For Sibella Court, every home has a ‘muse’. It might be the aesthetics of an old TV show, a memory of a childhood home, or even an imagined character. In the renovation of her own family home in Bundeena, it was a quirky combination of all of the above.

It took a series of detailed updates, and almost five years, to bring her signature eclectic style to the timber abode, focusing the design around an ever-growing collection of vintage treasures and salvaged materials.

She’s recently finalised work on the interiors (for now at least!) and shared the highs and lows from her journey on the latest episode of TDF Talks. Here are some of the highlights from the interview:

Her unique vision for the home

With a background in set design, Sibella took inspiration from her grandmother’s nostalgic home in Smiths Lake and a seaside cottage from a ’60s TV show to create an immersive backstory for the renovation. ‘I loved watching The Ghost and Mrs. Muir when I was growing up,’ she says, referring to a sitcom about a young widow who leases a house haunted by a long-dead sea captain.

‘We did come up with a bit of a muse — it was this captain, and he was a retired captain, and he liked painting birds,’ she adds. This is something Sibella does for every project she works on, and says it was key to envisioning the resulting home’s unique interiors!

Why the renovation took so long to complete

While the initial updates focused on simple changes to the layout and re-painting, Sibella says she ended up using the house as a ‘bit of an experimental lab’ for her own product design ranges.

‘Because I am the client and the owner, I could have as much fun as I liked,’ she says. As her family continued living in the house for most of the renovation, different parts of the house were tackled at different times. But it’s also given her home a more personal touch, with Sibella and her daughter Silver painting parts of the home together. ‘[The house] is not precious and there’s definitely an element of fun within constantly changing things.’

How she creates a guiding palette for every project

Her biggest piece of advice for fellow renovators is to ‘come up with a palette of about 10 colours and stick to them.’ ‘If I’m working on someone’s home, I get them to collect small-scale items — a piece of jewellery they adore; a ceramic; it could be all sorts of things. They put these together in a box and every time this amazing palette comes out of it,’ Sibella says.

Taking stock of sentimental items like this reveals an attraction to the same colours over and over again, which then becomes the palette for the interiors. Clever!

The beauty of using salvaged materials

Almost everything in the home is vintage, from the French doors, to the sinks in the bathroom and kitchen, right down to the lighting, hardwares, and homewares. Sibella sourced pieces from local salvage yards in Sydney, in addition to finding reclaimed timber to create a patchwork-style splashback in the kitchen.

It’s all these little details that help imbue the home with character and ‘patina’ instantly. ‘I’m constantly looking for things that are just a little bit different,’ she says. ‘The history of those pieces adds to the essence of the house. You can’t name it, but you can feel it.’

This episode of TDF talks is brought to you by Koala. Head to Koala to check out their full range of Australian-designed furniture at down-to-earth prices.

Listen to the full episode below, or find TDF Talks on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.