Photos by Jacqui Turk
Welcome to the home of the talented, lovely and photogenic Nathan and Jaynie Johnson who own Blacklist, one of our favourite places to buy affordable Aussie art. 2014 was a great and busy year for them, including renovations and the birth of their gorgeous son Dare (pictured), their second child.
“We have lots of books on our ottoman that we like to use as inspiration and to relax. We have Lero Grannis, an encyclopaedia on palms and lots of books on fashion around,” Jaynie says. “We get most of our books online from The Book Depository. We also have a Mad Et Len candle which we bought from Island Luxe in Bangalow (one of my all time favourite stores).”
The pair bought their child-friendly ottoman from Charbella in Cronulla. “It’s handmade in Africa and we love it as it’s the perfect height and is easy for the kids. We didn’t want anything that they could knock as coffee tables always seem to be the perfect height for kids to hit their heads on. We also love that we can move it out of the way super easy and it doubles as a seat and foot rest when we need it to,” Jaynie adds.
The couple don’t always have a coffee table/ottoman so they needed a flexible and easily moved piece of furniture. “Sometimes we love to have it out with some of our treasures on display, and other times we just like to have the space in front of the lounge to play. It’s definitely part practical/part décor.
“We tend to not put glass on it, but we do like to leave items on it as we encourage our kids to not touch things that they shouldn’t. Dare is too young at the moment to try to grab things but Willow has always been brought up with the encouragement to not touch certain things and she has been very self controlled with it. We obviously ensure anything potentially dangerous is out of reach, such as antlers!”
Nathan and Jaynie have just finished renovating their kitchen and loved hosting family in it for Christmas. “We haven’t had an oven for four years,” Jaynie reveals. “We took ages to decide on what we wanted to do with the space but finally enlisted the help of our architect friend and the amazing ITF cabinetmakers and we have come up with a more than we could have hoped or dreamed for kitchen. We are about to start designing our bathrooms and then we will be almost finished with the house which is very exciting for us. It’s been a sloooooow process.”
The Johnsons’ home has a colour palette of black, white and timber and they love bringing in different textures. “Essentially, our interior style at home now is sophisticated seaside grunge!”
Jaynie’s favourite places to buy homewares include eBay, Les Interieurs, Water Tiger, Major Minor for linen and Retro Wombat in Thirroul.
Excitingly, Blacklist are about to launch The Black Factory. “We are currently turning an industrial warehouse into a hub for creatives with a photographic area, meeting rooms, desk spaces in an awesome mezzanine and warehousing, so we will be taking applications for tenants from early-to-mid January,” Jaynie says.
They’re also launching their first greetings card collection and journals in February at Life InStyle Sydney. Not to mention a new art print collection, Not All Who Wander are Lost. “We are eagerly awaiting the new year as it brings with it so many new opportunities and we can’t wait!”
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