Ep. 353: How to Find Your Personal Style with Eric Ross

It’s all about developing your personal decorating style this week with Nashville interior designer Eric Ross. Eric has over 20 years of professional experience and has left his mark on homes in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and beyond. His work and eponymous design firm has been featured in publications like Luxe Magazine, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyle and Country Living, and his book Enduring Southern Homes was released in 2019.

We talk to Eric about tapping into your personal style, staying true to yourself as trends come and go, and how to turn your personal style into a furniture and design plan that works for your lifestyle. 

Follow along with this week's decorating dilemma here.

What You’ll Hear On This Episode:

• Tips for developing your own personal style in design. 
• Eric talks about the inspiration behind his book, Enduring Southern Homes. 
• How Eric works with clients who want that traditional touch, and the ways he gets to their heart. 
• Tools for tapping into your personal style, such as Pinterest. 
• It’s not always about throwing away things! It’s about finding the right way to use or display them. 
• The importance of considering how a room will be used when selecting fabrics. 
• The true gift of a designer is to find similarity amongst your things and to make your collection make sense. 
• What if your personal style clashes with others in the home? 
• Elegance doesn’t always have to mean formal! 
• Eric’s rules for working with curtains, neutrals and prints. 
• Yes, Eric has imagined himself throwing parties at your house! He explains how to create a true visual to tell your design story and make a plan that works for you. 

Also Mentioned:

• Eric Ross Interiors 
• Eric Ross IG 

Decorating Dilemma: 

Hi Karah,

Thank you so much for writing in!

So, first, in true Eric fashion, it’s about more than just the chandelier. He starts off on the topic of scale, and suggests you add wainscoting on the second story to create consistency in geometry with the windows, and to bring down the ceiling height visually. This will also add texture to the walls.

Next, Eric notes that the current chandelier does not have enough visual heft, so he recommends a heavier, barrel-style chandelier that would provide better proportions for the space. Eric suggests hanging the new chandelier between 66-72 inches from the floor to achieve the desired lighting effect while maintaining a relationship between the fixture and dining table.

Hope this helps, and happy decorating!