Making Space: Interior Design by Women

A global survey of 250 of the most creative women practicing interior design from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day

The history of women’s involvement in interior design is rich and varied. It is a discipline where women enjoy an equal standing with their male counterparts, yet it is typically framed as a design practice especially suited to women, secondary to the heroic role of architect or furniture designer.

This timely survey explores the ways in which women have shaped the built environment beyond the confines of the home, revealing their careers as true tastemakers of the twentieth and twenty-first century. Making Space shines a light on the diverse and influential work of 250 women who design interiors – well-known, unsung, and emerging – from more than 50 countries.

The featured designers represent myriad styles, from flamboyant maximalism to artfully arranged minimalism. There are the big names, such as Rose Uniacke, Kelly Wearstler, and Brigette Romanek; pioneers, including Dorothy Draper, Sibyl Colefax, and Elsie de Wolfe; and those who have been almost entirely written out of history.

Beautifully designed and illustrated with hundreds of striking photographs, Making Space will inspire anyone who cares about the spaces within which they live.

Designers featured include: Sophie Ashby, Sofía Aspe, Gae Aulenti, Kelly Behun, Madeleine Castaing, Sibyl Colefax, Athena Calderone, Ilse Crawford, Olayinka Dosekun-Adjei, Dorothy Draper, Nathalie and Virginie Droulers, Shahira Fahmy, Beata Heuman, Katie Lockhart, Yana Molodykh, Tekla Evelina Severin, and Pamela Shamshiri.

About the Author

Dr. Jane Hall is the inaugural recipient of the British Council Lina Bo Bardi Fellowship (2013) and a founding member of the Turner Prize winning architecture collective Assemble. Jane completed a PhD at the Royal College of Art where her research considered the legacy of modernist architects in Brazil and the UK in the immediate postwar period. She is a Bye-Fellow at King’s College, the University of Cambridge (2024– ), specialising in the intersections of gender and architecture and the author of two books, Breaking Ground: Architecture by Women (2019) and Woman Made (2021).