Since launching into the design world in 2014, the Three Birds, Lana, Bonnie and Erin, have steadily become Australia’s go-to style influencers and renovators. ele HOME meets the three ladies to talk about design, success and the release of their second book, Three Birds Renovations Dream Home How-To.
IMAGE: Maree Homer
Tell us about yourselves and how the three of you came to know each other?
We are Lana Taylor, Marketing Director, Bonnie Hindmarsh, Creative Director and Erin Cayless, Operations Director – AKA the Three Birds. We’ve been best friends for almost 20 years and have seen each other through all the ups and downs of life: meeting and marrying our husbands, starting families (we now have nine beautiful kids between us) and juggling busy careers.
IMAGE: Chris Warnes
Tell us about your business?
In 2014, we took a leap of faith together, quit our corporate jobs and created Three Birds Renovations in pursuit of a more fulfilling life – working for ourselves, doing something we loved, and with more family time.
Within a few short months of starting out we had successfully bought, renovated and sold our first property. Fast-forward to today and we have transformed over 14 properties, amassed a gorgeous group of followers on social media (who make it all worthwhile!) and learned more than we ever could have imagined.
We’ve poured all our hard-earned knowledge into our online courses, Three Birds Reno School and Three Birds Styling School. We teach our students everything we’ve learned along our journey of renovating, building and styling homes – we’ve made all the mistake, so they don’t have to!
IMAGE: Monique Easton
How did the three of you begin your careers in design?
We were desperate for a change from our corporate jobs so Bonnie and Erin, who had job-shared for years, decided to go out on their own to start a new career flipping houses. They called on Lana as the marketing brains behind their new venture… and Three Birds Renovations was hatched.
None of us had actually renovated before but Bonnie’s parents are keen renovators and Bon’s got it in her genes! So, we went from there and learnt on the job. We make no secret that we’re completely self-taught and employ professional trades on the tools rather than DIY.
IMAGE: Maree Homer
How would you describe Three Bird’s signature style?
‘Coastal cool’ – to us, it’s as much about how a home feels as how it looks – open and airy with relaxed holiday vibes and great indoor/outdoor living spaces are top of our wish list for any property.
What is Three Bird’s best interior design tip?
To create your home to look and feel the way YOU and your family want to live. If you’re designing your dream home, don’t be a slave to trends, choose what you love and what makes you feel amazing every day.
What do you love about your work?
That we are lucky enough to go to work each day with our best friends, with the support of a fabulous team and to do what we love.
Greatest budget buy or budget decorating tip?
Don’t underestimate the power of paint. If you can’t afford to render or clad your home, a fresh coat of paint will do wonders to transform a room or exterior from drab to fab.
IMAGE: Chris Warnes
How did your Three Birds show come about?
We started documenting our projects for our friends and family and which led us to realise just how many people are interested in the journey of transforming a home. Our YouTube channel seemed like a natural progression for our business and now we document each of our projects from go to woah on Three Birds TV.
Has the success of Three Birds surprised you all?
Absolutely! It hasn’t been without a whole lot of hard work but we’ve certainly had many ‘pinch me’ moments along the way. Like these ones from last year alone:
★ We kicked off the year with the very first intake of our newest online course, Three Birds Styling School and have welcomed over 9,000 new students throughout the year. That’s in addition to the 17,000 students in our Reno School.
★ Our lucky 13th House was completed and revealed! Appropriately named the ‘Australian Staycation’, the new build was our biggest project to date and we were super-chuffed to see it on the front cover of Australian House & Garden magazine.
★ Dreams became reality as our Three Birds Dream Home was born! Five years ago, we had the idea (some would say a craaazy idea) to one day create a Three Birds home that people could buy and build on their block of land. Last year, that idea came to life after we teamed up with legend-builders, Rawson Homes, to build the very first Three Birds Dream Home. It’s fair to say we were proud mummas when this baby also made the front cover of Australian H&G.
★ We gave away over $130,000 worth of products to one of our gorgeous followers who was the winner of the Three Birds Ultimate Home Renovation Comp!
★ We sold 50,000 copies of our first book, making it ‘Australia’s number one home improvement book.’
★ And launched our second book Three Birds Renovations Dream Home How-To. The cherry on top for us is the bonus chapter which features the beautiful homes of some of our clever Reno School graduates.
What have you learnt from the past years while the world was in the grips of COVID? Has the experience of the pandemic changed how you design and work?
It’s reminded us of the importance in remaining agile and flexible in the way we work. During Sydney lockdown we moved all our meetings online, which came with some challenges. Picking paint colours and selecting furniture isn’t quite the same as visiting showrooms to see and touch the items in person!
That said, during the pandemic we’ve completed our 12th, 13th and 14th houses and while there were many challenges created by COVID restrictions, it’s given us great confidence in how adaptable we are as a business. We created Three Birds to be flexible around our family lives and that has proven true over this time. It’s been rewarding and heart-warming to see how people rallied together and what can be achieved in the middle of a global pandemic.
In terms of our online course, the Three Birds Reno School, each intake we’ve always had more enrolments than the previous but as people are spending more time at home during COVID-19 we’ve definitely seen an increased interest in home renovation and improvement. Travel is restricted so many people are treating their homes as a staycation and focusing on creating a home that they love to live in.
IMAGE: Chris Warnes
What is the Three Birds favourite project to date? Why?
That’s like making us choose a favourite child! Each of our 14 homes to date has a special story behind it.
You are all busy lives with careers, family etc. – how do you balance this?
When we’re not filming, we plan our days to be relatively flexible around our families and activities. Some days this means phone meetings enroute to footy training, others we’ll be on a Zoom call from the hairdressers.
IMAGE: Maree Homer
If you could give our readers one great piece of advice for making their house a beautiful home, what would it be?
Define your style and start with a cohesive vision board. We hear so often from women who would love to style their home beautifully but don’t know where to start, what to buy or how to make it happen.
Creating a Vision Board to articulate this style is the first step to a beautiful home. We teach our students how to do this (and everything else they need to know to style their home!) in our online course Three Birds Styling School.
www.threebirdsstylingschool.com
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