This newsletter is kindly sponsored by West Elm! Read below to find out how I discovered my personal style, my method for designing a room, and how the things you surround yourself with become a part of you.
Every time I go home to my parent’s house I’m reminded not just that I get my mannerisms from them, but also my affinity for stuff. We are what you would call a stuff family.
If you take a look at any given room you’re going to find some sort of textured throw pillow, or a great-grandmother’s collection of teacups. It’s a feast for the eyes, but also a life size memory box. I find so much joy in collecting and curating, lining every possible surface with something of sentimental value. It’s the reason I place such importance in keepsakes- it’s good for the soul to brush up against so many lifetimes of souvenirs.
I learned a lot about home decor from my parents. I learned to keep many objects, and to use them as much as you look at them. I learned that any surface lacking a candle or fresh cut flowers is a surface in need. I learned about the importance of color from my dad. Color dictates mood.
He says that red is for the heart of the home. It appears strongest where we spend the most of our time, and the further you get from that center the cooler the colors get. My parent’s bedroom of course is dressed in a soft baby blue and cream— ideal for sleep. A red dining room invites passionate conversation, a black wash on the kitchen cabinets gives the farmhouse decor some texture and depth. The entire first floor is dressed in this warm red palette that feels like a familiar hug even for those who are just stepping into it for the first time.
When we first moved in, the walls of my bedroom were a sunny yellow with hand painted daisies. I wonder if this is why I used to dream about running through gardens. As a teenager, I rejected little-girlhood and opted for a cool blue and purple color scheme, plastering my walls with MGMT and Neon Indian posters (also Glee, I contain multitudes, but still). My bedroom walls are where I first started collaging, too. Issues of Nylon were immediately sacrificed to the Moodboard Gods, mutilated with scissors and taped to my bedside like a prize deer mounted to a cabin wall.
This behavior shifted as I flew the nest. My very first apartment out in San Francisco was completely devoid of wall collages, but I still managed to DIY most of my bedroom decor. Magazine clippings had been replaced with little hand-painted phrases on construction paper meant to evoke some kind of aesthetic I was chasing on the newly blooming app Instagram. I had a pink neon sign that said GIRLS and a painting that said YIKES and I hand embroidered the word OOPS onto scrap fabric and framed it in a 5x7 from Goodwill. If you know anything about 2015…I was kind of cool.
My current apartment in Brooklyn is a little more adult. I have that classic adult woman couch, a velvet green sofa. I have not one but two first aid kits in case there’s an emergency in the bathroom and the living room at the same time. I use picture hanging kits instead of just securing things with a pushpin. I have evolved.
Still, there are shades of my former selves in my design style today. I still gravitate to vintage patterns like the wallpaper in my childhood home. I love an eclectic color palette like the sunny furniture I bought back in California. I think the thing I look for most, beyond some kind of ~aesthetic~ or trend, is items that feel lived-in yet elevated.
There’s no way I’d know nearly anything about my personal style if I didn’t have Pinterest boards. It’s the best way to see what resonates for you visually. When you look at all these pieces you like together, you start to see recurring themes. My interior board looks like a bed & breakfast in a Beatrix Potter book, so I can deduce I’m a lover of color and pattern. I need everything I own to either look like it came from the coolest girl in Copenhagen’s design studio, or the oldest relic from the back of an antique shop in Pennsylvania.
One of my favorite ways to satisfy both those cravings is with stripes. Stripes are a classic pattern that ride the line of masculine and feminine, but in the right palette they become kind of modern art-y and reinvented. I have a blank space in my bedroom, next to my crowded bookshelf, that’s just dying for a little reading chair. This is where the Curved Slipper Chair in Stripe comes in. My walls are very blank and white, so the stripes will add some visual interest. It comes with a matching Swivel Vanity Stool as well, but I opted to mix textures and get the Burnt Umber Deluxe Velvet instead of the matching stripe. By the way when they say deluxe they actually mean deluxe because just look at this side by side of my old velvet stool with Pierce & Ward’s perfect one.
Another design theory I subscribe to is the pop of red theory. If you see me on the street I probably have at least one red accessory on, and the same is true in my bedroom. I found the Belle Nightstand in the kid’s section (yes, you read that right, the KID’S section! Do not sleep on children’s home decor sensibilities!) and it stands out in my room as a bold color choice amongst all the neutral and soft touches.
My favorite thing in my room is the shelf above my dresser. It’s sometimes cluttered, but always curated, and houses some of the most important things to me. I have a portrait of my cat Dolly done by illustrator Jordan Sondler front and center, and a little ceramic house from a trip to the Scottish Highlands above it. My collected issues of Vogue are stacked beside a copy of For Boys Only, a vintage book I nabbed from my father’s childhood bedroom. It feels good to see the old and the new mingled together like this. I see my story so clearly in this space.
The more fragile mementos, the letters handwritten by loved ones, have a few different places to call home. Sometimes I tuck old birthday cards between the books on my bookshelf, just to give myself a reminder of their sweet messages when I’m reaching for one. Old notes from friends are stuck with magnets to my fridge, next to fraying photo strips and souvenirs from travel. That’s my ultimate piece of design advice, really. Adorn your space with love. It is the cheapest and most impactful way to personalize your home.
As a Sagittarius who can never keep with one thing for too long, my room is constantly in process. Every month or so I’m pushing furniture to a different wall to keep my brain from going to sleep. I call this my domestic wanderlust– there’s nowhere I really need to go, but I need my surroundings to change so I feel changed. The only way I can do this and remain sane is by mocking up what it would look like beforehand.
I honestly have so much fun mocking these up that sometimes I invent entirely new rooms, and collect them in my camera roll. My ideal day would be jumping between Pinterest and Canva until I’ve crafted my own perfect digital dollhouse. If you’re in need of some inspo, or just want to feel like you’ve stepped into my Pinterest feed, feel free to download any of the following rooms below.
Hope these tips help your home feel even sweeter.
Xo,
Julianna
i’m in the middle of sprucing up my apartment and this gave me so much inspo !!
I need every single one of these pillows! I love your style :)