Podcast
House of Alchemy
House of Alchemy is hosted by sisters Virginia and Natalie Drader, interior designers, Feng Shui practitioners, and co-founders of Ellis Kelly Interiors. Each week, they explore the connection between home, design, and well-being through Interior Design, Feng Shui, the Five Elements, and Nine Star Ki. Whether you’re renovating, decorating, or simply seeking a more intentional life, House of Alchemy will inspire you to create a home that not only looks beautiful, but truly supports the way you live.
- Episodes
- 13
- Releases
- Weekly
- Typical length
- 22 min
- On air since
- 2026
- Latest episode
- 1 week ago
Episodes
13 episodes, newest first
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22 min
Episode 13: The Room That Changes Everything | Feng Shui for Your Bedroom
Show notes
What if the most important room in your home is the one you’ve been overlooking?
In this episode of House of Alchemy, Virginia explores why our bedrooms deserve so much more attention, not just for how they look, but for how they make us feel.
Blending interior design, Feng Shui and a little personal reflection, she shares how our bedrooms can influence our sense of comfort, rest and well-being, and why the spaces we create for ourselves can reveal something meaningful about the relationship we have with ourselves.
From thoughtful bed placement and balancing Yin and Yang energy to beautiful lighting, natural materials and clearing clutter, Virginia shares simple, practical ways to transform your bedroom into a peaceful sanctuary.
Because creating a beautiful bedroom isn’t about impressing anyone else. It’s about making your own comfort and well-being a priority.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why your bedroom may be the most overlooked room in your home
- What Feng Shui teaches us about rest, relationships and bedroom energy
- How bed placement, colour and lighting shape the feeling of a space
- The importance of creating a bedroom that feels personal and restorative
- Five simple changes you can make this week
Your bedroom should be more than somewhere you sleep. It should be somewhere you feel completely at home.
Because a beautiful life begins with the spaces we spend our ordinary days in.
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15 min
Episode 12: The Art of Romanticizing Your Life
Show notes
What is it about a Nancy Meyers movie that makes us want to move to the countryside, buy fresh flowers, and start making homemade bread?
In this week’s episode of House of Alchemy, Virginia explores how to bring a little main character energy into everyday life, without needing a perfect house or an unlimited decorating budget.
From romanticizing your morning coffee and using the beautiful things you’ve been saving, to creating atmosphere through lighting, scent, music, and simple Feng Shui rituals, this episode is all about finding more pleasure in the ordinary.
We’ll also explore the idea of putting your house to bed each evening, shifting from the active yang energy of the day into the softer, quieter yin energy of night.
Because a beautiful home isn’t just about how it looks. It’s about the life you create within it.
This week’s challenge: Create three little main character moments in your home and notice how differently you experience your day.
A little humour, a little Feng Shui, and plenty of Nancy Meyers inspiration.
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22 min
Episode 11: Decorating with the Five Elements: Creating Balance in Your Home
Show notes
Have you ever walked into a room that looks beautiful but somehow doesn’t feel quite right?
This week on House of Alchemy, we’re exploring how the Five Elements of Feng Shui, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, can completely change the way you think about decorating your home.
From the warmth of a wool rug and the grounding presence of natural stone to the energy of plants, the softness of pastels and the atmosphere created by beautiful lighting, the Five Elements are already all around us.
In this episode, we’ll explore how to recognize each element through colour, materials, shapes, artwork and furnishings, what happens when a room has too much or too little of an element, and how small, thoughtful changes can help create a more balanced and supportive home.
We’re also connecting the Five Elements back to Nine Star Ki and exploring how your personal elemental energy can influence the spaces you feel most comfortable in.
Plus, we’re sharing a simple Five Element Home Challenge you can try this weekend, using things you already own.
Because creating a beautiful home isn’t just about how it looks. It’s about how it makes you feel.
And to all our Canadian listeners, Happy Thanksgiving!
Want to discover your personal elemental blueprint?
Book a Nine Star Ki reading with us at the link in the bio.
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17 min
Episode 10: What Is Your Home Trying to Tell You?
Show notes
What if the things you’ve stopped noticing in your home are telling you something about the way you’re living?
In this episode of House of Alchemy, we’re shifting our focus from your personal energy to the environment you live in every day.
Through the lens of Feng Shui, we explore eight signs that your home’s energy may have become stagnant, from neglected entrances and unfinished projects to rooms you avoid and spaces that no longer reflect who you are.
