The interior design profession in Sydney
The professional practice of interior design took shape over the 20th century. Previously, suggestions about interior design might have come from cabinet-makers, furnishing retailers, antique dealers, or well-to-do amateurs with an eye for ‘good taste’. From the early 20th century, however, the field became formalised through professional associations and the expectation that decorators be trained in design principles.
This shift displaced notions of innate taste – often expressed through the re-creation of historical styles – in favour of a modern understanding of interior design as integrated with architecture and grounded in evidence-based methods. The emphasis moved towards achieving functional outcomes through cohesive, total design schemes.
This trajectory is evident in Sydney, where formal training in interior design was introduced at East Sydney Technical College in the 1930s and the Society for Interior Designers of Australia was established in 1951. Many 20th-century Australian interior designers cultivated public identities that combined the roles of design professional, connoisseur, entrepreneur and social figure.
The Caroline Simpson Library holds a major collection documenting the professional practice of interior design in Sydney. Spanning the mid- to late 20th century, it includes extensive archives of original designs, photos and documents relating to particular designers and firms, alongside trade literature, photographs, drawings and samples that record the processes behind creating interiors.
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How to use the Caroline Simpson Library
You will find items from the Caroline Simpson Library in both our library catalogue and objects catalogue
Interior designer archives
A particular strength of the Caroline Simpson Library Collection is the depth of archival material relating to practising interior decorators and interior designers, offering insight into client relationships, business operations and the development of design schemes. These holdings capture the emergence of interior design as a recognised profession in Australia, including the practices of both European émigrés and home-grown designers.
Marion Hall Best (1905–1988)
Marion Hall Best was one of Australia’s most influential 20th-century interior designers, and a founding member of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia. This collection includes papers, plans, photographs, wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings relating to her illustrious career
Susan Kozma-Orlay (1913–2008)
The archive includes interior design, furniture design and graphic design work by Australian-Hungarian designer Susan Kozma-Orlay and spans her career in Australia from 1947 to the 1990s
Warren Thomas ‘Tom’ Harding (1926–2017)
Tom Harding was an interior designer who worked at Artistry Pty Ltd before founding Decor Associates Pty Ltd with David Lorimer in 1959. The archive includes photographs, documents, drawings and press clippings from the 1950s to the 1980s
David Lorimer (1935–2022)
David Lorimer worked at Artistry Pty Ltd before founding Decor Associates Pty Ltd with Tom Harding in 1959. After Harding’s retirement in 1989, Lorimer continued his interior design work for his own company, Textile Collections. This archive includes photographs, documents and press clippings from the 1960s to the 1980s
Leslie Walford (1927–2012)
For nearly 50 years Leslie Walford was one of Sydney’s most successful interior designers, the decorator of choice for the city’s social elite and a leading figure in the Society of Interior Designers of Australia. Museums of History NSW is currently in the process of cataloguing an archive of Walford’s papers
Robert Lloyd (1927–2013) of Tinker Tailor Interiors
The Caroline Simpson Library holds an important collection of furnishing fabrics, loose covers, curtains, blinds, valances, cushion covers and wallpaper provenanced to Tinker Tailor Interiors. Robert Lloyd joined Tinker Tailor Interiors in 1953 (having met founder Miss Del Agnew while working for competitor Merle du Boulay) and continued his association with Agnew until her death in 1992
![Barry Little, interior designer, collection : comprising photographs and scrapbook [personal papers]](https://api.mhnsw.au/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.mhnsw.au%2Ffotoweb%2Fembed%2F2026%2F04%2F52882bf17d174a05912eba995e74960f.jpg&w=1920&h=400&fit=inside&format=webp)
Barry Little (1930–2019)
An archive of material related to the career of Sydney-based interior designer Barry Little, who worked for and then acquired Stuart-Low Furniture Studios. The archive includes photographs and scrapbook cuttings
Diana Luxton (b1935)
Diana Luxton Messara’s career as an interior designer spanned private practice, major public commissions, and senior roles within the NSW Department of Public Works from the 1960s to the 1990s. This archive relates to her involvement in designing the interiors at the Sydney Opera House and other public buildings across NSW
Society of Interior Designers of Australia (SIDA) material
SIDA was a professional body founded in 1951 to represent the interests of interior designers in Australia. It promoted interior design to the public and set professional standards. The Caroline Simpson Library holds official documents, minutes of meetings, correspondence, membership lists, financial information and exhibition booklets relating to the operation of SIDA, as well as 28 oral histories with former SIDA members.
