Interiors

The Colourful, Creative Home Of Adelaide Designers, Daniel + Emma

The Adelaide home of designers Daniel To and Emma Aiston is an extension of their happy, creative personalities.

As creative directors for non-for-profit craft collective JamFactory and the duo behind studio DANIEL EMMA, the couple couldn’t resist putting their own stamp on their cute and cosy residence.

We first visited the couple at their Rosewater home almost a decade ago, but they’ve since updated the 1910-workers cottage with a series of renovations, complementing their colourful collection of art and furniture with a joyful yellow kitchen!

Written
by
Christina Karras

Clever creative power couple, Daniel To and Emma Aiston! Photo – DANIEL EMMA

The outside of their charming home studio. Photo – DANIEL EMMA

A series of renovations helped transform their worker’s cottage into a bright and colourful abode! Photo – DANIEL EMMA

‘Our previous kitchen was pushing 30-years and had only had a tiny facelift in the time we have lived here,’ Daniel and Emma say. This prompted their recent update of the space, designed around their a yellow Smeg oven! Photo – DANIEL EMMA

‘We were very conscious to pick good quality materials and appliances and pay attention to the small details like power-points and maximised storage. This is very much a space designed by us for us!’ Photo – DANIEL EMMA

It’s now the hero feature of their bright and happy home. Photo – DANIEL EMMA

‘There is no rhyme or reason behind the groupings it is just things that are special to us, some gifts and trades from friends, objects picked up on our travels, and others more sentimentally have existed in our lives since childhood.’ Photo – DANIEL EMMA

‘Everything has a story and a meaning to why it is there,’ the couple say. Photo – DANIEL EMMA

Pops of colour bring plenty of personality to the house. Photo – DANIEL EMMA

A look into the light-filled living room. Photo – DANIEL EMMA

Cute and colourful! Photo – DANIEL EMMA

A retro fireplace. Photo – DANIEL EMMA

Quirky and clever furniture enhances the home. Photo – DANIEL EMMA

Their art collection is also just as key to the interiors’ eclectic feel. Photo – DANIEL EMMA

Photo – DANIEL EMMA

A peek into one of the bedrooms. Photo – DANIEL EMMA

Photo – DANIEL EMMA

Photo – DANIEL EMMA

‘We love its cosiness, its expansiveness, the fact that there is plenty of room for us to do our own thing but for some reason we always end up in the same square meter needing the exact same thing!’ Photo – DANIEL EMMA

Writer
Christina Karras
8th of August 2022

Industrial designers Daniel To and Emma Aiston are one of Australia’s most impressive creative power couples – having worked with big names like COS and HAY, to co-creative directing JamFactory’s furniture and retail activities.

The couple first discovered their home when they returned to Adelaide after two years in London. ‘We began looking at houses out of curiosity (with no intention to buy, as we were planning on moving overseas again),’ Daniel says. ‘We went to two open inspections before finding our house and after making a novice offer, she was ours, and the rest is history!’

The humble and homely feeling of the corrugated iron-clad workers cottage in the western suburbs of Adelaide caught their eye over some of its ‘ritzier’ neighbours, which were made from sand or bluestone.

While cute and cosy, the home still needed some TLC, and the young designers set about updating the property with a series of hands-on renovations. First up was an essential bathroom update to repair its ‘poor’ drainage and remove some asbestos. Daniel and Emma then made the house their own with their collection of art and unique furniture, bringing their playful style to the interiors with pops of colour throughout. But the real renovations didn’t take place until six years ago, when their friend and architect Haslett Grounds designed a new extension with high ceilings and ‘big open windows’ that reveal a dreamy outlook of the backyard!

Just eight months ago, they created the final and hero feature of their home: a perfectly playful yellow kitchen with glamorous marble accents! They designed the space themselves, inspired by a bright yellow Smeg oven. The joyful space is complemented by a matching yellow door to their home studio, which ‘makes going to work just that little more cheerful’.

‘We chose yellow as it is a delightful colour and always makes us happy,’ Emma says. ‘And most importantly, it reminds us of one of our best friends Thorsten van Elten – who had an amazing yellow Formica bench top in his old flat.’

‘Every nook of our house has an assortment of things that have come together over many years of collecting!’

Daniel and Emma say some of these pieces have no rhyme or reason, while others are sentimental objects they’ve sourced from their travels, or gifts from friends and family. The end result is a happy and colourful home, filled with meaning, and plenty of personality!

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