Design Anatomy

Buying dining chairs should be fun, but it’s also one of the fastest ways to waste money if you skip the basics. Bree Banfield and Lauren Li, are getting practical about how to choose dining chairs that look great, feel comfortable, and actually work in your home day to day. We start with the brief most people forget to write: who’s sitting there, how long they’ll stay, and what kind of meals happ...

A lot of interiors look “right” and still feel wrong. We’re chasing something harder to name: the feeling of a home that actually belongs to you. That’s why we loved this chat with designer Anna-Carin , who has built a client briefing process around an unexpected tool: music. We talk through her signature question: if your project had a theme song, what would it be? From there, she layers in a pro...

A sofa is never just a sofa. It’s where you crash after work, where friends pile in with a glass of wine, where kids build nests out of cushions, and where the whole room quietly takes its cues. That’s why we’re kicking off a practical “how-to choose” series with the most high-stakes piece in the living room: the sofa.  We start with the question that saves the most money and regret: how do you ac...

Your place can have great bones, beautiful light, cool vintage pieces, and still feel oddly unfinished. That gap between inspiration and reality is where so many people get stuck, and it is exactly what Lauren tackles solo while Bree is off travelling and living her best design life. We talk about the real reasons people book interior design consultations, and why it is rarely about “just picking...

A childhood New York souvenir turns into a full-blown compass, and for Marcus Hay it points straight to a 20 year creative career in the US. We’re talking Manhattan apartments, the magazine years, and what it’s really like to build visual worlds for major lifestyle brands when the industry shifts under your feet. Now Marcus is back in Sydney, living with a view of a park instead of a brick wall, a...

Milan Design Week can look like a never-ending highlight reel, but the real story lives outside the frame. What you don’t get from Instagram is the atmosphere: the scent in a private apartment, the soundscape in an installation, the scale of a palazzo hiding behind an ordinary street door, and the way a space can hit your nervous system in an instant. We’re fresh back from Paris and Milan and read...

You see the finished rooms, the polished captions and the big-name collaborations. What you don’t see is the work that holds it all together. We’re joined by Sacha Strebe, an Australian editor and storyteller who now works behind the scenes as executive director with Athena Calderone to help craft and execute the creative vision for EyeSwoon . Sacha takes us from her Gold Coast journalism days to...

This week, Interior designers Lauren Li and Bree Banfield explore why homes that look beautiful can still feel uncomfortable or frustrating to live in. Many clients come to them not just for aesthetics, but because their spaces create stress, limit connection, or don’t reflect who they are—making the process feel more like “interior design therapy” than simple decorating. They highlight common iss...

A single book can change the way you decorate a room, not by handing you a shopping list, but by sharpening how you see. We’re diving into the design books that have genuinely shaped our interior design practice, from the emotional impact of architecture to the surprisingly personal meaning of colour, art and everyday objects. We start with Alain de Botton’s The Architecture of Happiness and why t...

What if a home could feel calmer, look warmer, and bring you closer to your neighbours—all at once? We sit with interior designer Rebecca Leijer of Leÿer Design Studio to explore design with restraint that still feels generous, and the surprising community benefits of a street‑facing, glass‑fronted home in Torquay. From the first sketch to the final touch, Rebecca shares how simplicity, texture, a...

What if your home could meet you where you are, every day? We sit down with Paris-based designer Cléophée Poli of Cléo Interior Design Studio to explore the psychology of home and why the best interiors are built around how people live, not what’s trending. Cléo’s path from luxury hospitality to interiors sharpened her instincts for service, diplomacy, and solving problems before they start, and s...

Predictions are only fun when they’re a little risky, so we’re putting our names to a future that feels warmer, braver, and far more liveable. We share the moves we’re already testing with clients—laminate countertops that look sharp and wear hard, wide-blade Venetian blinds in fresh powder-coated colours, and coloured stained glass that solves privacy without killing natural light. The goal isn’t...

What happens when you lift a 100-year-old Queenslander, drench a kitchen in deep olive, and build a business around family, community and place? We invited Jana from Studio Isaza to share the gutsy choices behind her coastal move, flood-resilient renovation, and colour-rich design language that feels joyful, lived-in and deeply personal. We start with the sea change: swapping Melbourne’s buzz for...

