The Designory Studio

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The Designory Studio Made by designers, made for you. Designers empowering you with inspiration, education + tools. We're making beautiful designer homes more accessible than ever.

The Designory is a multi-faceted design business and education platform with a focus on interiors, architecture, and the built environment. With over 15 years in the industry, we bring deep expertise and a unique perspective on design, education, and building. Co-led by Founder Melissa Bonney and Director Cat Gerke, The Designory blends over 35 years of combined experience in design and marketing. Our evolution from a boutique studio to a multi-channel brand has been driven by a mission to share knowledge, create impact, and build authentic brand value. The business spans three core divisions:

In Residence Collective – our consulting arm, offering design strategy & consulting, property advisory, and buyer agency services;

The Designory Digital – our eCommerce and education platform featuring project insights, digital products, events, and courses;

Brand Collaborations – our marketing arm connecting leading brands with an engaged audience through content, campaigns, and curated partnerships.

15/10/2026

Why did we build an entire design platform instead of just creating an online course? Well, we very nearly did.

When we first started exploring how we could share our 15 years of design experience with homeowners, an online course seemed like the obvious answer. Package up everything we've learned, create some lessons, hit publish and off you go! But the more we explored it, the more we kept coming back to the same dilemma: There is NEVER just one simple answer when it comes to designing, building, renovating or decorating a home.

You can teach someone how to plan a kitchen, but what happens when their kitchen has an awkward footprint, three doorways and a structural wall they can't move? You can explain how to create a renovation budget, but what happens when an unexpected expense throws the whole thing out? You can teach the principles of interior design, but applying those principles to your own home, lifestyle and budget is an entirely different story.

And that's what bothered us about creating just a course. We didn't just want to teach you about design. We wanted to help you actually DO it. So instead, we spent 18 months building something much bigger.

The Design Intelligence Platform brings together our professional architectural and interior plans, guides, budgeting tools, templates, schemes, supplier resources and sourcing access. Importantly, our INSIDER Membership includes fortnightly LIVE Q&A sessions with Mel, so you can ask questions and get guidance as your project unfolds.

Your renovation won't follow a neat little lesson plan. Your questions won't all arrive at the same time. And your home certainly won't be exactly like anyone else's.

We built INSIDER around the reality of designing a home, not the convenience of delivering a course. And we think that's a pretty important difference.

Want to see what we've been working on? Access it here:
https://www.thedesignory.com.au/membership
$400 OFF your annual membership until December 1st.

14/10/2026

We created this membership for homeowners who are renovating, building or decorating their own homes and are tired of trying to piece everything together from Pinterest, Google, conflicting supplier advice and, dare we say it, ChatGPT (no offence, ChatGPT).

There's certainly no shortage of home renovation and interior design advice out there, knowing what advice to follow, what decisions to make and WHEN to make them is an entirely different story. And that's where we come in.

We've spent 15 years designing hundreds of homes, refining our processes, building relationships with suppliers and learning what works (and what really, really doesn't). And now we're sharing all of it with you.

Professional house plans, interior room plans (think kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, living and office spaces), tools, design guides, decorating schemes, supplier resources and fortnightly LIVE Q&A sessions with Mel to help you work through your own design dilemmas. Not to mention our Sourcing Assistant that gives you access to our Trade Pricing and let's us treat you like a Designory client.

Actual tools, resources and access to expertise you can use while you're in the thick of your own project. Our goal? To make great design more accessible, take some of the overwhelm out of renovating and give you the confidence to create a home you genuinely love.

INSIDER IS HERE, and we can't wait to welcome you in!

Comment INSIDER and we'll DM you the link to explore everything inside. Plus, we're offering $400 OFF your annual membership until December 1st.

14/10/2026

Well, this feels like a pretty BIG moment for us.

After 18 months of building behind the scenes (and 15 years spent designing, renovating and creating hundreds of homes), we're FINALLY opening the doors to our Design Intelligence Method and launching our INSIDER Membership. We couldn't be more excited to share it with you!

