Brisbane’s Best Stylists Share Their Secrets With H & H
This week we asked two of Brisbane’s elite stylists for their top recommendations for styling your home whether you’re staying or styling for sale; as well as our in-house style queen Karen Hutton for her thoughts.
Deb Lindner of Mink Home shared her ideas on the topic below.
1. CUT THE CLUTTER AND CHAOS
When we professionally style a property for sale, one of the biggest reasons it feels so amazing is that it is ‘clutter-free’.
Nearly every property we visit before styling has too much furniture, and too much stuff!
By simplifying our spaces we automatically beautify them.
Creating a sanctuary at home makes our lives better! Our mental health will be better…and we will definitely experience more joy every day. So many of us have been influenced by Marie Kondo’s Konmari “Tidy your space, transform your life” philosophy, and that is because it works!
And the bonus is that having fewer pieces that are more interesting and beautiful will only add to the beauty of your space.
TIP: Go through your house, room by room, and seriously remove the excess. Keep only things that are both functional and beautiful. This is the single biggest thing you can do for your home and the really great news is you can usually do it in a day (OK, maybe a week or two).
2. INVEST IN ART YOU LOVE
A life filled with art is glorious, and well-chosen art (that you really, truly love) will transform a room and make you feel happy and at home.
But when furnishing your home buy art that speaks to you rather than matching the colours of your room. There is so much more to art than colour alone. We want art to make us FEEL SOMETHING.
And here’s the thing, size really does matter. A common mistake we see is artwork that is too small, hung too high, and scattered around the room (so it loses it becomes visual clutter).
So, how big should artwork be? Scale is important when choosing art, and one bold piece can often make a space seem bigger.
If you’re hanging a piece above a piece of large furniture, like a bed or couch, a good rule to follow is that the piece should be around 2/3 the width of the piece of furniture.
Alternatively, a gallery of several pieces can also be used to ‘frame’ furniture, but the same rule of size applies – just look at the collection as though it’s one piece and have it take up 2/3 of the width, as you would with one large piece.
Pieces that are too small look stranded, and a few tiny pieces hung together can look more like clutter than a feature.
TIP: Don’t put art on every wall. Some blank walls give the artwork ‘space to breathe’.
Choose the walls with the least number of interruptions (eg. windows and air conditioning units) and hang the pieces you love.
3. MIX HIGH AND LOW
One of the secrets to creating a beautiful room is learning to seamlessly combine both high and low items.
Bringing together a mix of different furniture at various price points is not only more economical, but also a way to inject personality into the space… because no one wants to live in an impersonal ‘showroom’!
And by incorporating vintage finds, handcrafted details and one-off items, your space becomes truly unique!
The key is to choose one piece that has lots of personality and really elevates the room, and then balance this ‘hero’ piece with more simple, versatile items.
For example, you might splurge on a luxurious velvet couch, a feature chair, dramatic lighting or a bold rug. Then choose clean, simple furniture items to pair with your hero piece (these do not need to be expensive, and you can easily source some great finds at your local
furniture brand store or online). And finally, layer in more budget-friendly cushions, art books, plants and simple vessels to complete the room.
TIP: Stick to classic colours and natural materials for your ‘filler’ items. Look for linen, marble, cotton, silk, aged metals wood, etc. All too often I see synthetic materials or cheap looking fake brass that is an instant giveaway that something is cheap and poor quality.
Next we spoke to Jodie Italia from Bexley and Moore.
1. Invest in good quality, neutral base pieces to anchor the space. It’s an old tip, but extremely important. I tend not to follow trends but change my mind about colour and style often (and have lived in several different styles of homes) so my base furniture pieces are always very versatile.
2. Keep the home cohesive. Whether styling a house for living in or for sale, each space should flow nicely to the next.
The colours and style of the home and the furnishings should all complement each other. Consistency throughout the home creates harmony. This is especially important when presenting a home for sale, as your photographs of each room should all look like they are from the same house!
3. Surround yourself with items you love. Don’t hang on to something you dislike just because it was inherited or gifted. I see pieces like this in client’s homes that dominate & dictate spaces and bring nothing to the home. A home reflects the people who live there – it’s not a storage facility. Give yourself permission to let items go that don’t bring you joy.
And some thoughts from Karen to round it all out.
‘Wow, thank you Deb and Jodie. Deb, I loved your advice around the size of art. It’s a scientific way of looking at it that makes so much sense! And Jodie, couldn’t agree more about a home not being a storage facility. We’re all guilty of accumulating stuff that we no longer need.’
‘To conclude this article, my number one recommendation is to always include some green in your home. Every single room can benefit from a pop of green. At our place we have pots of green in every space, from sansevieria in the bathroom to rhapis palm on the terrace, and massive monstera leaves in a tall cylindrical vase framing the island bench in the kitchen. Adding green to a home just goes without saying in my mind, and I think Deb and Jodie would both agree.’
(Karen’s alter ego photo’d)
