Ep. 414: 100 Ways to Feel at Home with Emma Kemper

How to Decorate

Ballard Designs

Arts, Business, Design

4.2 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Caroline and Liz sit down to chat with New York-based interior designer and author Emma Barrell Kemper, who shares insights from her new book, House Rules: 100 Ways to Feel at Home. Tune in to discover practical tips on creating mood boards, selecting paint colors, and future-proofing your home, along with advice on mixing metals for a timeless aesthetic. Emma also discusses key aspects of home design, like budgeting, assembling a shopping list, and choosing the right rugs and furniture. As always, the episode concludes with a listener's decorating dilemma, providing expert recommendations tailored to individual design challenges. What You’ll Hear on This Episode: 00:00 Introduction to the Podcast 00:34 Meet Emma Barrell Kember 01:05 Emma's Book: House Rules 03:51 Gathering Inspiration for Your Project 08:47 Mood Boards vs. Scheming 13:43 The Importance of Paint Schedules 17:43 Common Paint Color Mistakes 20:03 Using Paint to Accentuate or Camouflage 24:17 The Power of the Color Wheel 27:57 Preparing for a Decorating Project 30:26 Handling Unexpected Costs 31:18 Shopping Strategies: Rule of Thirds 33:15 Finding the Right Items While Shopping 34:15 Testing Fabrics and Swatches 38:26 Avoiding Built-In Tech 41:13 Future Proofing Your Home 45:45 Finishing Touches for Your Space 47:30 Decorating Dilemma: Kristen's Living Room 54:46 Conclusion and Farewell Also mentioned: ⁠ballarddesigns.com⁠⁠⁠ | Shop Now ⁠House Rules: 100 Ways to Feel at Home⁠ | Order Your Copy Now Please send in your decorating dilemmas + pictures so we can answer them on an upcoming episode (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) . And, of course, please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already in Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you never miss a new episode. Happy Decorating!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a weekly podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home.
0:09.2	I'm Caroline. I'm on the marketing team. And I'm Taryn and I'm a product designer. I'm Liz. I head of the creative team.
0:14.8	We're your host. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists,
0:20.9	and other talents in the design world. Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each
0:24.9	episode. We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email us at podcast at balauredesigns.net.
0:30.6	Now on with the show.
0:34.1	All right, so this week we are thrilled to welcome to the show, New York-based interior designer and author Emma Beryl Kemper. Her work has been recognized in publications like Architectural Digest and House Beautiful and earlier this year. She released her first book, House Rules, 100 Ways to Feel at Home. It's a practical guide to decorating your home. And Emma, we're excited to
0:57.3	chat about it. Thanks for letting us take an early glance at it. Thanks for having me here. I'm so
1:04.0	excited to speak to you. Yes, this is truly a beginner's guide. Although I guess, you know what,
1:10.8	you could enjoy it at any level,
1:12.0	but if you are a beginner, it's a great first introduction to tackling a room or tackling a
1:18.6	home, a whole home project that you're feeling overwhelmed about. Oh, totally. I feel like
1:24.6	after reading this book, I've gotten a degree in project management, interior design, how to be an organizer, and how to be a stylist.
1:32.3	So, I'm good. Well, I'm so happy to feel that way. Thank you. I was really writing it for like my younger self when I was first starting to think about becoming an interior designer and I didn't really
1:44.9	know where to start. I felt like there was no one place where I could kind of go just reference
1:51.5	everything, pick it up kind of in any part of a project. And so that's the book that I wrote.
2:00.2	And it does. It's meant to take you through like the
2:02.9	entirety of a project from like how to gather inspiration and think about a budget all the way to
2:07.2	like how high to hang a picture on the wall and how to mix and match patterns and just things that I
2:11.6	feel like are common pitfalls or can just feel really intimidating if you haven't done it before.
2:15.9	And it's just like very easy,
2:25.0	digestible, actionable tips and tricks. It is. Yeah. And I, you know what, I felt like it would be a great, like, graduation book or first home gift. Yes, first home gift, wedding gift.
	...

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