Buying a new home, renovating or changing rental property?

Whatever your living situation, you’re probably in need of a lesson or two on interior design and the main principles needed to make your pad look like a million bucks.

Check out one or more of these beginner-friendly design courses, workshops and events and you’ll be styling the hell out of any room in no time.

Lighting Design Workshop

Where: International School of Colour and Design
When: Saturday 11 November 2017
How much: $225

Look into the light and become an illumination expert with this immersive workshop that deals with architectural lighting design, different types of luminaries (and their myriad uses) and lighting integration.

Go through practical exercises that help in the understanding of how to create a successful lighting scheme and traverse the world of mounting, colour temperature and sustainability. A field trip to a lighting showroom caps off this enjoyable workshop.

Building Design & Process With James Treble

Where: International School of Colour and Design
When: Sunday 26 November 2017
How much: $390

The best way to pick up some handy new design skills is to learn from an expert. And they don’t come more expert than celeb stylist and interior designer James Treble.

For the more architecturally minded dudes who are planning a new build, this one is right up your alley. With everything from analysing and understanding house plans to internal colour schemes and feature walls, you’ll form a solid foundation of useful knowledge under James’ tutelage.

Trend Union 2019 Home & Fashion Seminar

Where: The Studio – 2/85 Dunning Avenue Rosebery, Sydney
When: Wednesday January 10, 2018
How much: from $210

Our home is our refuge, our sanctuary, our own slice of heaven, and the Spiritual House: Home & Lifestyle 2019 seminar will help secure the serenity of well-styled digs by looking at trends in textiles, colour, interiors and materials.

Presented by Philip Fimmano, the seminar will be followed by a round table discussion with David Clark. “The spiritual home is a new domain in which our relationship to furniture, objects, materials and colours will gently shift, promising real change and great hope for the future.”

Design Canberra Festival

Where: Various locations
When: 6 – 26 November
How much: varies, but most events are free

Canberra tends to get a bad rap, but after recently being named the third best city in the world by Lonely Planet, we’re thinking there must be more to our nation’s capital than meets the eye.

And the Design Canberra Festival could be the winning ticket. Promoting Canberra as an international city of design, this year there’ll be more than 100 exhibitions, talks and tours, events and demonstrations.

Check out the full schedule here.

Canberra Modern: The Other Moderns

Where: Drawing Room, Australian National Uni, ACT
When: Tuesday 14 November 2017
How much: free

Held in conjunction with the Design Canberra Festival, this free seminar delves into the world of famed Australian architect Harry Seidler and his overlooked contemporaries.

Like Seidler, these émigré architects, interior designers, and furniture makers created ground-breaking modernist designs that are still inspirational and relevant today. Tune in for tips on modern style that never go out of fashion.

A collection of furniture from the Hotel Hotel Canberra will be on show, as will photographs from Margaret Michaelis.

For more info, visit here.

Introduction To Interior Design Certificate

Where: Online

We all have to start somewhere, and for guys looking to get started right, an Introduction to Interior Design course is perfect.

The online certificate offers flexibility and runs through subjects like Elements of Design, Context of Colour, Selecting a Style, Flooring, Special Treatments, Walls and Windows and Finishing Touches.

Additionally, you’ll be schooled on architectural styles and how to arrange furniture and furnishings to full effect.

For more info, visit here.

Interior Styling Made Simple

Where: Sydney Community College
How much: $359

Let’s face it: styling is not every man’s specialty, and if you’re a little hopeless when it comes to kitting out a room, consider the Interior Styling Made Simple course.

Spanning 8 lessons, the classes will help you pick up useful renovation tips while exploring the Eight Golden Rules of Decorating: Colour, Contrast, Warmth, Balance, Scale, Detail, Surprise and Personality.

The post Easy Ways To School Yourself Up On Pro Interior Design appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

The Australian Financial Review have given us a glimpse of what Australia’s top earners look like under the age of 40 and the figures are guaranteed to make you feel like a mad underachiever.

Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar once again lead the pack in first and second place with a record $6.08 billion combined wealth.

It’s a massive gap from the third and fourth position holders of Dave Greiner (39) and Ben Richardson (38) who share $607 million of wealth between them via their web marketing business, Campaign Monitor.

Fifth spot of the year went to young Melbourne property mogul Tim Gurner who has amassed a wealth of $465 million at the age of just 35. Other notable entrants into this year’s young money list includes doctor, philanthropist and Mexican food chain owner Sam Prince who is literally the real world version of Tony Stark. He comes in at the eighth spot with $318 million this year at the age of 33.

