• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Interiors Addict

Heart Your Home

@interiorsaddict on Instagram   @interiorsaddict on Facebook   @interiorsaddict on Pinterest  
Subscribe
  • Job Board
  • About
  • Before & Afters
  • RENO ADDICT
  • Kitchens
  • Bathrooms
  • Kids Rooms
  • Bedrooms
  • Living Room
  • Shopping
  • Expert Tips
  • Recipes
  • Parenting
  • Travel
Interiors Addict
  • Job Board
  • About
    • Our Story

      Australia’s largest interior design, styling and renovation blog for the everyday Aussie. By former journalist and magazine editor Jen Bishop, the original interiors addict!
      READ MORE

      We’re big on Instagram!
      @interiorsaddict

      • About
      • Contact Interiors Addict
      • Work with Interiors Addict
      • Advertise / Find a job in Interiors
      • Press
      • Get Your Free Ebook

        This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
    • bookcover-jens-reno
  • By Room
    • Browse by Room

      Where you can search for all our posts about a specific room. Only interested in kitchens and bathrooms? We got you!

      • Kitchens
      • Bathrooms
      • Kids Rooms
      • Bedrooms
      • Living Room
      • Home Office
      • Dining
      • Laundry
      • Outdoor & Exteriors
      • Renting
    • bookcover-jens-reno
  • Before & Afters
    • Before & Afters

      Who doesn’t LOVE a good before & after? If you want to be inspired by the whole reno process, and not just the shiny photos at the end, this is the place for you!

      View Articles

      • Before & Afters
      • Jen’s reno
      • Real Renos
      • RENO ADDICT
    • AFTER bedroomBefore & after: Luxury Sydney apartments go from drab to fab
    • 5.2-Upcycle-afterWhen cost of living increases put your reno in jeopardy, be smart
  • Reno Addict
    • RENO ADDICT

      Looking for reno inspo? Find it all here, from other people’s projects to the latest trends, tools and products, whether you’re DIY-ing or employing trades.

      View articles

      • Reno Products
      • The Block
      • DIY
      • Reno Trends
      • Before & Afters
      • Real Renos
    • Caroline-Sharpnack-©-HouzzHome reno spending and activity at highest levels since 2019
    • Sahara_36_MA_kitchen_2500pxHow to give any home a sophisticated industrial vibe
  • Shopping
    • Shopping

      Want to know where to buy the latest furniture, homewares, rugs, art and more? We’re always sharing our latest finds and telling you where you can buy them.

      View Articles

      • Furniture
      • Homewares
      • Art
      • Smart Home
      • Appliances
      • Reno Products
    • MHP_290817-9What you should snap up in Contents ID’s bi-annual sale! + win!
    • BASOTHO_HERITAGE_BLANKET_KHARETSA_ALOE_12_9065-2The Baobab Collective: authentic and soulful African textiles
  • Inspiration
    • Inspiration

      While Jen’s a legitimate interiors addict, she’s no design professional, so she calls on an army of the country’s best to share their expertise with you. Be inspired by their stories too!

      View Articles

      • Decorating 101
      • Interviews
      • Expert Tips
      • Before & Afters
      • House Tours
      • Designers
      • Styling
      • Renovating
      • Real Renos
      • Covet my coffee table
    • Lounge roomBeautiful St Kilda home renovation references Paris decor
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle

      We’re mostly about the home but Jen also likes to share other things she thinks you’ll love, like food and travel.

      • Recipes
      • Travel
      • Parenting
    • DSC_8605Foodie Friday: Family-friendly French onion soup
    • Isla-MotelHip new motel renovation on NSW South Coast
  • Jobs
    • Advertise on our job board
    • Job Board FAQs for advertisers

The reality behind the glamour, with Real Living’s senior stylist, Sarah Ellison

March 5, 2013

FacebookPinEmailTweet

Sarah Ellison has the job many readers would kill for: senior stylist on one of the country’s most popular magazines: Real Living, where she’s been for more than 2 years. Here she shares what it’s really like behind the scenes and gives plenty of advice for those wanting to follow in her footsteps.

Sarah Ellison Real Living

After fashion college, Sarah Ellison started a small fashion label but to earn some money, she took a job doing visual merchandising for an interiors store. She met many stylists there and started assisting Paul Hopper from House & Garden part-time.

“Fashion and interior styling are very similar jobs,” she says. “The main difference would be that interior styling is much more of a mammoth production. There’s a big difference between calling in some clothing and calling in 6 rooms’ worth of furniture to shoot. Creatively though, the ideas come from the same part of you that gets inspired. Inspiration can be applied to any media.”

