Marion Hall Best
Marion Hall Best (1905–1988) was a leading interior designer in Sydney who worked from 1938 to 1974. She helped turn interior decoration into a respected profession and inspired many with her modern, stylish rooms.
Born as Marion Esdail Burkitt in Dubbo, New South Wales, she was the youngest of four children. She trained as a nurse and studied at Frensham School. Her first decorating project came in 1929 at her mother’s house, Farleigh, after holidays in Palm Beach. She also studied painting and embroidery before moving into interior decoration.
In 1938 she began architecture studies at the University of Sydney and, in 1939–40, completed a correspondence course in interior decorating in New York. She opened Marion Best fabrics workroom and display area in Woollahra in 1938 and later a shop in Rowe Street in 1949. Her work reflected Modernism and later Minimalism, and she drew on the Bauhaus for ideas. She helped bring in international textiles, furniture, and wallpapers from brands like Marimekko, Herman Miller, Eero Saarinen, Noguchi, and McGuire, while also supporting Australian designers. The business, Marion Best Pty Ltd Interior Design, ran until 1974. Local artists designed fabrics for her showrooms, produced by Gilkes & Co. Her post-war projects and designs appeared in home magazines, and she ran the David Jones Art Gallery in 1947–48. In 1956 she gave a paper on daily design at the Australian Architectural convention.
Her residential and public commissions included the Lady Gowrie Child Centre (1941), Peter Playfair’s Dining Alcove (1953), and a set of Luxury Flats for Moderate Incomes in Sydney. She designed Lewarne House (1965–1980) in Neutral Bay, Cater House in Canberra (1965), Moonbah Ski Lodge in Thredbo (1959–61, with Bill Lucas), Crebbin House in Castlecrag (1960–1975), and the Hyatt Hotel in Kings Cross (decorated 1969–70). She also created rooms for Peter Sculthorpe (1971) and The Grove in Woollahra, her home, which was featured in major magazines in the late 1960s. Her best-known showpiece was Room for Mary Quant in 1967.
Her classic and modern designs were showcased in exhibitions such as Rare and Beautiful Things at the Gallery of NSW (1961), Ten Best Dressed Rooms (1962), and Rooms on View (1967, 1971). The 1941 exhibition for the Australian Red Cross Society, with her Classic Modern and Young Modern rooms, gained wide publicity.
The Marion Hall Best Collection, kept at the Caroline Simpson Library and Research Centre in Sydney, holds plans, papers, photographs, wallpapers, fabrics, and furnishings. Marion Hall Best passed away on 26 June 1988 in Darling Point, but her work helped shape Australian interior design for generations. Her daughter Deidre Hall Best (Deidre Broughton) also studied architecture and contributed material to the collection.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 09:08 (CET).