Instagram story viewer> @belwilliams.studio> Tagged

Bel Williams

@belwilliams.studio

2.6K

followers

1720

following

Furniture, objects + spaces
– Made to order and commissions [email protected]
Naarm / Melbourne, Australia
@attheabove @basic.space

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Excited to announce Bookends, an upcoming exhibition curated and presented by Pépite Gallery. The show brings together an exclusive collection of one-of-a-kind bookends by a selected group of artists and makers, each invited to reinterpret this familiar, functional object through their own creative practice.

Open from 4th - 20th of November, Wednesday to Friday, 12 - 5pm
Le Space — 1 Mater Street, Collingwood 3066 (adjacent to Pépite Gallery)

Featuring work by Belle Thierry, Sharon Alpren, Bel Williams, Stephanie Phillips, Melinda Wallis, Theodosius Ng, Isabelle Jooste, Angela Hayes, Ka Ra Studio, Alterfact, Kenny Yong-soo Son, Pauline Meade, Dawn Vachon, Sean Brickhill, Emily Ellis.

#melbournegallery #pepitegallery #curated #exhibition #bookends

174

13

3

0

•SYNTHESIS ~ WHERE IT ALL BEGAN•

It started with an idea.

What if we took the objects we usually experience individually at design weeks, on plinths, against white walls, removed from any real sense of living, and put them back into an interior?

Not a showroom. Not a traditional group exhibition.

A home.

For MDW, I wanted to create a space that showed Australian art and design as I believe it is meant to be experienced: in conversation with one another.

So I took over the Bishop’s Parlour at @abbotsfordconvent and began building a world.

An extraordinary heritage room became the framework for something entirely contemporary. More than 45 Australian artists, designers and makers came together across furniture, art, lighting, textiles and objects, woven into one immersive interior.

And Synthesis was born.

What happened next was bigger than I could have imagined.

Over 20,000 people moved through the space during Melbourne Design Week. There were drinks at the bar, bodies on the sofa, conversations between strangers, makers meeting makers, people touching things, sitting amongst them, asking questions and staying far longer than we ever expected.

It became exactly what I hoped it would be: alive.

And somehow, it kept going long after we closed the doors.

Synthesis found its way into @yellowtrace @vogueliving , @bellemagazineau @channel9 News and far beyond Australia. Images travelled. Conversations continued. Months later, people are still talking to me about that room.

That might be the part I’m proudest of.

Because Synthesis wasn’t created as an aesthetic exercise. It came from a very specific idea about what an interior exhibition could be and a belief that interior design has the power to bring completely different creative voices together and make them feel like they have always belonged in the same room.

I conceived and curated Synthesis through Studio Shields, alongside an incredible collective of Australian creatives who trusted me with their work and helped turn a slightly bonkers idea in my head into something very, very real.

@synthesis.mdw || curated by Ruby Shields for @ngvmelbourne Melbourne Design Week 2026 || Captured by @gemmola

523

34

128

4

studio visit with the extremely talented and incredibly kind @belwilliams.studio a while back. I love these type of shoots. lots of get to know ya chat while also exploring the inner workings of somebody’s mind and creative practice and work space. so much to look at and to learn!

73

6

.
Reveal House.
Fitzroy North

An adorned reveal. Stone encasement and a tiled hearth to enhance an existing fireplace.

Builder: @hartwrightprojects
Photography: @_assignmnt

3

0

Cape Woolamai, VIC Australia

Residential Renovation, 2026.
Alterations and additions to a coastal weatherboard house. Colour explorations and subtle moments.

Builder: @casa.co.building

Photography: @phamstapham

3

1

Cape Woolamai, VIC Australia

Residential Renovation, 2026.
Alterations and additions to a coastal weatherboard house. Passive solar and thermal energy upgrade, structural adaptations, new spaces and integrated joinery. Improving flow and function of space for large family gatherings.

Builder: @casa.co.building

Photography: @phamstapham

3

3

In good company. Our Chunk-elabra perched on top of Bel Williams’ stunning side table, curated and styled by none other than Queen Ruby Shields.

