Six decorating ideas to steal from top designers’ homes

Looking for a quick home update and refresh? We asked leading interior experts for their favourite at-home styling tips to use as inspiration for your own space.

Lucy Fenton, director, Fenton & Fenton

What is your favourite space?

Our front living room is a creative sanctuary for the grown-ups, kept clear of kids’ stuff and where we keep our favourite collectibles.

What do you love most about it?

It’s painted dark navy so is different to the rest of the house which is white. Opting for a different colour allows a different mood depending on what the space’s purpose is.

Best tips for stealing your idea?

Paint is an affordable way to transform a room. Be brave – you can always repaint later! I love Porters Paints and used Obsidian for this room. I left the shutters and skirting boards white and hung some artwork to provide contrast so it didn’t feel too dark.

Sibella Court, interior designer and owner, Society inc.

What is your favourite space?

My transitional lounge room where I sit with tea to welcome each day.

What do you love most about it?

That it’s open plan but features zoned functional areas. It’s a generous room but has an awkward open-plan design – the kitchen is to the right and the doors lead to the WC and laundry!  The sofa’s elegant curve steers away from the bathroom door and allows a cabinet and vase to live behind it that shifts the eye. I filled in the stair bannister behind with a Forestone Easycraft VJ wall and zoned the area with a rug and furnishings.

Best tips for stealing your idea?

I softened the threshold between the rooms with a linen curtain from Raffles Textiles, and styled with objects including an artist’s stool and twig table, artwork by Stephen Tashjian and paper sculpture by Anna-Wili Highfield.

Elissa Coleman, creative director, Empire

What is your favourite space?

Our entrance way because it’s functional yet creates mood before entering the home.

What do you love most about it?

The new and the old existing together. The lamp with terrazzo base and fan coral are vintage finds from India and Indonesia, the hand-chiselled glass vessels we had made in India, and the succulent is planted in our earthenware ceramic.

Best tips for stealing your idea?

Consider scale, starting with a tall object then work down in size. Include textures in similar tones. Here, the travertine’s texture repeats itself in the fragility of the coral, and the glass hand etching is reflected in the little Chinese lace cut vase. The vintage-style Chinese chairs flank the Empire limited edition bleached teak root console adding symmetry, and the styling draws the eye horizontally and provides beautiful pause points.

Sonia Simpfendorfer, creative director, Nexus Designs

What is your favourite space?

The heart of the house where laughter, conversation and good food come together is around our big timber dining table, similar to the one in the above photo.

What do you love most about it?

Natural timber and white is a classic combination; either a white table and timber chairs, or the other way around. Mine is a custom American oak and the chairs are Fritz Hansen Series 7.

Best tips for stealing your idea?

I love Setago table lamps by &Tradition. Place anywhere – in a bookshelf, at the dining table at the end of the night, or as your companion light when you’re up late working. When it’s charging it sits at the end of my kitchen bench next to the bottles of oil and makes them glow too!

Sarah Henry, designer, Studio Four

What is your favourite space?

The combined kitchen and dining that features a single timber tabletop spanning both, allowing the family to gather around for individual activities like cooking and studying.

What do you love most about it?

It’s Oregon timber with a soaped finish. It was chosen for its honesty, in grain and colour, as well as its ability to patina over time. Its tactility draws people to it.

Best tips for stealing your idea?

Select materials and building techniques for their simplicity and honesty, and reference existing furniture pieces when purchasing a new item, looking for similar materiality or detailing for cohesiveness.

Lauren Li, creative director, Sisalla Interior Design

What is your favourite space?

My living room. We have moved the furniture around to accommodate a work area for me and for home schooling. I like using the space in a flexible way.

What do you love most about it?

Friday night is movie night, but I don’t like the TV being the room’s focal point, so I stored it within shelving so the focus is on furnishings and books.

Best tips for stealing your idea?

Curtains create instant atmosphere, soften hard surfaces and make a space feel “lived-in”. A living room needs one really comfortable beautiful armchair. It’s a statement piece and anchors the space. I love the European styles at Hub Furniture, House of Orange and Jardan.