How to Decorate

Whitney McGregor, interior Designer based in South Carolina, joins the show today. Whitney’s home was recently featured in Southern Living, and talks about her traditional yet playful and welcoming style. She explains what she means when she tells her clients to “listen to the house”, her inspiration of combining clean with beautiful and traditional, and the importance of being transparent about your budget when working with a designer.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

Triumphs on grass cloth wallpaper, dorm shopping, and a great anniversary copper wine cooler and pillowTrials about a dilemma on dead grass and hydrangea placement, and the same anniversary shaggy pink pillowWhen you go bold, go with a color you know you like.The special art of picking out gifts for people, and if you should go on or off the list.How Whitney incorporates fun and fresh beauty steeped in the traditional.Whitney is a self taught decorator, and has been designing for fun since she was only 4 years old.The mistakes Whitney gave herself permission to make when decorating her own home, and the lessons she learned from them.More about her new home, and how the flow and light caught the attention of Whitney and her husband.Why Whitney is a proponent of living in a house before making any major changes to it.Whitney doesn’t care if art matches, it’s all about how it makes herself and her clients feel and the emotion it stirs in them.The difference between splurging and investing, and why it’s important to be transparent about your budget.Mentioned In This Episode

Wallpaper PlusSilver Comet TrailWhitney McGregor@whitneymcgregorSouthern LivingJohn Stefanidis Bobby McAlpineDavid HicksBilly BaldwinAngie HranowskyNashville Rug Gallery

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a pretty exciting episode today. When brainstorming how to celebrate our 100th episode, we wanted to talk about everything we've learned and all of the best tidbits our guests have shared with us. We hope you'll enjoy it!

• How and why we started the show
• Who we’d want to hire as our interior designers
• Gil Schafer talked about thinking of your outdoor spaces as rooms
• The best color temperature for your light bulbs
• Dimmers are our best friends!
• Susan Ferrier’s advice about strengthening a view by placing furniture in front of it and why she loves banquettes and mixing dining chairs
• Nancy Braithwaite‘s concept about a power statement
• Pappas Miron talking about how your exterior spaces should influence your interior spaces
• Brian McCarthy’s talk about collage boards and how they can help you envision where items will work together
• Rachel Cannon’s design manta “haste makes waste” 
• Why a floor plan will tell you what you need
• Recurring themes — designing around the life you live
• Meg Braff’s talking about mixing fabrics and how repetition makes it intentional
• Liz Bauer’s talk about mixing whites and why you shouldn’t worry about it so much
• Amy Vermillion’s tip about testing paint color by using a board and folding it to see the shadows
• Ashley Whittaker’s strategy for finding a common thread for color as you go throughout your room
• Collections and why you should display them all together versus scattering them around the house
• Bill Peace’s thoughts on collections and why they’re important to creating a home that feels personal
• Keith Arnold’s pyramid tip for styling
• 4 Things that every room needs according to photo stylist Stacy Kunstel

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Angie Hranowsky has been named one of the “20 Designers to Watch” by Traditional Home, included in Southern Living’s “Top Five Fastemakers” and featured in House Beautiful amongst many others. Based in Charleston, Angie's style combines modern, vintage, chic and colorful all to highlight the taste of lifestyle of her clients. She joins the show today to talk about finding the confidence to take risks, gives us a peek into her favorite projects, and shares a few of her favorite resources for buying vintage and antique.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

Triumphs about awesome birthday gifts including new lamps, giant watercolor paper rolls, and mid-century modern sculptures.

Trials regarding kitchen shelves, very expensive power bills, and a nightmare situation with Taryn’s little boy.

Angie’s background, and how she got into design and started her own business in Charleston.

The Coastal Living Idea House, and how Angie went into it with the intention of making it look like a real project rather than just an idea.

Why Angie gravitates towards using colors, especially purple, yellow, and turquoise.

A few of Angie’s tips to get homes to feel beachy and coastal, without being too obvious in design.

Angie loves to mix all sorts of styles and textures, and has been incorporating modern, vintage and found pieces for years..

How Angie made the best of economically challenging times, and some of her personal budget friendly tips for making the home look beautiful.

How Angie ended up working with Darius Rucker and his wife, and the great time they had creating something original and chic while transforming their newly built home.

Your house can be more about the art and the objects, doesn’t have to be all about color.

Angie’s theory on threading color similar value and tone throughout the house.

Angie’s new project of a kitchen house, and how it might be the most colorful project she has done yet.

Angie’s unusual use of light fixtures, and why she tends to use vintage lamps to support originality in the homes.

Why it’s important to treat your furniture, to kid, pet and spill proof your home.

How to get a proper foyer, and why a package drop off room may be a thing in our near future.

