Allow me to Introduce Myself.

Hello all! My name is Emily Wilson and I am the newest member of Marta Mitchell Interiors. I am originally from Memphis, Tennessee where I was born and raised. Art and design have been major influences in my life, since I was very young as I come from a very creative home. I have lived in the Greensboro area since 2004 and have recently bought my first home with my husband Matt, our little girl Karmyn, and our two dogs. When I am not at work, I enjoy Zumba, cooking, and working on creative projects around my home.

                                             

 I recently graduated from the Department of Interior Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2009. Since graduating, I have been able to work in the design field gaining experience in training. I have worked on the commercial end, designing coffee shops and cafe interiors on both small and large scales, as well as on the residential side, in the furniture industry. My favorite part of the design process is discovering what the client is envisioning, and developing a concept and solutions that will achieve and fulfill their expectations. I am looking forward to working with Marta and learning more through our design collaborations. 

STRIPES!!

STRIPES are an exciting, dynamic, stylish, and fun pattern. I try to include stripes to every project I do - sometimes as a bold statement, sometimes in subtle ways.

Here are a few examples:

The WOW Factor

Ok, so you just moved to a new home, got all the furniture moved in and arranged, hung pictures on the wall and unboxed the accessories. You are feeling pretty good about it and it is time to have a few friends over – you even get fresh flowers to make it special… Your friends are great, and tell you that the house is very “nice”, and how it is in a “great location”, and how it has “wonderful potential”…. This is not what you wanted to hear – you wanted them to say…

“Wow, what a spectacular space! You’ve done such a great job with it! I never knew you had such design talent!”

Here is why: you were close and you did a great job, but you didn’t go for the“Wow Factor”!

So here is my mind blowing, eye opening, and life changing design secret:

How to achieve the “Wow Factor”!

It is all about creating a home that truly reflects who you are, what you love and what you are passionate about. Here are a few steps:

Step 1: THE CONCEPT - Think about what you want your space to reflect. If you are not sure, feel free to browse through magazines, websites, etc. Categorize what you see that you like, as in: color, style, furnishings, accessories, architectural features. This will help you define your own personal style (it might be a combination of many styles, it is ok to be eclectic --- remember this is YOUR style – no preconceived notions).

Step 2: THE PLAN - The best way to create your plan is to start with what you have. Select the items you have that you certainly want to keep – this may be just one or two pieces, or a great many few. Separate the “must keeps” from the “maybes” from the “must gos”. While you are working on a “Wow Plan” you do not have to live in an empty house – you can still use what you unintentionally collected over time then gradually dispose of items as you implement the plan. Once the “must keeps” are identified you might see a relationship between them and the things you liked during the concept step (Step 1, above). Then, break your plan up under the following criteria: Layout, Color, Pattern, Scale, Accent.

• Layout: It would be helpful to have a floorplan for the house, then measure the pieces of furniture you have and draw them to the scale of the floorplan - cut your templates in different color paper, based on the type of furniture (for example: seating in blue paper, tables, red paper, chests and bookcases in green paper). Move the templates around your floorplan to create the best conversation areas, traffic patterns, tv viewing areas, etc. Then make templates in a different color to denote the items that you do not have that must be acquired during your long term plan. Don’t forget to do templates for rugs in their own designated color. This multicolor floor layout will help you visualize your space and determine if you need extra sitting places, more storage, etc.

• Color: Think back to the concept stage. What were the colors that you were attracted to the most? Use one or two of those colors as a starting point. Determine a unifying color that can be carried out throughout the house (this could be as simple as white for all the woodwork, moldings, doors, etc – and/or it could be a color that’s only used in small amounts in all rooms). Once this is done, you must work on a room-by-room basis to determine each individual color scheme. Just be sure to create interest within your color plan by assuring that you have a range of lights/darks within the same hue and a relationship with one another. (This is just a rule of thumb – each plan will develop a life for itself as it progresses.)

• Pattern: There is nothing wrong with not having pattern – many concepts involve no pattern. However, if your plan involves patterns, try to again create ranges in scale. A plan is so much more interesting when everything is not the same (for example: combine a small stripe with a large floral, with a medium size geometric). Combine small prints with large bold prints, and everything in between. And this pattern combination should happen not only in the large pieces but also in the small items and accessories. Think RANGE – this creates visual rhythm, which creates interest!

• Scale: We are back to “range”… Make sure that the pieces of your puzzle come in many sizes, but try to repeat shapes (for example: if you have a round table, try to incorporate other round items in that plan – just be sure that they are in different, various sizes.) You are now creating unity and variety in unity.

• Accent: The last step to your plan is to figure out how to give this all a huge punch. That will happen mostly with you accessories, but very importantly with color. The accents will be things that stand out – it will come in small amounts and it will be a burst of color and interest that pops out throughout the room. It is totally ok and appropriate to have a different accent theme for each room. During the plan stage you will be collecting pictures of furniture pieces, fabric swatches, paint color chips, etc. It is helpful to, as you work on this collection stage to, from time to time, lay it all out on a surface, room by room, to see where you are and how it is all flowing together.

