Home Tour: Where Jess Nguyen hosts her famous dinner parties

Home cook and recipe creator Jessica Nguyen has a knack for making meals look fabulous, colourful and easy to make.

It’s a skill the savvy content creator has translated into the interior design of the eclectic two-bedroom Edwardian home she shares with husband Liam and pet Chihuahuas Marlo and Pabla in Armadale.

After being made redundant from her beauty marketing job due to COVID in 2020, Jessica turned lemons into lemonade by spinning her passion for food into a business inspiring others with fresh and fun, step-by-step recipes and styling tips. She now has more than 90,000 Instagram followers.

“I always loved food, but I couldn’t think of a way to pivot into that whole different space,” she says. “Going from beauty to food is quite hard.

“Being made redundant spawned this whole new career as a cook and a creative. I have very happily traded lipsticks for pasta.

“I’ve always loved interiors, and colour, and styling, and I think now that because being a cook and a creative is my job, I’m channelling my other passion project into interiors.”

Jessica admits that, despite her flair for colour and styling, it took time to focus some of that energy on her home.

“I’ve only just started gaining the confidence to really change it up in the last year or so, especially during lockdown,” she says. “I lived like a renter in my own home for the first few years and now I’ve finally got the confidence. I’m seeing the space as something that I can change up, and I used to be quite scared to [do that].

“I find when your passion becomes your job, which was the cooking, then you have to find something else as your creative outlet. I’m now focusing on bringing colour and creativity into my home because it’s also my workplace.”

The home’s interior is filled with a mix of old and new, high and low-end pieces that blend together to create a magical space rich in meaning and authenticity.

“I don’t really like to stick to one aesthetic because I find that quite boring and I like everything around me to have some kind of story and type of sentimentality, versus just being a piece of function,” Jessica says. “I’m like a sentimental kind of bowerbird. I pick stuff up that I think is cool from a place that I’ve travelled to or something that’s been passed down and I try to make that decorative, but also functional.”

Prime examples are the glass table and rattan knotted chairs that take centre stage in her pretty dining space.

“I didn’t have a big dining table so that was the first thing I bought [after buying the house nearly four years ago] and it was actually a purchase off Gumtree,” she says.

“This older couple were downsizing into an apartment and that was the dining set that was in their formal dining. When they got married it was gifted to them. The backs of the chairs have two rings interwoven that represent marriage.

“I just love rattan furniture and glass and I wanted something that would work in that space and have a bit of uniqueness as well. It’s always something that people ask me about and it’s one of my favourite pieces because it is pretty much the heart of the home, but then it has such a fun story behind it too.”

A unique 12-globe goosenecked chandelier, a gorgeous yellow bone-inlaid sideboard and a stunning plate collection make up some of her prized pieces, which are then mixed with budget pieces from Kmart, Ikea and op shops.

“I like the challenge of trying to layer different things into one space,” Jessica says. “I think you need to be in a space for a while to then figure out what you want and then slowly build it and layer it from there, versus just moving into a home and buying everything at the one time.”

Plants play a big part in her home design, something she picked up from her green-thumbed parents.

“Plants get overlooked as an interior choice. If you’re living in that space constantly like I am, plants are great for purifying the air,” she says.

“I also think if you can’t afford to splurge on furniture and interior touches that you really want, a plant will also change the space and bring a bit of life into your home.”

As an ambassador for Eat Play Rest, a campaign created to educate people on how to lead a brain-healthy lifestyle through easy, practical tips, Jessica has shared her advice on how to create healthy food that looks and tastes great.

A beautifully dressed table is one of her recipes for a successful meal. Her top tips include investing in a tablecloth, mixing and matching cutlery and glasses and keeping floral decorations to a minimum.

“I’ve always loved interiors, and colour, and styling, and I think now that because being a cook and a creative“They do add a nice touch, just try not to go over overboard because, in the end, you’ve got to save space for all the food and wine, which is more important than the flowers. You can’t eat those,” she says.