[Mr. Kate]

Hey Meaghan!

It’s great that you have a style in mind for your space, because that helps redecorating so much easier! Singular pieces and small effects over time will add up and definitely reflect the new feminine, industrial vibe you’re going for.

Without seeing a picture of the room, here are my best recommendations for places to start:

• Freshen up the walls with a light color like a very pale pastel — this will bring in the feminine vibes but not be too bold as to take away from the more minimalist, industrial theme.
• Add some tall shelves (maybe some DIY Rope Shelves!!) or buy an inexpensive model. This is great for storage and will also give you an opportunity for styling plants and other decor elements!
• Pick up a nice big area rug to add some cozy and texture to that tile floor
• For the bed, opt for clean white bedding and mix print throw pillows! These are a great place to bring in accent colors!
• Hang tall panel curtains over your windows to maximize the room height and make your space feel elegant and open!

I hope these help! Excited for how your room is going to come out!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey Alyssa!

Your home is so lovely!! You’ve done such a great job decorating, I agree that this funny light fixture should not limit you!!

It looks like what happened here is that there was originally a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, but when the new light fixture was put in, its ceiling plate was connected to the chandelier’s chain! If it’s possible to get an electrician out to your apartment to remove the chain and attach the light fixture to the ceiling with its actual ceiling plate, that would be a big help!

But there are definitely ways to DIY around that!! You mentioned changing out the bulbs, and that would be a great way to switch up the appearance.  Vintage-inspired filament bulbs, especially so exposed, could make for a great impact in the room. Here are some great ones!: http://bit.ly/2cxiSU7

Another option is buy an extra large Chinese lantern and use wire to connect it to the hooks on the top of the light fixture. If you find one large enough (maybe 28 inches?) it could cover the whole thing! Then, if you’re looking for cool ways to update that Chinese lantern, I DIYed some with Maya!

I hope this helps!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey!

Those floors are to die floor… haha, get it?!

Ok, puns aside, you have a great foundation to start your room from! If you are going to go for colorful walls, find furniture that is more neutral, but also have fun with different textures and materials. In my sister Tess’ house, she has wood floors, and in this guest room of hers that we featured, you can see that she has white furniture, metal furniture, mirrored furniture, and even a different shade of wood than the floor!

The key to a well designed room is knowing how to play different textures and elements off of each other, so don’t be afraid to bring some different tones and materials into the space!

I hope this helps!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey Mia!!

I love working on outdoor spaces!! Starting with painting the fence and walls white will give you a nice blank space to work with.

Instead of trying to combat the green of the furniture, try to find ways to incorporate it into the design! Green is, after all, the most commonly found color in nature, and you know my obsession with decorating with plants. You could put up a trellis with some bougainvillea or another vine-heavy plant (like roses!) for a more feminine, garden-esque vibe, or put some outdoor plants like cacti or succulents in plant stands (like I did for Joslyn!) and have those be a key design element!

Adding a nice outdoor carpet could be a good way to hide the brown of the floor if you don’t love it, or to bring in a more neutral or colorful (your decision!) vibe into the space. Also think about adding an outdoor stool, or some new, unique piece of furniture into the mix. It’s all about layering, so the green of the furniture doesn’t look like something you have to design around or overcome, but part of the plan initially!

I hope this helps!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey Christina!

I love how proactive you are about your room! You’ve got target areas you want to fix and ideas about how you want to go about it, which is great!! It’s so much easier to tackle a room when you have plans about what areas and aspects to work on first.

That being said, I really agree about painting the walls! White or a shade off white in any color family (think the lightest possible blue, the lightest possible grey, the lightest possible tan) would not only open up the space and make it seem bigger, but will lighten it up tremendously.

I love the idea of a tapestry at the top of your bed, especially since you have such a large and specific space to fill (so finding or making custom wall art could be tricky or expensive.) Sites like Urban Outfitters or Society6 are great places to look since they have a lot of different prints and patterns that you can choose from to get exactly the look you want!

As far as your vanity, what about upcycling it?! I recently redid the sideboard in the Boffice, and while you don’t have to go as far as repainting it if you don’t want to, switching out to new, cool knobs could be exactly the touch it needs!

Hope this helps!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey Lauren!!

Not a silly question at all!! Here are the steps I go through with a client to help design their space:

1. Pinterest board!! I always recommend that they make a Pinterest board for the space so they can become acquainted with what kind of style or design or different elements they might want for the space.
2. Choose 3-5 pictures to send me. This is a good amount to be able to draw the similarities from the photos, but not too many so it’s an overload of ideas. If there is a photo that is an outlier in style or aesthetic, I always ask why they chose that one. It could be a specific piece, which is also great information to have!
3. I talk to the client about how they use the room. So many people have all these amazing ideas for a space, but forget that the number one thing a room has to be is functional! You live in it!! It must address your needs first. In discussing those needs, you can also find ideas for furniture, decor, or style ideas!
4. Lastly, I visit the space. A lot of the designing and brainstorming process is so digital and theoretical, but it’s important to see and walk around and be in the space so you can understand how everything will flow and work together!

I hope this helps!!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey!!

Congrats on heading off to college, how exciting!!

I think the key to storage in a dorm room, as in any room, is considering storage for all surfaces and spaces! While boxes that can fit under your beds and desks are important (just like cute folders and organizers for your desk drawers), so is vertical storage!

Think of how you can use your walls not just for decor, but to hold some key items! These DIY Wall Pockets are great because they combine both storage and style. Also command hooks can hang things on the inside walls of closets, which is a great place to store things because no one sees it!

I hope this helps!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey Laura!!

