Rosie Morley and Paddy Milne on renovations, teamwork and why more money isn’t always better

Selling in the City hosts Rosie Morley and Paddy Milne explain their fresh take on the reality renovation show format by taking inspiration from the surrounding suburbs.

Tearing down walls might seem par for the course in a home renovation reality TV show.

But on Selling In the City, hosts Rosie Morley and Paddy Milne want to tear down a different kind of barrier – the metaphorical one that divides the interior inspiration from the exterior experts.

“There’s a lot of shows out there that have an interior designer on the inside and then there’s someone working outside,” says Milne, who worked for leading landscaping companies in Canada and the UK before returning home to Australia to start his own business in Ballarat.

“We want to remove that wall and that’s why we’re always talking to each other. And most importantly for people looking at the home for the first time, we want everything to flow. Everything needs to feel conducive and connected through the home and if we don’t talk then you won’t have that.”

Award-winning interior designer Morley, who also has overseas experience working on high-end hotels in London and now heads up the interior team at Melbourne Architecture company Fender Katsalidis, agrees.

“We have to keep it symbiotic,” she says. “And we respect each other as designers so we want that opinion. The visual of the two contexts working together is important to us.”

Paddy Milne and Rosie Morley in the Fitzroy episode of the Binge reality TV show Selling in the City.

The premise behind Selling in the City is simple: eight homeowners keen to sell their inner-city abodes in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane invite Morley and Milne in to use their design expertise to maximise their value when they hit the market.

Once the pair have been given the keys – and a budget anywhere between $45K and $140K – they immerse themselves in the suburb to try to find out what makes its residents tick and more importantly, what they value in home and are willing to pay top dollar for.

“We come up with a concept and then we look for this inspiration in the neighbourhood,” says Morley. “With Newtown, for example, we knew it was the origins of queer culture, so we went to a drag show, we did a contemporary interpretative dance class and our concepts are all centred around this idea of theatre, performance and expressionism. So, they’re the kinds of contextual language that we drew out of that neighbourhood and then it gave us a reason to design to that.”

Morley and Milne then have to walk the line between coming up with design ideas that will help the house stand out from the crowd and provide an instant wow factor, but are not so bold or radical that they put off prospective buyers.

“We’re looking for that sweet spot,” says Morley. “Bring them on the journey so they are buying into it but not go too hard that it’s polarising. I mean, there’s always that aesthetic sensibility that kicks in and says ‘that is too much’.

Rosie Morley in planning mode in the Fitzroy episode of Selling in the City.

And while there were big differences between the budgets they had for the houses in Sydney’s Newtown, Marrickville, Leichhardt and Kingsford, Melbourne’s South Melbourne, Fitzroy and Richmond, and Woolloongabba in Brisbane, sometimes it was a case of more money, more problems.

“Sometimes with a really tight budget, the decisions are made for you,” says Morley. “The non-negotiables come to the fore very quickly. Decision-making is a little simpler and more brutal. And when there is more money, you’re like ‘I want to do everything!’.”

Milne agrees, adding that a well-thought out plan, an innovative approach and genuine collaboration beat an open chequebook hands down.

“Targeted design and really thoughtful design can go a long way to having someone walk through the property for the first time and fall in love with it and have that emotional connection,” he says. “And that’s what’s going to drive the price up.”

Despite their years of industry experience, Selling in the City is the first TV gig for both Milne and Morley (whose younger brother Bob starred in the hit Binge comedy drama Love Me). The two both grew up not far away from each other in country Victoria but had never met until their chemistry reading for the show and hit it off instantly.

Paddy Milne in the Woolloongabba episode of the Binge reality TV show Selling in the City.

On the second last day of production – and the afternoon before they are due to reveal the renovated Leichhardt house to its eager owners – Morley gets a little teary when asked what she most admires about her on-air partner.

“He is so collaborative,” she says. “Like he really asks ‘what’s important?’. I can just say it straight when I don’t feel something is right outside. And vice-versa for the interior. I can just say ‘I don’t know if this is working’ and he’s like, ‘Okay, fine, let’s find another solution’ and he just jumps straight into it, workshops another option, and we’re back on. There’s no ego with him. It’s just wanting to make the team work.”

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Similarly, Milne marvels at Morley’s multi-tasking as she segues neatly from her answer to a waiting tradie who urgently needs her advice before proceeding.

“She’s so switched on and so tenacious and it’s amazing what she’s able to take on and still answer questions like that in this conversation,” he says. “She’s everywhere. But then she’s just got such a warm, beautiful soul at the same time. It’s been so good to work with her.”

Selling In the City, October 19, Binge

Originally published as Rosie Morley and Paddy Milne on renovations, teamwork and why more money isn’t always better