Beyond the Signboard with Amy Bennett
Welcome to Beyond the Signboard; where you get the opportunity to learn all there is to know about your real estate journey from professionals who are passionate about property.
Beyond the Signboard with Amy Bennett
The Art of Home Staging with Box Clever's Hilary Sharp
Hilary Sharp shares her transformative journey from Ireland to Australia and the evolution of her career in interior design and home staging. The episode highlights the importance of emotional connections in design and staging and offers insights into the misconceptions and deeper significance behind creating functional and appealing spaces.
• Hilary's early love for design influenced by her mother
• Decision to move to Australia and its impact on her career
• Launch of Box Clever Interiors and its services
• The critical role of home staging in selling properties
• Challenging common misconceptions in the design profession
• Importance of emotional connections in homes and spaces
• Insights into balancing aesthetics, functionality, and buyer psychology
• Personal anecdotes illustrating Hilary's career journey and philosophy
Welcome to Beyond the Signboard, where you get the opportunity to learn all there is to know about your real estate journey from professionals who are passionate about property. I'm Amy Bennett, your host, and I look forward to providing you with education, inspiration and a behind-the-scenes look at the world of real estate. Well, welcome to Beyond the Signboard, season 2. I am delighted to have the lovely Hilary Sharp here from Box Clever Interiors and Box Clever Staging. Hello, hello, how exciting. It's great to be here. Thank you, amy, my pleasure. We were just chatting off air about the time that we've known each other. So, working out, it's probably well over 10 years, maybe even longer.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, yeah. Early days of tentatively coming down to the Chamber of Commerce in Caloundra and nervously introducing myself to the business world.
Amy Bennett:And there you were with your smiley face going hey, come on, welcome, welcome, and I was like oh okay, such a special time and, yeah, for those that that listening in, that don't know, I did have, yeah, four years at the Calandra Chamber of Commerce. We were growing the business community and supporting so, creating networking events and an ability to really highlight businesses, certainly using social media, I would suggest, when it was quite new as well.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, you were fantastic at that.
Amy Bennett:So lots of fun events, which is amazing, and obviously, with my foray into real estate, you know, obviously our paths have crossed. From a staging perspective, we caught up recently and it really inspired me to have you on as the number one guest for this season. So no pressure, thank you. What I'd love, hilary, is to introduce our listeners to your journey, so obviously none of us end up where we are now without a story. Oh yes, take us back. I love a story, I love it. I love a great story.
Hilary Sharp:So obviously I think the first thing the listeners might hear is that I don't sound like I'm from here. So Australia is my adoptive country and my birth country is Ireland and my love affair with Australia and design both probably coincide around the same period of time. So I think it was roughly about when I was 10, we had neighbours enter Irish TV screens and I was inspired by a character, charlene who was feisty and was a mechanic and was gorgeous and fun, and I thought, hey, that's interesting. And this country, australia, just seemed really cool. It seemed like really nice, really nice people, very similar to us, but just nicer lifestyle. I thought this looks cool.
Hilary Sharp:So I decided I would do a project on Australia. And in those days there was no internet. So I wrote to the embassy in Dublin Amazing and said could they please provide me with information on Australia? And they did, and I did a project on Australia, on your political scene, your geography, population. I had all the facts done out Went to the travel agent, which is the other research you do when you're a primary school student and got my pictures cut out.
Hilary Sharp:So my mum still has that project and that was that was the first seedlings of this country was calling me Around. The same time, then my love affair with interior design also developed. Now I was quite fortunate that my mother had trained as an interior designer. I was quite fortunate that my mother had trained as an interior designer. She trained in Belfast yeah, amazing. And unfortunately due to the political situation at the time, there wasn't more opportunity for her to practice in interior design Life in the 1970s in Belfast it was more about being bomb-proof as opposed to design-orientated. So my mum retrained as an art teacher, but at the age of 10, she taught me how to scale drawings. She explored my creativity. She said, right, design your dream house, hilary, but do it properly and do it to scale and understand the measurements. So that was where I learned the basics, the raw fundamentals of scale, proportion and design. What a gift.
Amy Bennett:Isn't that?
Hilary Sharp:amazing. So that was really lovely. Life petered on. My dad was a businessman and during kind of growing up and going to school, dad was very strict and kind of said oh, you don't want to do that creative stuff. Hillary was very strict and kind of said oh, you don't want to do that creative stuff, hilary, you'll never get a job right. Just get yourself, do something sensible. You know, so I tried to knuckle down and I studied economics.
Amy Bennett:And.
Hilary Sharp:I went over to university in the UK and did economics of all the wild things never done anything like that. I was quite terrified doing it but I loved it and it was really, really interesting. And I came back and worked in Bank of Ireland and my father was delighted. Yes, tick the box.
Hilary Sharp:Absolutely delighted. First eldest daughter graduated working in the bank. She'll be there for life. My job is done.
Hilary Sharp:So a year later I turned around to dad and I said I'm quitting, I'm giving up. He goes why? What are you doing? I said I'm going to Australia. He said what I said, yeah, and he just thought I was absolute madness. And I told my mom I'm going to Australia. She was terrified. Who are you going with? I said no, none of my friends are going. I'm going to go on my own. I'm going to go out there on my own and want to discover what this country was.
Hilary Sharp:So I did so brave and I traveled all around Australia and I loved it. I had, as I said, I'd lived in England. I'd lived in America as well for a period of time and I didn't expect much from Australia. It was at the other side of the world. I didn't expect them to know much about Ireland, you know, and yet they were so welcoming, so knowledgeable. I just clicked, I just slotted in. It's amazing, isn't it? So how long ago was that? That was back in 1998. Yeah, okay, amazing. Back in Sydney. I had a great time. I worked for Colonial First State there in Sydney, in St Martin's Place, which was lovely.
Hilary Sharp:And after my year I returned home and I worked for about five years with a financial company in Dublin. I was within a sales and marketing role and loved it sort of, was getting on really well. They wanted me to work in to set up a similar business in Greece at the time and I suppose I was coming up to mid to late 20s and I started looking around at these women in their 30s in the company and I went, yeah, I don't think I want to be that. I don't think I want to be this corporate woman. And so I retrained Amazing and I did interior architecture in Dublin at night and I quit my job and I thought, okay, if I'm going to retrain, I need to go back to the beginning. I need to, you know, learn everything I can about this. And I approached following my qualification, I approached it like an apprenticeship and I also decided I'd go back to Australia for a little visit because I said, if I have to like, hand back the company car and learn to live in a modest salary.
Hilary Sharp:I might as well go travelling again, because that was a great way to save money, live in hostels and all the rest. I'll go back to travelling, you know, amazing. So I did that for another year and then I came back and started my design career and I started working as a kitchen designer initially, which was fantastic, very fundamental area of functionality in everyone's kitchen. I then worked for a company that specialised in hotel design and commercial design. That was super interesting. At this stage my family were delighted I'd got Australia out of my system.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, I was wondering how Dad was feeling along this journey.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, yeah, She'd settled down now you know, She'd bought herself an apartment in Dublin and got all that travelling stuff out of her, out of the way, you know, and that was all going well until I went into a building site in Dublin. It was my first building site I had to go to. It was a big hotel being built and I was rather nervous going in and it was a big table full of engineers and architects and everyone else all male and I went in there with my little notebook and then this angry Australian marches into the head of the table and bangs the table and anyway, that turned out to be my husband.
