1. What’s the room and who uses it?

The room is my bedroom/creative workspace/retreat. Aside from me, my cat Peanut uses it as a hiding place and occasional Thunderdome.

2. What do you do for a crust?

I’m a writer and performer- and I do lots of different variations of that for love and money. Comedy is my main bag- unless I’m on a technical writing job, I’m typically being professionally silly. After many rewarding-but-exhausting years of writing, performing & producing theatrical comedy shows in festivals around Australia, last year I decided to try something different, and now I’m half of an award-winning drag king duo! My drag name is SoBro (the boy version of my female stage name, Sojo- it’s all part of the brand). Together
with my best bro Romeo Romeo, we are BROMEO and we trade in joyfully stupid hot boy nonsense.

3. What goes on in the room?

I sleep, write, work, get dressed up, do craft, play with my cat, read, recharge, watch cartoons with my girlfriend. Whatever I need to do, this is my space just for me.

4. Favourite piece in the room and why?

It’s got to be my Frida Las Vegas neon piece. I’ve been obsessed with her work for years, and then my best friend rallied my nearest and dearest to chip in for me to get it! I was also super lucky to get to visit Frida (a.k.a. Stavroula Adameitis)’s studio on Eora land in Sydney while I was there for World Pride last year and go see it before she & her partner relocated (and kindly brought the artwork down here to Victoria for me when they did)!

So not only is the piece the epitome of my loud femme maximalist dreams, it’s also
imbued with love, friendship and really special memories! ALSO strong favourites are the stunning original my friend Giorgia painted for me, and my tea-making alarm clock from 1980 which I drove for an hour to collect from a stranger on eBay. Anyone who comes in my room gets a full TED Talk about the joys of the Chelsea Teamaker- its pleasing design, the gift of a cup of tea before I’ve left my bed, and how it also has a light neatly tessellated on top. I need to replace the bulb for the light, but I’m terrified I’ll break it somehow. Any mechanics who specialise in 40+ year old alarm clock kettle lamps, please get in touch.

5. Anything on your wish list that you would love to add to the space?

I’ve gotten to a place with this room where all my major wish list items are covered, to be honest. How lovely! That said, I am really itching for a bigger desk- I’d love to have room to leave out whatever craft project I’m working on, maybe get my own sewing machine… But believe it or not, I’m trying to restrain my creative mess while my work zone is a metre from my bed.

6. What do other people say when they see your room for the first time?

People usually remark on how colourful the room is, how there’s so much to look at-whether that’s a compliment or not depends on the person! The room tends to have a strong effect on people either way, which I really like. Two of my favourite things friends have said about the room are 1. It feels really happy in here and 2. You can tell an artist lives here (that last one is very validating). I’m just as happy when people say they love it as when they say something like “I couldn’t have this much stuff everywhere but I love that for you!”.

It’s like walking into my brain. Much like my comedy, it’s not for everyone, but the people that love it really love it.

7. Why do you love this room?

I’ve truly been living some of the happiest years of my life thus far in this room. Like a lot of folks, the Pando yielded some BIG LIFE CHANGES. Moving into this room, with its door that leads directly into my best friend & housemate’s room (we call it the Best Friends Door), really felt like a refuge after a turbulent time in my life. When I first moved in, the only art pieces I had were the two hat lady portraits that hang above the Best Friends Door.

Everything else on the walls is something I’ve invested in, made, been gifted or scavenged in the last two and a half years. I’ve spent a lot of time really enjoying decorating, organising and re-organising this room in that time. Having the opportunity to claim a space to myself and make every single choice about what’s in here and where it goes has been so healing and joyful.

Before I moved in I was a very theoretical decorator- I had lots of ideas but I was always afraid to actually put things on the walls. My housemate has really helped me get over that fear and always reminds me that if you don’t like it, you can always change it. This room is constantly evolving, but the most consistent thing is that when I look around, I see all the things in life that make me happy: friends, glamour, colour, fashion and super queer art. It’s my very own camp little paradise.

On a practical level, I love the high ceilings. I have a lot of stuff and it’s great to be able to use that vertical space for storage. I don’t believe in having much closed storage. I’m riddled with ADHD so if I can’t see something I’ll forget it exists. I love having a giant open wardrobe where I can see all my clothes at once, and lots of open storage for my many bits. I really love my clothes and accessories, so they might as well become room décor as well!

8. What’s one lovely memory you have whilst being in the room?

A week after I moved in in mid-2021, I managed to fly back to my hometown of Boorloo, Perth to visit my Mum for her birthday. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make the trip because borders were closing and re-opening day by day, so when I flew out, I left my new bedroom in an absolute state – mattress on the floor, bed frame in bits, boxes of clothing everywhere. After a week in WA, I arrived home, exhausted and with a fresh cold. I opened the door of my bedroom ready to face the wasteland of chaos I’d left behind- but in my absence, my wonderful housemate and two more of my best mates had set up my bed for me (including CLEAN SHEETS that I remember being particularly grateful for), hung up all my clothes and just transformed the space into a pleasant place for me to rest and recuperate! It was the perfect beginning for me and this room- a sanctuary just for me, but filled to the brim with love from the amazing people in my life.

 

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14 Mar This entry was published on March 14, 2024 at 8:00 am. It’s filed under Uncategorized and tagged Bedroom ideas, Chelsea Teamaker, Colour pop, colourful bedroom, Design, Favourite room, Frida Las Vegas, Home, Interior design, Interior design blog, Interior Photography, Interiors blog, Kate Hansen Photography, Neon lighting, Rooms to love, The Room Illuminated, Vintage. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.