Are you even a parent if you haven’t made a fort or cubby out of every piece of household furniture, cushion, pillow and blanket? And all that time at home thanks to COVID certainly made for more home-based play. Spurred by their own children’s imagination and creativity during lockdowns, parents created NooK, a modular furniture system that is also a luxury piece of furniture that kids can actually play with. The Australian design, which recently won a Gold Award at the Good Design Awards, can be used as a seat on the floor, a cubby in the corner, an obstacle course down the hallway or a sleepover bed. It’s a versatile piece of furniture that doesn’t just take up space, it actually complements it. We chat to Olivia about how it all came about…
First of all tell us a little bit about your family and kids.
Patrick and I met when we were in our late teens – it’s a good love story! Our busy family revolves around our three gorgeous kids, Charlie, Carmen and Hugo, our two cute puppies, Tashi and Yeshi, and our newest “baby”, NooK!
NooK was born in lockdown. What’s the story?
Like families around the world, we found the first days of COVID lockdown turned our world upside down! Our kids are extremely active, so having no school, sporting activities or birthday parties suddenly meant we had a lot of time.. at home.. all together! It was an adjustment and it meant a lot needed to change in our home environment.
In reorganising our space, we found that we wanted our furniture to work better for this new world – we needed a solution for the kids rooms that was multi-purpose and versatile – and I wanted something that might encourage them to leave my couch cushions in place! This led to a revamp of our living and play area where we trawled the web for a proper solution – something that allowed our children creative freedom, encouraged independent play and was safe and cosy too. We wanted it to be more than simply a piece of furniture – that didn’t just take up space, but actually complemented it.
With all this time together, we also found a new way of engaging as a family through NooK – this allowed us to all play together, even our eldest teenager started building with the younger kids. Patrick, who was working a corporate job before lockdown and travelling often, also found that NooK building helped him engage again with the kids.
Deciding to move forward with NooK was about creating something that we needed in our home.. and with over 10,000 NooKs now in homes around Australia, we found that a lot of other people felt the same need we did!
Your three kids love being involved in the family business. How do they get involved?
The kids are involved in everything! Both Patrick and I like to be across every aspect of the business and the kids join us in that – whether it is boxing products in the factory, stamping fabric samples or labelling deliveries – we all muck in and get things done!
Obviously they love choosing fabrics.. but their favourite activity is definitely working on prototypes for new extensions. We prototype heavily to ensure our products are perfect, so this is such invaluable feedback from both their ideas and watching how they play with items to evolve and perfect them!
You pride yourselves in being not only Australian designed but also made here. How did you find the right suppliers?
At the beginning of the business it was necessary to find local manufacturers, however we discovered pretty quickly that if we wanted to ensure we could meet demand and produce a high quality product we had to do it ourselves!
This began a long journey and steep learning curve while we set up our purpose designed NooK factory just near our home in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. We were lucky to be joined by such an amazing team who work tirelessly ensuring our NooKs are as good as they can possibly be!
As we head into our third year of operation, we feel we have a really streamlined process and we have managed to keep it both Australia Made and at the highest level of quality – two cornerstones of what we do at NooK.
When you’re not at home making new NooK builds and creations, what do you love to do as a family?
We are so lucky to live near the beach so we spend a lot of time at the beach in the warmer months. We also love bushwalking as a family and we’ll often be found in one of the many National Parks near us. With COVID restrictions winding back, the kids are all extra busy with their sport again also (almost makes me miss lockdown!)
Were exploring Homes & Holidays in this issue. What’s your favourite family holiday destination?
We absolutely love exploring Australia, we definitely prefer the warmth, so any sleepy beachside up in QLD is always a perfect family holiday.. I spent many holidays at Byron Bay when I was growing up so it’s always about recreating that uncomplicated, salty, sandy family time!
What’s your favourite thing about being a mum? Any funny parenting stories you’d like to share?
Seeing the world through their eyes.. showing them your passions and watching them discover their own has to be the most wonderful part of being a mum.. that and their joyful laughs, warm hands slipped into yours and sleepy snuggles!
And finally, where can buy a NooK?
Jump onto our website at nook.com.au!