"You know when you’ve had a house for a few years and it’s a bit lived-in, almost dirty, and there is wisteria growing up and a faded sort of charm and glamour?" asks interior designer Amy Stoddart. "Well, that was exactly the vibe we wanted here: a take on aged Parisian style that is both careworn and luxe."

Quite a tricky brief for a house that was totally brand new and that Amy had designed from scratch into a modern home after the owners knocked down the home that had formerly been on the site. "We hadn’t planned to, but after getting advice from the builders it felt cheaper to do that and not have to pay VAT — which new builds are exempt from — than renovate the existing property,’ says Amy.

So how do you go about giving a large monolithic mansion that vintage patina you’re craving? "We were constantly saying, 'Make it dirtier!'" says Amy Stoddart of the pitted tadelakt walls in the powder room that she wanted more pits added to, and of the foxed brass mirrors added to the joinery in the entryway to tone down that new-build gleam.

"We also stepped away from any design choices that were too 'brand-new extension'," she says, "instead choosing ornate cornicing, very high skirting boards and metal finishes that were always more worn than shiny."

The color palette was key. It veers from the sumptuous burgundy seen on the Camaleonda sofa in the snug and the wallpapered walls and ceilings in the cinema room, to the black of the formal living room — each one enhancing that sense of age and a richness gathered over time that she was after.

"But even the darker tones have a softness to them," says Amy. "The black used in the formal sitting room is very far from jet back — it has subtle blue tones. It makes being in there feel very sophisticated. It’s only used at night anyway, so by then it’s bathed in the warm glow of the wall lights."

Having a living room only used in the evenings may seem indulgent, but Amy’s clients liked how each area had a very specific use. "They said that if we’d not made one space an evening lounge and another a cinema room, they’d inevitably spend all their time in the snug," she says. "Giving each room a specific purpose means it actually gets used as such."

The overall effect of Amy’s design choices is one that elevates this all-new property into a home with stately character. "Because everything is so tactile, you get the impression you’re being instantly welcomed by the house itself," says Amy. "That you could put your feet up on the sofa, curl up with a book or cocktail, and feel instantly at home."

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With views across the Thames, a library, gym, private members' club, and a glass pool that magically hovers in the sky, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Embassy Gardens couldn't get any more impressive. But the newest addition, The Capston, would prove you wrong. Saving the best until last, The Capston marks the final stage of Ballymore's transformative development project in Nine Elms.

Situated directly next to the American Embassy, this sprawling, Art Deco design riverside development contains an impressive 247 residences, each thoughtfully curated by design icon Bryan O'Sullivan. In this project, the designer, best known for his work at London's most prestigious hotels, including Claridge's and The Connaught, has applied his distinctive blend of Art Deco artistry with contemporary considerations to what are sure to be some of the most desirable apartments in the city. When so many modern developments pride themselves on convenience and innovation, abandoning the beauty and importance of art and craftsmanship, The Capston stands as a counterpoint.

For Sean Mulryan, the founder of Ballymore, The Capston was his love letter to the arts, a celebration of how art enriches the lives of those around it. Inside, you'll find murals by Sam Wood and original ceramic works by Fabienne L'Hostis. Spotlighting these talented artists and artisans was, to Sean, the core motivation for this project. "I have been enjoying and collecting art for the greater part of my life. Over time, it has proved to be a great source of inspiration and joy, and I have always wanted the residents at our developments to experience the benefits that art brings," he explains. The building is an homage to the golden age of artistry; it's Art Deco at its finest, every corner a new design detail to discover.

The Inspiration

From its inception, Art Deco design was at the heart of The Capston. It was the foundation upon which everything else bloomed. For Ballymore's chairman and founder, a lifelong lover and champion of the arts, no era managed to capture the magnificence of craftsmanship quite like the Art Deco period did.

In fact, Ballymore's Brian De'ath says, "The original vision for The Capston was about creating a building that felt like a repository for art and craft." Sean wanted a space that reflected his passion for the visual arts, offering his residents a chance to not just appreciate art, but to immerse themselves within it. He saw this project as a liveable artwork, and the interiors had to reflect this.

But while the Art Deco period formed a baseline inspiration, from the outset Sean knew it was essential to blend these period elements with a more contemporary visual language and modern interior design style. "Bryan O’Sullivan was a natural fit to realize this vision," shares Brian, noting, "his ability to infuse contemporary spaces with old-school glamour and reinterpret historic Art Deco architecture in a way that feels fresh and relevant today is unmatched.”

When drawing on past eras and design styles, finding ways to adapt these features and mold them to fit within a modern setting is the true key to success. Without a touch of the contemporary, your design can quickly begin to feel costume-y or kitsch. In blending eras and styles and relying on classic color combinations, you're able to land on something that feels truly timeless, and this is exactly what Bryan O'Sullivan does so well.

The inspiration was not just a vague nod to the era, though. There was plenty of consideration and research that went into getting the Art Deco look just right. "We looked at some of the great pioneers of the movement and wanted to capture that sense of glamour and appreciation of craftsmanship," shares Brian.

And, chief among these pioneers was Irish designer Eileen Gray. United by a shared Irish heritage, both Sean and Bryan felt a personal connection to the Modernist designs Eileen pioneered throughout her career. "Eileen Gray was such an important figure of the Art Deco period, and Sean has collected a number of her works over the years, so it felt very natural to bring some of her influence — the simplicity, function and elegance — to The Capston," shares Brian.

But while Eileen's work maintained a minimalist simplicity, in the elaborately decorated The Capston, it was her understanding of texture and material that provided the most tangible inspiration. "Eileen Gray’s timeless approach to elegance resonates with me, particularly in the way she created beauty through materiality," explains Bryan.

It was with this in mind that the idea of paneled walls, crown molding, and multi-dimensional architectural features was born. "Taking cues from her work, we treated surfaces as something to be experienced through texture and touch, rather than simply as decoration. We looked to historic references while continually reaching for new ideas, so the result feels imaginative and playful," says Bryan.

The Building

Never one to do things by halves, in developing this building, it was crucial that Art Deco style was not reserved solely for the interiors, but spread throughout the design, a constant feature across the experience.

Taking visual cues from Manhattan's Meatpacking District, the Ballymore team worked alongside HAL Architects to source a distinctive, fire-red brick for the facade, in order to create the characteristic warmth and character of traditional New York apartment buildings.

What's unique about The Capston is the way in which the building is designed to encourage socialization. While the residential apartments offer complete privacy, at the heart of The Capston is The Pavilion, a shared space inspired by the desire for community, with a plethora of communal entertaining rooms to explore and host in.

Spread across two buildings, The Capston is connected by this cluster of spaces that lead on from one another, culminating in the beautiful Japanese Gardens. "The Pavilion was designed almost like a Georgian country house, with four interconnected rooms that flow into one another," explains Bryan.

Upon entering, you're met with the grand foyer, an elegant space cloaked in burl wood. From there, you can choose between the Drawing Room, the Library, and the Artists' Parlour, each impeccably designed and perfect for sitting back and connecting with your neighbors, or hosting your friends.

"We wanted that sense of progression as you move through the space, so you have these beautiful arched doorways, marble architraves and stained-glass doors creating little moments of discovery and connection for occupants," explains Bryan.

Throughout the rooms, walls are decorated with pieces of art from Sean's own collection, and every piece of furniture and wall finish is a testament to the craftsmanship that is at the heart of this design.

The Design

Across the shared rooms, and indeed in the private apartments, Bryan swaps out harsh lines and sharp forms for soft, curved furniture designs, with scarcely a right angle in sight throughout the building.

Explaining this design decision, Bryan says, "Curved forms transform an interior from static to dynamic — where straight lines establish structure, curves guide the eye instead, echoing the organic logic of the natural world."

These forms are also reminiscent of the popular Art Deco furniture styles, adding to the visual language already present in the building's architecture.

The more attention you pay to this design, the more intentional each decision appears. A complex cacophony of artistry and technique, each room contains a new treasure to marvel over. "We approached every surface and material with purpose, considering how each would contribute to the overall atmosphere," explains Bryan. "From the architecture to the smallest handcrafted detail, every element was designed to work together as part of one cohesive vision."

This isn't quiet luxury, but it's also not obnoxious or ostentatious. It's boldly artistic, yet also liveable. "We wanted The Capston to feel crafted with a quiet complexity that reveals itself over time, rather than appearing overly constructed," says Bryan.

While the shared spaces across the ground floor feel grand and elevated, within the apartments, the tone shifts slightly. Of course, the luxury appeal does not slip, but it does adapt, taking on a more homely, relaxed feel.

In the kitchen, this is particularly clear. With an open-plan layout and warm, wooden kitchen cabinets, this design feels unpretentious and approachable. It's a modern kitchen you can actually imagine cooking in, which is surprisingly rare in such prestigious developments.

But of course, although the atmosphere is more laid-back, the materials and finishes remain as luxurious as ever. For the kitchen worktops, Bryan opted for the richly veined finish of Calacatta Viola, a favorite among designers. "We needed a stone that could hold its own alongside the cabinetry, complementing its warmth without competing for attention," Bryan explains. And against the oak veneer cabinetry, the marble finish "strikes a balance between drama and restraint, with bold veining that adds depth, never overwhelming the space.”

Used along the counters and kitchen backsplash, the marble brings a cool hardness that counteracts the warmth of the oak veneer, making for a more balanced design.

Adding to this allure of casual elegance, the decision to opt for banquette seating, set within this kitchen island, makes for a cozier finish, providing a space that can as easily support hurried morning breakfasts as it could refined dinner parties.

The attention to detail and materiality continues on to the bathrooms too, where a collection of different tiles come together to form an elegant, spa bathroom effect.

“We chose a combination of marble, marble mosaic and porcelain wall tiles to create a luxurious and considered bathroom," explains Bryan.

With a built-in tub at the center, and a shower room and toilet flanking on either side, the bathroom is oriented to position the marble-covered tub as the focal point. Not only through its central position, but with the marble framing that surrounds it, too.

Explaining this feature, Bryan says, "The marble framing adds structure and definition to the bathroom, creating an elegant surround to the WC and shower entrances. It also pays subtle homage to the building’s architectural language, echoing the marble archways found throughout the ground floor, creating a visual connection to the wider interior scheme."

In Art Deco designs and modern homes, marble remains a marker of luxury, and in this bathroom, it comes into full effect, bringing a timeless elegance and sophistication in all its forms, from the patterned mosaic floor to the veined frame across the doors.

Shop the Style

With an estimated completion date of 2028, the first completed apartment is currently available to view at the building's on-site Sales Gallery, offering you a first-hand glance at the kind of luxury and elegance residents of The Capston will be met with every day. But if, like us, this first look was enough to get you reconsidering your entire home design, these Art Deco living rooms are here to supply you with the inspiration you're searching for.

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The project is a Georgian townhouse in the heart of Mayfair, originally built in 1826, and, from the outside, remarkably little has changed. Yet inside, interior designer Geraldine Dohogne and Architect RV DM Studio created something completely different: a double-height atrium, hand-painted ceilings, bespoke joinery, and gorgeous marble the owners sourced themselves. Our job (as tech design consultants) was to bring that house into the present day without anyone ever noticing we'd been there.

In 2026, even the most traditional homes need a little tech to adapt to current comforts. However, expertly hiding even the most beautiful smart home tech out of sight is more difficult than it sounds. To get an idea of what we were working with, this property has over a hundred lighting circuits, more than 70 switch positions, and 14 separate audio zones. Plus, heating, cooling, security, and networking throughout the house. The principal drawing room also contains an important private art collection, which brought its own requirements around temperature and humidity. So from quite early on, we had a simple rule for the project: the technology had to support the design rather than compete with it.

I've worked on a lot of period properties over the years, but this one was quite special. We worked closely with the client, architect, and interior designer from the early stages because most of the decisions that make technology discreet have to be made long before anyone sees the finished room (just like when planning lighting for your home). So, below I've broken down the process and how we made different elements of tech disappear in this beautiful period property.

Lighting

There's sometimes an assumption that intelligent lighting (or even smart switches and bulbs) belongs only in contemporary houses, but actually traditional interiors see some of the biggest benefits from good lighting.

Traditional rooms are often incredibly rich in color, texture, and detail — timber, fabrics, wallpapers, artwork, and decorative plasterwork — and the quality of the light has a huge impact on how all of that is experienced. To best highlight these characteristics, I tend to use high-quality, warmer-toned light sources in these spaces. Then, adding intelligent controls allows us to tune and layer that light so the interior feels its best at different times of day. It's not about making a period room feel more modern; if anything, it's about using modern technology to bring out more of what's already there.

The scale of this house made that control particularly useful too. With more than a hundred dimmable lighting circuits across the property, nobody wants to walk around switching everything off individually at the end of the evening. Something as simple as a master-off function on a traditional dolly switch circuit next to the front door or the bed makes a huge difference. You get all the sophistication behind the scenes, but using it still feels completely natural.

Plus, we gave the switches themselves as much attention as anything else. We specified Forbes & Lomax retractive switches in three finishes: aged brass through the entrance hall and formal floors, bronze in the family spaces, and verdigris in the atrium and lower ground. We looked at the feel of the switches as well as the finish. These are controls somebody touches every day, so in an interior where everything else has been considered to this level, they need to feel right as well as look right.

The kitchen lighting and switches are probably my favorite example. The cabinetry was designed by the owner and made by Ledbury Studio using verdigris copper panels. Rather than carrying the switch finish through from the adjoining spaces, we used verdigris switches specifically for that room. It's a tiny detail in the context of the whole house, but those details add up.

And where we didn't need a switch, we tried not to have one. Motion sensors were hand-painted to blend into the ceilings and walls, and touchscreens were concealed inside cupboards on each floor. The lighting also changes subtly through the day, so the family doesn't have to constantly select different scenes just to get the right atmosphere.

A well-planned, adaptable, and layered lighting scheme makes all the difference.

Integrating Smart Sound

We took a similar approach with the audio. There are fourteen independent zones throughout the house, running from the kitchen up to the roof terrace, but we didn't want fourteen rooms full of obvious speakers.

So, in the formal reception rooms, we used invisible speakers that are plastered directly into the walls and ceilings and then decorated over. You hear the music, but no obvious speaker is producing it. It's kind of like taking the luxury of the best Bluetooth speaker and going a step further in terms of design.

The double-height atrium was more challenging because of the volume of the space, so we supplemented the invisible speakers with discreet architectural speakers to get the coverage right. Where a grille had to remain visible, we had it sprayed to the exact RAL color of the surrounding paintwork.

The most unusual speakers are probably in two rooms with hand-painted, frescoed ceilings. We couldn't simply put a standard speaker grille through the artwork, so the same artists who decorated the ceilings hand-painted the grilles to match. Unless you know where they are, they're very difficult to spot.

Even the doorbell uses the audio system. Rather than installing separate chimes around the house, the doorbell tone plays through the same concealed speakers. It's a very small piece of integration, but it means we avoid adding another visible object to the interior.

Heating and Cooling

Building a home that will stay cool is important, especially in older homes. However, the climate system had another job beyond keeping the family comfortable. The principal drawing room contains an important private art collection, so temperature, humidity, and ventilation needed to remain within controlled parameters for the artwork as well.

We worked with Calibre Climate to coordinate the underfloor heating, fan coil units, and cooling into one system. At the time the project was completed, it was the largest residential deployment of Polar Bear Design's Zentium platform. There's a considerable amount of engineering behind that, but of course, very little of it is visible in the finished rooms.

In spaces where the interior design couldn't accommodate a conventional thermostat, we developed concealed temperature sensor probes in-house. That allowed us to monitor the actual room temperature without putting another control on the wall. Where thermostats were required, their metal finishes were matched to the Forbes & Lomax switches in the same room.

Again, it's a relatively small detail, but it stops the technology from looking like a collection of unrelated products that have been added afterwards.

Televisual

In terms of incorporating clever televisual components, the family room was an interesting challenge because it needed to do two very different jobs. During the day, it's an arts and crafts space for the children. In the evening, it can become a proper home cinema room.

A projection screen drops from the ceiling, the projector comes out of a concealed housing, and the surround-sound system is built into the room. It creates a magical entertainment space, but once everything is switched off, it all disappears again. You're not left with a cinema screen dominating a children's room for the other 95 percent of the time, or wasting time planning a TV wall.

There's also a second, more informal media room for everyday television, where the loudspeakers are concealed behind acoustically transparent fabric. That gives us proper cinematic sound without introducing visible speakers around the screen.

