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Interior designer Claudia Lambert argues that the rooms people remember are not the ones that look untouched by real life. They are the rooms that reveal who lives there. Her personality-first approach begins with habits, memories and desired feelings, then uses colour, shape, materials, art and layers to give those things a visible form.
That idea is the basis of Shaping Spaces: The Art of Making a Home, Lambert’s debut book. Published by Smith Street Books, the 280-page hardcover brings together 14 residential projects, practical design guidance and personal reflections. Its central lesson is useful whether you are repainting one wall or rethinking an entire house: make decisions that fit your life before decisions that merely look current.
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Who Claudia Lambert is
Lambert is identified by Interiors Addict as the founder and creative director of Claudia Lambert Interiors, a Sydney-based studio. The article reports that she spent 15 years working in psychology before establishing the practice. That career history is presented as part of her biography rather than as an independently verified statistic, but it helps explain the emphasis that runs through her work: understand the people in a space before specifying the space itself.
Instead of beginning with a catalogue of finishes, Lambert reportedly asks how clients live, what they love and how they want to feel at home. A household that cooks together, collects objects, works from the dining table or needs quiet corners will not benefit from the same plan, even if both homes have similar dimensions. Her role is to translate those patterns into decisions about layout, colour, texture, furniture, artwork and the visual rhythm of a room.
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This is a different starting point from choosing a trend and trying to make a life fit it. It also avoids treating “good taste” as a fixed checklist. A room can be resolved, balanced and carefully edited while still containing evidence of its occupants.
What “personality over perfection” means
Lambert’s position is not that planning, craftsmanship or visual order are unimportant. It is that polish should serve the people who use a room, not erase them. As the article quotes her: “People have become so worried about making a mistake that they remove everything interesting from a room,” she says. “The homes we remember aren’t the perfect ones. They’re the ones with personality.”
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The fear she describes often produces safe repetition: neutral walls selected because they are easy to approve, furniture bought as a matching set, and meaningful objects kept in storage because they do not coordinate. Those choices can create a tidy photograph while leaving the room emotionally blank. Personality-led design accepts that a home may contain contrast, asymmetry, inherited pieces, bold colour or an object that matters more to the owner than to a trend report.
Perfection is also a moving target. A fashionable colour or silhouette can date quickly, while a room built around a resident’s stories can change without losing its identity. The practical test is not whether every element would appear in the same showroom. It is whether the elements make sense together for the people who live with them.
How a people-first design process works
1. Start with daily behaviour
Before selecting paint or furniture, map what actually happens in the room. Note where shoes accumulate, where people naturally sit, whether meals are formal or improvised, how daylight changes during the day and which activities need separation. These observations are more useful than an abstract instruction such as “make it sophisticated.”
- Which routines must the room support every day?
- What do household members reach for, display or keep close?
- Where does the room already feel comfortable, and where does it create friction?
- What needs to be hidden, and what deserves to be seen?
2. Define the desired feeling
“Cosy,” “energising,” “calm” and “welcoming” are not interchangeable. Choose a small group of feelings and test every major decision against them. A restorative bedroom may need softer contrast and fewer visual interruptions; a social kitchen may benefit from stronger colour relationships and durable, tactile surfaces. The aim is not to produce a mood board that looks attractive in isolation, but to give the room an emotional job.
3. Translate meaning into physical choices
Personal references can enter through many routes. A landscape that matters to the family might inform a wall colour without being copied literally. A collection can determine shelving or a focal point. A beloved chair may establish scale and proportion for new pieces. Materials can recall a place, a craft tradition or an earlier home. These links make a room legible to its occupants even when visitors cannot identify the source.
4. Leave room for the home to evolve
Lambert’s approach, as described in the article, allows a home to develop rather than requiring every decision on installation day. Buy or keep the pieces that carry meaning, then let art, books, textiles and everyday discoveries accumulate with intention. A room that can absorb change is less likely to be stripped and redecorated whenever a trend shifts.
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Applying the idea when you are painting
For a painter, personality-first design does not mean choosing the loudest colour available. It means selecting a finish that supports the room’s users and the objects they want to live with. The following sequence applies Lambert’s stated philosophy to a repainting project; it is a practical interpretation, not a formal method attributed to her.
Choose the room’s story before its colour
Write a sentence describing what the room is for and how you want to feel there. “A bright, sociable dining room for long weekend meals” will lead to different tests than “A quiet study for concentrated work.” Photograph the room at morning, afternoon and evening so that a sample is judged under the light in which it will be used.
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Paint large sample areas or movable boards and place them beside the flooring, trim, upholstery and artwork that will remain. A colour that seems restrained on a small card may become dominant across four walls; a seemingly strong colour can be balanced by timber, stone or muted textiles. Check the samples at different times of day and from the room’s main viewpoints.
Use contrast to reveal what matters
Personality can come from controlled contrast rather than a collection of unrelated accents. Consider a quieter wall colour behind a dense art arrangement, a deeper tone in a reading nook, or a single ceiling or joinery colour that makes an architectural feature memorable. Keep the reason for the contrast clear: it should support an activity, object or feeling.
