HomeMADE

HomeMADE
Genre	Reality
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	16
Production
Executive producers	David Barbour Julian Cress
Running time	60 minutes (including commercials)
Production company	Cavalier Television
Original release
Network	Nine Network
Release	10 May 2009 – present

homeMADE is an Australian reality television series that is set to air on the Nine Network. It will premiere on Sunday, 10 May 2009 at 6:30pm, and episodes will air twice a week: at the same time each Sunday, as well as Tuesdays at 7:30pm.

The series will be presented by David Heimann, who will also act as a mentor to the contestants. The concept of the homeMADE is that two teams of emerging designers will renovate two houses in 5 days, with one eventual winner receiving a prize of $100,000. The designers will be judged by Neale Whitaker, who is Editor-in-Chief of Belle, an Australian design magazine, and interior stylist Sibella Court. Guest judges will include Deborah Bibby, Paul Hecker, David Hicks and Greg Natale

Host

David Heimann

David Heimann is a well-known style guru in Australia’s design circles, with an immeasurable experience in high design. He is the co-founder and Director of the Australian style emporium, Orson & Blake.

His career spans more than 20 years, having started out in fashion with Robert Burton, absorbing every aspect of the fashion industry along with the needs and style of the Australian market.

He then moved to London where he worked with clients including Elton John. It was while travelling the world that he realised Sydney was lacking a design and lifestyle retail store and hence the birth of Orson & Blake– a concept store and emporium that mixes fashion, furniture and design.

With his mother and business partner, Mandy Heimann, David established the store in Sydney’s Woollahra 16 years ago. Orson & Blake quickly became a design institution, described as the onestop shrine to style where the design-conscious regularly converge to worship.

David’s ever growing collection of interior and fashion products led to the opening of Orson & Blake’s Surry Hills outlet in Sydney, a large interior showroom store where furniture, art, books, home accessories – and a café – inspire. The store also offers a design consultancy for clients.

Orson & Blake’s latest endeavour has been to make their style accessible in cities outside of Sydney and have recently launched a line of home and personal accessories, now stocked in many stores nationwide.

Designers

Chontelle Samios

At 23, Chontelle Samios is the youngest of the homeMADE designers. She has already completed two diplomas in interior design and styling, renovated her property from top to bottom, started her own design firm, Elles InDesign, based in Sydney’s southern suburbs, and managed to win an impressive mix of residential and commercial clients – all in just one year as a professional designer.

A career in interiors was always on the cards for the girl who, from a very young age, could be found fluffing pillows, changing colours and moving furniture around her family’s home in the NSW Blue Mountains.

She describes her style as modern French provincial. She loves to mix creams and decorative items such as lace and combine them with modern furnishings and charcoal accents.

Matthew Simpson

When he’s not camping or playing footy with his three young boys, 36-year-old Matthew Simpson is hard at work in the Adelaide headquarters of his design firm, Matthew Travis Simpson Pty Ltd.

He grew up in the western suburbs of Adelaide and worked as an admin assistant until a passionate desire to design eventually forced him to leave his workmates and enrol as a mature age student at the University of South Australia. He graduated with a bachelor of interior design degree in 2001, finishing with the highest score in final year design studio, and hasn’t looked back.

He describes himself as a normal sort of bloke who loves his family, a sausage in bread with sauce and a cold beer, and says his favourite place to shop is anywhere with power tools.

He describes his design style as a warm mix of modernism and minimalism. He uses natural materials, colours and textures customised to meet the needs of the individual client.

Stacey Kouros

Newlywed Stacey Kouros is 26 and she has notched up five years in the business including a long-term position working for one of Australia’s leading designers, Greg Natale.

The Sans Souci girl studied interior design at the University of NSW and upon graduation started working with Natale where she spent her time learning and getting ready to start her own design business, something she intends to do very soon and make it international.

Stacey uses a wide range of colours, prints, textures and objects in her designs.

Jason Sullivan

Jason Sullivan is the only homeMADE designer with no formal training in interior design. But with nearly 20 years’ experience as an international model, and having lived in Paris, London, Milan, New York, Rome and Los Angeles, he has been exposed to some of the most stylish design the world has to offer.

Over the years his passion for design has overtaken his desire to hit the catwalk and while he has only been working as an interior designer part-time for one year this is his new vocation and he is determined to give homeMADE his best shot.

Jason describes his style as traditional, earthy and a little bit spiritual.

Leonie Edwards

Leonie Edwarads graduated with honours from WA’s Curtin University (and a BA in interior architecture) and already, at 27, she has a distinguished career in commercial interior design under her belt, having worked on award-winning projects in Perth.

Her style is subtle and minimal and she describes it as classic and a little bit quirky.

Born in South Korea, Leonie moved to Australia with her biological brother when adopted by an Australian couple at the age of two.

Matt Derrick

Matt Derrick from Melbourne, is one of the most experienced designers in the homeMADE competition. At 34, this former actor and windsurfing instructor has had a stellar design career since graduating with a BA of interior design from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

His design experience is diverse, having worked on a number of different-sized projects including restaurants, casino and luxury hotel design for one of the world’s premier resorts, the new Aman resort in Bhutan.

