Interior design and decorating is in Kim Oliver’s blood.
Growing up surrounded by beautiful furniture and exotic statement pieces sourced from far flung corners of the world, Kim learned the art of design and styling at the knee of her celebrated Sydney interior designer mother.
As a child she accompanied her mother to trade fairs and on international buying trips and then joined the family interior design business – a preferred supplier for up market retailer David Jones and often featured in Vogue Living, the Sydney Morning Herald and TV style shows such as Location, Location.
Later Kim was able to combine two loves – travel and decorating. As an international flight attendant with Qantas for 18 years, she travelled the world soaking up the vast decorating styles of every culture imaginable, gathering ideas and sourcing items for the family business.
Once flying was out of her system Kim accepted an approach by Apple to join as a ‘Creative’, teaching design using Apple’s technology. It was during this period she also developed her ‘eye’ as a photographer honing her skills of positioning a shot, applying absolute attention to detail, lighting, colour and space.
She was hired to photograph celebrities including international singer Flo Rida, Delta Goodrem, Hi-5, Ricky Lee Coulter and major sporting stars.
Kim found herself drawn back into the world of interior decorating when her friends started asking her to restyle their homes.
“I would go around to friend’s houses and start moving furniture. I walk into a room and my mind goes straight to making it look better.”
And word spread. Friends of friends of friends began contacting her.
Kim began restyling houses for real estate agents using only the vendor’s possessions and her knowledge of colour blocking, creating vignettes and focal points in a room and adding the wow factor that dramatically improves the saleability of properties.
This then lead to her now offering full home staging for empty properties through her company Inside Room.
Her understanding of how to view a room through the lens of a camera for greatest effect also meant the value of the photography/videography of the property was maximised to help buyers fall in love.
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GET IN TOUCH WITH KIM @ INSIDE ROOM
Sometimes things don’t quite go to plan however.
“I was asked to style the house of a lady wanting to sell because she dreamed of a Hamptons home. She didn’t like her house and didn’t use half the rooms because she couldn’t figure them out. But when I arrived I found she did have a Hamptons house. And nice furniture to match. What she needed was help to create the vision. I removed some items, added a couple of key pieces and completely rearranged rooms and furniture. When I finished she was on the verge of tears telling me she’d fallen in love with her home and couldn’t possibly sell. She kept sending me pictures of her ‘living’ in each room! While we didn’t quite achieve the objective of selling her home, I did save her over $100,000 in selling and moving costs and helped her to fall in love with her home.”
When Kim is not creating magic in other people’s homes she satisfies her entrepreneurial spirit buying, renovating and selling properties and sharing her knowledge and experience of design through her Instagram account.