14 Australian Country HOMES
In 2007 they made the move, opting to
return to Brisbane. “I had nesting pangs
and wanted a forever home after moving
so often,” Riza says. They found it in a
12-year-old Queenslander with its original
fl oorplan intact, a huge backyard, and
plenty of rustic ambience to fuel Riza’s
passion for all things vintage. “It truly was
everything I thought a dream home would
look like — beautiful, accommodating, and
homely,” Riza says. “Having a mango tree
in your backyard in Queensland seemed
too perfect. We had spent so long in
apartments in Asia that I was dying for my
kids to climb trees and run over grass.”
Back on home soil, Riza started her
own styling business, Villa St Interiors, to
indulge her love of design, and the family
home is the canvas for her creativity.
She’s infused a taste of the their travels,
pairing those infl uences perfectly with
second-hand pieces she sources from op
shops, Gumtree, antique markets and
even the footpath. They live under the
old Queenslander until inspiration strikes
and Riza upcycles them, giving them a
second, or perhaps third or fourth life. “It’s
easy to fall into the trap of buying what
everyone is into because that’s what you
see everywhere,” she says. “I try to look
for particularly unusual or unique items,
things that are beautiful to me in their
colour, texture or structure. Great things
can turn up anywhere, the secret is to
always be looking. For me I can’t turn it
on or off , it’s just how I’m wired. I’d like to
think I can fi nd beauty in anything, and
with the amount of things building up
under our house I think Cam might agree
that I do.”
“We are opposites,” says Cam, who
spends weekends turning Riza’s dreamed-
up projects for their property into reality.
“I am structured and organised and she is
creative and carefree. It somehow works.
I am pretty comfortable with the constant
redecorating now.” His latest task was
creating a European-style window box
for fl owers outside the kitchen window.
Its pops of pastels rise whimsically above
the farmhouse sink, against a backdrop
of dense Murraya hedge that surrounds
the grounds, encasing the family’s oasis in
the city in vivid green. “I love that no one
knows what’s going on behind our hedge,”
Riza says. “We are close to the city, butThese pages: As an interiors and events stylist, Riza’s aesthetic is a mix of inspiration from her travels,
upcycled second-hand finds from op shops and the roadside and new items found in quirky interior stores. ›