4 Interior Styling Tips to Give New Life to Stale Spaces

Interior Stylist Molly Jin Shares Easy Styling Tips + Design Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Raise your hand if you’re a self-proclaimed interior designer who shops primarily at Target. Or Home Goods.

Or if you’ve ever visited a furniture showroom and left having financed a perfectly matching living or bedroom set, only to get home and realize that the mahogany-toned pieces that looked so good under the 27-foot ceilings and 4 billion watt lights suddenly appear more box-like and brown-like in your normally-lit, normally-ceilinged bedroom.

Welp FEAR NOT, friends. Pull yourselves up from your chestnut bed-frames and away from the giant identical dressers. Because there are easy ways — without breaking the bank — to refresh, re-style, and re-love the spaces you’re already in.

I’ve asked my friend Molly Jin, fellow yogini, interior stylist, and owner of her own interior design business in Leesburg, VA, to share with us her best tips for interior styling and decorating. These are all REALLY straightforward and super helpful, so much so that you don’t have to be a pro to employ any of these décor tips at home!

Heads up! This post contains affiliate links, and at no cost to you, I will be compensated if you click a link that I’ve shared. Thanks!

Guest Blogger, Molly Jin

Hi fellow yogi(ni)s & blog readers! I’m Molly, an interior stylist and owner of Molly Jin Design based in Leesburg, VA. AND I’m a fellow yogini! Anya and I met at our regular 6am yoga practice and discovered that we share a mutual passion for beautiful design.

So, when she asked me to guest blog on easy tips for interior styling that can help her readers love the spaces they’re already in, it was a no brainer.

Let’s dive in!

1) Break Up with Matchy-Matchy Furniture

This is my number one rule to help you have a more elevated space. It’s OK to gravitate toward one style, but that does not, thankfully, mean everything in your space needs to be from a matching furniture set or the same design school.

If you’ve already invested in a matching set in your home, the easiest way to get better use is to separate the pieces and find new homes in various rooms.

Ideas to mix up matchy-matchy items in your home:

• Move your matching dining room buffet into an entryway or repurpose it as a dresser in a bedroom.
• If you have a matching couch and loveseat, swap the loveseat out for two armchairs from a different room.
• Use matching bedroom nightstands as end tables in living spaces.
• Don’t be afraid to mix and match wood tones on various furniture pieces within one room.
• Utilize different patterns and colors within one space.
• AND: break free of feeling like everything should match so that everything can vibe more organically and cohesively!

This same principle can be applied to the way you style your space — resist the urge to style everything in the same color.

Instead, collect objects and art that are part of a cohesive color palette that work together. Walking into a room with matching furniture and décor tends to feel like one note and overly simplistic when the goal, in reality, is for it to feel cohesive and alive with some depth.

Break free of feeling like everything should match so that everything can vibe more organically and cohesively.”

Interior Stylist, Molly Jin

2) Interior Styling is Everything!

Styling a room is the single most important aspect that gives a space the lived-in, collected, layered look that makes the room feel complete. Styling done well should allow the room to feel cohesive without any one item sticking out.

In working with my clients, I notice they tend to focus on the big-ticket items — furniture, a rug, artwork — without realizing that accessories and smaller objects actually play a huge part to pull all of those big-ticket items together.

An added benefit of styling is that it is an easy and affordable way to make updates to a space without breaking the bank and helping you to feel more satisfied with your existing space!

For example, take a look at this Ashburn, VA family room. The client did not have the budget to make any new “big” purchases but felt the space was lacking. I took some existing elements from her home with personal meaning and mixed in some new items to give the space a more cohesive and put together feel…all for under $500 and 4 hours! This is a big impact with minimal cost.

Before Styling

After Interior Styling

Simple Styling Rules:

• Live by the Rule of Threes:
  • Arrange objects, furniture and art in sets of threes as it is more pleasing to the eye. This is a design principle dating back throughout history, meaning it’s tried and true! 
• Collect objects and art that you love:
  • Your home is unique to you and should reflect that.
• Bring in natural elements:
  • Natural fiber textiles, handmade ceramics, house plants, and wooden objects all help to bring life to a space and give you that “lived in feel”; it’s human nature to gravitate to natural materials and organic shapes, so by bringing some of the outside to the inside, your space will feel more grounded.
• Consider 3-D objects:
  • Walls are not just for flat artwork — consider hanging a woven piece or something sculptural to add depth.
• Layer, layer, layer!
  • Add pillows in different shapes, sizes and textures to an existing couch, or
  • Drape a throw over an armchair, or
  • Add mini succulents to a stack of books…
  • …All these layers will add patina and cohesion to your space.

3) Update Small Spaces for a Big Impact

This is a no brainer and a tried and true technique. Spending a little bit on transforming a small space will go a long way!

There are tons of ways to do this:

• Swap outdated fixtures for an updated look.
• Wallpaper a half-bath in a fun print or something you wouldn’t normally choose in order to maximize the effect in a small space.
• Paint a builder-grade vanity to modernize a tired bathroom.

Below, we swapped out the builder-grade fireplace mantle and tile with a locally-sourced, reclaimed wood mantle and patterned tile. This change made a big interior styling and design impact for a relatively low cost!

4) Your Home is an Evolution 

Last three thoughts:

1. If you look at a picture online or in a magazine of a room you love, chances are you won’t be able to pinpoint one specific thing that calls to you, but rather the entire space gives you all the feels. By following some of these rules in your own space, you can achieve that holistic-room look, too!
2. Never stop collecting, never stop changing, and never stop rearranging. Interior styling should be a continual process because there will always be ways to breathe new life into your existing spaces!
3. It’s important not to compare your home to the perfect IG rooms you see because…this is impossible to maintain. (And fake…comment from Anya :D). Behind the scenes of these impeccable rooms are coffee makers, kids toys, and actual kids, all stashed away! 

THANK YOU, MOLLY!! Can’t thank you enough for imparting your serious interior styling wisdom and inspiring us to bring new life into our well-loved spaces.

K. Off to restyle some bookshelves. 😀

Learn more about Molly Jin Design + follow her on Instagram & Facebook for all her latest designs and additional interior styling & design tips!

AND please Pin, share, & leave a comment!