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Designer Vern Yip returns to the show to tell us about his new book, Vacation at Home and gives us insight into 18 special steps to create your everyday getaway inside your home. He talks about why we feel so relaxed on vacation and in luxury environments, and how we can start to foster that in our homes with a foundation that helps us live the way we want, and takes things off our “to do” list permanently. Vern also shares how he keeps his personal home so beautiful with kids and over 500 lbs of dogs, why fewer but bigger may be better, and a few suggestions for picking out a color scheme that will work best for your home.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Vern Yip
@vernyip
Vacation at Home
Marie Kondo
Decorating Dilemma
First off, wow. What a beautiful home with an amazing view. We suggest working with spacing first. You can use our Room Planning Tool to put in the dimensions of your room (and even your furniture!) and figure all of it out before you start purchasing things. After that, Vern agrees that the walls should be a lighter color than the ceiling. To create a feeling of expansion and openness.
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Vern thinks this is a great room in terms of windows. We do think, however, that the cut out is making it less symmetrical, so just something to consider. Vern mentions that you can possibly edit your furniture and take off some of the open shelving. Second, when you decide to put window treatments, take the curtain rod all the way up and have your treatments go under the crown to the floor. This will increase the perception of volume in the room. Don’t be afraid of a contrast color, and when it comes time to choose your wall color, Vern suggests having a couple ideas up on the wall, and take down the ones you don’t like until you are left with two or three. Then, you can get sample pots and see how they perform before you make a single choice.
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Textile designer Lisa Fine joins the show this week to talk about how she got into textile design, the path that unfolded after a trip to India, and the top things we should know when working with textiles. Lisa also shares the inspiration behind her new book, Near & Far, and wisdom she has inherited from starting and running her own business. This episode will also support that there is beauty in imperfection, and if you love something you can find a place for it in your home.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Lisa Fine Textiles
Near & Far
@lisafinetextiles
Richard Keith Langham
Wine Away
The Frame TV
Decorating Dilemma
First, Lisa loves that you want a lot of seating areas, and this space is great for entertaining already! It also seems like putting the dining room near the kitchen would work well, and we either vote for a round table to welcome a break from the square, or put the dining room table in front of the fireplace where the sofa is. Maybe the length of the sofa goes perpendicular to the fireplace, and put the two chairs across from it. A slip to cover the chairs would be a great way to match the sofa and have a theme carry across the room. We would love to sit in front of the fireplace too, so feel free to get creative with your seating in front of it!
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We think it’s brilliant the way you have used tape to outline where everything will go, so good use of understanding proportion already! We are okay with the TV in front of the fireplace, and just suggest bringing in more round shapes in your bookshelf accessories to add some softness to the room.
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Interior Designer Lisa Furey joins the show to talk about keeping neutrals chic yet interesting, her award-winning luxury boutique firm, Lisa Furey Interiors in Philadelphia, and how she fell in love with her Palmetto Bluff vacation home. Lisa shares how she went from a career as a divorce lawyer, her passion for the “bricks and sticks” aspect of design and building, and her approach to creating beautiful and practical homes that are just as livable as they are beautiful.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Ballard Designs Ornaments
Lisa Furey
@lisafureyinteriors
Beautiful Kitchen and Baths
Palmetto Bluff
Marie Kondo
Sunset
Villanova
Harcum College
GE Cafe
Hartwell Sofa
Decorating Dilemma
Congrats on your place! Lisa would cover up the gray tile with as much rug as she could using natural fiber rugs. She recommends two, maybe an indoor / outdoor version to kid proof them, and if you are looking for more color you can put a prettier rug on top. A pendant light would bring the ceiling down, and make it feel a bit more comfortable and welcoming.
If you do the bar stools, one option would be to get the saddle ones without backs, so that you can tuck the stools under the table for easy storage.
Instead of a mirror above the fireplace, Lisa suggests a wreath or tobacco baskets with two candle sconces on either side. She would also have the layout of the space be: kitchen on one side, fireplace in the middle, and built in on the other side to elevate and bring in a sense of balance.