Debutants to the list that are worthy of a mention includes health and fitness influencer Emily Skye (pictured) who ranks in at number 83 with $32 million. Skye currently has 2.1 million Instagram followers as well as offering fitness and diet programs to her legions of fans.

The youngest debutants to the list are the HiSmile duo of Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic who land in positions 58 and 59 with a combined wealth of $46 million. The pair have benefitted greatly from aggressive social media marketing which today includes ambassadors like Conor McGregor, some Kardashians and a host of other major celebrities. The Gold Coast duo are aged just 22 and 24.

In total, the collective wealth of the AFR’s 2017 Young Rich List has come in at a record $13.2 billion – up from $12.3 billion in 2016.

Feeling left out? Check out our smart ways to get filthy rich in your 20s, 30s and 40s.

The post AFR's Young Rich List 2017 Will Make You Weep appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

The untimely and unfortunate passing of Paul Walker back in 2013 shocked countless fans and colleagues from around the world.

The tragic car accident also left Walker’s only daughter, Meadow Walker, without a father and spurred on a lengthy lawsuit which the now 18-year-old took out against Porsche at the time.

As of yesterday though that law suit has been settled. According to documents obtained by The Blast, Meadow Walker settled with the German sportscar maker on October 16 whilst a separate lawsuit against the company from Walker’s own father had also been settled. The details of both these lawsuits have not been disclosed to the public.

“It’s claimed that the supercar her father died in was known for its “instability issues”

An important point to note though is that Meadow Walker has already received US$10.1 million from the estate of Roger Rhodas, the man who was behind the wheel of the Porsche Carrera GT that went off the road at speed before bursting into flames, taking the life of himself and his passenger, Paul Walker.

The wrongful death lawsuit against Porsche was filed by Meadow Walker back in 2015 and claimed that the supercar her father died in was known for its “instability issues”. On top of that, it also claimed that Walker had initially survived the impact but was trapped inside the burning vehicle by his seatbelt.

A judge dismissed these claims and determined that Porsche was not at fault for the accident.

Whilst it’s a real tragedy to see the loss of such a generous Hollywood actor at the top of his game and respected by so many, the judge did the right thing in waiving Porsche’s involvement in Walker’s death. Quite frankly, if the pair had been driving any other car of the same caliber from a different manufacturer, the result would still be the same.

Reports from the accident indicated that Rhodas was driving the Carrera GT at speeds of 100mph (160km/h) in a 45mph (70km/h) zone before it left the road and hit multiple trees before catching alight.

Whilst both Meadow Walker and Porsche have now officially requested the wrongful death suit to be dropped, the world is left with a sad lesson in driving fast from the man who made us fall in love with fast driving.

The post Paul Walker's Daughter Actually Sued Porsche For Her Father's Death appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

In the world of ultra exotic hypercars there are a few major players like Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin, Porsche and Mercedes-AMG.

What you’ll rarely hear about though is an Apollo hypecar – until now. The German automaker which was responsible for the Gumpert sportscar have unveiled their latest track weapon known as the Intensa Emozione – that’s Italian for “intense emotion” and it’s as over the top as a hypercar can get.

According to the automaker, the new Intensa Emozione will be a “proper balance of old and new”. In design world that means no tricky hybrid/electric system to boost power and no turbos – just an old school 6.3-litre naturally-aspirated V12 with 580kW and 760Nm of torque paired with a sequential gearbox and advanced aerodynamics.

For added security on the the tarmac there are also three drive modes that cover Wet, Sport and Track as well as 12 traction control levels to choose from.

The dramatic exterior of the car can be attributed to its liberal use of carbon fibre which keeps weight down to a lowly 1,250kg. This helps the car propel itself all the way up to 300km/h before pulling up to a standstill thanks to Brembo carbon ceramic brakes and sticky Michelin rubber.

Now for the price. The Apollo Intensa Emozione will come with hypercar pricing and exclusivity with just 10 units being rolled out with a price tag of 2,300,000 euros each – that’s around AU$3,500,000.

Want to see more? Checkout these 10 formula one cars built for public road.

