After spending so much time in hotels and short-stay apartments while training and competing, Olympic swimmer Shayna Jack wanted her own home to feel distinctly different – warmer, softer and more personal. For her, home needed to offer a sense of calm that contrasted with the intensity of elite sport: a place to reset, recharge and feel settled between stints on the road.
The townhouse had great bones, but the original terracotta toned floor tiles more than 20 years old – left the home feeling darker and more dated than Shayna wanted. Being a townhouse with a compact layout, where natural light plays an important role, the heavier look of the floors made the space feel more enclosed than it needed to be. From the moment she bought the property, she knew the flooring would eventually need to change to better reflect the home’s potential.
The transformation began underfoot, with the introduction of a light-toned hybrid timber-look floor. Shayna chose Clever Choice’s Enchanted hybrid flooring in the colour Aether. The softer colour immediately lifted the space, helping to reflect natural light and create a brighter, more open feel throughout the home. In a townhouse where rooms connect closely, that lighter base made each area feel calmer and more connected rather than visually broken up.Running the same flooring through much of the home also helped reduce visual breaks between zones, allowing the layout to flow more naturally from room to room and across levels.
“The flooring is what really brought everything together,” says Shayna. “My home now flows seamlessly from the kitchen and living areas through to upstairs.”
Practicality was just as important as aesthetics. Home to Shayna and her fiancé Joel, along with their bird Phoenix and dog Willa – a malamute–German shepherd cross with plenty of energy – the surfaces needed to withstand everyday wear while remaining easy to care for. The flooring offered a durable solution suited to an active, pet-friendly household without sacrificing warmth or style.
“I spend so much of my life in busy, high-pressure environments, so coming home to a space that feels light and calm makes such a difference,” Shayna says. “It’s become my place to reset between training blocks or competitions, and that feeling is hard to put into words.”
To complement the flooring, a light-toned carpet. Signature flooring’s Charmuese in colour was introduced in the upstairs bedrooms, adding softness underfoot while maintaining the home’s airy light-toned palette. The subtle colour keeps bedrooms feeling calm and restful, layering comfort into the spaces designed for downtime.
“The carpets are the softest I’ve ever felt,” she says. “They make me miss home even more when I’m travelling!”
With an international schedule that rarely slows down, Shayna wasn’t always on site during the renovation. Instead, she relied on the team at Andersens to manage the project from start to finish while she was overseas. “I chose the floors, and Matt and the team at the Andersens Coorparoo store took care of the rest,” says Shayna. “I was away for most of the renovation, so it was important to know everything was being handled. Staying in touch with the team while I was overseas gave me complete peace of mind that everything was moving along as planned.”
For Shayna, the finished result is exactly what she had hoped for – a home that feels calm, comfortable and truly hers, offering a sense of grounding no matter how busy the season becomes, and a place she genuinely looks forward to returning to.
