In conversation with Deb Cartledge, Fika Home and Living, Armidale NSW

Deb Cartledge, owner of Fika Home and Living (formally The New England Collective) has always loved colour. While her story started with earrings – unique designs bursting with fun known as Pinot Cat Designs – the latest chapter reveals something much bigger, brighter and bolder in a beautiful new space she’s proud to bring to the people of Armidale.

There comes a time in life when you just don’t give a shit anymore – you decide to do what makes you happy. That’s where it all began for me, back in 2018. There were five of us in the beginning, three of us had been doing markets together regularly and we decided to open a pop-up store in Hannah’s Arcade for Mother’s Day. We stayed open from that day onwards and The New England Collective was born.

The original concept was to fill the shelves with local makers and creatives – and that worked well, for a while. It gave us the opportunity to showcase our own brands, including my own Pinot Cat Designs, but once I was made redundant from my full-time job at UNE I had more time to focus on the Collective’s model. I knew then it wasn’t going to be sustainable in the long term. So we slowly started bringing in other products and eventually needed to move to a larger space to really pursue the direction we were heading in.

It was 2020 when we moved to the mall, smack bang in pandemic times – not ideal for a bricks and mortar. But it worked, and I still felt there was more room to grow. I’m a worker and my brain never switches off. I consider myself a student of shops now, always looking at what they do and studying different displays. There are so many places out there that look absolutely beautiful, but I can’t see how they sell. Part of me wonders if people are even a little scared to touch the display, in case they mess it up.

There’s an old saying I heard years ago: stack it high, watch it fly. It’s a tactic most shops won’t roll with these days because it doesn’t look aesthetically beautiful – but that’s exactly what I do. So you’ll always see piles of things here, teamed with moments of beauty around the store too. I want people to feel like they can pick things up, feel at home and be able to visualise how products will look in their own space. I want people to feel inspired and be bold with colour, patterns, fabrics and art. Bringing those things together can bring so much joy and you know, life’s short, people should do what brings them joy. I’ve always been creative, I’ve always made things and drawn things, that’s always been in me and made me happy.

But I lost myself when I was married – I became a reflection of him instead of who I wanted to be. I can remember sitting down after the divorce, I had the TV remote in my hand and I didn’t even know what I wanted to watch because I didn’t know what I liked. He had always held the remote. From that moment on I decided: I’m going to be 100 per cent me, I’m not compromising on who I want to be anymore. So if I love yellow because it’s just bursting with sunshine and happiness, I’m going to wear it. If I want to pair that with pink shoes because they make me feel good, I’m going to do it.

It’s like when people buy art for their home, they worry too much about whether it will all go together – but it will because you love it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a lighthouse or a panda and a train, collect the things that make you smile, put them together and feel good. That’s what I’ve always focused on here. This is just me. It’s a collection of the things I love and I’m so excited to rebrand as Fika Home and Living to reflect that. It’s a Swedish term that’s often related to sitting down with a coffee and a pastry, taking the time to stop and be in the moment.

I couldn’t sleep one night, so I got up at 3am and started Googling words. Fika just leapt out at me and it feels so right. My great grandmother was Swedish too, so it ties in beautifully. Working with designer Krysten Barros has been a dream and the end result feels like a real extension of me. It was time to move on from the word ‘Collective’ – it doesn’t represent what we are anymore and I needed the brand to have colour. But mainly, it was time to step forward and put my own personal stamp on it. When I walk through these doors,I see me, and I'm very proud of that.

I’m also very proud to bring a space like this to Armidale – because I love this town, my soul is happy here. I’m not a hippie, I don’t know why I say shit like that. But I feel like I’m doing a real service for people and love that I can be a constant in a country town that has experienced its fair share of ups and downs. I love being able to cater for everyone and that people can walk in here and smile. Because life can be shit sometimes. But if you can go somewhere with an awesome playlist (we’re talking Backstreet Boys one minute and Frank Sinatra the next) and feel happy, then that’s what I want.

I also like that everyone knows your business in a small town, because I think there’s a sense of caring in that. If I was living by myself in Sydney and had a heart attack, people wouldn’t find me for days. I’d be half-eaten by something by the time someone noticed the smell and pried the door open. But here, if I don’t turn up to work tomorrow, someone will notice. So, you know, that’s a big win too.