S01E08: Carmen Hubber - Designer. Arrow Junction, Queenstown

A handshake kind of girlWhen Carmen Hubber’s daughter Ruby was born in 2003, she walked away from a senior interior design role at McKenzie & Willis, printed 200 business cards, and took Ruby’s pram cold-calling local businesses in Queenstown. She secured two commissions that first week - an apartment and a bar fit-out - and Carmen Hubber Interior Design was born.

What followed were two recessions, a divorce, and COVID. The 2009-10 period hit hardest: Carmen lost her home and studio and found herself close to $200,000 in debt. She could have walked away. Instead, she paid back every cent.

It wasn’t just resilience that got her through, it was family role modelling: Carmen’s father, who’d reinvented himself many times; her aunt, who rang her a decade after her mini-mart closed to say she’d just paid back the last dollar she owed. Carmen had absorbed those lessons about character and was able to draw on them when it mattered most.

Today, Hub Design operates from a dream property just outside Queenstown - 650 square metres of garaging, spectacular alpine views of the Remarkables and Coronet Peak, and a new design studio and showroom.Carmen’s team feels like family for good reason. Daughter Ruby manages all 3D rendering/ kitchen design and has been with the business five years. Jason, Carmen’s partner, an engineer who builds race motors, handles project management and fabrication. Kate and Sharon have been on the team for five and ten years respectively and are integral to the inner workings of the business, and a third award-winning designer, Leonie, has just come on board this year.

The next chapter will also involve designing and making one-off pieces - cocktail cabinets, bespoke furniture, things that can’t be found anywhere else - from her new space close to Queenstown’s Arrow Junction. Carmen has always known that what many interior design clients really want is something nobody else has, and now she’s getting ready to give it to them.

When not at work, tinkering, skiing, on the lake, or relaxing at home, she’ll be out riding her Indian or her Harley. The bikes are her meditation. No music - just the noise of the motor, the nuances of the corners, and the push and pull of motor and brakes as she accelerates into the future.

Internet: www.hubdesign.nzInstagram: @hubdesigninteriors