We’ll share simple, practical ways to refresh your surroundings without renovating, redecorating or buying anything new.
Plus, we’re introducing a little House of Alchemy challenge to help you break your daily routines and experience your home in an entirely new way.
Because your home is more than a collection of beautiful rooms. It’s an environment that should evolve with you and support the person you’re becoming.
Heal your home. Heal your life.
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25 min
Episode 9: Who Are You Becoming? Your Third Nine Star Ki Number, Life Challenges & Life Purpose
Show notes
Who are you becoming?
We’ve explored your first Nine Star Ki number, your middle number, and now we’re completing the series with your third number.
This number offers another fascinating layer of your energetic blueprint. It can give us insight into how you express yourself in the world, the challenges that shape you, the qualities you’re growing into and even your life purpose.
In this week’s episode of the House of Alchemy podcast, we’re exploring what your third number means and how all three of your numbers work together to tell a much bigger story.
Because your Nine Star Ki chart isn’t only about understanding who you are.
It can also help you understand who you’re becoming.
Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, and tell us your three Nine Star Ki numbers below. We’d love to know yours.
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36 min
Episode 8: Where We Begin & Where We Return - The Middle Number in Nine Star Ki
Show notes
In this episode of House of Alchemy, Virginia is diving deeper into Nine Star Ki and exploring the middle number in your chart: the element you sit in as a child.
Before we fully grow into the energy of our primary Nine Star Ki number, we experience life through this middle energy. It can tell us so much about who we were as children, how we experienced the world, what we needed from the people around us, and why certain parts of our childhood may have felt the way they did.
We walk through all nine energies and explore what it can look like to sit in 1 Water, 2 Earth, 3 Wood, 4 Wood, 5 Earth, 6 Metal, 7 Metal, 8 Earth, or 9 Fire as a child.
We also talk about why this number can be such a beautiful tool for understanding the children in our lives. When we know the element a child is sitting in, we can begin to better understand their natural sensitivities, behaviours, emotional needs, strengths, and the way they move through the world.
And although we eventually grow into our adult energy, that childhood element doesn’t simply disappear. It remains part of our Nine Star Ki story and can reappear during times of stress, vulnerability, or when we need to feel safe.
Whether you’re exploring your own childhood or trying to understand your children on a deeper level, your middle number adds an entirely new layer to your Nine Star Ki chart.
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16 min
Episode 7: When & Why to Hire an Interior Designer + Why AI Won’t Replace Us
Show notes
This week, Virginia is taking a little break from Nine Star Ki to talk about something close to home: interior design.
When is it actually worth hiring an interior designer? What does a designer bring to a project beyond choosing beautiful finishes? And with AI making it easier than ever to generate ideas and inspiration, is there still a place for interior designers?
Virginia shares what really happens behind the scenes of a well-designed home, from understanding architecture and proportion to creating flow, solving problems, sourcing the right pieces and making hundreds of small decisions that ultimately make a home feel cohesive, personal and lived-in.
She also explores where AI can be incredibly useful in the design process, and where it simply can’t replace experience, intuition, relationships and the ability to understand how a real family lives in a real home.
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31 min
Episode 6: Meeting the Nine Energies, Part Two: 5 Earth, 6 Metal, 7 Metal, 8 Earth & 9 Fire
Show notes
In this episode of House of Alchemy, we continue our journey through the nine energies of Nine Star Ki.
Last week, we explored One Water, Two Earth, Three Wood and Four Wood. This week, we complete the nine with the remaining five energies: Five Earth, Six Metal, Seven Metal, Eight Earth and Nine Fire.
We begin with Five Earth, the powerful energy at the centre of the Nine Star Ki system. Grounded, capable and often influential, Five Earth can carry a strong sense of responsibility while also experiencing periods of profound change and reinvention.
Then we move into the two Metal energies.
Six Metal brings strength, discipline, leadership and high standards. These are often people who value integrity and structure and have a clear sense of how things should be done.
Seven Metal expresses Metal differently. Charming, expressive and socially intuitive, Seven Metal is associated with beauty, pleasure, communication and refinement.
Next is Eight Earth, an energy of stillness, contemplation and inner strength. Eight Earth people can be deeply thoughtful and independent, often needing time and space before making significant changes or revealing what is happening beneath the surface.
Finally, we meet Nine Fire: charismatic, perceptive, passionate and illuminating. Nine Fire brings warmth, visibility and inspiration, but can also experience the intensity that comes with feeling and seeing things so vividly.
