With several decades of work behind her and the creation of one of New Zealand’s first courses in interior design, which bears her name, Cameron has undoubtedly changed the face of design in this country.

Cameron was a founding member of the Designers Institute of New Zealand and also founded the Nanette Cameron School of Interior Design, now run out of Te Tuhi in Pakuranga, which began in 1967. 

Cameron won the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 2019 Interior Awards. The jury said  “Much can be said for an individual who, by their own merit, has had an institution named after them. Nanette Cameron – whose moniker helps form The Nanette Cameron School of Interior Design – is one such person. Cameron’s prowess as an interior designer and educator has seen her work take on something of a legendary status, as if mythologised under the sheer weight of her enduring influence. Since she began her career in the 1950s, Cameron has inspired and helped define New Zealand’s interior design via both her school and her renowned body of work. Her Glenmore Road home in Pakuranga, for instance, “suggested playfulness from top to toe”, as written in the 2013 book Nanette Cameron: Interior Design Legend, and embodied her infectious passion and unrelenting curiosity for new ways of approaching design. For her work as a true icon of New Zealand design, Nanette is an ideal recipient of the Interior Awards’ inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award”. 

Cameron’s funeral will be held at 1pm on Monday 24 April at St Joseph’s Church, 470 Great North Road, Grey Lynn in Auckland.