To Sarah Steele, owner & founder of Green Patina Home, success is about happiness. It’s enjoying a sense of fulfillment in your work and life, raising great humans, embracing the ride, taking stock of what’s important, and putting things into perspective. And feeling stoked when you look back at all your life chapters - that’s a success story.
Tell us a little bit about Green Patina Home.
Green Patina Home aims to inspire creative homes through showcasing curated arrangements in an online retail space. My hope is to bring a unique flair to interior spaces through collaborating with artisans, re-purposing special vintage finds and sourcing bespoke pieces so the home-owner can bring to life their unique style. My love for beautiful vintage and unique homewares combined with my excitement for creating new spaces born of individual creativity has led me to Green Patina Home. I want to share the energy a creative home brings.
How did the idea for your business come about and what’s behind the name?
Anyone who knows me well will notice my love for the colour green. But green also represents the environment and my care for a considered approach in homeware choices. By rediscovering the beauty and authenticity in aged products, Green Patina Home supports the homeowner to not only find their unique style, but to steer away from mass produced products that are often not valued by the consumer and have a short lifespan in the styled home. Patina is the word used to describe a surface appearance of something grown beautiful with age or use. Patina represents to me the beauty in all aged products; timbers, metals, leathers. A worn, well-loved, aged look holds beauty in its visual texture and originality in its story. Home is the place in which all these collections can live. Styled well, the home offers peace and beauty in its visual aesthetics, a space for warmth, comfort, family, love and growth. The idea came from my love and passion for unique and creative spaces and, in a time of increasing housing developments and newly built homes that lack originality, my desire to show others how aged products can be creatively curated with modern pieces to bring a unique flair, beauty and joy to your home.
Have you always had a love for homewares and interiors?
I have always enjoyed arranging and re-arranging my collections, even as a kid. Growing up in ‘the old house’ on a sheep farm, my three siblings and I shared my parents’ love of original, aged furniture, home features and special finds. I really fell in love with interiors and design when renovating our first home in Scone, playing with colours and revealing history in an old building. Later, building our own home near Tamworth, I loved the challenge of styling interiors with a focus on green living and open, light-filled space. This is where my love for contemporary style mixed with my love for old wares and our modern country home came to life with an eclectic collection of vintage finds and contemporary furnishings. Our recent move to Forster NSW, has re-ignited my creative home spirit as we delve into our coastal home renovation and ride the reno tide; ups and downs, mess and chaos, but with a plan and a vision for another beautiful home in which to create our family dreams. I love that homewares and interiors can be a tool for moving my styling mindset with each project. With the shift from country to coast we are creating a home featuring unique, colourful homewares set against earthy terracotta tones, coastal whites and naturally greyed timbers. It’s so much fun!
What advice would you give to the next generation of female business owners?
As a very new business owner, I don’t feel in a position to give advice but I do think we, as women, have so much on our plates with life commitments that we can be shifted into a space carved for us, not by us - a space not entirely of ourselves. This happens slowly over time, doing the juggle, being a mum, being a wife, being a careerwoman, working hard to meet every demand. And then there is a time we realise we want to achieve or bring back for ourselves what we once were before all these demands. I think this is all okay and a natural part of being a woman, a mother, a wife. My advice would be it’s not too late to try something new and change direction for yourself if it makes you happy.
What’s on the horizon for Green Patina Home in 2023?
I am currently studying an Interior Design course to brush up on my technical skills with interiors and styling. Green Patina Home will be looking to offer a styling service to those who need guidance and advice to bring their creative homes to life. I am looking to expand my stock collections to include beautiful brassware and some soft furnishings – all to be styled with aged or vintage products to show my vision of old with new. On the distant horizon, I would also love to find a bricks and mortar space to showcase my products and the Green Patina style!
Location: FORSTER | NSW
Website: greenpatinahome.com.au Instagram: greenpatinahome Facebook: Green Patina Home
Photography: Elana Merrick