About Us
The Retreat Stylist was founded by Interior Decorator + Stylist Sarah Elshaug, who creates beautifully resolved interior spaces that inspire retreat-style living every day.
Campaign Direction & Styling : Sarah Elshaug for The Retreat Stylist, Photographer : Stephanie Rooney
RESIDENTIAL INTERIORS…
Sarah has been delivering retreat style interiors since 2016 via her bespoke 5 step interior design process to envision and create stunning family homes, restaurants and business spaces that effortlessly balance and capture her clients’ needs and aspirations. Sarah’s projects have been published in top interior magazines and blogs including Home Beautiful, Green Magazine, The Design Files, Dot + Pop, The Stylephiles, The Design Chaser and Mornington Peninsula Magazine. Sarah is a regular contributor to The Domain, sharing her tips and insights with readers on interior related topics, and is also a freelance stylist for Home Beautiful.
It was whilst searching for a more creative outlet beyond corporate life, that Sarah found it studying Interior Decoration at RMIT, with the ambition to create beautifully resolved interiors that bring an inspired sense of retreat style living into homes and spaces people inhabit every day.
Sarah believes that interiors need to support and enhance family living, and inspire retreat style living everyday: “It’s that uplifting feeling you get when you open the door each day and step inside a retreat-style sanctuary you always dreamed of - we love to see our clients living the dream.”
Sarah believes in the importance of refreshing, recharging and reconnecting with family and friends. She loves creating beautifully resolved interiors that truly impact the way people inhabit and thrive in their spaces every day.
The Retreat Stylist Studio, Design and Styling : Sarah Elshaug for The Retreat Stylist, Photographer : Stephanie Rooney
SHORT STAY ACCOMMODATION INTERIORS…
Drawing on Sarah’s unique corporate and creative skill set, The Retreat Stylist curates interior packages that create exceptional outcomes for holiday property owners across both marketing and interiors in order to deliver increased brand loyalty, occupancy, nightly rates AND stylish appeal; a must not only for style savvy holiday makers, but also your own enjoyment of the property with family and friends.
The Retreat Stylist provides interior styling advice for short-term rental owners on the Mornington Peninsula and beyond. Having grown up spending weekends on the family farm in Balnarring, Sarah understands the moods, luxury and natural beauty of this coastal region. Today’s owners of short-term rentals are becoming increasingly aware that it is no longer enough to offer style savvy holiday makers a bed for the night, and Sarah loves working with owners to create accommodation that offers instant coziness and personality, creating the impulse to exhale as soon as guests arrive.
Sarah’s local knowledge of the Mornington Peninsula and her passion for being immersed in nature, along with her branding and marketing expertise, provide clients with a unique end to end styling and branding solution to effortlessly create a successful retreat-style short-stay property that will capture the hearts of style savvy holiday makers.
We take pride in supporting local Victorian and Australian makers and artisans and love to collaborate with these talented creatives to design bespoke furnishings, art and lighting that will become enduring, timeless and much loved pieces in our clients spaces.
This ethos is at the heart of our vision to transform short stay accommodation interiors into retreat style living for style savvy holiday makers and home owners alike.
Interior Design and Styling : Sarah Elshaug for The Retreat Stylist. Photographer : Caitlin Mills
EDITORIAL CAMPAIGN STYLING…
Making the most of a chance meeting with Julia Green of Greenhouse Interiors whilst studying provided Sarah with valuable on-the-job styling experience to hone her own styling and design philosophy – that now focuses on supporting local designers and makers, creating layered spaces loaded with texture, colour and personal touches for each client.
Sarah’s styling collaborations have included editorial photo shoots for Home Beautiful, House and Garden, Real Living Magazine and Inside Out, as well as product campaign photo shoots for interior brands such as Felix Furniture, Barnaby Lane, Merci Perci, Globe West, Eadie Lifestyle, Space to Create, Klaylife and Barefoot Gypsy.
Campaign Direction & Styling : Sarah Elshaug for Felix Furniture; Photographer : Stephanie Rooney
THE PRINT STORE…
With creativity and being immersed in nature as her two greatest loves, Sarah also has her own photographic print range. Created as a passion project, following an afternoon spent sitting in the paddock on her parents farm at Balnarring on the Mornington Peninsula, camera in hand photographing the cows as they grazed and played. The images were so natural and in the moment with stunning details captured up close, Sarah decided they needed to be shared. Her limited edition travel photography prints also feature stunning landscape images taken during her travels to Europe. Sarah’s prints are available to purchase at The Print Store.
Elsie + Hugo ‘Levi’ print, Stylist : Sarah Elshaug for The Retreat Stylist, Photographer : Stephanie Rooney
Discover our Interior Packages & Services