Better Homes & Gardens’ new podcast, The Better Buy, explores everything home, from decorating and DIY to budgeting and renovating. We’ll be talking with homeowners across the country each week about the challenges and rewards of homeownership. We will also share stories, advice, and practical tips you can use in your home. Our mission is to empower and inspire you to build your dream home. Every Wednesday, we release new episodes!
This Episode
Host Melanie Berliet talks with Emily Henderson, founder of StyleByEmilyHenderson.com and author of The New Design Rules. She shares what she’s learned from renovating a home during the pandemic, decorating with young children, and her favorite home decor rules to follow and to break.
Meet Emily Henderson
Emily Henderson is a home renovator and stylist. After many years living in Los Angeles, Henderson, her husband, and their two children, an Oregonian, returned to Oregon during the pandemic. The couple is currently renovating a 1910 farmhouse to make it their family home and perhaps “forever home.” They will also document the journey.
Advice from the Episode
Emily shares the best renovation tips she has to offer that you can use in your projects.
You can reimagine the house based on your personal preferences, needs, and styles. It’s all about bringing in things you love, whether it’s your favorite sectional or an heirloom keyboard. This will make the house feel more personal. However, infusing your personality into a place takes time. The slower you do it-and this comes from someone who designs quickly because of my occupational hazard as a stylist-the greater the connection you have with it in many ways.
Emily Henderson
Why you shouldn’t rush to decorate a new home
It takes time to bring your personality into a house.
It’s essential to take the time to organize your belongings, plan how you will use them, and think about what you would like them to look like.
I recommend that you live in your house before renovating it. It’s impossible to know how you will use the space. It’s impossible to know which corner will be the most relaxing. It would help to find where your eyes will be when you do the dishes. Do you want to look out the window? Do you want your children to look out the window? Is this the right direction for our bed? Although it sounds strange and outlandish, it does make a difference.
Emily Henderson
Spending time in your house before starting a renovation is essential.
It is essential to take the time to understand and live in your home.
Even the most minor things can make a big difference, like how you want your bed to face.
Both of them desire bold colors, and I don’t want to spend money on furniture in hot pink. It may be something we will all be looking for in five years. Instead, I have bought lots of vintage but charming used furniture. Like $80 dressers. I was like, “Alright, if you desire a hot pink dresser, we can do it together.” It will be painted together, so there is no financial risk of it being rejected. We can also repaint it.
Emily Henderson
Why Emily chooses vintage furniture for her kid’s rooms
You can customize furniture by buying used ones. Bold colors are possible!