We make beautiful homes. That's our day job. Of course, there are a lot of designers out there with fabric swatches and builders with Big Ideas who all say the same thing. You'll usually find them using words like 'courageous' and 'journey'. Unironically.
So, what makes Red Door different?
Well, for one thing, we speak like real people, not judges on cooking shows. We're an experienced team of designers and builders with a folio full of satisfied customers.
When we start a new job, we start with lots of questions. What you like. What you don't like. Your kids' middle names. How you feel about subway tiles. Do you like red wine? (Because we do.) We want to see every Pinterest board, Post-It note and crazy bit of Dream House inspo you've got. After that? We roll up our sleeves, whip out our yellow trace and get to work.
Time to meet the team. This won't take long – we're a close-knit little family here at Red Door Project. There's Dan (the guy who makes sure sh*t gets done on site), Dani (she's the managing & creative director who very much wears all the hats and loves a good strategy), Ashlee (our interiors expert and content creator), Rory & James (our trusty chippy's) and Annette (our number crunching Financial Controller). Pull up a plush, leather wingback and get ready to read some bios…
Dan is a 20-year construction professional with one heck of a CV. He's been the leading hand on some of Melbourne's biggest commercial projects, including The Gatwick Hotel, Vue de Monde, The Stokehouse and Port Melbourne's Soap Factory.
Commanding battalions of tradies on TV is fun, but on a day to day basis Dan specializes in high-end residential projects. Settling families into their dream homes. Making sure every detail is millimeter perfect. He's a trustworthy bloke with a big smile, loud laugh and perfectionistic tendencies. Exactly what you want in a builder.
On the daily, Dan can usually be found:
If Dan's good with his hands, Dani's good with her eyes. She's a qualified interior design expert with a lot of experience. Her real talent is problem solving: seeing a space's potential, weighing up variables, juggling a thousand little jobs at once. Reading clients' minds also helps.
Dani's design ethos is clean lines, creative textures and a side of quirk. She knows that the real test of interior design is comfort – there's no point having a magazine-worthy living room if you're too scared to touch anything. Her clients appreciate her honesty, sense of humour and (mild) addiction to spreadsheets. Dani really enjoys spreadsheets.
On the daily, Dani can usually be found:
Ashlee is an Interior Designer who makes,in her own words, "bloody fab spaces". (Dan and Dani liked her immediately.)
Ashlee's approach is more… eclectic. She doesn't just draw inspiration from the local design scene – her little black notebooks are filled with sketches, doodles, ideas, travel notes, photos and the latest international trends. One look at a blank space and you can already see the mental gears churning. Punchy designs. Subtle palettes. A well-travelled, contemporary feel, oozing sophistication and good taste. That's Ashlee in a nutshell.
On the daily, Ashlee can usually be found:
Rory is one of Red Door's trusty chippy's and comes saddled with bags of experience. The fact he barracks for Collingwood is the only blemish on an otherwise flawless CV.
Rory got into carpentry in high school and completed his apprenticeship in Wagga Wagga, cutting his teeth on shop fit-outs and large-scale commercial builds. After six years he moved to London, where he specialised in high-end residential projects including fancy-pants renovations, and eating fish and chips. Rory shares our passion for bespoke building and smart design. He's not big on 'flat pack' houses.
On the daily, Rory can usually be found:
There's more to James than meets the eye. Look past the moustache and high-end construction experience, and you'll find a guy with
layers (James is pretty much the onion of chippies). Did we mention he was Victorian backgammon champion in 2015?
James kicked off his carpentry career in the bayside area, building beautiful homes and extensions. After a short hiatus from construction (which presumably involved a lot of backgammon) he took up the tools again, supervising for one of Melbourne's top semi-commercial developers. He joined the Red Door family in 2019. On the design and architecture front, James appreciates a Victorian facade coupled with a Deco interior.
On the daily, James can usually be found:
As the Red Door business grew and grew, so did the paperwork. It was time to hire a bookkeeper, so Dani turned to the best she knew: her mum, Annette.
With a background in bookkeeping and banking, not to mention a motherly eye for detail, Annette is the paper-filing maestro that keeps the business running smoothly. She handles the accounts, makes sure suppliers are paid on time, and makes sure Dan eats his daily serve of vegetables. What are mother-in-laws for?
On the daily, Annette can usually be found: