A SLICE OF MY LIFE
My name is Tahlia Fursland and I love to design things, but you already know that, so let me tell you about myself, about where I came from, what inspires me and where I want to go.
I am twenty one, I graduated high school in 2015 and started work in the local fruit shop at 14. Still working for the same boss, I made the switch to the local cafe when I was 19 and I love it. I work with our customers, I make coffee despite hating the taste of it personally and I help out in the kitchen regardless of my reputation of being completely hopeless in the kitchen. After six and a half years, I still love where I work and I find it hard to imagine not working with them one day, maybe soon or maybe in the far future.
I gave a Bachelor of Design Arts course a shot, but that wasn't for me. So instead, I enrolled with the Interior Design Institute and have loved studying with them. I found a passion for line artworks and typography in my time studying my Bachelor, however that course wasn't nearly as focussed on Interiors and I hoped, but I guess I should have known that going in. From studying with the Institute, my passion and flair have grown and I am so excited to start my new career.
Some things haven't changed though, from high school days spending lunchtimes in the graphics room making our folio's look amazing, from one course to another. I love anything creative, I could spend hours drawing or painting or re-arranging spaces in my house. I could wander through furniture stores or display homes for hours wondering how they came up with their ideas, designing spaces differently in my own mind.
I've always know I wanted to design residential spaces. I love the idea of making your everyday house a home. I want people to come home to their house and feel relaxed, comfortable and at home. I want them to be proud of their house when they invite their friends over for wine and cheese, beer and pretzels or coffee and cakes. I want homes to be something people are proud of, not just something they take for granted. I don't like the idea of working in some big city firm where I get lost in the system being on a huge team of designers to come up with one design that will fit out every apartment in a multi-story building. A home should tell the story of the person who lives there; not the person who designed it to suit everyone. Even when you're styling a home for sale, it should still be at a more subtly personal level, something that fits a wider audience but not a replica of the levels above and below.
I think it would be fun to work on a display home. Regardless of what I just said about something that has been designed for everybody being less personal, like property styling, a display home or a home for sale are designed or styled to inspire people of what they could have, where they could be living, to get them excited for the possibility. They get people excited because there's an outdoor area ready to start entertaining friends or a study ready to set the kids up with their homework.
Personal tastes evolve, with changing fashion and trends, seasons and age. Finishing high school, I loved Art Nouveau and Art Deco and dreamed of having a home that oozed these styles. Three years later and I dream of a modern industrial or scandinavian home with accents of blush pink. I have deeper appreciation for different art styles and movements than I thought possible. I never realised the dream house exterior i always imagined came from an actual period of design, now I can recognise an Edwardian home when driving down the street. I look at the gargoyles on a church and know its from the Gothic period. I recognise elements I had never even looked at before.
I could browse Instagram and Pinterest for hours wondering how I can incorporate new ideas into my own home. Before graduating high school, I never realised how beneficial it could be to add a plant to a space. It simply didn't occur to me to put a plant inside. Now, with the popularity of succulents on the rise, despite not being able to keep one alive myself, I love the addition of an indoor plant, resulting in a more relaxed space in most circumstances.
Having always been a bit of a doodler, getting in trouble through high school for drawing all through my diary or my books, I work hard at making my own pieces of art to accessorise a room. Over the last few years, I have been working at getting to know Adobe Illustrator, which has allowed me to create a number of different artworks to finish dressers, walls, bedside tables and the like. I love to use simple line work and type to create a finished piece that may not be the greatest work of art you've ever seen but fits in and complements it's place perfectly. An added bonus of using small works like these to dress up a space as well as having one larger, probably a lot more expensive featured as a focal point in your space, is you can rotate them with something new when you get tired of how it looked.
Simplicity is something that appeals to me the most, the tiny house movement in particular. I love the idea of finding a tiny space and somehow fitting everything in there that needs to be in their to live sufficiently. I want to have my bed above my lounge. My Instagram is constantly filed with images of this, as well as interiors that I both love and dislike because while not everything is to my personal taste, it is to someone else's taste and I like to keep an open mind.
I have the most supportive network around me, believing in me and encouraging me. I am so beyond excited to finally be at the point in my life where I am ready to start working in the field I have been dreaming of for so long. I'm excited to see where life takes me. I hope you'll be part of the ride with me.
With love, Tahlia
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Instagram: tahliafurslanddesigns
Pinterest: Tahlia Fursland