If you're planning a home renovation, building a new house or tackling the interior design of your own home, you'll probably know the drill. A hundred Pinterest boards, 47 browser tabs, plenty of conflicting advice and a growing list of decisions you're not quite sure how to make. We wanted to change that.

So we took the design processes, professional house plans, renovation tools, interior design resources and industry knowledge we've developed over the years and put them all in one place. A place where homeowners can access the same thinking, resources and expertise we use when designing homes for our clients.

Inside you'll find architectural and interior plans, kitchen and bathroom design guides, renovation roadmaps, budgeting templates, material selection advice, supplier resources and so much more. Plus, fortnightly LIVE Q&A sessions with Mel, where you can bring your actual renovation and design dilemmas and get advice from someone who's been there (a few hundred times!).

It's not another interior design course. It's a practical, evolving resource designed to help you make confident decisions, avoid expensive mistakes and create a home you genuinely love living in.

INSIDER IS HERE! 🥂

Explore the membership via the link below, plus you'll get $400 OFF your annual membership until December 1st.
https://www.thedesignory.com.au/membership

THIS IS LITERALLY THE MOST EXCITING (AND EXHAUSTING) THING WE'VE EVER DONE. And yes, it's a little disruptive.After 18 m...
14/10/2026

THIS IS LITERALLY THE MOST EXCITING (AND EXHAUSTING) THING WE'VE EVER DONE. And yes, it's a little disruptive.

After 18 months of planning, writing, rethinking and rebuilding (and a few late nights), the doors are finally open to INSIDER, our members-only Design Intelligence Platform.

For almost 15 years, we've designed more than 400 homes. Between those projects, our own renovations, retreats and conversations with thousands of homeowners, one thing kept coming up: people know what they LOVE. They're drowning in inspiration. What they're missing is the HOW and the confidence to actually pull it all together.

"Just make a course," they said. And we did consider it. But a course couldn't solve the real problem. Every home, budget and family is different. There isn't one right answer, and another how-to video won't always help when you're staring down a very expensive decision.

We didn't want to add to the noise. We wanted to give you the tools to DO it. So we evolved The Designory and built INSIDER: an all-access pass to our professional, editable architectural and interior plans, CAD files, studio design tools, budgeting and project management templates, guides, masterclasses, design schemes and supplier resources.

But two things make this especially exciting: fortnightly LIVE Q&A sessions with Mel, where you can bring your real design dilemmas and get help when you need it; and INSIDER Plus, which opens up our Sourcing Assistant and trade buying power so you can access trade discounts through our supplier network.

We've always believed good design shouldn't be reserved for people who can afford full-service design. Whether you're building, renovating or decorating your own home, we want you to feel capable, supported and confident in every decision.

To celebrate, we're offering $400 OFF annual INSIDER and INSIDER Plus memberships until 1 December 2026

Sign up here: https://www.thedesignory.com.au/membership
We can't wait to welcome you inside.

Mel & Cat x

14/10/2026

Well, it’s finally here! After almost 15 years of The Designory and 18 months of Cat and I working behind the scenes, I’m so excited to finally open the doors to INSIDER.

This is something we’ve wanted to create for such a long time. A way to share everything we’ve learnt over the years, make good design more accessible and give you the knowledge, tools, resources and confidence to create a home you really love.

Whether you’re building, renovating, planning something for the future or simply love all things design, there’s a place for you here.

We’d absolutely love you to come and take a look at what we’ve created. It’s just the beginning, and there’s so much more to come.

Come and join me on the INSIDE! 🤍

Mel x

Explore INSIDER via the link in our bio.

What comes first, form or function? It’s one of those age-old design debates. But for us, the answer is actually neither...
10/10/2026

What comes first, form or function? It’s one of those age-old design debates. But for us, the answer is actually neither.

Feeling. Then function. Then form.

It’s a philosophy that sits right at the heart of our Design Intelligence Method, and it shapes the way we approach every single project. Before we think about how a space should look, or even how it needs to work, we ask a much more important question. How do you want it to feel?

The way a home makes you feel should inform how you use it, and how you use it should inform how it looks.

