The Design Files: Inside the colourful and vibrant home of artist Rachel Castle

Who: Designer and artist Rachel Castle, husband Daz, and children Cleo (18) and Lucas (16).

Where: Northbridge, NSW

What: Cheerful renovated home

The suburban Sydney home of designer and artist Rachel Castle has a vibrancy that almost bounces off the printed page.

The space, says Castle, has evolved from the days when she loved “too many things to have a proper style”.

The colour-loving creative now employs a more laissez-faire method of bundling joyful objects together, and hoping for the best. It’s working.

Castle, her husband Daz, and children Cleo and Lucas have lived in their sun-drenched Northbridge home for the past 10 years.

The essential criteria for buying the house: “privacy, great light, and a living area that opened onto a level backyard.” This property delivered on all fronts.

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Over the past decade, the family has transformed the house, through the layering of Castle’s cheerful soft furnishings and artwork, as well as with major renovations. After some frustrating false starts, plans for an upstairs renovation were flipped, when approval was instead granted for ground floor works to proceed.

Castle explains that after this process, “we were so reno weary, we just left the upstairs in the end”.

While council restrictions limited a large-scale transformation of the site, no administrative red tape could dampen the energy of Castle’s distinct aesthetic. This home is a shrine to colour and eclectic collections – nothing is hidden away, everything is out on display.

“I love so much those houses that are highly curated,” Castle muses. “I would love to live in one, but I would have to burn everything we own in a bonfire and start again.”

Castle’s styling tips include “sticking all of the things I like in the one spot”, and collecting art that you truly love.

She outlines this straightforward approach succinctly. “I never sell anything, so my one rule is just to love it there and then on the spot and commit to it.” This has resulted in walls laden with beloved artworks, and a house which truly communicates the passions of its owners.

While Castle’s self-described lazy style has organically led to the relaxed, bright and cheerful feeling of the space, she is eager to highlight the contributions of interior designer Tina De Salis, too. “The house would never have looked half as good without my interior designer,” she says.

De Salis specified all of the cabinetry, windows and doors and all of the fittings. “Even though I knew what I wanted, she was key to getting all of the details right,” Castle says, adding: “My one piece of advice is to invest in the service of a good interior designer.”

The Design Files guide to injecting colour

It’s easy to create a bold, cheerful home.

• Bed linen: Update your bedroom instantly with a bright, colourful bed linen scheme and pare back with white sheets.
• Artwork and prints: Think outside the square. Frame a bold tea towel design or display favourite postcards – it’s all about how they’re displayed.
• Cushions: The easiest way to refresh a living room is to add different cushions.
• More is more: Combine bold, clashing colours to create a cheerful space. Own it.