We didn't start with the idea that everything had to be hidden simply for the sake of hiding it. It was more about making sure each room could work properly for all the different ways the family wanted to use it.

For all of that to work, there's obviously a lot happening elsewhere in the building that nobody sees. Three equipment rooms serve the property through a dedicated fiber backbone, connecting the lighting, climate, audio, networking, and security systems. Keeping the main equipment away from the rooms themselves also helps us reduce the amount of hardware and cabling that needs to be accommodated within finished joinery.

We assembled, programmed, and tested the major systems at our workshop in Surrey before taking them to site. That's become an important part of how we work on projects like this. When you've got specialist plasterwork, finished joinery, and multiple trades working around each other, you don't want to be discovering basic integration problems in the finished house.

The network was also deliberately designed with more capacity than the family currently needs. Technology will inevitably change over the life of the property, but the infrastructure inside the walls is much harder to change. For a house that's already stood for two hundred years, it made sense to think beyond the technology being installed on day one.

The thing I like most about the finished project isn't really the amount of technology in it; it's that you can walk through the house and very little of it jumps out at you. There is a huge amount happening behind the walls, but the rooms still feel like they belong to the architecture and the interior design rather than to the systems we've installed.

For me, that's what good residential technology should do. It should make a complicated house straightforward to live in while allowing the design to remain the thing you actually notice.

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Swapping their two-up, two-down cottage near Epping Forest on the edge of London for a huge, four-storey, six-bedroom Victorian townhouse in the seaside town of St Leonards was invigorating and challenging in equal measure for designer Laura Low and her husband Jonathon, a mid-century furniture specialist.

"We had been looking for a lifestyle change, plus a house renovation project, and the town, with its friendly, cool, creative vibe, provided that — we felt instantly at home," says Laura. And so they embarked on a project to turn this townhouse into a modern home fit for family life.

Although on a grand scale, with tall ceilings and generously proportioned rooms, the house was dated and damp, and had been divided into two flats. To economize, they lived on site while Laura project-managed (for a long four and a half years) with a new baby, a dog and two cats in tow, as well as an ever-revolving roster of builders.

"We started off in one room at the top of the house with baby Saxon in a pen to keep him away from the animals," laughs Laura, who was also working full time as design director for The Hoxton hotels, commuting to London twice a week and on-site in Europe every fortnight. During this time, Jonathon was home-based, sourcing and selling high-end furniture online while looking after Saxon.

Having spent 20 years designing to specific briefs, a big project of her own was exciting, yet testing, for Laura. "I know what I like, but I like so much," she says. "I had to hone it down and design around an edit of favorite natural materials such as marble, metal and stone."

With its mid-century-meets-period vibe, plus iconic furniture — sourced mainly in Europe — set against the Victorian bones, the house was created room by room, with the family moving from floor to floor as work progressed. It’s anchored by earthy tones, yet illuminated with sunshine shades — such as the citron-infused pantry, or lemon yellows and beachy blues of the four bathrooms.

A high-low approach was used, with IKEA kitchen carcasses clad with custom bamboo doors, a dining table base driven back from Europe with a glass top made locally, and vintage Scandi dining chairs salvaged from a skip 20 years ago. Original floorboards were restored; staircases stained.

Materials are durable yet playful, with Mediterranean-style terrazzo tiles in the hallway, a curvaceous Brazilian quartzite worktop in the kitchen, and monochromatic mosaics as a backdrop for the blackened copper slipper bath in the main bathroom. In the living room, an original marble fireplace, revealed under 10 layers of paint, sits opposite a leopard-clad 1970s Cassina sofa, inspired by one in the Hoxton Hotel in Brussels.

Now the house is finished, the couple are well and truly ensconced in life in St Leonards. "Moving here was the best thing we’ve done," says Laura. "Jonathon and I were able to open our dream shop, Pitch, and I’m working locally on a hotel and residential project — plus the beach is just two minutes away."

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When the California-based founder of Michelle Boudreau Design (MBD) saw this desert modernist residence designed by influential architect William F. Cody, she knew honoring the movement he championed meant reflecting the distinct scenery you find in the home's surroundings.

Fortunately, the owner who had sought out her services felt the same way. "She really wanted to feature the Palm Springs sunset tones and bring the outdoor landscape inside," the designer explains.

Warm pinks were introduced throughout the three-bedroom, four-bathroom property, now embracing everything from the custom banquette seating that softens the clean structural angles in the dining area and the wood handles reviving the stark white cabinetry to the sculptural pieces that welcome you at the entrance.

"The owner wanted to create a smooth transition from the exterior of the residence into her home," Boudreau says. "When I saw it, every single room was painted gray or a similar tone, and there were some neutrals."

She has completely reversed this by introducing textiles and surfaces that reflect the desert heat and spirited vibe of Palm Springs.

Instead of removing the existing flooring and kitchen, Boudreau and her team have worked with these fittings and elevated the finish throughout. And from the outset, at the front door, you get the feeling that this home is a place to celebrate and enjoy.

The walls have been covered in custom millwork: reeded wood and rounded edges that add softness. "It's a nod to the mid-century modern aura and helps bring those natural colors of mountains in," Boudreau confirms.

Custom onyx wall sconces, designed by the team, introduce low illumination. The woven sisal floor covering introduces texture that is applied throughout and in a variety of ways as soon as you enter.

Boudreau also presents the 'cocktail culture' of Palm Springs with a wet bar that comes complete with a sink right by the entrance. The result? The house is immediately 'cocktail ready'.

"It gets so warm here that you're ready for a beverage as soon as you walk in. So, we made this lovely bar area that we clad using terracotta tiles," she explains.

In this niche area, Boudreau decided to install a polished chrome tap instead of brass to give it a little edge, and she mixed it in with some brass.

Near this generous welcome, a decorative divider and contemporary Mexican art have been put in place to define the boundary between the small entrance and the living area.

"The owner loves art and found objects and wanted to have these sculptures right at the entry," Boudreau explains. The effect is that of an avid collector's considered residence.

People often question the need for a fireplace in California, especially in the desert. But "it actually does get cold in the desert," Boudreau confirms.

It is no coincidence, then, that one of the main focal points in the living area is the fireplace itself. Framed using the Design Collaborative tiles that make an appearance elsewhere in the entry of the property, the fittings have been installed all the way to the ceiling, adding height to the space.

On the floor, an oversized textured Nordic Knots Boho Sands rug sits atop the original tiles, providing warmth and texture underfoot.

The large sofa has been made especially for this room, covered in a custom tone-on-tone cut velvet fabric that uses playful hues and geometric shapes to create a unique finish. It contrasts effectively with natural wood art by Tilde Grynnerup hanging on the wall above.

Back near the entrance and opposite this living area is the kitchen, transformed rather than replaced.

"We kept the existing cabinets and have been able to elevate them using thoughtful additions," Boudreau explains. "We clad the kitchen with tiles and installed reeded wood detail under the bar."

Sculptural wood bar stools topped with tan faux fur are a whimsical addition for a home as fit for comfort as it is for spectacle.

Custom wood handles contrast the white cupboards, and the walls are covered in four-by-four Cody-esque Design Collaborative tiles throughout. Wood pendant lights with terracotta and pink details add further whimsy.

"The space was not pretty before," Boudreau laughs. "The gray tiles really did not suit the space, but we love a challenge." But the building's plainness wasn't the only obstacle to success.

As the ceiling in this space is not that high, Boudreau and the owner decided to embrace this structural element and paint it in a color that would make it feel like you're walking into a warm embrace. Judge for yourself, but we think they nailed it.

There's a modest dining nook opposite the kitchen that opens up to a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. And it's not just scenic.

"You can sit here, have your breakfast while enjoying tea and the vistas," the designer suggests. The floor here is still gray, but with the woodwork that has been installed, it appears brown, like a complementary shade.

In one of the bedrooms, which enjoys views out onto the surrounding landscape, creating a soothing vibe was essential. To feed into the Palm Springs aesthetic, Boudreau has wrapped the walls in grasscloth textured wallpaper with a palm motif.

The headboard has been covered, too, but in a Gustavian dance fabric, and reeded wood nightstands have been topped with natural stone. A fun daybed offers another space to relax.

"We recovered a teddy chair and added a vintage palm lamp as a little cheeky moment," the designer recounts.

An open vanity area is separated from the closed shower area. Here, a Schumacher Axel fringe copper wallpaper is the backdrop for the mirrors and floating vanity unit. This wall covering is repeated in the new den area that was initially a bedroom.

The transformation from a lifeless house into a cocktail-ready home has taken a year to realize. Now every room has its own personality with a running theme of femininity mixed with boldness and the Palm Springs warmth.

"I wanted to bring elements and materials the original architect would have used during that time period, while making it a special home for the owner," Boudreau says. "The millwork and use of natural materials are very Cody, and the colors, patterns, and playfulness speak to the artistic nature of the owner."

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It takes a certain amount of fearlessness to pull off a shimmering, multi-toned, tubular fire surround in the center of your living space, but entrepreneur Séverine Redon and her partner Olivier had the chutzpah to make it work. The wood-burning stove, open on three sides, carries a bespoke finish by contemporary artist Flora Mottini.

Its bold yet playful form has become a symbol of the couple’s refreshing approach to their modern home, a top-floor apartment, which seems to delight in shaking off its somewhat buttoned-up setting in a district close to Geneva’s United Nations Office. "I believe that in order to truly feel good at home, you need to be able to inhabit it fully," says Séverine. "For me, that means putting something of yourself into it, while also ensuring that every member of the family feels comfortable."

It’s a mantra that’s more than evident in this space, which reflects Séverine’s long career involved in PR events for luxury brands, before a transition into the creation of HiFlow, a platform for supporting artists and innovation. The couple moved here having been won over by the extra space it offered for their blended family, the open vista, including a view of the city’s famous Jet d’Eau on Lake Geneva, plus the Salève mountain rising opposite.

"Very quickly we understood how we wanted to renovate it," says Séverine, who worked with architect Youri Kravtchenko to rationalize the layout. "The aim was to create a larger living area, with an open kitchen and a fireplace at the heart of the space, while dedicating the rear of the apartment to the sleeping quarters."

That was achieved by moving the kitchen and reducing the size of one bedroom to enlarge the living and dining area. The apartment encircles the building’s staircase, giving it a unique and fluid layout, so it also made sense to remove a corridor that wrapped around the stairwell in order to introduce an open feel.

However, when it came to the interiors, Séverine took the lead, inspired by architect Youri’s preference for the softening effect of curved forms. Despite describing her previous home as "far removed" from this bolder style, she says that she and Olivier were quickly drawn to the aesthetic codes of the 1970s, inspired by design pieces such as a vintage glass-and-onyx shelving unit that they had sourced.

"Then there are the Mario Bellini sofas, which we upholstered in a deep-orange velvet — plus the thermal curtains, originally designed for insulation but utilized by us more for their aesthetic quality," she explains. "Their silvery finish gives the space a relaxed-retro feel."

Color and materiality were also key. Travertine, which Séverine describes as "very characteristic of the 1970s", was chosen for the floors of the living spaces, contrasted with parquet for the children’s bedrooms and playroom.

"It was also important for us to opt for an enveloping color palette, the tones of which could extend across walls and ceilings for a warm and immersive atmosphere," she says. "Olivier favored green, so together we chose a matcha hue for the living area. Green symbolizes hope and life — and this particular shade is quite complex: depending on the time of day and the light, you can perceive different variations of it, very joyful at times while reassuringly comforting at night."

Throughout, a contemporary art and sculpture collection, including pieces by Wang Keping and Mathias Kiss, adds dimension. "A home becomes truly alive when it is filled with books, objects and, above all, artworks," believes Séverine. The result in this apartment — with its saturated tones and deeply artistic additions — is indeed truly life-affirming.

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Following a chance encounter on Instagram, CA-based interior designer Lindye Galloway, founder of her eponymous design studio, was tasked with redesigning this 5,000-square-foot historic pre-war penthouse in New York's Upper West Side, in collaboration with Foubister Architects.

The clients, a couple with two young children, purchased the penthouse and the floor below it, wanting to connect the floors to create a modern home that was unique, warm, family-friendly, and inherently functional.

The clients wanted the home to be filled with modern warmth, design, and character, while also maximizing every inch of space. Lindye’s ‘neutral warmth’ design approach was perfectly suited to this brief and is felt throughout the home, from the custom millwork and marble features to cozy nooks and sophisticated built-in storage, for a home that oozes timeless elegance.

The city serves as a backdrop to the comforting design of this home, enhanced with an indoor-outdoor living feel in the open-plan area with the wraparound terrace fully visible through the modern sliding doors. “My favorite element of the design process was being able to envision this home with the cityscape all around while creating a space that was calming, had statements, but also gave the city line the ability to be a strong feature," says Lindye.

The wood kitchen cabinetry is crafted from rift white oak — a material featured heavily across the two-storey home — in a dead-flat finish for a more natural look, and the delicate paneled detailing adds a refined, organic texture to the design; the clean lines of the wood make a perfect pairing with the curved marble kitchen countertop.

"The lighting is a cluster of custom lights we designed with beautiful glass that creates a subtle statement," explains Lindye. "The island is very long, so this gave a unique look to the lighting element that felt less traditional and made a statement in the long space."

The idea to connect the dining area to the kitchen island was to create a more intimate feel within the expanse of this larger open-plan space, explains Lindye. "It also gave the great room two designated areas, which felt more appropriate for the size of the penthouse, versus lots of furniture floating in the middle," she explains. The banquette seating not only makes great use of the space, but it also adds an extra layer of comfort, with plush seating in earth tones that complement the natural warmth of the wood.

The redesign was not, however, without its challenges. As the home is in a pre-war building, the elevator was small, meaning the only way to bring in the large, custom pieces of furniture and materials was by crane. "Almost every piece was craned over Manhattan and into the penthouse," says Lindye. "In addition to it being the top floor, there were additional issues we had to work around, one being the post in the kitchen and living room." But the result is a considered, cohesive home, perfectly tailored to this family and their needs, that prioritizes comfort and practicality while making no sacrifices on style.

"The downstairs living room creates a cozy additional hangout area that I think is really nice for intimate gatherings," says Lindye of her favorite room in the home. The earthy color palette carried across the project ensures a calm, cozy feeling from one room to the next in this cohesive design. "We used custom stains on the millwork but kept [the color palette] pretty consistent throughout, so that there was a nice thread across the two stories of the home," shares Lindye.

The cozy bedroom offers multiple areas to lounge and relax, true of every space across the home, from the seating arrangement at the foot of the bed complete with a small coffee table, to the elegant, built-in niche with integrated bench seating and delicate wall lights. It's layered with texture, adding depth, comfort, and warmth, and is the perfect example of how to make a neutral bedroom anything but boring.

The guest bedroom's dramatic, custom-built headboard makes for an elegant focal point, and its curved edges paired with curved bedside tables surround you in a comforting embrace. "It was built in three separate pieces and then individually hung to the wall. It creates a statement on the entirety of the wall, and we love how it connects the bed and nightstands, says Lindye.

"We wanted to create a unique niche instead of a blank wall," explains Lindye, of the primary bathroom wall viewed from the bedroom. "We like that the arch gave it character, and it added additional storage. It created a pretty focal point in the bathroom." The bathroom, like each room in the home, is filled with functional storage, and the conservatory-style shower — one of 2026's biggest bathroom trends — creates a unique, spa-like feel.

This characterful home perfectly balances practicality and design — a family-friendly home that is timeless and elegant, exuding warmth and calm, it serves as the ultimate retreat from the chaos of the city below. In a time when we are craving homes that offer a more comforting, lived-in feel than ever before, in answer to the increasingly fast-paced world we face every day, this Manhattan penthouse serves as proof that the marriage of natural materials and earth tones is one of the best ways to create a truly grounded space.

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Brownstones — those evocative American townhouses with brown sandstone façades, mostly constructed in the 19th century — are usually a period affair. Unusually, however, this one in Harlem was built in 2022, having been an empty space between two other brownstones for a century.

When interior designer Crystal Sinclair was instructed to reconfigure the new build and turn it into a characterful modern home, it was clear it had been designed with the 21st century in mind: "Everything was white. The kitchen was white, the marble was white; there were zero moldings, it was very modernized."

It all had to go. "Anything but white" was the clients’ brief. "They wanted to add character back into the space," says Crystal. So firstly, she added retro moldings — for example, cornicing and ceiling roses. "I’ve always been drawn to plaster moldings — even those minor imperfections add character and charm."

