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For David Flack, every project he takes on lasts at least three years, so clients have to be committed. \u201cIt\u2019s a big journey,\u201d he says.Credit: Peter Tarasiuk<\/p>\n
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Long before he designed dreamy pop star living rooms and hyper-cool Ace Hotel interiors, David Flack \u00adproduced his 1990s magnum opus, Gumnut Plaza. As a studious country kid, 12-year-old David would lay down A3 pieces of paper on the floorboards of his family home in Bendigo. He\u2019d design the floor plans for each store, sticky-taping together what he imagined was a cutting-edge shopping centre in regional Victoria. He still remembers tooling away on it when Princess Diana\u2019s death was announced on the TV news one wintry day in 1997.<\/p>\n
\u201cGumnut Plaza just kept on growing,\u201d says Flack, laughing. \u201cI did the floor plans in Texta and fine liner, and I\u2019d do elevations and make up retail brands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be fooled by his penetrating blue-eyed stare in the glossy magazine spreads. Chatting at Flack Studio HQ \u2013 a century-old former electroplating workshop in Melbourne\u2019s Fitzroy \u2013 the 40-year-old designer is warm and almost goofy. With a boyish grin and mop of grey-flecked curls, he is nothing like the pretentious artiste many expect him to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople see you in a photo, just standing there not smiling, and they think you\u2019re going to be an arsehole,\u201d he says. \u201cThen they meet you and they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re really nice!\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh god, how am I appearing?\u2019\u2006\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now? Like an international designer at the peak of his powers. Since he opened his studio a decade ago, Flack has become the king of decorative excess, influencing the design world with his distinctive more-is-more aesthetic: all tactile, layered textures, offbeat, clashing colours and eccentric contemporary art. It points to his love of Italian design: \u201cTheir use of colour, how they juxtapose materials \u2013 there\u2019s always something a bit f—ed up about it, but it\u2019s so beautiful,\u201d explains Flack, who names Gio Ponti, a giant of 20th-century Italian modernism, as his design hero. \u201cIt\u2019s clean, it\u2019s hard-edged, it\u2019s comfortable. It really speaks to me. But then I love, broadly, modernism, too, and elements of \u201970s design.\u201d<\/p>\n
Take the cover image of his new book, Flack Studio: Interiors<\/a>: a Melbourne terrace-house parlour with a daisy-like pendant from a 1930s Belgian cafe, burgundy rosso levanto marble fireplace, red lacquer coffee table, high-gloss green walls, antique kilim and Pierre Cardin vintage armchairs, all topped off with an alien houseplant. \u201cIf you look at that on paper, it could be a complete hot mess \u2013 and it should be technically \u2013 but it\u2019s not,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s so complex, but it works.\u201d<\/p>\n Amy Astley, editor-in-chief of the US magazine Architectural Digest, calls his experimental combos \u201cmaterial mix-mastery\u201d. Flack has been on the magazine\u2019s influential AD100 list five times \u2013 more than any other Australian interior designer \u2013 and Astley notes a palpably Australian sensibility in his work: \u201cPerhaps it\u2019s the way his homes respond so sympathetically to light and climate, or the designer\u2019s freedom in upending received ideas from the Old World to fashion a new lexicon of design for the modern one.\u201d Says Flack: \u201c[Australians] travel so much because we\u2019re so far removed. We really value external references\u2009\u2026\u2009It\u2019s how you string [them] all together to feel something original \u2013 and quintessentially Australian, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Flack Studio currently has 35 projects spanning Australia, Asia, the US, Mexico and NZ, including Scanlan Theodore\u2019s Miami store, Hannah St Hotel in Melbourne\u2019s Southbank and the historic Hawthorn mansion of Andy Lee and Rebecca Harding. House flippers need not apply; Flack is out to build \u201cforever homes\u201d that leave a legacy. Every project takes at least three years, so clients have to be committed. \u201cIt\u2019s a big journey,\u201d says Flack, but he promises an end result that is uniquely them. He prides himself on intuitively creating spaces his clients didn\u2019t even know they wanted.