Internal elevations are one of the most important design documents for any renovation or new home build, yet they’re often overlooked. In this episode, Frances explains what internal elevations are, why they’re different from floor plans and cabinetry drawings, and how they help you avoid costly mistakes, minimise variations and maintain control over your project’s outcome.
My Forever Home Podcast Transcripts
E171 – The Hidden Cost of Pinterest Design Inspiration
Inspiration images from Pinterest, Instagram and magazines can be a brilliant starting point for your home design, but they don’t always tell the full story. In this episode, Frances explains what those beautiful images may not show, the hidden costs of trying to copy them, and how to use inspiration to create a functional, long-lasting Forever Home™ that is uniquely yours.
E170 – House Design Decisions That Are Hard to Change Later
Some home design decisions are easy to update later, while others can be incredibly difficult and costly to change. In this episode, Frances explores the permanent decisions to prioritise early in your renovation or new build, from ceiling heights and window placement to plumbing, power points and room layouts, so your Forever Home™ remains comfortable, functional and flexible for years to come.
E169 – Home Design to Suit Every Season
A truly well-designed home should feel comfortable in every season—not just when the heating or cooling is switched on. In this episode, Frances shares the design decisions that help homes stay naturally cooler in summer, warmer in winter, and more enjoyable to live in all year round.
From passive solar design and insulation to ventilation, landscaping and window design, discover how thoughtful planning creates a Forever Home™ that performs beautifully every day.
E90: Key Mistakes to Avoid when Designing your Bathroom – Bathroom Design Essentials
In this episode of the Your Forever Home™ Podcast, part of the Bathroom Design Essentials Season, Frances outlines some of the major mistakes she sees people make when designing their bathroom. Expensive mistakes that can be avoided, which she outlines in this episode, so you’re not having to live with a less than desirable outcome.
This is a must listen if you’re designing your bathroom.
E76: All About Tiles – Bathroom Design Essentials
Choosing tiles is a main consideration in your bathrooms. It’s the main material that will be used and impacts functionality as well as aesthetics. Not all tiles are the same, so it’s important to know the buying criteria so you can choose the right tile for the right application.
In this episode of the podcast, Frances is joined by Tiling expert, Richard Earp from Earp Bros. Richard shares his amazing knowledge on tiles to discuss the different types of tiles and differences between poor and good quality tiles.
E73: Vanities – Bathroom Design Essentials
In this episode of the podcast Frances walks through the different type of vanity options available, along with custom Vs off-the-shelf designs discussing what may work best for your requirements. She also looks at material types and what to consider when specifying for wet areas.
E72: Choosing your Bathroom Style and Colours – Bathroom Design Essentials
In this podcast episode, Frances outlines how to find the style you’re after for your bathroom. She gives tips to help you determine the style and feeling you’d like to create in your bathroom. Further, she outlines how to start pulling your design scheme together, and how to incorporate colour into your bathroom (if that’s what you want). This episode gets into the nitty gritty of pulling your materials and colours together.
E71: Bathroom Storage – Bathroom Design Essentials
In this episode of the Bathroom Design Essentials Season, Frances outlines why starting with your storage requirements is critical to getting your bathroom designed properly. She outlines the main storage solutions available and what solutions are better for storing certain items.
Frances outlines how functionality is critical in a bathroom, as the space can be tight, and without adequate storage through good design, will lead to frustration and the space not working as you need it to.
E70: Bathroom Layouts – Bathroom Design Essentials
In this episode of the podcast, Frances is joined by guest Fabieli Fontana, Senior Interior Designer at White Pebble Interiors. They discuss some key considerations to think about, such as privacy and windows, when designing your bathroom, along with thinking about flow and space planning. They cover some key mistakes they have seen people make, and how to not make the same mistakes yourself.
E69: Bathroom Design Essentials – Season Overview
In this episode of the brand new season, Bathroom Design Essentials, Frances outlines core considerations to think about when renovating or creating a brand new bathroom as part of a new build. She runs through the topics that will be covered in the season along with who will benefit from tuning in to each episode.
E63: Kitchen Design Essentials – Season Summary and Overview
In this episode, Frances provides a summary of each episode of the Kitchen Design Essentials Season and how each episode adds another dimension to your overall kitchen design and outcome. From budgets to materials, from flatpacks to splashbacks, she outlines all episodes, providing a handy reference on what will be the episode to listen to next as part of the season.
E62: Kitchen Design Essentials – Outdoor Kitchens
In this episode of the podcast, as part of the Kitchen Design Essentials Season, Frances outlines considerations for an outdoor kitchen. She emphasises the need to plan it upfront as it may impact internal kitchen decisions. She runs through suitable materials, and those that are not suitable for outdoors, and options with regards to necessities for the outdoor kitchen space.
E61: Kitchen Design Essentials – Budgeting
In this episode of Your Forever Home, as part of the Kitchen Design Essentials Season, Frances walks through what needs to be considered when planning the budget for your kitchen, including items that are often forgotten. She also runs through what you can expect to be able to do at certain budget levels.