@synthesis.mdw @_studio.shields @abbotsfordconvent @ngvmelbourne
Photography: @tomross.xyz

91

0

•SYNTHESIS•

A little Throwback Friday… because it’s somehow been two months since @synthesis.mdw , and I still miss the community that gathered around it!

One of the things I was most passionate about was shifting the conversation around how we exhibit design. Rather than objects sitting in isolation, Synthesis invited people into a fully realised interior ~ one designed to be experienced, inhabited and felt. Less gallery, more home.

I have a feeling we’re only just beginning to see this way of exhibiting emerge more across Australia, and if Synthesis played even a small part in that conversation, I’ll wear that with pride.

Go hard or go home was the only approach. I threw absolutely everything at it, and somehow it became even bigger than I’d imagined.

Thank you to every person who walked through those burgundy curtains, lingered a little longer, sat on the sofa, shared a conversation or supported the exhibition. It genuinely meant the world.

And huge thank you to @vogueliving for capturing and sharing Synthesis so beautifully.

Here’s to the 2am wake-ups, the tears in the shower thinking, “You could just pull out and avoid failing publicly. No one will know”… and the kind of adrenaline that reminds you growth usually lives on the other side of terror.

I still can’t quite believe we pulled it off.

Melbourne Design Week by @ngvmelbourne
Held at the Bishop’s Parlour @abbotsfordconvent

Synthesis featured works by:
Amy Vidler, Anne U, Angela Hayes, Astrid Salomon, Bel Williams, Bolaji Teniola, Cameron Green, Carl Brosen Studio, Craig Shanahan / Mood Workshop, Curtis Bloxsidge & 2am Close, Culture Cush, Dean Norton, Em Frank, Femme Brutale, Fools Glass, Georgia Harvey, Hannah Nowlan, Indigo Tolhurst, Jenny Jones, Jordan Fleming, Kelly Brown, KOEH Studio, Locki Humphrey, Marlo Lydia, Martyn Thompson, Max Copolou, Melvin Josy, Nicole Lawrence, Objects for Thought, Patrick Scott, Patrick Shields, Ro Noonan, Renee Estée, Saturday Yard Work, Studio Dokola, Studio Kaytar, Studio Tops, Subject Matters, Sundance Studio, Tantri Mustika, Thannie Phan, Theodosius Ng, Thomas Maxam & Zoe Diacolabianos.

Curated by Ruby Shields

3

18

A Mediterranean-Inspired Melbourne Home by Shareen Joel⁠
⁠
Full of life and fielding light, this Mediterranean-inspired home is etched with charismatic ease by an oft-overlooked ingredient: restraint. Idling in Melbourne's Bayside, Sussex Residence was the "perfect blank canvas" for Shareen Joel and collaborator Tarryn Joyce — an architecturally strong home that needed textural warmth and soul, drawn from the clients' Mediterranean heritage and a deep connection to landscape and light.⁠
⁠
See how restraint became the defining design gesture inside this Bayside Melbourne home on estliving.com — link in bio.⁠
⁠
Sussex Residence by Shareen Joel published on estliving.com⁠
Editor @sophielewis_____⁠
Words @caitlinleishman_arts⁠
Interior Design @shareenjoel
Build @duoresidential⁠
Floor @tonguengrooveau⁠
Photography @seanfennessy

1k

25

Details of Dialogue chair in aluminium, chrome plated steel, waxed canvas. Showing in 100 CHAIRS by @friends.associates for Melbourne Design Week.

100 CHAIRS
14-24 May / 11-6pm daily
South Magdalen Laundry, Abbotsford Convent

A chair developed by @belwilliams.studio and @clairmar between LA, Adelaide and Melbourne.

As strangers that became friends at MDW 2024, Dialogue chair is our first collaboration — exploring our creative alignment for the first time and a way to stay in touch when separated by hemispheres. Designed together over the past five months through an online exchange of sketches, mockups and annotations.

Mechanically fixed, the chair can be disassembled, shipped and reassembled, allowing for ongoing change and iteration.

#melbournedesignweek
#NGV

3

5