Mentioned In This Episode

 ARCHES  Watercolor  Paper

The Little Tart Bakeshop

Lamp Arts

City Issue

Coastal Living Idea House

Angie Hranowsky

House Beautiful

1st Dibs

Matthew Quinn

@angiehranowsky

Pic of Drapery next to fireplace - HTD will put in

Decorating Dilemmas:

Angie has had the same scenario before, and looks like there is plenty of room on either side of the fireplace. (We think!) If there indeed is, drapes would cozy up the room and add warmth to the space. Bamboo blinds would work, if they are mounted up high behind the rod with an outside mount. The other option besides panels on either side of the fireplace is doing drapes on the long wall, and using custom Roman shades using the same fabric. If the space between the drapery and the fireplace is too close, you may have to do the Roman shades to match the style of the drapes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've gotten lots of emails about having Matthew Quinn and Ric Parrish on the podcast to talk about kitchens! They're the tour de force behind Design Galleria Kitchen and Bath, the premiere kitchen and design studio in Atlanta. They've worked with all of your favorite designers and most likely designed many of the dream kitchens you've all ogled. We know we certainly have. We ask all your burning questions and answer your kitchen conundrums.

What You'll Hear on This Episode

We talk about how Matthew got into kitchen and bath designHow and why he likes to design spaces with a unique look for each kitchen versus anything formuliacHow a client's closet might inspire his kitchen designPopular finishes, colors, and materialsWhy he prefers paneled appliances over exposed stainless onesHis must-haves for a great kitchenWhy it's important to learn everything he can about how a client cooks, entertains, and what kind of kitchen items they haveSo much more!Show Notes:

Design Galleria Kitchen and Bath StudioMatthew Quinn CollectionMatthew and Ric's Atlanta penthouseMatthew and Ric's lake houseMatthew's Top 25 Kitchen TipsHouse Beautiful's 2016 Kitchen of the Year designed by Matthew

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*Since recording this episode, Ryan McKelvey has been promoted to President of Cornerstone brands. Karen Mooney is the current president of Ballard Designs.*

Recording from Karen’s cozy and mythical basement, former President of Ballard Designs Ryan McKelvey joins the show. Ryan talks about what it is like to be the fearless leader at Ballard, and how he got here on his own career path. He discusses moments that made him grow professionally, gives us a glimpse into his own home designs, and shares what we can look forward to next at Ballard.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

Mentioned In This Episode:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lee Ledbetter is both an architect and interior designer with a love for combining traditional details with chic Modernism. He joins the show to talk about his book The Art of Place, and the projects in which he helps the client get their dream vision that is both unique and comfortable for their life. Lee also discusses how his homes stay rooted in the deep history of New Orleans, yet create a win-win for function and livability. He also shares his love of smaller homes, why we should embrace the color chartreuse, and the top three things to hit up next time you are in New Orleans.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

Triumphs about homemade essential oil cleaners, black fences, and Ballard clearance shopping spree.

Trials regarding carport mishaps, dead grass, and formal yet kid proof dining rooms.

Lee’s inspiration behind his book The Art of Place, and how this book showcases his ability to incorporate the historic with the modern and chic.

Lee’s background in both interior design and architecture, and why he himself loves working with both other decorators and landscape architectures.

How the furniture sketches in Lee’s initial plans serve to get an idea of how the room will best work and function.

That there is no wrong or right when it comes to what goes in the room, and it’s most important that the room serves its purpose for how the individuals live and entertain.

Lee’s renovations and adaptations of historic New Orleans homes, and how he blends contemporary design mixed with the reverence to the original structure.

The English Cottage kitchen of his brother and sister in law that Karen is very jealous of! Why the room feels more like a sitting room than a kitchen.

Some interesting facts about his modern home making it to the first on a New Orleans Historic Home list, and what exactly it is about New Orleans that Lee loves so much.

How he organizes his library.

It’s okay to downgrade if you don’t have a need for more rooms. Lee only has one room in his own dream home!

His take on open spaces, and why there is a luxury to height, volume, and open lighting.

Advice for someone building a home from the ground up.

Mentioned In This Episode

All Purpose Cleaner

Ashley Whittaker Leather Dining Chairs

Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans

 Galerie

Nathaniel Buster Curtis

Robert A.M. Stern Architects

The Frick Collection

Decorating Dilemmas:

You don’t have to do a floor lamp, instead, Lee would try to find a tall round table like an English Reproduction Antique. If your budget allows for pattern drapery, a printed one would add some height to the room, but it is not a necessity right away. Adding a pair of vertical prints on each side would reinforce the window. The view outside the window is so green and pretty, that using color to unite the spaces would look beautiful. Chartreuse is one that plays great with your existing neutral palette.

