DECORATE Book Review

The founder of the successful decor blog Decor8, Holly Becker, has teamed up with Joanna Copestick to release her first book titled DECORATE: 1000 Design Ideas for Every Room in Your Home. Full of more than 280 pages with photography by Debi Treloar who has worked on publications found in Elle Decoration UK, France, Italy and Germany, readers will be impressed by the beautifully designed rooms demonstrating an array of styles – simple, modern, eclectic, natural, flea market, colorful, floral, and modern glamour.

Walking the reader through the entire process from beginning to end, Becker shares her secrets of how to begin a project by revealing rules of thumb for creating the best lay-out for your space, along with basic guidelines that will help lay a groundwork for a successful project. From small compact spaces to grand scale rooms, no matter what living situation you may find yourself, you will receive valuable tips to incorporate and “create a space where spending time is a pleasure.”

DECORATE is most certainly a resource I am thrilled to now have in my book collection and you will be happy to have on your shelves as well whether you are in the middle of a remodel or plan to spruce up a room or two down the road as it provides inspiration, reputable advice not only from Becker herself, but other respected interior designers such as Jonathan Adler, Kelly Wearstler, Amy Butler, Celerie Kemble and many more.

But speaking of Holly Becker’s advice, she has very graciously volunteered to be interviewed, so I asked a few questions that I thought you, my readers might want to know a little bit more about:

SL: When did you realize you had a passion for interior design?

HB: That's a great question, very interesting... I've never been asked this before! Well it's funny really, I never had a moment when I suddenly realized it, it's been part of my life since I was a little girl decorating in our family home, shopping flea markets with my family, revising floor plan magazines in my bedroom when I was 8 years old, I guess it's just like taking to a certain color. I didn't wake up one day and say, "Oh I have a passion for red". I've never had that moment with design, it's always been around me - and I've loved it since I decorated my bedroom when I was only 6 and love it more than ever now that I've developed my own personal style over the years and took design classes, read a million books and now author a design blog.

SL: Where does your trained eye for decor come from? Is it instinctive combined with training, etc?

HB: It's really instinct and training combined. But the training came from a very unexpected place. I thought it would come through working in people's homes but it didn't. It came from blogging about design everyday. The more I wrote, the more I saw this golden thread throughout my posts that was very much my own style and it excited me to see it coming to life before my eyes. I can truly say that the exercise of blogging from the heart, meaning only writing about things I love from my core, is how I trained my eye. The consistency and the exposure to so much online and off, coupled with the daily exercise of gathering images and writing, has had an enormous influence on helping me to define my personal style and to train my eye. It's like anything, the longer you work at a magazine, the more your eye is trained. Same goes for any creative exercise where you challenge yourself on a regular basis - if you have an instinct for it the training only helps you to become sharper.

SL: How would you describe your signature decor style?

HB: Casual, quirky, cozy, friendly, approachable, clean and feminine.

SL: What is your favorite room in your home and why?

HB: My dining room because it's very sunny all day and natural light is what I love more than anything else in a home - well, big windows and natural light.

SL: What are some of your favorite shops, websites and places to find items to decorate a space?

HB: All of my favorites are in Germany and Denmark currently, so I doubt those references would help your readers. So I'll stick with where I usually go for my stuff - local small stores, antique dealers, junk shops and flea markets. In fact, I go to those places first, then I search the web.

SL: For someone who is just beginning to contemplate the idea of giving their bedroom a makeover and creating a sanctuary, yet has never picked up a paintbrush before, what three pieces of advice would you give them?

HB: Put together a mood board using tear sheets from magazines to identify what you love - write on the sheet WHAT EXACTLY you love about the image. Maybe it's just the bed or the bedside tables. Once you have your tear sheets on the board, see if any colors or patterns are popping out at you. Make sure the colors are restful and soothing, I don't suggest red paint or overly patterned walls (like massive floral prints) in the bedroom, at least not on the wall you face when you open your eyes in the morning. Spend more money on a great mattress over anything else in the room - I know, not what you'd expect to hear but sleeping well is one of the keys to good health so save for the dresser you want and use the money in your budget for a good mattress if you don't already own one, and great bedding with lush, comfy pillows.

