Build Beautiful
Build Beautiful
Where design meets depth
Hosted by interior designer and property developer Linda Habak, Build Beautiful is a podcast about more than just aesthetics - it’s about the intention behind the spaces we shape and the stories we tell.
Each episode features honest, insightful conversations with designers, developers, architects, artists, and creative thinkers who are reimagining the way we live, build, and create.
This is a space for the ideas behind the work - the risks, the pivots, the process. The quiet decisions that shape extraordinary outcomes.
Because beauty isn’t just what we see - it’s what we feel.
And what we choose to build, together.
Follow @buildbeautiful_podcast
Episodes
25 episodes
Success Never Feels as Sweet as It Should — Yasmine Ghoniem on the Cost of Getting Everything You Want
Yasmine Ghoniem's father left for Kuwait for what he said would be a couple of months. Seven months later, her mother still did not know if he was alive. He had arrived in Kuwait the day the Iraqis invaded. Yasmine was ten. Today, she is the fo...
He Got a $30K Loan for a Pool Party. It Started a Global Design Brand. | Nicholas Karlovasitis
The bank told Nicholas Karlovasitis they could not give him a business loan. No trading history. So he called back and told them he needed $30,000 for a pool party. An epic one. Just the once. They offered him $50,000. That was 18 years ago. To...
Your Agent Wants to Sell. Your Valuer Wants the Truth. | Belinda Botzolis
Your agent wants to sell. Your valuer wants the truth. And most people — designers, renovators, developers — never call the valuer. They call the agent, they trust the gut, they make decisions without one crucial piece of information: what will...
Her Water Broke on the Last Day of Filming The Great Gatsby. | Silvana Azzi Heras
Her water broke on the last day of filming The Great Gatsby. She had spent years inside Baz Luhrmann's creative world — researching Moulin Rouge in Paris, drinking absinthe in the streets, helping Catherine Martin dress Beyoncé, designing over ...
30 Years of Interior Design, Friendship and Reinvention | Helen Lynch & Karyn McRae
Helen Lynch and Karyn McRae, co-founders of McRae & Lynch Design, have been in business together for thirty years. They met on the first day of design school, started taking on projects while they were still studying, and have since built o...
I Was Happy But Broke: What Nobody Tells You About Running a Studio for 21 Years. | Brooke Aitken
For years, she was running her architecture practice on passion alone. The work was good. The clients were happy. And the money wasn't working. She described it as being "happy but broke" — a phrase so clean and so honest that it stopped being ...
There's a Difference Between Buying Art and Living With It. | Kym Elphinstone
There's a version of living with art that most people never reach. They buy something. They hang it. They look at it sometimes. And then there's the other version — where the piece you chose changes the way you see the room, then the way you se...
Most Designers Listen to the Brief. She Listens to What's Beneath It. | Alexandra Donohoe Church
Most designers listen to the brief. Alexandra Donohoe Church listens to what's beneath it. She reads desire, not just preference. Habit, not just taste. The gap between what a client says they want and what they actually need — and she has spen...
From Factory Floor to Award-Winning Interior Designer | Darren Genner
When Darren Genner started his career, he was on a production line in western Sydney — making 34 kitchens a day. Not designing them. Making them. Fast. Somewhere in that sawdust and volume, he developed something most design school graduates ne...
Her Parents Fled Iran. She Grew Up to Design Australia's Most Iconic Restaurants. | Nasim Koerting
Nasim Koerting grew up knowing what it means not to belong. Her parents arrived in Australia as refugees from Iran, and she inherited both their drive — the relentless, exhausting migrant roadmap: study, prove yourself, never stop — and ...
She Put Art Prices Online When Every Gallery Said Don't. | Sophie Vander
When Sophie Vander launched her online art gallery from a Singapore apartment at 3am, she broke the most sacred rule in the art world: she put the prices online. Galleries didn't do that. It wasn't how things were done. She did it anyway — beca...
Her Husband's Heart Stopped in Front of Her. What Came After Was Harder. | Carla Middleton
She was running her architecture practice when it happened. Her husband went into sudden cardiac arrest, right in front of her. She saved his life. And then the adrenaline wore off, and what followed was something nobody prepares you for — not ...
He Said No to Trends for 40 Years. This Is What He Built Instead. | Thomas Hamel
Somewhere in the mid-1980s, a young designer was working at Parish-Hadley in New York — one of the most storied interior design firms in the world, under Albert Hadley, one of the most influential designers who ever lived. He absorbed everythin...
She Spent Years Writing About Dream Homes. Then She Had to Build Her Own. | Kate Nixon
For years, Kate Nixon sat on the other side of the beautiful rooms: the one with the notepad, the editorial eye, the ability to see what made a space sing and translate it into words for a magazine audience. She was good at it. She understood d...
A Psychic Told Her to Quit Corporate. She Did. | Jane Langof
She was a corporate accountant. She had a new baby. And a psychic looked at her and said: your corporate career is over. You need to go study interior design. What happened next is the kind of story that only makes complete sense in retrospect ...
He Grew Up in Queanbeyan. Then He Designed Hotels for Billionaires. | Peter Mikic
He grew up in Queanbeyan — a small town near Canberra that doesn't have a great reputation, as he'll tell you himself, with a warmth that makes clear he's grateful it formed him. First-generation Australian, son of immigrants from former Yugosl...
She Stopped Asking for Permission. Then She Broke Records. | Jenn Sinclair
Jenn Sinclair grew up between Hong Kong and the Central Coast of NSW, learning early what it means to have to work to belong. She came third in her class, then ranked last in the top class, and made that her engine. That drive — the quiet, dete...
She Lost Her Mother at 15. Then She Built Something That Held Everyone | Caron Grunschlag
She started studying psychology because she needed therapy. Her mother had died when she was 15. Her father had been traumatised by the Holocaust. And in a world that didn't yet have words for any of that, she found her way through by trying to...
She Chose Meaning Over the Algorithm | Tammy Miconi
In a design industry that increasingly rewards the photogenic — the perfectly lit, perfectly staged, algorithm-optimised interior — Tammy Miconi has chosen a different measure. She believes a home should tell the story of the people who live in...
Interior Design Business: Profit, Pricing, Process & Staying the Course - Alix Helps
Alix Helps breaks down interior design business foundations: profit, pricing, process, and pipeline—how to keep a design studio profitable through feast and famine. We cover P&L, Xero reconciliation, pr...
They Said Architecture and Motherhood Don't Mix. She Disagreed. | Eva-Marie Prineas
Twenty years ago, if you were a woman who wanted to practise architecture and have a family, the industry had a clear message: choose. The structures, the hours, the culture — none of it bent for you. Eva-Marie Prineas heard that message...
He Had $1,500 Left After Payroll. Still Didn't Doubt | Aidan Anderson
There was a moment, three or four years into building The Local Project, when Aidan Anderson sat down after running payroll and looked at his bank account. He had $1,500 left. Not: oh God, is this going to work? But...
I Started From Scratch in My 50s | Sally Dan-Cuthbert
When Sally Dan-Cuthbert walked into a gallery opening she'd never been invited to, called a director she'd never met, and asked if she could help — she had no formal art training, no plan, and no safety net. She jus...
She Cut Her Client List to 7. Then She Won Everything. | Meryl Hare OAM
At some point in her career, Meryl Hare made a decision that most designers would find terrifying. She walked away from the volume, the busyness, the spread, the validation of being in demand and chose depth instead...