Sarah assisted freelance for a couple of years and built a portfolio of test shoots in her spare time. She was assisting stylist Kirsten Bookallil, who had been putting a good word in with Real Living editor Deb Bibby. “I met with Deb and she gave me my first editorial shoot. Unbeknown to me it was actually a bit of a test as there was soon to be a position opening up for a stylist. Deb loved the shoot, put her faith in me and hired me for the job. Great timing too as I must admit there aren’t many jobs out there.”

Sarah Ellison Real Living print on print 1
Photo by Nick Scott

She says the most common misconception about the job of a stylist is that it’s all glamour. “Most of the time you are schlepping furniture around, crawling around on the floor putting Ikea together and being a bit like a courier,” she says.

On the plus side though, the initial stages of a new brief, when all the ideas and possibilities start flooding into her mind, are beyond exciting. “The next bit that I love is finding the right pieces for the brief; it’s like Christmas when I find what I’m looking for. The best part of my job is working with an inspiring creative team to achieve a common goal, which is simply making beautiful pictures. Those days are so much fun. I also love all the interesting people I meet along the way.”

It can be physically demanding too. “The worst bit would just be the exhaustion at the end of the day. My creativity comes with a little bit of anxiety and after a day of it you can be pretty tired so there isn’t much left in the tank for anything else.”

Real Living Sarah Ellison winter brights
Photo by Chris Warnes

It’s clear Sarah’s worked hard to get where she is, and her advice to aspiring stylists is to do the same. “Putting in the hard yards in assisting is the only way,” she says. “It’s the kind of job that can’t really be taught in a school, you have to get hands-on experience.”

Her top tips are:

  • Call up all the agencies that represent the stylists and ask to be put on their assisting lists.
  • Research everything there is to know about suppliers in the industry i.e. furniture, wallpaper, flooring, props, paint etc. This job has a lot to do with contacts. I love using assistants who know where and who all the suppliers are it makes my job so much easier.
  • If you have the opportunity, make yourself really available. Shoots can be sporadic and get cancelled and rebooked frequently, so you must be flexible too.
Real Living gift guide Sarah Ellison
Photo by Chris Warnes

So what qualities does a good stylist need? “The ability to work really hard, diplomacy and a certain level of taste is super important. A very special person once taught me about Creative Karma. I believe in this too.”

Sarah, who’d like to be designing her own interiors range in 5 years’ time, says she is forever grateful for the creative freedom editor Deb gives her. “She is amazing and knows that if something inspires me, it means we will get a good result from a shoot, so she lets me go for it.”

Real Living Sarah Ellison dogs
Photo by Marie Homer

Home for Sarah is a top floor 1930s apartment in Sydney’s Paddington with great natural light. While it has ornate ceilings and lots of windows, she describes her style as pretty minimalist with “a beachy soul”.

“I hate clutter, which is crazy as I’m always collecting little nicknacks on my travels that usually end up in a box somewhere! With all the trinkets I’m surrounded by daily, it’s nice to come home to a calm and simple space.”

If you want to add personality to your own home, Sarah suggests art, whether cheap or expensive, can say a lot about you. “I don’t like seeing a home that looks like something straight out of a magazine. Trends are great but they need to be interpreted with your stamp and mixed up with personal treasures.”

Real Living Sarah Ellison print on print 2
Photo by Nick Scott

FacebookPinEmailTweet

Primary Sidebar

Popular This Week

  • Australian kitchen dimensions: standard sizes for every last detail
  • How to elevate your living room by stylist Natalie Walton
  • Palette Cam 15 apps to help you build your dream home
  • Dining room Canadian home reno is a riot of colour and fun and we love it!
  • Old Newtown bakery sustainably reimagined as unique family home

Follow us on Instagram

Australian made bathroomware is seriously impressi Australian made bathroomware is seriously impressive!

The new @studio.xox ONLY sells Australian brands. Like @nood_co coloured basins, lead-free eco brass from @faucetstrommen and @lindseywherrett's  ceramic basins made by hand in Tassie.

And as for their Sydney showroom (they also sell online): WOW.

See and read more on the blog now via link in bio.

#interiorsaddict #theinteriorsaddict #jenbishop
#creatingbeautifulspaces #homestylingdesign
#designbywomen #homestylingtips #sydneycreatives
#homestylingsydney #interiorstyling #interiordesignsydney
#everydaydesign #interiortrends #renovationinspiration
#homedesigninspo #lovemyhome #stylingdetails
#loveinteriors #homeimprovements #interiordesignaustralia
#dreamhomeinspiration #homemakeover #personaldesign
#interiordesignaus #creatingbeautifulspaces
#creativehomes #housestyling #sydneyhomes
#interiorinspiration #myhomedesign
I'm THRILLED to be an ambassador for the brand new I'm THRILLED to be an ambassador for the brand new @madeinaustshow in Sydney this August.

🦘🐨Forget every tacky association you ever had about touristy Australian made and prepare to see a showcase of the best of home, lifestyle, fashion and beauty made right here. If the pandemic has made you appreciate buying local even more, this is for you.

