Australian Design Review and inside magazine are delighted to announce the winners of the 2025 Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), representing the best of interior and product design from across the country.

Officially unveiled at the 23rd annual IDEA gala, held this year at the Seymour Centre in Sydney on the evening of Friday 28 November, the victorious projects and studios capture a breadth of new and known talent in Australian architecture and design. The winners list is also an illuminating snapshot of the reciprocal influence between design and how we currently live, work, learn, serve, rest, heal and play.

“IDEA always has some surprises up its sleeve, but there couldn’t be a more delightful and refreshing one than seeing a studio that is just three years old taking out three major awards,” says managing editor, Australian Design Review, inside and IDEA, Madeleine Swain. “We offer our heartiest congratulations to relative newcomer J.AR Office, and also to our more established talents like Miriam Fanning, who is the hugely deserving recipient of the 2025 IDEA Gold Medal.”

This year’s jury – chaired by Paul Hecker and comprising leading interior designers and architects Melissa Leung, Andrew Glover, Conrad Lowry, Matiya Marovich, Meryl Hare and Sustainability judge Jade Whittaker – determined the IDEA winners and highly commended projects across 14 categories and seven special awards. 

Emerging studio scores top prize in hat trick

Applauded as outstanding by the judges, Central by J.AR Office won the IDEA 2025 Overall Project of the Year. The subterranean Cantonese restaurant, housed in the basement of a Brisbane tower, also took out the Hospitality category.

“Central is filled with thoughtful details,” Leung says. “I love how every element is designed around the guest experience, engaging you from the moment you arrive. A softly illuminated ceiling draws the eye toward the show kitchen, beautifully framing the culinary activity and infusing the restaurant with a sense of drama.”

J.AR Office enjoyed a positively splashy evening at the gala, also taking home the Emerging Designer of the Year award. The Brisbane-based studio was established in 2022 by Jared Webb, following a decade of working across interior, architectural and precinct-scaled projects.

“Perhaps ‘emerging’ is an understatement for J.AR Office at this moment in time and it could better be labelled as exploding onto the scene, appearing in the last few years as one of Australia’s most exciting and talented design practices,” Marovich says. “Its work is conceptually considered, evocative and phenomenologically rich, while also demonstrating rigour, attention to detail and excellent execution.”

Studio Gram named Designer of the Year

Adelaide-based interior design and architecture practice Studio Gram accepted the coveted Designer of the Year prize, joining the ranks of past winners – most recently Bates Smart, Arent&Pyke, Russell & George and YSG. 

Directors Dave Bickmore and Graham Charbonneau founded Studio Gram in 2014, quickly gaining acclaim as an architecture and interior design practice. Their projects, evoking comfort of the familiar and the allure of the unexpected, have helped give Adelaide’s hospitality scene in particular its charming flair. 

At IDEA this year, Studio Gram was highly commended in the Hospitality category with the project Coopers Brand Home, but the studio also triumphed in the Institutional category with Pembroke Middle School John Moody Centre, as well as the Workplace Under 1000sqm category with its very own Brompton studio.

“Offering a refreshing blend of studious exploration and relaxed application, Studio Gram makes disciplined design seem not only effortless, but intriguing and always engaging, across multiple typologies and scales,” Lowry says. “Combined with playful yet disciplined form and materiality, the body of work produced in only a decade is both humble in approach and sophisticated in resolution.”

Mim Fanning wins gold

This year’s IDEA Gold Medal was awarded to interior designer Miriam Fanning, who was recognised for an influential and indelible contribution to Australian design culture over the course of her career, most notably as the founder of Melbourne-based studio Mim Design, as well as her advocacy work as a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia and mentor to young designers.

“There is so much to admire, over many years, in the work of Mim Design,” Hare says. “Its enduring quality, individual and original design has made Mim Fanning stand out as a talent who enriches the profession by setting a high benchmark in interior design.”

The Commons nabs inaugural Enduring award

This year saw the introduction of a new special award for IDEA – Enduring. This self- or peer-nominated award celebrates interior design works at least 10 years old that have stood the test of time and remain relevant and influential today.

The inaugural winner was The Commons, a multi-residential project in Brunswick, Melbourne. Melbourne-based architecture practice Breathe designed The Commons in 2013 as a prototype for ethical, sustainable urban housing.

“The Enduring category is a new addition to IDEA and perhaps its most important, as it rewards work that stands the test of time,” Hare says. “A unanimous choice by the judges, The Commons is an outstanding example of urban architecture that ticks many boxes in terms of sustainability, affordability etc. Most importantly, it sets up the infrastructure for social cohesion.”

Manifold wins for Gruyere Farm

One project garnered separate recognition for both its design and styling teams.

Studio Manifold won the highly competitive Residential Single award for the interior design of Gruyere Farm in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, while Simone Haag won the Residential Interior Curation award for the styling of the same project. This award marks the third consecutive year Haag has topped the IDEA Residential Interior Curation category.

All of this year’s winners took home a trophy created by premium surfaces manufacturer Axolotl and designed by the IDEA 2024 Designer of the Year, Bates Smart. Their unique collaboration was modelled after a glass brick.

View all of the winners of IDEA 2025 below:

Learn more about each project here.

IDEA 2025 would not have been possible without our overall sponsor Miele, alongside sponsors Crafted Hardwoods, Cult, Designer Rugs, ForestOne, MillerKnoll, Laufen, Signature Appliances powered by Miele, and Zenith. We are eternally grateful for their continued support of IDEA and of Australia’s design community. We are also hugely thankful to our event partners Axolotl, Chandon and Moobrew, who helped the IDEA gala sparkle even brighter this year.

Bring on IDEA 2026! Entries open in March.

Lead image of Central, designed by J.AR Office. Photo: David Chatfield.