The two furniture pieces Interior Designers can’t live without

Building, decorating or renovating your home calls for compromises across the board. Decisions come down to the wire as you juggle the budget and weigh up what to include, what to save on and when to splurge.

Miffy English of ELC Architecture and Interior Design is all for a beautiful floor rug. “It can transform your room entirely through size and texture, sitting peacefully with your other furniture, or can be a real statement piece through the use of pattern or colour,” she says.

“A beautiful floor rug brings a space together. It says a lot about your personality and your home.”

Miffy English ELC Architecture and Interior Design

“Rugs are perfect for large open spaces, because they help with sound absorption, especially with lots of hard surfaces and they can zone the space well instead of furniture looking lost!"

"Equally, they are also great for areas such as hallways or entries that might sometimes be too small for furniture so can be great way of adding interest,” Miffy suggests.

Great dining chairs are Miffy’s other must-have item. “The MDF Italia 'Flow' Chair is definitely one of my favourites,” she says. “Classic, beautiful design and super comfortable - if you're entertaining and spending hours at a dining table, you need to be comfortable and the Flow chair ticks all the boxes.”

“I love that there are so many options to choose from too, so you can almost customise it to suit your needs. Personally, I can’t go past the central leg with and upholstered shell. It's perfect!”

“I love spaces that make you want to linger, that are both interesting and comfortable at the same time,” says Interior Designer Anna Spiro, who cannot live without her custom-upholstered English roll-arm sofa with feather down seats, “And a fabulous piece of art hung above,” she says.

Anna’s own home in the Birkdale Guest House is a lesson in how to use colour in the home. Her skill with pattern-on-pattern combines here to demonstrate both her favourite pieces to great effect.

For someone with her finger on the pulse and in as many interior design pies as Bree Leech, who runs a creative consultancy based in Melbourne, lighting is key in any space. “Perfect sculptural lighting forms that look beautiful on and off are a must have,” says Bree.

The Arancini light by Moda is a stunning example, as seen here in the Dulux Colour Trends 2018 'Reflect' palette. 

Bree's other must-have for a space? “Comfortable yet cool sofas that make a statement while being functional,” she says. Seen here is the Arflex Arcolor Sofa by Jaimie Hayon from Poliform.

You might also like:

Hottest interior design predictions for 2018

Office habits of an interior designer

10 questions to ask an interior designer