10 Interior Design Secrets I Learned From a Year of Real Client Renovations

I've been designing basements, kitchens, and bathrooms professionally for clients for over a year now, but I've been doing it for myself, family, and friends for over 13. But it wasn't until I started designing for paying clients that I learned what I had been getting wrong over the years. So today I'm going to share with you what's changed. And don't forget to subscribe to this channel if you want the renovation perspective and the budget DIY perspective all in one place. Lesson number one, and this is the foundation of everything else. It's the most important thing when you are renovating your home and it is a function over aesthetics. In every space that we design in my husband's and my renovation company called Hearthwood Design and Build, we always first think about how the space is actually going to be used and how it needs to function for our clients. So the very first question when you're renovating a space, it shouldn't be, how do I want this space to look? It should be, how do I want this space to function? Where does the food prep happen? Where should the traffic flow be? Do you only take showers? Do you love to take a bath? Where should the eye land when you walk in? All of this needs to be decided before the aesthetics or the finishes come into play. I find that a lot of people decorate the opposite way where they think about all of the finishes and all of the selections first. And I've definitely been guilty of this in the past. And that's why some rooms feel off, even though the individual parts of them can feel absolutely beautiful. So before you buy a single decorative thing for your room, ask how that room needs to function first. Then you can decorate and select finishes in support of that. And that's going to change everything. The second lesson that I've learned while doing kitchen and bathroom renovations, especially is that the hardware is the jewelry of the room. I've watched a single hardware swap transform an entire bathroom. We started with the exact same cabinets as before, same stain color, but swapping the hardware from something more dated to a different color and style completely changed the look of the space. And the same principle applies everywhere in your home, not just the kitchen and the bathroom. Think about all of the knobs, handles, and drawer pulls that you have on your furniture, on your doors, even bathroom accessories like the towel bar in your bathroom, the toilet paper holder. These are small little pieces that carry enormous visual weight and swapping those out makes a huge difference in how the space looks and feels in the end. You can buy budget-friendly hardware from places like Amazon or Ikea. You don't have to spend a ton of money to make your space look completely different. It's also a great way to upgrade a budget-friendly piece, say an Ikea piece by swapping out the hardware. It can make a $200 piece of furniture look like it's triple the price. Lesson three in a year of designing kitchens with Hearthwood, I've learned that the single most common mistake when comes to lighting is putting lighting in the wrong place and no fixture style in the world is going to make that better. It's really important that you have a few different sources of light in your space. Most of us only think about overhead lighting, so maybe pot lights in the kitchen, but you want to have a variety of light sources. So for example, in the kitchen, I love to recommend recessed ceiling lighting in the kitchen, under cabinet lighting, and then some task lighting over the island. Maybe it's two or three pendant lights and over the sink. Another common mistake I see with lighting is using the wrong bulb temperature, and we see this in bathrooms all the time. Rather than a really cold light, opt for something warmer. For warm, flattering lights in the bathroom, about 2700K feels just right. And the best part about this one is that swapping out bulbs is a really budget-friendly way to change the feel of your space. When you have your lighting in the right spot and you have the correct bulb, picking out a fixture is going to be that next step. Number four, and this is one of those actually really simple ways to fix something that I have learned over the last few years, and it's called the rule of three in design. But there are some times that we break this rule, and I'll talk about that in a bit. Sometimes clients will ask us what is wrong with their shelf style or their countertop styling when they're styling their completed renovated space. And usually it's how they're grouping items. Often I see people group items in groups of two or four, and that can usually feel really static. The eye doesn't really know where to go. When you use odd numbers in design, it can make the design feel more organic, more interesting. You can use the triangle method where you have a short, medium, and tall piece and group those together. Our eye just tends to like odd numbers, especially groupings of three. Now here's the exception, and I find this really interesting and fun to play with. It's when we're talking about symmetry. Pairs can work really beautifully when you're flanking something. So for example, one nightstand on either side of a bed, or if you're putting two candlesticks on either side of a mantle, two planters on either side of a door. It also works when you're dealing with smaller rooms or smaller pieces. For example, rather than having three pendant lights over an island, often two looks really nice over either a smaller island or when you're using larger scale pendant. Same as over a table. Symmetry can also look balanced and a little bit more formal than using odd numbers. And something you can think about when you're deciding whether you want to use a group of two or a group of three is whether you are flanking something. So flanking a doorway, a bed, or maybe a piece of art on a side table. Lesson number five is scale and designing kitchens, bathrooms, and basements has taught me so much more about using scale and design, and it's all really important. When I'm laying out a kitchen or a bathroom at Hearthwood, I always think about how things are going to look in proportion to each other. We choose the cabinet height in proportion to the ceiling height, the island size in proportion to the floor square footage size, whether we want to use large format or small format tiles to make the room feel larger or smaller. And when you're decorating your own spaces, this same logic is going to apply. For example, I always recommend using a large rug in a large room, making sure it goes under at least the front feet of all your furniture, if not all the way under your furniture. And that's going to make your space look so much more designed and intentional. A tiny little rug in a large space looks completely off scale and out of proportion. Same goes for putting art on your wall. When you have a massive wall with no windows, having a tiny piece of art on that is going to look like a mistake. Whereas if you use an oversized piece of art or put together a gallery wall, that's going to match the scale of the room so much better. And something that I've learned to think about on every renovation project that we do is the transition moment from space to space. In renovation design, transitions are everything. So we always have to think about what happens when the tile meets the hardwood floor. How does the kitchen flow into the dining room? What do you see the moment you walk from one room to the next, and these have to be planned out really well and not just be afterthoughts. So