BY LANA

Call it a stroke of genius or a moment of madness, Sophie decided to bring the Peppa Hart office under the roof of her Mediterranean Farmhouse to mix her busy business with raising her babes. Soph hated wasting time commuting to and from work, so this space is literally 10 steps from her master suite but all completely separate…. Soph loves the idea of spending max time with her kids before she starts her work day and as soon as she clocks off in the evening she is straight into mum mode. The office is located upstairs away from the busy household downstairs, when kids and hubby are home, the office can work in peace. I have a similar set up in my home and it works a treat. My kids arrive home from school and I don’t skip a beat in my office while they make their own afternoon tea, two levels down. Admittedly, I have the benefit of having older kids than Soph (mine are 9 and 11) but she will appreciate their independence down the track too.

In a creative business like Soph’s there’s no such thing as a typical day... especially when you throw a 3-year-old and a newborn in the mix. We asked Soph what a typical Friday might look like in the Peppa Hart office….

9am

Team meeting on the balcony over a coffee, list out the plan of attack for the day, update on where everyone is at on current projects.

9:30am

Urgent emails attended to, chat about potential new projects that have come into the TBR inbox… Most likely onto a second coffee, depending how little Peps slept the night before…

10:00am

Little Peps is due for a feed, we sit in the lounge area, feed and snuggle. I love that I’m still accessible to the team whilst feeding, don’t miss a beat… Peps is down in her bassinet in our master suite so I can hear her when she wakes up.

10:30am

Courier arrives with deliveries, potential brand collaborations - always fun seeing what arrives. And maybe some sneaky little online orders are in there as well.

11:00am

Skype TBR office in Sydney, lots of planning and brainstorming. I usually connect with Lana in her home office where she looks like she’s dialling in from Santorini with that gorgeous print she has sitting pretty behind her. Thanks to technology we are so connected to the team in Sydney even though we are so far away. House 11 is hot on the heels of my house and we’re already planning everything that goes with that. No rest for the wicked, we have the next intake of Reno School coming in hot as well.

12:30PM

We break for lunch. My mum has stopped by with some beautiful salads and juices from our local fave cafe Cubby. It’s a gorgeous day so we grab salads and sit on the terrace off the office.

1:00pm

Peppa’s due for another feed but this time I’ve got phone calls to make about upcoming projects. So I head round to the daybed off our master for some privacy. Sunnies on and little Peppa in my arms feeding, never take it for granted that I get to run my business from home whilst raising my little kiddies.

1:30

Focus on design for the next hour, playing with a new branding concept. Hand painting in Indian Inks and scanning into Photoshop.

2pm

We have a shoot at the house this afternoon for a fashion brand. They are all set up around the pool, so fun watching it all unfold from the balcony above. I get some BTS of the action on my phone while upstairs.

3pm

Spend some time in the Reno School students-only group answering questions about their projects. I absolutely love being a mentor in the group - I get to talk about my favourite thing - DESIGNING HOUSES!

4pm

Hendrix is dropped home from Kindy by Nonna (his grandmother) and comes up the stairs to say hi to the team, he thinks everyone is a part of our family - it’s the cutest. We get the ‘Hendrix show’ for 10 minutes and then he is bundled off for a midwinter swim with Dad, crazy guys! Thank goodness for pool heating and the hot poolside shower to heat them up afterwards.

4:15pm

Prints from my online store are ready to be sent, hand-sign some cards and out the door they go.

5pm

Laptops SHUT! Being a digital business we often have launches into the evening but we wrap the day at 5pm in the office space and move downstairs. Any work in the evening I do from my laptop in the breakfast nook so I don’t miss out on the family fun - I get massive FOMO otherwise.

5:30pm

Being a Friday we end our day with some Ink Gin cocktails to celebrate a productive week. Bell has the pizza oven fired up and OMG it smells so good already…. Smokey goodness floating around in the air. Right about now I’ll receive a message from Lana to upload our ‘TGIF Story’ on Insta. With cocktail in hand, hanging in our poolside pavilion, I hit the ‘upload’ button and then sit back, relax and welcome in the weekend with my most cherished.