Lessons From a Decorating Class

I watch a lot of HGTV and read loads of design blogs, but have never had the opportunity to listen to an expert (in person) give me suggestions on how to improve my home. So I was so happy to have the chance to attend a budget decorating class through the Boston Center for Adult Education at the home of Kyle Freeman. Kyle is the owner of Cloud 9 Organize and Redesign and contributor to the Boston section of Apartment Therapy.

About ten of us ladies interested in decorating (including Christine of Design Esquire) toured Kyle’s vibrant, eclectic home while she shared the tips and tricks she used to make her condo fit her needs and truly represent her personality.

Here are some of the key lessons I learned:

1) Make your space fit your needs

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This cute bench seat isn’t in a bedroom or a living room – it’s in Kyle’s kitchen! She hates to cook and wanted her kitchen to feel more like  a living room in hopes that it would inspire her to cook (she admits it hasn’t). The seat’s base is made from Ikea kitchen cabinets that are meant to be above a refrigerator.

2) Measure the height and width of the space you want to fill with art, and design a shape for it.

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Will the display resemble an oval, circle, square, or rectangle? Kyle recommends laying your art on the floor first, then take a photo of it to serve as a guide.

3) Great art doesn’t have to be expensive

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I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this gorgeous giant fan in Kyle’s guest room. It was only $12 at a local antique store. Most of the art in her home has been collected over time from antique and vintage shops.

4) Ignore the rules

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West Elm daybed as a sectional? Oodles of toss pillows as couch cushions? Why not! It looks pretty cool, doesn’t it? Sadly for me it was crazy uncomfortable for my back, but it looked damn cool.

5) Make your space be a total reflection of YOU.

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The most enlightening part of the class was when we reviewed photos of our spaces that we’d submitted to Kyle in advance. Seeing my living room on her giant (and I do mean giant) TV screen was a real eye-opener.  I know there are things that I want to fix (new curtains, larger rug, built-in bookcase someday…) but I never quite realized that you can’t really see us in the room. Plus, Kyle thinks the shelves and photos above the TV look like eyeballs – and she’s right!

Unless you look closely at the trinkets in the bookcases, or ask where I got the throw pillows on the chairs (they’re hand-painted, from Africa), you wouldn’t realize that Mr. JC and I have been all over the world and like the decor that we’ve seen in other countries. Somehow we need to make our travel experiences a more noticeable and significant part of our home, and I need to find the courage to break out of the Pottery Barn/Crate and Barrel mold – but it’s so hard! I genuinely like those styles, but now understand that I can’t let it take over.

So thank you, Kyle, for opening my eyes, and the other ladies in the class for sharing their ideas.

For more photos of Kyle’s cool home and another take on the class, visit Design Esquire.