Podcast, Ep. 353: Developing Your Personal Style with Eric Ross

It’s all about developing your personal decorating style this week with Nashville interior designer Eric Ross. Eric has over 20 years of professional experience and has left his mark on homes in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and beyond. His work and eponymous design firm has been featured in publications like Luxe Magazine, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyle and Country Living, and his book Enduring Southern Homes was released in 2019.

We talk to Eric about tapping into your personal style, staying true to yourself as trends come and go, and how to turn your personal style into a furniture and design plan that works for your lifestyle.

What You’ll Hear This Episode:

• Tips for developing your own personal style in design.
• Eric talks about the inspiration behind his book, Enduring Southern Homes. 
• How Eric works with clients who want that traditional touch, and the ways he gets to their heart.
• Tools for tapping into your personal style, such as Pinterest.
• It’s not always about throwing away things! It’s about finding the right way to use or display them.
• The importance of considering how a room will be used when selecting fabrics.
• The true gift of a designer is to find similarity amongst your things and to make your collection make sense.
• What if your personal style clashes with others in the home?
• Elegance doesn’t always have to mean formal!
• Eric’s rules for working with curtains, neutrals and prints.
• Yes, Eric has imagined himself throwing parties at your house! He explains how to create a true visual to tell your design story and make a plan that works for you.

Decorating Dilemma:

Hello!

I wanted to thank the podcast for answering my last question so kindly and thoughtfully.

I was hoping you could help me answer ANOTHER decorating dilemma I’m having in the same room with the chandelier. The current one is from the early 2000s. The ceiling is two stories, and I’m unsure how to have something hung and at what height.

I feel that the current light may hang too low over the table, and hoped to get some insight. I also wonder if there are any rules I should follow as to the size of the chandelier.

Thank you so much, I wait for the new episodes every week and feel like the hosts are my own personal design friends, lol.

– Karah

Hi Karah,

Thank you so much for writing in!

So, first, in true Eric fashion, it’s about more than just the chandelier. He starts off on the topic of scale, and suggests you add wainscoting on the second story to create consistency in geometry with the windows, and to bring down the ceiling height visually. This will also add texture to the walls.

Next, Eric notes that the current chandelier does not have enough visual heft, so he recommends a heavier, barrel-style chandelier that would provide better proportions for the space. Eric suggests hanging the new chandelier between 66-72 inches from the floor to achieve the desired lighting effect while maintaining a relationship between the fixture and dining table.

Hope this helps, and happy decorating!

– How to Decorate

Also Mentioned in This Episode:

• Eric Ross Interiors 
• Eric Ross IG 

Please send in your questions so we can answer them on our next episode! And of course, subscribe to the podcast in Apple Podcasts 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!

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