Aiming for a nod to historic townhouses as opposed to anything more literal, Crystal traveled to Paris for inspiration. "I love the way they layer things there, mixing the old and the new." Sometimes the influence of Paris was overt — for example, the chandelier hanging over the bathtub in the primary bathroom. Otherwise, it was more "organic", says Crystal, striving more for "harmony" between, say, a 17th-century piece and something completely new.

The design of the interior also had to accommodate the homeowning couple’s "incredible" contemporary art collection — but there was a catch. So large is their portfolio (around 250 pieces) that they want to rotate the works of art frequently, so there was no point designing backdrops for specific pieces. The solution, then, was "to keep things simple — pattern was not an option".

To keep the space "alive, welcoming and colorful, without it being overwhelming", Crystal went for a color-drenched palette of warm oranges and cool blues throughout the house, but with "a few loose interpretations," she explains. "So the kitchen is aqua, but still a blue, and the red marble is in the orange family. There’s a little play with color, but not too much."

As well as keeping lots of empty wall space for new art, they minimized the amount of accessories throughout, in order to ensure the end result was "old and interesting, but without being busy," says Ben Sinclair, Crystal’s life and business partner.

The light fixtures and furniture she chose are "art pieces in themselves," Crystal adds, "so the finished look is cleaner than having a lot of tchotchkes around." Indeed, that balance between minimalism and maximalism is a Sinclair signature.

It’s a space designed for entertaining. The couple regularly host art events, not to mention gatherings of friends and family. Brownstones are notoriously narrow, so Crystal "tried to keep it open and welcoming — there’s a lot of seating but you might have to shuffle things around." That moody palette encourages a sociable atmosphere. "Instead of thinking, 'I can’t touch anything' because it’s all white, it creates a cozier environment."

And to keep those darker colors from feeling gloomy, Crystal used metallics to bring brightness into the space. "I learned through a stylist years ago about how much metallics add to a room," she explains. "They add a sense of movement and a contrast to the fabrics. It brings it all together and adds that little zing."

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"I had always wanted to do a Tudor home. It's so interesting architecturally. I like to look at the heritage of a place, and then seamlessly interweave that with something more contemporary and personal," Jessica Gersten, founder of her namesake interior design agency Jessica Gersten Design, says of a commission she recently completed — a 1929 manor house reinvented into a sunshine-filled, sophisticated abode.

Known for her sculptural, richly layered take on interiors, Jessica faced a different challenge with this project than her usual homes. "So much of New York is white-box apartments; architectural richness like you see here isn't that common to come by," Jessica explains. The moment she saw how much character this house had, she couldn't wait to get started.

The 10,000-square-foot residence, built in 1929, sits on the grounds of the South Course at Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, and is part of a cluster of Tudor Revival mansions originally built for local club members and socialite families in the early 20th century.

The style swept through American suburbs and country club communities in the 1910s, '20s, and '30s. This was a phenomenon linked to the broader Anglophile wave spreading among old-money families and returning World War I veterans smitten with the English country houses and French châteaux they'd seen abroad.

34th U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (who, as a young officer, learned to golf at the club) reportedly stayed in the house as a guest of friends who owned it at the time.

Much like the house's inherent warmth, which stems directly from its past social life, the nutmeg-toned neutrals, mohair, and bronze finishes Gersten used were pulled directly from the house's own bones. And so were the leaded windows and original wood detailing carefully preserved on the ground floor.

"I pulled those wood tones through the rest of the house," she explains. "The foyer table, the sunroom, it all became about carrying that architecture forward."

A hand-carved center table by Portuguese designer Vasco Fragoso Mende anchors the entrance, paired with a vintage Belgian stool and a large stoneware vessel by Caroline Blackburn, styled with tall branches to draw the eye upward.

"I wanted something sculptural that pulled people in, and then created height in the room, not everything low to the ground," Gersten says of the bespoke piece by Mende.

Finding the right wood for it was its own process. Gersten and the maker went back and forth over photographs taken in the forest as they searched out the specific timber for the table.

"You can really see the hand in it," Gersten says of the finished design. "I love pieces like that."

The foyer also functions as the family's real front door, in every sense: where kids drop backpacks after school, friends gather, and the household's daily traffic naturally splits left and right through the rest of the house.

That everyday functionality was, in fact, the real brief. The couple has three children, two of whom play competitive hockey. In winter, the family sets up a rink on the property, and the sunroom is where the household actually enters and exits.

"It couldn't just be a pretty house," Gersten says. "The flow needed to work for how they actually live."

She reworked the sunroom's layout entirely: a dark plaster chandelier and shearling stools soften a space built for high traffic, with sofas positioned to face the grounds and a long table behind them sized for pizza night.

The adjoining living room, home to the family's piano, was designed with corner banquettes for lounging and enough circulation for kids to cut straight through to the rest of the house.

The dining room, by contrast, was conceived as its own self-contained world. Scenic Ananbo wallpaper sets the tone, paired with Rib pendants from Konekt and horsehair dining chairs from Gersten's own Lusitano collection. Their slightly irregular, hand-finished spines a deliberate nod to imperfection.

"None of it makes obvious sense as a combination until it's in the room together," she concludes of the pairing. "That's sort of the point."

A camera obscura photograph by Richard Learoyd hangs above the credenza. "For many of the other artworks I collaborated with Jessica Chestman. Art and its placing are so important; scale, proportion, the emotional connection to the room," Gersten says. "The client trusted us both completely, and that's really key to all of my projects."

That instinct for unlikely pairings runs through the house.

In the living room, graphic Art Deco-style chairs upholstered in Dedar fabric sit against a Pierre Augustin Rose Vendôme sofa, beneath an Anna Karlin sculptural suspension light in travertine. A piece Gersten describes as "pushing the envelope a little" against the room's more traditional bones.

It's an approach she traces back to an earlier career in fashion. "It's like building a runway collection. There has to be variety, but also an underlying connective thread running through it," she finds.

Here, that thread is never venturing into cool or heavily saturated territory, and always circling back to the materials the architecture itself suggests, like the stone fireplace anchoring the living room.

If Gersten's approach in Rye boils down to anything, it's this: pull your materials from what the house already gives you rather than importing a new palette, don't shy away from pairing an old-world piece with something modern from your own collection, and treat lighting as a sculptural decision rather than an afterthought. It's the single biggest lever, she says, for making a room feel considered.

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Somehow, this refined apartment, located in a townhouse in one of Amsterdam’s most elegant neighborhoods, feels as though it has always been this way. That’s thanks to the magic touch of Nicoline Beerkens, the designer behind it, who gave new life to the now-modern home.

"The building is a classic late 19th-century townhouse, typical of Amsterdam’s architectural fabric," she says, "but renovated to suit contemporary family life while preserving its original character."

At the heart of the project were the homeowners. "The clients and I have worked together for more than 10 years across a number of projects, building a strong sense of trust and understanding," says Nicoline, who owns her eponymous design studio. "This allowed for an intuitive design process and a great deal of creative freedom. Their natural sense of style and enjoyment of beautiful spaces made the process especially enjoyable."

This is the family’s city bolthole — they also spend time in the country and at a house overseas. "For this project, the aim was to create a pied-à-terre that brings people together: a warm and welcoming environment for everyday living, while also accommodating larger family gatherings, as the owners’ adult sons live close by," says Nicoline.

So the concept became to create a home that feels inviting throughout the year: "In winter, spaces feel cozy and layered, while in spring and summer they open up, becoming lighter and more connected. This reflects my approach to design: creating spaces that balance atmosphere with functionality, and adapt effortlessly to all uses and seasons.

"Each project begins with a different starting point. For this home, the inspiration came from the wall mural in the living room, which became the anchor for the color palette." The art then adds further subtle tones to the harmonious palette, which is complemented by Nicoline’s material choices.

"I always aim to work with natural materials; there is an inherent beauty in natural elements that can’t be replicated," she says. "We introduced limewashed walls for softness and depth, alongside aged oak herringbone flooring, which set the foundation for the rest of the house. From there, we layered natural stone with rich pigmentation and movement, combined with textiles in earthy tones to create a calm, cohesive palette."

That feeling of calm that emanates from the home reflects the way it was created. "It was a process I loved. I feel very fortunate to work with clients over many years as it creates a deep sense of trust and understanding," says Nicoline. "When there is a natural alignment in vision and aesthetic, the process becomes incredibly intuitive. It’s a joy to listen closely and shape a space that reflects the owners, somewhere they feel comfortable and truly at home."

If you like this home, you might also like this Amsterdam townhouse by Framework Studio that's "unexpected and sexy".

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Warsaw is a city that has become accustomed to starting from scratch. In just the last century, the Polish capital has done it twice: reconfigured from rubble in the post-war years, it structurally transformed in the following decades, too, its medieval Old Town now interspersed with towering glass skyscrapers, Soviet-era monumental landmarks, and balanced modernist blocks in a seamless continuum between old and new.

For a restless and richly textured apartment in this resurgent city, the creatives at Furora Studio have done just that — tearing up an existing floor plan to reorganize and reclaim a space, designing it exactly for the rhythm of family life today.

Based in Poland themselves and no stranger to far more dramatic renovations, design duo Diana Żurek and Gutek Girek immediately understood their client's need for an interior step-change. The starting point was breaking up a closed-off home layout: rather than retaining disparate spaces and isolated zones of boxed-in living, the two embraced the project within a "complete spatial narrative", fostering warmth and character through considered continuity.

According to Gutek, the apartment's pre-existing problems were clear from the start; its original layout had favored storage above the social pulse of the home, with a web of rooms that had long sat fragmented, cut-off, and enclosed.

Step inside now, and this new spatial reconfiguration justifies itself almost instantly. An inviting entry corridor draws the guest intelligently through the space, offering up a terracotta-framed window into the life that lies just beyond.

In the direction of the living room, a narrowing passage opens, with quite deliberate surprise, into the apartment's generously open-plan social epicenter, which waits, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for the action.

This new path of invitation earns comparison with a theatrical experience: you "walk through the wings before reaching the stage", Diana explains.

And this stage is certainly a grand one. Stark white walls are less a backdrop than a canvas, allowing each design piece its moment in the spotlight. Here, a tension between Polish sensitivity and Brazilian temperament begins to emerge: a "tug of war" for a family that enjoys time in both places.

The eclectic decorative decisions were "not the result of a compromise", adds Diana, but rather a genuine expression of the owners' tastes; they capture a sense of creative friction that sits well within their comfort zone.

Animalistic references — a snake or leopard-like character that recurs throughout the property — tease and paw at that sense of play. A contrast to the classic chevron parquet of the living room, the floor tiles in the corridor do so, too, challenging the traditional with a zebra (or giraffe?) pattern.

The littlest of touches are intentionally "misbehaving" and, in this new domestic landscape, allow the residence to feel "genuinely alive".

"The home naturally fills with books featuring beautiful, colorful covers, children's toys, and objects brought in by different members of the family," the designers add — all in a reference to the human "attitude" that informed their creative direction.

And then, of course, there are the bold choices in color, a drastic departure from Poland's long history of functional approaches to interiors. The shift, here, can be seen as one aspect of a gradual move away "from a single accepted idea of what a well-designed apartment should look like", Diana says. A change that, for the designer, can be felt across the country.

Warsaw's buzzing restaurant scene is behind much of that turning point, according to Gutek, with hospitality fast-emerging at an "exceptionally high design level". These new social spaces are "diverse, imaginative, and shaped not only around the location, but also around the food they serve".

Interior design, he explains, is now far better understood as a spatial and textural extension, rather than simply scene-setting for the menu.

Bar Rascal, at the crossroads of the city center and its old town, or restaurant Opasly Tom, are exemplary of the current moment. The establishments are the kind of place increasingly packed with Warsaw's next generation of artists, architects, writers, filmmakers, and chefs — a growing demographic of creatives returning to their home city, many having lived and made work abroad but now choosing this new metropolis over Paris, Berlin, or London.

Furora Studio is based predominantly in Kraków and enjoys that lens of distance from their capital. "Because we don't visit Warsaw every day, we're able to see it with fresher eyes each time", Diana explains. "These places can still surprise us, and that is precisely what makes them inspiring."

It's not hard to see just how much this pair relishes that notion of surprise.

In the family apartment they designed, a tiered chandelier by Finnish brand Hakola — in pink, blue, green, yellow, and orange — hangs precariously as a daring centerpiece, near resembling an upside-down birthday cake; a shy-looking USM sideboard sits across from a cushion with the message "WHATEVER" stitched up in punchy blue and pink on its surface; a graphic, geometric rug is desperate for attention, while a swooping toy car track tops a deep red and sand-tiled coffee table.

Approaching the kitchen, wall bands in shades of pink and orange mark the gentle boundaries between different spaces. Coupled with a minimal globe pendant light and told in shades of stone, the storage takes a step back and affords the dining setup its own moment — a tiled twin to its coffee table counterpart in the living room.

Spectacle aside, this is all with intent. Color, here, is not about the big surfaces but the smaller ones instead: careful touches that “return in a small piece of joinery, a detail, or a frame, and become a thread that runs through the entire apartment," share the designers.

In Gutek's words, "the rooms are not separate islands, but flow into one another". Bespoke furniture — which does not end at the boundary of a single room — is the foundation, and color its foil.

"The furniture climbs onto the walls, passes between different zones, and connects them. In some places, it transforms into decorative frames that compose particular views, emphasizing the transitions between spaces," continues the designer.

Those careful choices are evident once again in the corridor, which, as it winds toward the bedrooms, gradually quietens in color and texture to separate shared areas from private ones.

The master bedroom, paired with its own bathroom and tucked away from all the noise, is "almost bleached-out of the apartment, dedicated to rest". Children's rooms, on the other hand, are positioned in close proximity to the living room, encouraging organic participation in the daily rhythm of the home.

The city outside this home is a collection of districts, each with its own personality and purpose. Even its skyline seems to argue with itself — a blank white cube of a new museum stands opposite a looming Soviet-era high-rise.

Furora Studio has, with playful precision, restaged that tension between four walls: functionalist calm that spars with restless color.

Room by room, two temperaments are finding space to coexist, and carving out a family home that’s undoubtedly more alive for the argument.

Speaking of Brazil, have you ever spent time in an alternative design capital? Our 2025 deep dive into five underrated cities for design lovers equips you with all you need to know before setting off to discover them firsthand, featuring São Paulo and more.

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Down a little track, in a deeply wooded forest an hour outside Chicago, nestles a house which is not so much a cabin but an homage to one — a holiday home that is cabin-esque, if you will.

"It felt honest and true to the setting to stick to the cabin vernacular," says one of its designers, Liz Hoekzema, "but we wanted to walk the line between the classic casual cabin and a more elevated approach to design."

The result is a marriage of rustic-style architecture: all pitched roof and exterior clad in planks of rich, dark Montana timber and an interior that wouldn't look out of place in the chicest of urban modern homes.

"We didn't want a space that was all wood, plaid and fur — the things you'd expect to find in a home in the forest," says Liz. Surprisingly, the starting point for her design — a scheme that includes matte and glossy zellige tiles; fireplaces surrounded by onyx and furniture from high-end Italian brands such as Zanotta — was actually more cabin-y than contemporary.

It was the classic Hudson's Bay blanket, that thick wool throw you're likely to find in every American cabin and about as rustic as you can get. "It was a design link to what we were doing here, even if our iteration was subtle," says Liz, co-founder of the Michigan-based studio KLH. "You see nods to its pattern in the kitchen and the striping of the tiles there; in the bold colors in some of the rooms."

One very non-cabin-like feature is the kaleidoscopic approach to palettes for each of the spaces — the terracotta main bedroom; a sky blue kids' bathroom; a cloakroom with pistachio-green pendants. "We felt this home should have a sense of adventure — like any trip to the forest," says Liz. "It should be that you never know what is around each corner but you can't wait to find out."

One of the most exciting spaces is the modern kitchen, with its ridged, rounded island and burgundy hardware. "The shape of the island makes it such a beautiful gathering place," says Liz. "We went for lighter colors here because this room is north-facing and my hope is that the effect draws people in and makes them feel at home."

A lot of effort went into that idea of drawing people in — another clever touch was to hang the art very low, offsetting the pitched roof in spaces such as the living room and therefore making people feel cozy. "Every choice was made by imagining how the family might feel when they sit in the space," says Liz. "And how we could make them feel more relaxed, more comfortable and more at home."

There can be few London hallways quite so enticing as that of Connie and Mark’s Hampstead home. Bathed in luminescent pink walls, it seems to beckon visitors in with the promise of fun.

