Ep. 121: designer Vern Yip

Designer Vern Yip returns to the show to tell us about his new book, Vacation at Home and gives us insight into 18 special steps to create your everyday getaway inside your home. He talks about why we feel so relaxed on vacation and in luxury environments, and how we can start to foster that in our homes with a foundation that helps us live the way we want, and takes things off our “to do” list permanently. Vern also shares how he keeps his personal home so beautiful with kids and over 500 lbs of dogs, why fewer but bigger may be better, and a few suggestions for picking out a color scheme that will work best for your home.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

• Vern Yip is back to talk about his new book Vacation at Home, but first, we must give a special nod to his book Design Wise that won the podcast’s award for “Best Design Book”.
• A special quick mindfulness practice to gain clarity on how to visualize a space that gives you that feeling of rest and regeneration.
• Some great ideas on decluttering, storing mail, and deciding what things should stay or go.
• A few of Vern’s 18 primary rules to creating a home that feels as though you are on vacation.
• Why we breakdown things in terms of things we love, things we need, and where exactly that thing will go.
• The beauty of refreshing your environment and rotating things out, even including bedroom art.
• What Vern means when he says “designing for a focal point” to create a view and give the eyes a rest.
• Yes, it’s possible to take things permanently off your to-do list. Vern explains how organic components and great planning can assist in this mission.
• Symmetry is your friend, and Vern shares some things you can do to implement a sense of organization and balance.
• Why we will never go longer than a week before washing our hand towels!!
• How Vern set a few easy rules and guidelines for his children to follow to keep the home neat and free of toys scattered about.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Vern Yip

@vernyip

Vacation at Home

Marie Kondo

Decorating Dilemma

First off, wow. What a beautiful home with an amazing view. We suggest working with spacing first. You can use our Room Planning Tool to put in the dimensions of your room (and even your furniture!) and figure all of it out before you start purchasing things. After that, Vern agrees that the walls should be a lighter color than the ceiling. To create a feeling of expansion and openness.

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Vern thinks this is a great room in terms of windows. We do think, however, that the cut out is making it less symmetrical, so just something to consider. Vern mentions that you can possibly edit your furniture and take off some of the open shelving. Second, when you decide to put window treatments, take the curtain rod all the way up and have your treatments go under the crown to the floor. This will increase the perception of volume in the room. Don’t be afraid of a contrast color, and when it comes time to choose your wall color, Vern suggests having a couple ideas up on the wall, and take down the ones you don’t like until you are left with two or three. Then, you can get sample pots and see how they perform before you make a single choice.