You know these who seem to have great taste without even trying? You’re about to be one of them. Here, top designers share the best insider tips and tricks in the business.
For a head-to-toe makeover, the first step is creating a palette. “I come up with a basic color scheme for the whole house, and then I take that from room to room,” reveals Gary McBournie, a designer based in Boston. “It plays itself out in different ways in different rooms.
Fake height with low furniture.
“Create strong verticals and avoid the horizontal,” recommends designer Todd Romano. “I adore large mirrors because they add scale to a room. I also kept the furniture low-slung, so the rooms seem taller.”
“I’m really into saturated color with white to balance it out so it doesn’t feel over-whelming,” says Joanna Gaines, the star of HGTV’s Fixer Upper and mastermind behind Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines Paint in partnership with Kilz. Having trouble picking out a bold color? Gaines recommends green, because it’s found in nature and timeless.
Neutral decor can be interesting — just include a variety of materials. “I used a range — from fine-gauge and open-weave linen, to raw silk and taffeta, to cotton velvet and distressed velvet,” says California-based designer Ohara Davies-Gaetano. “Not only that, there’s also the contrast of matte sheens that absorb the light, and lustrous sheens that reflect it.”
For the perfect color family, mix one batch of paint 50% lighter than the base and another 150% darker. “That’s a failsafe method for striping a wall,” says Mary Douglas Drysdale, who designed this bold blue kitchen. “It’s also a very architectural way of using color.”
