We are all competitive when it comes to our homes – whether it be a simple desire to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ or a wish for our interiors choices to win Instagram likes. It’s the latter that we looked to when compiling this edit of the best homes of 2025. From the number one spot – occupied by designer Jase Sullivan’s colourful renovation of a Melbourne townhouse (pictured above) – to a liveable art gallery, an example of ‘joyful minimalism’ and much more besides, these are the spaces that caught your eye and won your praise…
The Melbourne home with ‘an English sensibility’
Designer Jase Sullivan was aware that the clients for this home love to stay at Kit Kemp’s Crosby Street Hotel in New York, and you can see the British designer and hotelier’s influence on the look of this townhouse. ‘Rather than imitating Kit’s design, we saw the way she created atmosphere and depth as a core lesson in layering, which we sought to carry forward,’ explains Sullivan, who has created an interior rich in colour, pattern and bespoke details.
Ceramics are the stars in this home belonging to the founders of Zia Tile
There is also a hospitality link behind the design of this Madrid home. It was its designers Lind + Almonds’ scheme for Hotel Sanders in Copenhagen that attracted this property’s owners, Mike Leflore and Danny Mitchell, to them. This is no carbon copy, though. Instead the design is inspired by the colours of the local Estatua Ecuestre de Carlos III statue and the region’s wrought-iron window balconies as well as, of course, the many tiles on display.
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This Parisian home by Christophe Delcourt builds ‘like a crescendo’
Furniture from the respected designer’s Delcourt Collection and a nuanced materials palette have created an incredibly elegant space that evokes the original spirit of this Haussmannian apartment, but without, as he puts it, ‘the weight of time’. Stained-ash joinery, Ceppo di Sicilia marble, onyx and bronze lighting are enhanced by touches of blue and terracotta. This is a storied home, that’s ready for a new chapter.
The party-ready Richmond pad by Linda Boronkay
Dinner parties with friends, family movie nights in the conversation pit, space for cocktails… this apartment is ready for fun! For the owners, who were both members of Soho House and loved the aesthetic, former design director of Soho House Linda Boronkay was an obvious pick for who to drive this design forward. She pulled colours from a tapestry by Grayson Perry that hangs in the living room and added 1970s touches for a space that’s celebratory and sophisticated.
Remember to always look up in this Berlin home
Designer Fabian Freytag’s first move on beginning work on this property was to turn the façade bright pink. As statements of intent go, it’s a bold one. That initial flourish has been followed, though, by an interior that is just as flamboyant. And the stars of the show? The ceilings! Whether decorated with stripes, diamonds or a starburst pattern they energise ever one of these colour-drenched rooms.
A postmodern home transformed by a joyful take on minimalism
Designed in the 1980s by Piers Gough, famously the postmodern architect behind Janet Street-Porter’s former home, it was this property’s architectural heritage that inspired a geometric approach from designer Sam Buckley. ‘The owners didn’t want too many soft furnishings, because of allergies,’ he explains of the pared-back approach to furniture that is more than made up for by an exuberant exploration of colour and light.
The Regent’s Park home designed as a liveable gallery
Strict planning restrictions meant that changes to this home had to be minimal: no internal layout shifts that would be visible from outside and strictly no touching the original mouldings. What interior design firm Studio Arthur Casas have been able to do, though, is create a neutral and nuanced backdrop for a collection of contemporary art that includes pieces by the likes of Grace Pailthorpe, Mary Martin and Issy Wood. It’s a masterclass in subtle interventions.
‘Simplicity and warmth’ were the watchwords for the reboot of this Madrid home
‘To achieve an aesthetic balance that reflects the desired serenity, we worked with a palette of materials and colours in soft, light tones that contrast with dark finishes and natural textures,’ say the creative minds behind Trenchs Studio when explaining their approach to this aesthetically balanced abode. Designed in the 1980s it was due an update, but this combination of bespoke joinery, architectural interventions and modern art have made it ready for many decades to come.
