How to Decorate

Ep. 161: designer Markham Roberts

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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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