The top interior design mistakes to avoid this year
A top Sydney designer walks through the common mistakes homeowners make – and how to fix them
4 min
The days of white-on-white walls are fast disappearing, as we seek comfort and relaxation at home through a warm palette of colour and texture. But how to navigate the myriad options? Starting with where we get it wrong, Julia Green of Greenhouse Interiors sets the new rules for decorating through colour, calm and a little playfulness thrown in.
Using hero colours in isolation
Julia: A common mistake I see people make is not cohesively implementing their chosen hero colour throughout the space. Look at ways to unify hero colours so they aren’t standing alone without company, instead ensuring these hues are weaved through decorative objects and furniture. The most successful designs I have seen have managed to weave colour cohesively through their home like a well-made tapestry. The more subtle the tie-in is, the better!
Using only neutral colours
Homeowners often select a neutral shade on their walls and stick to white for their ceilings and trims. The downside of this is that contrast trims on walls and ceilings can draw your eye from top to bottom, rather than allowing the eye to wander seamlessly. Instead, consider painting walls, trims and even ceilings in a single colour, to make the space feel more cohesive. That being said, contrasting pops of colour add balance which is equally important to the look and feel of any space. So, to avoid that floating feeling, ensure your room has an element of grounding through the addition of accent shades from your colour scheme through soft furnishings, textures, florals or artwork as an alternative to doors, ceilings or trims.
Incorporating colour all at once
Another mistake people make is rushing to add colour throughout their home. Don’t feel pressured to do it all at once, start small and make measured, staggered choices. For a recent makeover I worked on in the Bellarine Peninsula, the walls were painted first in a neutral, greyed off pink shade – Dulux Lilac Light, from the 2024 Dulux Colour Forecast Journey palette – before any other choices were made. The clients lived with that for a few weeks to see how the light interacted with the colour throughout the day, before we approached the rest of the space and introduced bolder pops of colour from the palette to add layering and interest.
Forgetting about mood
Colours evoke different moods, so it’s important to consider the look and feel you want to create in the space before landing on your hero colour. For example, I always opt for a calmer palette for the bedroom, as it is a place of rest. A living room on the other hand is where you spend much of your waking hours, so it’s good to liven it up! Pale pink is known for its calming effect – it’s gentle, easy to live with and can add warmth to a space, compared to an austere white shade. It’s also extremely versatile. The emotion it evokes can change completely depending on how it’s styled, which is why it’s a shade I like not only for living areas but also bedrooms.
Selecting the wrong colour
Most homeowners are apprehensive of colour or they have concerns that colour may make their home feel too bold, which is why choosing the right colour is such a critical step in the design process. Incorporating colour is such an amazing opportunity to inject your own personality and story into the home, so I encourage it wherever possible. My biggest tip is to start with a neutral shade, to create a safe base that easily allows for the introduction of other colour and styling changes over time. If you’re new to using colour in your home, start small and make measured choices. Try living with colour, even if it’s a referenced cushion or decor object. The best thing about the 2024 Dulux Colour Forecast palettes is that all of the hard work is done for you. Their carefully considered palettes are designed to take the brain strain out of companion colours that work well, so when all else fails, look to the experts who have done the hard work for you – it’s foolproof.
From making unpopular decisions to learning when to listen, leaders from five businesses reveal what nobody prepared them for — and how running a company has challenged their expectations.
Technology and semiconductor shares fell sharply as investors questioned the debt financing the AI infrastructure boom and confronted higher rates and Chinese competition.
Elon Musk is exploring a potential merger between Tesla and SpaceX, a deal that could reshape the future of AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles and space technology. With a combined valuation potentially reaching $3.5 trillion, the move could bring Musk’s vision of an interconnected technology ecosystem closer to reality, although a deal remains uncertain.
5 min
Elon Musk has engineered ties between Tesla TSLA 3.41%increase; up pointing triangle and SpaceX SPCX 7.79%increase; up pointing triangle that are hard to break, and now he wants to fuse them together permanently.
Musk has run both Tesla and SpaceX concurrently over the past two decades, using a schedule that dictated which days he spent focused on each business.
The companies have often shared resources and personnel, signaling their close ties. Last year, SpaceX looked into creating a spacesuit for Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus, a person familiar with the matter said. Tesla last week showed off its new Roadster, a vehicle featuring SpaceX rocket thrusters that it hopes to soon bring to market.
And in recent months, Musk has repositioned both companies by expanding beyond their core operations toward a shared mission centered on artificial intelligence.
The world’s richest man on Tuesday signaled his interest in tying up SpaceX and Tesla, marking what would be the biggest corporate merger of all time. Because he serves as chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, Musk said committees of independent directors at both companies are evaluating a possible deal, adding that a transaction might not come to fruition.
