Modern living room with curved beige sofa, glass coffee table, black chair, abstract wall art, large round mirror, arched doorway, and wooden steps leading to a sculptural white staircase.
A 1930s Sydney home, remade in 2024, 12 years after its first gut renovation. Photography by Anson Smart.

September 10, 2026

Words: Peter Webster

Greg Natale’s Design Journey: From Dynasty Fan To Interior Designer

Captivated by the opulent sets on the 1980s TV series Dynasty, Greg Natale knew he wanted to be an interior designer by age 10. So after training at Sydney’s Design Centre Enmore, and separately studying visual arts and architecture, he launched his eponymous studio in 2001, with a taste for color, pattern, layering—and a willingness to push period reference until it became his own. The firm’s 25th anniversary finds Natale running a multidisciplinary practice—interiors, products (for such brands as Bisazza, Serafini, and Teranova Ceramics) and, more recently, architecture—with completed projects in Australia, the U.S., and the U.K., and current commissions in Greece and Italy.

IDOLS 25years: Greg Natale

  • A person in a black suit stands against a black ribbed wall. In the foreground, a marble surface holds a mint green vase and a small blue object.
    The namesake founder of Greg Natale in a Sydney residence, a 2024 renovation. Photography by Anson Smart.
  • Modern living room with curved beige sofa, glass coffee table, black chair, abstract wall art, large round mirror, arched doorway, and wooden steps leading to a sculptural white staircase.
    A 1930s Sydney home, remade in 2024, 12 years after its first gut renovation. Photography by Anson Smart.
  • A minimalist bedroom with a padded headboard, wooden footboard, light blue bedding, a white pendant lamp, and a side table with a small flower vase and wall-mounted lamp.
    The main bedroom of another redesigned Sydney house, 2026. Photography by Anson Smart.
  • View looking up a modern spiral staircase with smooth, curved walls and a geometric chandelier hanging below a window at the top.
    Its new staircase, in waxed Venetian plaster. Photography by Anson Smart.
  • A hallway with marble and wood floors leads to a large, colorful portrait of a man’s face hanging on a wall; a white vase sits on a ledge beside a staircase.
    Portals echoing the curves of the stair. Photography by Anson Smart.
  • Smooth, white, oval stone sculpture with large rounded openings sits on a white platform, which is placed on two wooden pallets in an outdoor setting with marble slabs behind it.
    Nastro coffee table for Serafini, 2026. Photography by Angelica Tibaldo.

There’s an animating tension in Natale’s work. “I’m a bit of a maximalist,” he acknowledges, “but my foundation lies in minimalism and plain lines.” He made his name with a glossy, high-contrast take on Hollywood Regency, epitomized by a 1930s Sydney house that he transformed in 2012: checkerboard marble floors, red-lacquered Chinoiserie furniture, dragon-pattern vases, painted wood paneling under crown moldings—all of it held within a rectilinear shell. The widely published project became, in effect, the firm’s calling card

Then, a dozen years later, Natale got an opportunity to re-evaluate his own work: A new owner bought the house and hired him to redo it from scratch. “It was a great chance to reinvent myself as a designer,” he says of the makeover, which replaces movie-colony glamour with a softer, more curvilinear sensibility closer to the home’s original Streamline Moderne exterior but given a Cycladic solidity that reflects the owner’s Greek heritage.

  • Modern living room with curved sofa, abstract wooden coffee table, purple chair, marble fireplace, gold wall art, and large window with patterned curtains.
    A London residence, 2024. Photography by Stephan Julliard.
  • A living room with a textured maroon sofa, a green lamp on a wooden side table, and a large abstract mural on the wall.
    A New York town house’s living room and marble-clad guest bathroom, 2025. Photography by Anson Smart.
  • Small bathroom with pink terrazzo walls and sink, pink floating drawers, a mirrored cabinet, and a small white vase with flowers on the counter.
    A New York town house’s living room and marble-clad guest bathroom, 2025. Photography by Anson Smart.
  • Bathroom with brown and white checkerboard tiles, wooden vanity with marble sink, round light fixture, wall-mounted toilet, and terrazzo floor.
    Zellige bathroom tile and a new staircase in a 1918 heritage-listed Sydney bungalow, 2026. Photography by Anson Smart.
  • A staircase with a dark wavy railing, navy carpet, and patterned armchair; geometric chandelier hangs over a parquet floor in a modern interior.
    Zellige bathroom tile and a new staircase in a 1918 heritage-listed Sydney bungalow, 2026. Photography by Anson Smart.

It’s Natale’s own Italian roots, together with a broader multicultural spirit, that inform recent projects. In a New York town house, a layered palette—blush, plum, and terra-cotta walls and ceilings; jewel-tone shades of marble; oak floors; vintage and contemporary furniture—conjures an art deco–infused ambience worthy of a period film by Bernardo Bertolucci. His latest Sydney commission, the renovation of a house for a client returning after years in Hong Kong, pushes the overlapping of eras, sensibilities, and geographies further still through an interplay of finishes—glossy lacquer, smooth plaster, burl wood, veined marble—and colors, including an ethereal blue that links the two harbor cities. It’s the clearest statement yet of Natale’s own governing paradox: a maximalist’s appetite for ebullience tempered by a minimalist’s love of discipline. gregnatale.com

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