Feeling overstimulated by screens and underwhelmed by white-on-white rooms? We dive into the real interior shifts shaping 2026 and explain why homes are moving from performative to restorative—spaces built for calm, conversation, and everyday joy. Drawing on years inside the industry, we unpack how cultural mood, technology, and cost-of-living pressures are changing what good design looks and feel...

What if your home looks beautiful but still leaves you flat, restless, or strangely unlucky? We sit down with feng shui master Kelly McCloskey to unpack the practical side of energy at home—how doors, corridors, water, light, and small daily habits shape wellbeing, relationships, and money. Kelly cuts through the gimmicks and myths to explain what classical feng shui actually measures: precise fac...

Ever wonder why some rooms feel irresistible the moment you touch a handle or close a door? We sit down with Gemma from Studio Gemma , the mind behind the Joinery Edit , to explore the tactile side of interiors—where hinges, board sizes and finish choices quietly decide how your home lives every day. It’s a joyful, candid tour through craft and practicality, with a healthy dose of humour and hot t...

The final in our best of Design Anatomy series wraps up today, revisiting some of our most admired, inspirational & popular episodes for you to enjoy over Summer! Bree & Lauren will be back with more amazing guests in late January 2026   Symmetry, structure, warmth, and a sense of materiality that's instantly recognisable – these are the hallmarks of David Hicks' approach to desi...

The best of Design Anatomy series continues today, revisiting some of our most admired, inspirational & popular episodes for you to enjoy over the holiday season! Bree & Lauren will be back with more amazing guests in late January 2026  Renowned designer Sarah Ellison joins us to uncover the vibrant tapestry of her career, from her early experiences at Real Living to the exciting launch of...

Design Anatomy will be releasing a 'Best of' series starting today, revisiting some of our most admired, inspirational & popular episodes for you to enjoy over the holiday season! Bree & Lauren will be back with more amazing guests early 2026 Join us on an insightful journey with the talented designer Brahman Perera as we uncover the past year's highlights in interior design...

Design Anatomy will be releasing a 'Best of' series starting today, revisiting some of our most admired, inspirational & popular episodes for you to enjoy over the holiday season! Bree & Lauren will be back with more amazing guests early 2026 Recorded in front of a live audience from the gorgeous Living Edge showroom here in Melbourne, this special episode celebrates our official...

Design Anatomy will be releasing a 'Best of' series starting today, revisiting some of our most admired, inspirational & popular episodes for you to enjoy over the holiday season!  Bree & Lauren will be back with more amazing guests early 2026 Renowned interior designer Nickolas Gurtler invites us to rethink the concept of luxury in our homes. He shares his unique experiences wor...

A city’s design culture doesn’t thrive by accident—it grows because people make generous choices. We sit down with Manuela “Manny” Millan, founder of 'Meanwhile in Melbourne' , interior designer and design manager at Fortis , to map how one person’s curiosity can lift an entire creative community while shaping more livable homes. Manny takes us from her Colombian roots to early retail an...

The colour world just lit a match and called it neutral. Pantone crowned white as Colour of the Year, and we couldn’t let that pass without a serious debrief. With our friend and designer Jono Fleming , we dig into why a “blank canvas” lands as apathy for many, how politics always sneaks into palettes, and what this choice says about the stories brands tell when the world feels anything but calm....

Your home shouldn’t feel like a decision you regret every time you sit down. Lauren goes solo to unpack the biggest myths that keep spaces cold, hesitant, and half-finished—and shares practical moves that make a room feel welcoming without a renovation. From tackling open plan confusion to choosing colours that turn shadow into mood, this conversation is a clear-eyed guide to building a home that...

What if the secret to better interiors is the same method therapists use to guide change? We sit down with Anouska Milstein of Studio A.mi to unpack a simple framework that reshapes design from the inside out: observe, explain, predict, and then change or improve. It’s a candid, uplifting look at how empathy, psychology, and good systems turn “make it pretty” into “make it personal.” We trace Anou...