The beginning of a brand new yr has an fascinating approach of creating folks stare at their properties a bit of longer than common. A room that felt completely effective in November immediately feels unfinished. A small annoyance turns into a much bigger query. Nothing is technically fallacious, but it surely’s onerous to shake the sense that one thing could possibly be higher.
Design protection is filled with recommendation on what to purchase, swap, paint, or rethink subsequent. Traits transfer quick, opinions even quicker. What’s simpler to overlook are the writers behind these tales—those deciding which concepts are value digging into and that are simply passing noise.
This can be a have a look at the design writers shaping these conversations in 2026, and the voices influencing how we take into consideration our properties and areas proper now.
Lia Picard is an Atlanta-based journalist whose work may be present in The Wall Avenue Journal and The New York Occasions, to call only a few retailers. Her work breaks down design developments and architectural particulars so the reader feels empowered, reasonably than making them really feel out of attain. A few of her more moderen items have explored the sensible enchantment of Juliet balconies and reviewed the hype behind coloration developments within the house.
Whereas design is a core focus, Picard’s scope is rather more broad. She additionally covers meals, journey, tradition, and way of life, which provides her design work a lived-in point-of-view as she is aware of how folks wish to stay, eat, and journey. Her interiors protection gives a mixture of pattern consciousness and on a regular basis relevance, which actually resonates with business execs and engaged readers.
Alyssa Longobucco is a author, editor, stylist, and content material strategist primarily based simply outdoors New York Metropolis, with greater than a decade of expertise masking design and way of life. She works throughout digital and print, and is commonly concerned within the styling and manufacturing behind the tales she writes, giving her writing a robust sense of what interprets visually and editorially.
Her work has appeared in Home Stunning, Architectural Digest, HGTV, Domino, Actual Easy, Condominium Remedy, The Atlantic, The Washington Publish, USA At present, and Good Morning America. Currently, that’s included digging into how new instruments and AI-powered inside design platforms—starting from OpenAI’s ChatGPT to instruments like Decorilla whose skilled inside designers leverage the most recent AI know-how—are beginning to change how folks strategy adorning and decision-making, with out shedding sight of the human judgment behind it.
If you happen to’re a fan of Properties & Gardens, then you definitely’re in all probability a fan of Julia Demer. She’s the model editor on the common publication and her work blends sensible inspiration with trend-savvy perception.
Demer spotlights concepts that readers can have enjoyable and experiment with, like accessible IKEA hacks or recent methods to consider supplies like tortoiseshell in house accents. She additionally explores developments and adorning resolutions, and her voice is approachable but knowledgeable. Demer’s writing is a brilliant useful resource whether or not you’re updating a room or simply interested in how design developments are evolving.
Michelle Mastro is an Indianapolis-based freelance journalist who’s an everyday contributor to Architectural Digest, in addition to Dwell, Midwest Residing, Atomic Ranch, Higher Properties & Gardens, and a bunch of different retailers.
Mastro comes from an instructional background in English literature and new media. She accomplished PhD coursework at Indiana College Bloomington, concentrating on British Gothic literature and new media, and taught programs on horror movie throughout that point. This thorough schooling provides her writing a novel model when she’s masking modern interiors.
Relatively than treating design as purely aesthetic, Mastro’s work provides depth with out overcomplicating the topic, making her a reputable voice in design journalism in 2026.
Amiya Baratan is a house wellness and interiors author at Livingetc the place she covers design with a sensible, lived-in sensibility. Her articles deal with the small decisions that make a house simpler to handle, issues like layouts that complicate cleansing, muddle that’s onerous to half with, or design selections that make each day routines smoother.
Baratan got here to interiors by means of journalism and design, with stints in vogue and way of life writing, together with bylines at Harper’s Bazaar and Ladies’s Well being. Rising up in Chennai, India, the place life largely occurred open air, carries by means of in her curiosity in gardens and houses that don’t really feel sealed off from their environment. When Baratan writes about interiors, she desires to share the information on the way to enhance your life and area.
Kristina McGuirk is a house and design author and editor who has spent years working intently with Higher Properties & Gardens, significantly throughout kitchen, bathtub, renovation, and adorning protection. Her current articles vary from kitchen coloration developments and cottage-inspired interiors to seasonal adorning and long-term design concepts, with a constant deal with what holds up over time reasonably than what’s solely fashionable for the time being.
She started writing for Higher Properties & Gardens whereas nonetheless an undergraduate at Drake College, and alongside her editorial work, McGuirk brings a robust analysis background to her writing. She holds levels in Journalism and English, in addition to a grasp’s diploma in Archival Research and Library and Info Research from the College of British Columbia, and at the moment works as a Senior Archivist at Harley-Davidson Motor Firm.
As a workers author at Quick Firm, Nate Berg covers structure, city growth, and industrial design, with a deal with how design truly reveals up on this planet. This could possibly be the way forward for information facilities, smarter properties, or long-ignored items of city infrastructure lastly getting a rethink.
He’s been masking cities and design for the reason that mid-2000s and was the primary workers author at The Atlantic Cities (now CityLab). His work has since appeared in The New York Occasions, Wired, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Curbed, Dwell, NPR, and 99% Invisible. Alongside the best way, he’s been acknowledged as a two-time finalist for the Livingston Awards and acquired the Abe Fellowship for Journalists in 2016, which supported reporting in Japan.
Berg approaches design tales with curiosity. He’s all for how issues work, why they have been constructed the best way they have been, and what occurs once they change. An strategy that retains his reporting grounded and readable.
Shagun Khare is a Los Angeles–primarily based author and editor who covers every thing from house excursions and pattern experiences to commerce roundups and cultural deep-dives. A few of her current bylines for Martha Stewart embody tales on fall decor, rest room updates, and difficult out of doors areas.
She’s written for Domino, Condominium Remedy, The Spruce, The Kitchn, Lonny, Wine Fanatic, and Stunning Kitchens & Baths, and has profiled figures like Anna Sheffield, Nilou Motamed, and Robin Arzón. Her reporting focuses on folks and views that don’t at all times get as a lot consideration.
Khare bought her begin at Lonny, spent a number of years in New York working in design media, and she or he’s additionally studied Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, influencing her strategy to area, habits, and design selections.