From the outset, this is a modern home that announces its design confidence with gusto, and rooms unfold one after the other like theatrical set pieces. So it’s hard to imagine that, until recently, the interior revealed nothing more imaginative than the white walls hastily painted by a departing builder.

Having arrived in London after 25 years of living in Shanghai, the family, which includes Rebecca, 20, and Thomas, 18, along with Parker, a wire-haired dachshund, had rented a property in nearby Primrose Hill. "It had five storeys and we were always separated from one another," says Connie.

When a house in Hampstead that offered potential for more connected living came on the market, the couple ignored the warnings of their surveyor and bought it. They embarked on an ambitious renovation that saw the property utterly eviscerated. "It was like a Theseus ship. The insides had been taken out and at one point you could look up and see the sky," Mark recalls.

Later, hanging their artwork on the restrengthened yet plain walls, the pair realized a second push would be needed to ensure the interiors were a fitting backdrop to their ebullient and adventurous-spirited family.

Embracing their global appetites, the couple chose an equally international-facing interior design firm. The project was entrusted to Mia Karlsson and Nabil Rubeiz. "We’re like the United Nations," Mia says of her designers, who count among their nationalities Swedish, Lebanese, Indian, Polish and Chinese.

The cosmetic intervention began with the basement, which was cloaked in a seductive burgundy hue. Leaning into the lack of light, Mia made coziness the priority. The Mah Jong sofas, with their spectacular chorus of color, give permission to relax. A former damp coal vault was tanked and turned into a vinyl listening den. "I thought about making it into a Star Wars-themed bar until I realized I didn’t like Star Wars that much," Mark admits, laughing.

Upstairs, the once-dark hallway is illuminated by a glazed door at its end. "In Asian and Japanese culture, a window might very deliberately frame a tree or bush. I wanted to do that here with the garden," Mia says. Either side, arches have been added. "Improving the flow was important,' says Mark. "The kitchen has been moved upstairs alongside the living room and everything is much easier."

Other details include a five-feather variety chandelier in the dining room and an Andrew Martin wallpaper with mythical creatures on the landing. "The most interesting places in the house are the ones I never spent time in before: the garden, the landing, and the little bar," says Connie. Their overall effect is a richly imagined new world that acts as a reflection of this family’s unique spirit.

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When interior designer Ruby Shields was approached by one of her first-ever clients and asked to "go wild", it felt like a dream come true. Such a loose brief does not come often, and Ruby, whose design studio, Studio Shields, was still very much in its infancy, was thrilled to have landed it.

Tucked into the beautiful coastal enclave of Mount Eliza, the home she was to let loose upon belonged to Clare, Mitch, and their two young, energetic boys.

Technically, the project entailed a renovation and an extension. But what the family actually needed was a new build, one that could house their lifestyle, cheekiness, big personalities, and, above all, a whole lot of joy. Ruby took the assignment seriously — well, metaphorically, not literally.

A self-confessed storyteller, Ruby began her process in search of what she calls the "thread". "Every project begins by finding the one idea, personality trait, or story that holds everything together," she explains. "Once we've found that, every design decision becomes much clearer."

In the case of this commission, the thread came from the name she settled on for it: Joy Haus.

"For us, joy wasn't simply an emotion we wanted the home to evoke; it became a design methodology," says Ruby. "Every decision was considered through that lens: could this detail create delight? Could this color pairing make someone smile? Could an unexpected material or playful gesture elevate an everyday moment?"

Armed with this simple checklist and a request for cork flooring and a two-toned exterior palette (the client's only "must-haves"), a narrative unfolded in the most organic of ways, culminating in a home that packs the happiest of punches.

Joy Haus has a carefully choreographed story, and color is the key that unlocks it. Powder blue for the sky and Clare's big dreams, burgundy for the earth and Mitch's grounding energy. This wasn't a design centered around favorites or latest trends, but rather Ruby's perception of the family's personalities.

"The palette evolved into more than 15 carefully choreographed hues," she explains, adding that, rather than selecting colors room by room, they treated color as architecture. "Every color responds to the light, orientation, and purpose of its space, but equally importantly, to the spaces before and after it," adds Ruby.

Ruby describes the journey through the home as "cinematic". From its stand-out blue-and-burgundy façade, the home continues to unfold in the most playful yet considered of ways, where bold moments are seamlessly followed by quieter, more neutral spaces. "Color became the organizing principle," she explains.

Don't get fooled by its playful energy: no detail of Joy Haus was rushed or left up to chance. While each room carries its own unique energy, they collectively speak the same language, "like chapters of the same book", Ruby says.

"Each space was designed around its own mood and purpose, while recurring materials, carefully balanced color relationships, and consistent detailing create a common thread throughout the home," she explains. "The house constantly shifts in atmosphere, yet always feels unmistakably Joy Haus."

The reconfigured floor plan places the communal zones at the home's rear, transforming the dialogue between the inside and outdoors. Boundaries are dissolved by large stacker doors, allowing the kitchen, dining, and living areas to spill into the sun-filled garden.

"For a young family, this meant parents could cook, entertain, or simply enjoy a quiet coffee while remaining visually connected to the children playing outside."

For all its flow, Ruby says this design was not simply reliant upon the absence of walls. Again, color, along with materials and joinery, comes to the fore, delineating rooms through subtle transitions that overlap and borrow from the spaces that have come before them.

Of equal importance were sightlines. Whether it's a glimpse of the checked cork flooring as it leaks from one room into the next or a pocket of color framed by a doorway, every view and vignette is intentional.

"Those visual moments stitch the house together, creating a sense of discovery without ever feeling confusing or disjointed," says Ruby. Instead of rushing things, she warns, "you have to listen to the house, the client, and the light."

Visual creativity carries over into the furniture and objects that fill each room, too. Representing a collection of Australia's artistic voices, it was important to Ruby that these pieces spread across several aesthetics and spanned decades — even the children's ceramics have a special spot right next to handcrafted artisan pieces. The result is a blended style that can easily be passed down to and carried on by the family.

"Clare discovered vintage burl bedside tables at a local antique market. Rather than replacing them, we elevated them with new hardware and paired them with a custom upholstered bedhead using Kirby Design fabric," recalls Ruby.

"The best interiors are never purchased all at once. They're thoughtfully collected over time, layering emerging designers, vintage finds, and iconic pieces to create something deeply unique."

Although beautiful, the home holds its own where functionality is concerned. Plenty of integrated storage, hard-wearing and durable finishes, such as tiled kickers, gloss-painted skirting, and stone thresholds, ensure it stands up to the demands of even its smallest and most rowdy occupants.

As Ruby puts it, "function and beauty are never opposing ideas. The best materials don't simply survive family life; they become more beautiful because of it."

In its final form, Joy Haus is an ode to her love of design and the power of color, but there's more to it.

"It's about creating a home that feels deeply personal, where every material, every hue, and every detail contributes to a story that couldn't belong to anyone else," she says.

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Need an example? Check out our recent interview with production designer Rodrigo Martirena and get behind the scenes of color-drenched satirical drama Rosebush Pruning.

Designing one's own forever home can be tricky, even for a seasoned interior designer. For Valerie von Bechtolsheim, who lives in this home with her husband, Benny, and their children, Laurie and Casper, clarity arrived after several years.

"I wanted the house to feel transportive," says the German-born designer of their Victorian house. "To have moments that didn't feel like London at all."

And that's certainly what she achieved — turning this classic house into a colorful, family-oriented modern home.

From there, the project evolved into a full-on family affair: Valerie, the founder of Studio von B, and her brother Felix, founder of Wyld Architects, reimagined the architecture and interiors, while Benny, newly turned garden designer after a career in advertising, conceived the lush, low-maintenance back garden.

"Having worked on numerous projects with my brother means there's a natural crossover. The boundary between architecture and interiors completely blurs," says Valerie of their collaborative approach.

"We love breathing fresh air into old buildings, while still honoring what was there before. And that's very much what we did in our home," she adds.

Once through the front door, the transformation is instantly apparent. At the end of the long, narrow hallway, there's a glimpse of striking red steel columns and a wall of glazing that frames the garden.

The new kitchen extension, set in deliberate contrast to the traditional front of the house, was created by excavating down five steps — allowing for the unexpected volume with its pitched roof and almost four-meter-high ceilings.

From the exterior, the addition appears as a terracotta box, entirely clad in clay tiles, roof included, with subtle nods to the surrounding period architecture.

At the center of the open-plan living area stands a clever double-sided fireplace idea, rebuilt using salvaged bricks from the original chimney stack. It divides the office, dining, living and kitchen zones, yet anchors the entire space.

The palette was dictated by the choice of materials. "I was trying to keep things as natural as possible. I'm not one for unnecessary decoration," says Valerie. "The slightly marbled, warm pink walls are construction Thistle plaster, while the red oxide of the beams is a treatment that stops them from rusting, and the kitchen was made from Douglas fir. I love honest materials with soul."

Bold accents, seen on the turquoise door and select pieces of furniture and lighting, keep the energy high.

Valerie's instinctive feel for lighting schemes goes back to her years working at Rolf Sachs' studio, where she learned to treat interiors like layered, theatrical sets.

After the flow of space, materials, colors, textures, and furniture, lighting is the final — most crucial — layer because it defines the mood. "Every space should transition effortlessly from day to night and from family life to entertaining."

The other big intervention was the new, modern bedroom. By knocking through two cramped rooms and opening up the unused loft, Felix revealed a soaring volume that now faces the garden instead of the street.

Entry through a secret door, set in a custom-designed oak and rattan wardrobe, heightens the surprise: one moment you're in a Victorian hallway, the next in a serene retreat under a glowing moonlight pendant.

Now that their home is ready to be enjoyed for years to come, Valerie reflects that she couldn't have had a better crew for such a personal project. "It was this dream team, the three of us. It just all came together so naturally because we're family and we all brought our own magic ingredient."

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One sure-fire way of bringing your summer escape fantasy to life is to track down the architect behind your favorite beach club and commission them to transform your own holiday home.

After the couple who own this gorgeous Ibizan finca visited the renowned Mykonos beach club Scorpios, designed by Greek architecture and design practice K-Studio, they soon recruited the same architects to reconfigure their five-bedroom property, perched on a rocky outcrop of southwest Ibiza, into a modern home. The rest is history.

The clients’ brief for what had previously been a classic Ibizan party pad — with "very vibrant colors, intense patterns and glossy finishes with nods to the hippy scene," says K-Studio’s Anna Rizou, the project’s lead architect — was to give it a "more grounded feel; to embrace natural materials to fit more discreetly into the landscape." Indeed, rather like Scorpios beach club, with its sophisticated take on rustic chic. And with the couple "hosting guests literally all the time," says Anna, this retreat definitely has that beach club vibe.

Harnessing natural materials also enabled a return to the vernacular architecture of traditional Ibizan fincas — albeit, says Anna, in "an elevated, more refined way." So, the team made the existing drystone cladding more of a feature inside and out, installed woven wicker and chestnut ceilings (which also concealed the technical requirements of a luxury villa, such as aircon and roll-down cinema screens), and finished the walls in smooth limewash, but with sculpted alcoves "to host little stories; a layer of decorative items".

To that was added more international flavors: "With foreigners coming to the island, it’s only natural that they bring their influences," she says. That included the work of French, Moroccan and Greek craftspeople, along with "masses of stone," including a sizeable chunk of travertine to be carved into a bath.

Given that holiday home life is spent flitting between cool shade and glorious sunshine, the K-Studio team wanted "to create a seamless transition from the gardens to the pergolas to the semi-enclosed terraces to indoors," says Anna. Thus, some outdoor areas were shaded with wicker ceilings, with "that materiality continuing on indoor ceilings" (for example, in the main bedroom, living room, and dining room).

This "gradient" was also achieved with the use of local flagstones, which were laid in both the kitchen and outside areas, "and which dissolve into stepping stones" on the entrance patio. Bifold doors in the dining room, and floor-to-ceiling pivot windows in the kitchen, enable entire walls to be opened up to the elements. "This is something we’ve learned from working in Greece," says Anna. "We’re blessed with this extended period of good weather, so for us the outdoors is not a restriction but an opportunity for expansion."

Finally they added a decorative, tactile layer to "continue the story and enrich the everyday," explains Anna. That included lots of handcrafted textures — the carved coffee table in the living room; the dining table’s trunk-like textured stone legs; the natural-fibre wallcoverings applied to the oak cabinetry.

The palette, which echoes the nearby reddish rock formations, the local blonde limestone, and the Mediterranean, came naturally, says Anna. "Instincts led us to the tones." The boldest colors, however, were saved for the seating — the banana-yellow Camaleonda sofa and the two invitingly slouchy conversation pits with their terracotta-toned sunken seating. These surely serve as undeniable magnets for the villa’s many guests.

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There is a paradox at the heart of contemporary domestic design. At a time when homes are increasingly encountered through carefully curated images, they also risk becoming strangely interchangeable. Algorithms reward familiarity, while interiors are often assembled from the same visual vocabulary of colors, objects, and trends. The most memorable homes, however, are rarely the most perfect. They are the ones that reveal the people who live inside them.

French philosopher Gaston Bachelard argued that a house is far more than a physical shelter; it is the place where memory, imagination, and identity take shape. More than 70 years later, his words feel unexpectedly contemporary. As our homes have become the backdrop to work, family life and social rituals, the question is no longer simply how do we design beautiful spaces? But how do we design spaces that allow life to unfold naturally? This project by Sydney-based Smac Studio offers one possible answer.

Located in Woollahra, one of Sydney's most established residential neighborhoods, celebrated for its heritage homes, independent galleries, leafy streets and village atmosphere, Queen is less a stylistic exercise than a thoughtful reinterpretation of an existing home. Rather than restoring the house to a particular historical period or replacing its identity altogether, the renovation embraces continuity, allowing Art Deco references, contemporary interventions and deeply personal objects to coexist within a single narrative.

In many ways, the renovation feels inseparable from Woollahra. Rather than announcing itself through bold architectural gestures, the house adopts the neighborhood's understated confidence, where heritage, craftsmanship, and contemporary living coexist with effortless ease.

As Smac Studio founder Shona McElroy puts it, Woollahra is "very much an if-you-know-you-know kind of place." Queen reflects that same sensibility: understated from the outside, yet generous in spirit, with spaces designed for gathering and everyday life.

For the owners, Craig and Jenna Carracher, the relationship with the house began long before construction started: "We actually rented the property for two years before buying it. From the moment we moved in, we completely fell in love with the house and the location in Woollahra. We secretly had a plan that if we rented it over holiday periods, maybe the previous owner wouldn't miss it too much and might consider selling. Somehow, it worked!"

Living in the house before redesigning it gave them something architects rarely receive: time. They understood which spaces felt disconnected, where natural light was missing and, perhaps most importantly, how they wanted everyday life to unfold.

Entertaining friends, cooking together, listening to music and, midway through the renovation, preparing for the arrival of their first child all became defining ingredients of the brief. For Shona, the project immediately stood apart.

That confidence allowed the studio to question almost every assumption embedded within the original floor plan. Rather than preserving rooms simply because they existed, the design focused on preserving something less tangible: the character of the house.

The transformation came not through dramatic structural changes, but through a series of carefully judged interventions. Only a handful of walls needed to be removed to transform how the house was experienced, opening a former bedroom toward the kitchen to create a generous family living space and relocating the primary suite to the former study, where it could connect directly to its existing terrace.

"It truly feels like the home was always supposed to be laid out this way," says Shona "The clients now have a much more social ground floor while the primary suite enjoys a greater sense of privacy."

The result is a house where circulation feels intuitive, and spaces that were once separated by corridors and enclosed rooms now flow naturally into one another, allowing cooking, dining, listening to records, and spending time together to overlap effortlessly. More than creating openness, the renovation creates relationships between activities.

The owners affectionately describe the final result as "Modeco", a playful fusion of modern living and the home's Art Deco spirit. "Everything works together; the layout, the colors, the textures, the furniture," they say. "It's modern but still honors the Art Deco character." Rather than chasing a recognizable language of luxury, Smac Studio designed an environment where architecture and everyday rituals become inseparable.

Everything begins in the kitchen. Not because it is the home's most visually striking room, but because it was conceived as its social heart. Rosa Murcia marble sits alongside creamy Calacatta Oro stone arranged in a checkerboard floor, while a generous island deliberately faces the room, allowing conversations to continue while cooking. As Shona explains, kitchens should be conversational, and here the space is designed as much for gathering as for preparing meals.

