chair in the corner. A great-looking chair is equally as handy to curl up on with a good book or to throw your clothes over when you just need to hit the hay.
7. What key element do we all need for a chic living room?
A big rug. Whether it’s going over carpet or floorboards, a gorgeous rug ties a living space together. It creates a distinctive zone and makes a room feel cosy and inviting, just like any living space should. We do recognise a good rug can be one of the hardest things to choose though!
8. Do you have a favourite project or story behind a project?
It’d have to be the story behind my ‘forever home’ design. I created a vision for my family home named #santoriniinsydney. The catch was, I’ve never actually been to Greece, let alone Santorini! So, the entire inspiration for my forever home is from a place I’ve never set foot in! Some may say I’m crazy, I say it shows the power of a vision board. And now I’ve crossed Santorini off my bucket list because I’m there every day😉
Let's get personal .....
1. What else are you passionate about besides your work?
My gold time (watching Netflix late at night) and my pets - Sunny the parrot and Befrey (not a typo) the mini-lop bunny. Is it wrong I didn’t mention my family? Of course, that goes without saying doesn’t it?
2. What is your most treasured belonging?
My floor! Is that weird? I really mean it. I cherish my engineered timber floors … and anyone who visits my home knows this to be true. I think the giveaway is when I ask them to take their shoes off at the front door. We have a “shoes-off” policy because I hate the thought of all the dirt, pollution, and general crap that’s on the bottom of people’s shoes being walked through my home.
3. What's one thing people may not know about you?
Although I appear to be an extrovert in our YouTube series, I actually love being alone.
4. In 10 years I'd like to be ....
Celebrating 15 fabulous years of Three Birds Renovations with our whole team. Preferably overseas… perhaps a TBR World Tour!
5. What can't you live without?
My microwave. Don’t ask.
If you have the time, check out the Three Birds Renovations blog as well as their impeccably-curated Instagram feed to see more of their work.
All photos used in this blog are from Bonnie's dream home renovation.
Website - www.threebirdsrenovations.com
