Darling for Emily Henderson

Spend five minutes reading her blog and Emily Henderson will quickly feel like the best friend you’d want to spend an entire day binge-watching TV and having heartfelt conversations with.

Spend five more minutes reading her blog and you’ll soon scrap that idea in favor of wanting her to come over and redesign every single nook and cranny of your home.

Emily has a level of design genius that’s nothing short of inspiring; she’s able to turn clutter into chic and something generic into something perfectly original. We were fortunate enough to get to spend the day with her earlier this summer shooting for Issue No. 13, and we’re giving you a sneak-peek into her feature (and sharing some of her interior design wisdom) with you, below!

Darling Magazine: How do you know when you’ve found your “it” piece, that one piece you just really love and need to scoop up?

Emily: It’s definitely a gut reaction, but sometimes your gut can also be wrong because you might be responding to a color or the shape of something and it’s cool, but, it might not really work …. the point being, if you have a severe response [to a piece], first ask whether you think it will truly work for your home. Ask yourself what about it you are responding to, because sometimes what you are responding to isn’t something you can actually use.

Use your gut, but then also analyze what your gut is telling you.

DM: Do you let other people’s opinions influence what you do (or do not) incorporate into an interior design project?

Emily: You know, sometimes I think it’s good to think of somebody that you admire and think, would this person own it?  Or, say if you’re trying to go in a new direction, for example more sophisticated, refined or grown up, then you can think, is this helping me go in that direction?  Or is it exactly the same thing I’ve been buying or attracted to for years?

And [the answer] doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t buy it, just that you should really think about it before doing so.

DM: When collecting little things for your home — vintage items especially — do you have one tip to ensure that your home won’t end up looking like an antique shop?

Emily: The first thing I always say is to have a consistent color palette and then you can go a little bit crazy within that color palette because then, generally, things will look good together. But, if you don’t have a color palette AND you’re just buying any color AND you’re buying antique AND you’re buying a ton of small things, then that’s when it looks like a crazy person lives there.

So, if you’re going to collect, collect all different shapes, styles and textures to ensure a well-rounded look. Avoid many little things, because those will be much harder to collectively style.

Find the full feature with Emily Henderson in our newly released Darling Issue No. 13!

BTS images by Morgan Ashley Photography

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