<\/p>\n The inside of the \u201cHilltop\u201d homestead in rural Victoria.Credit: Anson Smart, courtesy of Rizzoli<\/p>\n Anne* and Holwell*, owners of the rural Victorian \u201cHilltop\u201d homestead featured in the book, loved their \u201cFlackified\u201d weekender so much, the couple have re-engaged him to overhaul their Melbourne apartment. \u201cBeauty is quite addictive,\u201d says Holwell, \u201cand it\u2019s so calming living in almost an artwork.\u201d Anne says she was instantly won over by Flack\u2019s charm, flexibility and mismatched socks. For site visits, he\u2019d invariably turn up with his spoodles, Frank and Alfred, and a bag of pastries. \u201cHe never comes anywhere empty-handed,\u201d says Anne. \u201cHe has this way of making you feel like you\u2019re his \u00adfavourite \u2013 you\u2019re his friend. He has a great sense of humour and some killer one-liners.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, Des* and David*, who own the Sydney Darling Point property in the book, wax lyrical about Flack\u2019s lovability, but also his calm, can-do attitude. Every client I speak to mentions (multiple times) his seeming lack of ego. Wearing a hiking headlamp, Flack recently spent hours fossicking though an antique warehouse for a San Francisco client. Of course, that kind of service comes at a cost; according to Flack, \u201ca million bucks minimum for furniture\u201d. Then there are paintings and sculptures; Flack has a stable of Australian artists he supports, including both Nell and Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran. \u201cHe calls it the zhuzh budget,\u201d says David. The final bill for the Darling Point renovation blew out by 30 per cent, but you won\u2019t hear any complaints. \u201cHe\u2019s very good at giving you options, but it\u2019s very hard to say no to David,\u201d says Des. \u201cHe turned our house into a home.\u201d<\/p>\n The only (mildly) disgruntled clients seem to be his parents, Judi and Geoff Flack. After all the father-son argy-bargies that accompanied their 2015 build in Bendigo, Judi says she\u2019d never work with her son again. \u201cI was like the meat in the sandwich,\u201d says Judi, with a laugh.<\/p>\n \u201cJudi and I did our own design, then he just bloody scrapped it and came up with another one!\u201d adds Geoff, a retired builder who had his own Bendigo construction business for 40 years. \u201cI said to him, \u2018David, you can draw whatever you want, but I haven\u2019t got the money to pay for the way you want to do it.\u2019\u2006\u201d<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n Geoff and Judi aren\u2019t remotely surprised by their youngest child\u2019s success. Geoff built five-year-old David a cubbyhouse, and he used to spend hours creating different worlds: a florist one week, a bakery the next. His older brother and sister were into footy and basketball, but David insisted on skipping their games to go to Grandma\u2019s place instead. \u201cWe\u2019d cook and do craft,\u201d he recalls. \u201cWe\u2019d pull the egg out of the shell and draw faces. I was always doing something. Mum would be like, \u2018God, you\u2019re relentless!\u2019\u2006\u201d<\/p>\n Flack says his diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder two years ago made total sense. Transcribe his words and they can seem like a tumble of half-finished thoughts and fractured sentences, as if his mind is churning out ideas faster than his mouth can articulate them. But Flack excelled academically. At primary school, he was teased for his weight, but at high school the bullies took aim at his sexuality. \u201cOne particular boy used to give him hell \u2013 and he\u2019s turned out to be gay,\u201d says Judi. \u201cHe\u2019s since apologised.\u201d<\/p>\n Flack\u2019s parents were always in his corner: Judi wrote letters to get him out of PE and they were both crushed when other kids shamed 12-year-old David into abandoning his beloved cubby. When he threw away his Gumnut Plaza plans, Geoff salvaged them from the bin.<\/p>\n A \u201cFlackified\u201d sitting room in a home in Elwood, Melbourne.Credit: Anson Smart, courtesy of Rizzoli<\/p>\n To his disbelief, Flack went on to dux Bendigo\u2019s then Catholic College and was \u00adaccepted into \u00adinterior design at RMIT, but dropped out after a few months, feeling out of place in Melbourne. \u201cIt was just too overwhelming,\u201d says Flack, who hadn\u2019t grown up around art. \u201cI felt like I wasn\u2019t cool enough.\u201d Back then, he was drawn to other arrivals from the country: kids who shared his \u201cweird sort of approachability or a bit of a dagginess\u201d. Later that year, aged 19, Flack came out and life began.