Behind a limoncello-yellow door in Hawthorne sits one of Brisbane’s best interior design studios, a space as bold and layered as the interiors it produces, and a designer who believes the best rooms come from leaning all the way in.
Some spaces announce themselves before you’ve stepped through the door. For Connors & Co., that announcement is a door painted in Porter’s Limoncello, a shot of pure yellow that sings against the Hawthorne streetscape and sets the tone for everything inside. “It has such beautiful natural light and a sunny energy that starts with the yellow door,” says Kate Connors, the designer behind the Brisbane interior design studio. “It really sings.”
The Hawthorne space had been a long time coming. Kate had watched this strip for years, waiting for the right studio to appear, somewhere between her children’s schools and close to home, with the small footprint and main-road front window she’d always pictured. “The minute I saw this space, it felt like home,” she says. When the for-lease sign finally went up, she knew the stars had aligned.
SMALL BUT MIGHTY: INSIDE THE CONNORS & CO. INTERIOR DESIGN STUDIO IN BRISBANE
The Connors & Co. studio is compact, and Kate wears that as a badge of honour. “It’s small but mighty, just like our studio,” she says. Clever space planning turned the modest fit-out into a treasure trove, filled to the brim with the fabrics, hard finishes, art and objects that give her interiors their personality. “I wanted the space to feel like all the layers that make our spaces so unique,” she explains. “Visitors comment that they get such a great feeling coming in, and that it feels so us.”
A tiled bench in warm terracotta divides the room, doubling as a landing place for the piles of books and samples that are the raw material of her work and concealing a bar fridge kept stocked with sparkling water and wine for clients. And with Hawthorne Coffee conveniently next door, everyone is well catered for. On the back wall hangs a pinboard that has become the studio’s beating heart. “It’s a little insight into my love, or obsession, for fabric, pattern and colour,” she says. “It’s where I pin my favourites, play with unexpected combinations, think through palettes.” Take one swatch off to show a client and a gap appears, sending her to search for something to fill it, which leads to another unexpected play on colour. Right now she’s experimenting with reds, black and lime green, a direction inspired by a visit to Sahco’s showroom in Paris. “It was oh-so sophisticated, but at the same time it felt very exuberant, and we’re embracing this bold, expressive and richly layered approach more and more.”
Nearby, open shelves hold hard finishes arranged with the same instinct, little experiments in combining colour, pattern, texture and material. A limited-edition print by Annelie Vandendael, from the Sois Belle series, anchors the room. “It’s contemporary, calm and a little bit unexpected. It’s also about beauty and authenticity, which really resonates with our brand.” Every other piece has been chosen with the same considered eye, from the round matt-white meeting table that grounds her sample flatlays to the vintage B9 Bentwood chairs sourced from Sydney, a nod to her love of a classic Thonet and to enduring quality.
For all its curation, the Connors & Co. studio earns its keep as a tactile workspace. “I’m such a tactile person and need to see and feel everything, and I encourage our clients to do the same,” Kate says. Samples pile everywhere, and for her that’s precisely the point. “The magic is in those piles; how they work together is everything. Coming into our space is an experience, a little insight into how your home can feel if you invest in all those layers.”
TEXTILES FIRST: HOW A FABRIC BACKGROUND SHAPES THIS BRISBANE INTERIOR DESIGNER’S EYE
The layered, material-rich approach is no accident. Kate’s path to interiors began in visual arts and textile design, earning degrees at the ANU School of Art and UNSW before undertaking formal interior design training at the Enmore Design Centre, all while running the retail space for Cloth Fabric. In time she began taking private clients, and Connors & Co. was born, first with a studio and shop in Balmain, then weathering its own twists: two babies, a move to Brisbane, and the gradual building of a team. Today that team is four, a size Kate describes as the sweet spot. “I don’t have any desire to get any bigger, at least while my kids are still at school.” These days she works as creative director, steering every project while remaining hands-on through concept and delivery.
BOLDLY BEAUTIFUL: THE CONNORS & CO. APPROACH TO COLOUR AND LAYERED INTERIOR DESIGN
Kate describes the Connors & Co. style as transitional, crossing timelines and blending classic and contemporary, but the truer signature is instinct. “I don’t come at it from an intellectual place, and I don’t think there needs to be any rules.” The result unfolds like a journey, layers, textures and colours coming together in collaboration with the client, and colour is where the studio is boldest. “Before moving to Queensland, I used colour in a really subtle, tonal way. My work took a turn when I moved here, embracing more colour with a change of light.” She now gently pushes clients past their comfort zone, sometimes toward a colour they think they should avoid, sometimes toward a clash that makes a space “just the right amount of ugly.” That passion runs deepest with fabric, traceable to childhood school holidays spent sewing with one grandmother and learning to knit and crochet with the other. “I gravitate towards natural fibres, am always pulling chunky wovens, and am obsessed with anything embroidered or screenprinted.”
A HOME THAT FEELS LIKE YOURS: WHY INTERIOR DESIGN CLIENTS CHOOSE CONNORS & CO.
Underpinning it all is a belief in beautifully made things over big names. “I’m not about showy big-name brands; I’m more about beautifully made products. Where we can, we try to support brands that are local and make locally.” For Kate, the greatest misconception about working with a designer is that the result will feel staged, like a showroom you can’t connect with. Her answer is the opposite: a philosophy of full commitment, of finding a client’s aesthetic and leaning all the way in. “I’d rather go all in than dance around it. When you commit fully to an aesthetic, that’s when you get the best results, a space that feels uniquely yours.”
Visit (by appointment) at Studio 3, 85 Riding Road, Hawthorne, Brisbane.
Photography: Kosk Photography
