Spy: From Shortland Street to interior designer - star puts new career to use with TV role

Katrina Hobbs. Photo / Supplied

Next month Three changes lanes from their reno show The Block NZ to create a New Zealand version of House Rules and have snagged acting star turned interior designer Katrina Hobbs as a judge.

The popular high-stakes renovation show sees five teams of two gamble with do-ups to each other’s homes with $100,000 in prize money up for grabs.

“It was such a treat working on this show, because the contestants were all so excited about the potential for improvements on their homes,” Hobbs tells Spy.

“They all had strong ideas on what they wanted in their homes, which made the House Rules vastly different each week.”

Judging the teams alongside Hobbs, who also has a successful interior design career, is fellow interiors expert Michael Murray, who is new to TV but the two create a cool duo.

Hosting the show is radio personality Duncan Heyde and supervising the teams is acclaimed designer Jade Hurst.

Hobbs says that in terms of design, the journey from shows like Shortland Street and Home and Away was a natural one. The 51-year-old spent two years working with the renowned interior designer and textile importer, Tigger Hall in Australia. When she returned to live in NZ five years ago, Hobbs started her design career in Auckland with a homewares store on Ponsonby Road and is now using her design skills locally and internationally with clients. She loves injecting a bit of fun into their homes using bold and spectacular patterns or prints.

Hobbs also edits Habitat by Resene – the biannual design magazine. She says House Rules is fuelled with deserving contestants and a feel-good factor, with each team in the position of greatly needed help to repair and renovate their home. In saying that, she adds they’re also constantly challenged with the decisions they make in order to renovate the other team’s home

“Each team’s understanding of the House Rules and how they interpret those into their designs, with colour choices, layout and time management, given this is new for most of them, makes for an engrossing show.”

Hobbs’ own home, she says, is character-filled with a stunning outlook and favours European designers, looking to designers India Mahdavi and Kit Kemp for inspiration.

“My style is somewhat eclectic but I also strive for elegance and of course practicality within my home.

“I tend to seek out complex colour palettes and play these out through paints, wallpapers and textiles to create a personal and cohesive space, filled with pockets of fun.”

Hobbs, whose siblings Chris and Rebecca also famously starred on Shortland Street, made a brief return to the soap last year and in 2021 appeared in an episode of The Brokenwood Mysteries.

Will she be back on screens in more dramatic roles? Never say never . . . she loves it but her design career keeps her extremely busy and right now it’s great to be back on screen doing something she loves with House Rules.