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Celebrated Los Angeles Designer Madeline Stuart joins the show today. Madeline talks about her new book, No Place Like Home and a more inside look at some of the articles and photographs featured in the book. She also talks with us about the research that goes into a new project, her passion for both design and architecture, reinventing the wheel with each home, her love of vintage lighting, and the design elements she goes back to time and time again.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Madeline Stuart
Interiors
@madelinedstuart
No Place Like Home
Georgia O’Keefe
Elle Decor
Mabel Dodge Luhan
Decorating Dilemma
Madeline recommends hiring a professional, who you can work with on layout, proportion, scale and much more. Also, find examples of spaces that have a neutral background, and you can begin to get ideas on using items such as textured rugs and vintage finds to add value to a bland space. Just because you may not like the outside doesn’t mean you can’t create an inside that totally fits your style!
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Janie Molster, Interior Designer in the Richmond, Virginia area, is known for her fun and light-hearted designs, mixing the beautiful with the well-choreographed messy. She joins the show this week to talk about her love of pink, decorating for the holidays, and why we don’t always have to go with the traditional red and green. We also all talk about decorating with comfort in mind first, when twin beds may be the way to go and creating symmetry that is pleasing to the eye.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Janie Molster Designs
@JanieMolsterDesigns
House Beautiful
“In Defense of Twins”
Decorating Dilemma
If your budget allows, Janie loves your idea of wallpaper. She would not only wallpaper the walls, but the ceilings as well, wrapping front to back. A stripe or vertical pattern can be really fun, and you can run it up the eaves vertically and across on top to create a cabana tent effect. The funky trimmed doors are so fun and filled with personality, and they could be so fun to accent as well. Great job and we are very impressed by you! One final note: Janie also thought having a custom headboard made could be really cool to get the feel of an arched headboard.
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If there is room on the other end of the sofa, a chair could go nicely there. Janie recommends creating two seating arrangements: one that is oriented to the TV and the other one under the windows. If you layered a room size rug and your current rug on top, it could hide a little of the asymmetry. If you are looking to fill up some wall space, more artwork or mirrors can look great — and only get a bookshelf if you are really needing space for more books! Our final thought is that adding some drapery could be great for adding some softness to the room.
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This week we start off by talking about holiday decorating with some tree talk and gift wrapping strategy. Then, we welcome the great Timothy Corrigan to talk about his chateau addiction, his signature style described as “comfortably elegant”, and his new book The New Elegance. Timothy believes our home is the place to bring out our best selves, elegance doesn’t always have to take a lot of effort to achieve, and there is nothing better than mixing styles and quality.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Timothy Corrigan Books
@timothycorrigan
Decorating Dilemma
Hello Denmark! The views outside your windows are so dreamy. To Tim, the biggest issue is starting to create some separation between the living and dining area. He would recommend a rug under the sofa and chairs in the living area, to ground it and make it feel more cozy and comfortable. Next, if you put a sofa table behind it with objects (or table lamps) to subtly divide space and open it up in an interesting way to make it feel even bigger. Also, some softening to the space will make it feel more inviting. As far as your dining space, a longer oval or rectangle table anchored horizontally could work very well.
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You can move the banquette back a foot up against one day, which would tremendously open the space up. This is a perfect example that we don’t have to be a slave to our home. We like the chairs you have, and think the combination as it is looks sweet and pretty. Window treatments are important to make you feel safe and protect your privacy, so go ahead and put some curtains in.
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Interior Designer Tammy Connor’s goal is to make hard work look easy and to focus on implementing more about what her clients really love vs. what’s in trend for the moment. Tammy joins the show this week to talk about her signature style of real, livable homes, how she ended up going from working in Alabama to Atlanta, and why rules really are meant to be broken when it comes to design. Tammy also talks about her projects including The Sword Gate House in Charleston, her Seaside Cottage, and Sewanee Cabin. You’ll also hear Tammy’s tricks of the trade to creating the perfect “man room”, and yes - it involves leather.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Tammy Connor Interior Design
Historic Hunting Plantation
@tammyconnor
Sewanee Cabin
Decorating Dilemma
Two things you can do. You can keep the red brick and paint the rest of the trim to match the windows and doors. Or, if you wanted to do a whitewash on the brick and paint the trim green instead of blue. A good green is...wait for it... Charleston Green! We love what you have done so far, and you are really stepping up that ranch!