Amy Bennett:So Australia came back for you. Australia came back, the running joke.
Hilary Sharp:Um, he's a bit of a rough and tumble Australian. I love it. His first question to me was what the bleep is going on, and I like to say I've been telling him what the bleep is going on ever since isn't that amazing that you'd had that connection, though?
Amy Bennett:Yeah, I mean, look, this is why I love, you know, having guests on and sharing stories, because, like I said, we get to where we are with a story. Yeah, I also love that you stayed true to your belief, and I had a similar scenario whereby I always wanted to be a wedding planner and everyone said, oh, you know, you have to work Saturdays and work with bridezillas, but it was always there, and so I fulfilled that passion about 10 years ago. So there's something interesting you've got, isn't it?
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, I think sometimes in life society can expect certain things of you. So, for example, I thought I should go and do business and you know, the school I was in was very academic and I wasn't so sometimes you try and shoehorn yourself into shoes that might not be suitable for you.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, so yeah, life is a journey, and accept the twists and turns, and sometimes things happen for a reason. I've always been a big believer of that, you know. Things happen for a reason. I've always been a big believer of that, you know. I mean, when I was 18, I didn't get the school results that were going to send me to Trinity, which is where my father had gone to university. It was a prestigious university in Dublin and I sort of thought the gates have closed on me, but the best thing was that I went to England.
Hilary Sharp:I had a whole life experience in the UK that I would never have had had I just stayed in Dublin.
Hilary Sharp:So, everything happens for a reason. If it's a bad result, it happens for a reason, you know. And as our journey continues, I went on and I married Howard. We had two children. The GFC hit While I was pregnant with my first child. I was made redundant. So at that stage I had changed careers. I had changed jobs Again. I was now working for a large architectural practice in Dublin and we specialised in healthcare design, which was fantastic. All learning about how your interiors can support health, how you can help nurses and doctors work better within a space Fascinating.
Hilary Sharp:So much knowledge to try and understand and things work better within a space Fascinating. So much knowledge to try and understand and things like that Love that. But the GFC hit. So during my pregnancy, the entire architectural practice, which employed over 120 people, went into redundancy. Wow, and I think I was like the last of seven employees to be let go and at the same time, my husband's job. He was transferred to build a hospital in northwest Ireland. So we ended up living in a rural area in northwest Ireland and I had my son in Dublin and left hospital and went straight up to the north of Ireland and looked out the window with cows around and a young baby and went oh crikey, what do I do now? You know?
Amy Bennett:Because, you know, my understanding is Ireland has been really heavily affected and really struggled.
Hilary Sharp:It was a really interesting time. So growing up in the 80s in Ireland was recession. All we ever knew was recession?
Hilary Sharp:We never knew abundance of wealth. We had what we called the brain drain. Everyone emigrated. Our greatest outport was our people. We set them around the world and then, just as I was graduating school, coming back to university, they had a period of time of enormous wealth, which was what was known as the Celtic tiger, and Howard, my husband, had left Australia because he had heard there was great money and great things happening in Dublin with the Celtic Tiger, and he did. You know, he was planning to go over for a year and he came back seven years later with a wife and two kids. So it was, it was fun, it was very strange, but, as with that, then it changed, crashed very quickly. It has then recovered, but at that time, because Howard and I were both in the construction industry and it was a property bubble that had burst, we were hit pretty hard with it. So we survived a good bit, in the sense that we continued on till 2012, living in Northern Ireland.
Hilary Sharp:Howard was building a great hospital there and I decided to set up my first business in Northern Ireland, which was interior design, and I focused on residential design, which was something I'd never done before, because I'd always done commercial design, but I had designed kitchens way back in the day. So I knew what I was going to do and, yeah, I got stuck in, and having economics meant I had some sort of idea of the business-y side of things. I was able to do sort of local courses with set up your own business and things like that. So I did that. And then after a period of two years, my husband's job, the hospital, was built. It was kind of like what are we going to do? He's like, well, I could go to the Middle East. And I said I'm not being a desert wife, yes, he goes. Maybe we should go back to Australia. And at that stage it was back to Australia. It was back and forth because we'd been back and forth bringing the children to see their grandparents and things like that.
Amy Bennett:So, australia- they're here on the Sunshine Coast.
Hilary Sharp:His father has passed away now, but he was in New South Wales and his sisters were down in Melbourne, which is where he's originally from. So it was sort of right it's time to go back. We had always said we were going to rear the kids in Australia, but we sort of thought, well, maybe they'll have their primary education in Ireland and then teenage in Australia. So that was kind of always our game plan. But it was brought forward a little bit quicker than we had anticipated. So we had a bit of an argument as to where we were going to settle, because I loved Sydney. He's from Melbourne. Apparently, they don't always get on. So he said he's not going to go to Sydney. There you go. He had actually already moved to Moffat Beach prior to going to Ireland and at that stage I was going.
Amy Bennett:Well, I'm not doing regional Australia. I'm a city girl. I mean, you know, you've done the cows, you're not doing the desert.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, yeah I was like I'm getting right back into a city. So we said oh, we'll settle in Brisbane. That was going to be the happy medium and we were in Brisbane for about a year. I arrived over with a two-year-old in the. I seriously would not advise that again as a lifestyle choice.
Amy Bennett:We need to put a disclaimer there Do not recommend.
Hilary Sharp:Like Howard and I were so naive. We both travelled extensively in our lives independently, we both loved travel and adventure and we just did not factor in the full adventure. I'm sure if there's parents listening that have toddlers and young children, it's a different side of an adventure and it's one you don't need. Leave that in the past. Leave that in the past. That was a bit of a stressful year of our lives. Moving. Harwich then was brought on to the job the hospital up here that was being built and that spurred the move up to here.
Hilary Sharp:Amazing and I was about two weeks here and I went, wow, this is great, I don't want to move back to here. Amazing. And I was about two weeks here and I went, wow, this is great, I don't want to move back to Brisbane. This is, this has got everything I need within a five kilometre radius. This is beautiful. This is what I wanted from Australia. Yeah, amazing. So that has been brilliant. We got the kids settled and then I was very anxious not to leave big gaps in my career. I wanted to get back working again and just navigated a way that I could do that with supporting the kids.
Hilary Sharp:It was all a little bit daunting because we didn't have family support here, I didn't have an established network of people, friends or anything, so I tiptoed into the industry. Actually, no, I first set up another little business.
Amy Bennett:I set up a little online business, initially, first doing design work. She is a renaissance woman. I love it.
