Australia’s Wild Card: Greg Natale

By Sarah Binder

GREG NATALE’S BOLD, TAILORED, AND SOPHISTICATED APPROACH PUTS HIM IN HIS OWN
CATEGORY, AND HAS LED TO HIS RECOGNITION AS ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S MOST ACCLAIMED DESIGNERS.

With a new tile collection debuting later this year, two new rug collections and a second carpet line launching next year, and a major refurbishment of a hotel nearly completed, Greg Natale is the design world’s equivalent of the Energizer Bunny, if it just so happened to live Down Under.

The Sydney, Australia-based interior designer embarked on his solo career with a project that others may deem low-key — designing his sister’s one-bedroom apartment. Natale made a splash by transforming it into a multi-award-winning space.

“I installed wall-to-wall, custom-colored Florence Broadhurst wallpaper, layering it with matching artwork and linen,” Natale, founder of Greg Natale Design, says. “The apartment was published in Australian Belle and the UK magazine Wallpaper* and won me my first award, the 2002 Belle Wild Card award, a category created especially for me. Since then, I haven’t looked back.”

Self-described as being “obsessed” with the realm of design since he was young, Natale grew up fascinated with the worlds he saw on television and in film. “The incredible settings showed me that there were endless creative possibilities and inspired me to design my own amazing spaces,” he explains.

Natale studied interior design at Sydney’s Design Centre Enmore, followed by visual arts at Sydney College of the Arts, and architecture at the University of Technology Sydney. In 1996, he received his first break at a residential design firm as a junior interior designer. From there, he worked in two more commercial firms before launching Greg Natale Design in 2001…