Benefits of Hiring An Interior Designer and Interior Architect
Have you thought about the key benefits of hiring an interior designer and an interior architect? If you want to transform your space, create functional beauty, and increase your property value, then hiring a design studio that specialises in both interior design AND interior architecture will be the perfect option. But why?
Modern Brutalism: Create Bold Decor That’s Surprisingly Achievable
Brutalism, a bold and raw architectural style that emerged in the mid-20th century, is characterized by its unapologetic use of concrete, steel, and an almost monolithic aesthetic. This style, often misunderstood as cold and uninviting, can be transformed into a stunning and comfortable living space with a modern twist. Here’s how.
How Authentic Style Will Elevate Your Home Decor
Understanding and identifying your authentic interior design style can feel like navigating a maze, but it’s a journey worth taking.
Your home should be a reflection of you; a space where your personality, preferences, and lifestyle shine through. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you uncover your authentic style and transform your home into a true sanctuary.
The Lust-Worthy Art of Luxury Design: Creating a Luxurious Home with Dark and Moody Colours
You’ll love creating a luxurious home with dark colours! Dark colours have long been misunderstood in the realm of home design.
Too often, they’re seen as sombre, drab, or even oppressive. However, when used correctly, dark hues will infuse a home with elegance, luxury, and a sense of dramatic sophistication. Let's explore how you can transform your living spaces with rich, dark colours, creating a stunningly chic and inviting atmosphere.
How I Accidentally Built the Career I Was Always Supposed to Have
The one where a girl who mapped entire towns on brown paper finally figured out she was an interior architect all along.
How Did Plush Design Interiors Start?
There's a concept in astrology called the Lion's Gateway — a cosmic alignment that opens a portal of energy, clarity, and manifestation. You walk through it changed. You walk through it knowing.
Mine happened in a kitchen in the Adelaide Hills, in front of a whiteboard covered in what appeared to be the ravings of a highly caffeinated, slightly maniacal woman who had finally — finally — stopped lying to herself.
That woman was me. That moment was everything.
But let's back up. Because a good origin story, like a good room, doesn't work without its foundation. So, who is Penelope Herbert interior designer + interior architect?
There’s A New Room Replacing The Kitchen. It’s A Borðstofa!
In Iceland, the word Borðstofa refers to the dining area of a home — specifically, the idea that this space is where the household truly gathers. Not the kitchen, with its noise and heat and perpetual motion. The dining room: slower, more deliberate, designed for the pleasure of being together rather than the efficiency of getting food on the table.
Australian homes have been obsessed with the kitchen for thirty years. Open-plan living gave us kitchen islands the size of aircraft carriers and benchtops that cost more than the family car. But something is shifting. The dining room — properly designed, properly considered — is reclaiming its place as the room where life actually happens.
The Reading: Find Your Interior Design Archetype in Three Minutes
The Reading is a free, three-minute diagnostic quiz created by Plush Design Interiors that identifies your interior design archetype — the underlying personality driving every room you love, every pin you save, and every safe beige decision you've immediately regretted.
It's built on three behavioural axes (Restraint ↔ Abundance, Meaning ↔ Sensation, Rooted ↔ Roaming) and maps your answers to one of eight archetypes.
Unlike style quizzes that assign you a trend label, The Reading identifies a psychological position — one that doesn't expire when the algorithm moves on.
Who Are You Really Designing Your Home For?
Somewhere along the way, “timeless” became code for “please don’t notice me”. People were sold the lie that a safe, all-neutral home is the only path to good taste and future resale. The result is a plague of white-on-white kitchens, oatmeal sofas, pale timber everything, and not a single shimmering risk in sight.
Adopt This White Paint Guide; Your Walls Really Need It!
In this white paint guide, we'll delve into the nuanced world of white paint, exploring the differences between various shades, how to test them on your walls, what to watch out for, and ultimately, how to select the perfect white paint for your home.
We demystify white paint and help you find the perfect shade for your home renovation. Adopt this white paint guide; your walls really need it!
White paint may seem like a straightforward choice for your walls, but any experienced interior designer will tell you that not all whites are created equal. The subtle nuances in undertones and finishes can drastically alter the mood and aesthetic of a room.
The Free E-Book That Will Change How You Use Colour in Your Home (Not Just on Your Walls)
When you walk through your front door, do you feel something? Or do you feel… nothing? The interior design equivalent of a firm handshake. If that's your home right now, I wrote ‘Colour Without Apology’ for you.
