We’re forever scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest looking for home reno inspiration, now more so than ever considering three members of the team are currently renovating their homes (including our Co-Founders, Emma and Victoria). If you’re in the same boat, you’d know the familiar feeling of trying to find the most cost effective DIY method for each project, whilst not compromising on style and quality. Zac and Roìsìn, the couple behind the beautiful Brisbane home, Geebungalow, seem to have this down to perfection. Take a sneak peek inside their dreamy renovated bungalow and find out what they’ve learnt on the journey so far…

Hey Roìsìn and Zac, thanks for taking the time to chat with us! We absolutely love what you’ve done with your home. Can you describe the overall style?

Our overall style is very light, bright and minimalist. We don’t like having a lot of clutter around the house and we take a lot of time and care curating pieces for our home that we absolutely love.

You’ve chosen to renovate a beautiful post-war home. Tell us what inspired this decision and what the process was like finding the right property?

I always think it’s funny when people say ‘a beautiful post-war home’ as our home was anything but beautiful when we bought it. I think we had a good eye for potential in the properties we were looking at, and a list of our non-negotiable features we both agreed on (E.g. hardwood floors, good layout, yard, high ceilings).

The choice to renovate was a pretty obvious one to us as we were only 22 when we bought our home so we couldn’t afford a finished property or to build something we would love. It wasn’t easy finding the right house though, we put offers in on multiple properties and lost all of them to developers or buyers who were planning on knocking down the existing house on the block. Of course, it was all supposed to be and we can’t imagine ourselves living in any of those houses now!

We’ve loved following your renovation journey so far, and we’re so inspired that you’ve done most of it yourself, especially considering you both work full-time jobs. How do you find the time and what’s the process been like so far?

Finding the time to renovate when working full time takes a lot of commitment! Luckily for us we actually really enjoy the process and working on our home together, it’s a really fun creative outlet. It’s it really satisfying for us to realise just how much we can accomplish ourselves and it makes enjoying the end project so much better!

Throughout 2020 we worked 7 days a week nearly every week except the week we got married. Towards the end of the year, we realised it was not sustainable and so this year we are taking things a little more slowly.

Where do you draw inspiration from when designing and styling your home?

A lot of our inspiration comes from commercial designs or high-end architectural builds where we try and think creatively on how we could achieve the same feel in a space on a budget. We aren’t flipping this house (renovating it purely to sell and make a profit) we do plan on living here for a while so we splurge on some things and save on others!

What’s been the most difficult part of your renovation experience so far?

I would say the most difficult part for us is living in a job site when we are in the midst of a really big project! When you live in your reno it can make your whole life feel disrupted which is never a nice feeling. It is obviously an advantage to move out of your house for a period of time and smash out all the renos in one hi, but for us (and I am sure a lot of other people) that wasn’t financially viable. We have been chipping away at jobs and projects over the last three years so when it is a bathroom or kitchen it can be pretty disruptive!

Do you have a favourite room or feature in your home and why?

This is always a hard one because we love every project we’ve done on our home! I think I’d have to say the back yard bench seat, it has added so much usable space to our yard in a space that was totally neglected before. We drink our coffee out there every morning and it’s great for entertaining friends with a few cocktails on the weekend!

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt so far?

If you buy cheap, you buy twice. Sometimes the cheaper option may seem like the best choice at the time but then a few months down the track you find yourself having to replace it again. I would say buy the highest quality you can afford and that looks different for everyone which is totally okay too!

When we first bought the house, we needed our fence replaced as we had a new puppy, we took the cheapest quote we could find as it was all we could afford at the time and when we got home from work the gates had a 30cm gap underneath them that our dogs could just wriggle under… we then had to attach some make-shift timber anyway and are about to replace the entire fence 2 years later again. So even though it was the cheapest quote at the time, it was an expensive mistake.

Your best advice for anyone thinking of renovating…

Don’t underestimate yourself! Zac and I had absolutely no renovating or trade experience going into this house. We just knew we were keen to learn and we trusted our own taste. There are so many resources (like Instagram, YouTube and blogs etc) that can give you so many helpful tips and that is what we try to do on our page! I always try to create content that I wish I had when starting out to save people making the mistakes we made (lots haha).

Lastly, tell us about your next project for your home…

We are getting to the finish line with this house! We are adding a car port, replacing our roof and adding a new fence this year as well as adding some landscaping to our front yard. We also have our eyes on the property market for our next project so maybe Geebungalow 2.0 coming soon…