Our Interior Designers
Marylou Sobel
Director/Principal Designer
Marylou Sobel, one of Australia’s premier Interior Designers with over forty years of experience, is known for her exceptional service and the sophisticated, luxurious one-of-a-kind interiors she creates for prominent clients around the country.
As a young girl growing up in South Africa, Marylou always had a passion for attention to detail. Creative from a very young age, Marylou knew she wanted to be an interior designer when she was eight years old. She may not have known entirely what an interior designer was back then, but what she did know was that when she walked into a beautiful home she felt so happy that she could burst.
Upon leaving school, Marylou entered Design College to obtain her Diploma in Interior Design (university degrees were not yet an option), before beginning her design career at the international design agency Head Interiors in Johannesburg.
After migrating to Sydney in 1985 with her husband Robin, Marylou settled into her new life and started a family. In 1997 Marylou decided to begin her Australian interior design journey, working from her home as she raised her children. Fast forward to today and Marylou now operates from her interior design studio in Woollahra, with a full-time team of passionate, dedicated Interior Designers and Interior Architects, and an enviable array of established professional relationships with suppliers and tradespeople, both locally and internationally.
Marylou’s extensive travels have provided her with endless inspiration and she still thrives on attention to detail. She holds a deep love for fabrics and textiles, with an unrivalled expertise in how to apply them to interior design.
As a person, Marylou is incredibly empathetic and has a unique communication style – which complements her role as she guides clients through the design process with transparent and considerate communication. Her true passion is residential interior design, but Marylou has always had a personal aspiration to be presented with the opportunity to design a boutique hotel.
“I’m passionate about seeing things come together from concept to creation. I’m passionate about seeing people happy and exceeding their expectations at the end of the process. It’s incredibly fulfilling”
Outside of the studio, when she’s not busy with her growing brood of grandchildren, Marylou enjoys spending time reading, listening to podcasts, practising pilates and taking walks in nature. She finds nature incredibly inspiring and embodies this within design, a strong advocate for using natural materials and fabrics.
Stephanie Nadel
What makes Stephanie Nadel’s success story so remarkable is that she has come so far, so fast.
Stephanie, the Associate Interior Architect at Marylou Sobel Interior Design, has gained more experience, and handled more responsibilities in the past ten years than many other design professionals take on in their careers.
Stephanie, a multi-talented full service professional, carried out a wide variety of commercial and residential design tasks while she was based in London. She worked for three prominent interior design firms, as well as on her own, and served clients around the world.
In the process, she helped complete within 12 weeks the design and installation of a penthouse suite on The World, the luxury residential yacht that circumnavigates the globe. Prior to this Stephanie lead the full refurbishment of a lavish, Grade II listed, five bedroom home in the Hampstead Garden suburbs in London.
During her five years in London, she worked with Gensler, the world’s largest collaborative design, planning and consulting firm; MoreySmith, a leading design and architecture studio, and Fiona Barratt Interiors, an award-winning luxury design firm.
Assisting with projects for those firms, launching her own residential practice, and interacting with vendors worldwide provided her with project management, creative problem solving, sourcing, technical and other skills that benefit her clients today.
Stephanie earned her Bachelor of Interior Architecture degree at the University of New South Wales.
While she is adept in several aspects of design, she’s particularly interested in the challenge of refurbishing existing spaces. “I enjoy the problem solving that’s involved with existing buildings,” she says. “Although it is always a privilege to design alongside a team to create new and innovative structures, I love creating meaningful design from older properties and taking inspiration from heritage details.”
Olivia Irwin
Olivia, an intuitive and passionate designer, completed her studies in Interior Architecture at the University of New South Wales. With over 5 years of hands-on experience in the industry, she has worked on numerous bespoke residential projects, seamlessly guiding them from concept to completion. Her expertise spans a spectrum of endeavours, from new build homes to intricate renovations, and the craft of furniture design. Olivia thrives when confronted with problems she needs to solve, and she takes great pleasure in curating spaces that artfully reflect the unique behaviours and experiences within them. She loves and admires the stories that existing buildings tell, enjoying being able to preserve and celebrate heritage detailing wherever possible.
Blanka Jukanto
Blanka earned her Bachelor of Interior Architecture with Honours in 2020 at the University of New South Wales. She believes “it’s amazing how we designers have the privilege to collaborate and influence how our clients use their spaces and ultimately have an impact on the world”. Blanka has had the opportunity to explore her skill set overseas in one of Indonesia’s leading Architectural firms, D-Associates and was involved in the tender for The National Monument of Indonesia amongst other projects. She brings to her role at MSID experience working as a graphic designer with international clients in Asia Pacific and Europe.
An invitation to collaborate
Contact our Studio to discuss your project.