How to Decorate

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 166: Nashville Week: Laura Thurman Nov 09, 2020

Show notes

In this week’s episode, we sit down with interior design expert Laura Thurman of Thurman Design Studio based in Nashville, Tennessee. We chat about how to handle bold, fall colors as well as having pieces of furniture in your living space that create a splash. We also discuss how to balance decor pieces that you may have picked up from different parts of the world with decor pieces that you already have.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

Laura’s take on the “modern” style and what it means to her.

How important it is to educate clients on the design process, because most of the time, inspiration comes from education.

How to not be afraid of bold, non-traditionally neutral colors and how to incorporate them into your fall decor.

How Laura takes an outdated house and gives it a much more modern approach without tons of major renovations.

How to utilize gallery walls in your space, and what goes into creating a good one!

How your personality and interests should shine through when it comes to the design of your house, just like in Laura’s Cherokee Soul project.

Design tips for when you have a bold-coloured piece of furniture.

The importance of balancing new and older or collected decor pieces to keep a modern feel to your space.

How to have a balance of scale and not have your space feel too cluttered while allowing your eyes to rest in certain areas.

The three design elements that can spruce up a neutral color palette in a space.

The importance of designing a fabulous powder room.

How to decorate a foyer and give some advice on how to incorporate patterns, coffee tables, and faux plants!

Mentioned In This Episode:

Thurman Design Studio

Laura Thurman on Instagram

Laura Thurman on Facebook

Laura Thurman on Pinterest

Decorating Dilemma

Laura thinks you should paint the whole foyer! Because the walls are faceted, painting just one wall doesn’t seem practical, so go big or go home! When it comes to the rug, Laura thinks a big, round, patterned rug would be best because it would take up more floor space.You should also put the Wedgewood gray on the ceiling and stick to navy on the walls. Laura also doesn’t think the arches should be the same color as the foyer, especially if the arches are introducing a room that is a different color. For having two young kids, we’re all very impressed with how tidy your space is! Keep playing with some more patterns since your sofa and pillows are pretty solid, we recommend swapping out the solid pillows for some patterned ones. We also noticed you don’t have a coffee table and have two square ottomans instead, but we think a bigger, round ottoman would complement your space very well. You should also consider painting the mantle navy blue or a deep green! Some drapes in the dining area would help make everything look a little more cohesive. Some greenery or faux plants would also make your home feel more lived-in and can bring life to a space.

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Ep. 165: Peter Pennoyer & Alice Engel Nov 03, 2020

Show notes

Our special guests this week are renowned architect Peter Pennoyerand the Director of Interior Design of Peter Pennoyer Architects (PPA), Alice Engel. Their work has been featured in Architectural Digest, ELLE Decor, Veranda, Town & Country, and many more. We discuss their love of details and high craftsmanship; especially when they serve a function. We also hear about common mistakes they see from clients, favorite projects and what it’s like to have nearly 10,000 books!

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

How to balance designing for the particular needs of a family while also designing a space that will last for decades or more. Craftsmanship is the key to longevity.
Ornaments personalize a house and Peter believes it joins art with architecture.
Alice and Peter both find delight in small design details that improve functionality.
PPA’s approach is to work early in the process with a designer and always include the design in the architectural plans.
When meeting with an architect, always have a wish list of how many rooms, and be candid about your lifestyle.
Peter and Alice get real on the biggest mistakes they see from their clients.
Peter opens up about realizing his dream when he designed his house in the Hudson Valley as a square villa.
It’s easy to overdo your design scheme; Peter and Alice remind us that simplistic consistency is often the best approach.
Different ways to bring in and enhance natural light in a house; including “borrowing light”.
The impressive lengths Peter and Alice traveled in order to combine traditional and modern on a house in Ohio that was featured in Architectural Digest.
Why PPA likes to connect to each artisan involved in the process and make it a collaborative process.
How trends and perspectives on design and architecture have been influenced by the pandemic.
PPA has an impressive library of nearly 1o,oo0 books that are central to the office both in design and as a resource.
Why bright red is a color seen throughout PPA’s projects.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Find all of the show notes at ballarddesigns.com/podcast