E59: Kitchen Design Essentials – Kitchen Lighting
In this Kitchen Design Essentials episode Frances runs through the critical element of lighting in your kitchen. She discusses the need for task, ambient and decorative lighting for different scenarios, particularly for kitchens in an open plan space. She also discusses the many different alternatives available to using downlights, and why it’s important to use a combination of light sources
E58: My Forever Home LIVE – White Kitchens
In this Forever Home Live, Frances chats about things you can do to ensure an all-white kitchen is not clinical and soulless, with a few ideas about material selections and also decorating tips to add pops of colour.
E57: Kitchen Design Essentials – How to Choose Kitchen Colours
In this episode of the Kitchen Design Essentials Season, Frances chats through how to choose your colours for your kitchen – and she’s certainly encouraging you to use colour – if you love it!
She walks you through how to determine ‘what comes first’ when creating your design scheme and runs through popular combinations. Finally, she gives some great advice and tips on decorating your kitchen, and how to make it your own and give it some personality.
E55: Kitchen Design Essentials- Handles and Hardware
In this episode of the Kitchen Design Essentials Season, Frances discusses handles, and the options available (including having no handles), along with cabinetry hardware and internals, and what options are available to improve design and functionality in your kitchen.
E54: Kitchen Design Essentials- Appliances Part 2
Following on from last week’s episode on Appliances Part 1, Rob Sinclair, of E&S Trading and Frances continue their discussion on key kitchen appliances. This episode focuses on Stove Tops and Rangehoods, plus other appliances to consider. As ever, Rob shares his incredible knowledge and practical advice about buying criteria for these appliances.
E53: Kitchen Design Essentials – Appliances – Part 1
In this episode of the Kitchen Design Essentials Season, Frances has guest Rob Sinclair, Managing Director of E&S Trading on the show to discuss buying criteria and performance for kitchen appliances. This episode focuses on Fridges, Dishwashers and Ovens and Rob’s passion for appliances and buying with performance in mind, is wonderful to listen to. Join Frances as she chats with Rob and hears his amazing advice and knowledge on these key appliances for your kitchen.
E52: My Forever Home LIVE – Kitchen Needs Assessment
In this Forever Home Live, Frances chats about how to determine the functionality required in your kitchen and determine what you actually need. She outlines how this will enable you to assess your kitchen design with your requirements in mind, rather than just aesthetics.
She walks through the Clear Clarity Design Worksheet (a resource provided in the Beautiful Kitchen Design Course) and how these prompts you to think about your needs and how you will store items, and cook in your kitchen.
Finally, she touches on The Top 12 Must Do’s resource (as part of the course) and how that helps with the process for designing your kitchen.
E51: Kitchen Design Essentials- Kitchen Taps and Sinks
There’s so much more to Kitchen Taps and Sinks than you may think. In this episode, Frances and her podcast guest Trisha Narde from Reece discuss kitchen taps and sinks and what to look for in each. What makes a good quality tap and sink? What material composition should you look for in standard sinks and taps, but also in black? Not all black is the same!
They also chat about Billi and Zip taps and how to allow for them in your design.
E49: Kitchen Design Essentials – Butler’s Pantries and Pantries
In this Episode of the podcast, Frances discusses the key differences between Butler’s Pantries, Walk in Pantries, Pull-out Pantries, Appliance Cupboards, Cupboard Pantries and Step in Pantries. She also walks through the key components of a well-designed walk in pantry, and discusses some key questions relating to pantries – doors, cabinetry fronts, sinks and windows.
E47: Kitchen Design Essentials – Key Kitchen Measurements
In this episode Frances outlines the essential measurements to ensure your kitchen is functional and workable. She discusses the kitchen triangle and the theory behind how this works in your kitchen, cabinetry size standards, appliances, splashbacks and also some of the regulations to check.
E45: Kitchen Design Essentials – Internal Elevations & Joinery Design
Frances is pretty passionate about internal elevations making or breaking the outcome of your home, which is definitely apparent in this episode of the podcast. She outlines what internal elevations are, what advantages they provide, and further, what can go wrong if you don’t have proper internal elevations for your kitchen.
E43: Kitchen Design Essentials – Flatpack Vs Custom Designed Kitchens
In this episode of the Kitchen Design Essentials Season, Frances outlines some core differences to be aware of between flatpack (off the shelf) and custom designed kitchens.
She walks through some of the core differences and what compromises may need to be made with a flat pack kitchen with its sizing constraints.
She also discusses material and hardware differences that may impact your decisions. As always, the focus is on Forever Homes, and she chats through compromises that may impact you later on, and cost a lot to rectify.
E41: Kitchen Design Essentials – Cabinetry Materials
There are many factors to consider when choosing the right cabinetry material for your kitchen. Budget, aesthetics, cleaning requirements and durability are just a few. In this episode, Frances outlines seven different materials to consider and some of the reasons they would work well in your kitchen, or if you may need to think about something different to meet your needs.
Often people resort to the products they know, rather than being aware of all that’s available and selecting a product that will really work for them and their lifestyle. This episode will arm you with information on the many options out there.
Finally, Frances chats about kickers and how they can be approached in the design of your kitchen.