Hilary Sharp:If in doubt, try something, which was fine. You know, that period of time taught me how to set up websites, how to set up social media, how to do those kind of things, but ultimately, design was going to weigh out. And, yeah, different people, once they heard my background, asked could I do this, could I do that? And I sort of said, yes, I can. And yeah, box Clever Interior started in my back bedroom.
Amy Bennett:That's amazing, yeah, isn't it interesting when you were just saying then, too, about when people understand, I guess, your history and I think it's really difficult sometimes to articulate. We're going to talk about, I guess, misconceptions with your industry, and I like that that you said it's not just about picking colours, and I think that's a really important thing in building strong business connections, isn't? It Is really understanding, especially if you're referring a business, but also for your clients, you know, for them to be able to articulate what you've done to help them in the process. But you know all of those skills that you've brought. You know whether it's your independence and courage and I know we spoke offline about both of our energy and our little superpowers that we have. But I love your quest for knowledge, so it seems like it's always been something that you've always wanted. I guess it sounds like a natural curiosity. Oh, 100%.
Hilary Sharp:I love learning so, despite my school not providing me with the best learning environment, I actually enjoy study and learning so much I have a thirst for knowledge Reading as well.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, I love reading.
Hilary Sharp:I mean I, still listen to my economics pods. I love my reading. I am a boring reader.
Amy Bennett:I love it.
Hilary Sharp:I love history. I love neuroscience, I love brain. I love all of those different aspects. I'm fascinated in them all. Yeah, so love brain, I love all of those different aspects, fascinated in them all, yeah, so I think, gosh, if I had my lifetime over so many different areas I would love to have, if I had a life that you could just read and learn, I know it would be amazing.
Amy Bennett:And you know people speak so often now about having multiple careers and not sort of having you know, I mean gosh, I couldn't even imagine having you know, having the same nine-to-five job where you're sitting at the same desk for 40 years.
Hilary Sharp:You've got to change. I've still got to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I know, I hear you.
Amy Bennett:I know this real estate gig might not be forever. Oh, listen, I guess mum being super creative and I imagine even her having a career, probably back then. So my mum was actually English, living in Ireland in the 70s.
Hilary Sharp:Really yeah, I never knew that. There you go.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, so she was. She was there, but unfortunately it was troubled times and being English, yeah, so she went back to England and then obviously came to Australia. But I've taken a couple of pilgrimages there and kissed the Blarney Stone two times.
Hilary Sharp:Oh, my goodness, you tourist.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, hey, I've had the luck of the Irish, but, yeah, like it's a beautiful place to visit. So, going back to mum and dad, so you had mum's, I guess, creativity and then dad's, you know, and again, you know, we say all of these things.
Hilary Sharp:We are a balance of both our parents. Yes, yeah, so I mean, mum was such fun.
Hilary Sharp:She used to kind of rip the wallpaper off the walls and go right, create children, you know. And I was like, ooh, okay, cool, isn't that amazing. And then I got into enormous trouble one time when I was a little girl and she had re-put, re-wallpapered a guest bedroom and I had gone in there and drawn big bumblebees all around the world Sitting in the bed going. I was like look, mom, and she was just like, oh, what have you done? Oh, my God. But she sort of said half of me was so delighted with the lovely bumblebees you did. They really were a perfect Hillary, you know. And then she goes, but my heart was breaking at the wallpaper being drawn on, isn't it?
Amy Bennett:It reminds me so much of my gran and my granddad, because my granddad was so serious, you know, he was so analytical, so intelligent, and gran was the creative. She was the you know Danish, you know wild woman.
Hilary Sharp:Oh yeah.
Amy Bennett:So now, having had that experience now, what are you like with your boys, with their I guess plans for the future?
Hilary Sharp:Gosh, I'd like to think I'm very supportive with them and just help them discover themselves fully. I think is what's so important. Yeah, amazing, we're lucky again. How lucky are we here, which I always remind them that they have so much opportunity on their doorstep?
Amy Bennett:Yes.
Hilary Sharp:So my children are quite sporting, and what better place to grow up? Absolutely so. I suppose things that I try to do is reinforce their understanding of that. We live right by the beach, so from a very early age I was insistent that they did nippers. Yes, and what we wanted from that is that they would be able to give back. So, and with that I ended up doing nippers too, yes, yeah, that's right, you did surf life savers.
Hilary Sharp:right, I know, listen, my swimming career to date had been an I Can Swim 25 metre badge, which I acquired. That's an accomplishment, right, because I acquired it in Ireland's largest swimming pool at the time, which was 33 metres long. Oh, we didn't have any 50 metre swimming pool in the entire country when.
Amy Bennett:I was growing up, wow, so that badge was worn with pride, Well, sort of.
Hilary Sharp:My mum was from a swimming family and I did my swimming, but I loved gymnastics so I didn't continue with swimming and I continued on with gymnastics up until I don't know teenage years, and then I gave up and just went partying. And now the Surf, Lifesaving yeah so about six years ago I had a big accident skiing and smashed up my leg.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, and I couldn't walk for about three months and the doctors pretty much said look realistically, I wouldn't do jogging, you're going to have to look after yourself. And I said, okay, well, you know I do like jogging, but it's not the biggest thing in the world. I'll get swimming again. And so I started swimming down at Rackleys, nearly killed me my first 50-meter length. That I did. Hey, you graduated new badge. I did new badge and then I just set myself a goal and said I'm going to do my surf rescue certificate and I was applying to do that and one of the people sort of said, oh no, you can't do that. I was applying to do that and one of the people sort of said, oh no, you can't do that, you have to do your bronze. So your surf rescue, you have to swim 200 metres bronze you have to swim 400 metres.
Hilary Sharp:So anyway, yeah, I did, it got my bronze. And I do surf lifesaving down at Kings Beach and the boys my son, does surf lifesaving with me now and my younger son is just finishing nippers. So in my mind, that was the least that the kids would do if they're going to be beach bums and live on this.
Amy Bennett:Enjoy the surf. Where do?
Hilary Sharp:they do nippers Down at King's as well.
Amy Bennett:Me too.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah.
Amy Bennett:So 93 and 97, I did two years of it but my eyesight deteriorated. Oh no, yeah, so that's a voluntary position that you do, yeah.
Hilary Sharp:Incredibly rewarding. Actually, one of the areas I love is doing water safety with the younger kids, especially the children that are nervous.
Amy Bennett:Yes.
Hilary Sharp:Bringing them out and swimming and being beside them is just amazing, yeah, amazing, seeing the bravery of them, you know.
Amy Bennett:I think you take it for granted. I mean, I obviously, born and bred here on the coast and Kings Beach was my, you know every single weekend just went to the pool there and did nippers and was fortunate. In my hometown of Beowar too, we had a swimming pool that my mum helped to fundraise for, so I was there every day.
Amy Bennett:So I'm an absolute water baby, water baby, so you forget, don't you, that when people you know, kids, come from the outback or people from overseas, well, there's a lot of kids that are just very nervous, even if they've grown up here.
Hilary Sharp:They're nervous and it can be quite daunting. So you get two sets of children. You'll get the. You know the kids that are just so athletic, so strong and their little guns in the water and that's awesome and they go you know, and then there are other kids that are still sporting and things like that, but they just might be nervous, absolutely.
