POPULAR TV personality and interior designer Shaynna Blaze has long had an affinity for colour and design. Even as a 13-year-old she knew she wanted to decorate. Her own room, in fact. Her parents didn’t baulk at her suggestion, rather they embraced it.
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“Thankfully, my parents have always been supportive of me. I was 13 and wanted more colour in my room. But it wasn't a matter of them just letting me go for it, I had to understand that with whatever I did there would be consequences. If I didn't like the result, I had to live with it until I could afford to redo it.”
The blue hue worked. “It’s one of my favourite colours,” she enthuses. “I really liked the result. And, to be honest even if I didn't it wouldn't have been the end of the world.”
Blaze is a big advocate of parents encouraging teenagers to express their own style in their bedrooms. With her own two now 20-somethings, being creative was part and parcel of living in the Blaze household.
“If a child wants to paint their room black - it’s not the end of the world. It is more likely a phase, which can be painted over at a later time.
“My kids grew up hearing music, seeing beauty through their own eyes and expressing who they wanted to be.”
After initially shying away from design, they are now in the industry, with daughter Carly, 25, working behind the scenes on the renovation series, The Block, and son Jess, 24, with an eye on acting.
“We do find it amusing at times when we see each other on site,” she says of her and Carly’s jobs. “We give that knowing look to each other, sometimes you don't need to speak.”.
As a popular judge of the hit TV show The Block since 2008, Blaze knows what you say can attract controversy. Without mentioning names her feedback on the show has sometimes not been well received by contestants, making for interesting fodder in social media.
I believe we all have it in us to design and style our perfect room, it’s a confidence thing of knowing where to start and stop.
- Designer Shaynna Blaze
“If I see something that is not right, I say so. It’s not as if I have just stumbled into design. Some contestants I think forget how lucky they are to experience this show and have access to products that I and other designers are waiting to see. Items are almost being thrown at them to use in their design.”
Her frankness about a bedhead designed during a contestants’ challenge could have caused major ripples in alienating residents of major provincial city Bendigo in Central Victoria, home of the national furniture brand, Jimmy Possum. True to her form for frankness Blaze slammed the decision of contestants to include the "purple and leopard print" JP bedhead in a bedroom reveal. Again, it made for good television and could have caused an uproar if Blaze wasn’t respected for her ideas.
“I have no issue with Margot and the team at Jimmy Possum. All I said was that that that bedhead did not suit the room, and I still think it doesn’t. I am in awe of what Margot and her family has achieved and I have heard her speak,” she says. “But, wow, didn’t that throw up a little controversy. And we all know editing makes for good television. If I was sensitive to how my comments would appear then I shouldn't be doing this job.”
And demand for Blaze keeps on growing, with her other TV show Selling Houses Australia joining The Block for program nominations in this year’s Logies.
As we spoke she was on her way for a Logie Awards dress fitting before she jetted off to the Salone del Mobile Trade Fair in Milan. Getting dressed up is one of her “fun things to do”. “It’s not normally me, so when you have the chance to choose a fabulous dress and do the hair and makeup ‘why not?’, I say.”
While friends say she is still the same girl from Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs - “We are huggers my family and friends, when we see each other we hold on!” - a higher public profile, has changed the way she can sometimes spend her downtime.
“I like to look around me when I walk - I am a great people watcher - and love seeing colours on the streets and take inspiration from what’s going on around me. But when I dash from the gate at the airport of late I realise I am getting a lot of eye contact back, so sometimes I have to keep my head down and just make a dash for it.”
Not that she is dodging the fans; she is simply a busy person juggling multiple jobs and trying to squeeze as much as possible from each day. Years after the kids have grown up and now left home, Blaze is still attuned to raising early - 4am - so she can have some quiet time, think through her schedule for the day, answer emails, write and exercise. If the latter entails a jog around her neighbourhood or a run to the supermarket, what you see is what you get. “I am not one to to go out perfectly made up, that is not me. If I am in runners and looking a little daggy, so be it.”
Her straightforward approach comes with a lot of warmth and energy, which has earned her fans globally. She earned an ASTRA Award for Favourite Female Personality’ in 2013 and 2014, and has just released her second book, Design with Colour and Style, to help people uncover their creative style.
“I believe we all have it in us to design and style our perfect room, it’s a confidence thing of knowing where to start and stop. I wanted to write this book as a step-by-step walk through the various components of designing with colour; helping you find your colour, how you can learn about different colour trends, understand colour and how to work with it to suit your own preferences.” The book is selling well.
Her own personal style is classical Art Deco and Victorian. Her “happy colours” are turquoise, teal, black and white. “I am an old soul and love the features of period homes. It gives me a calmness and sense of order,” she says. As does her other creative outlets of painting and writing.
For more than 20 years Shaynna has transformed homes, and she still spends days each week helping clients achieve their design dreams.
“This is what I really love to do - help people achieve their ideal space. It’s a privilege to be able to help them solve design problems.” Her work in the residential and commercial space has featured internationally in design magazines, including Elle Decoration, House & Garden, Home Beautiful and 1000 Global Interiors, and is the face of some product brands.
But it wasn't a straightforward path to design. From school to graduating with a design degree, she went straight to work. Motherhood and marriage soon followed at just 23 and 24. Her first marriage to a builder helped her understand costings, scheduling and basic building principles. But a desire to spend time at home with her babies meant work had to be put on hold.”I couldn’t keep going to building sites with my son in the baby capsule. I needed to stay home with them.” Home life also changed when her marriage ended. She became a single, stay-at-home mother of two in her early 20s. She had to work.
While she found an income she kept decorating the family home and completing a creative writing course. This would hold her in good stead in recent years when penning her two design books.
I am an old soul and love the features of period homes. It gives me a calmness and sense of order.
- Designer Shaynna Blaze
Singing is another of her skills, which comes as a surprise to many. She stretched the tonsils at last year’s ASTRA awards, blowing away the audience with her opening performance. She also won her second favourite personality award at the event. This year she co-hosted the Logie Awards nominations event.
“I left singing for quite a while when I moved back into design, but I am glad I found it again. My kids always remember there being singing and music in our home,” she says. Nights spent as a jazz singer helped put food on the table and educate her kids. “I did as any mother would do - find work and provide for your kids,” she says. “Thankfully, I had family support so the kids were always looked after by them or friends when I worked.”
But the desire to work in design came to the fore at the right time, with Blaze securing work on a commercial design (“I also did the renovation for my parents’ home, too, which was daunting,” she says.), and then opting to concentrate on a career in residential design when in her early 30s.
With her design career back on track, it was only fitting her personal life attracted attention. Enter Steve Vaughan. The designer and personal trainer recently celebrated 15 years of marital bliss while on holiday at Lake Como.
“We met at a dodgy pub,” she roars with laughter, telling how they met. “Our eyes locked across the dance floor. How cliche is that? I didn’t want to go out that night but a girlfriend practically begged me to go, so I went. I am so glad I did as I met the man of my dreams that night ”
As her portfolio for residential design grew, she put her hand up for Selling Houses Australia. “I saw the job advertised, sent an email and the next thing I know the phone is ringing asking if I wanted to audition!,” she says. “That’s where my little venture into television started.”
When it’s time for the haze of television to dim, Blaze is not phased. “You never know when it is going to end, so while it is happening I am hanging on and enjoying the ride,” she laughs.
“Life doesn’t stick to s script or work out as you plan, but if you truly want something it will happen.”
Meanwhile, her Logies gown is waiting for its closeup.