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Ep. 164: designer Brigette Romanek Oct 27, 2020

Show notes

Our guest this episode, Brigette Romanek, is one of LA’s most sought-after designers. Brigette is the founder of Romanek Design Studio and has been featured in Architectural Digest’s “AD 100”, ELLE Decor, Vogue and more. With no formal training, Brigette relies heavily on her intuition and doesn’t believe there are hard rules when it comes to design. We discuss how her one-of-a-kind style is heavily influenced by her musical mother, her travels and her love of eclecticism.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

How Brigette went from having no formal training to designing Beyoncé’s home.
Why it’s important to tune in to each individual client’s needs and “speak their language”.
Brigette believes less is more (especially on windows!) and often strays from traditional design elements.
What Brigette means when she says “livable luxe” and why she wants a home to feel functional yet uniquely yours.
When designing a house, a room should be its own vignette but also fit together as a whole.
Lighting is so important, yet difficult, to enhance the overall feeling of a space.
Brigette likes to keep the original character of a building’s architecture and work with it instead of against it.
Brigette’s clients run the gamut of completely hands-off to overseeing each step of the process; and she learns something new each time.
What it was like working with Queen Bey!
One of Brigette’s most challenging projects was working on a commercial project because everyone involved had different ideas.
How Brigette gets away with including a wild card in each of her projects.

Decorating Dilemma

Brigette thinks you can break this up into two separate spaces that will serve as their own vignettes. You can put a rug down when you first walk in to immediately ground the space as well as some curtains to outline a seating area by the window. You could also have a cushion made to go on the bench you already have. As far as the rest of the room, using shelving or bookcases will make a decorative but intentional break in the space. In that middle space you’re not fond of, how about a beautiful table to place vase and even store your keys on? To store your winter clothes and other items, you do have that coat closet that protrudes. Let’s enhance that area and own it so you really love it! You could cover it with a fabric you love, you could paint it, you could change the hardware…play with it. A visit to the Container Store would help organize the inside of it.

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If we talk about using the things you already own, what if you took the bench you have and put it straight ahead when you walk in and then move the table where the bench is. And then just add Ballard’s double boot tray either right when you walk in or tuck on the backside of the closet. Maybe add hooks above it too? – Karen

And don’t forget to use those high ceilings for some fun lighting!

Mentioned In This Episode:

Find the show notes for this episode at ballarddesigns.com/podcast.

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Bonus Episode: What We've Learned & Our 4th Anniversary Oct 25, 2020

Show notes

Today’s bonus episode marks four years since we started the How to Decorate podcast! We talk about our favorite takeaways, tips and tools learned over the years. We are so grateful for all of our wonderful listeners and the amazing guests we’ve had and look forward to way more fun ahead. Listen in for some of our takeaways about treating your room as a vignette, why we aren’t mad at brown furniture, and a little more of the personal ways we’ve grown and changed throughout the past four years.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

Your house should be the most glamorous version of yourself.
One of the biggest takeaways we’ve learned is there is no “right” or “wrong” when it comes to design.
Brown furniture was an unexpected key player to emerge.
Tone value is such an important learning tool to apply across the board.
Treating the rooms as vignettes is a simple and manageable way to break up a project.
One of the easiest and most instant ways to change it up? Paint!
The personal changes we’ve all been through since we started the podcast.
Having a plan before you begin helps you reach your full vision and less like you’re never finished.
How much energy is saved using LED lights vs. traditional lightbulbs and all the other things we’ve learned about lighting.
“The Cantaloupe Rule”—no accessories smaller than a cantaloupe!
Performance fabrics will save you many headaches in the long run.
The important relationship between designer and architect.
You should respect and decorate specific to house style while finding ways to infuse other elements.
The relationship between a designer and a client is so personal.
We’ve learned how important measuring is. Or have we? Use our room planner tool!
Contrast brings a space to life; textures, finishes, colors, styles, shapes, etc.
How your wardrobe and personal style can be a reflection of your design style.
We can admire a someone else’s style or approach while not adopting it for ourselves; but there are ways to take elements and apply them towards our own design.
Really study how you live to see if your home is (still) working for you.
You don’t have to buy everything for your room all at once; especially expensive items.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Ballard Designs