Colour Without Apology is my free, complete colour guide — and I want to be clear about something from the start. This isn't just a paint guide.
Room Decorating Ideas for Small Versus Big
When it comes to room decorating ideas, most people want to know how to make a space appear either bigger or smaller. That's the way of the world so I've got a few tricks up my sleeve for you.
Successful decorating often revolves around trying to trick the eye. This includes visually manipulating the size of rooms and to hide architectural features or perceived defects.
Why We Love Living Room Fusion… and You Should Too
Living room fusion is what happens when you stop apologising for having more than one taste. Hollywood Glam and Art Deco in the same room? Absolutely. Southern California ease layered with ornate antiques? Why not. The design world will tell you to "pick a style and commit" — which is useful advice if your personality fits neatly into one box and wildly unhelpful if you're a more interesting person than that.
The Biggest Interior Design Mistake You Don’t Even Realise You’re Making
Your home is not a waiting room for the life you're planning to live one day. It's not a showroom for buyers who might come along in seven years. It's not a safe, inoffensive backdrop designed to offend nobody and delight nobody in equal measure.
It's where you live. Right now. Today. And it should feel like the most honest room in your life — the one place where nobody else's opinion gets a vote.
The biggest design mistake is choosing everything from fear. The fix is choosing one thing — just one thing — from joy instead. Start there. See what happens.
Can We Finally Stop Decorating for Instagram? Why Your Home Isn't a Photo Shoot
There was a time when homes were designed for families. Now they seem to be designed for wide-angle lenses.
Don't get me wrong—I adore beautiful interiors. I'm an interior architect. Beautiful is literally my business.
But somewhere between perfectly edited reels and impossibly pristine kitchens, we've quietly started confusing good design with good content.
They're not the same thing. A photograph captures one perfect second. A home has to survive every other one. The perfectly styled home might be getting all the likes—but is it getting any actual living done?
Your House Isn't a Gender Reveal Party (And Great Design Never Plays by the Rules)
The rooms that stop people in their tracks are never the ones where everything matched. They're the rooms where something unexpected happened — where someone made a choice that shouldn't have worked and committed to it so completely that it absolutely did.
The rough plaster wall in the otherwise polished apartment. The Victorian chaise in the mid-century living room. The deeply saturated ceiling in the otherwise pale space. The antique in the renovation.
Tension isn't a risk. Tension is the point.
Your home is allowed to be complicated. So are you.
No-Vanilla Archetypes: Why Your Home Has a Personality, Not Just a Style
For years, the design world has sold you styles — Hamptons, Japandi, Mid-Century, Coastal, that one with all the boucle — as though your home were a costume you choose off a rack. Pick a look. Copy the look. Hope the look still feels like you in eighteen months when the algorithm has moved on and your "warm minimalist" lounge suddenly reads as a dental waiting room.
A style tells you what to buy. It never tells you who you are in a room. And that, my darlings, is the entire problem. So I built something better. Meet the No-Vanilla Archetypes.
Designer-Approved Colour Confidence. How To Use Colour Without Ruining Your Home
Beige didn't ruin your home. Fear did. Learn how to decorate with colour confidently using designer-approved strategies, bold Australian homewares, statement rugs, lighting and paint ideas.
Tips for Creating A More Luxurious Bedroom
A more luxurious bedroom may not make you sleep better, but it will make you feel better abut being awake. A luxury bedroom is only a few designer tips away. Intimate and highly personal, your bedroom is the perfect sanctuary for luxurious and relaxing touches. However, a more luxurious bedroom should be personal, restful and functional. No matter the size of your bedroom, try these interior design tips for a luxe look.
The Calm Beauty of Minimalism. How To Add A New Level With Asian Influences.
When it comes to interior design, minimalism has been a popular trend for some time now. However, for those who find pure minimalism a tad too dull, there's a brilliant way to take it up a notch - by incorporating the elegance of Asian influences into your minimalist decor.
How To Add Value by Designing Bedrooms The Right Way
Designing bedrooms was originally only to create functional spaces – a place for sleeping and changing clothes. They were often tucked away in corners with minimal consideration for sunlight or panoramic views. Now, times have truly changed. This post details how to design bedrooms that add real value — from timeless adult retreats to flexible kids' rooms that grow with them.
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