Dreamcatcher: Remo D’Souza’s home is a true story of ambition and dreams and is truly built with love.
It’s not often that a backstory can stop you in your tracks, but this is no ordinary story. Hidden behind the colour and texture of Remo’s home is a journey that is as inspirational as it is heart-warming.
Lizelle and Remo’s home is what you’d call an empty nest: the kids have all grown up and have left home to build their own futures. This leaves the couple with a predicament most families face much later in life, a home that’s all too big for just two people. This is where the story gets interesting: Lizelle and Remo are reclaiming parts of their home — loud, young colours are given away to muted, warm tones; bright lights get softer, sports poster come off the walls.
There’s a fair amount of repurposing too: one of the bedrooms is a gym now, another is a den for friends. But, behind all this is a decade-long journey that has seen the couple build up from modest aspirations to global ambitions. At the center of it all was their idea of a home, a home that they could build a family in.
Today, their sprawling multi-bedroom, multi living-room apartment looks out onto city lights, and there’s room for everyone: for family, for friends, for their dogs and their cats, for entertainment, for relaxation, for music, for sport. Remo’s onscreen persona shows up in the decor: it is a mix of bold choices of art and colour, and there’s a positive energy to the space. The bedrooms are simpler, and calmer. This is a family that loves to cook, and the kitchen welcomes every member, from their youngest son to Remo himself.
Taking a step back with Lizelle and Remo and hearing them speak of their journey reminds us of one thing: a home is made by deliberate choices. Choices we make about the size and scale of our homes, of the people (and the things) we choose to invite home, and of the way we visualise, and design our spaces. It is also a reminder that our homes can and should change, that we have the choice to skew our homes younger or older, to move things around, to paint a different colour up on the walls, to redesign and, to ultimately reimagine.