Find all of the show notes at Ballarddesigns.com/podcast.

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Ep. 163: designer Breegan Jane Oct 20, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we sit down with the multi-talented Breegan Jane. She is an LA-based designer, entrepreneur, lifestyle blogger, TV personality, children’s book author, and mother. She’s been featured on HGTV, the Hallmark Channel, and more. We talk with Breegan about using design as a way to keep some order and cleanliness in the house, tips that we can learn from a 23-bathroom house, and how to keep things fresh and new using what we already have while at home with our family.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

How Breegan’s impressive and diverse resume has helped to shape her design style and visual expression.
What exactly designing a 23-bathroom house entails.
What kind of tips designers learn from their clients that they use for their own homes.
How Breegan uses design to keep order and cleanliness with two young sons in the house.
Why Breegan insists her 4 and 6-year-old share a bedroom (at least for now).
How you can transition spaces, especially as we are at home more, without buying all new things.
The opportunities and challenges Breegan has faced while working on HGTV’s Extreme Makeover and how she balances work and motherhood.
Breegan talks about her go-to elements for glamour and what she calls “modern approachable luxury” including mixing textures.
In our Decorating Dilemma, we dive deep into modernizing a space with color tones and having faith in the changes your designers suggest.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Breegan Jane

Breegan on Instagram

Breegan on Facebook

Breegan on Twitter

HGTV

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Decorating Dilemma

Breegan thinks you know your biggest problem; you just have to be willing to fix it! The color tone in that wood is really dating the space. If you were to paint or stain over those cabinets in white, put two new pendants lights over the kitchen island and add a rug with some color in that space—you would be done! If you (or your husband) are not willing to part with the wood aesthetic, you could paint the kitchen white and try to ebonize the wood with a dark stain. Any color that gets you away from the yellow tone in the wood is really going to modernize it; you could do white, grey, brown or black. You already have a great, neutral style in your home and then you can accent it with any color you want; maybe even some fun bold-patterned drapery. There’s no getting around that dated tone, unfortunately, but you have a beautiful space with wonderful natural light! It may be labor-intensive, but you could do this yourself and it’s not very expensive. In terms of the backsplash? Leave it! You don’t need it and then you can put that money into the other things we recommended. Please report back, Megan!

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To sort of play devil’s advocate, Caroline thinks you could start by painting the doors, trim and fireplace while leaving the kitchen alone. Breaking up the uniformity of the space will help it look less dated. If you start small, you can get your husband on board with bigger changes.

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Ep. 162: designer Sara Barney Oct 13, 2020

Show notes

This week we were pleased to speak with Sara Barney—founder and principal designer of the Austin-based firm BANDD DESIGN. Sara is an Austin native who spent the first 10 years of her career in California in the sports and entertainment industries. Now back on her home turf, she’s taking the design world by storm. Sara was named one of Fortune Magazine‘s Most Powerful Women, one of Austin Monthly‘s Women to Watch, and is a member of the American Society of Interior Designers and the Female Founder Collective.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