It's the first business to business trade event connecting retailers with Australian made products to champion our local makers🙏

Apply to exhibit or find out more at their website, via their bio, now!

Are YOU buying more Australian made post covid?

#madeinaustralia #australianmade #aussiemade #aussiedesign
Do I recommend a timber vanity top? A big fat NOP Do I recommend a timber vanity top?

A big fat NOPE! 💧 

Which is why we have recently covered ours with a Caesarstone top (thanks to @justinplace_sydney for the advice and supply) and the sweet RELIEF of not having to worry about this high traffic area anymore, I'm telling you!🤗

Doesn't matter what they tell you or how many times it's sealed, I'm not sure it's a great idea in a room which is so, well, wet!

I love having the warmth of timber in the bathroom and it's a beautiful piece, but timber on the top? Never again.

Ours probably lasted a year (if that) before it started to go downhill (and we want a good decade out of a bathroom, right?!). 2.5 years on, everything else in this bathroom looks virtually brand new and the water marked vanity top was really letting the side down and making me sad!

But I'm so pleased with this solution, I have to say! Took the plumber less than an hour to remove the sink, install the top and connect the sink back up. We didn't need to move the tap and it isn't too close to the basin.

The kids are allowed to brush their teeth and wash their hands (liquid soap 🥴) in here again and I can leave my hair straightener on there with gay abandon 😆

The reflective surface (which I can clean with whatever I like!💪🏻) brightens the room up too!

Next week I'll tell you what I really think of my brass tile trim too 😉

#interiorsaddictbathroomreno2 #interiorsaddictfamilyhomereno #timbervanity
Is there a more decadent and delicious soup than F Is there a more decadent and delicious soup than French onion?

I think not!

Grab the recipe on the blog this morning via link in bio.
Get to know me! I haven't done one of these in YE Get to know me!

I haven't done one of these in YEARS so there's possibly thousands of you who don't know my back story. Here's a few things you may not know about me!

✔️ I'm English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and I moved here (just for one year) back in 2008😆 

✔️ I can't end the day without a bath, even if I get home really late or on a really hot day. It's a mental health thing and my happy place. 🛁 

✔️ Before becoming a blogger and running my own small business, I was a journalist from the age of 18. My favourite news gathering times were as a newspaper crime reporter (bit different to interiors!) 📓 

✔️ I once worked at New Scotland Yard in London 🚔 

✔️I had an interview at Oxford (didn't get in!) but chose not to go to uni at all after being offered a job on the local paper #universityoflife 😁

✔️ My mum died when I was 3, I have an excellent dad and one sister (younger) in the UK ❤️ 🇬🇧 

✔️ At school, my favourite subject was French 🇫🇷 and I was head girl 🤓🤓

✔️ I'm addicted to ☕️ , long hot baths and💄 (been wearing it since I was about 14!)

✔️ I'm not a phonecall person and will never ever pick up an unknown number. Ever. They can leave a message 😁

✔️ My favourite cuisine is Japanese 🍣 🍜 and Damian and I honeymooned in Tokyo and Venice 

✔️ I have zero design qualifications. I just started blogging about my passion, which is trying to persuade everyone to #heartyourhome That was 11 years ago...

✔️ My favourite tipple is a good GnT or🍷 

✔️ Cheesy as it sounds, 💁‍♀️being a mum is my absolute biggest joy in life 🧒👦

✔️ I will never give up my old school paper diary! Has to be A5 and week to view 📖 

✔️ My official surname isn't Bishop. I kept my maiden name for work after I got married but changed it for everything else. Often confuse myself!

✔️ I didn't get my Ps until I was 37 and I'm still a terrible parker 😯 🅿️

Hope you feel like you know me a bit better 😘

📸 @vanlowvanlow
Blue, green or lilac? 🎨 @nood_co coloured con Blue, green or lilac? 🎨 

@nood_co coloured concrete basins is a great Aussie business success story. Although co founder Matt Di Costa first found fame as one half of Matt and Kim on The Block, he hasn't relied on this to build his brand.

“We are very honoured to have been a part of The Block, and all they have done for us. I am, however, a believer in letting the product take centre stage,” he says.

Read our interview with Matt via link in bio now.

🙏Share your favourite colour basin in the comments!

#colouredconcrete #noodco #colouredbasin #blockheads #the block #bathroomtrends2022

Pic 1 by @naibudesign_ and 2 by @twostyleinteriors
I'd love to see more colour in Aussie interiors! I'd love to see more colour in Aussie  interiors! 🎨 

At the end of the day though, it's a matter of personal taste. I love pops of colour but it's not for everyone. 

We couldn't resist featuring this Canadian house tour today. The amazing Kelly Green  hutch (swipe) was an upcycled $200 find 🤗

Head over to the blog via link in bio to see the rest including one of the best playrooms we've seen in ages!

