What happens after you win The Block, sell the house, have a baby, launch a business and start again?
In this episode of The Edit, host and Home Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Elle Lovelock sits down with Steph Ottavio, architect, designer, founder of Japandi Estate and one half of beloved The Block duo Steph and Gian.
Steph opens up about the pressure of renovating on national television, what she and Gian carried from The Block into real life, and how she renovated her own home while pregnant, with a five-month deadline and her mum living across the road.
But this is also a more personal conversation about the strange quiet that can come after a huge, formative chapter. Steph talks honestly about experiencing “post blues” after The Block, feeling disconnected from purpose, going to therapy, and learning to strip life back to the basics: community, connection, conversation, morning rituals and the little moments that make you feel like yourself again.
Together, Elle and Steph explore what really makes a home beautiful, from decluttered spaces, layered rugs and 12 skylights to the feeling of walking into a home that has been designed for real family life.
“I was 10 years younger than all of the other contestants. I’m like, ‘Yes, I know how to put a room together, and yes, Gian knows how to manage a budget, but no, I don’t know how to manage all of this.”
Steph Ottavio
“Because we’re the Type A personalities, the rose needs to be planted in the front pot, and the mat needs to be down and the marble porch needs to be sealed.”
Steph Ottavio
Listen now: This episode of The Edit is available via the iHeart app, homebeautiful.com.au, or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch below or listen here.
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