By Bed Threads Interiors 05.09.2026

The Best Decorating Advice We’ve Gathered From Nine Years of Home Tours

Explore the clever and creative ideas we’ve discovered inside some of our favourite homes.

Bed Threads is turning nine! Over the years we’ve been let into more than two hundred homes all over the world – rentals, off-grid builds, first flats, heritage houses – and asked their owners for their stories and advice.

There’s no perfect home, only the perfect home for you. This sounds generous but can also be frustrating, because sometimes you don’t know where to start, or how to get to know your own taste… or only discover it after spending three-thousand dollars on the wrong sofa.

So, we’ve put together a collection of what we've learned from some incredible Makers who've let us into their homes and lent us their insights over the years.

1. Buy It Because You Love It

This sounds obvious, but few people trust their instincts here.

Interior designer Tali Roth moved her family from New York to Melbourne and furnished the entire house with what she already owned. Her travertine coffee table looked as good in Caulfield North as it had in a Manhattan loft, which is rather the point: 'I buy pieces I love rather than purchasing pieces just because they look good with something in my home or fit a particular space.'

Your taste is about you, so you can furnish any place, rather than having the space dictate to you what that should look like.

2. Yes, Even in a Rental

A landlord is a person you are not obliged to consult about curtains.

Web designer Puno Puno's husband Daniel cut new kitchen cabinet doors from fibreboard using the old ones as templates, and they laminated over the dark wood island.

Alyssa Coscarelli removed the closet doors in her Brooklyn rental and hung curtains between rooms instead. She is similarly unmoved on the subject of lighting, 'I don't want your average landlord-special lighting.'

Neither of them own their spaces but were able to change the look and experience of them entirely. Puno's kitchen comes back out when she goes – 'It's all removable whenever we decide to leave!'

The advice being that you don’t need to own your place, to own your space.

3. There’s No Finish Line

Lia Townsend had been renovating her Inner West apartment for years. 'I have learnt the lesson of patience and to let the space evolve naturally rather than doing everything when you first move in.'

Sarah Corbett-Winder spent a year finding her London terrace and another waiting on planning permission, and reflects on that delay as a blessing for the whole project.

Those who went fast make the point just as well. Sydney architect Steph Ottavio finished her Queen Anne house in Summer Hill in six months, timed against her daughter's due date – and is already reconfiguring it. Pandora Sykes styled a whole London terrace in two months, turbo-nesting without a moodboard, armed with a colour she'd chosen for each room. Later, she revisited things: 'I have since gone back and edited, and done quite a few more details a bit more thoughtfully; so it's more of an ongoing process, which feels healthier.'

So there's no ribbon-cutting, no final coat, no afternoon where the dining table arrangement suddenly becomes correct forever. Which means the pressure you're feeling to get it done is something you can let go.

4. Rearrange Before You Buy

Former Miss Universe Australia, Olivia Molly Rogers, has the most accessible tip in our archive: move the furniture. 'Changing up the arrangement of a room can make the space feel completely different and new.'

Sarah agrees – 'You listen, you react, it's a constant work in progress. I'm always rearranging, and I love it.' She painted her office a blue called Livid, decided it was cold and unwelcoming, and painted over it. It can be as simple as that, after all, paint is not a tattoo, and unless you’ve welded your furniture to the floor, you’ve got options.

5. Pinterest Isn't the Answer

Sarah, the London stylist behind the suiting label Kipper, is candid about a flat she and her husband had in Shepherd's Bush, decorated more or less entirely off Pinterest. 'Everything was blue and geometric, and we loved it at the time. Two months later, we hated it – we'd seen it everywhere.' When they moved, she asked a question she couldn’t outsource for an answer: what are we about, as a family?

Steph went further (literally) and got on a plane. 'If you type Japandi into Pinterest, you'll see a whole lot of beige, whites, super simple rooms.' She and her husband toured Scandinavia and Japan before making decisions about their house. 'But that trip changed how I think. My house is a lot moodier, it's got earthy tones, browns and richness.'

Nobody's coming for your boards! Pinterest is genuinely good at showing you new things. It’s also good at showing you the same thing three hundred times; at what point do you stop gathering inspiration and make some decisions?

6. In With the New – And in With the Old!

Broadly speaking, the consensus is to mix the old with the new. The trouble people run into here is knowing how to get these things to go together.

'I wanted our home to be a mixture of new and vintage pieces, with objects we have collected both locally and on our travels mixed through,' says designer Talisa Sutton, of her Sydney apartment – 'without feeling too stark or gallery-like.'

Chillhouse founder Cyndi Ramirez runs a mid-century edge against eighties chrome. Georgie McCourt layers heritage patterns and contemporary pieces onto classic country foundations. Interior stylist Kerrie-Ann Jones mixes structural aesthetics – oak flooring, black steel-framed doors, marble herringbone in the bathrooms.

There’s no golden ratio for new to old, as the advice stands: the things you like will come together, because what they have in common is you.

7. Go Second-Hand

Cyndi says this emphatically: 'Shop vintage! Get unique objects from local artisans. They're great conversation starters.'

Georgie McCourt, Editor-in-Chief of marie claire Australia, sources almost everything from auction houses or Facebook Marketplace.

This is the most frequently given advice over the years. Exploring your options and experimenting with designing your space doesn’t require a bottomless wallet; and changing your mind can be cheap. Plus you’d be contributing to a locally maintained economy.

8. Every Piece Should Have a Story

Your walls can talk, actually. India Cardona’s art selection process: 'Some are investment pieces, others are framed menus or newspaper clippings. I love the mix.'

Designer Talisa Sutton says, 'Our artwork are our most cherished pieces, as each tells a story and reminds us of a particular time in our life.'Designer and artist Evi O owns barely any furniture and relies on art to do the whole job of expressing herself in her space.

Buying a piece of art to hang on the wall because it goes with the furniture, reduces the art to mere wallpaper. When it comes to hanging art, or placing it around your home, the advice skews more ‘life-story’ and less ‘gallery’. You live there, after all.

9. Let It Be Lived In

A room maintained for visitors is not a room. It is a lobby. 'I wanted us to live in every room,' says Sarah. 'I hate the idea of a smart room or somewhere the kids can't touch.' Steph, with a baby in the house: 'It's not cluttered if it's a space that's designed for play.' Lia has gone neutral with removable covers and wipeable bench seats.

None of these are design concessions, they’re the simple reality of everyday living. Easy to lose sight of when you’re trying to curate anything, especially if you get stuck, get tunnel-vision or worry that you need to get everything perfect and thus end up levitating around your house, unable to interact with anything.

Georgie McCourt has sold a few houses over the years and reports that once the furniture and the family go, the soul of the place goes with them. 'Home is the people who are in it.'