The Dream List No. 33: Augusta Hoffman

From moss gardens in Kyoto to a Josef Hoffmann chair in butter yellow, Augusta Hoffman reveals how imperfection, restraint, and memory shape her quietly soulful interiors.

There’s a certain grace to Augusta Hoffman’s interiors—quiet, cerebral, and exquisitely resolved. Born in Dallas, now based in New York, Hoffman has developed a visual language that merges refinement with restraint. Her rooms don’t clamor for attention; they invite a second glance. And then a third. Educated at Parsons and seasoned at top design and architecture firms before founding her own studio in 2019, she brings both rigor and poetry to her process.

With a deep reverence for form and a devotion to materials that wear beautifully with time, Hoffman designs spaces that feel both immediate and eternal. Her rooms favor gesture over grandiosity: an olive green wall that hums in the right light, an antique vessel with a subtly mottled glaze, a piece of trim that vanishes until it doesn't. Her projects feel like living still lifes—carefully composed but never static.

Since launching her eponymous studio, she’s been quietly building a reputation as one of New York’s most thoughtful design talents. A spot on ELLE DECOR's A-List, a feature in FREDERIC, and interiors for clients who value intimacy over spectacle have positioned her as a kind of minimalist with soul. She understands that true luxury is emotional—it’s not in the price tag but in the pacing, the texture, the restraint.

In this edition of The Dream List, Augusta walks us through the references that shape her world: moss gardens in Kyoto, a Josef Hoffmann chair in butter yellow, a book that belonged to her father, and a bowl thrown by hand. What emerges is a portrait of a designer who finds magic not in maximalism, but in meaning.