Picture Perfect

Jay Johnson - A late friend of ours, a fellow interior designer, filled his personal home with important pieces of contemporary furniture. Each item had a special creation story behind it, tied to a star designer. With all due respect, he never saw the forest for the trees and his home turned out to be a rehash of the Design Within Reach catalog. DWR carries the best contemporary classics, but if you choose one or two of everything in their catalog, you take the risk that your interiors will be sterile.

We caution any homeowner against falling in love with one furniture company. The danger is that your home will be a picture perfect copy of the IKEA catalog, or the CB2 catalog, or the Westelm catalog, or the Restoration Hardware catalog, and so on. Or you can go with furniture all from a single period and you run the risk of turning your home into a musty furniture museum. So don’t go overboard and try to be too stuck to any one vendor or look or style or period.

Another no-no is to copy someone’s Instagram interior or, worse yet, crave something for your home that a friend or neighbor of yours already has. Refrain from the “I Want It Too” virus - it’s spreading, and it’s turning many interiors into a me-too wasteland. You can do better by having an interior scheme that’s fresh and unique. Something all your own will always do you and your family proud.

So what can you do to avoid picture-perfect sameness with your interior design?

  • One takeaway from this design lesson is to mix it up - multiple furniture sources, styles, periods

  • Always put serious intention and thought into your selections. Picking everything out of one catalog is not a good way to achieve a great end result

  • Be creative and daring when coming up with your furniture plan, and [message from our IWI sponsor] trust your interior designer to make educated and thoughtful recommendations

  • Purchase new furnishings that you need, like a comfortable and stylish sectional sofa for your recreation room, den, or great room, but try to buy fabulous and quirky items from an auction house or high-end antiques site like Chairish or 1st Dibs to layer the look in your room

  • Mix good furniture pieces with less expensive finds - you’ll find gems in Target and other big box stores if you look hard enough, and it’s fun to slip them into any design scheme

  • Eclectic decorating allows you to curate pieces based on how they relate to your home, the function of a room, the sculptural shapes you’re looking for, and the overall feel. And the end result will be something more picture perfect than the pages of a furniture catalog!