Hilary Sharp:And and quite right, it's big surf and there's lots of funny things in the water and there's lots of scariness about that. So just to be able to encourage them to understand that fear and not let it cripple them, and then be with them and support them and swim around and then, yeah, just see their lovely faces when they actually get around the other side and go, I did it, I was like you did it and I'm so proud of you.
Amy Bennett:I mean, we're so blessed, aren't we, on the Sunshine Coast, to have a community of giving you know, and that's something we both have in common. I have to ask, a bit off topic, but how much sunscreen do you have to wear, being Irish? Oh God, yes, well, you know. Yeah, you learned that mistake, right.
Hilary Sharp:Oh, I'm very, very sun safe. Yeah, I wear lots of sunscreen.
Amy Bennett:So important here, awesome. All right, let's chat about your business or shall I say businesses?
Hilary Sharp:Businesses.
Amy Bennett:yeah, I want to hear a little bit about your team, and obviously you're now 10 years young.
Hilary Sharp:Yes, we are. Yes, yeah, as I was just saying, I'll do the before and after of the wrinkles on my face, won't?
Amy Bennett:we all.
Hilary Sharp:Here's me, 10 years ago.
Amy Bennett:Here's me now. Wonderful. So you're not in the back bedroom anymore? No, we're not.
Hilary Sharp:So we first started off with a studio in Calandra and it was myself and we had a lovely girl came in and helped us with the administration side of things. And about five years ago then there was more people around I think it was a state agent originally that was working in McGrath who sort of said you know you should do staging and I was in a B&I group at the time and they were going you know, have you ever tried that? And it just no one was doing staging at that stage.
Amy Bennett:We spoke about this recently, didn't we?
Hilary Sharp:It was big in Sydney and Melbourne. They were switching on, but people weren't really even doing it in Brisbane or whatever. So I was really busy with the interiors still am but I said, oh, this is something that can just tick along slowly in the background and ultimately we were running out of space. We were just sort of it was organically growing through word of mouth and we were running out of space. So we moved the design studio from Caloundra to Premier Circuit and we've got a beautiful studio space with heaps of storage out the back and we're actually bursting out of that space now, which is terrible. I need more space. I need more space.
Amy Bennett:Good problem to have. So for those listeners who might not know about what a staging business is, and what stock have you got that's growing? Let's delve a little bit into what that service is.
Hilary Sharp:Yes, yes, so we provide two distinct services. So interior design, first of all, is very personal service. It's about designing a house around your needs, around your functionality, or, if it's a commercial design, around your business. Staging is essentially marketing, correct. It's selling a property. In this particular case, if it's a home, it's selling an investment and it's for most people, if it's their own private home, it's maybe one of the biggest investment choices they are doing, or biggest investment transactions they're doing, and so I'm very passionate that they get that right.
Hilary Sharp:I love it A hundred percent. I mean in my mind. It's like going to an interview you do not turn up in. I'm old school. You don't turn up in an interview in a pair of runners and shorts.
Amy Bennett:I like it. Well, what do they say?
Hilary Sharp:You never get a second chance at a first impression, absolutely, you know, and you say people, you know you shouldn't judge by looks, but at the end of the day, our eyes are visual and we're ocular people and it's going to make an impact, right or wrong.
Amy Bennett:Correct.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, so I I like to advise people that if you are staging, if you are selling your home, you need to dress appropriately. I love it. You need to prepare. Yeah, no thongs.
Amy Bennett:No thongs, yeah. So it's an interesting concept and I mean we've already had a chat a few weeks ago offline about this, because let's really break down some misconceptions, because you know, ultimately staging what you do is it's not cushions, you know, and you know a nice throw is it. Let's get really down to the nitty gritty of what it is, because I guess I didn't even realise the depth of, I guess, the rationale behind it. I mean, I know the psychology of selling and obviously I do it every day, but what you can give is a real gift.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, so I guess there's a couple of things to look at there. First of all, you mentioned the emotional selling. So there is an emotional connection to someone selling their own home. It's a massive emotional thing to do and they're not always able to view their home with fresh eyes.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, absolutely so, that's sort of that emotional.
Hilary Sharp:The other emotional connection is your buyers, correct? They are buying because they are making an emotional connection, correct? They everyone who walks into a physical space has an emotional connection to that space. It can either be positive or negative. If you're, for example, if you're, sitting in a restaurant and it feels great, you're going to stay there longer. You're going to have that extra drink that's going to that interior is good for business. You'll take the dessert menu. You'll take the dessert because why you like being in that space?
Hilary Sharp:If you're in a restaurant and it just feels horrible, it's making your skin crawl, you can't wait to get out. You're eating your meal as quickly as you can because you just want to leave. The seats are uncomfortable, you're out of there. So that's a classic example. That's a great analogy Of how you are having an emotional connection to that physical space. So some places can make you feel calm, relaxed. You want to stay longer. So when you're coming in to buy a home and look at a home for the first time, you want to envisage yourself living there. So, true, you want to feel like you're slipping into something comfortable. You don't want to have anything that's going to make you feel uncomfortable in that space.
Amy Bennett:So what would something be that would be sort of polarising, what would be things that you would take out of a home?
Hilary Sharp:Well, number one, we take away anything personal. Correct. You don't want to feel like you're walking in and walking into someone else's home. Yes, because you're trying to imagine yourself here. Yes, so you take away all the personal items. The photographs go away, personal artwork that might have names like your children's artwork or things like that. Clear all of those items away. The trophy cabinet. The trophy cabinet it's a beautiful day, the wedding photos it was a great day. Take them down, you know neutralising the home.
Amy Bennett:It really is, and I think that there's a real gift in the ability to be able to educate clients with that, because you're so right and I always say you know in what I do.
Hilary Sharp:You know, no one really gives the key to their home to many people, no, and it's the start of that emotional detachment, correct, and I'm sure you've seen, when people finally move out of the home there's tears and everything. But this is the first step of them detaching out of that. And real estate agents like yourself you're great, you'll come in and support them. We also come in as that second voice, you know, which can also help real estate agents. You might be saying something, but we can come in then as like hey look, we're just neutral, we're just coming in to give that second opinion which can also just be reinforcing and comforting for people.
Amy Bennett:I think also as well. You are the professional, so I think you know it's really important to align yourself with professionals that have a genuine understanding. I mean, we even spoke about things like window dressing, so I know that's a big part of your business.
Hilary Sharp:So the other big thing that we do when we're coming in to critically examine a house, which is essentially what I do I like that, dr Hillary.
Hilary Sharp:I do Like I usually say to people I said look, I'm coming in here with a very critical eye. I don't mean to insult you with the things I say, but I am analysing this house literally to market it for sale, okay, and if you'd like an interior design service that's going to be tailored to you, we'll do that separately, yes, and you know, the people are like, they laugh.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, of course.
Hilary Sharp:Okay, that's good, so long as we're on the right page.
Amy Bennett:I don't want to insult anyone. Yeah Well, you're ultimately helping them.
