How to Decorate

This week on the podcast, we sat down with Erika Ward of Erika Ward Interiors. After majoring in finance and working in the corporate world several years, Erika decided to follow her passion and start her interior design business. She gives us the whole scoop on her business, decorating pet peeves, and answers your decorating questions!

WHAT YOU'LL HEAR ON THE SHOW:

• Erika talks about why she went into finance and eventually transitioned into designing full time
• How Erika balances classic design with a modern aesthetic
• Why you need to incorporate color into your room
• Why it’s so important for her and her clients to understand each other
• Why her biggest challenge in design work is educating her clients
• What’s so important about the ‘shell’ of a room
• What decorating mistake she made in her own house
• What surprised Erika when she came to one of our catalog shoots

Erika also helps us answer to questions this week. The first question is about how to properly dress an 11 foot window. Our second question is about mixing furniture shapes and heights cohesively.

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On this episode of the podcast, we sat down with interior designer and blogger Sherry Hart. She’s a master of styling bookshelves, can make a neutral room feel fresh and modern, and is going through her own bedroom makeover. She gave us the whole rundown of how she turned her home renovation into a successful interior designer business, what her husband thinks of her constant decor updates, and how to make your home look cohesive.

WHAT YOU'LL HEAR ON THE SHOW

• Karen’s latest progress on the guest room she’s redecorating
• The baby shower Karen recently hosted where the food was baby-themed
• How Sherry caught the decorating bug and her first published space
• How her style has changed over the course of her career
• Why she loves decorating with white
• Her biggest decorating pet peeve
• Bad advice for decorating when there’s someone else in the mix
• Her approach to styling bookshelves

In every episode, we answer decorating dilemmas from listeners, and with the help of our guest, give them ways to solve their problem. In this episode, we answer a question from Jennifer about how to take your room from 'average to amazing,' Monica's question about how to pull off a his and hers office, and Janet's question about maintaining practicality when creating a pretty room.

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This week we’re bringing you a bonus episode, and we’re talking entertaining! Our plan was to bring you a short extra episode with our entertaining stories — to get you in the spirit of Thanksgiving — but of course, we gabbed for over an hour. But, if you listen to the whole episode, you’ll hear our tried and true secrets, entertaining disasters, and suggestions for being a great guest.

WHAT YOU'LL HEAR ON THE SHOW

• Karen’s Napkin Tricks: both removing stains after a dinner party and an easy ironing trick
• The time I lit two dinner napkins on fire
• Karen’s ongoing entertaining disaster — under cooking meat
• Karen’s worst disaster — it involves a lasagna and an old oven mit
• The time Taryn exploded an entire bottle of wine in a crowded restaurant
• Our thoughts on signature cocktails
• All of our best flower arranging tips — including which combination of flowers to buy
• My mom’s three keys to a good party — good music, good food, good people
• The importance of traditions during the holidays, especially food traditions
• How to cook one end of your tenderloin faster so you can offer both well done and rare
• Your requirements as a party guest — RSVPing and being festive and fun
• Our tips for cleaning up

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We were so excited to have as our guests on this week’s episode, Jason Nixon and John Loecke, the Madcap Cottage Guys! Their style is on point, and their love for color and pattern is infectious. We picked their brain about combining furniture styles harmoniously, their upcoming travel plans, why they love decorating with the color green, and their pack of adorable rescue dogs. 

WHAT YOU'LL HEAR ON THE SHOW

• Where Jason and John find inspiration, both abroad and at home. They’re as inspired by things they see in London as they are around their hometown in North Carolina. Inspiration is everywhere.
• They talk about their next vacation spot — Tokyo — and why they’re dying to make it there next.
• What do they do with all of the treasures they bring home?
• What do they see as living a ‘well-lived life?’
• They share their more casual approach to entertaining, like ways to entertain without making everything from scratch.
• Why we should throw out the idea of having a ‘camera ready’ home all the time.
• Jason and John’s decorating pet peeves
• Inspirations for their fabric like for Robert Allen
• How their mothers’ styles impacted their own sensibilities
• What they would save if their house was on fire
• They mention the Traditional Home Napa Showhouse which they decorated using many of our products. You can see a whole tour of their space here.

Jason and John help us answer your questions, including how to pull off mix and match bar stools, guidelines for hanging artwork over a console table or sideboard, and how to update a built in cabinet with paint or stain.

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This week, we're talking to stylist extraordinaire, Ginny Branch. Ginny is a prop stylist who has worked with some of the most beloved brands all over the country, including Southern Living, Country Living, Martha Stewart Weddings, Design*Sponge, Cooking Light, Coastal Living, and Ballard Designs! She shares with us how she got into styling, her favorite accessories, her most recent travels, and even her hoarding tendencies.

WHAT YOU'LL HEAR ON THE SHOW:

• Ginny talks about becoming a stylist
• Why it's so important to love the people she works with
• Which people or brands she's dying to work with
• An insider's view to how catalogs are shot
• The magic of shooting a catalog in Italy
• The craziest thing she's ever brought home with her on a plane
• She tells us about her little house in Atlanta

As always, we answer your questions. This week, we talk about the best sisal rug to use if you are concerned about spills, and we answer Rosemary's questions about hanging a mirror over a bed.

We want to teach your how to decorate! We'll help you unleash your inner decorator with interviews from designers, sharing trials and triumphs of our own homes, and answering your burning decorating questions. Brought to you from the Ballard Designs.

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Hosting each episode will be three ladies from the Ballard Designs team — Caroline McDonald, Taryn Schwartz, and Karen Mooney. You know Caroline from rour blog How to Decorate where she is constantly posting and answering your questions in our comments section. Taryn Schwartz is a trained industrial designer (and also super talented artist) who designs product for Ballard Designs. Finally, Karen Mooney is our fearless leader who we sit down with to discuss each new season. You’ve read our interviews with her here, and we also shared her kitchen renovation … and her backyard.

In today’s episode, we’ll be telling you more about each of us, how we work together designing the rooms you see online and in our catalog, and what projects we’re working on in our own homes.

We also answer questions about which sofa pillows could coordinate with the floral pillows Lauren already has. We answer Samina's question about how to layout a room if you have a corner fireplace, and we help Rachel decorate the stair landing that is a focal point right when you walk in the door.

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