Much of Sara’s style draws from her varied professional background and from living in California.
Sara decided shortly after having her 2 daughters that she wanted to switch careers and try her hand at design. She took a 1 year online program and her business was booming before she even finished.
We talk about Sara’s approach to styling shelves and her love/hate relationship with floating shelves.
Solids work well for large elements and Sara ties in textures, layers and patterns with smaller pieces.
Sara loves taking risks with wallpaper and shares some of her favorite sources.
The all-white kitchen is a big trend, but Sara prefers playing with colors in the kitchen.
Sara works a lot with young families and gives tips on where she recommends investing in more sturdy, stain-resistant pieces.
3D printed houses are here; and Sara explains how it works and how she got to design one.
What are two of the things everyone is asking Sara for? (matte black fixtures and modern farmhouse)
With people spending more time at home due to COVID, Sara talks about how design requests have been influenced.
Sara talks about best home office solutions and how to make the space not look so “corporate”.
We talk about Sara’s love of and use of deep teal and integrating functional items to fit within the design.
Why one of Sara’s phrases is, “No Schluter ever!”

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Ep. 161: designer Markham Roberts Oct 06, 2020

Show notes

This week, we welcome legendary designer Markham Roberts to talk about his new book, Notes on Decorating. We talk about how his style has evolved, and he shares his knowledge and humor with us. We discuss why practicality is key, how to better combine traditional and modern style, and why his love of hot dogs is unparalleled.

What You’ll Hear On This Episode:

Markham thinks the most important thing is understanding your clients and what makes them happy.
Practicality is key.
Not all decorating is created equal. Markham recommends considering the difference between mountain houses vs. beach houses, country vs. urban, etc., and to choose materials that reflect location, terrain and climate.
When combining traditional and modern styles, Markham thinks there are no rules and it’s best just to DO IT. See what happens and how they relate to each other.
We talk about 3 houses Markham decorated all out West, belonging to 3 clients that were friends, that are very different.
The Nantucket house that Markham decorated truly indulged his creativity. The client’s unique and blunt personality challenged him to make a mix of styles work together.
We love how much Markham uses humor in his approach, and in his book, to enjoy his work. We dive into some of our favorite parts of his book.
Markham tells us how he got creative with a client’s antique pieces so they could be highlighted and not hidden.
We ask Markham about his guidelines on the contrast trend.
Markham talks to us about his love of subtlety, details and the use of simple ticking of fabrics.
We ask Markham for his best nuggets about textiles; don’t always go for the most formal and expensive fabric, play around with them, look at larger samples to really study it.
Markham shares what he loves about one of his personal properties in a small Victorian town in Washington state and how he and his partner, James, have worked for 20 years to make this home truly their own.
Markham tells us why he loves antique quilts and how to be careful when purchasing them.
The only thing that compares to Markham’s love of his dog and tennis, is hot dogs.

Mentioned In This Episode:

MarkhamRoberts.Com

Markham’s Instagram

Notes on Decorating

Decorating the Way I See It

Find all of the show notes at Ballarddesigns.com/podcast.

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Ep. 160: designer Sean Scherer Sep 29, 2020

Show notes

Painter, shop owner, decorator, and author Sean Scherer joins us this week. We talk about creating authentic interiors that tell a story, and Sean shares the inspiration behind his new book, Kabinett & Kammer. We also talk with Sean about using scale and composition to keep balance and flow within a room, using small objects and bright colors to create a large impact, and why it’s okay to just go ahead and purchase that piece you’ve been eyeing up.

What You’ll Hear On This Episode:

Trials and triumphs on some expensive roman shades, rewiring a lamp, a broken chair, tree talk, and exciting new house plans!
In Sean’s new book, Kabinett & Kammer, he celebrates practical yet beautiful interiors in an honest and humble way. It’s all about taking the things we already have and love and displaying them in a new way to get a striking effect.
Sean’s mother was a collector, and by watching her reorganize and repurpose, he fell in love with the process.
In Sean’s new book, Anderson Cooper wrote the foreword and appreciated the aspect of how we can create a unique and authentic sanctuary for ourselves in our home.
We can play with scale to make smaller objects more noticeable, and also use smaller objects as a way to experiment with bright colors.
How Sean shops for the Kabinett & Kammer storefront, and uses the shop as another form of artistic output.
If you really love something, buy it! It’s all part of building a conversation in our home that shows what we love and who we are.
Ways we can take an object and successfully use it out of context, like a great taxidermy piece.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Find all of the Show Notes at Ballarddesigns.com/podcast

