Louella Boitel-Gill is an interior design wonder woman who produces spaces that are as achingly beautiful as they are honestly raw. She is one of our very favourite and most treasured here at Jatana Interiors and to say that we adore her is a little of an understatement! 

Recently we have welcomed her into the Northern Rivers fold where she has relocated to her gorgeous old Queenslander “Gypsy Creek” with her two daughters. If you haven’t spent hours scrolling through and falling head over heels in love with  Louella’s @gypsycreekbangalow Instagram then we promptly suggest you do! 

Jatana tiles feature in Louella’s new home and we love that she makes them look as if they have been there for many years gone by. This very notion is what inspires and captivates us about Louella’s amazing style, she has this intrinsic ability to make everything look at home be it old or new, the magic she weaves in the interiors she touches is nothing short of breathtaking in a very humbling way. 

We wanted to share a little of Louella’s world with you and offer an insight into her styling wisdom, she is a most incredible woman and we have no doubt that you will be as captivated by her and the extraordinary spaces she creates as we are! 

Tell us a little about yourself and what it is that you do? 

I’m an English born interior designer now living in Byron Bay. My background is furniture design, I worked with Terence Conran in London and that brought me to Melbourne to open the Conran Shop at Georges just over 20 years ago yikes!

I lived in Melbourne for ten years and was the creative director at Mark Tuckey furniture. We moved to Sydney and did another ten-year stint, and have recently, just before lockdown, moved up to Byron where I’d bought a lovely little Queenslander 18 months ago. I have two daughters, Chilli and Indigo. They are settling into their new school up here and life is good.

How would you describe your interior aesthetic? 

Definitely easy, definitely homely, and definitely liveable. A home should tell the story of your life, it should be made up of things you’ve collected along the way and it should read easily. I adore what I do and when I work with a client and try to help them make their home somewhere they can really feel comfortable and really enjoy. There should be an element of fun.

How do you cultivate and harness the mood of a new space? What is your creative process? 

I spend time in the space alone, get a feel for it. Sometimes I’ll sit quietly, more often than not I’ll pace around deep in thought and see where my mind takes me.

What is your favourite room within a home?

I think this is different relative to each and every home or area. I don’t think I could say that any one room was always my favourite. I do love bathrooms though, you spend time on your own in a bathroom so it’s a space that you’re want to really be able to feel good in.

Tell us about the Jatana tiles you have featured within your spaces? How did you choose them? 

I feel in love with a blue encaustic on my first visit to the Jatana space, and that kind of led me through all the bathrooms in the house, checking what other tiles I could mix with it. I was obsessed!!

What inspires you and how do you remain inspired? 

So many things. I love driving, I love old cars so I tend to feel really inspired when I’m driving around sourcing. I’ll be miles away inside my head dreaming up a space. Eyes on the road though of course!! I walk on the beach every morning first thing with our rescue dog Lewis. That gets the creative juices flowing and clears away any cobwebs. And I still love Design mags, as much as I’ll trawl through Pinterest, I do love a good copy of The Uk Elle Decoration Country!!