My guest today is one of my favorite interiors photographers and she&apos;s also an accomplished, sought after designer.  You&apos;d never guess that her life was kind of in shambles a decade ago.  I&apos;ll let Carley Summers tell her own story.  Let me just say that I&apos;m so happy to have met her and been introduced to her work.  Along with her personal journey, we also talk about how to make sure you&apos;re making good decisions while you&apos;re thrifting and antiquing, why you can&apos;t have great style without having patience, and why we all deserve sacred spaces in our homes.  

Style Matters

One Woman's Cinderella Story (and how you can have your own castle) with Carley Summers

Today I&apos;m talking with Aldous Bertram about his first book called "Dragons & Pagodas: A Celebration of Chinoiserie."  In case you&apos;re not familiar with the term, think about white porcelain dinnerware, lamps, vases... all with elaborate, vaguely Chinese illustrations on them.   He traces hundreds of years of the development of the Chinoiserie style, into what reads like a novel.  And then gorgeously illustrates all of the major motifs under the Chinoiserie umbrella.  I think you&apos;ll find him, and his subject, just as charming and delightful as I did!

Dragons, Pagodas and All Things Chinoiserie

Several years ago, passionate philanthropists Kelly and Scott Meuller had a vision for expanding and sharing their private art collection with the public through an endowment to the Cleveland Museum of Art.  They went to the firm Peter Pennoyer Architects with the idea of building a house that would also be a museum, along with a sculpture park on 150 acres of land.  What has emerged is called Rowdy Meadow.   Every surface, every window, every last detail has been a collaborative process between the owner, architects, craftsmen, landscape architects and interior designers to create a home like nothing you&apos;ve ever seen.   

A Very Special Home for the Public with Peter Pennoyer

Today,  I&apos;m talking with cookbook author Elizabeth Van Lierde.  And while I do love to cook and I love to eat, this is a podcast primarily about interior design, so I realize we&apos;re slightly off topic.  But the reason I wanted to talk with Elizabeth is that her book focuses on the sharing part of cooking.  It&apos;s called Everyday Entertaining and in it, Elizabeth takes us through several different types of gatherings with her eye on creating experiences inside her home that make for the best kinds of parties... the ones where everyone, including the host is relaxed.  And I think that being a relaxed and happy host is one of the best ways to use your home!  Here&apos;s Elizabeth.You may have noticed that I&apos;ve never had a cookbook author on the show before.  And that makes sense because the podcast is primarily about interior design.  But more than that, the show is about the personal aspects of our homes and how we use them.  So when I saw that Elizabeth Van Lierde&apos;s cookbook focuses on creating meaningful, fun and relaxed gatherings inside our homes, I was excited to talk with her.  The book is called "Everyday Entertaining" and while  

Hosting Parties the Relaxed and Happy Way with Elizabeth Van Lierde

My guest is Margie Grace, founder of Grace Design, a landscape design company in southern California and we&apos;re talking all about our outdoor spaces today.  Now, let me prepare you.... this woman is a whirlwind!  Or, maybe I should say a force of nature!  She&apos;s had 40 years of experience and she shares it candidly, frankly, with humor and without artifice.  Margie tells it like it is when it comes to residential backyards and gardening in terms of what you should and shouldn&apos;t plant and why being honest with yourself about maintenance is so important.  But Margie is so much more than a gardener and landscape designer.  In this conversation we talk about living a fulfilling life, putting beauty and joy at the top of our list of priorities, and why being a good neighbor and person, in general, is so important.  We talked for over an hour and I could spend days with her and never get bored.  But, despite our joking about it during this conversation, I did edit it down to about a half hour.  So if you want more of Margie, I highly recommend you get her book, "Private Gardens of Santa Barbara" after listening.  And now, I&apos;m delighted to introduce you to Margie Grace.  Grace Design: The Art of Outdoor LivingLINKShttps://www.gracedesignassociates.com/https://www.amazon.com/Private-Gardens-Santa-Barbara-Outdoor/dp/1423654145/…

Creating Outdoor Spaces That Actually Work

Today I&apos;m talking with N&apos;Ckyola Green, founder of eXtraordinary By Design.  Nikki is passionate about many things having to do with creating a home, from rolling up her sleeves and doing her own projects to eco-conscious lifestyle choices and natural beauty regimes, to gardening, cooking, and honoring the benefits of an interdependent community.  She&apos;s just a loving human being all around and I&apos;m excited to introduce you to her!  If you&apos;re looking to re-ground yourself in why style matters, this episode is for you!  Here&apos;s Nikki.  

Your History, Your Home with N'Ckyola Green

My guests today are Beth Dotolo and Carolina Gentry, founders of Pulp Design Studios, two amazing interior designers with many awards between them.  I wanted to approach this interview a little differently than I have in the past.  I thought it might be helpful to treat this almost like a masterclass in design by choosing one of the rooms they&apos;ve worked on and break it down into its component parts...color, scale, pattern, flow, materials... and explain to us how all of these elements come together to create what I consider to be a beautifully designed room.  I think we do a pretty good job of describing the room itself, but I know you&apos;re going to want to see it, too.  You can definitely check it out on their website, pulpdesignstudios.com, but I also have photos of it on the show notes page for this episode at littleyellowcouch.com, along with links to a few things they&apos;ve mentioned during our conversation.  And, a quick word about the show notes pages for the Style Matters podcast:  To find them, when you go to our website, again, it&apos;s littleyellowcouch.com, click on the Podcast link at the top and then click on "go to episodes."  Click on any episode to open it up and in the top right corner you&apos;ll see "attachments."  Click that, and that&apos;s where the show notes page will be for that particular episode.  

