The wise Diane Von Furstenberg once said that decorating an apartment was like dressing a woman. So here’s a question- if you don’t like the way a designer dresses themselves, should they really be dressing your room? It’s clearly not an issue for these five interior designers whose personal style is as impeccable as their portfolio.

Who: Meg Sharpe

Where: New York, NY

Words of Wisdom: “I’m not a huge color person,” says Meg Sharpe, knowing it’s a dangerous admission for an interior designer. “I keep outfits simple, so the work speaks for itself.”

Who: Patrick Mele

Where: New York, NY

Words of Wisdom: “I’m restless when it comes to my surroundings,” he says. “They’re always in motion.”

Who: Kelly Wearstler

Where: Los Angeles, CA

Words of Wisdom: “My biggest mistake was once doing a striped entry hall in six colors. It turns out you can go overboard.”

Who: Sara Ruffin Costello

Where: New Orleans, LA

Words of Wisdom: “My go-to outfit everyday is literally pajamas. Thank god they came into fashion because now I can wear little silky patterned numbers and they go together and it looks like I actually got dressed. But I didn’t.”

Who: Celerie Kemble

Where: Palm Beach/New York

Words of Wisdom: “Celerie throws together a crazy combination of new and old and high and low,” her husband [Boykin Curry] observes, “but rather than looking like a cluttered mess, it all feels right, as if the objects had been looking for each other.”

For Brittany Bennett, a Brooklyn-based baker and food writer, the kitchen is a place to be inspired and organized. Between running her own pie business (Taartwork) and writing recipe roundups for BuzzFeed (like 17 weird pizza crusts that are actually brilliant), she needs a kitchen to come home to at the end of the day that is welcoming, open, and has its shit together. We sat down with Brittany to talk kitchen storage, sink etiquette, and of course apple pie.

Describe your dream kitchen.

My dream kitchen is an open space where three people can cook comfortably with each other while five more friends can sit on stools around us as taste testers. I like a social kitchen where family can gather and throw more salt into a sauce. Design wise, it has a minimalistic take on a country kitchen. Rustic wood notes but simple and clean organization.

How do you keep your ingredients organized?

I am all about clasp jars. They’re great for buying ingredients in bulk. Go crazy with a label maker and your kitchen will appear to have its shit together.

How do you store kitchen items that you aren’t using (plates, pots, pans, mixing bowls etc.)?

An open pantry aesthetic is my favorite. I like stacking my plates and bowls on floating shelves. It’s easier to grab and go that way, especially when you’re in the groove of cooking. I hang pots from hooks I installed over my sink and gather cooking utensils (wooden spoons, spatulas, tongs, whisks) in ceramic vases on the counter top.

What three things make a successful kitchen?

1. A stocked spice rack- if you watch any cooking competitions, everything can always use a little more seasoning.
2. A blender or food processor- a home cook can conquer soups, sauces, smoothies and purees with this versatile tool
3. A clean, inspiring workspace- keeping counters clear and fresh flowers on the table lures me to the kitchen like a mosquito to a light.

What’s the last thing you baked/cooked in your kitchen?

Predictably, apple pies!

What is your favorite item in your kitchen? Why?

My knife! It provides neat, efficient slicing and dicing on the regular. And nothing is more satisfying to me than a clean, pretty dice. True story, keep your knives sharp and the onion you’re chopping will make you cry a little less.

How do you liven up white kitchen walls?

Get plates from a local antique shop or second-hand store. Apparently lots of people consider their Fine China junk. But one person’s garbage is another person’s plate wall. Chalkboard paint is also a neat way to transform a plain wall into an artistic space for creative expression or tonight’s menu.

What is the magic number of chairs at a kitchen table?

I like to have six chairs around the table. But hosting weekly family dinners is one of my top 2016 resolutions, so I keep a bench lounging around as a sign to the universe that I am open to welcoming new friends and extra guests.

Any tips for cleanup after cooking?

Clean as you go! Doing dishes and wiping down countertops as you cook keeps the process zen. After roasting a beautiful chicken, you do not want to turn around to the Leaning Tower of Dishes.

Let’s talk sink etiquette- what to leave and what to wash?

If you’ve thickened a sauce in a pot or scrambled eggs in a pan, soak it immediately under hot water for the sticky stuff to loosen up in order to get a glistening clean. If it’s really stuck on there, for instance if you prepared a stew, soak it for a few minutes with soap. Never leave a cast iron skillet in the sink! Give it a quick rinse, salt rub down and towel dry it immediately to avoid rusting.

These three mountain homes are not your average vintage-snow-shoes-over-the-fireplace, hot-cocoa-stocked ski houses.

Peter Marino’s Rocky Mountain Retreat

The “sporty ski chalet” that architect Peter Marino designed for himself and his wife, recently featured on Architectural Digest’s site, has the elements of a true mountain home- plenty of cedar wood, touches of wintery flair, and giant windows for insane mountain views.

Fun fact: The exterior was inspired by a trip Marino took to the Galápagos Islands where he observed the flight patterns of the indigenous birds. Take another look at the house, do you see its beak?

Aerin Lauder’s Aspen Home

Built by interior designer Daniel Romualdez, Lauder’s home is an example of simplified luxury. Sofas and chairs upholstered in white mimic snowy Aspen Mountaintops, laying the base for a neutral color palette accented with Hans Wegner hoop chairs and George Nakashima tables. “It’s cozy, very casual, very family. Skiing is a great holiday for everyone. It’s nice to come in after a long day, make dinner, and sit by the fire,” Lauder said of her home, originally featured in Vogue.