The post Apollo Intensa Emozione Is The Multi-Million Dollar Hypercar You've Never Heard Of appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Pepsi or Coke? Disney or Pixar? Star Wars or Star Trek? Window or aisle? These polarising debates rage on year after year, leaving broken friendships and devastated family dinners in their wake.Today, science weighs in. The Telegraph spoke to psychologists and travel experts in attempt to settle the controversy once and for all – and aisle lovers, you may finally have a leg up on the pro-window crowd.

Dr. Becky Spelman, chief psychologist at the Private Therapy Clinic in London, told Telegraph Travel: “Passengers who favour the window seat like to be in control, tend to take an ‘every man for themselves’ attitude towards life, and are often more easily irritable. They also like to ‘nest’ and prefer to exist in their own bubble.”Behavioural Psychologist Jo Hemmings agrees. “Champions of the window seat tend to be more selfish,” she told the newspaper, “as well as less anxious, seasoned flyers who are more confident in disturbing others.”Aisle passengers, on the other hand, tend to be less irritable, more sociable, and more considerate of others. However they may also be more claustrophic, more restless, less adept at sleeping on planes, or simply the victim of an insistent bladder.According to Airline Weekly analyst Seth Kaplan, the two seats are almost equal in popularity. His research reveals that windows are preferred over aisles by just about one percentage point, while a study conducted by Expedia in 2014 found that 55 percent of their customers chose the window versus 45 percent who opted for the aisle. A Quartz report presented almost identical results (just over 50 percent in favour of window), further noting that men were more likely to prefer the aisle seat than women.Conclusion: when it comes to seat preferences, there’s about a 50-50 chance you’re a greedy dickhead. We say, own it.RELATED: The Secret To Selecting The Best Economy Seat On Your Next Flight

The post Psychologists Say You're Selfish If You Prefer The Window Seat appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Donald Trump’s Great Wall of Mexico has officially been spotted in its early stages.

Individual sections of the the eight proposed wall designs for the President’s controversial U.S-Mexican border protection initiative have already been erected ahead of testing in the coming months. The prototype walls all span 9.1 metres in height and have been built at the existing border fence site just south of San Diego.

The rigorous testing process which is due to begin next month includes subjecting the walls to sledgehammers, pickaxes, power tools and other high impact instruments. The team responsible for testing the integrity of the wall will also attempt to dig under and scale over the different designs to test each one’s effectiveness.

Roy Villareal who is a US Customs and Borders Protection chief agent told the Evening Standard that, “we’re going to test them for breachability, for the subterranean aspect”.

A post shared by Jill Marie Holslin (@jillholslin) on Oct 24, 2017 at 12:32am PDT

Two hundred and fifty applications were culled down to six companies by the Department of Homeland Security in a tendering process which began in February this year – a month after President Trump had been inaugurated.

The leading designs thus far include heavy duty concrete walls which feature thicker lower portions and transparent lower halves, and another type with a metal and concrete combination.

The most imposing design however comes from Texas Sterling Construction who have a wall topped with steel mesh and spikes. Whilst the final product will be determined by price, there’s been ongoing debate over who will foot the final bill with the refusal from the Mexican government and a $1.6B pledge to the wall’s construction failing in the American Senate.

Trump, being the environmentalist that he is, touched on a rather ingenious design himself when he proposed a wall that incorporated solar panels to help foot the massive price tag.

[via Dezeen]

The post Trump's Prototype Walls Have Been Spotted On The U.S-Mexico Border appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Fielding questions in a meeting without actually listening to your boss? Driving yourself home without really paying attention?

Most of us know the phenomenon that is ‘auto pilot’ mode, but now Cambridge University researchers have pinpointed exactly how this happens alongside the possibility that daydreaming could enhance one’s auto piloting abilities.

This concept has long given humans the ability to carry out tasks with speed and accuracy without so much of a conscious thought. According to a study from the 1990s, our auto pilot mode is actually made up of a set of brain structures called the default mode network (DMN). The DMN was discovered when human subjects were found to be lying on brain scanners but still displayed sequences of brain activity even when they weren’t actively doing anything.

The conclusion from this was that human brains are still at work even when they’re not consciously instructed to. Numerous studies have also suggested that the DMN itself is specifically involved with assessing past events and planning for the future.

“When a human brain ‘switches off’, it goes into auto pilot mode which allows us to complete repetitive and menial tasks to a reasonable standard without using too much brain power.”

“Rather than waiting passively for things to happen to us, we are constantly trying to predict the environment around us,” says Dr Deniz Vatansever, the man who carried out the study as part of his PhD at the University of Cambridge.

