This week on our Home Life Series, we’re stepping inside the Northcote home of Alison Lewis, the founder of Alison Lewis Interiors. A classic Californian bungalow, Alison has reimagined the house into a layered, textural home for her family. It’s a home that hums with warmth where every detail tells a story, from ceramics picked up along the way to linen drapes that catch the light just so, to timber floors that ground the space in calm, understated beauty.
Alison’s design philosophy is all about the sweet spot between lived-in and loved. Her spaces are practical enough to handle the daily chaos of family life but layered with personality, texture, and timeless detail. Through her studio and Designologists workshops, she champions intuition over rules and celebrates the individuality that makes each home sing. Keep reading to see how Alison has brought her House of Colour to life, one thoughtful layer at a time.
Hi Alison, thank you so much for letting us into your beautiful Northcote home. Can you introduce yourself, tell us where you live and who shares your home with you, and share a little bit about how you found this to be your family home?
I’m Alison Lewis, founder of Alison Lewis Interiors, a Melbourne/Naarm studio with a focus on layered, liveable and textural design. I live in Northcote with my husband Dave, our daughter Ava, and our very spoiled pets, Sniffles the Whippet and Sookie the Tortie. We were drawn to this house because of its character, a classic Californian bungalow, having been modernised somewhat in the past but with with great bones. It felt like the right canvas for our family, somewhere we could settle in and create a home that was both beautiful and practical for the rhythm of our daily lives.
-v1759449448583.png)
Your home has been completely reimagined. Can you walk us through your approach to renovating and layering interiors, including how your space reflects your family’s personality, daily life, and the way you live together?
For me, a renovation is about more than just aesthetics, it’s about rewriting how a house works for the people inside it. We opened the home up to light, carved out spaces that encourage connection and used finishes that balance durability with warmth. Layering comes in through texture, tone, timber and textiles (my fave four T’s!) plus objects collected over time such as art and ceramics that all tell stories. Every room has a purpose, but it also holds something personal: a favourite colour, a treasured keepsake from our travel adventures, a playful detail for the kids.
Shop Alison's Curated Collection
Your work is known for creating homes that are both functional and beautifully layered. How would you describe your signature interior style, and how has it evolved since founding Alison Lewis Interiors?
My style is textural, tonal, and deeply considered. I lean towards natural finishes and earthy palettes, but always with a spark, whether that be a shift in scale, a sculptural form, or a bold piece of marble. Since starting the studio, my work has evolved to become more pared back and confident. I’ve learnt that restraint often allows the most meaningful pieces and moments to shine. It’s about creating a backdrop that feels timeless but still has soul.
Through running your Designologists workshops, how has teaching and mentoring others influenced your own design philosophy?
The Designologists workshops have been so much fun and I’ve loved doing them with my business partner Lauren. I’m a really curious person and I love sharing knowledge that I’ve learnt over the years, so it was a natural progression to move into this area. The workshops have attracted people who have the technical knowledge of design, but not the practical, which was really how the idea for workshops first came about.
Seeing their joy when they unlock what makes a space feel right reminds me to trust intuition and celebrate individuality. It reinforced for me that design isn’t about following rules; it’s about creating environments that reflect who the client is and how they want to live. That perspective continually feeds back into my studio practice.
-v1759449432468.png)
Shop Alison's Curated Collection
How do colour and texture guide your design process to create spaces that feel personal, joyful, and deeply connected to the people who live in them, and can you walk us through how you bring a home to life from concept to completion?
Colour and texture are my two guiding lights. And when I say colour, I don’t mean in the traditional sense of paint, although that plays into it too. I always start with how a home should feel, calm, joyful, energised, grounded, and build a palette around that emotion. Being about to create a space that has a feeling as soon as you walk in is what sets an interior designer apart from a novice (absolutely no shade to novices, I once was one!).
From concept, I explore tone on tone layering, weaving in natural materials like stone, and timber, alongside masonry, colour and cabinetry. The process is highly collaborative: concept sketches and mood boards evolve into material selections and detailing, then finally window furnishings and layering that makes a house feel whole. By completion, it should feel like the client’s story is written into every corner.
Shop Alison's Curated Collection
When designing for family life, from children’s rooms to playful communal spaces, how do you balance colour, pattern, and practicality? And through running Designologists workshops, how has teaching and mentoring others influenced your own design philosophy?
It’s about longevity and joy. For children’s rooms, I’ll introduce colour in ways that can evolve, rugs, cushions, throws or playful art, rather than committing everything to one theme. In shared spaces, I focus on hard-wearing finishes that don’t sacrifice beauty: robust stones, durable upholstery, wipeable paint. Pattern and play are introduced in layers that can change with time. That balance allows a home to grow with a family rather than resist it.
Designing for longevity is one of my core principles and also coincidently one of the chapters of our Materiality course. What I love about teaching and mentoring through my design consultations is that every time I work with someone, I’m able to reiterate these principles and keep them front of mind in my own practice.
Every home has its most-loved corners. What spaces in your home bring you particular joy, which objects, textures, or colour combinations have special meaning?
Our living room is the heart of the house, flooded with northern light, layered with linen drapes, timber floors, and ceramics we’ve collected over the years. I also love the kitchen’s joinery, which feels warm but incredibly functional. It felt like quite the risk when I first selected the kitchen material combinations - it was at a time when the industry was only just moving from grey and white interiors to warm and textural, so there was a lot of trusting my gut and creative process, so the kitchen represents that to me. My favourite objects are always those with stories: a ceramic bowl by a local maker, vintage chairs restored with new fabric, artwork that truly speaks to me. Those pieces ground the space in memory and meaning.
Shop Alison's Curated Collection
You’re deeply connected to Melbourne’s design scene. What are you seeing right now that excites you, whether it’s industry trends, initiatives, or projects that are filling up your schedule?
I’m excited by a return to tactility, people are craving homes that feel sensory and connected to craft. There’s also an energy around sustainable design, from reimagining existing homes rather than starting from scratch, to embracing local makers and low-impact materials. In my studio, I’m working on some beautiful family homes where clients are brave enough to embrace layered palettes and textures, which is incredibly rewarding. Beyond that, the Melbourne design community itself is a constant inspiration, so many talented makers, designers, and thinkers, all pushing each other forward.