Society of Interior Designers of Australia
A small group of interior designers first met in December 1950 at the Woollahra home of Marion Hall Best to form a society to raise the standard of interior design in Australia
![Marion Best Pty Ltd: 'A room for Mr. Peter Sculthorpe' by designers Marion Hall Best and Deirdre Broughton, [Rooms on View 1971]](https://api.mhnsw.au/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.mhnsw.au%2Ffotoweb%2Fembed%2F2026%2F04%2F00eadc8994bc4004b51788d611a97159.jpg&w=1920&h=400&fit=inside&format=webp)
Video resources
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The Caroline Simpson Library holds several student workbooks documenting studies with Phyllis Shillito at East Sydney Technical College or Shillito Design School. The collection also includes oral histories from students who studied with Shillito.
Helen Jean Burgess (1926–2018)
Arts and crafts teacher Helen Jean Burgess undertook a diploma in design and crafts at Sydney Technical College, East Sydney, from 1943 to 1947. This collection of design, drawings, workbooks and photographs relates to her work during the five-year course
Vivienne Chaffer (b1934)
Vivienne Chaffer engaged in a two-year design course at Sydney Technical College, East Sydney, in 1951–52. This workbook comprises her student notes and designs, divided into the subjects colour, history of styles and history of furniture
Mardi McElvenny
These workbooks comprise the student course notes and designs of Mardi McElvenny while engaged in a three-year course at the Shillito Design School, Sydney, 1965–67. The content of the workbooks reflects the teaching practice of Phyllis Shillito
Yvette Matthews
Yvette Matthews’s workbooks include her student notes and designs while engaged in a three-year course at the Shillito Design School, Sydney, 1975–77
Eva Fay
A collection of the exercises, projects, sketches, working drawings and designs, and colour theory exercises and projects of student Eva Fay from a three-year full-time design course at the Shillito Design School, Sydney, 1976–78
Past exhibitions
Past exhibition
Queering the interior: London, New York, Sydney, 1882–1929
An exploration of the creative worlds and design practices of figures from queer history
Tuesday 21 February
Past exhibition
Lyon, Cottier & Co: 19th Century Decorators
For around fifty years, Lyon, Cottier & Co decorated the finest public buildings, private houses and churches
Tuesday 11 January
Past exhibition
The Modern Bathroom
Early 20th century baths, basins and toilets were traditionally finished in ‘hygienic’ white, but the new ‘moderne’ style of the 1930s featured colour enamelling of bathroom fixtures and fittings
Wednesday 6 November
Past exhibition
Ronaele Jones: an 'invisible designer'
Ronaele Jones (1945–2010) was an Australian designer and colourist of commercially produced printed furnishing textiles and wall coverings
Thursday 16 August
Past exhibition
Sekers Fabrics: ‘Australian Artists Originals’
In January 1963, Sydney-based firm Sekers Fabrics launched ‘Australian Artists Originals’, a range of furnishing textiles, at the ‘Art in décor’ exhibition at the Dominion Art Gallery
Thursday 22 March
Past exhibition
Interior design training in Sydney in the 1940s
Helen Jean Burgess began a design and interior decoration course in 1943. Her training included rendering domestic and commercial interiors in watercolours
Tuesday 24 October
Past exhibition
Nature as ornament in applied arts
From the mid-19th century, European pattern books offered instruction in decorative drawing and proposed arrangements of form and colour to be used in applying ornament
Thursday 5 March
Past exhibition
The Moderns: European Designers in Sydney
The Moderns: European Designers in Sydney at Museum of Sydney, explores a forgotten aspect of Australian modernism, highlighting the direct connections between Sydney and the European design centres of Vienna, Berlin and Budapest
More interior design stories from the collection
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European designers in Sydney
This exhibition took a timely look at European designers in Sydney in the postwar years: their backgrounds, their Australian careers and their legacy
![The home [periodical]](https://api.mhnsw.au/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.mhnsw.au%2Ffotoweb%2Fembed%2F2026%2F05%2F56d1ebf4f64c4452a4f6ecdc1ae823e7.jpg&w=1920&h=400&fit=inside&format=webp)
The mysterious O.S.B.
One item in the Caroline Simpson Library Collection has been capturing our attention recently: a beautifully illustrated catalogue of electric light fittings, identified only by a mysterious insignia on the cover – the initials ‘O.S.B.’
More from the Caroline Simpson Library catalogue
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Periodical: Interior Design
Interior Design magazine was published with the endorsement of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia. The Caroline Simpson Library holds issues from 1985 to 1989, as well as issues of successor publications Interior Architecture and Design (1989) and Interior Architecture (1989–92)
Journal article: The historical literature of Australian domestic interior design 1945–75
This article by Dr Catriona Quinn surveys the formation of the historiography of Australian domestic interior design and decoration from 1945 to 1975. It aims to understand the inclusions and omissions of Australian interior design history, indicate their possible causes and propose methods for re-evaluation
Sample book: Florence Broadhurst hand-printed collection
Florence Broadhurst was a significant designer and manufacturer of wallpaper in late-20th-century Australia. The Caroline Simpson Library holds several sample books of Broadhurst wallpapers, including this one from around 1970, alongside a range of sample books from other furnishing designers and manufacturers