That philosophy extends throughout the ground floor. Former bedrooms have been transformed into generous living spaces, while curved walls replace rigid corners, softening transitions and encouraging movement rather than directing it. Long sightlines connect the entrance to the garden, dissolving the traditional boundaries between inside and outside.

The furniture follows the same philosophy. Rather than treating iconic pieces as individual statements, Smac Studio assembled a collection that feels lived with rather than displayed.

A sculptural Pierre Augustin Rose sofa gently separates the dining area from the music room, while India Mahdavi's Best Friend chairs introduce moments of color without overwhelming the restrained material palette. Vintage Murano lighting completes the composition, feeling less like curated design pieces than objects collected gradually over time.

The Pierre Augustin Rose sofa had long been on Shona's personal wishlist. "I was so happy when we could finally make it work," she says. "It's the perfect place for it."

Music becomes another architectural material. Custom brass shelving celebrates the family's record collection, while bespoke furniture transforms listening into an everyday ritual rather than a decorative gesture. Here, objects do not simply occupy the house; they reveal the personalities of the people who inhabit it.

Perhaps this is where the project feels most contemporary. The value of these interiors lies less in the rarity of the objects themselves than in the ease with which they become part of everyday life. Collectible furniture sits comfortably alongside children's toys. Carefully sourced vintage pieces coexist with pizza nights, vinyl sessions, and long afternoons gathered around the kitchen island.

The interiors never feel precious because they were designed first and foremost to be lived in. As Shona puts it, "nothing is too precious. Everything feels welcome to be sat on, used, and lived in." Throughout the house, texture, color, and carefully selected furniture introduce moments of drama without ever compromising comfort.

Upstairs, the atmosphere becomes quieter and more intimate. The newly created primary suite combines warm timber veneers, bronze detailing, and jewel-toned accents with generous natural light, while circular skylights subtly reference the language of the original architecture.

Even the boldest gestures, like the dramatic green onyx powder room and layered marble bathrooms, never feel performative. They emerge naturally from a broader palette defined by warmth, tactility, and restraint.

In an era where homes are increasingly designed to be photographed, this project proposes something more enduring. Bachelard wrote that every inhabited house becomes a "topography of our intimate being."

Queen doesn't preserve the past as a museum piece, nor does it erase it in pursuit of novelty. Instead, it suggests that the most meaningful renovations are those that make room for life itself. The finest homes are not those that ask to be admired, but those that quietly disappear behind the stories they allow to unfold.

While some projects require a home to be totally gutted (and the upheaval that comes with it), fortunately, some require a slightly lighter touch.

For the owner of this home in Union County, New Jersey, an extensive renovation wasn't the brief for interior designer Allison Handler. Instead, an interior re-fit that would bring a sense of comfort and homeliness to what was once a largely characterless property.

"This project was purely a cosmetic renovation," Allison tells me. "We weren't moving walls or doing any heavy construction, which meant we had to get creative with how we transformed the space." The owner wanted her home to feel cozier and less "builder-grade with room for more of her personality and distinct design decisions to come through.

The challenge? The proportions of the modern home made achieving the sense of intimacy tricky. "The space itself has high ceilings and large layouts, so making it feel more intimate and warm became the driving force behind every decision we made.

There wasn't anything distinctly wrong with the existing home, and the owners had been living in it for some time already, just "hadn't yet invested in the furniture and finishing touches needed to make the space feel like home," Allison explains. For example, the existing couch was far too small for the large great room, so we brought in a beautiful U-shaped sectional to comfortably fit the family and leave room for guests."

Alongside the furniture, in Allison's quest to bring "warmth, coziness, and an overall sense of home" to the property, layered, atmospheric lighting was the key.

"Lighting is my favorite item to source," Allison says. "It can really change a space, adding both character and depth. We knew we needed a gorgeous chandelier for the great room, which boasts amazing 20' ceilings. For the dining room, we wanted to lean into a moodier vibe, and the Arteriors chandelier we selected was perfect for the space, with its chain detail and dramatic presence."

Many of the hero lighting pieces came from Hudson Valley Lighting: "the flush mounts running down the hallways and the pendant in the breakfast area both have a geometric quality that works beautifully with the interior architecture of the home."

The lighting, used to create a distinctly warm glow throughout the space, is just one part of the home's color story. It wasn't a project that demanded bright color or stark contrast to make an impact, rather keeping to a soft but interesting palette.

"We kept everything neutral but with character," Allison explains. "We leaned into a black-and-white approach in the great room, which allowed the bold Viola marble fireplace we added to really stand out." Walls painted in Sherwin Williams' Greek Villa create the perfect warm white backdrop that takes this space from builder-grade to feeling lived-in. "It is my favorite warm white paint. It almost glows when the lights are on."

"In the dining room, we kept things dark and moody while still maintaining a neutral palette overall," Allison adds. The wallpaper, Kintsugi by Porter Teleo with its glimmering gold 'cracks', provides the starting point for the design ("this particular shade of green was actually the starting inspiration for the moody palette we ended up building the whole room around," Allison says), complemented by a tonally darker paint color for the paneling and ceiling, Urbane Bronze by Sherwin Williams.

It's not the only space where wallpaper does the heavy lifting to add depth to the schemes. "Texture is always an important element to me in any design, and the wallpaper really achieved that here," Allison says.

"Even within a limited palette, we let textures and subtle details shine," the interior designer adds. "The wallpapers in the office and powder bathroom also have distinctive finishes that add depth without adding color."

In the owner's home office, Phillip Jeffries Runway Rivets wallpaper brings an edgy quality to the space, and a texture that comes alive when washed with a soft glow from Corbett Lighting Akemi wall sconces, fitted on the walls. "In the powder room, Phillip Jeffries' Vinyl Croc in Back to Black was the perfect chic-but-minimal update that completely transformed the space," Allison adds.

Without moving walls or changing the house structurally, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the change from before to after is just as lowkey as the renovation itself.

"For me, the end result of creating such a warm and cozy environment with such a low lift renovation was the biggest surprise," Allison says. "People often overlook the simple things that really can transform a space, such as simply changing a paint color or having furniture that properly fits the space."

Usually, a home's newly completed interior feels set in stone — a catalogue of beautiful spaces within which life unfolds. Not quite in this São Paulo residence, though. As designer Verônica Molina, founder of Memola Estúdio, explains, "the house was conceived as a living organism, one that could evolve alongside its residents and embrace new stories, memories, and discoveries, continually reflecting their changing stages of life."

In fact, when Verônica began the project, the residential development itself was still under construction, and the homeowners, a couple considering what their definitive residence might look like, welcomed their first daughter midway through the design process. Her arrival reshaped the relationship between the family and the house, prompting the scheme to evolve in step with their changing rhythms of life.

Through conversations with the homeowners, the design team discovered a shared appreciation for the ideas of late Austrian artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who viewed the home as one of the human body's "skins" — an outward expression of identity. Here, that philosophy takes on a contemporary form. Studio MK27's original architecture is preserved as the home's outer shell, while the interiors become a more intimate reflection of the residents' memories, routines, and sensibilities.

The approx 4,800-square-foot home is arranged across three levels. The ground floor gathers the social spaces, each oriented toward the garden, while the first floor contains a TV room and two bedrooms (one for the couple’s daughter and another for guests). The primary suite and home office occupy the second floor, creating a more private retreat above.

"The owners brought with them only two chairs, a few artworks and personal objects," says Verônica Molina, founder of Memola Estúdio. "Rather than simply furnishing the spaces, our goal was to create a timeless home that expressed the maturity, sophistication, and femininity they wished to embrace at that moment in their lives."

Throughout, Brazilian modernist furniture mingles with contemporary pieces, carefully sourced objects, and bespoke designs by the studio.

The living room dining room combo is a wonderfully convivial space, layered with the couple's memorabilia, bespoke furniture, and specially commissioned objects. References to traditional Parisian interiors, reinterpreted through a distinctly Brazilian lens, appear throughout — from the herringbone wooden floors and delicate light fixtures to the finely considered architectural details. Percival Lafer's brown suede MP-13 and PL61 armchairs mingle with benches by estudiobola and Fernando Mendes, while a glass-tiled wood bench doubles as a coffee table. In the TV area, Sergio Rodrigues's Vivi armchair sits alongside red MONO stacking tables by F.Studio.

To increase the usable floor area and strengthen the connection between indoors and out, the former terrace doors were repositioned at the eaves, allowing the outdoor space to be fully integrated into the modern living room. The original ceiling height was preserved wherever possible, with lowered sections introduced only where necessary to conceal the linear-diffuser air-conditioning system. Electrical conduits and wiring hover just beyond the concrete surfaces of the room, suspended from steel cables roughly two inches away from the walls and ceiling slab.

"We believe that is because the open plan brings together so many elements of their personal story. The shelving unit we designed holds books, personal objects, and their vinyl collection, becoming a true archive of the family's memories. At the same time, the furniture, artworks, and carefully sourced pieces acquired throughout the project coexist naturally with objects the homeowners already owned, allowing the space to genuinely reflect who they are."

At the center of the dining room, Jacqueline Terpins' Litoral table is surrounded by caramel-leather Tião chairs by Sergio Rodrigues, while floral-upholstered Senior chairs by Jorge Zalszupin anchor either end.

"The armchairs at the heads of the dining table were already part of the homeowners' collection, and because of their sentimental value, we felt that they should be incorporated into the project," says Verônica. "Beyond offering greater comfort with their armrests, they blended naturally into the new composition, reinforcing the idea of a home shaped by the stories of those who live in it."

Overhead, Louis Poulsen's PH5 pendants bathe the setting in a soft, diffused glow. Along the rear wall, a custom modular system by Memola Estúdio spans the full width of the room.

The lush garden area unfolds as a natural indoor outdoor living space. Walls finished in textured terracotta paint by Terracor Revestimentos lend the space warmth and character, while irregular stone slabs laid in a traditional caco pattern bring a more decorative quality underfoot.

Along one side, a custom tile panel by a Brazilian artist depicts scenes inspired by the residents’ daily lives in white and burgundy red. The motif continues across the barbecue countertop, creating a visual thread through the entertaining area. Opposite, a swimming pool completes the setting, offering a welcome retreat on São Paulo's warmer days.

"The selection of outdoor furniture was inspired by the atmosphere of traditional farmhouses, the inner courtyards of colonial homes and the understated elegance of Mediterranean and Tuscan residences," says Verônica.

"The dining table was sourced from an antique shop in Tiradentes, Minas Gerais, and immediately captivated us with the quality of its wood, its craftsmanship, and the beauty of its design. The woven-reed chairs with metal frames were discovered at an antique dealer in São Paulo and complete the composition with a sense of lightness, maintaining a dialogue between rusticity and refinement."

Like the rest of the home, the galley kitchen possesses a distinct character of its own, drawing loosely on the warmth and informality of traditional farmhouse interiors. Brown ceramic floor tiles, dark wood cabinetry and red-veined marble countertops create a rich, earthy palette that feels both spirited and inviting.

Along one wall, a custom cabinet with rustic painted-plank doors and a slate countertop provides a tactile focal point. Above it, open shelves supported by metal brackets hold cookbooks and everyday objects.

The staircase forms the architectural spine of the home, guiding movement between its three levels. Framed by slender steel-and-glass partitions, the original structure was reinforced to eliminate vibrations and reworked with enclosed risers, evenly proportioned steps, and warm timber treads.

"The millwork was designed to sit above the floor and stop short of the ceiling, lending a sense of lightness to the composition," says Verônica. At the far end, a built-in banquette creates an intimate corner for casual breakfasts, family meals or an evening drink.

Above, the atmosphere becomes quieter and more private. The TV room or family room carries forward the home's earthy palette through terracotta-toned upholstery, wood flooring, built-in cabinetry, and soft, indirect lighting.

In the daughter's bedroom, a restrained neutral scheme creates a calm backdrop for a turned-wood crib with cane detailing and a suspended canopy.

The second floor is conceived as a private retreat for the couple, bringing together the primary modern bedroom, a home office, and a secluded balcony. The subdued palette established downstairs continues here in earthy tones, while terracotta-red pillows introduce a warm note of contrast.

"The walls are painted in sand tones, while the door trim features alternating burgundy and beige ceramic tiles forming a striped pattern that runs along the main wall. This visually lowers the perceived ceiling height, making the room feel cozier," says Verônica.

Just beyond, the balcony preserves elements of the home's original architecture, including white-painted brick walls and a rustic slatted-wood ceiling. Terracotta floor tiles reinforce the warm material palette, while sinuous planters trace the lattice guardrails.

The primary bathroom channels the serenity of a spa bathroom, with stone flooring laid in a caco pattern, tiled walls and a broad marble vanity fitted with double basins. Wood-framed cabinetry with ribbed fronts adds warmth and texture, while generous windows draw in abundant natural light.

In the evening, milk-glass sconces cast a soft, diffused glow. The bathing zone, defined by a half-height masonry partition topped with clear glass, brings the shower and bathtub together within one calm, light-filled enclosure.

The former sunroom has been transformed into a light-filled home office, with the original frames removed to make way for an expansive glass skylight.

Exposed white-painted brick preserves a trace of the room’s past, while vintage jacaranda furniture lends warmth and gravitas.

It is a fitting final note in a home conceived not as a finished composition, but as an evolving portrait of the family who lives within it.

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When Archive For Space co-founders Arabella Maza and Stephen Maginn took on the renovation of an apartment in Madrid, they confronted a remarkable challenge: transforming a space composed of small, disconnected rooms and little natural light into a sequential configuration that responded to the owners' fluid way of living.

The 80-square-meter property was located within a 1900s building and, in the tradition of much of the Spanish capital's 20th-century residential architecture, its layout was narrow and heavily compartmentalized, reflecting an approach of segmentalized domesticity.

"These apartments were designed very differently to the homes we live in today," explain the designers. "They were made up of generous, well-proportioned rooms rather than open-plan spaces. The kitchens were often quite small and included a larder built beneath the timber windows, with a ventilated mesh opening onto the internal patio to help keep food cool before refrigeration."

Flexibility was one of the briefing's keywords. The apartment owners, a creative couple, desired a space that could easily respond to changing needs, functioning as a place to live, work, and host friends.

Thus, the resulting floor plan incorporated two bedrooms — one of which offers versatility as an office, guest room, or nursery — with two ensuite bathrooms, a kitchen with a movable island, and a living area.

Befittingly, the latter faces the street, embracing the natural light that comes through the balconies, while the bedrooms are placed around the internal patio to benefit from a quieter, darker environment that encourages rest.

"Not every space needs to feel the same. What matters to us is the procession between rooms, the sequence of moving from one to the next, because it's the contrast that does the work: brightness only reads as bright next to something darker," say the Archive for Space co-founders.

To ensure cohesion, a sense of repetition connects the spaces throughout. The designers played with color, settling on pale yellow for walls and ceilings and mimicking Spanish sunlight throughout the apartment.

Textural accents begin in the shape of draped linen curtains by the balconies' windows and evolve into radiator covers, cabinet skirting, door window curtains, or textile dividers dividing the bedroom and en-suite bathroom. Meanwhile, darker accents appear as black Ceramic Connection tiles in the bathroom or the black-painted kitchen ceiling.

Sitting at the heart of the apartment, the kitchen encapsulates many of its central ideas. On one hand, it bridges the public and the private through the interplay of light and shadow. On the other, its aforementioned black ceiling surprises in its intimacy, making the room feel unexpectedly cocooning.

Echoes of vernacular Spanish housing are made evident in the de obra kitchen, with a built-in construction, and the plastered walls, offset by the ultracontemporary stainless steel surfaces.

Contrasting materials are another one of the project's core principles. This revealed itself organically to the designers as they stumbled on the apartment's original terracotta tiles, which were buried underneath previous interventions.

"That was one of those moments where the building tells you what it wants to be," the duo share of their unveiling. They restored them, and a guiding principle of marrying old and new was established.

That's how elements including plaster cornicing, ceiling medallions, and timber shutters came to be preserved. The use of darker materials, the modern accents in stainless steel, and a choice of playful furnishings invite a lived-in, spontaneous counterpoint.

Along the way, solutions became awakenings, such as the stained glass window that connects the kitchen to one of the bedrooms, or the curtains that act as room dividers: "we wanted the apartment to feel slightly provocative at times; poetic, familiar, and comfortable, but with moments that feel edgier and a little unexpected," the designers explain, adding that they kept referring to it as "a grandmother in latex."

For them, there isn't just humor to the project, but also a real affection for old Madrid apartments and the lives already embedded within them. This affection extends and is intrinsic to the apartment's location, in the central neighborhood of Malasaña.