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Ep. 159: How to Pick the Perfect Chair Sep 22, 2020

Show notes

There's so much more that goes into shopping for a great chair than just picking what looks pretty. We invited our in-house upholstery experts Kelly, our Merchant and Buyer, and Hillary from our Product Design team to share their insights. We talk about everything from chair height, placement, arms, ottomans, and everything in between. We pick their brains on what to look for when purchasing a chair, and where to splurge vs. save in the chair department. Whether you want to swivel, recline, or sit up pin-straight, this is the episode for you.

What You’ll Hear On This Episode:

Just as important to consider how you are going to use a chair is how you are going to use the space where the chair is going. That will determine the function whether it’s for office use, entertaining,
What instances you would want high back chairs vs. lower back chairs.
The best chairs for entertaining, and the best times that you can sacrifice comfort for something a little tighter.
How your frame is the foundation of a chair and the different types of frames we use based on the specific engineer and general construction of the chair.
The best choices for an office chair that can support long hours at the computer, now that many of us are working from home for the foreseeable future.
What pitch is on a chair, and how the experts at Ballard design and development team determine that a pitch is right.
The different styles of arms on a chair, and which ones are better fitting different functions.
Ballard over 300 upholstery options and many of the performance fabrics are perfect for families, pets, and clumsy drink spillers.
When are ottomans are appropriate, and how much lower they should be than our seat.
Even our experts have scratches on their leather couches, so it’s okay to not be perfect if you do decide on leather!

Mentioned In This Episode:

Kathryn Upholstered Sofa

Sofia Upholstered Sofa

Find all of the Show Notes at Ballarddesigns.com/podcast

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Ep. 158: designer Katie Ridder Sep 15, 2020

Show notes

We kick off this week with some tree talk, then welcome our guest, Interior Designer Katie Ridder. We couldn’t be more excited to talk with Katie about her new book, More Rooms, which is yummy beyond words and featuring color and exquisite details out of this world. We talk with Katie about her bold choices, her love affair with custom banquettes, her advice on bedding, and how she counters colorful choices with colors and tones that blend together seamlessly.

What You’ll Hear On This Episode:

Trials and triumphs about a big plant overhaul, a much needed cushion deep cleaning, rotting plants, and spooky chic Halloween decor.
More behind the amazing details and bold statements of color featured in Katie’s work, how she dreams up all the details without it feeling too busy or overdone.
How she chooses color scheme and builds on it with all the colors, and why you need to just trust her when she mentions bringing in a brown couch.
Why she chooses quiet carpets when you have colorful carpet schemes.
More about her love affair with custom banquettes, and fun ways to add seating options for everyday living and entertaining in a home.
How to make a cozy study, especially now since so many of us are working from home.
Her advice on beds, low profile mattresses, and her choice of bedding.
What working with large publications such as House Beautiful and House and Garden opened her eye to different styles and learning about scale in person.
Katie’s advice for outdoor rooms, and how she has really gotten more into gardening during this time of quarantine.
Ways that we can make sure our furniture and design choices are in scale.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Decorating Dilemma:

Thank you for writing! Here are our suggestions: we don’t think the rug is too large. You can cut it down a little bit if you want, and it would not hurt the value too much. Katie agrees that your instinct to get rid of the cabinet under the TV is right, along with putting the TV on the wall. Check out some of our Ballard console tables to anchor the side of the room. Also, we would lacquer the chairs and use a performance fabric for the cushions.

Find all of the Show Notes at Ballarddesigns.com/podcast

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