
Melissa Penfold Releases Natural Living by Design
Design expert Melissa Penfold harnesses her know-how in a new book, Natural Living by Design, a visual paean to interiors and architecture that elevate our physical and emotional wellbeing.
Acclaimed for the bestselling book Living Well by Design, style and design expert Melissa Penfold empowers readers by prioritising design that embraces quality of life. Now, she’s written a new tome, Natural Living by Design, which aims to help both enhance the liveability of a home as well as its residents’ health and happiness, with a particularly focus on sustainability. “The common thread running through every chapter and photo in the book is design that simultaneously improves your quality of life and ameliorates the effects of climate change,” says Penfold.
Across more than 200 pages, Natural Living by Design’s vibrant and captivating photography, hand-picked by Penfold, showcases homes by leading architects, designers and tastemakers including Peter Marino, Giorgio Armani, Tory Burch, Kit Kemp, Steven Gambrel, Veere Grenney, Victoria Hagan, Bunny Williams and Daniel Romualdez.
Natural Living by Design features projects that traverse the globe, revealing organic, clean-lined, nature-filled and deeply inviting interiors in locations such as Mexico, Tangier, Aspen, New York, Paris, Provence, The Hamptons and, of course, Australia. These spaces range from a light-filled Sydney living room to the rural splendour of a Mallorcan farmhouse kitchen; an airy, white-panelled Palm Beach living room to the stone-flagged terrace of an 18th-century former dairy in Dorset; a magnificently refurbished century-old cowshed near Madrid to a three-storey Italianate villa overlooking the shores of Mälaren lake near Stockholm.
Individual aspects of life-enhancing eco-design are highlighted in chapters called Ease, Flow, Light, Nature, Timelessness and Awe. Penfold shows how to enhance light, harness materials formed from nature, frame rooms and outdoor spaces with native plants, and employ colours that buoy, soothe, stimulate and boost mood, creativity and equilibrium. And, in every space – small or large, minimalist or maximalist – her focus aligns with sustainable home design practices.
Penfold advises on how to make environmentally friendly adjustments to everything from textiles and lighting to furniture and ventilation. She leads readers, whether renovating or redecorating their home, through ways to reuse or repurpose existing possessions or preserve and rehabilitate existing structures. “The crucial issue for each of us is to understand the effect of the choices we make, weigh the trade-offs involved, and ensure that our decisions have a positive impact on our lives and on planet Earth.”
Natural Living by Design by Melissa Penfold is published by Vendome; $69.95.