As I finished reading the last words of Worry Doll by Laura McPhee-Browne, my mind conjured a classic Joan Didion quote. Often, it’s used to inspire storytelling, but it also has a darker manipulative connotation, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” A clever, mind-bending read, Worry Doll questions obsession, dismissal, love and completely shakes up objective reality. It shouts: there are two sides to every story. 

Published by Scribe

Cover art by Allison Colpoys

An overlooked benefit of engaging interior designers is that their process can unearth a client’s idiosyncratic taste and confidence in it; the key to unlocking spaces that earn true attachment. Home to six in Sydney, Golden Light by Arent&Pyke exemplifies this while inviting fun into formal spaces and ingraining legacy.

Photography by Anson Smart

Styling by Jack Milenkovic

Softly lit, patterned and playful, a craft-focused renovation translates a beautiful home into a genuine kin-keeper.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Lillie Thompson

Lady Justice stands with sword, scales and a blindfold. She’s an ethical beacon coded into the functional aesthetics behind Studio Tate’s design of Gordon Legal’s new Melbourne office.

Photography by Tom Blachford

Blurred around the edges with the fantastical questioning reality and interrupting everyday settings, this small, powerful book feels both light and compelling to read. It is propelled between humour and tension until a baked-in tenuousness surfaces, unsettlingly.

This translation, by Jordan Stump, published by Penguin Random House LLC. (2026)

Cover design by Fran Hambling

With a design driven by place, personality and innate curiosity, this Parisian penthouse sculpts the geometries of several apartments into one home, an art collector’s haven.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Florian Tout

LC Atelier founder Lucrezia Calvi’s design ethos is built around the word ‘atelier’—with Old French etymological roots conjuring the wood shavings or ‘astele’ of a carpenter or artist’s workshop. As Calvi attests, ateliers are “a space where visions are cut, stitched and composed.” It’s no surprise then that this craft-oriented sentiment underscores her renovation of a 1960s Milanese apartment.

The story of Sant’Ambrogio by LC Atelier for estliving.com

With the client prioritising a home connected to the mature trees on site, appreciating its tranquil interior experience, starts with understanding a design strategy driven by multifaceted indoor connection to the outdoors.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Luis Garvan

In southern France, a Haussmann-style apartment’s renovation draws back its curtains to reveal handcrafted tactility, composed through scenography and dosed with art.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Adel Slimane Fecih

Pictured: A custom, Antes-designed timber desk and a vintage chair are bathed in the original stained-glass window’s glow. Bespoke shelving holds glass and metal candleholders by Capucine Guhur beneath a vintage artwork. Longo Peinture three-toned waxed concrete flooring’s is cool and textural underfoot.

Gentle curves chart a bridge between the heritage codes of this Federation Arts and Crafts-style home and its contemporary proportions.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Anson Smart

A paragon of collectible design, Palladium celebrates the materials and objects we gravitate to and how, with time, they distinctively characterise home.

My Space for estliving.com

Photography by Timothy Kaye

Full of life and fielding light, this Mediterranean-inspired home is etched with charismatic ease by an oft-overlooked ingredient: restraint.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Sean Fennessy

Design by Shareen Joel and Joyce Architects

An 1870s Parisian apartment renovation pairs Art Deco and 1970s detailing with graceful volumes, creating spaces capable of committing travel’s ephemeral moments to enduring memory.

Design Destination for estliving.com

Photography by Ludovic Balay

Veiled behind tessellated breeze blocks, this inward-facing home holds a quietude, where material purity sees sculptural marble and natural grains unfurl like dunes.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Timothy Kaye

Adaptive and pulsing in constant motion, Woods Bagot’s new Sydney studio embodies purpose-built precision for the ever-evolving business.

Project feature for Interiors Au

Photography by Trevor Mein

Interlacing Victorian traces with a modern extension, Corsa House unites a patchwork of design histories within one charismatic setting.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Lillie Thompson

The layered dimensions of Madelyn McKenzie’s intensely coiled ceramic works morph sculptural clay into dynamic installations. There’s a humility at the heart of McKenzie’s non-prescriptive practice. She is careful not to pigeonhole her own pieces and reconfiguration is all part of the plan.

Profile for InteriorsAU

Photography Janelle Low

Deftly mosaicked, Emerald House layers hallmarks of Victorian heritage with artistic verve in a dynamic design befitting a gem.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Anson Smart

Framing misty Mount Wellington vistas, this renovation channels a natural light show, tracing dawn to dusk across textural materials.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Lillie Thompson

Swathes of concentrated materials transform this Stockholm apartment into a series of sculptural settings.

Home Tour for estliving.com

Photography by Erik Lefvander