Aug. 20--Home stylist, blogger and author Emily Henderson started her career as a prop stylist in New York and later moved to Los Angeles where she added celebrity and TV stylist to her skill set. Her latest endeavors are a lifestyle blog, stylebyEmilyHenderson.com, and now a book, Emily Henderson Styled (Clarkson Potter, 2015) to be released this October. We talked with Emily from her Mid-Century-style home, which she's worked on slowly over the last 10 years, about how to find your style and create a cohesive whole. One guiding principle is key in our rush-rush era: Be patient. Following are her edited, condensed comments.
Q: So many of us face the dilemma of buying stuff we love and then not knowing how to arrange it. How do we begin?
A: By collecting photos of rooms you love. You'll have a big stack and notice what they have in common. Maybe it's a certain color palette or something vintage. Make a list. That becomes the start to your style guide. The photos will give off a vibe -- perhaps modern or collected or storied with lots of layers. Glean from the photos how you want your place to feel and not just look.
Q: How do we end up with a result that's ours and not a duplicate of something from a store or in a magazine?
A: It's part of the same process. Once you have the photos and adjectives, you'll create a color palette. Typically, most of us need something to rein us in and that's what this is all about. If you have three to five colors you like, shop within those colors, which will give you a huge advantage in pulling together a look, at least color-wise.
Q: I love that you say that we should free ourselves from anxiety about getting anything wrong, yet things can look wrong -- out of proportion. How do we train our eye to get it right?
A: That's a big question. Let's focus on proportion as one example. If you have a large room you need larger furniture, a larger rug and larger table and table lamp.
Q: You mention that it's important to find our style -- but what if we don't want to pigeonhole ourselves into one style?
A: I'm anti-pigeonholing anybody; people find reassurance if they can find their style, however. It's not that I want you to say you're only modern but if it guides your process that's great. I think most don't like just one style. But knowing what the styles are helps you decorate. My styles have changed, and I add new items in different styles and put others on the back burner. Now I'm more Mid-Century with Scandinavian but also a bit English countryside, (a) bit modern and a few unexpected elements that throw (it) all off -- ugly and weird, which helps rooms look less perfect, and more you or me!
Q: You advise us to start with a vignette, why?
A: A vignette offers good practice in combining styles and learning about composition and then pulling together an entire room and lots of vignettes. It might be a credenza you start with where you hone in on things and practice before you attempt to pull a room or house together.
Q: Could you share your advice about ignoring our color instincts?
A: If you're drawn to a lot of color, maybe you should pull back and go more neutral or white for walls, then layer on color. If you're not drawn to color, maybe you should have a color on the wall, not saturated but maybe a neutral with a tone in it that's subtle, and build from there.
Q: Another bit of advice you share is about your Rule of Three. What does that mean?
A: It's an overall design rule that your eye likes odd rather than even numbers. It doesn't have to be three; it can be five. Two feels very lonely. I think odd creates tension and keeps you on your toes.
Q: I liked your tip about organizing and photographing results. How does that help?
A: It's hard to be objective about ourselves so I take a photo and stare to see if it works. You can be more objective if you put yourself outside your own space and pretend it's someone else's. Ask yourself: Do I want to be in that room?
Q: So many of us have a hard time organizing collections and knowing when enough is enough -- on a coffee table, for example.
A: I think you need to define what the function of the room is and if it's a TV room you don't need flowers every day and stacks of beautiful books and candles on the table since you're going to use it.
Q: How do you convince clients and others to be patient and not do speed decorating?
A: It's one of the biggest offenders in good design. I advise buying a piece to sit on, eat at and sleep on and then going slowly to fill in. I think it's important to live in a space to hone your style and figure out your functional needs or you'll make choices you'll regret.
Barbara Ballinger is a freelance writer.
