By Caitlin Kelly

Anyone who’s been reading my blog for a while — thank you! — knows I thrive on all things stylish.

Ok, that’s a big word. A vague word!

I mean, not trendy. Not per se expensive or designer. Elegant, chic, intriguing work for me. Timeless, but not stuck in the 30s or 50s or 1800s.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a family who all had great style and the means to enjoy it.

My mother had gorgeous mirrored Indian fabrics as wall hangings and collected fabrics as she traveled the world, from a white cotton burka (!) to beautiful woven Peruvian mantas. She was very beautiful and enjoyed attention for it.

My father, whose clothes were always well-made and well-tailored, collected a wide array of art, from Japanese prints to Inuit sculptures. My maternal grandmother had a lot of money and her taste was more informed by decorators, but all of it lovely. I grew up going to art galleries and museums, and auctions later in life — country ones in Nova Scotia and New Hampshire, a few city ones in Toronto and New York, plus flea markets and antique shops everywhere I live and travel.

All of it, every bit, taught me about proportion and materials, the discernible differences between a genuine antique and a reproduction, between nylon and silk, linen and cotton, cashmere and wool. I also look at a lot of design magazines and books, some websites and, in the 90s, I also studied seriously at the New York School of Interior Design, which gave me a lot of knowledge and confidence.

But style isn’t cookie-cutter — and so many current designs all look the same, no matter how charming or costly.

Some things that make a space truly stylish:

Great lighting

Rarely overhead, never without dimmers. As one video says: “You’re not doing surgery in the living room!” You do need good lighting for a bathroom, kitchen and stairways, but no one likes glare.

Great looking lamps, fixtures and lampshades

Generic lighting can really wreck a room. A mix of tall and short lamps, antique/vintage and modern, a pair of great bases with matching shades, all work. Consider a patterned shade. Consider a pretty finial as a finishing touch. I recently made the simplest possible change to an antique lamp (adding a new white linen shade, unlined) and BOOM — it now offers maybe 200% more illumination. A stunning and affordable improvement.

I love all the new small cordless lamps that take up little space, but add style and task lighting. One of my favorite lighting websites is this one.

Well-chosen rugs

I see so many that are overpowering in their colors and design, usually too small for the space. There are many places to buy nice wool vintage rugs online, like Chairish, instead of one more piece of bright polyester from China. Many English homes choose a simple neutral-colored rush or sisal rug for texture and reserve using pattern and a lot of color for easily-changed art and accessories.

Vintage/antique pieces

Brown furniture is often seen as the (boring) default, but there are many other ways to add something old to the mix. It might be brass or chrome or silver or pewter or ceramic or painted wood. It might have a patina. Make sure whatever it is will fit your space and is sturdy. I’ve bought several pieces of furniture at auction, even online. Mixing periods can work, but clunky Mission furniture won’t play well with Louis 16th. Nor will mid-century work with Eastlake. Do some research before committing time and money. We own two well-made reproductions (a chest of drawers and a Pembroke table) for less than 50% of what an antique version would cost. They look terrific and 95% of people wouldn’t know anyway.

Artwork

It doesn’t have to be valuable or original, but it should have personality and not look like everyone else’s house. Our collection includes photos by us, photos by legends like photographers Hume Kennerly, Pentti Samhallatti and George Tames, a Spanish litho from the 1970s, two of my father’s small oils of my mother, a poster by French artist Sempe, an Inuit print of a polar bear, a few exhibition posters from shows I saw in France, two framed 16th c tapestries (inherited) and a large Chinese print on rice paper.

Yes, eclectic! But carefully displayed in coherent ways.

Art can be posters or (your) drawings or photos, even stunning images cut or copied from magazines or books in a simple frame. Don’t hang everything too high! I want to see this stuff — not crane my neck.

Window coverings

Overwhelming! Soooooo many choices. I would avoid any sort of plastic blinds, vertical or horiziontal: dated, flimsy, fragile, easily bent or broken and they are real dust magnets. I’ve seen wide wooden ones that can be a great look. For curtains, always, always lined and weighted at the hem unless sheer linens or sheers.

Pattern/prints

I’ve included three photos of printed things we own: the top one is a pillow cover from West Elm (I think!), the large green gingham is bedding (excellent quality!) from Quince and the striped rug from one of my favorite sites, Dash and Albert. I don’t like a lot of prints, but use them in small doses like a pillow cover or tablecloth or napkins. There are so many amazing choices out there, including Etsy and Spoonflower. The trend now (gross) of all gray and white is dull and depressing and why???!

I inherited this 19th c sampler from my mother…soaked it in warm water with a tiny bit of bleach and put it into a lovely new simple frame. It hangs in the kitchen with the burgundy stitching the same color as some of the tile.

Color

My obsession!

As I’ve written here many times, our go-to for paint is the British firm Farrow & Ball; one nice thing is you can always have them re-mix an “archived” (discontinued) color. We have French Gray in the kitchen and one living room wall, Skimming Stone everywhere, Rangwali in the sitting room and Straw in the bathroom.

The floor has a color! Your huge black or brown sofa is a massive blob of color! A stark white room is its own statement.

But it’s easy to get color very wrong, which is why so many people do! It’s affected by adjacent colors and needs to play well with the color of the floor and your other items in the room and the sources of natural light and, ideally, what’s outside the windows — which is why deep glossy purple or turquoise is rarely a great choice. The trend now (not my jam) is “color drenching”, including the ceiling, using very deep shades of blue and teal and brown. I give it a year or so…

It helps, for your clothing as well, to discover what colors really make you happy; if primaries (red, blue, yellow) I’d strongly urge them in small doses so the room doesn’t resemble a kindergarten.

Accessories

For me, this is where the magic of personal style really happens. It might be a collection, nicely-displayed.

Some of our accessories, acquired over years from Ontario, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania and a local mall, include: an antique folk-art wooden horse in glossy black paint, two early hand-blown bottles I use as vases for flowers, two modern pierced metal lanterns with candles inside, a small porcelain plate with a dog painting, a tiny owl figurine.

I find lovely things everywhere — at consignment and thrift shops, auctions, flea markets, antique stores and whatever modern company I enjoy. Price isn’t the point, but charm and utility.

Retailers I like include Hudson Grace, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, West Elm, Anthropologie. I really like the spare elegance and European vibes of Zara Home. Love this tray from Abask. For a very girly/pretty collection of linen and tableware, Mrs. Alice.

Ideally, a mix of charm, history, meaning. One is an Art Nouveau pewter plate of my late grandmother’s I loved for years.

Condition

The basics — a room in poor condition will always look unappealing. Things to consider: new caulk/grout in kitchen and bathroom, new flooring or wallcovering (there are many non-permanent options for renters), dirty/dusty lamp fixtures and shades, poor lighting (under or overlit), stains and marks on walls and baseboards…Most fixes are cheap and easy to do, often just a fresh coat of spackle and paint.

What’s your style?

They all have fancy names now — like Coastal Grandmother (what?!)

Mine is most likely English country house — (yes, in a 1960s suburban apartment with no crown molding or fireplace or flagstones or boot room…) — which means a nice comfortable mix of deep sofas, throw pillows, candles, soft lighting, some classic shapes, some things new, some things clearly old. Much as I appreciate crisp, clean modern rooms — all cream and black — it’s just not for me. Looking at lots of options will help you get clear on what makes you happiest.

My very best source for interior design inspiration is the UK’s monthly glossy magazine The World of Interiors, and I pay $150 a year for my subscription. So worth it!

There a LOT of design videos and TikToks out there…I really like how super helpful and practical these are, by Lily Walters.