The committees will likely evaluate, with lawyers and bankers, how each company would fare in a potential deal and how a deal might best be structured. They then present their conclusions to their respective boards, who typically vote on whether to proceed.
“It’s an odd Kabuki dance where two groups of people are talking and I can’t be in the conversation,” Musk told SpaceX investors on Tuesday in response to an analyst’s question about a potential deal.
For Musk, the merger supports his vision of a world full of autonomous cars, humanoid robots and weekly rocket launches, as well as the data centers and satellites required to keep the whole thing running.
Some investors and analysts said they expect a transaction would be structured as an all-stock deal, with SpaceX potentially paying a modest premium for Tesla shares.
SpaceX, which has a market value of about $2 trillion, said it is seeing sharp growth in revenue across its businesses, which include operating data centers, launching rockets and operating satellite networks such as the internet service Starlink. Tesla is valued at about $1.5 trillion and is expanding its operations beyond its automotive and energy business. Shares in both companies traded higher following the news Tuesday.
Musk’s substantial ownership stakes in both companies, along with voting control at SpaceX, has enabled him to set the deal in motion. Analysts and investors said the deal will probably face regulatory scrutiny internationally, though some see Musk’s close relationship with the Trump administration as an asset to getting approval.
Blurred lines
The companies haven’t said which directors are on the special committees evaluating a potential deal. Several SpaceX and Tesla board members have either personal or business ties to Musk. And like Musk, venture capitalist Ira Ehrenpreis sits on both boards.
In a filing this week, Tesla outlined millions of dollars in business agreements with SpaceX and its subsidiaries last year, including $143 million in car sales to SpaceX, $3.3 million in advertising that it bought on the social-media platform X and $430 million in revenue from the sale of Megapack batteries for SpaceX’s data centers.
The companies also split the cost of resources including the use of Musk’s SpaceX jet and the bill for his personal security, which he runs through a private company.
Employees at both companies routinely move between companies to work on special projects, and some executives have dual roles, including Charles Kuehmann, vice president of materials engineering at both SpaceX and Tesla, and Ashok Elluswamy, the vice president of AI software at Tesla who runs a joint venture with SpaceX called Digital Optimus.
Over the years, Musk has launched new startups within his empire, including brain-implant company Neuralink, underground-tunnel developer the Boring Company and xAI, the AI startup that merged with SpaceX in February.
It is that AI business that Musk thinks can serve a market worth tens of trillions of dollars, justifying the need for a merger.
The business case goes like this: Tesla is developing robotaxis and robots, which it calls “physical AI.” SpaceX is working on the back end of physical AI: the data-center capacity and internet connection required for those robotaxis and robots to operate continuously.
“I don’t see what the value of Tesla is if it’s not merged with SpaceX,” said investment adviser Ross Gerber, a former Tesla bull turned critic invested in both companies. “If they don’t merge, the brains of everything that runs Tesla is owned by another company.”
On top of it all, both companies face constraints on the supply chains they need to make this world a reality, particularly when it comes to chips. To address this, Musk earlier this year announced a joint venture between Tesla, SpaceX and Intel to design and manufacture chips in Texas. “The most epic chip-building exercise by far,” he has said.
Musk at the wheel
For Musk, a merger would also solve two problems: demands on his attention and his lack of control at Tesla.
Tesla for years was Musk’s only public company, a status that came with greater scrutiny. There, Musk reports to a public board, as well as individual investors who make up around 30% of Tesla’s voting power, according to FactSet.
The question of Musk’s attention became a particular focus for investors and the board in recent years after he acquired Twitter in 2022 and launched xAI in 2023, and again in 2025 as he spent time in Washington, D.C., running the Department of Government Efficiency in the early months of President Trump’s second term.
As Tesla’s car business suffered in 2025, Musk threatened to take his AI ambitions outside the company if he wasn’t granted 25% voting control. Last November, Tesla shareholders approved a new pay package for Musk, which created a path for him to vastly expand his stake.
As of Sept. 30, Musk owned a roughly 20% stake in Tesla, according to the company’s proxy filing.
The SpaceX IPO gave Musk a different path. When SpaceX went public in June, the deal’s structure enabled him to have more than 80% voting power at the company—so much that he can’t be fired and decisions can’t be made without his support.
If SpaceX acquires Tesla, he will likely stay in control.
Borrowers cannot control the Reserve Bank, but they can control how exposed their household budget is to its next decision. The RBA meets on 29 September with inflation concerns still elevated and major-bank economists increasingly bringing forward their rate-rise calls. Fixed mortgage rates have also been moving, reducing the value of waiting for perfect certainty. …
Continue reading “What mortgage holders should do before the next RBA decision”
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