This episode comes to you from Day 3 of Nashville Week! Our guest is Nashville-based interior designer and nonprofit art gallery owner Julie Couch. Her work has been featured in Country Living, Southern Home, domino and she was named one of Traditional Home’s Rising Stars. She was also on DIY Network’s Nashville Flipped. This busy lady sits down with us to talk about her many projects, her love of performance fabrics and textiles, staying accessible and how to jazz up the popular all-white look.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
- Julie’s doesn’t have a particular style, but she likes to pull her client’s requests through her own filter. She particularly likes performance fabrics.
- Julie likes the motto, “If you feel like you have to impress somebody at your house, then you don’t need to invite them over.” And that design is evident in designing her own home.
- Having kids in the house doesn’t mean you can’t have nice things; Julie didn’t alter her home much when her daughter was born. Life is short—make your home beautiful! Even on a budget.
- Julie wants to take the intimidation out of the building and design process, so she is very transparent.
- What the best plan and biggest challenges are for all-white rooms; and how to make them unique.
- All about the spiral slide one of Julie’s clients wanted in her kids’ playroom.
- One thing Julie is seeing is clients being adventurous with their bathrooms, laundry and mud rooms.
- How to layer in textiles to make the light and white rooms feel more cozy.
- With more people at home, they are decorating and designing their spaces.
- Julie believes designing your home should be accessible; she has a blog with free advice and encourages people to think of design as an ongoing process.
- With so many clients finding Julie through social media, she has really embraced it as a tool.
- Why one of Julie’s biggest dislikes are rugs that are too small.
- More about Julie’s nonprofit art gallery, G Grace Gallery, that benefits chronically ill children.
- Julie’s tips on how to start and display an art collection.
- How Julie is able to bring back an old-fashioned classic, café panels, and make it feel modern.
Decorating Dilemma
Hi Ladies,
Love the podcast. Great to get tips from so many talented designers. Love the trials and triumphs and Karen I sympathize with you having your husband walk through the background of a video call shirtless!
I have a cottage on the coast of Rhode Island. The cottage was built in 1880 and is in the historic district. My dilemma is the master bedroom. The room is small and there are several awkward spaces and I am struggling with how to decorate it.
- Would wallpaper work well in this room? If so, what parts of the wall/ceiling would I wallpaper? Souls I wallpaper the sloped ceilings? What about the wall next to the window?
- Since there is one window, what should I use for window treatments? (Hoping to get central air so no more window AC)
- What do I do with the nook with the light? The walls start sloping at 37 1/2”, I can walk in there, but it is tight.
- Thoughts on the transom window? It does provide light to the room and was most likely added to the room to add light as you can’t make changes to the exterior without historical commission approval.
Love to hear your thought.
Thanks,
Lee
Hi Lee,
This room is adorable! We agree that the wallpaper would be so pretty and we would put it on every surface you can; walls, ceilings, everywhere. We would use a fun print but in a lighter color. For the window, a Roman shade mounted all the way up where it meets the ceiling will define the window but add a softness. Over in the niche, a little desk or vanity table would be really nice with a shaded sconce above it. Wired sconces on the angled ceiling would be great, as well. We love this room and can’t wait to see what you do with it!
Mentioned In This Episode:
- Julie Couch Interiors
- Julie Couch on Instagram
- Julie Couch on Facebook
- G Grace Gallery
- Ballard Designs Nashville Store
- Nashville Press Release
Please send in your questions so we can answer them on our next episode! And of course, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. You can always check back here to see new episodes, but if you subscribe, it’ll automatically download to your phone.
Happy Decorating!
Subscribe in iTunes | Stitcher | Google Play | Spotify
