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How to Decorate

Ep. 303: Decorating Small Spaces with Sarah Lederman

How to Decorate

Caroline McDonald

Arts, Business, Design

4.4838 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s all about small spaces this week as we welcome Sarah Letterman. Sarah is an interior designer based out of New York City, known for her ability to mix patterns and melt modern and traditional elements into her projects. She cut her teeth in the industry training for years under Tom Scheerer and later launched her firm, Sarah Letterman Interiors. At the start of the pandemic, her work has been featured in House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Domino Magazine, and more. What You’ll Hear On This Episode: How working with Tom Scheerer and interning for Bunnie Williams helped Sarah grow as a designer and get more comfortable with her own style. Design advice Sarah did NOT take from her mom when decorating her apartment! Organization is a big part of small-space living. Using wallpaper in small spaces to hide imperfections. How do you find custom upholstery in Manhattan? How do you make a kid’s bathroom feel pulled together enough? Sarah’s favorite materials to help a space feel beautiful yet lived in, including performance velvet. Why shower curtains are underrated! How we can better maximize small spaces and weird angles. Tips for layering. There's a fine line between being accessorized and cluttered. Get used to knowing the difference! Mentioned in This Episode: Sarah Lederman Sarah Lederman IG Decorating Dilemma: Thank you for writing in! First off, the bones of this room are beautiful to start with. Okay, first off, Sarah thinks you could put a craft table in front of the big window. It can have three chairs around it and could even be the pedestal table you have tucked in the corner right now. If you need extra storage, you could potentially put an ottoman in front of the sofa. One of the biggest things for us is that the rug feels a little bit undersized. Sometimes an undersized rug actually shrinks the space and then a larger area rug would make it feel bigger. Next, Sarah also recommends adding some finishing touches like a cool big piece of art over the sofa. Maybe framing a piece of your kid’s art, which would be fun and a great talking piece. Maybe some fun pillows on the sofa which can also add extra seating for kids when adults are over. If you find another place for the piano, we do think you can get some sort of credenza with storage. Finally, for drapery ideas, check out our Isadore Floral Drapery Patterns for some good inspiration.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home.

0:08.7

Each week will help you unleash your inner decorator.

0:11.6

I'm Caroline, and I'm on the marketing team.

0:13.7

And I'm Taryn, and I'm a product designer.

0:15.8

And I'm Liz.

0:16.5

I head up the Ballard creative team.

0:18.2

We're your host. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs

0:21.6

for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists, and other talents in the design world.

0:25.9

Plus, we'll answer our listener question at the end of each show. So don't forget to send them

0:29.7

to podcast of Ballarddesigns.net. Yes, we love answering them. Now on with the show.

0:36.0

Our guest today is Sarah Letterman.

0:37.9

She's an interior designer based out of New York City, known for her ability to mix patterns and melt modern and traditional elements into her projects.

0:45.5

He cut her teeth on the industry, training for years under Tom Shear, then later launched her firm, Sarah Letterman Interiors, at the start of the pandemic.

0:53.7

Her work has been featured in House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Domino Magazine, and more.

0:58.2

Sarah, welcome to the show.

0:59.5

We're happy to have you.

1:00.2

Thank you so much.

1:01.3

Thank you for having me.

1:03.2

So I thought that we could focus on small spaces today because you live in New York.

1:10.6

You, I imagine, designed lots of spaces that maybe are a little

1:14.3

bit more, you know, conservative. It's square feet paired to what the majority of America

1:19.9

might have. But obviously, based on your portfolio, I mean, so they're a packed with style.

...

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