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.
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Build Beautiful
The Breakdown That Became a Breakthrough — Alexandra Kidd on Rebuilding a Life and a Business
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Introduction
In a small studio above McClay Street in Potts Point, Alexandra Kidd has spent more than 20 years shaping how Australian homes can feel. What began as a solo practice has grown, slowly and deliberately, into an all-women studio of twelve. But beneath the elegant, celebrated work sits a story most successful founders never tell: a breakdown at the end of 2018 that stopped her mid-conversation on a building site, and the slow, honest rebuild that followed.
In This Episode, We Explore:
* Her childhood roots in design, and the belief that a "perfect home" could heal a broken one
* Scaling from one project to thirty, and holding every decision herself
* The 2018 breakdown, and why a friend reframed it as a breakthrough
* What twelve months of recovery actually looked like
* The shame she carried, and speaking about it publicly for the first time
* Rebuilding the business with real structure, delegation and boundaries
* Launching her Atelier, a passion project in collectible glass, after 20 years in business
Why This Conversation Matters
Most founder stories celebrate the climb. This one is honest about the cost of it. Alexandra built one of Sydney's most respected design studios by believing she had to do everything herself, until her body made the decision for her. Her recovery wasn't about bouncing back. It was about becoming someone new, someone who asks for help, sets boundaries, and stays authentic in both business and life.
About Alexandra
Alexandra Kidd is the founder of her eponymous Sydney-based interior design studio, now an all-women team of twelve. In 2024, she launched Atelier, a passion project creating collectible, Australian-made glass lighting in collaboration with local artisans.
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