This is such a relatable issue! A lot of rooms have only one ceiling light and a window for light, but that leaves the room dim and not as bright and dazzling as we (and our beauty routines!) would like!

I recommend lamps. Multiple. For your makeup station, get a desk lamp that doesn’t have a dark shade and doesn’t cast light down. This will help add another source of light for your makeup and will probably be brighter than your mirror! Another option is to hang sconces on either side of the makeup area (like we did on either side of Joslyn’s bed!) because that will give you more even light, but that is a bigger investment!

Elsewhere in the room, I would add either a floor lamp or wall light. Think of the different heights of your light sources. You have the ceiling, the desk lamp, and the window, so try and find the space in between those that is missing and have their be your target height for another light source! It’s all about vertical layering!!

I hope this helps!!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey!!

That’s no fun!! As amazing as carpets are in a space, keeping them clean can be tricky! I don’t have an extensive knowledge of carpet cleaning tricks, but there’s one out there about mixing a little white vinegar with a little OxiClean and some Febreeze! You can just spray the combo on the carpet, then vacuum! It’s not a cure-all, but it’s definitely cost-friendly, and doesn’t take much more time than it would to vacuum!!

Hope this helps! Let me know if you find out any other tricks!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey there!!

Luckily it sounds like a few swaps and or small additions could definitely get you the room you desire, without having to spend the money on a big change!!

First of all, there are so many ways to DIY some wall art for above your bed!! I had David Bromstad to the studio to give a masterclass on painting your own wall art, which is great because you are in total control of the look! But if you’d like something a little less abstract, this DIY Large-Scale Instagram Wall Art is such a great technique, also! It really brings a sophisticated touch to the room, while still being personal because of your choice of picture!!

As far as bringing in other, more mature elements, think about candles, mirrors, and vases. These are items that aren’t typically seen in younger rooms, because they don’t really serve a purpose for people that age! All of these are super easy to find in many stores (try thrift stores, too!) and come in many colors so you can bring in any bright pops you’d like!

Hope this helps!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey Kirsty!!

Mixing different wood tones can be an interesting design challenge, but I think you can totally make it work! The key element to a hotel vibe, like the one I went for in Andrea’s bedroom, is choosing one main color for the room and then adding in different textures, to add a cozy, chic vibe. With the different woods you have going on, white is always a good option for a main color, but the nice thing about wood is that is complements many color choices!!

I also recommend embracing metallics. Except, instead of mixing metallics (as I’m known to love doing) choose one and stick with it. This will tie your different wood furnitures together and give that hotel luxe feeling that you’re desiring.

I hope this helps!! Feel free to ask more questions if you want/ need!

XO,

Kate

 

[Mr. Kate]

Hi Phoebe!

I love your color scheme!! Those colors lend themselves so well to the bohemian vibe, and will definitely make your room stand out! For accents, I think consider textures to support, as well as colors. Dark brown wood or antiqued gold will bring in that around-the-world aspect that is so important in boho design. Also macrame wall hangings (like this DIY one I made for Maya!), Moroccan blankets and pillows, and layered rugs! I designed a boho room in this video, which you can reference for a lot of the points I just wrote about! That room is largely white and neutral, but if you add in colors, the principle design elements stay the same!

Let me know if you have any other questions!!

XOXO,

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hi Lymarie!!

Congrats on moving into your new apartment! It’s so cool that you study interior design, I’m sure your place is going to look amazing!

This open living/ dining room area reminds me a lot of layout of Katie & Tom’s apartment that we made over for OMG We’re Coming Over! They had a large, dark sofa like the one you pictured, and needed to find a way to make one open room serve two different functions.

I think a rug under the sofa area will really help section it off and make it its own complete concept. Add on a coffee table (maybe one made of glass to counter the darkness of the sofa) to tie that area together in a way that is inviting and functional.

A bar table is a great choice for an apartment where you don’t have a set-apart space for a dining room. They’re tall, but usually not too large, so they don’t take up more space than is available. A design trick I would recommend (and also one I used in Katie & Tom’s place) is to not get matching chairs! Instead of getting a table and chair set like in the picture you uploaded, bring some color and style into the space with different chairs — maybe even choose two styles and mix and match them!

I hope this helps!! Please feel free to ask any more questions!!

Much love –

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hi Kaasi,

Thanks for reaching out and sharing your story! It sounds like you have been through a lot. I think it’s so incredible that you want to be an interior designer, and I believe in you! If you haven’t already, I think you should join the Little Misters, which is a special community of creative and supportive individuals who are all connected over their relationship to the Mr. Kate brand and me! (They even have their own special forum!) I am always chatting with the Little Misters, and even get to do Google Hangouts or one-on-one chats with them sometimes, which is so cool!

Your teenage years can be such a rollercoaster, but it sounds like you have a great head on your shoulders and are motivated! That is the most important thing. Community is also so important, so I’d be so happy if you would have the Little Misters and myself be part of an inspiring, supportive community for you!

Please keep in touch!

Much love –

Kate

[Mr. Kate]

Hey Denisse!

Thanks for all your support!! It’s so sweet of you to help your nieces with their room!

This wall is interesting because of the placement of the window, which prevents a symmetrical treatment for both beds, like headboards. But that’s okay! There is still a lot you can do with it!

Have you thought about a mural? The DIY Watercolor Mural I did in Maya’s place seems like it could fill up that unconventional space, bringing color and creativity and giving your nieces a chance to get in on the fun, too!

Another option is to kind of fake some symmetry! Hang curtains over the window above the right bed, and then install a curtain rod over the left bed and hang matching curtains there, too! They would act similarly to headboards, and if you chose a fabric that isn’t too sheer, the window wouldn’t always be obvious!

I hope these suggestions help!

XOXO,

Kate

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