Based in Melbourne, Emotive Interiors is an emerging interior design studio founded by Mary Sanderson.
We focus on curating intimate relationships between you and your physical surroundings, to evoke feelings of positivity and comfort when you enter a space.
Photo by @ryanwheatley
About
Growing up in a charming heritage bluestone home on a farm in Melbourne’s outer north, Mary’s informal design education began in her teens.
“Even before I knew what design was, I was already kind of doing it with Mum,” says Mary. “She was my influencer, the person that made me passionate about it.”
Diving headfirst into renovation became a way for this resourceful mother and daughter team to address her father’ hoarding habits.
Witnessing her energetic mother take up an array of newly self-taught skills on the farm – carpentry, tiling, painting, sewing, to name just a few – Mary began to feel a creative yearning beyond her own corporate career.
“I just can’t sit at a desk for that long. I’m very visual, and I like moving and doing things with my hands. So I took to fashion illustration, textile design, all these little short courses,” says Mary. “I think it just took me a while to realise that what I was doing could be a full time job.”
Having grown up joining her electrician father on site visits, and with a thorough, hands-on understanding of home improvement from her mother, Mary discovered her calling, and went onto complete an interior design diploma at Melbourne’s Commercial Arts Training College (CATC) while working an project coordinator role at an award-winning architecture studio.
Since then, Mary’s playful eye and gung-ho DIY spirit have transformed the spaces and homes of her nearest and dearest. Her work spans from a gorgeously detailed children’s nursery on a budget, to a full contemporary renovation of an old bungalow in Mont Albert.
“I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing a project through from beginning to end,” says Mary. “And I really do love converting a house for people to make into their own home.”
The smallest changes can make a huge improvement. Could your home benefit from a little affordable design know-how?