Project by @in.house.design
📸 @philcrozier
Create an unexpected city oasis with an emphasis o Create an unexpected city oasis with an emphasis on light and nature.

That was the brief for the conversion of a corner shop and a warehouse bakery into a luxury family home in Sydney's Newtown. And how about the library?!

Take the tour of this very special @annacarindesign project on the blog now, via link in bio.

Pic: @justinalexanderphoto
The things that excite me as a 40 year old 🤭 N The things that excite me as a 40 year old 🤭

None of us enjoy laundry (OK, there are a few of you out there who do. Weird!) but we have to do it. And often. So if your laundry bin can be as good looking, functional and space saving as this, then why wouldn't you?!

I've lost track of how many baskets I've thrown out because they've gone soggy or mouldy. They look pretty, sure, but they're not fit for purpose and they're often messy and overflowing.

Here's what I love about his @brabantia_australia one:

✔️ ventilation holes
✔️ no need to remove the lid for small items plus it hides your dirty laundry from view
✔️ easily removable and washable inner laundry bag that velcros back on 
✔️ corrosion resistant so fine in bathroom or laundry 
✔️ Brabantia make things as sustainably as possible
✔️ compact, sleek, European design
✔️ 10 year warranty
✔️ tall and skinny so takes up less floor in my tiny laundry

The Rolls Royce of laundry bins? I think so 👌🏻

TOLD you this was going to be exciting!

Now I need to know, do you have your laundry basket in the bathroom, the laundry, every bedroom? We used to have one in each bedroom but moved to the laundry-only situation which I much prefer (one for colours and one for whites). My boys know to put their used clothes in the bin in the laundry each night and they're 7 and 3!  #raisingfuturehusbands

#gifted
Follow on Instagram
Visit Jen's profile on Pinterest.

Get Your Free Ebook

Ebook cover

Never miss the latest renovating and interiors products, news and inspo again! Sign up for our newsletter and we'll send you the best bits from the blog, direct to your inbox. Plus you'll get our latest eBook: What Made The Biggest Impact in Jen's Own Reno.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Avatar

About Jen Bishop

Jen Bishop is our owner and publisher and an experienced journalist and editor. Interiors Addict has been her full-time job for more than 8 years. She is married to Damian and mum to Sebastian and Charlie.

More from Styling

How to elevate your living room by stylist Natalie Walton

Neale Whitaker

Neale Whitaker’s latest tips on the art of apartment living

Amy’s new sofas: Are they the most family friendly around?

Bar

New Business Chicks HQ dripping in colour and print

A career change to styling: it’s never too late

Bathroom

Intrim style series: Naomi Findlay’s new ‘Modern Country’ reno

How to style your kitchen with everyday objects and add interest

Living room

Inside a creative’s colourful home in the Southern Highlands

Recycled bottles feel so soft in new rugs by Hali & Jason…

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AvatarCreina Waddell says

    March 5, 2013 at 8:41 pm

    Love your blog on Sarah Ellison from Real Living. Have had the pleasure of knowing her since she was 4 and admire what she has achieved in Sydney. While you can learn to be an artist or stylist I believe Sarah is a natural.

  2. Avatarlexi says

    March 6, 2013 at 12:12 pm

    Great interview Jen, loved this piece.

    Love Sarah’s work – she’s got a great eye for detail and colour.

  3. AvatarSophia Wray says

    March 6, 2013 at 1:00 pm

    What a fantastic interview. Thanks Jen!

    I really look up to and admire the styling in Real Living and to have a interiview with Sarah and her insight is fantastic. I hope i get the opportunity one day to work in this industry, at the moment it is study study study.

  4. AvatarLouisa Li says

    March 6, 2013 at 7:39 pm

    Great interview. I particularly like the part where Sarah says the most common misconception about the job of a stylist is that it’s all glamour. I have worked in fashion visual merchandising and it is physically demanding and most of the time the things we do are very unglamorous! I think it’s important for people who are striving to become stylists to understand that, so thanks for pointing it out.

  5. AvatarEmma St Clair Ford says

    March 9, 2013 at 2:22 pm

    I love Sarahs work (not just because I know her!) you can always pick her pages in Real Living, very classic and understated, not too much “stuff” and she doesn’t over dress a room.

Footer

Interiors Addict

Interiors Addict

  • About
  • Contact
  • Work with Jen
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure Policy

Browse

  • RENO ADDICT
  • Jen’s Reno
  • House Tours
  • Real Renos
  • Interviews
  • Styling
  • Designers
  • Bedrooms
  • Covet My Coffee Table
  • Expert Tips
  • The Block
  • Art
  • Furniture
  • Recipes

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RENO ADDICT

Copyright © 2011–2022 Addicted Media Pty Ltd
Website care by ClickWP · Log in

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!