SL: The concept of your new book Decorate to include images from designers’ own homes and organize it in such a way as to simplify the process of how to tackle such the big project of interior design is beautifully done. What inspired you to include more than just beautifully choreographed home decor images in your book Decorate?

HB: I wanted Decorate to be much like my blog, decor8, to include a community of people and to make the book feel a bit interactive. To me, having photos and quotes sprinkled around is much like blogging and then readers leave their comments on your post. I don't believe I am the ultimate voice when it comes to decorating, in fact I don't believe any single person is THE guru of design. I think everyone has an opinion as so much of decorating is subjective - so I wanted to take the best advice out there from some pretty amazing people and pull it all together so that the text that Joanna Copestick and I wrote is just one part of voice coming from the book -- so there are many inspiring thoughts to motivate a reader as they are flipping through the book from a myriad of creatives from my blog colleagues to other decorating book authors, interior designers and many others. By showing so many opinions the point becomes clear to the reader with the flip of each page - that there is no RIGHT way to decorate, that you just have to find what is right for you, your family and the function of the rooms in your home.

SL: What prompted you to begin your blog Decor8 and what keeps you inspired as you continue building such a successful platform of inspiration for your readers?

HB: I felt at the time that I needed to explore the web a bit and get online to connect with like-minded people. I was motivated to do it because I had just resigned and launched my decorating business 8 months prior so I was ready now, at the urging of my clients, to get online and blog about my favorite things. Back then, very few design blogs existed and those who did had authors with a very different style and personality from my own. I wanted to carve out my own space online to share what I liked. Plus, I felt that in order to make a living as a designer, I needed to supplement my income and that writing for design magazines would be a good way to do that and reasoned that a blog could be a nice way to introduce my writing style to editors and get my foot in the door somewhere. Not long after launching, I became an online columnist for Domino magazine, then Cookie, and now Real Simple and also worked for the Boston Globe and HGTV as style editor. Little did I know, decor8 turned into it's own magazine in a sense with a huge global readership and within a year from launching, I was able to support myself on blog ad income and writing assignments so I felt less pressure to take on as many clients which was nice. I'm so happy things worked out.

SL: Where do you find inspiration for new design projects?

HB: I'm an idea generator and a connector. I have a million ideas in my head and I love people - so when I'm able to share these ideas with people it's the perfect recipe for me to become inspired and to get moving! I also find inspiration from what I observe others doing - I don't copy their ideas, but I just feel inspired by their work and that they took a risk or created something amazing and that gives me fuel to go off and try one of my own ideas. We have lots of role models available on the web these days, I always tell people to find people online who make you feel good about yourself and motivated to reach for your dreams, and keep reading those blogs and circling around those people because you can only become inspired by them. People can really make or break you. Be around those who make you.

SL: Having begun your blog Decor8 in 2006, you chose to leave the corporate world behind and have found great success. What advice would you give to someone who might be playing with the idea of leaving their salaried job and diving into their passion as you did?

HB: Before I left my job, I had an exit strategy. I didn't just walk out. I told myself that in a year I would resign and I did precisely that. By that time, I had gotten out of debt so that was already out of the way. For the final year in corporate, I worked my 9-5 job but I also enrolled in design school, took additional decorating workshops, writing classes, craft classes, I started taking clients from placing Craigslist ads and also via word of mouth, I really took my nights and weekends very seriously and worked extremely hard in school and with my clients. I resigned after a year and stuck with school and my clients and just kept going - then 9 months later I started my blog so it was nearly two years after telling myself I wanted to leave my job that I started to reap real benefits from actually leaving. But again, I didn't just walk off of my job - I gave myself time and I immersed myself into my passions for a few years and didn't let fear of the unknown prevent me from trying. I figured if I failed, I could always go back to corporate - I had plenty of great contacts and I didn't leave any bridges burned behind me so I had that safety net which made it less scary! You have to have an exit plan and an If I Fail Strategy. If you have both in place, just jump and as the expression goes, then the net will appear.

I can’t thank Holly enough for her detailed and very helpful pieces of advice. Hopefully you too find some pieces of wisdom to apply to your dreams and decor.

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