one way to do this in your own home is walk into one of your spaces and see where your eye lands first. Is it intentional? Is it the best possible thing that you could see when you walk in? If not, try to create a focal point in your space. Maybe all that is is rearranging a shelf in your space, maybe putting a larger piece of art on top of a sideboard, maybe replacing a range hood in your kitchen or painting one because that first transition moment from one space to the next is what sets the tone before anything else in your All right, we're halfway through now and lesson number eight is one that has genuinely made a huge difference in the way that I design spaces. It's something every single renovation at Hearthwood has taught me and now I try to apply it to every single room that I touch. So keep watching. First let's talk about lesson number seven and that is cohesion through repetition. Meaning to make a space feel cohesive and put together and well designed, you have to repeat some elements in that space. So for example, for our clients, say we're doing a whole basement design and we're working on a bathroom, a bedroom and main area, a little bar area. We want to repeat some elements so all of those flow together. We recently did one where I repeated green throughout the space. It was paint in the bathroom, it was paint on accent walls and it was some green in the stone on the bar backsplash. It could also be a finish. So maybe you're repeating some black iron finishes through the lighting and all of the space. You can also repeat things in a way where it's not an exact repetition but it's in the same family. So for example, if we're going with the example of the color green, maybe you have a darker green in one space and then you have a green in the same family that's a few shades lighter in the other. That still creates this feeling of cohesion. In my own home from space to space, I have a lot of black iron in the light fixtures and accessories. I also have antique brass in the knobs in my kitchen as well as some of my accessories in my other rooms. Repeating elements like this makes my whole house feel like it all belongs together. Now let's talk about number eight and this is the lesson that I feel like has shifted a lot of things for me. Every surface needs to tell you something about the person that lives there. They need to be unique, personal and make sense for how you use the space and how you want the space to feel. For example, a backsplash isn't just a backsplash. It tells you whether the person loves a modern feeling kitchen or whether the person wants their kitchen to feel more vintage and cozy. A vanity top isn't just a countertop. It tells you whether this bathroom is going to be a spa-like retreat or whether it's something that feels a little more utility and maybe it's easier to clean. So for every surface of your home that you're choosing, whether it's the actual selection, the actual surface, the countertop, the wood top or whether you're selecting things to go on it when you're styling a space, think about how you want the space to feel. For example, a kitchen countertop that's styled with some warm wood pieces. Maybe we have a cutting board. Maybe we have some wooden utensils. We have the oil containers out. That says that the person that lives here loves to cook. Talking about a bathroom shelf, maybe we have some beautiful folded crisp white towels. We have a candle that shows that this place is a spa-like retreat. Every surface in your home should be communicating something intentionally and tell you a little bit about the person that lives there and what this space is for. And I'm a firm believer that practical pieces can be beautiful too. So going back to that, I love cooking in my kitchen example. I use my oil containers all the time, but I found beautiful ones on Amazon to display right on my countertop. Lesson number nine, and this was actually a really hard one for me, is that negative space is an intentional design decision. I love decor, textiles, pieces on my countertop, et cetera, but intentionally making sure that there is a blank space or white space in your room makes a huge difference in how your space is going to feel in the end. Always think about adding breathing room around your pieces. You don't need to fill every single surface with something. When I decorated rooms, my instinct was to fill every single piece of wall area and countertop area. And now I find that I'm editing more and more. So if you're thinking about this for your own home, try removing pieces from your surfaces one by one and seeing how it looks. Negative space is not a bad thing. It's the pause, the sigh, the breath that makes everything else feel intentional in your space. I think it's one of the most powerful tools that a designer has, and it's completely free. And lesson 10, and the one that ties all of this together, is try to put your renovation or your decorating budget mostly towards things that are permanent in your space. Then save money on those things that you can change. In a renovation, for example, putting most of your money towards those permanent things that are hopefully going to be lasting you 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, like cabinetry, good light fixtures, good quality flooring. Don't cheap out on those things because those should be lasting you a long time. And they're often really expensive to change later on. But little pieces like your cabinet hardware, your light switch covers, towel bars, those are really easy things to change. You could save money here and then upgrade these items later if you want to. And this same renovation strategy applies when you're just decorating your home as well. Those things that are anchoring your room and that you want to be comfortable and use for decades, like your sofa, your bed frame, even your kitchen table, put most of your budget towards those items. Then you can be budget friendly with everything else, like your throw pillows, your side tables, your vases, your seasonal decor, maybe for those you could do Dollar Tree DIYs, inexpensive IKEA items. Just make sure you know what is permanent in your home and spend accordingly, and then you can save everywhere else. And when I'm designing homes for our clients, I really think about this, especially with kitchens. I think it's worth it to spend a little bit more money and or time on things like your cabinetry. And then all the little extra pieces, you can see what's left over in your budget. A year ago, my husband and I launched our new renovation company and I was definitely nervous, but I am so proud of how far we've come in a year. Last June, we had a couple of clients and now we're lined up for the rest of the year with some amazing renovation projects and some incredible clients. I have learned so much and I love that I can take what I've learned doing design professionally to this channel. And I'll continue to share all of the things that I'm learning and doing with you here. And I still firmly believe that great interior design isn't about money. It's about knowing and understanding how things work together, knowing all the basic formulas of decorating and design. And don't forget, I do have an online course called The Cozy Formula, where I share all of my budget-friendly design formulas. I'll link to it down in that description box below for you. And I'm going to continually update it as I go along. If you liked this video, I'm going to leave another video for you to watch right here, where I share more budget-friendly tricks on how to make your home feel cozy on a budget. I'll see you in that one.