Bringing joy through design

From a young age, Mandy Molloy-Lee understood how changing a space could improve her wellbeing.

Now she dedicates her time to improving the wellbeing of others.

Molloy-Lee along with co-director Wayne Lee started their business, Premium Interior Design, with the mission to create homes by bringing their clients vision to life.

“I love the clients, I love adapting to every job, adapting to floor plans, transforming each space and uplifting people’s spirit,” she said.

“I find joy in how much impact we can make on people’s wellbeing.”

Molloy-Lee said designing a home for clients required getting to know them and understand them on a deeper level.

“We are about working harmoniously with families, couples and individuals to make sure their visions are coming into reality,” she said.

“You have to be reading your clients, and getting an understanding for their personality, interests and what’s important to them and putting that together cohesively.

“It is important that the kids are involved in the process too, because it’s not just about their space looking good, it’s about what’s going to make difference in their room and what’s important for them.”

Molloy-Lee said her parents were a huge source of inspiration to her growing up, with her mum a successful homewares business owner in New Zealand, and interior designer by trade, as well as her father who worked in real estate.

Having worked within the design industry for 20 years, Molloy-Lee took the leap by starting her business about 10 years ago, focusing on a local-first, adaptable business offering.

“We specialise in doing a full service, so we do full interior design as well as purchasing and putting everything together for the client – I suppose it’s a little bit like The Block,” she said.

“We work directly with the builders and come in and do the design.

“People come to us because we are very adaptable to styles, we don’t have one particular look, we can do Hamptons, Scandinavian, French provincial or very traditional, we adapt to the clients.”

A stand-out project for the business was a Tibetan-styled home in Ocean Grove built by JCON Construction, taking about a year and half to complete.

“The clients had been overseas living in Asia and wanted all of their experiences and travels in their home,” she said.

“A lot of people were involved, we had a great team. It took place through COVID-19, so adapting through COVID was challenging, but the builder did an amazing job.

“The owners were involved all the way through and were thrilled with the end result.”

On the trends to watch out for, Molloy-Lee said the Hamptons style was becoming increasingly popular among Geelong residents.

“Hamptons is the direction that more and more Australians are going for, especially in Geelong and down the coast, people are wanting to go back to nature and be closer to the beach,” she said.

“The Hamptons style can vary, but you will find it’s a combination of natural materials such as teak wood, linen, cotton, cane and elements of glass which all create a relaxing environment which can feel like you’re on holiday every day.

You can explore rattan for summer to add warmth, or bring together silver grey elements and decor for the cooler months.”

On working with Premium Interior Design, Ms Molloy-Lee said clients can expect quality services and products as well constant support through every step of the journey.

“We are right there through the whole process from start to finish,” she said.

“So many decisions need to be made on a project, so we try to keep things as simple as possible for our clients.”