Penny and Anna are sisters and business partners in Carnival Homewares, creators of the colourful striped cotton cushions, rugs and more in our feature today. We talked to them about their colour inspiration, and what it's like to work together as sisters.



What is your background?  
It's fair to say we come from a colourful and creative family! We started our travels to India when we were school girls with our father, who was involved in importing textiles from around the world. Later we went in different directions – Penny worked in sales and marketing for hotels and Anna in interior design and visual merchandising.

How did you come to start Carnival Homewares?
After many years of work and travel through Asia and the Middle East, Penny found herself back in Perth and Anna moved to India. Our parents had passed on to us their love & appreciation of India so that starting a business there became a real possibility. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to start something of our own, drawing on India's rich heritage of textiles and of course colour. Now Mum and Dad love to help in any way they can, and we love it when they do. We have a great team of girlfriends who work with us too.

How do you find working together as sisters?
As sisters, we know each other, trust each other and understand each other better than in any business partnership. We just get on. We made an agreement in the beginning that if we couldn't physically manage/do something we just said so. We agreed children came first and so the business was set up around our families.  With Penny in Perth and Anna now in Melbourne, we often chat at the end of the day with new ideas. Sometimes Penny's ideas are a little more imaginative or vivid, but if either of us goes a little off centre the other pulls back so we get there in the end!  It helps that we have the same love of colour and design, and both enjoy the challenge of creating something new. Our personalities are different but complementary and we are often completely on the same wavelength!

Your use of colour is amazing - do you have any favourites?
We have different personal preferences, but try to put those out of the way to focus on what our customers love. Penny likes hot pink for lips, red for sofas, and blue topaz for rings, whilst Anna prefers tangerine for lips, red for mani/pedi's and clear sparkling rings - a trip to India is never complete without a visit to our gemstone man!

What is your design process, and where do you find inspiration? 
We both come up with the ideas and make them work to suit the market. Colour and textiles have always surrounded us, and we have travelled in France, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Middle East where we saw colour at markets,  villages, the seaside,  countryside and most importantly through people in varied and vibrant environments. We talk to people, enjoy entertaining and source products from around the world, but mostly India. We aim to manufacture fun, colourful products that change with the season and that are affordable. When people start to talk and get excited about our product, we know it works!