Ep. 144: designer Keita Turner

How to Decorate

Our guest Keita Turner is a New York-based interior designer who talks with us about stepping out of your comfort zone, rules for hanging art, and ways you can find what works for you and blend it together in a seamlessly clean and interesting way.

What You’ll Hear On This Episode:

• Trials and triumphs featuring a beautiful painting with a floating frame, working without an office, the perfect place for a great houseplant, a water heater that won’t define us,
• How effective command hooks and organizational trays can be to keep our spaces free and clear.
• Keita shares how her background in mass-market fashion and high-pressure corporate work lead her to take classes and work for her mother in interior design.
• How Keita’s mother’s style inspired her own, and ways that they are different in their personal approach.
• How freelancing gave Keita the confidence to know that she could branch out on her own.
• Keita’s motto: “don’t be afraid to do things that frighten you.”
• Ways that we can mix things through travel and build a collection of pieces that are meaningful and beautiful to us personally.
• The balance of nudging clients to go a certain design route and honoring their vision to courage their collection in a way that works for their ultimate goals.
• The rules for hanging art, and what Keita continually sees people doing wrong!
• What makes a great art handler, and why you may want to work with one.
• How Keita is adapting to virtual presentations to still show the texture and composition of individual fabrics and swatches.
• Keita's pillow collection Livvy and Neva, made from vintage textiles

Mentioned In This Episode:

Picture Frames.com

@hotdudesreading

@keitaturnerdesign

Keita Turner Design

Redd Kaihoi

Ballard Designs IG TV

Decorating Dilemma:

This is a good looking room, and you have done a great job of pulling it together thus far. The recliner and antique table can’t occupy that space, but we like the recliner so don’t want to see it go! You could find cabinets with doors that provide cord management. Adding some art and accessories with some black could add texture and depth, and the blue from the painting could also be used in a buffalo check pillow or another way to pop some color in. Some small tables could provide a place for drinks, and a nice floor lamp will add more lighting options. You have great style, so just a few final tweaks and you are good!