The Block judge Neale Whitaker launches a homeware range

An immersive sea of emerald in the form of lush, undulating countryside provides ever-present inspiration for tree-changer Neale Whitaker.

For the style guru and long-time judge on TV juggernaut The Block, soaking up the magical bucolic world that beckons beyond his front door is a joy that never wanes.

Home for Whitaker, his partner David Novak-Piper and their four adored dogs is a renovated farmhouse cradled in a verdant valley near the town of Berry on the NSW South Coast.

And it’s clear there’s no place the former Sydney-based magazine editor would rather be.

“I’m standing in my office now looking out at rolling paddocks, and I can see elements of all the colours I love,” he tells Domain.

It’s these glorious and quintessentially Australian hues that make up the palette for the design aficionado’s new Neale Whitaker N|W homeware range. Shades in the capsule collection vary from Wattleseed and Eucalyptus green to the evocative Desert, Granite, Pink Salt, Oyster and Burrow.

“The colours are much more about the landscape and less about the coast,” he says. “And I wanted to avoid high-trend colours.”

Just as the key hues in the collection – encompassing bed linen, towels, throws, cushions and other decor items – are soft and timeless, so are the materials that bring them to life. Natural fabrics, such as Turkish and pure woven cotton as well as tactile linen, feature heavily.

“It’s a range we plan to grow,” Whitaker says. “Over time and over the seasons, we will add more and more to it.”

Whitaker says he has never been swayed by the latest, seemingly greatest, directions in the world of interiors. Nonetheless, there’s an irony to this stance that is not lost on the media personality.

“I’m actually quite anti-trends when it comes to homewares,” he says, adding with a laugh: “And that might sound like an odd thing coming from a man who was a magazine editor himself for many, many years. Because, of course, when we edit homeware magazines, we’re all about trends.

“But in my personal life, I don’t really believe in trends. I believe that homes should be full of things you love – that those things will be there because you do love them, not because they’re on trend.”

Perhaps surprisingly, too, given his penchant for earthier neutrals and organic materials, Whitaker reveals he’s anything but averse to vibrant colour and bold patterns.

“I love it. I do,” he says. “It’s probably not something that David and I would choose to live with ourselves, because this house is not particularly big and I feel that anything too bold, crazy or patterned would overwhelm.

“But I absolutely love [Brisbane-based interior designer] Anna Spiro’s work and how she so deftly mixes colours, patterns and textures. I think it’s beautiful.”

So, what do classic interiors mean to Whitaker?

“They’re something very timeless, but also very personal,” he says. “It goes back to my belief that you choose things for a reason. David and I have, I think, quite different tastes but somehow they meet in the middle and merge quite well.”

Above all, everything in Whitaker and Novak-Piper’s home has meaning. And that, surely, is just as it should be.

“We’ve been together a long time, but what I love to tell people is that I can tell them a story about every cushion, artwork, lamp, rug and book we have on the shelves,” he says.

“They’re all things that have significance to us and were chosen for a specific reason at a certain time. To me, that’s what creates a classic interior.”

The Neale Whitaker N|W Collection is available in-store and online at MyHouse and HOUSE – Bed & Bath.