Hilary Sharp:Yes.
Amy Bennett:And we'll talk about the financial benefits.
Hilary Sharp:And they're good, because they usually kind of go oh be brutal here, yeah, be brutal.
Amy Bennett:So don't encourage me. Be careful what you wish for yeah don't encourage me.
Hilary Sharp:I know, yes. So the first thing I will do probably eyeball the faults in the room. Yes, faults in the property, and they're the things that we want to actually play down. Yes, so classic example if you're going to sell your house empty, you're giving the buyers nothing else to focus on but the faults. Yes, okay. So if you've got a cracked tile, if that's the only thing that they can see in the room, they are going to comb in on that cracked tile.
Amy Bennett:That's right.
Hilary Sharp:They're looking for something, yeah, and then they're going to be looking up to see if any of the cracks are in the paint or you know, because there's nothing else for them to stimulate them.
Amy Bennett:I always think as well. They're looking for free residence like the cockroaches they're in, aren't they, once the house is vacant, yeah?
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, so all of those negative things are flashing up and so that's kind of cutting out a big segment of your buyers. Investors might still make a critical choice because they're a different mindset, but the average buyer you're not giving them a great chance to really play it. So if we're coming in, we will. You mentioned window treatments. They're usually a bugbear of mine.
Amy Bennett:I know so much so that it's part of your business, right?
Hilary Sharp:Yes, yes, especially like vertical blinds. I kind of twitch the green ones. Especially if the chains are broken on them and things like that.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, yeah, I just sold a property with green ones. Didn't even know they existed.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, I know, I know it's scary. I always get that song by Elbow. You know, throw those curtains wide.
Amy Bennett:Oh yeah, it's amazing. I was really surprised that you'd sort of said, look, that was something that you were referring to and then thought, look, we'll take it in-house.
Hilary Sharp:We've done it a few times. You know, you stage a house beautifully and then they've got like daggy curtains hanging down that are blocking half the light. They just don't work for the space. So very often we'll just say look, remove everything Agreed, remove everything the old, rusty rods and things like that.
Hilary Sharp:Take them down. A little bit of polyfill will patch. No one will notice a little bit of polyfill in patch as compared to the big ugly blinds. They look terrible in photos and they look even worse in real life and they also just can make the room sometimes feel dark and small and things like that. So that's not what we want. We want, you know, the space to feel bright, light, airy, all of those lovely things that make you Warm and fuzzy. Yeah, just make you feel nice. You don't want to feel like. Yeah it.
Amy Bennett:So vacant property we've spoken about, and I guess that's a lot easier, isn't it? But that's a lot easier, isn't it? But what about? I think what a lot of people are going to love to learn is really about more so an integrated service.
Hilary Sharp:So integrated staging is when the owner is occupied and still living in the premises when they're selling it. It's a lot trickier to sell I'm sure you've experienced that sometimes as opposed to like an empty house when you can come in and do it. So we really hold people's hand through this. We actually offer a completely separate consultation service where we will come in and provide them with a full report of everything that they can do what furniture if they're thinking about like getting rid of some furniture. Sometimes people are downsizing so they're going to be getting rid of furniture anyway. So we will encourage them say, look, sell it now, get on Marketplace, sell it now or keep it because we can use it. We can actually use it if we move things around.
Hilary Sharp:So we recently did a beautiful home this is a good example Down in Golden Beach. Lovely lady in her senior years and it was time for her to downsize. The family had left. This was her family home. She reared her kids here, did everything here, and it was architecturally quite an awkward, awkwardly designed house, I would say. The rooms and the entrance and the flow were all going to be tricky so we were going to have to relay out her entire house essentially.
Amy Bennett:Because furniture placement is really important, right, really important.
Hilary Sharp:We needed flow. We needed people to be able to see the space, understand the size of the space. A real no-no for people is when people walk into the back of a sofa and they've got a really big home and then they create their living room in a corner by two sofas going in a corner and it's like, wow, you've got such a big house and you've made your sitting room into a you know three by three size room, isn't?
Amy Bennett:that interesting. Well, we had that initially because we've got a big open plan and we'd kind of created a little corner for the TV, flipped it around and it's tripled the space.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, and you know, that can be fine if it's your own home.
Hilary Sharp:Yes, and if it's your own home, yes, and that's when you're living at it, yes. But we're selling, yes, we're marketing I like it here's Dr Hillary's back yeah. So the first thing we'll do is, when we look in, we're also approaching rooms, as what's the first impression when people walk in, and what angle is the photographer going to take, what way will he position and what is going to be in his camera? So those are things that we analytically look at. When we come in, we start looking again, just sort of going back to the full consultation service. We will very often long before even the real estate agents have been coming. We sometimes get calls six months a year before people are thinking about putting their house in the market and they go. Oh, that's a dream for me. Just want to bring you in.
Hilary Sharp:We're thinking about it. Have you got a real estate agent? Yet that's the first question.
Hilary Sharp:We always ask because we always want to partner with the real estate agent. They either do or they don't. So if they do have a real estate agent in mind, we will call them, introduce ourselves and ask their opinion. What did you feel of the marketability? What's the target market you're looking for? Tell me about your sales process and then, once we find out, you might say oh, this is going to be young families, or this is going to be retirees, this is going to be a quick sale, this is going to be a long sale.
Hilary Sharp:These are all really vital information so that we can then service the needs of that house and those clients.
Amy Bennett:There's just so much depth to it, isn't there? So much, and I think this is. You know, we spoke about misconceptions and people think that your job is picking colours and I think, with styling, like I said, you know, people think it's a few items or it's, you know, a certain style and I think I know, as my husband always does.
Hilary Sharp:Oh, curtains and carpets. Curtains and carpets. Yeah, it's classic, isn't? It, we get about 10% of our time is picking a colour. Yes, and the rest of it is all the other functionality around it. Yeah, absolutely yeah.
Amy Bennett:So let's what about? Because I know we spoke about trends, but you know, obviously we're by the beach, so it's probably going to be a consistent theming that you do. Yes, yes.
Hilary Sharp:So I suppose what I talk to you about trends is that trends and interiors I find a certain misdemeanor insofar as it's not like fashion. They don't change every year. People will we decorate every five years, let's say. But trends are an enormous reflection of what is going on in society at the time and you look through history like that where you have Rococo, baroque, all of those periods of time for art history are reflections of what was going on in society at the time. And today, at the moment, the overwhelming trend, or almost I still don't like using the word trend- I find it like it's so, like today's buzzword yeah, the period of interiors.
Hilary Sharp:I like it, yes, the era of interiors that we are in is really rooted in earth.
Hilary Sharp:Ah, Mother earth Reassurance, ah, really rooted in earth, mother earth reassurance In a world of a little bit of chaos and a little bit of uncertainty. We're seeing muted tones. We're seeing soft curves Even Lamin-x Australia is doing and lots of other companies are not to be plugging one. But we're seeing this beautiful return to nature and, what's lovely, a focus on Australian nature, which is great. We've got colours like eucalypt bark Amazing. All of these wonderful earthy tones which are so Australian.