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Coordinate, do not sterilise
Coordination means that colours and materials acknowledge one another; it does not require everything to match. Repeat a hue in a smaller object, echo a material’s texture elsewhere, or use a consistent level of warmth across adjacent rooms. Preserve the unusual piece that gives the space its character instead of deleting it for uniformity.
| Decision | Perfection-led question | Personality-led question |
|---|---|---|
| Wall colour | Is this the safest universally appealing neutral? | Does this support the room’s purpose, light and occupants? |
| Artwork | Does it finish the scheme? | Does it create an emotional response or reveal something meaningful? |
| Furniture | Does every piece belong to one matching set? | Do the pieces fit how people sit, work, gather and move? |
| Accessories | Can anything visually distinctive be removed? | Which objects add memory, texture or a useful layer? |
Why Lambert puts art at the beginning
Many decorating sequences treat art as the final layer, added after the walls, sofa and lighting have been decided. Lambert reverses that order when a particular work has enough emotional force to guide the room. “Art isn’t the finishing touch,” she says. “It’s often the starting point. Some of the most successful spaces begin with a single piece that sparks an emotional response.”
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Starting with art does not require an expensive collection or a museum-like display. It can mean beginning with a painting inherited from family, a print bought while travelling, a photograph made by someone in the household or any work that changes the way you feel when you look at it. Study its dominant and supporting colours, the density of its marks, its scale and the amount of visual quiet it needs around it.
Use those observations as prompts rather than instructions to copy the artwork. A restrained room may allow a highly detailed piece to lead. A busy, layered room may need one larger work to establish a calm anchor. Hang a sample of the proposed wall colour behind a print or place the artwork temporarily in different positions before committing. The goal is a relationship in which the room gives the art space to register and the art gives the room a point of view.
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What is in Shaping Spaces: The Art of Making a Home
The book combines project photography and design commentary with practical insights and personal reflections. Its 14 residential projects examine the elements Lambert identifies as central to a home’s character: shape, colour, materials, art and layering. That combination makes it relevant to readers who want visual inspiration as well as a way to reason through their own decisions.
| Detail | What is listed |
|---|---|
| Author | Claudia Lambert |
| Title | Shaping Spaces: The Art of Making a Home |
| Publisher | Smith Street Books |
| Format | Hardcover |
| Length | 280 pages |
| Residential projects | 14 |
| ISBN | 9781923503342 |
| Listed publication date | September 29, 2026 |
| US listing | US$55.00; listed by Rizzoli New York, with price subject to change |
| Australian listing | A$69.99 and in stock when checked; local price and availability can change |
The listed publication date has passed, so descriptions written before September 29 that call the book a preorder are no longer current. Retail availability, shipping and currency conversion depend on the market and should be checked at the time of purchase.
How to use the book for your own project
Read for decisions, not just images
When a project catches your attention, identify the decision that creates its effect. Is the impact coming from a room’s shape, a limited colour relationship, a rough and smooth material pairing, the scale of one artwork or the accumulation of small layers? Naming the mechanism helps you adapt the idea instead of copying a photograph.
Trace the personal evidence
Look for signs of occupation: objects with a story, arrangements that support conversation, practical storage, or a colour that appears because someone loves it. Ask what evidence of your own life is missing from your rooms. That question can lead to a modest change, such as displaying a collection properly, rather than an expensive renovation.
Translate one idea at a time
Choose a single experiment—a new wall colour, a more deliberate art grouping, a material contrast or a better arrangement for daily use. Live with it before adding another layer. This protects the room from becoming a rushed imitation of a complete project and lets you see which changes genuinely improve how the space feels.
Common mistakes this philosophy helps prevent
- Following a trend without checking fit: A colour or furniture shape can be attractive yet wrong for the room’s light, scale or routines.
- Removing every irregular element: Distinctive objects often provide the visual and emotional clues that make a home memorable.
- Buying a whole room at once: Matching pieces can eliminate the gradual layering that gives a space depth.
- Treating art as an afterthought: Deciding its role early can improve colour, lighting, wall proportion and furniture placement.
- Confusing clutter with personality: A personal room still needs editing. Keep what is useful, beautiful or meaningful, and give each retained element enough space to be appreciated.
- Expecting a finished home to stay finished: People’s needs change. A flexible arrangement and durable base make future adjustments easier.
A practical personality check before you commit
- List the room’s main activities and the people who use it.
- Choose two or three feelings the room should support.
- Identify one meaningful object, artwork or memory that can anchor the scheme.
- Test paint and material samples beside the items that will remain.
- Check scale, circulation, storage and maintenance before judging appearance.
- Remove only what competes with the room’s purpose; do not remove something solely because it is unconventional.
- Live with the arrangement long enough to notice how it works at different times of day.
Lambert’s contribution is a change in priority: the home is not a display of flawless choices but a record of considered ones. Paint, furniture and decoration become more convincing when they explain something about the people who live with them. That is why a room with a few idiosyncrasies can feel more complete than one assembled to avoid every possible mistake.
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