I recently took a look back at all of our podcast episodes of Decorating Tips and Tricks, all 405 of them! When I looked at the downloads per episode, do you want to guess which episode was the most popular? Well I guess I gave it away already with the title – Lessons that will make you a better decorator. I thought this would be a great topic for my blog. Let’s talk about lessons that will make you a better decorator. Here are my favorite lessons.
Take a photo of the room before you start
There are 3 reasons I think you should take a photo of your room. The most important reason to photograph the room is to see what is wrong with the room, or where the room could use some improvement. It’s amazing how our eyes get used to seeing something so they begin to ignore certain things. Just like your ears tend to ignore the refrigerator hum, your eyes will ignore things that you don’t like. Taking a photo means that it will be hard to ignore what is ‘off’ about the room. The second reason to photograph the room is so you’ll have a before and after photo. Those are fun, and will spur you on to do more improvements in other rooms. The last reason to photograph the room is that way you’ll have photos of your home over time. Just as I love to look back at photos of my kids to see how they have grown and matured over time, I love to see how the rooms of my home have matured over time. It’s fun seeing the phases I went through and how I improved my decorating eye.
Use a limited color palette
Too many colors can make a room look confused. You can definitely work with a large range of colors, but the more colors you use, the more difficult it becomes to give your home a cohesive feeling. I suggest sticking with 3 main colors, but you could add in more if you like.
Add black to each room
I don’t count black as one of my colors in my limited color palette, but it’s nice to have in every room. You want lights and darks in every room. It gives the room a feeling of depth. If the room only has light colors, it can feel too ethereal and not grounded. Painting need a bit of black in them, and so do rooms.
Add textures to the room
Adding depth and dimension to a room requires not only light and dark colors, but also different textures. Try to use fabrics with different textures. For example, don’t use just velvets in a room, or just cotton. Try to use several types of fabrics, and then add in other textures, like a wool rug, a wicker basket, glass bottles, a chunky throw, and linen curtains. Try to have some smooth surfaces and some knubby ones. This also gives the room a curated feel.
Stick with classics for your big ticket items
If you are on a budget, one way to keep costs from spiraling out of control over time is to use classics for your big ticket items. Tearing up dated tile and countertops is no fun and it can be very expensive, so you want to choose wisely on those items. Go crazy (if you must) on small things like towels, throws, pillows and small accessories. Those things are easily replaced and usually pretty inexpensive.
Hi there,
All of the room pictures are before, correct? Does the podcast give us the information with regard to colour, texture and other necessary changes. Is it 48 minutes? Then I will need to set aside time tomorrow.
Thank you very much and keep up the great work.
cheers,
Daniele, I like to do before and after photos. The podcast player should say how long the episode is. You can always listen in the podcast app on your phone so you don’t have to be at your computer for that long. If you listen in the Apple Podcast app, it’s episode # 308. Enjoy!!