Amy Bennett:As a Virgo, I'm very earth based, so I love this.
Hilary Sharp:I love it. I just think it's great because it is so Australian. Yes, and even the blues that are coming in are grounded and melted to go with that. So that is an era at the moment. If you see kitchens, they all have curves. Yes, if you see wall panelling, it's all a soft scallop, so that's very popular. So when we are looking at what we're going to do for a house, it is important where it's located. Yes, if it is by the beach, people very often are buying because they want that lifestyle. So it's not so much a trend, it's a lifestyle that you're selling them.
Hilary Sharp:And yes, we will generally try and bring elements of that on, but we are also kind of consciously aware that there's a multitude of people coming into this house. So we do try to make a few deviations and you will notice that in the homes that we stage we might do, for example, the main living area might be very coastal, but then the media room might be slightly different, and each bedroom we would always try and do a different colour scheme for each bedroom.
Amy Bennett:I love that. Yeah, we spoke about that and I really love that because you're really going to appeal to all buyers. We try to, you know, because you know you're really going to appeal to all buyers there.
Hilary Sharp:We try to, you know, because you know you're never going to get something that everybody likes. We're all very, very different. You like pink.
Amy Bennett:I like blue. Yes, you know, try selling a house with a black kitchen. I can tell you.
Hilary Sharp:Oh, we have yeah. Yeah, there's polarising, elements isn't there Very polarising, See I?
Amy Bennett:don't have any wood in my house. I know, I remember you were telling me that, yeah, which is just, you know, obviously sounds bizarre to people, but yeah, it's all gold. Yeah, yeah so like all you know, like I've just got a very basic colour palette in the house. So yeah, it's an interesting thing. I've looked at homes you know to purchase and said, no, it's got all the wood panelling or paddling or anything.
Hilary Sharp:It'll be interesting when you sell your home.
Amy Bennett:Yes, for those that don't know, I do have a pink cottage with lots of pink and lots of black feature walls.
Hilary Sharp:I know I dread having to do a consultation for you Be careful what you wish for.
Amy Bennett:So we've spoken about misconceptions.
Hilary Sharp:Sorry, oh no, I was just sort of saying so yes, when we are staging to make the appeal to as many people as possible, we might have one bedroom that one person will love yes, bedroom, so it's like, pick your favorite I like make it a bit more interesting. Yeah, that's a talking point, so when that couple or that family might go away, there's going to be different things that will appeal to different people.
Hilary Sharp:Little children might say I really like this. Yes. The wife said, oh, I didn't like this, I didn't like that. But again, it's even a talking point, the more they're talking about the property the more they're processing different elements from it.
Amy Bennett:So it keeps the conversation going further. So true, and I mean that's one of my good hacks when I've got kids through is to pick their bedrooms and let us know why, and then send them off with their bubble one. We, we often do.
Hilary Sharp:A little twin room and a little teddy bear on the beds and things like that, if we know it's going to be a family-orientated space.
Amy Bennett:Well, even not.
Hilary Sharp:you know, I've just sold a property in a lifestyle community and it's got twin beds and the granddaughters they literally Well, yeah, we did the same up at Mullaney and it's been a huge hit for the grandkids and things like that, because I think that's the thing, isn't it?
Amy Bennett:We're seeing a lot more multi-generational living. You know, we're seeing a lot of people requiring dual living and flexibility in the home, correct?
Hilary Sharp:Absolutely. What did COVID tell us with that?
Amy Bennett:Absolutely.
Hilary Sharp:Office design and you know, everyone incorporates an office space and showing that flexibility is hugely important too.
Amy Bennett:I think, when you said as well that we're in this period of earth, and I think that you know that is really reflected. And we did have, you know, a lot of time at home and you know I mean I have no hesitation that Bunnings has never been busier and you know we've all done our garden or. But I enjoy my home space so much more because I was forced to be there.
Hilary Sharp:Well, I think Australians do by habit. So if you look at Europeans, they're far more sort of outside people, insofar as they'll have a small apartment and they might, you know, go down to the piazza and socialise at 10 o'clock at night there. But the Australians are very much more home creatures and their homes reflect that. You know they're homes to retreat to, to nurture, to entertain in. You know, far different to their European counterparts.
Amy Bennett:Isn't that amazing? And having your broad section of knowledge, so tell us about your house. It's by the beach. Does the designer design?
Hilary Sharp:her own house? Oh gosh, they do. Well, you know, my husband actually questions every single thing I do and I was, like you do know my business for a living. This is my gig. He goes, yeah, I know, but I don't trust you. Thanks, darling. Thanks, I mean, I win outright, but like he's my worst client, what the bleep? Yeah, no, my home is quite muted, and again I've got two boys. So it has been seek and destroy proof.
Hilary Sharp:Yes, you know they have bashed holes, yeah, and that's always a little bit frustrating because people go oh, your home must be beautiful.
Amy Bennett:I know and I'm going.
Hilary Sharp:I have two boys.
Amy Bennett:I know they have destroyed it. I didn't tell you that question was coming because I knew it's just always, isn't it? It's like the hairdresser that never gets time for their own hair.
Hilary Sharp:Well, look, we rebuilt or we did sort of a traditional beach house. And I do just have, I prefer just muted colours, soft colours, not bright blues that I have on now just to kind of tone it down quite tropical feel.
Amy Bennett:Nice.
Hilary Sharp:I embrace the landscape that is, with me, very biophilic, so I have lots of plants and nature and breezes coming through.
Amy Bennett:It's beautiful. That's very much. My heritage is Danish and it's very much. The way the home is set up is so important to us and our culture. If you could have any other home sort of dream home let's think the boys have headed and you get a blank canvas to build your dream home.
Hilary Sharp:Oh, I would quite happily go into a very old Parisian apartment.
Amy Bennett:Do you know what those two double doors? Yes, I like it, I wouldn't mind that for a little bit Mademoiselle.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, just a really elegant, huge, tall, big chandelier you know something completely different the colour opposite. I could have the time in my Parisian apartment.
Amy Bennett:I like it. Yeah, I think that would be cool. Blacks and whites then that would be.
Hilary Sharp:Not. I like it. Yeah, that's cool. I think that would be cool. Blacks and whites, then that would be Not necessarily Okay. I'd probably do a neutral wall.
Amy Bennett:I don't know, you get me all daydreaming now I like it. We'll mood board that yeah, yeah, that's your new project.
Hilary Sharp:No need to go to the embassy, it would probably be a balance of very old world, very traditional, but with modern. So I'd have very old architectural features. I'm imagining a 200-year herringbone floor but maybe a modern piece of furniture with it Stunning. It'd be fabulous, it'd be absolutely fabulous.
Amy Bennett:Gorgeous. You know, I'm literally looking forward 20 years.
Hilary Sharp:The fabulous Parisian fabrics coming down in drapes. Yeah, it'd be great. That's cool.
