Stuart is hailed as an icon in Los Angeles for her exceptional work. Architectural Digest wrote, "In a city driven by artifice and spectacle, Madeline Stuart celebrates understatement, authenticity, and elegance without affectation." The daughter of director Mel Stuart (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) and a decorator mother whose interiors were favored by actors and entertainers, Stuart grew up as a Hollywood insider. Today, her wide-ranging clientele comes from the entertainment industry as well as the world of business and finance.

In No Place Like Home, Stuart herself writes eloquently about her recent work. With insight and wit, she walks the reader through her design process, from initial vision to execution. From her meticulous renovation of Cedric Gibbons's Streamline Moderne house to a newly built Montana ranch to a Mediterranean-inspired residence on the California coast, each project is informed by Stuart's keen understanding of history and craftsmanship as well as her skill with scale, proportion, and balance. These, along with her unexpected combinations of furniture and fine-art and decorative elements, result in richly layered interiors that feel authentic to their period and place, while remaining always relevant, modern, and beautiful.