I've always been interested in how things work together.
I'm an interior designer, stylist and creative with a career spanning fashion, visual merchandising, corporate business, textiles, custom joinery and interiors.
They may look like different disciplines, but each has shaped the way I approach design today.
I notice how things relate. Colour. Proportion. Texture. Materials. Function. The way something is made. The way someone uses it.
Whether I'm looking at a room or a wardrobe, I'm essentially asking the same question:
How can this work better and still feel unmistakably like you?
About Lisa Galvin
My creative career began in online visual merchandising at Topshop’s London Head Office, where design had to do more than simply look good.
It had to attract attention, communicate an idea and, rather importantly, sell something.
That experience sparked a deeper interest in fashion, textiles and making, which I later developed through formal study in fashion and millinery.
Millinery in particular gave me an appreciation for working with materials by hand, understanding form and construction, and recognising how much difference the smallest detail can make.
Colour. Proportion. Texture. Composition. Craft.
Those principles have stayed with me ever since.
They've simply moved from shop windows and hats into wardrobes, furniture and rooms.
Fashion came first
Then things took a corporate turn
At another point in my career, I worked as a C-suite assistant within leading businesses, including Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
It may seem an unlikely chapter for a designer.
It was surprisingly useful.
Working alongside high-performing people taught me a lot about organisation, communication, decision-making and what happens when your working life already requires a considerable amount of your brain.
I haven't forgotten it.
When your working life demands a lot from you, your home and wardrobe shouldn't.
It's one of the reasons I enjoy working with busy professionals and business owners today.
You don't need me to arrive with another 83 options.
You need someone to understand the problem, filter the noise and bring you the decisions that actually deserve your attention.
Creativity was always going to find its way back in
After leaving the corporate world, I returned to a more hands-on creative life, including teaching creative workshops in Byron Bay.
The workshops brought together many of the things I love: making, experimenting with materials, sharing ideas and helping people discover that creativity doesn't require permission, perfection or an intimidating collection of specialist equipment.
I loved breaking a creative process down, showing people how something was made and then watching them take the idea somewhere entirely their own.
Years later, that same instinct has found a new home in my YouTube tutorials and The Creative Process.
The format has changed.
The curiosity hasn't.
Whether I'm experimenting with textiles, making a piece of wearable art or disappearing into a project that takes approximately 60 hours longer than anticipated, it's another way for me to explore materials, techniques and ideas, and share what happens along the way.
Apparently I still like a workshop. It just has a camera in it now.
From ideas to things that actually get built
I later co-founded and spent eight years running an award-winning joinery business, working closely with skilled craftspeople to design and produce custom interiors and furniture.
During this period, I also completed my interior design qualification.
Working so closely with the people actually making things changed the way I design.
I learned to think beyond the lovely image.
How is it constructed?
Which material is appropriate?
How will it wear?
Can it actually be built?
And will somebody quietly curse my name when they discover the detail I've drawn?
That practical understanding of materials, fabrication, documentation and construction still informs my interior work today.
Pretty drawings are lovely. Buildable ones are better.
A little recognition along the way
I've been fortunate to have my work and businesses recognised with industry awards, alongside formal study across interiors, fashion, millinery and presentation.
Awards
Second Place - Sculpture / 3D, Ocean Shores Arts Expo, 2024
Commended Award, Maker of the Year Awards, Australian Wood Review, 2023
Excellence in Micro Business, Byron Bay Chamber of Commerce Small Business Awards, 2023
Excellence in Trades, Construction and Manufacturing, Byron Bay Chamber of Commerce Small Business Awards, 2023
Education and Training
Interior Design, TAFE NSW
Applied Fashion Design and Technology, TAFE NSW
Millinery (Hat Making), TAFE NSW
Business Diploma, June Dally-Watkins Business Finishing College
The qualifications gave me the foundations.
Years of designing, making, sourcing, problem-solving and working with clients taught me what happens when the textbook meets real life.
The common thread has always been making
Quite literally, in some cases.
I come from a family with a long connection to textiles and craftsmanship, including professional wool classing and dressmaking.
I've been sewing since I was a child and making jewellery since I was ten, so working with fabric, colour, texture, metal and the tiny details that hold things together has been part of my creative life for as long as I can remember.
Over the years, that fascination has found its way into fashion, millinery, jewellery, visual merchandising, furniture, joinery and interiors.
I'm particularly drawn to the meeting of textiles and hardware.
A beautiful fabric and an unexpected fastening. A piece of jewellery and its clasp. A belt and its buckle. The hardware that transforms a bag. A cabinet and its handle. A piece of furniture and the detail that makes it sing.
The scale might change from a piece of jewellery to an entire room, but the things that interest me rarely do:
Material. Colour. Detail. Function. Craft.
Different forms. Same fascination.
Today, Lisa Galvin Design brings those different parts of my career together.
I work across Interior Design and Personal Styling, helping busy people create spaces and wardrobes that are functional, individual and considerably easier to live with.
To me, they're not such different disciplines.
Both involve proportion.
Colour.
Texture.
Function.
Editing.
Understanding what someone already owns.
Knowing what's missing.
And occasionally having the courage to say that something simply isn't working.
Will I have opinions? Absolutely. That's rather the point.
But I'm not interested in imposing a signature Lisa Galvin look.
I'm interested in finding yours.
People + places
A few things I believe
Personality > perfection
I'd rather create something that feels like you than something that looks suspiciously like everybody else's Pinterest board.
Good things deserve another chance
Vintage, sentimental, beautifully made or simply loved.
Before we replace something, let's see whether it deserves to stay.
Beauty earns its keep
A room needs to function.
A wardrobe needs to function.
A chair should ideally permit sitting.
More isn't automatically better
Better is better.
Fewer, more considered decisions generally beat another trolley full of things we're hoping will solve the problem.
Enough about me. What's going on with you?
Whether it's a room that refuses to cooperate, a wardrobe that's lost its way or you're simply not sure where to start, tell me what's going on.