INTERIOR STYLING COURSE AT KLC SCHOOL OF DESIGN
Thoughts and musings about the day…
Just over a month ago I attended my first short course at KLC School of Design called Interior Styling for Beginners held by Judith Wilson, Interior Stylist and Author.
The whole day got me thinking about personal style as a whole, how it evolves so much over time, and how we are all inspired by completely different things - often moulded by our upbringing, culture and backgrounds.
As a daughter of tailors, being surrounded by fabrics, colour and pattern instilled a passion for fabulous high quality textiles and led me to study Fashion Buying at university. I veered down the visual merchandising route and soon realised how much I loved creating interesting displays. I was very much into fashion as a youngster but as I’ve grown and matured I’ve become more expressive and bold in my home, rather than my clothing choices.
I’ve been an Interior Stylist for a CGI company for a couple of years now, so although I won this course by entering a KLC blogging competition (via studying the Open Learning Interior Design Diploma), I knew I’d learn a lot from such an interiors aficionado, Judith Wilson. A great thing about the day for me was that I felt that as much as I’d learnt and absorbed, it was also very self affirming because after hearing Judith speak about tricks and tips, I realised that in equal measure I practise a lot of the elements already, which was a real confidence boost for me.
Within the industry I come across professionals from all different backgrounds, and if I’m honest I sometimes struggle with the fact that my degree is not in Interiors, but Fashion. The course helped validate a lot of my thoughts and methods and added new layers of ideas that I can build on and apply to each CGI interior that I style, as well as my friends’ homes and of course my own. Judith talked a lot about how styling is to do with intuition and experience, and I couldn’t agree more.
I made a few notes during the class and one of the first sentences is ‘Styling is for that moment’. I’m sure that all us stylists often find ourselves catching a glimpse of something looking rather nice while we’re pottering about, and then enhancing it slightly before taking a snap of it. For me it’s often to do with what flowers I have in the house or what books I have lying around, or if I’ve bought a new accessory like a cushion or tray, and playing around with how to use it at home. I suppose this is what makes us stylists!
The course included a couple of individual and group tasks, including putting together moodboards using images from magazines based on a brief. I do this as part of my job most days, but it was so interesting to see how others tackle briefs from different angles, and encourages you to open your mind to different ways of thinking, other than the ideas that come to you straight away.
Judith encouraged us to really scrutinise images in magazines and really think about what is satisfying in the image. What is it about an image that we like? What don’t we like? And what would we have done differently if we were the Stylist on that day. Reading magazines is something of an obsession of mine but this tip has altered the way I look at images each day, challenges the mind and brings about new ideas.
Is the image telling a story? What season is it, what kind of day? What food or flowers would you add if you could? Would you open the window or door? All these questions really helped to analyse the image and bought about creative thinking.
My friends often ask me where to start with a room and how to buy items, and my response is always to buy what you absolutely love (with an element of practicality and budget where necessary, of course) and somehow, it will come together. It’s funny that Judith said the exact same thing in the class. I think it’s really important that your home is a place where you enjoy all the things that are around you and connect with them, otherwise it’s not truly yours.
Judith asked a few of us what our two words would be to describe our homes. I’m one of those people that likes so many different things: bold colour and design, pastel colours, monochrome, Scandinavian, mid century, Japanese, chinoiserie, heirloom, eclectic, Art Deco... the list is absolutely endless! I didn’t have an answer in the class and I’ve been trying to put my finger on the two words which best describe my home and I’ve really struggled with it!
Colourful elegance, Playfulness, Kitsch, Pattern, Fun... there’s so many words! How can I get it down to two? Although I create more cohesive looks for my clients with a considered colour palette and an element of flow, I’m not really like that in my own home. The fact that the property I’m currently living in is rented, and because I (very sadly!) can’t paint or wallpaper, or change the flooring for instance, I suppose this forces my home to be little more free and less ‘put together’. Although I do buy pieces that I love, these tend to be accessories rather than pieces of furniture as we have finite space (the house is quite small) and we don’t know how long we’ll be in this rented property for.
I’m always creating moodboards for dream imaginary spaces, taking notes and screen grabs of products I like as I come across them, so maybe when the time comes that I own my own home, my haphazardness with design may become a little more streamlined and I do aim to be a little more curated.
I do very much like the idea of a more ‘grown up’ and considered space, but I don’t think I’ll ever lose the love of clashing colours, patterns, kitsch items and lots of them! And I do have a thing for the ‘higgledy piggledy’ and things not being too done or perfect! I’m sure I’ll find a way to make it work and if I do, my two words could be Kaleidoscopic Elegance, if that’s even a thing…!
If you’re interested in this course or other short courses at KLC you can check them out here: https://www.klc.co.uk/courses/short-courses/
My tips for renters:
Invest in good pieces you can take away with you.
Command strips are your friend (none of my pictures have fallen off the walls!) https://command.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/command-gb/
Cushions, flowers, vases and books are a great and inexpensive way to change the feel of your home.