Alongside traditional architecture, a longstanding creative tradition permeates its streets, where a jovial ambience ripples through creative studios, independent shops, and long-standing bars: "it's not overly polished, and that's part of its charm."

Naturalness is behind the furniture choices. Adolf Loos inspired serene elements: note a Beliani sofa and Nordic Knots rug in the living room, alongside a classic wooden dining set, as well as the light textiles across curtains and bedspreads.

They cohabit alongside disruptive pieces, from a stainless-steel coffee table by The Good Living and a metal floor lamp by Six Dots, red lacquered side tables by Colin King for Zara Home in the main bedroom, or the metal Corston hardware in the restored doors.

A vintage floral chair found in Pamono introduces a quirky surprise in the living room, in conversation with a vintage floral wall hanging that acts as a headboard, or a second floral stool in the guest bedroom.

"I think interiors should have moments that don't take themselves too seriously," explain the designers. "Humor also makes a home feel more human. We wanted the apartment to feel collected rather than curated. Sometimes it's those slightly unusual moments that become the ones people remember."

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Analisse Taft-Gersten has adeptly navigated the design world for decades. While her innate sense of style and flair for finding covetable objects and refined materials are a key part of her success, it is her warmth and drive that have turned ALT for Living — her brand, with showrooms that cover both US coasts — into a premier destination for sourcing fabrics, rugs, wallpapers and more.

For her own modern home, which she shares with her husband, hospitality consultant James Gersten, and their two labradoodles, Analisse applied the same skills and creativity that define every project by her newest venture, The 1818 Collective.

Unlike most renos, which aim to create a larger footprint, the starting point for this very personal project was the opposite. As they were transitioning into empty nesters, the couple felt it was a good time to downsize.

They decided to make their beloved holiday home — a 1950s shingle-clad cottage, located in the charming fishing town of Sag Harbor in the Hamptons — into their main residence.

"When we decided to move here permanently, it was not a house that felt like a full-time residence," remembers Analisse, who launched furniture and interior design company The 1818 Collective with her co-founder Kristin Fine around four years ago. "We ripped it down to the stud walls, added a small extension, and completely gutted and made a new main bathroom, among other changes.

"It was almost like a ground-up project; we kept the exterior walls where they were — except for the extension — but we punched out all the windows. We didn’t anticipate doing so much work, but as the project evolved, it got more exciting."

Preserving the home’s original character was paramount, while optimizing every inch to ensure there was enough space to feel comfortable for everyday life. "We designed it almost like a boat," says Analisse.

That meant bespoke storage mimicking the look of furniture, and cupboards — some smartly tucked into the basement for rotating the couple’s wardrobe between seasons — integrated throughout the home, keeping it functional and clutter-free.

"I learned a lot about space and scale in interior design, and now I’ll be able to use that more when designing for my clients," says Analisse. "We all collect all sorts of things in our lives, but sometimes when you let go, you really elevate a home."

Analisse wanted to create the mood and look of a Swedish cottage and achieved this through a few subtle choices: her design returned all the rough-cut wood to the walls in the living room, keeping the ceilings exposed.

She used beautifully veined natural stone in the bathrooms and kitchen, and opted for brass fixtures and heavy iron door hinges for her detailed finishes. The soothing tonal palette of soft neutrals is complemented by just a few hints of color.

While Analisse admits the revamp had an unexpected challenge — "When I design for myself, I question almost everything entirely, so it was a little bit more of a nervous process compared to designing for a client" — the outcome is very much a personal success. "It is our sweet little jewel box where we exhale after a day of work," she says. "It is a simple house; to the point."

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It wasn't love at first sight for interior designer Travis London. In fact, he quite hated the look of the construction plans for the home his boyfriend, Bruce Patrick, found in Miami. Travis, you see, favors historic townhouses, while the proposed home was a boxy modern build. Nevertheless, Bruce insisted it had potential; plus, he promised, Travis could do whatever he wanted with it.

One leap of faith later, the house was theirs. The couple summered in Europe during construction, where Bruce officially proposed. As newly minted fiancés, they travelled from Milan to Carrara, sourcing furniture and materials for their future home, and later staged an all-white wedding against its unfinished ‘white box' shell. What then followed — maximalist, colorful, emphatically expressive — is a modern home shaped by unconditional love.

Those feelings first revealed themselves through the choice of pink paint. Early on, Travis worried whether his favorite color was too much, but Bruce encouraged him to trust himself, and pink proved triumphant in the double-height entryway, where Venetian plaster sweeps across the walls and ceilings and carries through into the living room and kitchen.

Pink pivots to blue — a hue Bruce favors — down a whimsical hallway with a wood-veneer wallcovering and mirrored ceiling designed to make it feel like you're Alice chasing the White Rabbit down to Wonderland.

The entrance is just the beginning. Travis didn't play it safe in this house, yet the home's greatest luxury, he says, has little to do with Carrara marble or collectible furniture: "It's having a safe place to fully be seen and fully be yourself."

Confident expression is contagious and Travis pushed the boundaries of others, too. Inspired by a painting he saw at Sotheby's, he asked artist Katrien Van Der Schueren to create an artwork for the entrance's upper walls.

She mainly worked in neutrals before — the result, titled New Beginnings, a nod to Travis and Bruce's relationship, was her first foray into color.

As a former celebrity chef, the kitchen is Travis London's most personal space. He didn't want it to look like a kitchen, so he set the burners beneath stone (thanks to a product he found in Italy), making them invisible.

The worktops and splashbacks are in pink onyx, naturally, and to reduce the visual weight of floor-to-ceiling storage, he commissioned ebonised glass fronts for the upper cabinets — with their checkerboard pattern, they read more like a decorative border. Other colorful references pop up throughout the home.

Like in any relationship, there were disagreements as the project unfolded. During their trip to Carrara, Travis ventured out on his own and purchased a block of red travertine for the main bath. Bruce was not pleased — red was his least favourite color. "Bruce said, 'I just want you to know I will always hate this bathroom,'" recalls Travis.

But when the travertine was installed, carved into a sculptural tub and lining the walls, there was a change of heart. "I should have recorded it," beams Travis. "Bruce said, 'This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.'"

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Sifting through the entries for our inaugural House of the Year award proved almost as challenging as selecting the winner itself. All five projects bring together that secret alchemy that makes them a Livingetc house — that is hard to explain but that we know when we see it. It's partly down to their bold creativity, their ability to mix eras and styles and still find a way to blend everything together smoothly. But it's also because each designer has taken a thoughtful approach to how we want to live today.

From quietly layered neutrals to exuberant colour, sympathetic restorations to inventive contemporary updates, each home demonstrates the power of great design to transform not just the way a home looks, but how it feels, too. Look a little closer so as not to miss any of the clever details, smart planning and original ideas. They represent some of the finest residential design we've featured this year — and while only one could take home the title, every project here deserves its place among the very best.

House of the Year: Highgate House by A New Day

For our first-ever House of the Year, London-based studio A New Day’s project in Highgate was a unanimous winner. On judging day, editor Pip Rich was immediately drawn to the colours, global editor in chief Sarah Spiteri noticed how well zoned, and therefore how good for families it was, while inteiors editor Emma Breislin and Livingetc.com editor Hugh Metcalf were both impressed by various details, such as the beaten metal edging of the desk in the entryway and the way the Wasabi granite was painstakingly cut around the power outlets in the kitchen splashback.

In short, not only is this house absolutely bursting with ideas (already making it the perfect Livingetc home), it’s also an incredibly well-considered space that was made specifically so that its family could easily live the lives they had expanded into.

Highly Commended: New York house by Greg Natale

Truly fantastical, this bold, evocatively colourful home in New York is a curated mix of collectable vintage and 20th-century design pieces layered with artful custom finishes.

Standout pieces, such as a pendant light commissioned from Crizu, handmade from paper flower bouquets, are just one of the ways designer Greg Natale has turned this home into a wonderland. ‘The decor is so whimsical but above all that, so, so pretty,’ says Emma Breislin.

Highly Commended: House on the Hill by TXTURED

A masterclass in being both pale and interesting, this striking north London period house was overhauled by design studio TXTURED to have more flow, and feel more harmonious.

Layered neutrals, warm browns, muted ochres and soft blush tones blend together to create a calming backdrop, a monastic world where the soul is soothed and looked after. ‘This home is ever so restful, and seems like it would look after anyone who lived in it,’ says Hugh Metcalf.

Highly Commended: Regent’s Park apartment by Gunter & Co

Showcasing studio founder Irene Gunter’s trademark use of warm colours, clever storage and smart ideas that make each space supremely liveable, this Grade II-listed apartment feels both personal and lived in.

As with all Gunter & Co projects, there is a very clever balance between on-trend ideas and aesthetic choices that will last for years. ‘Every space seems so layered, so interesting, so full of stories,’ says Pip Rich.

Highly Commended: Chelsea apartment by Elicyon

Oh, but this space is so grown up. Moire silk wallpaper in neutral tones, a TV that slides behind an artistic screen, a beautiful and enticing palette of rich golds, aubergine and chocolate to sit alongside the neutral details. Bespoke bedroom wardrobes are finished beautifully, helping to create a very polished and serene ambience.

‘There are so many clever details in this apartment, and I really like how traditional design ideas have been updated for a modern scheme,’ says Sarah Spiteri.

See the full list of Livingetc Style Awards 2026 winners.

The story architect Clara Nahas wanted to tell in this studio was a personal and musical one. "I designed it as a posthumous tribute to my mother, a musician and professional pianist," she says of the intention for Semibreve Studio, her personal debut at CASACOR São Paulo — the largest architecture, interior design, and landscaping show in the Americas. "In a sense, the space is inhabited by her memory more than by a literal resident."

Conceived as a physical manifesto against contemporary hyperconnectivity, the project transforms the designer's personal memory into spatial solutions.

Set inside Parque da Água Branca, a historical park founded in 1929 in the heart of São Paulo, the 55-square-meter studio was a completely blank shell before Nahas's intervention. Her brief came from CASACOR's 2026 theme, Mente e Coração ("mind and heart"), which encouraged architects to treat the home as a place of self-reconnection. Nahas decided to focus on introspection.

"I chose to follow the path of affection and turned to my own trunk of memories, my mother's musical universe," she explains of Semibreve Studio, which embraces evocative shapes, sensory materials, and light to make them manifest spatially.

The project draws from the original handwritten score of a song Nahas's mother wrote when she was born. It has been framed and hangs as a tribute in the bedroom's study area and "the lyrical axis of the project," as she calls it.

Rather than a traditional layout, Nahas has arranged the spaces so visitors move through an inverted route that makes the studio's entire flow unique and unexpected.

"Instead of entering through the social area, you enter through the intimate zone," she explains. Guests cross the bedroom and study first, before reaching the openness of the living space. "It's meant to work like a rite of passage, a sensory filter before connecting with the soul of the house," the architect says.

Nahas has managed to fit an entire home, including bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen, study, and closet, into just 55 square meters without ever losing narrative depth.

This was, Nahas admits, the biggest challenge of the making of Semibreve Studio, the assembling of which required special attention. Since CASACOR only permits dry assembly on-site, every element integrated in the scheme had to be pre-built off-site.

This was also the case for the custom woodwork and masonry closures that were implemented to correct irregularities in the original architecture — a trick Nahas successfully pulled off despite the initial hesitation.

The kitchen was conceived to resist "purely utilitarian coldness," Nahas says. For it, she sought a style that looked monolithic and inherently social.

Built by Todeschini, the cabinetry runs along the main wall in the brand's newly launched Giardino finish, a tinted natural oak veneer, paired with a polished Da Vinci quartzite countertop.

That countertop extends into a sideboard built to hold a record player and Nahas's mother's original vinyl collection, with a niche carved out for a small bar.

The standout feature and most intriguing aspect is the burgundy cylindrical volume that anchors the entire plan. It encases the bathroom, a space that's color-drenched, with the floor and ceiling clad in ceramic tiles.

The countertop and backsplash are in honed Napoleon Bordeaux marble, with a wood-finish cabinet raised off the floor, chrome Cogumelo sconces flanking the mirror, and Deca fixtures in Dark Antracite.

On the exterior face of that same cylinder, in the bedroom, the curvature is clad entirely in red ceramic pieces by Keramika, rising all the way to the ceiling. "That gives the desk area a more introspective, welcoming scale," Nahas says of the effect.

That desk was carved directly from the cylinder itself, via a precise cut below the main beam, doubling as a vanity with shelves that display a collection of hourglasses — objects Nahas links to memories of her mother. "It is a poetic reminder of the passage of time," she explains.

The subtle architectural details Nahas has included continue the project's musical logic. The studio takes its name and its concept from the semibreve, the musical notation.

"It's the note that fills the measure and sustains the sound, asking for a pause so its fullness can actually be heard," Nahas says. That idea of sustained rhythm shows up in the alternating ceramic pieces running along the skirting board's entire perimeter, "almost like a measure being played out in ceramic instead of sound."

The gabled ceiling has been left with exposed beams and wooden slats; these are nods to the archetype of the traditional house, while soft-toned textured paint acts, in Nahas's words, as "a silent canvas" for the rest of the space. Together, these quiet details convey the warmth that makes Semibreve Studio so welcoming and familiar at first glance.

The project is a temporary installation. But in striving to render the enduring impact that people hold on our lives — whether or not this can be perceived by our eyes — it stretches beyond its physical limits.

A reminder that home is first and foremost the place where we feel most loved, and the one that knows us best, Semibreve Studio might not be permanent, but it's eternal.

With sun-washed colors, expressive masonry, and intricate tilework, Mediterranean homes have an enduring charm. Lately, this style has found renewed relevance as people seek interiors that evoke the ease, warmth, and transportive calm of a faraway holiday.

This home in Montreuil, purchased by a family of four, follows a similarly hot-weather design story, with its residents drawn to a slightly eclectic, gently coastal aesthetic. Spread across three floors, the 1,292-square-foot, three-bedroom house became a wonderfully characterful project for Julie Nebout and Giuseppe Punzo of La Fotosintesi, a studio known for its joyful approach to interiors.

"The goal was to create interiors full of personality without ever becoming overwhelming, allowing the house to feel timeless and comfortable," the designers share. Although the existing layout already worked well, the clients wanted to give spaces an entirely new soul. Julie and Giuseppe responded by introducing moments of surprise in this modern home, as each room gradually unfolds, creating a sequence of colorful spaces with distinct identities that still feel harmonious as a whole.

"As soon as you enter the house, your eye is drawn to the bespoke masonry kitchen, finished in lime plaster and immediately evocative of a Mediterranean seaside home," shares Julie, one half of La Fotosintesi, who adds that the detail "creates a natural sense of welcome for guests."

The small kitchen's tiled island reinforces the relaxed, summery mood while introducing texture and a strong sense of craftsmanship. Despite its compact footprint, the kitchen includes everything the family needs for daily life; integrated cabinetry and seamless storage keep the space visually calm.

The ceiling plays an equally important role, coaxing the eye upward and creating a greater sense of volume. "A perimeter molding frames a soft sage green ceiling, chosen to create a dialogue with the greenery of the garden just outside," Giuseppe adds.

Where originally the kitchen was closed off, the designers decided to integrate it with the dining, helping open up both areas to light and breeze. Conceived as an intimate family space, it offers a place where parents and children can gather over meals and conversation.

Warm materials help create that sense of ease, from the wood flooring to the woven rattan chairs.

A dining table sourced from Sklum brings a more contemporary note, while a large aluminum screen by Marion Barbaz introduces a reflective surface that catches the light and lends the room a polished, modern edge. Sheer curtains filter the daylight throughout the day, while the painted ceiling — an enveloping canopy of color —continues the home's chromatic story overhead.

A doorway leads into the colorful living room, where a palette of soft pastels comes together in quiet harmony.

"The lounge is painted entirely in a light blue tone, enhancing its intimate and cozy character while creating a calm, peaceful environment for relaxing," Julie says.

The armchair, sourced from AM.PM, alongside a textile artwork by Gregory B Studio, gives the room an easygoing yet inviting quality. Above people's heads, the ceiling is painted in a slightly deeper shade of blue, in an enveloping, cocoon-like effect.

The attic bedroom, or the primary bedroom, is defined by bright tones and clever storage solutions.

"Because of the sloping ceilings, one of the main challenges was making the room feel spacious and balanced," Giuseppe explains. "We introduced a false partition to create a proper headboard wall, allowing the bed to sit centrally within the room."

