In a Room is a conversation series where we ask our friends to share their favourite domestic spaces. For this edition, we’re joined by illustrator, comics creator, and broadcaster Stacy Gougoulis.
Stacy spent eight years on Triple J’s Weekend Breakfast before moving to Double J, where he hosted the afternoon slot until the end of 2024. Based in Melbourne on Wurundjeri land, he’s an illustrator and comics maker whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, ABC, VICE, and the Fantagraphics NOW anthology. He’s currently working on his debut graphic novel, Bivouac, to be published by Fantagraphics, developed in part during a recent Bundanon residency. Stacy lives with his partner, fellow artist and comics creator Rachel Ang, and the pair recently became new parents.
In this edition, Stacy moves from the bathroom mirror to the One Big Room that holds books, meals, drawings, and cats. He revisits his grandmother’s ’60s living room — a space that shaped his inner architecture — and reflects on what makes a room feel alive. There’s a curated mess, a handmade rug, light where it matters, and the quiet poetry of white bread dipped in milk.
Stacy Gougoulis
Which room are you in today?
The bathroom. I needed to floss my teeth. I’m a patchy flosser, but the dentist says I need to get right in there at the back. And what is a mouth but a room in the face you need to keep clean?
Which room is the heart of your home?
We have a relatively small two-bedroom apartment, so everything happens in the One Big Room — kitchen, dining, living, and study all in one. It’s special because it’s at once large and intimate. One wall is covered in books and art. The other is blank, waiting for the projector to light it up for movie night. We play on the floor. I designed a special rug that is child-friendly without being childish. There’s a Juliet balcony we’ve turned into a cat balcony. Everything creative and yummy is made and consumed in this space.
Is there a room from your past that has stayed with you?
One that comes to mind is the living room of my grandmother’s house. For some reason, whenever I dreamed of a house as a child — or imagined a fictional house — it was this one. It was built by my grandparents sometime in the late ’60s. I once documented the many different types of tiled surfaces. I spent a lot of time after school reading Peanuts comics, watching Days of Our Lives, and eating white bread dipped in milk in this space. I can picture every detail, and it makes me sad to know this house doesn’t exist anymore. Every room was special in its own way.
What makes a room feel like home and not just a space?
I’ve become more appreciative of a well-designed space as I’ve gotten older. I never really did much decorating of my room as a child — I didn’t have a lot of posters up. As a young adult in share houses, I didn’t see the point in shaping the space when I wouldn’t be there forever. But now I see that as a sad outlook. I started paying more attention and found the process rewarding in itself. Books. Plants. Art. Especially drawings and prints. Scribbles by friends or children. Curated mess. And a cat.
Stacy Gougoulis
What sort of rooms do you try and avoid?
Dark rooms. I love natural light, and the saddest thing about our current home is the lack of it. Cold spaces. Ones that look like Airbnbs where the owner is just renting out their third investment property and doesn’t care. Art printed on canvas at Officeworks. What makes them unappealing is the lack of attention.
Is there a kind of room you’re always drawn to?
Wherever the books are. I like cosy spaces — and that says cosy to me. A nice coffee table, throw rugs.
What is your all time favourite room?
I don’t have an all-time favourite room. Maybe I just haven’t found it yet. I can picture it though. It’s small and has a view of trees and sky. A cosy chair facing a large window. It’s cold unless you’re sitting in the direct sunlight — which is where the cat is. There’s an old wooden desk, large and covered with half-drawn things. It’s close to the rest of the house, so you can hear commotion from the other rooms — life always nearby.
Edward Woodley ◆ Photo by Shal XVX
