Each year, our followers (you!) tell us what you like (and don't like) in interiors by responding to our Instagram posts. Some houses are timeless classics, which stay perennially popular, while other images reflect the changing tastes and trends of the year. As 2023 draws to a close, we've gathered the ten most-liked new posts of the year, to delve a little further into what you like, and the lessons we can learn from these most desirable of spaces.
A scenic wallpaper by Henri Fitzwilliam-Lay
This 1930s Georgian-style house with interiors by Henri Fitzwilliam-Lay won our Project of the Year Award in 2023, and its interiors were correspondingly popular on Instagram. The best-loved of the spaces was this glorious landing-cum-library, where the walls are covered in ‘D Rajput Fantasy’ paper by digital specialist Iksel Decorative Arts. Scenes of palm trees, tigers and elephants sweep up the walls and around the stairs and the windows – surely an enticement to read for any child. In fact, we've seen a number of scenic wallpapers this year, and we're enamoured with their fantastical, transportive properties; they allow you to feel like you're in another world while staying comfortably at home. They may not be the most affordable way to decorate, but done well, they're well worth the investment.
A smart city bathroom by Benni Frowein of Schumacher
Benni Frowein is CEO of the Europe and Middle East arm of American heritage fabric house F Schumacher & Co, and when he moved to London, he set about transforming his new Victorian flat into a showcase for the best of contemporary and vintage design. Unusually, it was the bathroom of the flat that got you going, and we must admit it's a very sophisticated space, with clean white walls and tiles enlivened by patterned fabrics. Pale tiles from Mandarin Stone and a freestanding bath from Lusso are the basis for the room, but it is all wonderfully warmed by the custom vanity unit in cappuccino onyx, a tapestry from the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre in Cairo and a blind in Schumacher's Maxwell cotton. It's a masterclass in how to take a clean and hygienic bathroom and make it feel like a proper, decorated room.
A sky blue hallway by Kate Guinness
Hallways are often difficult spaces to decorate, and yet as the first places that visitors see, they set the tone for a house. This one in a Kensington house by Kate Guinness is painted in a glorious sky blue, Pure & Original's ‘Blue Reef, and it was one of several popular rooms in similar hues we saw this year, leading us to proclaim sky blue as the colour of spring 2023. Of course, it's an utterly classic shade, and will look beautiful well beyond any passing trends. It's a colour that works beautifully well with pinks and reds, and Kate has added a striped rug in those colours to the hallway to warm things up.
A(nother) sky blue hallway by Rachel Chudley
Pressing the point home is this deeply elegant sky blue space in an east London house by Rachel Chudley. Rachel developed the bespoke paint colour with New York colour consultant Donald Kaufman and it now forms part of the Rachel Chudley Colour Studio range. This colour makes a great combination with the oak parquet floor, and we particularly love the trim she has used on the walls, the ‘Greek Key Border’ in grey from Adelphi Paper Hangings.
The hallway of Sally Wilkinson's rented London flat
The combination of white walls and layered patterns and colours is one we always love (cf. Benni Frowein's bathroom, above), and that's fortunate since it's often the only option in a rented flat. American designer Sally Wilkinson gives a lesson in how to do it well in her own London flat, which was a blank canvas when she arrived. Sally has used a palette of olive green, yellow and blue in the textiles, accessories and the artworks that give the flat its warmth and texture. Sally has used plates, wicker baskets, slipcovered chairs, and seagrass flooring to bring life to the blank canvas, and the resulting interior feels like it's been there forever. ‘I didn’t want to take it so seriously, but to buy things I liked and see how it mixed together,’ says Sally.
A Victorian hallway by Maddux Creative
This unusual gothic revival house in north London has been expertly restored to its full glory by Maddux Creative, who incorporated plenty of detail that would have made sense at the time of its building in 1879. This hallway proved a popular image, perhaps because of that soothing combination of blue grey with the rich brown of the parquet. The staircase was once whitewashed, but has now been stripped of its paint and adorned with a bespoke Le Manach runner from Pierre Frey. We love the Arts & Crafts patterns in the space: Farrow & Ball’s ‘Castle Gray’ on the lower part of the walls is the perfect complement for Watts 1874’s ‘Pineapple’ wallpaper in castle grey.
A burgundy snug by Emma Burns
Burgundy has definitely been having a moment this year, and this beautifully tonal room in a Wimbledon apartment designed by Emma Burns is our favourite example (and yours, it seems). The walls are painted in ‘Baked Cherry’ by Little Greene and a sofa bed in an even deeper shade of burgundy provides a touch of contrast without interrupting the colour. It's a perfect recommendation, should you need one, to go bold with rich colour in at least one room of your house. ‘Strong colours can look very daunting surrounded by white on a colour chart, but they bring drama and excitement to a scheme and actually, they can make a space feel bigger because they blur the edges of the room,’ Emma explains, adding, ‘If you have a dark room paint it a dark colour. You’ll never make it light but you can make it glamorous and interesting.’
John Stefanidis' house on Patmos
The idea of a comfortable house on a Greek island is appealing for obvious reasons, but this one on Patmos, the longtime home of designer John Stefanidis, has particularly captured our readers' imaginations. ‘I was careful to leave as much as was possible of the old existing vernacular architecture intact,' says John. ‘New furniture was made on the island to complement traditional antiques, introducing traditional Ottoman themes that had once been indigenous to the Dodecanese.’ This bedroom, with its pale green shutters, red and white upholstery and informally displayed paintings, is another proof that a simple white backdrop with plenty of colour layered on top will always be a winning aesthetic.
Sean Pritchard's cottage decorated for Christmas
When we visited Sean Pritchard's 17th-century cottage in Somerset for Christmas this year, we knew his approach to decoration (inspired by Eastern European folk ribbon skirts) would delight our readers. Sean has a definite more-is-more aesthetic, and it's one we're keen to emulate. Things have a 'frenzied energy' here: pictures hang wonkily, half read books lie scattered, and cut flowers are merrily dashed along every available surface. 'I’m not bothered about anything being too manicured or designed,' says Sean. 'I like the feel of this cottage, where things are jostling for space and it’s all a bit chaotic.' It's a good reminder not to take our interiors too seriously, and to collect things you love in the expectation that they will all rub along happily together, as long as you like them.
A spare room box bed by Veere Grenney
The last year has seen a healthy crop of box beds appear on the pages of House & Garden, and we've written about their many virtues: this one by Veere Grenney has to be a favourite. It's just one of the many charming rooms in a London pied-à-terre he has decorated, and there's plenty to take away from it. The panelled walls painted in a deep olive make it feel like a ship's cabin, and the lantern lighting only adds to that effect. We love that there's a small reading light at head height, and also that there is a nook for books built in to the wall. And of course, the curtains (made up in ‘Blenheim’ by Michael Smith) are highly luxurious. If you have a small spare bedroom, make this your next project.
