At home with Jess Dempsey.

We chat with Jess Dempsey, creative director, stylist and host of Holistic Living TV, who recently renovated her Mornington Peninsula beach house.

Words by

dc+b editor

Topic	At Home With
Photography	Kit Haselden
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“Our Sheer Curtains truly turned the house into a cosy, warm, calming home. I can’t believe the difference they made in creating a softness in the bedrooms and how lovely it is to see the diffused light come through them on a sunny day. I am so happy.”

— Jess.

Three words that best describe you?

Patient, creative, friendly.

What’s your ideal day?

Coffee, a clean house, pilates, happy children, dinner cooked for me.

What’s your favourite colour?

I don’t really have one but I gravitate to pink, blue and beige.

What is your most cherished possession?

Apart from my children, I have a little collection of my childhood jewellery in one of those spinning ballerina jewellery boxes.

What’s on your interiors wish list right now?

I would love some nice, neutral wall art to bring the space together in a few rooms. I love Aboriginal art and have my eye on a few pieces!

What’s your interior style?

I love neutral with natural elements. In our beach house, we have a natural and calm interior with the softness of our Sheer Curtains but with travertine elements in coffee tables and texture in our Venetian plaster on the walls.

Do you live in a house or apartment?

House.

What’s your favourite room and why?

My favourite room will always be the living room, a place to just unwind, connect and relax. My husband really wanted a fire place so in winter when we come to the beach house, he can make a nice cosy fire to accompany a glass of wine and the football and the kids can roast marshmallows.

What are the 3 most important things that make your home feel like a home?

Calmness: in the colours and interiors, durability: having three children, knowing that we can just live freely without worrying of breaking anything, hints of us: I loved making the children’s rooms as individual as they are, one is surfy, one is minimal and one is an Australiana theme.

What was your biggest splurge when designing your home?

It is always the kitchen for us, essentially that is where I spend most of my time and as a family, I like spending a little extra on having a functional kitchen with up to date appliances and lovely surfaces to work on. We have lovely terrazzo tiles on our island bench, something unique but also fits in with our ‘natural elements’ theme.

What lesson(s) did you learn when you designed your home?

If you have a family, it is always good to think ahead. Kids aren’t little for very long and so we accommodated for when our, now little, children become teenagers, what spaces they would like to be in, how big would the shower be and do they have their own space to unwind. I also learned that it pays to stick to an initial mood board, it will help when selecting pieces for the home as you go.

When it comes to designing a home, what does your design process look like?
I always look at the floor plan that is existing, then see how we can make it work in the best way without interfering too much with what we already have. We renovated this house and we only changed the internal and didn’t touch the exterior/perimeter of the house. We were able to keep a lot of the upstairs area the same in terms of where rooms and walls were, we just brought them to life with carpet, new paint, finishes and of course the Sheer Curtains. We then look at what needs to be new and re designed in the floor plan and from there when that is locked in, we start a mood board of finishes that we love.

What are your top 3 design/style tips for building or renovating a house?

Find what makes your home special. Is it the location, is it the heritage, is it the type of house it is (coastal, farm, inner city, cottage) and then draw on these elements to define your overall vision for the house.

Select a narrowed down vision of your home, collect reference or inspiring images you love and finishes, colours, textures, ideas and pull them altogether to help you stick to your core desired outcome.

Keep to a minimal paint colour pallet in children’s bedrooms (unless of course you are a massive colour lover and are going for the bold modern look) but I find that children’s styles change as they grow and adding in softness with the window coverings, the bedding and popping in colour with these elements or toys and furniture is a great way to allow freedom to change over time.

You’re given a limited renovation budget; how would you spend it wisely to transform a home?

Paint, flooring, Curtains and sourcing cost effective tiles. There are so many brands out there that offer affordable options now, it is really easy to get quotes and weigh up what to spend money on in comparing two brands together as you can find similar products from different places. As per my example of our budget upstairs and not changing the children’s rooms, all we did was give the walls a fresh coat of paint in a soft green, added our cream Blinds and Sheers to make the rooms look bigger, softer and warmer and lay carpet down in a similar colour to the Sheers to bring that cosy feel all together.

What’s the biggest interior design mistake you’ve ever made?

Straying away from a core vision/design was a big mistake and will usually make you lose money. Before I came up with a mood board for the beach house, I had scattered ideas of what I thought I wanted. I hadn’t come to the natural, coastal, warmth, rawness vision I ended up having, and because of this, I started buying things for the house- such as lots of blues, nautical pieces and artwork that totally doesn’t work. Don’t buy anything until you know exactly the vibe you are going for as a whole – the selections/finishes through to the interior design.

What qualities do you look for when choosing materials, furniture and accessories in your designs?

I look for harmony, everything needs to work together to become one perfect space. In a room for this house, I look for my key elements of natural, texture, rawness, practicality, durability. Buying for keeps is important, I don’t want to be replacing things no matter what price point the item is and factoring children using furniture plays a big part in this.

Are you a curtains, blinds or shutters person?

Curtains all the way, I love the softness, the warmth, the cosiness and finishing touch it brings to a space.

What products did you choose from dc+b?

The Sheers and Blinds. The Blinds are great to block out light at night but aren’t heavy like a Blockout Curtain. We put Sheers in front of the Blinds so we have a softness and privacy over the windows when our Blinds are open in the day.

How did our products transform your home?

The dollar curtains + blinds Sheer Curtains truly turned the house into a cosy, warm, calming home. I can’t believe the difference they made in creating such a softness in the bedrooms and how lovely it is to see the diffused light come through them on a sunny day. I am so happy.

Some people find it difficult to decide what to do with their windows, How do you find inspiration?

It is so true, I struggled to decide between Blockout Curtains, Sheers or Blockout Blinds or Shutters. I had a look on social media at coastal homes, I looked at the dc+b website to get some true Inspo but I also had to think hard on exactly what we would find practical for what we needed as a family.

What design project(s) are you working on at the moment?

I have taken a break on renovating and am focusing on my TV show, Holistic Living, soon on 7flix. Although hopefully in the coming years, we will start to look at adding a pool house to our home- as I said, the boys are getting bigger and they will need their own space soon.