Designer Greg Natale debuts his first book, The Tailored Interior. The Tailored Interior offers an inside look at the designer’s enigmatic design process. Sections range from the expected (a primer on paint types) to the more nuanced (how to style your cushions). We caught up with the designer to get the trusty checklist he applies to all of his projects.
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Every designer has his or her own style rules. Over the years, I’ve honed mine down to the top five that I come back to again and again. Follow these ideas — or break them if you see fit — and I guarantee you’ll be able to take any space from feeling like it’s a boring, everyday thing to something you love.
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Repeat after me: I am the master of my remodel. Perhaps you should say it again, because sadly, it’s not always so. Remodels sometimes have a tendency to develop their own inertia, as decisions lead to new dilemmas, unintended consequences and surprising outcomes. In some cases, these flights of fancy are perfectly acceptable, provided the design and completed execution truly align with the vision and budget.
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A home without a television is like a castle in the clouds — it exists only in fairy tales. And that’s only a slight overstatement. The Nielsen Company reports that 96.7 percent of U.S. homes have television sets. In my experience, I can’t recall a single instance in which one of our clients designed a home without the television’s location in mind. This reality creates design challenges as home designers consider room orientation with the competing possible focal points of exterior views, fireplaces and televisions.
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Houzz professionals, whether architects, designers, builders, gardeners or any other type of expert dealing with matters of the home, have training and experience they bring to their jobs every day. We picked the brains of eight of them to discover their top design rule.
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I hate to break it to you, but designers don’t follow a secret rule book. There are no hard and fast laws governing what we do. We are creative types by nature and love to imagine, dream and explore, following our intuition. That said, there are some rough principles that guide us to ensure a great result every time. They are just tried and true things that work. And these aren’t tricks or skills that take years to master. Anyone can do them from day one. Consider this a foundation for developing your own quirky, creative, rule-breaking intuition.
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I have compiled a list of habits I’ve observed in the decorating and design world. Habits that I believe need to be broken. Many of these may have begun as good intentions — but we all know where that path leads! I’ve assembled 12 of those habits here. I’ve struggled with each and every one of them personally and feel I have come out on the other side a better designer for it. Although each lesson is valuable, in the hierarchy of habits to be broken, there is none more important than No. 12.
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