Throughout the episode, we explore the strengths and challenges of each energy and how they can show up in our personalities, relationships, work and everyday lives.
With these five energies, we complete our introduction to all nine Nine Star Ki energies and create the foundation for understanding how our individual combinations can tell a much deeper story about who we are.
Want to figure out your own Nine Star Ki numbers? Use our Nine Star Ki Chart to find your three numbers and follow along with the episode.
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26 min
Episode 5: Meeting the Nine Energies, Part One: 1 Water, 2 Earth, 3 Wood & 4 Wood
Show notes
In this episode of House of Alchemy, we begin meeting the nine energies of Nine Star Ki, starting with One Water, Two Earth, Three Wood and Four Wood.
We explore the personality, strengths, challenges and natural tendencies of each energy, and how they can show up in our relationships, families, work and homes.
We also explain how to find your own three Nine Star Ki numbers and what each one represents, giving you a deeper understanding of your unique energetic makeup.
Want to find your own numbers before you listen? Use our Nine Star Ki Chart to discover your three numbers and follow along with the episode.
Once you begin to recognize these energies, you start to see the people around you a little differently, and perhaps understand yourself a little better too.
This is Part One of our journey through the nine energies. Next week, we’ll meet Five Earth, Six Metal, Seven Metal, Eight Earth and Nine Fire.
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22 min
Episode 4: Meet the Nine Energies | The Nine Ways We Experience the World
Show notes
In this episode of House of Alchemy, Virginia introduces you to the nine energies of Nine Star Ki and the unique ways each one experiences and moves through the world.
From the depth and intuition of 1 Water to the warmth and radiance of 9 Fire, each energy carries its own strengths, sensitivities, patterns, and perspective. Virginia explores what makes each of the nine energies distinct and how they can show up in our personalities, relationships, and everyday lives.
As you listen, you may recognize yourself, your partner, your children, your friends, or even someone you’ve never quite understood.
One of the greatest gifts of Nine Star Ki is the understanding that people aren’t difficult, they’re different. And when we begin to understand those differences, we can approach ourselves and the people we love with greater compassion and understanding.
Consider this your introduction to the nine fascinating energies at the heart of Nine Star Ki.
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24 min
Episode 3: Nine Star Ki - Harmony Through Nature and Self
Show notes
What if understanding who you naturally are could change the way you see yourself, your relationships, and even your home?
In this episode, Virginia introduces Nine Star Ki, an ancient system rooted in the rhythms of nature. She explores the Five Elements of Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal, not simply as physical materials, but as qualities and patterns that can help us understand why we each experience and move through the world so differently.
At the heart of the episode is a simple idea: we are nature. Just as the seasons shift and the natural world moves through periods of growth, change, stillness, and renewal, so do we.
Whether you’re completely new to Nine Star Ki or simply curious to understand yourself and the people you love on a deeper level, this episode is an invitation to replace judgment with curiosity and begin appreciating the qualities that make each of us different.
This week’s House of Alchemy Practice invites you to think about someone in your life who experiences the world differently than you do and ask:
“What if they don’t need to be more like me?”
Sometimes understanding our differences is where connection begins.
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15 min
Episode 2: The Things We Carry | 10 Lessons From Clearing Out 40 Years of Our Family’s Life
Show notes
What began as clearing out forty years of our family’s belongings became something much deeper.
In this episode, we share the unexpected lessons we learned after spending nearly 400 hours sorting through boxes filled with childhood memories, family keepsakes, and our late father’s belongings. We talk about why our homes often reflect what’s happening in our lives, how letting go can create space for new beginnings, and why the memories we treasure have never really lived inside our things.
Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed by clutter, navigating a new season of life, or simply longing for your home to feel lighter and more supportive, we hope this conversation encourages you to begin with just one small space.
This week’s House of Alchemy Practice invites you to choose a single drawer, shelf, or corner of your home and ask one simple question:
“Does this still support the life I’m living today?”
Sometimes the smallest changes create the greatest transformations.
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24 min
Episode 1: The Story Behind House of Alchemy
Show notes
In our very first episode, Virginia shares the story behind House of Alchemy, from the unexpected twists that shaped her life to how interior design, Feng Shui, and home became so deeply connected. It’s a conversation about finding your way, creating beauty with intention, and discovering that sometimes the life you never planned becomes the one you’re most grateful for.
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