Profile: Blainey North, interior designer/architect

I ALWAYS thought I wanted to be a lawyer till my art teacher said, "have you considered looking into architecture?"

I ALWAYS thought I wanted to be a lawyer till my art teacher said, "have you considered looking into architecture?"

And I said "Not at all". She said "Well, for the past seven years you've been drawing buildings. I don't think you have ever drawn a person." Then I remembered how when I was 10 I'd drawn up little floor plans of my bedroom with my furniture to scale and did a whole lot of options of how it could be laid out. And it didn't strike me as abnormal!

It's a great luxury to be able to do what you love. I've had my own company now for 13 years, which makes me feel old. I started working for Crone Associates on large-scale commercial building but I just found that I love designing a complete space. So rather than just designing the shell or the interior or just doing styling, I feel really excited about being able to have a total vision for a space.

We've been naturally drawn to working on hotels because we love the idea of coming up with this complete package or completely bespoke service. So we've created a studio where we have architects, interior architects, interior designers, graphic designers and furniture designers, all working together to try and get that one space to work. It's really a very intense level of design.

We've been working with Crown for quite a long time. We recently did the Conservatory Restaurant at the Crown Towers, which was fashioned on a modern reinterpretation of an old conservatory. When we did the villas on the top 11 floors of Crown Towers, the client was nice enough to ask us to custom design all the furniture. So each piece, even the carpet and the lighting, followed a concept specific to its room. For most of the projects we do now, we do that. We've got a lot of interest internationally in our furniture collection.

I was really excited that we were given the job of designing the spa for the new Crown Towers in Perth. Our concept is the Roman bath house, which was almost a temple to bathing with the light and the way that you moved into the public and private spaces. We've been looking at the idea of water and reflection and the kaleidoscope effect when light moves through water. We're also designing a big bar at the new Crown. it's nice to be able to design spaces that people are able to go to rather than just private residences.

Doing Renya Xydis's hairdressing salon was wonderful. That project got us into the Andrew Martin International Design Review, which is an English competition a bit like the Oscars for design. Other exciting projects are a private gallery in Perth and some really exciting private residences. Not Erica Packer. I can't confirm anything (about Nicole Kidman).

We assisted in the art direction of three award shows last year in the US for Viacom. One was a tribute concert for Eddie Murphy in LA. We usually work with luxury materials like stone and timber and metals, whereas for these kinds of projects you're working with acrylic, canvas, paper and foam because it's only for one night. It was fantastic because we found ways to create effects that we would never have developed otherwise.

I think it's a really exciting time for the business. In a dream scenario we would have this business stay the same size (20 staff) and build another business internationally. The drug for me is the whole process of design - envisaging interiors and the process of building that and the craft around it and then seeing it realised. That's why you get up every day, so I never want to give that up for power and money. It's so important to me to maintain that that because that love is who I am and that makes me happy every day.

I'm Blainey because my mother wanted Bonnie and my father wanted Laney. But I have this secret alias I use which is Bonnie Monroe because otherwise I have to go through this process of my name is Blainey North, it's not two people. I kind of like it now but it's been hard.

My husband and I are starting to renovate our place in Potts Point. It's the hardest thing you could ever do, doing your own place, though. Too many possibilities. So some of the guys in the office said we think it should be like a scene at the opera. I said to my husband (Keith Rodger), "you're meant to be the audience!" He's Russell Crowe's business manager, so he's really very interested in the arts, so he gets the whole thing.