Get those three things in the right order and you’re no longer just designing a beautiful space. You’re creating a home that genuinely supports the way you want to live. We think that’s a pretty good place to start.

Feeling → Function → Form.

10/10/2026

We get asked this a lot: why are you sharing all the plans, tools, resources and processes you’ve spent years developing? Aren’t you worried people will just do it themselves?... The answer is pretty simple: That was always the plan.

Even more so now, because The Designory is focused on helping homeowners confidently manage their own renovation, build or decorating project. INSIDER gives you access to the knowledge, plans, tools and resources we’ve developed through years of real projects, plus fortnightly live Q&A Zoom sessions with Mel throughout your membership, so you can ask questions, sense-check decisions and pick a designer’s brain as your project unfolds.

Do we think this replaces professional interior designers? No. There is absolutely room for both. But for homeowners who can’t afford full-service design, don’t want to work with a designer, or simply want to take a more hands-on approach, our INSIDER membership gives you a way to access professional design knowledge and guidance without the full-service price tag.

When one wrong decision can cost thousands to fix, having the right information upfront can make a very big difference. Professional knowledge. Practical resources. Real access to a designer. So you can do more of it yourself... with a lot more confidence.

Launching October 14th. Comment Insider to join the waitlist and access $400 off annual membership as a founding member.

I think we may have found the location for our next Design Retreat… any guesses?
09/10/2026

I think we may have found the location for our next Design Retreat… any guesses?

09/10/2026

For the past 18 months, the two of us have been working away behind the scenes on something that has probably been years in the making, if we’re really honest.

It started with conversations. Hundreds of them, actually. Conversations with homeowners at our retreats, questions from our community on social media, discussions with brands and suppliers, and all those little moments throughout more than 400 projects where we’ve thought, we wish more people knew this.

For a long time, we thought we’d create a course. We mapped it out, talked about it endlessly and even started building one. But the more we worked through it, the more we realised that a course wasn’t actually going to solve the problem we wanted to solve.

Because you can’t teach someone 20 years of experience in a series of videos and then wish them luck with their renovation.

We wanted people to feel genuinely confident. Not just inspired or a little more informed, but actually supported in the doing.

So we went back to the drawing board (a few times, actually).And slowly, our Design Intelligence platform started taking shape.

One thing became very clear. We didn’t want this to be a one-way conversation. So the idea of a zero-touch course went out the window, and live Zoom sessions with our members came in. Sometimes all the information in the world doesn’t replace being able to ask someone who’s been there, done that, and probably made a few mistakes along the way.

It’s been a mammoth undertaking. Just the two of us, figuring out how to turn years of knowledge into something genuinely useful, accessible and practical. There have been plenty of late nights, a few rabbit holes and more than a couple of moments where we’ve wondered what on earth we’d gotten ourselves into.

But we’re almost there….on October 14, we finally get to share what we’ve been building.

Love, Mel & Cat x

Comment INSIDER and we’ll send you the waitlist link, along with access to a special launch-day offer.

Undertaking your own project? There are hundreds of decisions to make, endless information to sort through, budgets to m...
08/10/2026

Undertaking your own project? There are hundreds of decisions to make, endless information to sort through, budgets to manage, trades to coordinate and approximately 47 moments where you’ll wonder if you’ve made a terrible mistake.

While hiring an interior designer to guide you through the whole thing would be lovely, for a lot of homeowners that simply isn’t an option. So for the past 18 months, we’ve been working on something else.

We’ve taken everything we’ve learnt from more than 400 residential projects, the systems, the processes, the plans, the questions we ask, the things we check, the mistakes we know how to avoid and the design thinking we use every day and turned it into our Design Intelligence Method.
And very soon, we’re opening the doors to Insider Members. A membership designed to give you access to all of it.
The plans. The tools. The guides. The masterclasses. The live Q&As. The sourcing support. The practical stuff that actually helps you move your project forward with more clarity and a lot less second-guessing.

Insider launches October 14. Want first access — and a special launch-day discount?
Comment INSIDER below and we’ll send you the link to join the waitlist.

Address

PO Box 1480
Byron Bay, NSW
2481

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+61406319744

Website

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