Continuing our 2023 review, we revisit the most popular lookbooks of the year – from minimalist bedrooms and biophilic homes to marble-lined bathrooms and kitchens with tiled worktops.
This year, the most-read lookbooks included wood-panelled dining rooms, homes with space-saving pocket doors and rooms with beautiful and practical bookshelves.
Read on to discover 10 of our most popular lookbooks of 2023:
Eight homes with beautiful and practical bookshelves
This lookbook for booklovers was our most-read lookbook this year. It showcased homes where designers have created stylish bookshelves – both wall-mounted and built-in.
Among the projects on show is an apartment in Madrid, Spain, which was designed by Spanish studio Zooco Estudio and features white shelving units that span two floors and provide plenty of space to store reading materials.
See more homes with beautiful bookshelves ›
Eight kitchens with tiled worktops that are pretty but practical
There’s plenty of kitchen inspiration to be found in this lookbook, which explored kitchens with tiled worktops.
Among the examples is a New York apartment that features a kitchen island covered in oxblood-coloured tiles (above), as well as a pastel-hued Belgian kitchen and a colourful Spanish kitchen in a former motorcycle workshop.
See more kitchens with tiled worktops ›
Eight calming bedrooms with minimalist interiors
The bedrooms in this lookbook range from a Mexican bedroom with a concrete bed to a cosy space in a former girls’ school in Puglia, all in a colour palette that mainly features beige, gray, and warm brown hues.
To create soothing, calming bedroom spaces, walls were left bare and the amount of artworks and personal items were kept to a minimum in these projects.
See more calming bedroooms ›
Ten modern homes with interiors informed by biophilic design
Biophilic design, which aims to create spaces in which humans are more connected to nature, has been a trend this year and looks set to continue its ascent in 2024.
Homes with indoor trees, aquaponic systems with live fish, green roofs and verdant courtyards filled with plants are among the biophilic interior design examples in this lookbook.
See more homes with biophilic design ›
Ten residential interiors that make the most of narrow spaces
Narrow interior layouts can be hard to decorate, but this roundup gave plenty of examples of how to work with tight living areas, kitchens wedged into corridors and interiors in skinny Japanese houses.
Tips include adding split-level floors, using built-in furniture to add visual depth and using glass doors to allow more light to penetrate the house.
See more residential interiors with narrow spaces ›
Eight tidy kitchens with slick storage solutions
This lookbook presented eight well-organised kitchens, where smart storage solutions help to hide clutter and create a more pleasant cooking experience. The projects, which range from compact apartments to home extensions, use hooks, nooks, racks, shelves, cubby holes and display units to make the best use of space.
Featured kitchens include the above example from London, which uses multifunctional plywood partitions with arched openings and alcoves for storing belongings.
See more tidy kitchens ›
Ten earthy bedrooms that use natural colour to create a restful environment
Dreamy bedrooms from Mexico to Thailand were showcased in this lookbook, which gathers interiors that use earthy colour palettes and natural materials to evoke a sense of calm and tranquility.
Earthy browns, neutral beige and tan colours are complemented by terracotta and green hues to create bedrooms with a peaceful atmosphere, while materials include stone, timber, linen, clay accents and limewash finishes.
See more earthy bedrooms in neutral colours ›
Ten bathrooms where marble lines the walls
Carrera and Verde Aver marble, as well as similar natural stones such as travertine and quartzite, decorate these 10 bathrooms.
Whether it’s a renovated 1920s Stockholm apartment clad in Swedish Ekeberg marble, or a bathroom in an art-deco building covered in green Verde Aver marble (above), this lookbook showcases how the durable material can be used to create elegant interiors.
See more marble-lined bathrooms ›
Ten homes with space-saving pocket doors that disappear into the walls
Pocket doors – sliding doors that are designed to slot into a wall cavity so they can stay hidden from view – were the subject of this lookbook, which was one of the most popular of last year.
The solution is especially useful for rooms where there isn’t enough space for a door to open outwards and for locations where it makes sense for the door to integrate into surrounding joinery.
See more homes with pocket doors ›
Eight welcoming wood-panelled dining rooms
The cosiness of a wood-panelled dining room was the focus of this lookbook, which collected eight examples of homes where wood took centre stage.
Among the examples is this house in Chile, above, which features an open-plan kitchen and dining room with a vaulted ceiling that is clad in laminated pine.
See more wood-panelled dining rooms ›
2023 review
This article is part of Dezeen’s roundup of the biggest and best news and projects in architecture, design, interior design and technology from 2023.