ABC presenter Richelle Hunt on building a collection of mid-century decor

She’s a co-host of ABC Radio’s Conversation Hour with a love for mid-century furniture design – and won’t turn her back on anything farmhouse chic, either.

Richelle Hunt’s skill of finding collectables began as a teenager going to op-shops with her late mother Janice making the pilgrimage from their regional home in Moe to Elsternwick when Kylie Minogue was at the top of the charts in the late 1980s.

But thanks to COVID-19-related restrictions, going to op-shops and garage sales are a thing of the past (at least for now), but that hasn’t stopped Hunt from trawling websites like Gumtree and eBay for curious and collectable finds in her spare time.

“I do miss op shopping,” says Hunt, who lives in bayside Melbourne with her husband and their six-year-old daughter. 

“During the last lockdown, everybody went all Marie Kondo and people’s nature strips became my garage sale substitute for a while.

“But I also love looking through expensive home magazines and trying to recreate interior looks on the cheap.”

Some of her amazing roadside finds include Kartell stackable tables in Beaumaris. She also recalls coastal road trips in her 20s with a male friend who drove an old Mercedes called Molly to source 1970s plastic furniture that everyone was only to happy to throw out and replace with Ikea at the time.

A passionate search for an original Roll and Hill Antler light shade ended with one being imported from the US; it’s one of her many cherished possessions in her home, which also includes three Butterfly chairs with original upholstery (two came from her mother-in-law’s shed).

“I really think my interest in collecting comes from Mum. We always hit the garage sales and op shops together; from bric-a-brac to antiques and she was very creative when it came to putting it all together in the home too,” Hunt says. 

She also purchased a rare Hans J. Wegner chair from Grandfather’s Axe in Northcote; drawn to its original upholstery and iconic Danish style. 

“It was reasonably priced and these chairs are rare and hard to get, it’s just beautiful,” says Hunt. 

If she’s not rummaging your nature strip during her isolation walks, Hunt loves a shop at Chapel St Bazaar too.

“I will jump out of a moving car for hard rubbish, though,” she laughs. 

“I am forever finding things and you’ll be surprised how much Kartell ends up there. My husband is so embarrassed by me sometimes and I have been known to hit the brakes to pick up a piece of West German pottery that someone stuck on the front yard in Phillip Island.”

Hunt, who left the La Trobe Valley at 18 to study in Melbourne, actually enrolled in drama at VUT before dropping out to pursue a career in reporting. She started out as a volunteer at 3CR and later at RRR before making the move to the ABC.  

But it’s her role as co-host with Warwick Long on The Conversation Hour that truly feels like she’s hit the programming jackpot.  

“Being a co-host is one of my favourite aspects about radio. I’ve loved it ever since I did it at RRR,” she says. “The Conversation Hour is a combination of station reporter and telling people’s stories – it’s not about the opinions of professors and politicians; it’s about the everyday.

“It’s a perfect blend of who I am, too. I can be the most real I have ever been before.”