Meet the Interior Designers Shaping South African Design: The 2026 DOTY Nominees
From considered residential spaces to interiors that balance architecture, art and everyday life, this year’s Interior Designer of the Year nominees demonstrate the breadth of South African design.
The 2026 House & Garden Designers of the Year Awards celebrate the designers and studios shaping the country’s interior landscape. Among this year’s nominees are four practices with distinctly different approaches, but a shared commitment to thoughtful, enduring design.
Bone Studio
Founded by Nicola Orpen and Hayley Turner in 2011, Bone Studio is a studio built around a passion for transparency, collaboration, and what its founders describe as “design with spine”.
With more than 40 years of collective experience between them, Orpen and Turner have led the studio across more than 200 projects spanning residential, hospitality, retail, and commercial spaces.
One of Bone Studio’s defining qualities is its refusal to follow a single aesthetic. So instead of applying a similar look to every project, the studio approaches each space individually, allowing the architecture, brief, and the people behind it to shape the final result. No two Bone projects are intended to be the same.
An obsessive attention to detail sits at the heart of the practice, alongside a strong emphasis on collaboration and trust. The studio works closely with clients, contractors and craftspeople throughout the design process, believing that the strongest results come from open communication and shared goals.
Marie-Louise Koen Interiors
The founder and creative director of Marie-Louise Koen Interiors brings experience from both Cape Town and New York City, alongside her fine-art practice, to create interiors that are thoughtful, personal, and cohesive.
Her approach is guided by the belief that every project should be treated like a painting. Creativity, functionality and meticulous attention to detail are considered together, with colour, material, furniture, and artwork contributing to the overall composition.
Rather than imposing a particular aesthetic, Koen's studio places emphasis on understanding the people and stories behind each project. Her interiors are expressive without being excessive, with carefully selected elements coming together to create spaces that feel connected to their surroundings.
Her fine-art background is also evident in the way artwork can influence a project, whether through colour, material, or atmosphere. This artistic sensibility is balanced by a practical understanding of how interiors need to function, resulting in spaces that are both considered and highly personal.
It is this meeting point between art and interiors that gives Marie-Louise Interiors its distinctive character: spaces that feel layered, individual, and thoughtfully resolved.
Room31 Interiors
Room31 is a South African interior design studio creating contemporary interiors defined by timeless design, refined detail, and a strong sense of individuality.
Working across high-end residential, hospitality, retail and corporate spaces, the studio offers a comprehensive design service encompassing interior design and decoration, spatial planning, styling, custom furniture and joinery design, as well as art sourcing.
Every project is approached with careful consideration given to architecture, proportion, materiality and, importantly, the way a space will ultimately be lived in.
Room31's aesthetic is sophisticated yet understated. Natural materials, texture and craftsmanship are balanced with clean designs, creating interiors that feel layered without being overworked.
At the heart of Room31's work is a belief in creating spaces that feel resolved without feeling overly prescribed – sophisticated interiors with a strong sense of place and personality.
Zeanne Duminy
With a background in architecture and a sensitivity to the relationship between form, function and everyday life, Zeanne Duminy brings a considered approach to residential interiors.
Duminy is the co-founder of Cape Town-based Zeanne & Goss alongside James Goss, where her work reflects an appreciation for the architectural framework of a space, while placing equal importance on how it feels to live in.
Natural light, landscape and materiality are recurring influences in her interiors. Rather than treating architecture and decoration as separate elements, Duminy considers them as part of a larger whole, allowing furniture, finishes, artwork, and objects to respond to the structure and setting around them.
For Duminy, good design is ultimately about creating an environment that enhances everyday life. Her interiors demonstrate how considered architecture, natural materials and personal details can come together to create spaces that feel both timeless and distinctly their own.
The 2026 Interior Designer of the Year nominees
Together, this year's nominees reflect the breadth of contemporary South African interior design. From Bone Studio's collaborative and highly individual approach, to Marie-Louise Koen's artful interiors, Room31's emphasis on timeless craftsmanship and Zeanne Duminy's architecture-led spaces, each offering a distinct perspective on what design can be.
The 2026 House & Garden South Africa Designer of the Year Awards will take place on 30 September at Steyn City, where the winner of the Pan-African Designers of the Year category, alongside the winners of the other DOTY categories, will be revealed.