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This week we welcome Jennifer Nanni, owner of Rittenhouse Home in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Jennifer talks about how her hobby in design and a naturally great eye for spaces turned into a sought after business with critical acclaim in Luxury Interior Design. Jennifer talks about the kitchen being the hub and heart of a home, what trends she is seeing in kitchens and living rooms currently, and designing for aesthetic meeting the needs of form and function. Jennifer shares her personal design loves, what finishes and materials she is using heavily now, and how she manages to have a white living room sofa with five children.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Ikea Hackers
Renee’s Garden
Rittenhouse Home
Jennifer Nanni’s Instagram
Dacor
Victoria + Albert
Lauren Liess
Emily Henderson
Decorating Dilemma
We love how vibrant your teal is! Check out Benjamin Moore Classic or Nimbus Gray. They will be in the same color tone as your teal.
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You can do one lamp on each nightstand, and a taller one on the dresser. Another option would be to get the remote so you can turn on all the lights as soon as you walk in. Add some surfaces in the room, and fill them with some lamps and light and you will be in a great position!
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This week, we welcome best selling author of over 18 books, Susan Sully. She tells us all about Southern Hospitality At Home, her new book that details the inspiration behind the art of finding joy and generosity in hospitality. Susan talks about what surprised her most about the history of Southern homes and hospitality in her research for the book, the importance of a welcoming entrance hall, why the door was almost always open in the South and her go to tips for entertaining at home. We also talk about dining room etiquette including the rules on lighting candles, ways we can update tradition, and incorporating high/low into your entertaining.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Susan Sully books
Susan Sully
@susan.sully
Southern Hospitality At Home
Devon Lamps
Blair Bench
Mrs. Whaley’s Garden
University of Georgia
Erika Powell
Florida Water
The Charleston Silver Lady
Decorating Dilemma
Susan loves the idea of a wicker bar cart with you changing out flowers or greenery. She said a polypropylene runner to put along the front of your house, to soften up the floor and bring color. You can paint the bar cart a color to go with it. We love the idea of having that table next to your door, with plants on it to add some depth and color.
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One of Susan’s mottos is “there is no problem that a good curtain can’t fix”, but here it can be dramatic and make it feel like a pavillion. Her advice is a very long curtain rod with two panels on either side all the way down the floor. Susan also throws out that two curtain rods with two panels on either side and treating them on individual windows may work really well too. We also throw in the idea of Roman shades, to help add softness.
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Interior Designer Jennie Seward began her career as a colorist and designer of fabric and wall coverings. Jennie shares how she managed to fall in love with surface design, and with the help of a few side hustles, worked her way up to opening her company Jennie Seward Interior Design. Jennie also talks about her love for color, her custom decoupage lamps and decorative accessories, and her passion for designing beautiful wall coverings and fabrics. We also talk about the importance of paying attention to the exterior when designing as well, what goes behind her “Traditional With a Twist” style, and where Jennie recommends we save vs. splurge.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
Mentioned In This Episode:
Final Cut
Cuisinart Warming Tray
Syracuse University
Schumacher Designs
Charlotte Moss
Hartwell Sofa
Duran
Jennie Seward
@jenniesewardco
Mathes sofa
Suzanne Kasler
Decorating Dilemma
You either need to paint or reupholster your sofa. We don’t know the size of the room, but we are thinking painting might be easier. Jennie is already on the hunt for a fabric that will pull it together, and check out some Ballard custom drapery. If you love your gray wall and don’t want to paint, consider a new sofa! If you don’t like your sofa, don’t waste any resources trying to match it until you can purchase one that you love!
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Maybe a Person table would work, since it’s neutral we have a lot of options such as a marble top and chair with fabrics to help with the hard surfaces. A round table works best in a square room. Think of it as a conscious contrast rather than a near match to be intentionally different.
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