Step 3: IMPLEMENTATION - It is easiest to work room by room (unless, of course, you are one of the lucky minority who can just do it all at once – and if that is the case, call me and I’ll do it for you!) Start with the room your family uses the most – this should be your priority space – you should always make your home beautiful and comfortable for yourselves before doing it for others. Most often this is the kitchen/family room areas. Go ahead and move the pieces of furniture you already have (the “must keeps”) into the location you’ve determined on your plan, and use the “maybe” pieces as you can, and even use the “must gos” to fill in areas if necessary. Paint the walls in the colors you have selected and start buying new items, recover furniture, make pillows, buy art and accessories, at the pace that your budget allows to achieve what you envisioned during your concept/plan stages. At the very last, stand back and look for “knockout” pieces to accent your creation – art, lamps, accessories that will give the finishing touches and make everything else stand out. Proceed with implementing the plan throughout the rest of the house. Now, I assure you, next time your friends and family come to visit, they will certainly say:

“WOW, you have created the most fantastic home, it is beautiful, functional and comfortable – you are truly an “artiste”!”

Roles of an Interior Designer that were never taught in Design School

Interior Designers need to be proficient in many, many areas. Following are a some of the roles we play that we receive no formal training for, and yet are able to perform so well:

BEST FRIEND: This is actually a perk! And it is the only item on this list that is not a joke. Over the many years I have been practicing interior design I have developed some wonderful lasting friendships. Because of the personal nature of residential design, we have the opportunity to become quite close to the people we are designing for, therefore creating a personal bond. I have designed for entire families - I am up to 2 generations, but give me enough time and I hope to be designing for clients' grandchildren one day!

MARRIAGE COUNSELOR: It is not unusual for wives and husbands to disagree during the course of a design project. The interior designer's job is to ensure that the couple remains together by the completion of the project. This can be challenging and it might require teaching both parties to compromise. When this method doesn't work successfully, bribing the husband is usually the most effective option (please see following blog posts on "best ways to bribe husbands").

CHILDREN DISCIPLINARIAN: It is the interior designer's responsibility to teach the clients' children that muddy feet and silk don't go well together. Children must also learn not to use ballpoint pens on the leather furniture. When we encounter a disobedient child, a last resort method of discipline would be to move the X-box to the small TV in the basement -- usually when threatened with this horrible punishment the child will follow the designer's rules.

PET TRAINER: Prior to training our clients' pets, interior designers must take into consideration the pet's color. Every home's color scheme must be centered around pet hair color. Important: If a client has multiple pets of different colors be sure to use only prints that encompass all colors of all pets - projects of this type can sometimes exceed the budget requirements due to a lot customization (please see following blog posts on "best ways to bribe husbands").

PSYCHOLOGIST: Be prepared to hold a clients hand during moments of anxiety and uncertainty, and assure them that it will all work out. Clients can sometimes become anxious about making decisions. Our job as designers is to assure them that yes, we do know what we are doing, and that, even though Sherwin Williams has not actually color coded all of our selections, it will all work out beautifully in the end. This can be especially difficult when the client is the designer's spouse (again, see "best ways to bribe husbands").

FIREMAN: The old "put out the fire" expression could not be more true to a real fireman as it is to an interior designer. During the course of every project things will happen that will make our subcontractors, vendors, and clients act and sound like the whole house is on fire. It is the interior designers role to turn on the hoses and make sure that every fire is successfully extinguished and that all men, women, and children are safe and sound.

ACCOUNTANT: Creative brains have a reputation of not being able to keep up with the accounting side of running a business. Although this could be true for some designers, this interior designer prides herself on being proficient and extremely gifted in every area of the job. As crazy as it may seem, someone once told me that invoices must be sent out more than twice a year! A special note of thanks here to my real accountant who has been able to keep me legal and out of jail for all these years!

And there are so many other roles that we, professional interior designers, have to play every day to successfully perform our job.

I am proud to call myself an interior designer!

5 Reasons Why People Shouldn’t Live in a Museum-

Wouldn’t it be easy to design a home, or even just a room, if we chose a favorite style and copied the way people did things at that period in time? Straight from a history book. We would end up with a “perfect” look and our home would turn out to look just like a museum’s vignette – just like the historical homes we all enjoy visiting when on vacation (my family excluded!). And if we were really unlucky it would end up looking just like our next neighbor’s home.

Reason #1: A home should reflect its occupants’ personality.

That’s how history happened. People mixed items from now and then and adapted things for everyday use. Items were mixed from people moving and travelling across the land and the sea. New styles were created. We should to the same instead of trying to repeat the past.

Reason #2: Homes were meant to be lived in.

How unhappy would we all be if when we got to our beautiful looking home we were afraid to use it, put our feet on the furniture? New materials are available today that hold up to heavy use – even a bunch of teenagers playing beer-pong in mom’s formal dining room! (not my children, of course…)

Reason #3: You should never have to start from scratch.

The “things” we collect make us who we are. We should not throw everything away and start all over again to achieve that fabulous home – and yes, I am saying pitch the old college futon!!! But, there are a lot of “valuable” items we all have that should be incorporated into our new design – they are our history.

Reason #4: Creativity Rules!

Think of how cool it will be to combine that Victorian chest from our grandparents’ house with the state-of-the-art flat screen TV, with the oil painting purchased at your last Arizona vacation? And, yes, they can all work together – all they need are a few transitioning elements.

Reason #5: Because I said so!

Trust me -- I've seen both sides, and people are so much happier when they can be themselves in their homes, their castles.