This study eventually led him and his team to investigate the deeper relationship between the DMN and human auto piloting capabilities. For the test 28 volunteers were hooked up to an fMRI brain scanner and told to learn card game whilst lying.

The simple card game involved giving each person four cards. A fifth card was then handed out and subjects were instructed to match it with one of the four cards. No rules were stipulated so the subjects weren’t sure whether they had to match the card based on colour, shape or number. After a few rounds of trial and error each person worked out the right way to do it.

During this process the brain activity recorded reflected the patterns of a typical learning mind. As the game repeatedly continued though, the subjects were able to match the cards quickly and precisely without much thinking involved – a brain activity which reflected the use of the DMN.

What does this result mean? When a human brain “switches off”, it goes into auto pilot mode which allows us to complete repetitive and menial tasks to a reasonable standard without using too much brain power.

Think about if you were a card dealer in a casino. Dealing a professional game of Black Jack on your first day might seem daunting and a big learning curve, but do it for the next ten years and you’ve pretty much seen it all. You could essentially be doing the job half asleep by that stage.

More importantly though, the experiment revealed that people with stronger DMN structures were also the ones who performed at a higher level in the card game with better consistency and co-ordination. According to Dr. Vatansever, this suggests that the stronger a person’s DMN, the more effective their auto pilot mode works.

So how do you get a stronger DMN? According to New Scientist, neurofeedback training could enable people to boost their auto piloting abilities, allowing people to perform tasks without directly focusing on them.

Alternatively, one could just try daydreaming on a regular basis to stretch their DMN so that you can be as proficient as Homer Simpson’s drinking bird.

The post Daydreaming At Work Could Boost Your Autopilot Abilities appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Twenty minutes in Los Angeles traffic is enough to make anyone swear off city life forever. But for those of us who lack the commitment to go full Bear Grylls, the Malibu Dream Airstream offers the chance to get off the grid without sacrificing creature comforts.

Perched on a private cliffside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, this Airstream Airbnb isn’t your average campsite. A nature-loving designer built it as their personal getaway, stripping it down to the basics before sprucing it up into an escape so chic it’s Taylor Swift and Vogue approved.

The gutted camper was converted into an open studio featuring a queen-sized bed, pull-out sofa, and kitchenette. The décor includes luxurious, extra thick wool rugs and cotton poufs, plus piles of colourful pillows for those SoCal boho vibes. A separate, standalone bathroom is found in an outbuilding.

The real stars of the show are the three large, frameless glass panels that dominate one side of the camper, and the expansive cantilevered deck for outdoor lounging. The Airstream offers spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean below, thousands of acres of pristine nature surrounding, and starry nights untouched by light pollution above. The listing even promises “the occasional seal barking in the distance or coyote howling for its pack.”

The Malibu Dream Airstream is a quick drive to the beach and hiking trails, but it’s not a place to stay connected. “Please do not book this space if you are afraid of sleeping somewhere remote… or are afraid of nature or expect a 100% bug free environment,” warns the host. “If you are fearful of dirt roads, care immensely about your sports car, or are afraid of cliffs, skip this booking.”

There’s also no reception and no AC power for electrical devices, so as much as you’ll want to Instagram your sweet digs, you may have to wait until you get home.

If none of that – or the US$500 price tag – scares you off, your off-the-grid getaway awaits here.

The post Unique Retreats: A Souped-Up Airstream Overlooking The Ocean appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

You have the Zagato Shooting Brake, now score the luxury designer pad to go with it by the famed British carmaker.

Aston Martin Residences is the company’s first venture into real estate and they’ve accomplished it with a serious degree of flair that would make any 007-wannabe blush.

Spanning across 66 storeys of glistening glass and steel in downtown Miami, the building features 391 rooms with 7 penthouses and a duplex penthouse complete with private pools and terraces.

Ownership of an Aston Martin residence gains you unprecedented access to the property’s oceanfront gym, art gallery, virtual golf room, twin cinemas, full-service spa and stunning views just for good measure.

Those curious as to where the line between car and home blurs will be glad to know that there are fine appointments like carbon fibre receptions desks, room doors with Aston Martin car door handles and tea leather door tabs strewn throughout the building.

No word on pricing yet but the project is due for completion in 2021 so probably start saving now.

The post Aston Martin Residences Is A Car Lover's Dream Property appeared first on DMARGE Australia.