Follow Martha’s lead and start decorating with intention
Martha Stewart became a household name by teaching people around the world how to transform everyday tasks—gardening, cooking, and decorating, to name a few—into passion projects. Since publishing her first entertaining book in 1982, Martha Stewart has inspired fans with her wise (and sometimes over-the-top) tips on how to discover your home design aesthetic and execute it perfectly.
In honor of one of her latest projects, “The Great American Tag Sale With Martha Stewart,” we browsed through decades of home design and decorating advice from the icon herself to inspire your next redesign project.
It’s easy to get caught up in the latest decor trends and aesthetics when designing your living space, but your home and its decor should always reflect your personality and tastes. If you love collecting funky art-deco pieces and using bright paint colors, you should personalize your living space to match your maximalist lifestyle. In fact, one of Martha’s most popular quotes is, “Your home should be a reflection of how you want to live right now, and for the next phase of your life."
Not sure where to start? Work with an interior designer whose style matches your own to create your ideal living space.
If you don’t read Martha Stewart’s blog, well, first off, you should start. If you do, you’ll know that the lifestyle expert posts regular updates about every aspect of her life, including her recent kitchen transformation.
When she renovated the kitchen of her farmhouse estate, she chose to hang her copper pots and pans on a rack for easy access. While this choice is best suited for people who want to display their kitchenware, it creates a functional statement piece in your kitchen for anyone. Talk with a kitchen designer near you about the best way to implement this design choice into your kitchen.
Instead of selling or donating worn furniture pieces, consider giving them new life by reupholstering them. One of the many projects that Martha took on during the COVID-19 pandemic was reupholstering several furniture pieces in her home. “Reupholstering furniture is a great alternative to tossing old pieces that would eventually end up in a landfill—when possible, repurpose, rejuvenate, and reuse,” she wrote in her blog.
Ready to refresh your favorite couch or armchair? Contact a local furniture reupholster near you to get started.
Most of Martha Stewart’s interior design projects start with a clean, neutral backdrop, specifically with paint colors. Use a neutral paint palette to set the tone of the room, and then add texture and character with functional furniture pieces and personalized decor. To start on the right foot, hire a local interior painter to color the walls while you focus on other elements of the room.
No matter the weather or the season, indoor houseplants can add natural life to your home. “Houseplants bring life to any room, especially during the cold, dreary days of winter,” Martha wrote on her blog. “I love container plants, and over the years I have amassed quite a collection of tropical specimens.” To follow Martha’s lead, consider adding popular houseplant varieties like snake plants, aloe vera, or ZZ plants to your home.
In her book, Martha Stewart’s Organizing: The Manual for Bringing Order to Your Life, the lifestyle guru recommends installing wide shelving above your washer and dryer to maintain a clutter-free zone. The shelving provides enough space to store laundry essentials, creating enough space to use the top of the washer and dryer for folding. For additional laundry room inspiration, check out our guide to easy laundry room upgrade ideas.
If your living room seems a bit tired and outdated, follow Martha’s lead and refresh the room with new carpeting. When she wanted to brighten two of the rooms on her farmhouse estate, she worked with a local carpeting company to install new sisal carpeting in the off-white color “alabaster” for a refreshing new look. If you’re ready to replace the carpet in your home, contact a local carpet installer for stress-free installation.
Whenever possible, strive to reuse natural materials found on your property or the surrounding area in your home. For example, Martha Stewart recently transformed a large yew tree cut from her property to make an outdoor table perfect for dinner parties and barbecues alike. If you have a tree or other outdoor element that you’d like to create into something new, contact a local woodworker to make your vision a reality.