How To Mix Design Elements: A Masterclass with Pulp Design Studio

I&apos;m guessing you listen to this show because you love interiors.  You play around with decor in your own home, maybe you&apos;re the go-to person your friends rely on when they&apos;re furniture shopping... and maybe you&apos;ve even thought about putting your beautiful house or vacation home to offset the cost of your mortgage?  My guests today are Sarah Karakaian and Annette Grant, founders of Thanks For Visiting, which includes a podcast, a membership and a free introductory course on how to start and maintain a successful short-term rental business.  They give us a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to be a Superhost on Airbnb and why putting the guests first is critical to the bottom line.   Let&apos;s jump in!

So You Think You Want To Be a Superhost?

Rebecca Haskins is an interior designer, avid traveler, and founder of the online shop NOMA Collective.   While traveling the world, Rebecca is constantly taken in by both the natural beauty, as well as the craftsmanship and artistry found in handmade items in different countries.  It fuels her passion for her shop which is a collection of handmade goods for the home made in collaboration with the artisans themselves.  She has developed such wonderful relationships with people across the globe to create modern iterations of ancient designs and the results are not only beautiful, but incredibly meaningful.  This is a really interesting episode because we dig into the economics of our global marketplace when it comes to the things we bring into our homes.  So let&apos;s go!

Rebecca Haskins / NOMA Collective

 My guest today is Nicole Jackson-Bertrand. She is blowing up on Instagram because of her beautiful projects. Herself, along with her wife, Diane had been doing for years, everything, themselves, just from the vision to the execution. It&apos;s pretty amazing. They live in Florida. So there&apos;s a lot of attention they&apos;d paid to their outdoor living spaces. I just want to encourage you to think about while she&apos;s talking is what are your plans? What is your vision for your outdoor spaces and how do you want to live in them? And what&apos;s on your dream list.

Nicole Jackson-Bertrand

I&apos;m delighted to have Sharon Santoni back on the show again.  I first met her when her book, "My Stylish French Girlfriends" came out.  And she has put together a life that embodies all of the components that I admire: beauty, inspiration and the company of great friends.  Her blog, My French Country Home," has turned into a multifaceted business, including antiquing tours in Paris and Normandy, two books a magazine and more.  And today, she&apos;s going to take us to France.  

Sharon Santoni / My French Country Home

Today I&apos;m doing a solo show talking about the idea of a dream home and how to not put off having one!  I&apos;ll walk you through the Slow Style approach that allows you to create your dream home, right now, no matter your circumstances.  And then, I&apos;ll give you a few ideas you can try out to get started on that dream home today.  

How To Get Your Dream Home (OTLYC)

I am honored to introduce today&apos;s guest, the one and only, Annie Sloan, creator of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.   Now, if you&apos;ve ever dipped your hand into any DIY projects, you&apos;ve probably come across Annie&apos;s famous line of paints.  As I say  several times during our conversation, her website is a huge library of resources for all kinds of paint projects, from painting kitchen cabinets to speciality designs on furniture.  So you must check that out.  And Just to give you an idea of how big of a deal it was for me to talk with Annie, she has been called a leader in the design scene by the UK Telegraph, Elle Decor and the venerable World Of Interiors magazine.  There&apos;s so much to her story... we didn&apos;t even touch on her ethical and environmentally sound business practices... maybe we&apos;ll have to have her on again... but for now, I think you&apos;re going to be just as delighted with this first conversation as I was!  Annie and I were chatting before we started recording and she jumped into my first question without me even prompting her (she&apos;s a pro at interviews, honestly), so just to get you up to speed, basically, I wanted to know whether or not she agreed that most entrepreneurs of her stature haven&apos;t had a straight line to success, that there have been bumps and learning curves along the way.  Here&apos;s Annie.https://www.anniesloan.com/https://www.anniesloan.com/about/painters-in-residence/https://www.anniesloan.com/about/the-colourist/

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

My guest is Anitra Terrell, founder of Reflektion Design, an online shop that sells handcrafted art, textiles and serving ware all made from artisans Anitra has sought out in several African countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Uganda.  In this conversation, we talk about how she first started collecting textiles, the stories behind some of the objects she sells, and the impact you can have when you know where things come from.  It&apos;s all good stuff, but maybe the best part of the interview is at the very end when Anitra talks about why style matters.  I think you&apos;re going to really love that part!  Here she is.  

Anitra Terrell - Reflektion Design

My guest today is Christina Fluegge started her interior design studio, Greige Design about 20 years ago.  More recently, she has turned her focus specifically toward pattern design for fabrics and wallpaper, which you can find at Greige Textiles.  I was really drawn to these products because of her points of inspiration, which are mainly travel and nature.  Today, we&apos;re talking all about her wide range of work as well as how she mixes in art and antiques into her own home.  

What We Cherish In Our Homes with Christina Fluegge

Style Matters is all about the substance behind developing a personal style in your home and surrounding yourself with beauty in a way that is meaningful. We interview top stylists, designers, artisans and tastemakers both nationally and internationally about why style matters to them. The guests we interview each week inspire us creatively, and give us insight into why the art of home making is so powerful. To continue the conversation on why style matters, sign up for our monthly newsletter, packed with photos, stories, tips and resources, at www.littleyellowcouch.com

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Style Matters

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