Amy Bennett:I just always love that concept. I mean, I'm always flipping through magazines and seeing what's possible and you know I'm really grateful to you know to live in a home that you know I feel is kind of almost my fantasy come true already, you know.
Hilary Sharp:I think the problem is I love so many different designs. I know, yeah, I'm exposed to so many different things. It actually makes it really hard to design for myself. Yeah, I bet I think I just need to get really, really wealthy and have lots of homes.
Amy Bennett:That's good, because.
Hilary Sharp:I just thought I'd love one in the Henchland too.
Amy Bennett:There you go. I like it Now. Interior. So we spoke about staging and obviously that's been my main focus for you to come on. But interior? Who's your ideal client? What do they need from you?
Hilary Sharp:Well, I suppose, interesting. I often get asked by clients you know what's my style? And I sort of say, well, my style is really not important. So how I design for people is, first of all, to listen. I really want to be able to listen to what they like and what they enjoy I suppose I look at. Unfortunately, interiors is a luxury item to a certain extent and the design service that I provide is more of a luxury item for a lot of people.
Amy Bennett:And is it new design renovating Everything?
Hilary Sharp:Okay, we do everything from pre-build. I love doing pre-builds because you're getting in before the ground has even been dug. Yes, and you're planning that interior from the inside. So I get incredibly satisfied by you know we might take the building designer's drawings or the architect's drawings and we just zoom into every room. And I didn't realise that visualisation in 3D was a gift.
Amy Bennett:I thought everyone had it, but I do that, I zoom in.
Hilary Sharp:I know exactly by looking at a piece of paper how it's going to look, what the elevation is going to look like and making sure that it's balanced Natural light, Natural light symmetry, even artificial light, how that's going to affect the wall and things like that. So my brain will just go it's amazing, that's a gift, right.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, apparently, so Take it. But I do love, I love that planning aspect. So I mean they just go hand in hand, whether it's planning and design from on paper before it's built, or the transformation of an empty house or a full house full of stuff. I am visualising what it's going to look at that end product.
Amy Bennett:So many possibilities.
Hilary Sharp:I find that enormously satisfying. So I do, I guess, enjoy when I have people that value that, yes, and that I can feel that I'm providing an added benefit for them.
Hilary Sharp:So a lot of my clients might be incredibly intelligent people and have gifts that I do not have, you know, but they can't visualize and they're upfront and honest and they said like I really can't visualize and I'm there it's okay because I can and I'm going to hold your hand through the process and we're going to do that, and that in itself is incredibly satisfying with holding someone's hand through that process and guiding them and earning their trust to do that.
Amy Bennett:It is, and especially that it is going to be their home to enjoy.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, absolutely so. Again, that, for me, is so important. We've got three things with any design project. You've got budget, style and time, and those are the three elements that you have to get in balance. Yes, and everyone has different things that will pull. So somebody might be tight on cash Yep, and then you're going to have to say, well, then you might have to wait longer for stuff Yep. Or you might have to compromise on the style, and then we'll guide them through how to do that Perfect. And if it's furniture procurement, for example, you know they say I love this table, I want a table like that.
Hilary Sharp:I said okay, yeah, look, I can find you a table like that. Yeah, that table is going to be $30,000. Oh, yeah, right, I don't love it that much. It's like okay, well, here's another one. This table is 2,000. Oh, okay, and it looks similar, but it's not as nice, but it looks similar.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, that's amazing. Well, it's understanding and, like you said, it's listening in each of those elements.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, so my ideal client just appreciates that and is forthcoming. And you know it's a team.
Amy Bennett:It's a team effort. It's a team yeah.
Hilary Sharp:Absolutely, and that's what I always say to clients. It's we start off with an initial consultation or studio workshop, and design is fluid and subject to change, yes, and we just try and get that information from them, and very often clients don't know what they want until we present, and then we revise, and then we tweak, and then the process evolves and a beautiful outcome arrives.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, it's amazing. We went, we're looking at updating our bathrooms and we went to a home show recently and I tell you what that was two hours. I would never do again because it's very overwhelming. Well, and I mean mean, the interesting thing is, you know, I'm in homes all the time, like I said I'm, you know, flicking through magazines, like I know the elements, I know what I like and I know what I don't like, but from my perspective that's definitely something I would outsource, because I recognize you have to make the choice.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, I don't have the skills of what works together and what you need and textures and yeah and it's not that we also have the background knowledge of.
Hilary Sharp:Let's take the tapware what's the environmental tapware of the rating? What's your coastal area? Is it going to rust? So all those practical knowledge things. And I suppose that's where I laugh when people go, oh you must be great at picking colours, I said, well, yeah, I am. But I also know the fabric on the chair, the wearability, the durability, the flame testing the light, fastness, will it fade? I also know the tap how much flow comes out of the water, what's its wells rating, what its warranty is, where it's made, Absolutely All of these different things.
Amy Bennett:And again, this is what this podcast series is all about is drilling down to that deeper level, because you know, when I was a wedding planner, sure every bride said I'd love to do this or you know, everybody, once you've sold their home, they want to be a real estate agent. So there's always so much more. If not and I feel like I barely shouldn't even ask this question but if you weren't doing what you were doing, what would you like to do?
Hilary Sharp:So, going back to when I was 10, there was another love of mine that I didn't share with you, and that was my very, very first love, which was acting, and I was brought into acting at the age of six. I was the only teacher that actually gave my mother any advice with regards to my education. She said get that child into acting. Wow, and she did, and I continued with acting all the way through my schooling and it was a tremendous support for me, emotionally and creativity, just from a physical perspective and it was.
Hilary Sharp:It was wonderful. I continued acting at university, the the amateur dramatics, and then, when I finished, in Bank of Ireland again, if you'd asked me at 10, I was going to be an award, oscar-winning actress.
Amy Bennett:Yes, no doubt Charlene from Neighbours had an influence.
Hilary Sharp:Absolutely Far more theatrical, far more serious.
Amy Bennett:I like it Really great actress.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, but again, you know, Dad was always great at reminding me that there's no money in that now. Thanks, Dad. There's no money in that now. You'll be out of work. Look at the amount of unemployed actors there are in Dublin.
Amy Bennett:It's great.
Hilary Sharp:Always that grounding, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then Mum would sort of turn and go. Well, you know love you do like a bit of style. You know sure You'll not be able to afford go shopping if you know on an actor's budget and things like that, you know, Like that's the kind of confidence you get with Irish parents.
Amy Bennett:You know there's nothing like you'll make it, honey, You'll be great.
Hilary Sharp:So it was like, okay, fine, they weren't stage mom, no, no.
Hilary Sharp:Oh, that's hilarious. Far from Loved the creativity, loved the atmosphere of it. And when I came back and was working in Bank of Ireland, I did a Guildhall certificate in acting as well. And I sort of said you know, I'll keep this going. And I guess it was at that point in my life I was 21 then and it was like what do I do? Do I go to Australia? Do I go into acting? Do I still work at the bank? And I guess I sort of went well at the bank. I guess I sort of went well. I don't know if I want the insecurity of income, not knowing what income I had. I also didn't want the judgment that I was feeling I was getting. I didn't have that confidence. Maybe as a 21-year-old woman to take that level of your teeth aren't right your eyes are wonky Because I'd done a lot of aud additions as a child and you know we'd got to sort of.