Please do send us some “after” photos, we can never get enough!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We cover so much today with our guest, interior designer Matthew Carter, that it's an episode you don't want to miss! From brown furniture to bookshelves to investing in great pieces and so much more, Matthew offers us down-to-earth advice about decorating your home and how the laidback horse farms of Kentucky inform his style.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

Why a collected and beautiful house feels more evolved than everything matchingMatthew's design process which starts with fabrics and furniture layoutMatthew's background and how it has evolved Why it’s okay to mix and match colors, finishes and fabrics.How to break up a room seamlessly, and why hosting a party can help you plan your furniture layoutGreat ways to bring down the formality and humanize the room using a formulas for curtains, sofas and rugsBuilt ins are a great way to add architecture to a space — just make sure you have books!Painted chairs are always beautiful and a new coat of paint is a great way to freshen up a roomEvery room needs a mix of high and low, and Matthew reminds us we can’t be too intimidated by decorating in generalIf you have to move a pillow to sit down — it’s flat out wrong!Matthew’s take on curtain lengthMentioned In This Episode

Matthew Carter Interiors

@matthewcarterinteriors

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nashville designer Tori Alexander sits down with us to talk about taking risks with paint, her $59,000 dining table (that she bought for $1000), green as her secret weapon, and much more!

What You'll Hear on the Show:

Her background and how she started her business in California when a neighbor asked for her helpShe tells us a story about a dining table she bought off CraigslitWhy it's important to invest in upholstery but to find deals and one of a kind pieces on CraigslistMEASUREFind one place to start and work from thereWhy Tori loves Ballard but why she never shies away from mixing high and lowWhy you should consider the energy of your home before choosing the design"The magic happen just beyond the point of comfort"Why Tori loves green and blueWhy you shouldn't necessarily consider art when decorating your roomWe talk about scale for that dreaded empty space over the back of the sofaSome of Tori's favorite affordable sources for artWhy window treatments can help you solve issues like window placement and scale

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sitting down with Ashley Whittaker was such a joy, and we're confident you'll learn a TON from this episode. It's one of my favorite episodes to date because we talk about creating color palettes, why every room needs something grimy, the 'hows' and 'whys' of the room and why they're more important than the 'whats,' and why a jewel tone works in almost any space. We also talk about the difference between color tone and value and why that's important to consider when decorating your home.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

Ashley wasn’t formally educated as a designer, but she cites working for a good designer as some of the best education out there.

More about how Ashley and her team find a thread throughout each room of the home to have a place for our eye to land and bring restfulness to the design.

The importance of contrast in decorating, and why we don’t have to be matchy matchy.

Why seeing it on paper is sometimes easier than walking through the house, and a few of Ashley’s favorite storyboard ideas.

What traditional elements Ashley finds herself gravitating towards, and ways she keeps it fun and fresh.

Why it’s good to feel pretty, but not too pretty, and how throwing in an “ugly” flower now and then can take our projects to the next level.

The golden rule of staying sane while decorating: Let go of control and be perfectly imperfect.

Ashey’s goal on making sure clients really love their rooms, and the more livable the better.

Her stunning use of wallpapers, and why we shouldn’t be afraid of it.

Why she loves velvet, jewel tones, and camo green.

Why the finishes are important to creating contrast, and her tendency to take a dark room and make it even darker.

Mentioned In This Episode

Ashley Whittaker Design

 Billy  Baldwin  decorates

 Jeffrey  Bilhuber’s  Design  Basics

Lee Jofa

 House  Beautiful

@ashleywhittakerdesign

Decorating Dilemmas:

We love what you have going already! Some of Ashley’s suggestions are to leave the ledge undecorated, and think about putting a plantation shutter on the window, so it becomes more architectural and less of a window. Ashley always likes to be on the second floor reaching out to touch the light from the balcony, so that may be something to aim for in the future as well. Her rule for adding a light fixture: take the length and width of feet in a room and add them together for the inches. A large chandelier would add some depth and fill out the room. If you are also looking for a great shoe organizer, check out  this  one from Ballard Design!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charleston designer Olivia Brock joins the show to talk about her firm Torrance Mitchell Design and her background in historic preservation. We cover it all -- how she fell into interior design, tips on mixing the old and the new, and her go-to paint colors.

Olivia never planned on being a designer, but rather a real estate developer that focused on adaptive reuse of historical buildingsHow Olivia started as a paint color consultant The differences between normal housing and the sensitive nature of working with a historical homeOlivia's house in Southern Living which she and her husband totally restoredOur partnership with Olivia on the Traditional Home Southern Style Now Showhouse, and the inspiration behind the guest room How to make old things look fresh and pairing antiques with a modern piecesWhy she sees historical buildings as people that want to tell you their story, and it is up to us to listenWe talk paint -- testing swatches, favorite whites, and moreBrown furniture is making a comeback, baby!Why patience, a great eye for antiques, and love for a home is truly necessary when embarking on a projectHow curtains can really do a lot for a room, and what types Olivia recommends

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices