Style Matters

My guest is Carmen Rene of Aquilo Interiors. She's baed in Oakland, CA and has worked on everything from hotels, restaurants and bars to private homes all across the Bay area. Carmen's aesthetic is pretty wild, very bold and unlike a lot of other work done by traditional designers, which is what drew me to her in the first place. Be sure to take a look at the show notes page for this episode on the little yellow couch website and you'll see photos of what I'm talking about. But what I really loved about digging in to Carmen's mind during this conversation is that she isn't afraid to go deep and talk about the substance and reasons behind why we want to live in beautiful spaces and how you have to get real with yourself about who you are if you ever want to create a home you love.  To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free gui

Ki Nassauer is a repeat guest on the Style Matters podcast and I'm so happy to have her back.  Ki has been rolling up her sleeves and digging in to all things vintage for many years.  This time, I wanted to talk with her about her newest venture, an online magazine called Lived-In Style.  When I first met Ki, she was the editor in chief of Flea Market Style, a print publication and was the founder of one of the best antiques shows in the country, Junk Bonanza.  She's still producing that show in Minneapolis... or, she will be again, as soon as the pandemic allows, but I was curious about her transition from print to online when it came to the shelter magazine arena.  And of course, we also talk a lot about vintage in this conversation!  Let's jump in. To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

I'm talking with the one-and-only Marlo Thomas.  She has recently collaborated with Williams Sonoma on a 10 piece entertaining collection.  We talk about how this all came about and the inspiration behind it, but of course, I had to also ask her about her acting career and her work as an activist.  To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

You may know my guest this week from the seemingly boundless energy she shares on her HGTV show, Good Bones.  Mina Starsiak Hawk is the real deal when it comes to construction and renovation.  With her mom, she started the Two Chicks & A Hammer construction company.   Mina has continued to be an integral part of the communities in which she lives and works and has used that platform for all kinds of initiatives.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

How do YOU define your style?  Today on the show, I'm going to dig into our new Style Mash Up guide where you can finally, once and for all, forever put to bed that annoyingly difficult question to answer: What is your style???  Download the guide.  Play the game.  Have some fun and hopefully a lightbulb will go off when you need some direction for your next project!  To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

Michelle Ogundehin is a leader in the interior design world.  Most recently, her first book, called "Happy Inside: How to Harness the Power of Home for Health and Happiness" has just been published.  The  interview you're about to hear is one of the most substantial conversations I've ever had about design, on a personal scale.  How design affects real people, in real homes.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

My guest today is going to come at the question of how to design our homes from a very different perspective than what you're used to hearing on this show.   Susan Weis Bohlen isn't a designer.  She's a chef and author and practitioner of Ayurveda, an ancient Indian holistic approach to life.  Susan gives us a quick intro to the basics of Ayurdeva and then we talk about applying Ayurvedic principles to our homes.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

My guest today is Ariel Garneau who is known for her bold, colorful, quirky, somewhat retro, mash up of styles.  I wanted to know where it comes from, how she defines it and how it's evolved over time.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

David Supple is the founder and CEO of New England Design & Construction.  Schooled in architecture and trained in carpentry, David is about to explain how the profession of architecture has come to be and how it has estranged itself from its roots where craftsmanship and design went hand in hand.  Now, David has a great personality so,  he's very entertaining and makes history interesting.  But if history isn't your thing, keep listening because we also talk about another of his passions, which is sustainability and he's got a practical tip that I've never heard of that should probably top your list if you're prioritizing eco-friendly practices in your home.  To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

My guest today is Mehaz Khan.  She's a color psychology specialist and talks with us today about choosing color from the perspective of how it will affect our behavior, via our emotions.  She's very much invested in her client's mental and emotional health, and understands the connection between those aspects of who we are and the environments we create for ourselves.  Let's jump in.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

Bertille de Lestrade is an artist and her Instagram account is called Cette Maison Bleue, where she showcases her paintings of private interiors so we talk about the connection she makes between art and interior design.  But this conversation turned out to be a whole lot more than that.  We also talk about coming through to the other side of depression, developing self confidence, and finding beauty in the world, as well as putting beauty into it.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

Today, I'm asking Sarie Taylor about 4 of the biggest sources of conflict between spouses or partners when it comes to our homes.  They are: money, time, self expression (meaning what to do when the two of you are clashing over what colors and styles to use in your home), and sentimentality,  To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

Sara Bird is my guest today, and along with photographer Dan Duchars, she's just come out with a new book called Home For The Soul: Sustainable and Thoughtful Decorating and Design.  Let's hear what she has to say about the direction the sustainability movement is taking inside our homes.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

In this episode I address several listener dilemmas by first showing how they all have to do with battling the feeling of overwhelm.  When I asked you what your biggest struggle was when it came to your homes, you said not enough time, loads of clutter, and too many choices!  Not to mention a lack of confidence.   Today, I talk about three ways to deal with feeling overwhelmed so you can get unstuck and start living a beautiful life in the homes you have right now!   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

My guest this week is interiors photographer Alyssa Rosenheck.  She's just come out with her first book called "The New Southern Style: Interiors of a Lifestyle and Design Movement."  To define this new movement, she casts a wide net across the south, sharing the homes of activists, designers, chefs, and other creatives.  The focus of the book is on healing deep social divides using creativity as a means of communication and hope.  To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

Today I'm talking with Katharine Earnhardt, founder of the art advisory firm Mason Lane.  She is going to crush any mental blocks, hesitations or insecurities you may have when it comes to buying art.  And she does this by being incredibly approachable.  To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

I realized it would be really helpful if everyone listening to the podcast and everyone who interacted with Little Yellow Couch in any way, had big picture framework that you could refer to when trying to figure out what to focus on when it comes to the design of your home and the development of your style.  So we're going to take a look at the Slow Style framework and figure out which aspect of it would be most helpful to you right now, given what's going on in your life and home.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

If you are a book lover, how central are they to the feel of your home?  In this episode I interview Thatcher Wine, founder of Juniper Books.  Juniper is a very unusual company in that they don't publish new books.  They create covers for books and, more specifically, covers for whole collections.  When you look at the shelves, the book spines, an image across them emerges.  It's a whimsical way to to have your books tell a story about what's in the pages, and more importantly, these images tell a story of who owns the books and what they're passionate about.  Thatcher takes styling with books to a whole new level!  To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

Lauren Caron is the owner and principle designer of Studio LaLoc, now based in Seattle.  But she started her career working at Tiffany's flagship store in Manhattan working on product display.  From there, she worked her way up at the iconic Bergdorf Goodman's, managing entire floors of the store, creating many, many atmospheric experiences for the Bergdorf client.  That background and everything she learned there is sprinkled throughout our conversation and, you'll hear how excited I get by all of the ways in which Lauren has translated those talents into creating meaningful homes.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).

Sean Scherer is a painter by training and profession, and currently a passionate shop owner and creator of interior environments that envelope you in very particular atmospheres and emotions.  Sean has also written his first book.  In our conversation today, Sean talks about what different elements go into the creation of a home, a room, or even a small vignette, based on his years of training his eye on composition, balance and story telling.   To use the Slow Style approach in your home, start with this free guide on how to create a vision that sets you up for every design decision you'll need to make!Sign up here to receive the free guide (and lots of suppport along the way).