Beside the bed, the designers created a discreet wardrobe that conceals a generous dressing area and an integrated writing desk — a quiet, practical corner for working or reading without disrupting the room's overall flow.

The en suite small bathroom is undeniably the boldest room in the house.

"We wanted it to become an architectural feature rather than simply a functional space, so we clad every surface in green zellige tile," Julie says. "The bathroom is enclosed in glass, allowing it to remain visually connected to the bedroom while maintaining a strong identity of its own."

The designers also introduced new windows that flood the room with natural light throughout the day. As the sun shifts, it plays across the handcrafted tiles, bringing out their rich texture and creating an ever-changing spectrum of green.

Their little girl's bedroom is awash in soft pink. The color extends across the walls, ceiling, and curtains, taking on added warmth in the natural light.

Custom furniture and delicate lamps keep the room feeling calm and considered, even amid the inevitable clutter of books and toys.

The kids bathroom is defined by a warm, gentle palette, with lime-plaster walls, softly rounded details, and warm-toned ceramic tile. The result is a welcoming space with an intimate atmosphere that offers a subtle counterpoint to the primary bathroom's bolder character.

Taken as a whole, the home unfolds as a cohesive design story, allowing each floor to establish its own identity while remaining connected to the others and the house's playfully uplifting spirit.

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It is no coincidence that this home sits within walking distance of the premier live music venues of Austin, Texas. Its owner has been in the music industry for years, and he envisaged the property being an artful pied-à-terre for hosting parties during music festivals, such as SXSW and Austin City Limits.

The single-storey house was built in 1915 and renovated repeatedly until the current owner purchased it in 2022. Its interior was reimagined by Christina Simon Studio, while Daniel Ward, of Mark Richardson Architects, renewed the architecture; both aided by historical-building specialist Dustin Minium of Red Tail Construction, and all with one main objective in mind: crafting a truly joyful modern home.

"I knew the house got a lot of light, so I wanted to create a warm and grounded environment by adding deep, bold colors, layers, and textures," says Christina Simon, who used Farrow & Ball's Inchyra Blue and complementary wallpapers in the majority of the living spaces and most of the bedrooms. "Everything was selected for its ability to bring warmth and evoke a sense of elegance, while still being creative."

For the transformation, the interior designer didn't start from scratch. "My client came into the project with a collection of art from Texas artists, so highlighting it was the first place we started," she remembers.

"I was also inspired by some of the 1970s and 1980s interiors I experienced as a kid. I loved the idea of playing off of an interior that may have been designed in that era, but which made it all the way through the subsequent years."

The remodelling was done in two phases: first up, focusing on the primary bathroom and kitchen — complemented by thoughtful exterior landscaping, including the protection of oak trees — and shaping the home's overall personality.

And secondly, preserving the original craftsmanship — such as the refined plaster fireplace — as well as creating a cohesive, balanced dialogue between the existing elements and the new. From brass to unique stones, the materials were chosen to enhance the home's vintage soul, while also bringing a more contemporary aesthetic to life.

"Because I selected almost every last little item that went into the house, I had to work very hard to make it look like it happened over time," Christina explains. The glass mushroom collection, for example, was bought from a collector friend who had gathered the pieces over a decade.

In the office, what was originally intended as a hand-painted William Morris-style wallpaper evolved into an over-scaled, somewhat psychedelic, design in vibrant pinks and yellows, as artist Michelle Marchesseault and the homeowner collaborated. "When we started conceptualizing it, this room was going to be much more subtle," laughs Christina.

But unexpected moments such as this mural are embedded throughout the home — which now possesses a spirit entirely its own — resulting in an immersive, character-filled atmosphere.

"I aim to create spaces that encourage creativity, curiosity, mindfulness and meditation," says Christina. "I wanted this house to be provocative for both the owner and the visitors." We can safely say she achieved her ambition.

If you like the vibrant color palette of this home, then you'll love this garden villa designed by the Ludwig Brothers, which features a color palette so unusual, even the painter questioned it.

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Moscow, Russia: a bustling capital city with a rich, layered history. The vibrant Maryina Roshcha district is no exception, set among a former industrial estate once home to the famed Detskaya Kniga printing house. Charm and storytelling are at the neighborhood’s core, with rich cultural offerings and grand architecture at every turn. It's the ideal location to call home.

Local interior design and architecture firm Lake & Walls is the mastermind behind an eclectic apartment that leans into all that the district has to offer.

"The concept and style of the project are based on the unique history of its location," Oksana Zavarzina, one half of the studio with co-founder Evgeny Shevchenko, says of their commission, Jazz Apartment, which was constructed in 1972 and redesigned in 2026. "The project gained its character and distinctive atmosphere from these historic buildings, which the developer carefully preserved and transformed into contemporary apartments" — modern homes with a lingering past.

Jazz Apartment was designed as a family residence, and Zavarzina and Shevchenko considered the clients' needs and interests throughout.

They incorporated elements of their favorite travel destinations, including subtle nods to Parisian-style decor, and paid special attention to the couple's busy lifestyle.

"They are an active and passionate family, and it was important for them that the interior felt alive and soulful, but not overloaded," Zavarzina notes. "The aim was to create a space where technology, functionality, history, and emotion could naturally coexist."

While history certainly plays an important part in the bi-level property, the designers were careful not to overcrowd things with folklore motifs, ornaments, or obvious decorative references.

Instead, they were much more interested in exploring Russian cultural heritage through architectural language — in a more restrained and contemporary way.

To do so, the pair opted to lean into the 90-square-meter apartment's origins and current surroundings, preserving some of the original structural elements of the building while breathing fresh life into it. Think sturdy concrete slabs, rugged columns, and industrial-style steel I-beams.

"These elements were carefully styled into the space and painted in the same color as the surrounding surfaces, allowing them to blend into the interior rather than dominate it visually," Zavarzina explains.

She adds that they treated the concrete structures, columns, beams, and the original detailing as the starting point of the project.

Once the foundation was laid, though, it was time to make it fit for modern living. And so, while concrete and metal became the architectural framework, wood, textiles, color, and art became the house's beating heart; it's human, not purely structural, side.

According to Zavarzina, the project contains some of the qualities of Russian Constructivism: honesty of structure, exposed architectural elements, geometry, functionality, and transformation of space.

"The former printing house already carried its own industrial memory. We didn't want to erase it, but to continue its story," she says. Two particular areas that put that vision into practice are the kitchen and the foyer.

In the kitchen, a striking backsplash comprised of uniform glass blocks sits behind the sink, simultaneously supporting and embellishing it while also providing a natural, 'see-through' visual transition between different areas of the apartment.

In the foyer, a wall made entirely of glass contrasts with the winding wooden staircase, again stressing the architectural movement's preference for beautifully practical materials and its tendency to disclose rather than conceal a home's structural parts.

The designers liked the idea of taking a familiar material like glass and presenting it in a new way, not as a nostalgic element, but as a contemporary architectural gesture. The glass blocks featured in the scheme let light into the space, creating a dialogue between transparency and privacy while feeding into the building's legacy.

Zavarzina and Shevchenko believe that openness and privacy can coexist. Together with the house's extremely high ceilings, this belief inspired their decision to craft a dual-level apartment rather than one built on a single level.

The choice was partly mandated by height restrictions, which prevented the duo from covering the ceiling. Instead of hiding the structure, they strived to express its full potential, making it a dominant part of the apartment's design language through a generously sized, warmly furnished mezzanine.

On the main level, a neutral color palette creates a lighter and calmer space. White walls act as a neutral canvas, highlighting architectural detailing and providing a backdrop for brighter, bolder furniture and artwork.

Perhaps one of the most striking features of the property is the master bedroom's gorgeous green archway, which counters the pure white wall and doubles as a hidden bookshelf while serving as an extension of the plush headboard.

The mezzanine level, on the other hand, was designed to feel deeper and more intimate — "designed almost like a separate cozy architectural capsule," the duo explains. The entire bedroom, from the floor to the ceiling, is painted in a rich dark brown shade, with metallic accents adding a touch of understated glamour.

"A contemporary interior should be able to change together with the people who live in it," Zavarzina explains. "Sometimes we need air, light, communication, and a sense of freedom. At other moments, we need silence and our own small world."

With multiple yet individually envisioned pockets of space gathered into a seamless, immersive residential scheme, the Jazz Apartment strives to answer the most disparate whims of the family it was imagined for, whether they are looking to come together and relax or soak in Moscow's majestic views from the kitchen bar.

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"Take out as much as you can" were the brave words Gisbert Pöppler offered a new client. The homeowner had initially imagined a simple refresh — new colors and furniture — for their 1920s garden villa in Hagen, Germany.

But while the listed clinker-brick exterior was beautifully preserved, a 1980s gut renovation hardly matched up and Gisbert wasn't impressed. Open to bold ideas, the client trusted his radical vision for a complete transformation of this modern home.

The home, designed by the Ludwig brothers, sits within Hohenhagen, an early-20th-century artist colony spearheaded by industrialist Karl Ernst Osthaus and inspired by England's garden city movement.

The setting is packed with history, and its modern garden reads more like a small park. But its interiors were destroyed by fire during the Second World War. This made the home a blank slate — ideal for the entrepreneurial client, who envisioned the estate as much for business meetings as family life.

Light was essential to designer Gisbert Pöppler's glow-up. Despite its south-facing orientation, the house had many rooms that were surprisingly dark. First, a series of walls came down, merging three tight rooms into a spacious salon.

Gisbert's team also improved the flow of light through technical solutions: subtle slants in window reveals capture more sunlight, and doorways were heightened into gentle arched openings.

More dramatic interventions, such as interior porthole openings and a sculptural skylight in an orangerylike extension, funnel light deeper into the house.

A bold palette completed the picture. Gisbert proposed decorating with colors so unusual that the site's master painter phoned the client, concerned the tints were mixed incorrectly. But color is Gisbert's calling card and one of the reasons the client approached his Berlin studio.

A mix of earthy yellow, vibrant orange and light blue offsets the home's serious architecture. The playful color palette pops in pieces designed by Gisbert's studio, from color-blocked cashmere throws to rotund armchairs in mustard and powder blue.

The most striking intervention is an oak staircase to private quarters off the main entrance. Its presence is palpable: with its arched walls lined in pink linoleum, it's reminiscent of an art installation. The bold gesture also clearly marks a passage reserved for the homeowners only — no stray business guests allowed.

What was lost to history is now alive through a reverent respect for craftsmanship — the skylight alone took weeks to complete. This devotion, says Gisbert, is worthy of Osthaus's craft-centric ethos for the original artist's colony: "He would have liked it in this era."

If you like this villa, you may also like this LA home designed by Coco Greenblum that is filled with color and texture but without being overwhelming.

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Homes today are expected to do far more than simply provide shelter. They have become workplaces, places for gathering, spaces for rest and, increasingly, environments capable of offering the kind of emotional escape we once sought only through travel.

It's no coincidence that the language of hospitality has begun to influence residential interiors: boutique hotels, wellness retreats, and destination resorts have become references not thanks to their aesthetics alone, but because of how they make us feel. That idea lies at the heart of Dvira Interiors' latest residential project in downtown Toronto.

Located just steps from the historic St. Lawrence Market, this three-story penthouse doesn't attempt to recreate Bali or the Arizona desert. Instead, it distils the atmosphere of those places, their warmth, tactility, and slower rhythm, and brings it into the reality of contemporary urban living.

The apartment sits inside a building completed in the late 1980s, an era whose expressive architecture has often been overlooked in favor of cleaner contemporary minimalism. Here, however, founder and principal designer Dvira Ovadia chose a different approach.

"Throughout the apartment, we discovered original walls with subtle curves, a design feature we chose to celebrate and enhance," she explains.

Rather than flattening the building's personality, the studio allowed the existing curved walls, rounded windows, and sculptural forms to dictate the flow of the interiors. The result feels simultaneously rooted in the original architecture and unmistakably contemporary.

When the renovation began, the owners, a couple in their 30s working in the creative industry, didn't have a predetermined aesthetic in mind.

For the brief, they leaned on the memories of places that had stayed with them: the earthy landscapes of the American Southwest, the tropical calm of Bali, and the layered, eclectic interiors of Austin's Proper Hotel.

"Working with clients who embrace the creative journey allowed us to push beyond the predictable," recalls Ovadia. "We fell in love with the apartment the moment we walked in. While undeniably dated, it was full of charm, character, and untapped potential."

Those travel references never become literal: there are no overt tropical motifs or desert clichés. Instead, the influences manifest through atmosphere.

As in the best hotel design projects, emotion is constructed through light, texture, color, and material rather than decoration. If there is one gesture that defines the project, it is its relationship with the outdoors.

Rare for a condominium in the center of Toronto, balconies and terraces extend from almost every room. Integrated in every corner of the home, daylight, fresh air, and greenery transform what could have been a conventional urban apartment into a remarkably serene haven suspended above the city, and an exemplary indoor-outdoor living scheme.

The home's vertical layout reinforces that feeling of openness. The main floor unfolds as a continuous sequence of kitchen, dining, and living spaces opening directly onto two terraces.

Above, the primary suite shares the level with a dramatic double-height lounge that visually connects the floors below, allowing natural sunshine to travel through the house.

Complete with a balcony and soft seating nooks, the oversized family room on the upper level boasts a hotel bedroom-like atmosphere, a relaxed yet sophisticated environment designed for gathering, reading, or simply slowing down.

These are intentional design choices that reflect a broader shift in contemporary domestic life, where the experience of hosting and that of recharging are equally relevant.

Rather than assigning rigid functions to each room, Dvira Interiors created spaces capable of adapting throughout the day while maintaining a coherent emotional ambience.

More than a color palette, the project constructs an emotional landscape. Honey-toned oak introduces warmth and continuity across all three levels, while deep green marble and travertine establish an immediate connection with nature.

Terracotta, moss green, soft creams, and earthy neutrals evoke Mediterranean architecture, tropical vegetation, and desert landscapes without ever becoming thematic.

"Inspired by the Arizona desert and Bali, balanced with an effortless California ease, these colors create a home that feels grounded, warm, and naturally inviting," explains Ovadia.

Wallpaper plays an equally important role. Botanical patterns layered throughout the apartment recall the immersive atmosphere of boutique stays rather than traditional domestic interiors, creating moments of escapism without overwhelming the architecture itself.

The most powerful intervention unfolds on the third floor, where walls, ceilings, doors, and baseboards are entirely wrapped in terracotta limewash.

"Conventional paint would have given us color, but not the same depth, movement, or softness," Ovadia explains. "Limewash has a living quality. It catches the light differently throughout the day, creating subtle variation that feels natural and atmospheric."

The effect is almost cinematic. Rather than simply coloring the room, the limewash changes its perception over the course of the day, enveloping the space in a warm, cocoon-like atmosphere.

Elsewhere, a burlap-effect wallpaper climbs seamlessly from the bedroom walls onto the ceiling, while cork wallcoverings introduce tactile richness to the home office alongside Jacob's distinctive green Ladder shelving. Throughout the project, materials are chosen less for their luxury than for their ability to create sensory depth.

Since it was impossible to avoid the technical limitations of remodeling a 1980s apartment, Dvira Interiors decided to make them instrumental to the overall design process.

The conditions of the building itself, for example, led to small changes in the layout of the space, but they also stressed one of the key aspects of the brief itself: soft curves. "What initially felt like a major setback became a turning point," Ovadia recalls. "Creative pivoting ultimately shaped some of the home's most distinctive features."

More than a renovation, this project reflects a broader shift in the way we think about domestic interiors. Rather than borrowing the aesthetics of luxury hospitality, Dvira Interiors translates its emotional qualities —warmth, tactility, layered atmospheres, and a slower pace of living — into an everyday home.

It's a home that doesn't ask its owners to leave Toronto in order to disconnect from it. Instead, it quietly changes the way they experience the city daily.

Speaking of Balinese inspiration, have you seen studio YSG's lush reinvention of a private residence, Moon Gang? With just five suites and uninterrupted tropical views, you're in for a treat.

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Fit for entertaining, while designed for family life; overflowing with storage, yet simultaneously seamless and clutter-free; highly functional, yet also warm and inviting — these are all the often opposing things we come to expect from our kitchens nowadays, and yet, somehow, this design managed to do all of them, and more.

A modern space within a traditional Victorian terraced home, this kitchen extension feels thoroughly timeless, interweaving elements of the home's period origins with contemporary touches. "The kitchen sits within a traditional Victorian terrace, but the rear extension introduces a distinctly contemporary character," Greg Daulby, senior designer at Cor Domi, says. "Flooded with natural light and defined by generous ceiling heights, the extension presented an opportunity to create a kitchen that felt modern whilst remaining sympathetic to the original home."