E39: Kitchen Design Essentials – Splashbacks
Splashbacks can be a key feature of your kitchen and create a real point of difference. In this episode Frances outlines several splashback materials including glass, stone, windows, mirror and porcelain, that can be used, including her favourite – tiles. Further, she discusses how a splashback is a wonderful opportunity to inject colour, texture or shape into your kitchen. She is a real advocate in the splashback being a chance to reflect your personality and create a point a difference..
E38: Kitchen Design Essentials-Benchtop Criteria and Materials – Part 2
In this episode Frances continues the benchtop discussion outlining an additional 10 benchtop materials to consider. She also outlines the criteria to assist in deciding what benchtop material is going to be the best for your kitchen.
E36: Kitchen Design Essentials – Benchtops part 1
In this episode, part 1 of benchtops in the series, Frances welcomes her guest, Laura Neville from Cosentino to discuss three main benchtop applications – reconstituted stone, natural stone (by Cosentino) and Dekton.
They outline the differences between the 3 products and why you may choose one over the other, considering functionality, durability, budget and aesthetics. Fabulous insight is provided on manufacturing differences, cost differences and application.
E35: My Forever Home LIVE- Mirror and Window Splashbacks
In this Forever Home Live Frances discusses the option of having a mirrored or window splashback and their advantages and disadvantages. The ability to create extra light, to create a sense of space, yet also the high requirement of frequent cleaning.
E34: Kitchen Design Essentials – Key Kitchen Design Mistakes
This episode brings back our guest Fabieli Fontana, from White Pebble Interiors. She and Frances discuss some of the key design mistakes they have seen (and mitigated). Windows in a location that compromises design and functionality, the consideration of materials, and how they affect design outcomes. Some big-scale issues with pantries, using corners, right down to little details such as lining up cabinetry, power point locations, picture windows, and visual bulk mitigation. They discuss how the rationale of the kitchen design is critical to understanding how it works. That your desires may not be a functional choice, so understanding the rationale of the design is crucial in the process.
Finally, they cover why elevations are so important to design details and discuss how not having them leads to big issues later on.
E32: Kitchen Design Essentials – The Builder’s Insight
In this Forever Home Live, Frances discusses the outcome of projects and how they are determined by the brief for the designer. She chats about how the style created in a place is the outcome of the brief, and that as a designer, she may not necessarily like everything personally herself, but as long as it’s cohesive, has flow, and colours, tones and materials all relate to each other – this is the important part. And most importantly, the client loves it. She gives some examples of recent clients, and their briefs and how that will determine the outcome they create for the clients.
E31: My Forever Home LIVE- Styles – and how a brief determines the outcome
In this Forever Home Live, Frances discusses the outcome of projects and how they are determined by the brief for the designer. She chats about how the style created in a place is the outcome of the brief, and that as a designer, she may not necessarily like everything personally herself, but as long as it’s cohesive, has flow, and colours, tones and materials all relate to each other – this is the important part. And most importantly, the client loves it. She gives some examples of recent clients, and their briefs and how that will determine the outcome they create for the clients.
E30: Kitchen Design Essentials -Kitchen Design Layouts and Location
Where your kitchen is located in the home, and getting the layout right is critical to good kitchen design. In this episode, Frances, and guest Interior Designer, Fabieli Fontana talk about the different locations of a kitchen in the home, along with different layouts and what some of the advantages and disadvantages are of each. An interesting discussion between two interior designers on optimum kitchen design!
E28: My Forever Home LIVE- Walk in Pantries – With or Without a Door
In this Forever Home Live, Frances outlines reasons why having a door on your walk in pantry is a good idea. She talks about the ideal door scenarios too!
E27: Kitchen Design Essentials – How to Determine What You Need in Your Kitchen
What do you need to do before you start designing your dream kitchen? In this episode, as part of the Kitchen Design Essentials Season, Frances outlines how you determine what you need in your kitchen (rather than worrying about what everyone else has) and how to determine the what, how and where for your storage requirements, critical to the foundation of your overall kitchen design.
Frances also discusses the importance of your lifestyle, and your cooking requirements to really determine what you need in your kitchen and how you need it to work for you. Being the hub of many family homes, kitchens need to perform many roles, and be many things, so thinking about how you live and what you need out of your kitchen is critical to getting a design that works.
E26: My Forever Home LIVE: Tapwear colours – to use black or not
To black or not to black – that is the question often asked of interior designers regarding black tapwear and accessories. Will they date, and should you use them? Frances discusses this topic in this Forever Home Live, putting her view forward, along with industry experts she’s chatted with too. And if you do decide to use black – how to buy quality.
E24 – Kitchen Design Essentials – Season Overview
Kitchen Design Essentials is a podcast series to provide all the information you need for your kitchen renovation, new kitchen or kitchen makeover.
Frances provides an overview of what to expect in this specialised Kitchen Design Season and outlines all the areas that will be covered in this multi episode podcast. All you need to know to complete your kitchen will be covered, from layout, design considerations, materials, lighting, storage, pantries, taps, sinks and appliances.