“COVID has had a huge impact on stress levels. So home environment should be a place of calm and we should stimulate all of the senses while we’re locked down. You have to love the space you’re living in.”  ~ Deborah de Jong

Get To Know More About The Incredible Deborah

Deborah started out as a 20-year old who wanted to travel the world. She worked for Qantas for 10 years in a very glamorous role. She enjoyed socialising with different people on an aircraft, seeing incredible sites in India, Tahiti, Bahrain, Rome, London, and more. Travelling around the globe was the most spectacular lifestyle for her. What transpired for her during that time was seeing so much of the international scene that does not exist in Australia. 

Influenced by her father, who had a paint and wallpaper business, she developed a passion for interiors and beautiful surroundings.

Deborah believes everyone wants to be surrounded by beautiful things, regardless of financial status. Living with their dreams, together with her ex-husband, they started a company called Fantastic Furniture with just $5,000 capital. It ended up being one of the largest manufacturing plants in Australia.

“I have a passion for people succeeding, and I think we can create anything with a dream and a little bit of passion.” ~ Deborah de Jong

Because of her passion for interior design, this resulted in Deborah getting into lifestyle shows on Channel 9. She was involved with renovation shows, like Changing Rooms and Renovation Rescue. 

Deborah then started to be engaged in different talks and presentations, like  Interior Design, How to Design On a Budget, How to Decorate on a Great Budget and How to Do Things Effectively and many more.

She studied Human Behavioural Analytics with DNA Behavior, located in the United States of America which was founded by an Australian named Hugh Massie.

Deborah On Choosing Her Interior Path 

Deborah thinks that it’s in her DNA to have a penchant for creative things. She was always a creative child who always drew and had her hands with paint or with plastering.

“I love the analogy – you get up in your life to do your job. So you better enjoy it.” ~ Deborah De Jong

She contends you’ve got to love what you do. As an outgoing introvert, she loves people but then she needs her downtime, where she wants to be surrounded by a nurturing and comforting space. It’s always been within her to create a beautiful environment, whether for her own home or for other people, 

“I think we need to create beautiful spaces around us, to go and retreat from the rest of the world.” ~ Deborah De Jong

Why People Do Well In Life

People strive more when they get interrupted by their life choices. Interruption gives them more options. There’s nothing more exceptional than putting somebody on a different trajectory. 

For Deborah, she thinks Bernadette Janson is doing beautifully with her Wonder Women and She Renovates by giving people more options and choices. They don’t have to stay on the same treadmill of working in a career they don’t choose to have. 

“If you have the opportunity to interrupt somebody’s trajectory and give them a better lifestyle, what more is there to life?” ~ Deborah De Jong

DNA Style As The Design Identity

Deborah talks about four fundamental temperaments and shares examples…

1. Goal Focused. Have strong solid pieces. We don’t want the room to control us because we’re in control, we’re the leaders who take charge. We want the strongest table in the restaurant because we want people to know that we’ve acquired status and been successful.
2. Sense of Lifestyle. Lifestyle is all about colour and texture. You’ll notice, if you walk into a restaurant because they’re animated, they’re the ones getting up and talking at the table, they’re moving their arms. They usually wear a lot of strong, bold colours. They need textures around them, like fur on their bed and high-chroma colours. 
3. Stability. This is all about being easygoing and nurturing. These are people who love to be surrounded by nature. They love natural greens and harmonious colours.
4. Information. It’s all about the detail. If they’re going to a restaurant, they want to sit in a corner and observe. They don’t want to be the centre of attention and they don’t need the statement. They want to observe and analyse details like looking at the chair and seeing what it’s made of or listening to conversations. They don’t need to have a platform.

The Powerful Impact of Colour, Texture And General Interiors On Renovation Style

Learn some tips when designing or revamping for a  profit.

• Paint Perspective. All skirting boards, door trims, door architraves should be the same colour. Use gloss or semi-gloss so it can be easily white. 
• Ceiling. White and always be flat. 
• Spatial Planning. Making sure there’s enough room around everything and your colours are in order.
• Selling Perspective. Installing everything properly. 
• Colours.  People can feel colour. Stay away from a boldness on the walls which should be a fairly neutral canvas that will suit a lot of different temperaments.

Importance Of Your Unique Renovation Style 

“Our home environment should be a place that brings calm and peace to us every day. “ ~ Deborah De Jong

Stress Reliever. Stress cannot be avoided, especially when we hear what’s going on in the rest of the world because of COVID19. It has had a huge impact on stress levels, and because of that, our home environment should be a place of calm, surrounding ourselves with sensory experiences to bring calm. Things like lavender aromas for soothing and calm. We want the right music in the space. We need to hear calming music as opposed to jarring noise and aggressive news. 

Textures. We need to touch, so we need to surround ourselves with things to stimulate our touch. Use satins, furs and textured finishes that give us a sense of nurturing.

We need to surround ourselves with beauty. COVID19 has changed the way we need to live so you have to love the space that you’re living in. Otherwise, you’re not going to find that sense of centeredness or peace within your home.

Biophilia: What should renovators know?

Biophilia is described as the natural human desire to connect with nature and other living creatures. 

Deb shares that she worked in a biophilic environment where they got several trees growing in the space and 1200 indoor plants like a lush garden. She thinks that it’s important to surround ourselves with life-giving oxygen. Some people may say, they can’t keep a plant alive but there are some plants that grow like weeds and you can’t kill them. 

“Surround yourself with soft elements. I think the world is such a hard, fast place. We need to celebrate nature and bring it into our homes, even if it’s the smallest of pebbles in a bowl.”  ~ Deborah De Jong

Biomimicry is designing based on nature. One example is you might have an Aubergine, a lovely plum colour or a dark plum colour and the green of the stalk. If you cut it open, it’s a lovely ivory white. You can reproduce those colours in bed linen. 

So you might have a green duvet with an Aubergine pillow and ivory sheets, reproducing a little bit of what you’re seeing in nature back within the home. It is very soothing and calming because you know how it feels when you are at the beach or in the park and you’re surrounded by nature.