Hilary Sharp:You know you're on the second call. You're on the second call of this big Disney film and it's just we just don't want her. Her kind of face is a bit wonky. You've got to have a pretty Thanks.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah you know, you kind of recognised that for me, emotionally, it wasn't going to be the road to go down. I wasn't sort of strong enough or confident enough to have that. So yeah, I just parked it and went travelling. And I still enjoy theatre, love theatre and things like that. That's awesome. I'm sure one day I might tiptoe back in. I like it.
Amy Bennett:We'll see you on the stage. Wonderful. So we spoke all about work and profession. Let's ask some more personal questions. What's your dream holiday destination?
Hilary Sharp:So many because I love holidaying, but I guess, because I live here by the beach, I always like to look at something different and I do like going back to Ireland, back to the mother country at times. So I'd have to say I do like I'd have to include a bit of a trip around the wild Atlantic way.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, it would be fun.
Hilary Sharp:I kind of though I probably enjoy anywhere in Europe just for the depth of culture that is there. It really ticks a lot of boxes for me. Culture that is there, it really ticks a lot of boxes for me. I really enjoy the variety of culture that we can get within such a short period geographical distance. I really enjoy the art galleries and the museums that it provides, and the food, so there's a lot of things that I enjoy about traveling around Europe, so for me, that's probably a dream holiday.
Amy Bennett:And in winter. Yeah, it's a good contrast.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, absolutely, as I said like, we have the beautiful beaches here, I have this every single day.
Amy Bennett:I love it.
Hilary Sharp:I don't need to go on holiday for the weather. I don't need to go on holiday for a beach holiday. Agreed.
Amy Bennett:So anything that's different. Yeah, that's me Winter, cosy, hot, you know, hot mulled wine. That's kind of my ideal especially with the humidity we've got at the moment, Speaking of mulled wine and all things delicious tell us about your favourite meal and drink my favourite meal and drink.
Hilary Sharp:Well, as you know, us Irish, we like pretty much anything that's alcoholic. Yeah, it doesn't always like me. Yes, it's probably easier to say what I don't like. Yes, I drink everything apart from bourbon. I don't like bourbon Guinness, sorry. Yes, so I do like gin and tonic is always great. Or a good pint of Guinness.
Amy Bennett:Yeah, what is it called Tan? Is it Kilkenny and Guinness together? The white and tan? Is it?
Hilary Sharp:No, I don't know, but it's nice. It's not a black and tan, is it? Yes, it is. Is that what it is?
Amy Bennett:No, I don't know, I think it is, it could be, We'll Google that yeah yeah, and I really like Irish cider as well.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah actually cider is probably one drink that I don't drink as much of oh there you go.
Amy Bennett:Bad experience as an underage drinker? Yes, Not to be repeated. And you're a savoury gal.
Hilary Sharp:Yes, yes, I love savoury food, love cheeses, love seafood olives.
Amy Bennett:And did I? Is it right? G&t and olives together, You've got me. Hey, heaven, heaven on a stick. If it wasn't 10 am, totally tell us about the best day of your life.
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, um, I was thinking about that one and I sort of you know, I should sort of say the day I married my husband it was great, he's not listening but, um, you know, my wedding day was lovely but it was very stressful. And then I should say, the day my children were born, you know, but to be honest with you, childbirth was not fun, and so much so by the birth of the second one I said I'm not repeating this again.
Amy Bennett:This is the last time I'm going through this.
Hilary Sharp:I don't particularly have a single favorite day. I think I like to reflect on days that I feel gratitude in, and they are often days that I have accomplished and ticked things off my list I'm a list girl, I like it and also times where I'm very much at peace, and that's always when I'm out at nature. So if I'm either swimming in the ocean or I'm out in the bush and I'm amongst trees and it brings a whole level of calm, those are the days that I I yearn for. I love waking up in the morning when there's no, it's really quiet, no one else is up, and I just take calm, take a moment, reflect and be at peace. And it sounds corny.
Hilary Sharp:No, that's that's for for me, and if I can approach each day like that and end the day like that, you get a wonderful sense of satisfaction and wellbeing.
Amy Bennett:It's just optimal, isn't it, to be able to experience that, and I love that. It's not about encapsulating one day, because every day is precious and it really is.
Hilary Sharp:It's so important to be mindful of that and to understand and take a moment to kind of you know this is the 12th of February. We will never relive this again. I like that. Yeah, that's so true. You know, always think each day I must remember the one nice thing from this day. There's lots of not nice things that happen. Yeah, that's just the way life is you know that's.
Amy Bennett:the world just keeps on turning doesn't it yeah?
Hilary Sharp:So to end out, because it's just been amazing and I know we could talk for hours, I know we did two chatterboxes like the worst to get together.
Amy Bennett:No, I'm sure it makes for interesting listening. But to wrap us up, hilary, would you like to share your favourite quote or a saying that resonates with you?
Hilary Sharp:Yeah, look, I love quotes, love sayings. Don't always get them in the right order. Is that an Irish thing? No, it's just me. My school friends have a book on the sayings that I have got mixed up in over the time, so it's a bit of a running commentary on how Hilary's brain works. There's so much going through her head but they don't always come out in the right order. But I guess good sayings are. Why bend down to pick up nothing? Hey? That's a new one for me.
Amy Bennett:Really yes yeah.
Hilary Sharp:It's just. It can be about doing something, or it can be reflective of a person that is not being beneficial to you. Yes, it's, yeah, it would have been one. My grandmother would have said I like it, I bend and pick up. Nothing, my dear, that's really cute. Don't do something futile. That's wasting your energy, wasting your time. Yes, move on forward, move on forward. Yeah, wow.
Amy Bennett:Well, what a beautiful opportunity to get to know you. Thank you, your amazing skills, passion for your industry and also just allowing. Thank you, your amazing skills, passion for your industry. I love it, yeah, and also just allowing the listener to understand the depth of interior design.
Hilary Sharp:It's fascinating, it really is.
Amy Bennett:The benefits of staging a property and how that can ultimately add thousands of dollars to the sales result, which is amazing.
Hilary Sharp:It's a small investment and I like to think of it as an investment. You know, they say that it can increase your property by 10%. So you do the maths.
Amy Bennett:If you're selling a house for a million bucks, it's extra change in the pocket and also our mutual and shared love for our region. It's beautiful, yes. So grateful, we are grateful that your hubby came into that meeting room and you ended up here. I know, serendipitous as it is, Everything is meant for a reason it is. Thank you so much, Hilary Sharp, for joining me.
Amy Bennett:And no doubt we'll be enjoying working together and staging properties in the future, no doubt, thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Beyond the Signboard. We trust you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed making it for you. If there are any topics you want covered in the future, make sure you reach out and let us know. Also, feedback and suggestions are appreciated almost as much as likes, shares and downloads.