Ep. 462: Young Huh's New Book + Renovating Your Forever Home

How to Decorate

Caroline McDonald

Arts, Business, Design

4.4 • 838 Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today we are joined by a designer who has become a fixture on the decor A-List and the AD100, known for her ability to mix classic proportions with a modern, joyful energy. We are thrilled to welcome Young Huh to the podcast! Young sits down with Caroline, Taryn, and Liz to discuss her stunning debut book, A Mood, A Thought, A Feeling: Interiors. She shares the fascinating story of her career pivot from unhappy lawyer to celebrated interior designer, the life-changing epiphany she had at a cocktail party, and why you should always figure out how a room should feel before you worry about what it should look like. Quick Decorating Takeaways: Define the Mood Before the Style: Young believes that trying to articulate your specific decorating "style" can be overwhelming and restrictive. Instead, she starts every project by asking how the homeowner wants to feel in the space. Do you want it to be convivial for entertaining, or quiet and still? Defining the intended mood naturally dictates what elements you should bring into the room. Trust the Bold Choice: While decorating her very first house in Scarsdale, Young decided to take a risk and paint her dining room a traditional, saturated red. That early experiment taught her how enveloping and wonderful color can be, proving that taking a bold design risk is often exactly the right move. It's Never Too Late to Pivot: Before becoming an interior designer, Young went to law school and worked as a lawyer simply to fulfill familial expectations. She reminds listeners that we are constantly evolving creatures, and you should never be afraid to embrace a new adventure or take classes for something you are truly passionate about. What You’ll Hear on This Episode: 00:00 Welcome & Introduction to Young Huh 01:19 The inspiration and structure behind her debut book, A Mood, A Thought, A Feeling 03:20 Decorating her first home in Scarsdale and transitioning from apartments to a full house 04:25 The cocktail party epiphany that sparked her career change 04:50 The journey from being an unhappy lawyer to finding her true passion 06:56 What it was like going back to design school with a baby in tow 09:50 Young's early design experiments and the famous red dining room 11:19 Why identifying your desired "mood" is easier than defining your "style" 12:23 Designing living rooms for conviviality and entertaining vs. peaceful stillness Also Mentioned: Book: A Mood, A Thought, A Feeling: Interiors by Young Huh Young Huh Interior Design | Website Follow Young on Instagram: @younghuh Shop Ballard Designs Please send in your questions so we can answer them on our next episode! And of course, subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. You can always check back here to see new episodes, but if you subscribe, it’ll automatically download to your phone. Happy Decorating! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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.
0:09.1	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.
0:22.5	Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each episode.
0:25.4	We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email us at podcast at balderdesigns.net.
0:30.5	Now on with the show.
0:33.6	Today we are joined by a designer who has become a fixture on the L decordecor A-L-L-Decor A-List and the 80-100, known for her ability to mix classic proportions with a modern joyful energy.
0:43.9	She's here to discuss her soning debut book, A Mood, A Thought, A Feeling, Interiors.
0:48.7	Youngha, welcome to the show.
0:50.7	Thanks for having me.
0:52.9	So happy to have you. I've been following your work for many years, and it was a delight to get to see your brand new book. I want to start with the name because it's such a surprising and delightful name. And I wanted to know kind of how you, and it also describes sort of the format of the book, right?
1:15.7	It's set into three sections, mood, a thought, a feeling. So tell me about the structure and kind of how you started thinking about the book and, you know, what sort of was the thought process there.
1:27.3	Well, I, the title actually comes from how I think about my design process.
1:34.6	I think, you know, when you start a project, you think about how do you want to feel in a room?
1:40.8	How do you want to feel in different spaces?
1:43.2	So a mood is first. What is the mood that
1:45.9	you're going for? And we split it out into several concepts with illustrations. And then, you know,
1:55.1	design requires a lot of thinking, a lot of structured, you know, detailed thinking. So that's a thought, which is part two.
2:05.2	And we go through three projects and I walk you through how we thought through it, how we applied
2:13.2	the different moods and really develop these projects.
2:18.9	And then the last part is a feeling, which is my own home and garden.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Caroline McDonald, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Caroline McDonald and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.