Designed by Cor Domi and Project London, this south-west London kitchen renovation epitomises exactly what we all hope for from a kitchen today. Full of texture and warmth, with a welcoming, open layout and masses of hidden storage, this project is a masterclass in intentional design.

The Brief

Perhaps the most universal desire when designing a kitchen is for the room to become the central hub of the family home, and this project is no exception. "The client wanted the kitchen to become the true heart of the home, a sociable, convivial space where cooking, dining, and entertaining could happen simultaneously," shares Greg.

Primarily a family home, though also frequently used as a hub for hosting, Greg's clients wanted both possibilities to be equally supported by the design, with plenty of space for younger children to move around and feel at ease, while still feeling sophisticated enough to welcome their friends in, too.

It's always easier to plan out a kitchen renovation timeline when there are clear ideas from the beginning, and that was certainly the case in this project. "From the outset, there were several key requirements that shaped the design," says Greg. And primary among these was a large, central kitchen peninsula, used to create "a natural gathering point for cooking, casual dining and conversation."

In addition, Greg adds, "The client was also keen to incorporate a comfortable banquette seating area to encourage more relaxed everyday use of the space, blurring the line between kitchen and living." With seating at both the peninsula and the dedicated banquette dining area, this kitchen is as suited to large dinner parties as it is to intimate family meals.

"Kitchen storage and functionality were equally important," says Greg. Wanting to keep the kitchen as tidy and uncluttered as possible, they opted for a concealed walk-in pantry behind pocket doors and direct access to the utility room through this hidden cabinetry.

Set within a modern extension of a traditional Victorian terrace house, Greg explains, "The architecture played a significant role in shaping the joinery. Rather than treating it as a series of standard cabinets, we designed the furniture to respond directly to the volume of the space, using changes in height and proportion to emphasise the full-height ceilings and create a more architectural composition."

The result is a room that feels beyond time, with elements of Victorian and contemporary design seamlessly interweaving with one another.

The Process

Intentionally avoiding any reliance on popular kitchen trends that could quickly fall out of style, the vision for this design came about more naturally. "The design evolved from the material palette rather than a particular style or trend," explains Greg.

"From the outset, we wanted to create a calm, tactile environment where the richness came from texture and craftsmanship instead of bold color or ornamentation," he says, and with plenty of natural materials and a warm, earthy color palette, they achieved this with ease.

As a fundamentally functional space, optimal usability was, of course, a priority when developing this design. They spent time considering exactly where to position the kitchen appliances and mapping out how the space would most likely be used to ensure a kitchen layout that felt intuitive and seamless for the clients to live in.

"Natural light was another key driver of the design," says Greg. "The extension benefits from two generous rooflights and large glazed doors, flooding the space with daylight throughout the day. Rather than competing with this, we selected a soft, neutral material palette that reflects the light and enhances the sense of openness, resulting in a calm and inviting atmosphere."

A minimalist approach to the kitchen lighting allowed for the existing natural light to remain central to the design.

As an open-plan kitchen, cohesion was crucial. But, to ensure it never felt too monotonous, Greg says, "We introduced moments of contrast through the client's carefully curated artwork and a striking natural stone peninsula, which acts as the focal point of the room while adding depth and character to the otherwise restrained palette."

In addition to the client's requests and desires, the team had to take note of the structure itself, adapting the vision to suit the requirements of the space. For example, "Exposed steel beams formed part of the structure, so the cabinetry had to be meticulously detailed around them, allowing the joinery to feel completely integrated."

The Design

Perhaps the most enviable feature of this space, at first hidden from view, is the generously sized walk-in pantry. Concealed behind a wall of kitchen cabinetry, a pocket door opens to reveal this extra space, designed to store any kitchen appliances and other clutter.

"The location of the pantry entrance was fixed architecturally, so rather than allowing it to interrupt the flow of the kitchen, we embraced it as part of the overall composition," explains Greg.

"We created a full-height wall of bespoke joinery that conceals the pantry entrance within the cabinetry, allowing the elevation to read as one continuous architectural element. This approach not only creates a much calmer visual language but also provides the opportunity to introduce additional storage throughout the run, ensuring the design is as functional as it is refined."

Although the design in its final form looks thoroughly intentional, there were a fair few compromises that had to happen to arrive there.

The most significant example of this was the island. As Greg explains, "Like many clients, the original brief centred around a large island, but once we assessed the proportions of the room, it became clear that a freestanding island would have resulted in compromised circulation and an inefficient working layout."

Instead, Greg chose to rework the island into a peninsula, attached to the perimeter wall at one end. By doing this, they were able to create the same focal point that an island offers, without impacting the overall layout of the kitchen.

Opting for a neutral kitchen color palette, this design was all about letting the materials do the talking. "We kept the material palette deliberately simple, allowing texture and quality to take center stage," says Greg.

The lacquer-finish cabinets provide a warm, smooth backdrop for the rest of the design, allowing the bold, veined kitchen worktops to be the main focal point. Although the monochromatic, veined surface looks like marble, it's actually made of porcelain, allowing for a more durable, low-maintenance kitchen design. "They capture the elegance of natural stone while offering exceptional durability for everyday family life," adds Greg.

Counteracting the hard, cool finishes on the cabinets and counters, warm brass kitchen hardware, and Clayworks plaster walls bring a tactile warmth that spreads across the room.

The foundation of warmth and tactility in this design comes from the softly mottled, warm-toned walls that wrap around the room.

To create these plaster-effect walls, Greg used a Clayworks plaster, supplied by Surface Design London. This finish, he says, "Brings a beautiful sense of depth and movement to the space."

For a more cohesive effect, Greg opted for a near-identical shade for the cabinetry, too. "We selected the wall finish first, before choosing a complementary paint color from Little Greene for the cabinetry to ensure the two materials worked together harmoniously," he explains, which was Little Greene's Rolling Fog.

This, paired with the sage green upholstery and wooden details of the banquette area, makes for a sophisticated yet welcoming effect.

As gorgeous as a glass kitchen extension can be, there's one major issue with them, and anyone living with one will be all too aware of that issue at the moment: heat. Luckily, these heatwave-proof house extension tips will save you from that dreaded greenhouse effect. And for even more helpful tips and ideas, subscribe to our newsletter.

A fresh pair of eyes can be handy for spotting things that can go underappreciated. Having only lived in LA for three years, interior designer Coco Greenblum was still excited by the city's mid-century design legacy. Indeed, this project was an important 1970s house, though prior to her intervention, the interior "was basically a white box," she says.

For her research, Coco did a deep dive into LA's most iconic homes — namely, Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House in East Hollywood, the Eames House in Pacific Palisades, and the Stahl House in the Hollywood Hills. What she noticed was that the palettes were in the same muted tonal family. "They all had similar olive, amber, and gold tones that didn't feel overwhelming."

Coco wanted to harness that for her clients, but also to "translate it — so it would relate to a modern home for a Hollywood couple today".

The result was that mid-century got a glow-up. To those muted tones, Coco Greenblum added a dose of Hollywood luxe — gold details, saturated velvets, graphic patterns: "It's mid-century, but also very glam." What's more, by sticking to the same tonal palette (the various colors — russet, cocoa, ochre, olive — are all at "the same saturation"), she could avoid everything feeling too busy. "I wanted it to still feel serene."

That understated elevation also helps avoid pastiche — some 80% of the furniture pieces here are actually mid-century antiques, but by enhancing them with modern upholstery and adding contemporary companion designs, the home doesn't resemble a museum piece. But more than mid-century or Hollywood, Coco's biggest muse was the owners themselves — her main aim, she explains, is helping clients bring their personality into their interiors.

The couple had been living in the house for a year and felt the house didn't connect with them. Chloe explains that Coco "helped me to find my taste. I was very clear about what I don't like, but had a hard time describing what I did like. She was able to translate it and present me with things that I never would have thought of."

For Coco, it's about "taking the time to ask questions about who they are so that the client feels very comfortable with me — there's an 'aha' moment where they fully trust you to make a beautiful space."

Before Coco's renovation, Chloe and Jeremy had restricted themselves to decorating with neutrals in order to keep it calm. "I'm a sensitive soul," explains Chloe. "I couldn't have bright colors or images, but it felt boring — and not actually what I like." Now, however, "there's color and texture everywhere, but it never overwhelms me."

This is what Coco calls "warm minimalism". Others, she explains, may think of minimalism "as being very modern with no color. That's not what it means to me — it's very clean, very liveable, very structured and uncluttered, while also being very warm-toned".

The result is not only far removed from the original white box, it's also, says Chloe, proving impossible to tire of — "which is amazing for someone who primarily works from home". That's because, she explains, "Nothing is trendy, everything is timeless, but it all feels vibrant and alive".

Want to see where else color becomes part of the storyline? Dive into our extensive interview with Rosebush Pruning's production designer Rodrigo Martirena to get behind the scenes of this year's most twisted dark comedy thriller. For more house tours from Livingetc, sign up to our newsletter.

Sea and sun, breezes and billowing sails: it seems nature works in harmonious ways around the Polish coastal city of Gdynia. Located roughly 30km north of Gdańsk, the city is a bit of a hidden gem; for many young Poles, it is now "the most vibrant and appealing place in the country," says designer Maciej Ryniewicz.

Not only does it have beautiful beaches, but its atmosphere is youthful and modern; it is dotted with cafés, bars and restaurants, and animated by its mix of modernist architecture and maritime charm. The perfect place, you might say, for a modern home away from home.

Since setting up his multidisciplinary design studio, Akurat, 10 years ago, Maciej has worked on many hospitality locations in the city, and it was via an investor he nearly worked with on one such project that he was introduced to the family who own this holiday apartment.

Maciej believes his clients were ready to take a chance on a young studio that approached design with curiosity and experimentation rather than rigid formulas.

The most striking feature of the apartment is its large windows, offering a panoramic view of the harbor, the changing sky, and the shifting tones of the Baltic Sea. Unlike southern European coastlines, where the sea often appears vivid turquoise, this part of the Baltic typically displays shades of gray, green, or deep navy, and the climate can be severe in winter, with restless waves and harsh winds.

Maciej wanted the flat’s interior to feel peaceful and protective, while still acknowledging the presence of the water outside. "When we saw the view, we knew we had found our prime focus for the space," he explains.

Cleverly, the connection to the sea appears in understated ways, rather than through literal nautical motifs and coastal interior design. So there are light fixtures with curves that subtly resemble waves; a custom aluminium coffee table has a surface that catches light in a way reminiscent of sunlight breaking on water; while the children’s room resembles a compact ship’s cabin, practical and thoughtfully organized.

Mirrors are strategically placed to reflect fragments of sky and sea back into the rooms. Even the marble used echoes the muted colors of the northern coast. Yet none of these references overshadow the view itself. Instead, the interior is meant to act like a quiet frame around the landscape outside. "The apartment offers peace inside and out," says Maciej.

Maciej believes that comfort doesn’t require excessive decoration. "Homes don’t need to be filled with objects to feel intimate," he explains. "If the furnishings, textures and art are chosen carefully, the space naturally feels lived in." Reflecting this, the material palette is restrained and minimalist, with abundant wood softened by linen, wool and other natural textiles, paired with sharper accents such as glass, marble and aluminium. The result is a calm, yet rich, atmosphere — orderly, warm and welcoming.

When asked to define his style, Maciej hesitates. His projects vary widely, and he prefers not to confine his work to a single label. "We try to develop our own direction instead of chasing whatever is fashionable in the moment," he says.

He believes every design should reflect its own context, and in this instance, it was about the owners’ sentiment that an apartment should be for living in, not simply for admiring. "The aim of the entire project was to be current — or even ahead of its time — but also liveable and created for actual people to live in, not just to look at," says Maciej. "We couldn’t be happier with the outcome."

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The relationship between a client and the interior designers they pick is always personal, but in the case of this project in Miami's North Beach, it's particularly significant. Novelist, journalist, and columnist Asha Elias has known — and worked with — duo MONIOMI Design for over 13 years, more or less as long as the Floridian studio has been operating.

The pair's designs have marked many of her family's milestones — from creating her daughter's nursery when she was born to transforming it as she grew into a teen. So it makes sense she entrusted them with this latest, symbolic task: the decor of her new modern home at a significant juncture in her life, following a divorce.

The idea was to create a space that felt representative of her individual identity — something that, by now, the designers have an instinctive understanding of, and that they feel aligns closely with their own style, marked by a maximalist sense of color, pattern and contrast.

"This whole time, we've learned who she is. We know what she likes," says MONIOMI Design's co-founder Monica Santayana, who runs the studio with her husband Ronald Alvarez. The two encouraged her to express her unmitigated preferences. "She said: I want it to be feminine, to be comfortable but also artistic, fun, and energetic," continues the designer.

Another important requirement was to have a space to both relax with her children and entertain. A boxy structure by the pool area, nestled at the back of the 1930s Spanish-style villa, lent itself to that naturally. Santayana and Alvarez set about turning it into an enticing multi-functional cabana.

While the main body of the house is all pinks, mauves, and burgundies, this is a triumph of tropical greens and rattan. "It's detached from the main home, very much amidst the foliage and fauna of her backyard, so she definitely did want a different vibe here," Santayana says of the cabana's irreverent island aesthetic. A graphic, patterned ceiling wallpaper by Pierre Frey, picturing luxuriant leaves, helps accentuate the connection between outside and in.

"It was supposed to be really warm, inviting, comfortable — but again, it reflects her (and our) playful style side," explains Santayana. Out of this compact, rectangular space, the studio was able to create a wide sofa seating area, a music room that's currently home to her son's drum kit, a small bathroom, and a fully stocked bar complete with a terrazzo counter by concrete collaborative.

"As a place to entertain, it needed to hold its own weight — somewhere she could do everything and not feel like she needed to go back and forth into the main home," explains Alvarez. "It's a self-sufficient space. The sense was this would become the family’s retreat."

The limited footprint did force the duo into smart space-saving measures: as the room featured an "intrusive column right smack in the middle, where the sofa needed to be", MONIOMI Design dressed it in mirrors so it almost disappeared. They also built a table at its foot, fitting perfectly in between the modules of the CB2 sofa that extends around it.

"We 'ate' the column — it was a fun solution!" laughs Santayana. "We were really tight on space, so it was about maximizing efficiency and tricking the eye to make it feel like it's ample." The lesson is clear: "Sometimes challenges create really beautiful opportunities," the designer adds. "You just have to take advantage of that."

Custom millwork helps integrate the TV into the room; it's also mirrored around the custom-built home bar to tie the space together and frame the deep-green zellige tiles by Zia Tile.

"The bar has a sink, a back bar, a front bar and stools: it's really what activates the space and supports it with its function," Santayana says. "I actually think our spaces are mostly functional — and then we happen to be able to do a pretty good job at making them beautiful. What's important for us is that they are efficient in however they need to perform."

Though MONIOMI Design has its own furniture range (on display at the duo's brand-new Miami concept store and showroom, La Sala, where they also stock pieces by artists they have collaborated with), many of the pieces in the cabana were sourced from brands they love in a process driven by color palette and texture.

Woven rattan stools by Lyk Carpet, hand-knotted in Nepal and topped by green plush cushions, are matched by a light applique by GIOBAGNARA and a pendant by Schoolhouse — and everything is enveloped by the walls' Portola lime green wash.

"We really love playing with materiality — that's our innate design language," Santayana explains, adding that the goal is to continuously "push its boundaries."

Their signature style isn't for the faint-hearted: "we love color, we love pattern, we love geometry — we like to pair the graphic and the organic. But it's the unexpected, the sense of surprise in our spaces, we really value."

MONIOMI Design's joyful quirkiness carries an appeal of its own, but it also echoes the architectural history of Miami — and beyond. "Being in Miami, we're obviously deco-inspired. But again, it's not in-your-face deco. It's soft inspiration," says Santayana, pointing to Art Nouveau and Memphis as two more of their stylistic references.

The studio strives to incorporate the three into every space — the geometric essence of Memphis, Art Nouveau's organic and flowery schemes, and the linear-meets-curved silhouettes of Deco.

More than anything else, though, their practice "is a beautiful compilation of memories, history, and culture", just like the spirited pool cabana and home they imagined for Elias, where family life gets to thrive.

Dreaming of a Floridian summer? Explore Miami with Jen Roberts' insider guide to the city, filling you in on everything from the most coveted Miami design hotels to must-know restaurants and coffee shops.

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