<\/p>\n He took a two-year detour to study business marketing but ended up back in interior \u00addesign, graduating in 2009 from Swinburne and nabbing his first design job with Kerry Phelan\u2019s KPDO, after she\u2019d defected from Hecker Phelan & Guthrie (where Flack had interned). It wasn\u2019t long after the global financial crisis and Flack says he was a dogsbody earning $40,000, but he was thrilled to be Phelan\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9 \u2013 he calls her \u201ca technical master\u201d. She gave him the first of his 1200 or so design books, Gio Ponti, and taught him lessons he\u2019s never forgotten, like never to question a client\u2019s need for a $4000 tap.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do operate in another world,\u201d says Flack. \u201cBut quality is quality, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s not obnoxiously spending money for the sake of it; it\u2019s about creating something so f—ing amazing that you\u2019ll never have to rip it out.\u201d<\/p>\n After four years with Phelan, he struck out on his own. Flack only alludes to \u201ca little bit of a tizz thing\u201d when he left \u2013 and Phelan did not respond to Good Weekend\u2019s requests for an \u00adinterview \u2013 but, whatever happened, Geoff says the move was good for his son. \u201cHe gave notice and just went like a bloody dog off a leash, hammer and tongs into it, working for himself,\u201d says Geoff. \u201cHe had the drive and the go.\u201d<\/p>\n He also cultivated great relationships with suppliers \u2013 his version of the old school tie. They talked him up to customers and jobs started coming his way. Flack Studio launched in 2014 and the buzz soon followed. The haters did, too. \u201cIt was a bit of tall poppy [syndrome],\u201d says Flack. \u201cI was like, \u2018Just you wait, I\u2019ll prove you all wrong\u2019, because there\u2019s only so far smoke and mirrors can take you.\u201d<\/p>\n The pivotal point came when Flack revamped pop singer Troye Sivan\u2019s former Carlton brick-factory home and the project went viral in 2021; the Architectural Digest video tour has clocked up more than 10 million views. Flack landed on the global stage, and less than a year later he was back in the news with Sydney\u2019s Ace Hotel. It was a winning one-two punch.<\/p>\n Now with a team of 20, an architectural arm and a lighting product line, his star continues to rise. Still, he wants Flack Studio to be accessible, an antidote to the seemingly \u201cmean and vacuous\u201d design world he first encountered. He opens up his library to the public bi-monthly and exhibits works from up-and-coming artists at his studio.<\/p>\n His personal life appears to be flourishing, too. Flack and marketing exec Jason Olive eloped to New York almost two years ago and married in snowy Central Park wearing matching tuxedoes and Tessa Blazey-designed wedding rings. \u201cIt just felt right from the beginning,\u201d says Flack, who sports a Cartier \u201cJuste un Clou\u201d (nail) earring that Olive gave him for his 40th. \u201cThere\u2019s this sense of calm with him.\u201d The couple have just moved into a Princes Hill freestanding terrace ripe for renovation, and Flack has already started slapping test colours on the walls.<\/p>\n Loading<\/p>\n Under a huge Sydney Ball abstract in the studio\u2019s meeting room, Flack chats with Good Weekend for more than double our allotted time, then sees me to the front door, explaining every artwork along the way \u2013 including one I mistake for the office vacuum cleaner hanging on the wall. Flack laughs. The Bendigo boy in him seems to know it\u2019s nonsensical, but the \u00adinternational designer delights in the absurdity.<\/p>\n Perhaps those twin selves are his superpower: David Flack knows who he is and where he comes from, and \u201cauthenticity\u201d \u2013 that overused word \u2013 is irresistible. So is \u00adtalent. From Gumnut Plaza to penthouse glamour \u2026 who wouldn\u2019t want a piece of his wild, beautiful world?<\/p>\n * Surnames have been withheld.<\/p>\n To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>, The Age<\/a> and Brisbane Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For David Flack, every project he takes on lasts at least three years, so clients have to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-151272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/e77d51ae349f6d3885738e20ecdf40ecbeffd1c9.jpeg\")
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