His style is described as modern and minimal, enduring and timeless.

Annie Vodicka

After more than 20 years in the aviation industry, as a flight attendant and onboard manager, Annie Vodicka satisfied a lifelong passion for interiors by completing a degree in interior design at the International School of Colour and Design in Sydney.

While she’s already tested out her new-found skills on friends and family, she hopes homeMADE will kick-start a long and brilliant career.

In 10 years she sees herself as a highly successful interior stylist who has a range of paying clients, both domestic and international.

Annie's style is described as being contemporary but eclectic.

Richie Stevens

Richie Stevens from Far North QLD, runs a design business in Cairns with a wide range of residential and commercial clients. His talent is not limited to the indoors, as he is a master of landscaping too. Creative from a young age, he initially studied graphic design. But his career in interiors took off when friends and family started asking him to design their homes, as he had designed many of his own. So his business Inside & Out Styling was born and continues to thrive five years later. He says the best thing about it is getting paid to do what he loves. Richie's style is described as “modern tropical chic” and while inspired by nature, colour and classic pieces, he’s not afraid to add a touch of glamour.

Tonie Sauers

Hailing from Australia’s capital, Tonie Sauers has worked mainly in commercial design with the same architecture firm since graduating with a BA in interior design from the University of Canberra.

Tonie believes good style is epitomised by restraint and being able to translate her client’s vision into a design that not only meets the brief but enhances their world.

Darren Palmer

Born in country Queensland, Darren Palmer studied graphic design at the local TAFE to stay in his home town with his parents. Eventually the self-confessed nerd and perfectionist made the break and moved to the city to set up his own interior design firm in Sydney.

With dogged determination, focus and fierce ambition, Palmer, now 31, has created the well established design business Darren Palmer Interiors and had his work featured in Belle magazine.

Darren says good design is about making a space work with as few objects as possible and not too much colour. He describes his style as masculine, contemporary and textured. Natural timber, leather, linen and neutral colours feature regularly in his work.

The Judges

Neale Whitaker

Neale Whitaker is editor-in-chief of Belle and associate publisher of ACP Magazines’ home and food group, with responsibility for Belle, House & Garden, Real Living, Gourmet Traveller, Gourmet Traveller Wine and the recently launched BBC Australian Good Food.

He has divided his publishing career between London and Sydney, and between food and interior design. British-born, he worked first in custom publishing in the UK, editing customer lifestyle magazines for major retailers Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and IKEA. In 1998 he was the launch editor of influential food magazine Food Illustrated, now published as Waitrose Food Illustrated on behalf of the pioneering British food retailer.

Since relocating to Australia in 1999, he has edited marie claire Lifestyle, Australian Coastal Style, Australian Interiors and Vogue Entertaining + Travel. He was the original editor of Australia’s bestselling food magazine delicious and as international editorial director of FPC Magazines (now News Magazines) oversaw the licensing of delicious into the UK market.

He published The Accidental Foodie in September 2005 and in 2006 worked with Australian chef Bill Granger as creative director of bills Licensing Pty Ltd, working on all of Granger’s global media projects.

Neale Whitaker joined ACP Magazines as an editorial consultant in 2006 and took over as editor-in-chief of Belle later that year. In 2007 he was appointed Associate Publisher, Homes & Food Group, for ACP’s men’s and specialist division.

Sibella Court

Sibella Court moved to New York in 1999, having established herself in Australia as an interior stylist with her work appearing in publications including Marie Claire, Lifestyle, Donna Hay and Vogue Entertaining.

She built a career in the US over nine years, working on a variety of advertising campaigns and catalogues for clients such as perfume guru Jo Malone, Target, Bergdorf Goodman, Brocade Home, Crate&Barrel, West Elm, and Pottery Barn.

She was a regular contributor to leading US lifestyle publications including Travel & Leisure, Town & Country, Vogue Living (USA), Food & Wine, Gourmet, Real Simple and House & Garden. She also worked as brand developer for Jo Malone and Brocade Home.

She returned to Australia in 2007 to pursue her long-held dream of establishing a shop in the Sydney suburb of Paddington called The Society Inc. Located in an old 1860s corner block, The Society Inc is old “haberdashery meets hardware” store, specialising in local and global textiles, furniture, home wares and beautiful things.

The shop reflects her years of travelling, acquiring and absorbing the world around her. The Society Inc’s contents and interior changes four times a year, with each new theme transporting customers to a different “society”.

Each theme is accompanied and inspired by seasonal paint colours she has designed exclusively for Murobond Paints. The first was “The Indigo Blues Society”, followed by “Travellers and Magicians”, “Paper Whites”, and most recently “Tradewinds”.

Locally, Sibella is the Interiors Editor for Grazia magazine as well as being a sought-after freelance interior stylist.

Episodes

#	Airdate	Timeslot	Ratings
Series 1 (2009)
Scheduled upcoming episodes
1	10 May 2009	Sunday 6:30pm – 7:30pm	—
2	12 May 2009	Tuesday 7:30pm – 8:30pm	—
Average series one ratings			—