An Australian Couple’s Big Sky Paradise

“Mountain zen” is the way architect Reid Smith describes this home in Big Sky, Montana. In terms of design direction from the client, “They told me, ‘We just want to float in the trees,’” recalled Smith in a Mountain Living feature. The interior was designed by Len Cotsovolos of LC2 Design Services in a palette of woodsy tones to warm up the steel and glass used in the structure.

 

A Venice Beach house was given the full Amber Interiors treatment when a newly engaged California couple enlisted designer Amber Lewis to transform their place into a “zen den”. “They wanted a laid back, California eclectic, boho beach pad and I think we gave them just that,” Lewis said of the space, which she recently revealed on her blog. Check out the before and after photos of the kitchen, which got a complete carrara marble makeover. The industrial light fixtures and dark green cabinetry paired with dreamy vintage rugs and light wood accents has us humming the Beach Boys like “I wish we all could be Californian girls”.

BEFORE

AFTER 

1. Actually USE your Calendar

Make your calendar a place where you schedule EVERYTHING. Be that crazy person that schedules what time you’re going to brush your teeth, when to have lunch, when you’re going out for a walk (do people still do that?). This will help block out chunks of time so that you don’t end up underestimating how long you’re going to spend doing a task…or not doing a task. That feeling that you get when you feel like you can’t keep up with yourself during the day and it’s already 7:30PM?— it’s because you didn’t put everything in your calendar.

2. Give Yourself Time Between Tasks (But Not Too Much Time)

If you have a meeting from 10:30 to 11:30, don’t assume that the next task begins at 11:30. Schedule tasks with a 10 minute window in between to let your mind adjust or to physically get yourself from one situation (or web browser) to another. Suddenly switching from one task to another can confuse your brain and actually make you less productive.

3. Build Good Habits

If there’s something you want to make a habit, put it in your calendar at the same time every day. Want to be that person who drinks 8 cups of a water a day? Schedule it. It will become a habit.

4. Be on Time

Being late is unacceptable. Your ability to be on time says a lot about you, and you don’t want to turn off a potential client by showing them you don’t respect them enough to be simply arrive on time. It doesn’t matter what you were doing pre-meeting, there is no such thing as fashionably late. 15 minutes early is the new “on time”.

5. Change Up Your Environment

Try taking a walking meeting. Getting up from your desk to “walk and talk” can be that unplugged moment that inspires you to think freely and more outside of the box. Seriously, recent research shows that walking leads to increases in creative thinking. Do you need a better reason than that?

6. Start The Morning With Your Most Difficult Task

I know it sounds terrible, but take the morning to tackle the daunting tasks that you won’t have the energy for later. It feels great to have the hard stuff behind you, and that feeling of success will propel you through the rest of the day.

Ok, now it’s time to get zen. Here, our favorite relaxing bedrooms.

Custom de Gournay wallpaper paired with a low, raw wood bed. This is where Sleeping Beauty would rest if it was 2016 and she lived in Brooklyn.

 Crisp white linens, and a Moroccan shag rug. Time to zen out.

Airy white floor-to-ceiling curtains paired with a minimal wooden accent wall. This design makes it clear: NO CLUTTER WELCOME HERE.

Talk about room with a view. Bedroom designed by Studio KO.

Natural light + natural tones. Just grab the morning paper and hit snooze.

Mixed textures and a modern fireplace (with selenite logs) make this Nantucket bedroom seriously dreamy.

 

 
Whether you jumped on the gram-wagon early or are just getting started, here are 4 hashtags for interior designers to use and how exactly to use them.1. #ihavethisthingwithfloors

This hashtag was started by an Instagrammer user in Amsterdam and has gone global with over 22k tags. Use it to showcase beautiful tilework, colorful rugs, and any stellar surface you find your feet upon.2. #shelfieShelfies are to interior designers as selfies are to, well, everyone. Take a shelfie to highlight any well-styled shelf. Bookends, decorative objet, and plants often appear in association with the shelfie.3. #dsnicerug#dsnicerug is just one of many hashtags that the Design Sponge team has put into play. This one speaks for itself, but take a look at some of the others like #dspattern, #dscolor, and #dshardware for more inspiration.

4. #fromwhereistand

The most widely used of the bunch, this tag includes almost 2 million photos. It’s the least design-specific but has the most potential to reveal personality to your followers. Show them what it’s like to be a designer from where you stand!

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Well, every year Pantone selects a “symbolic” color for the year ahead that provides a glimpse into what’s going on in our cultural zeitgeist. How are people expressing themselves? What’s the political attitude? Basically, how is the world feeling? Apparently we’re all just trying to stay sane. “As consumers seek mindfulness and well-being as antidote to modern day stresses, welcoming colors that psychologically fulfill our yearning for security are becoming more prominent,” Pantone says.

So why two? According to Pantone, the choice to appoint two colors is a statement on gender equality, a hot topic this year that we don’t anticipate going anywhere soon. No longer is the design world separated by “masculine” and “feminine”, but rather a harmonious mix of the two, resulting in togetherness and peace. (prayer hands emoji)

Quartz and Serenity are noticeably different than previously chosen Colors of the Year, which include much harsher hues like Marsala (earthy burgundy), Radiant Orchid (purple), Emerald (bright green), and Tangerine Tango (orange). The colors this year are gentle, calming, weightless, and frankly, they make me want cotton candy.

If we could design a Pantone-themed, cotton-candified room of our dreams, these 5 pieces would be in it.

Lindsey Adelman Branching Pendant 05.02

Eskayel Setting Sun Raspberry Wallpaper/Fabric

Muuto Pink Rest Sofa

Aelfie Hydrangea Sheepskin

Ombre Wool Throw