Follow Martha’s lead and start decorating with intention
The Martha Stewart interior design style starts with neutral paint colors and natural backdrops, allowing you to layer texture and personality through furniture and decor.
Reupholstering worn furniture gives your favorite pieces new life while keeping them out of landfills, creating a fresh look without replacing everything you own.
Adding houseplants to your rooms brings natural life and color year-round, with low-maintenance varieties like snake plants and aloe vera working well in most spaces.
Hiring a local kitchen designing professional helps you implement functional design choices like hanging pot racks and custom shelving, making your vision a reality with expert guidance.
Martha Stewart became a household name by teaching people around the world how to transform everyday tasks—gardening, cooking, and decorating, to name a few—into passion projects. Since publishing her first entertaining book in 1982, Martha Stewart has inspired fans with her wise (and sometimes over-the-top) tips on how to discover your home design aesthetic and execute it perfectly.
In honor of one of her latest projects, “The Great American Tag Sale With Martha Stewart,” we browsed through decades of home design and decorating advice from the icon herself to inspire your next redesign project.
It’s easy to get caught up in the latest decor trends and aesthetics when designing your living space, but your home and its decor should always reflect your personality and tastes. If you love collecting funky art-deco pieces and using bright paint colors, you should personalize your living space to match your maximalist lifestyle. In fact, one of Martha’s most popular quotes is, “Your home should be a reflection of how you want to live right now, and for the next phase of your life."
Not sure where to start? Work with an interior designer whose style matches your own to create your ideal living space.
If you don’t read Martha Stewart’s blog, well, first off, you should start. If you do, you’ll know that the lifestyle expert posts regular updates about every aspect of her life, including her recent kitchen transformation.
When she renovated the kitchen of her farmhouse estate, she chose to hang her copper pots and pans on a rack for easy access. While this choice is best suited for people who want to display their kitchenware, it creates a functional statement piece in your kitchen for anyone. Talk with a kitchen designer near you about the best way to implement this design choice into your kitchen.
Instead of selling or donating worn furniture pieces, consider giving them new life by reupholstering them. One of the many projects that Martha took on during the COVID-19 pandemic was reupholstering several furniture pieces in her home. “Reupholstering furniture is a great alternative to tossing old pieces that would eventually end up in a landfill—when possible, repurpose, rejuvenate, and reuse,” she wrote in her blog.
Ready to refresh your favorite couch or armchair? Contact a local furniture reupholster near you to get started.
Most of Martha Stewart’s interior design projects start with a clean, neutral backdrop, specifically with paint colors. Use a neutral paint palette to set the tone of the room, and then add texture and character with functional furniture pieces and personalized decor. To start on the right foot, hire a local interior painter to color the walls while you focus on other elements of the room.
No matter the weather or the season, indoor houseplants can add natural life to your home. “Houseplants bring life to any room, especially during the cold, dreary days of winter,” Martha wrote on her blog. “I love container plants, and over the years I have amassed quite a collection of tropical specimens.” To follow Martha’s lead, consider adding popular houseplant varieties like snake plants, aloe vera, or ZZ plants to your home.
In her book, Martha Stewart’s Organizing: The Manual for Bringing Order to Your Life, the lifestyle guru recommends installing wide shelving above your washer and dryer to maintain a clutter-free zone. The shelving provides enough space to store laundry essentials, creating enough space to use the top of the washer and dryer for folding. For additional laundry room inspiration, check out our guide to easy laundry room upgrade ideas.
If your living room seems a bit tired and outdated, follow Martha’s lead and refresh the room with new carpeting. When she wanted to brighten two of the rooms on her farmhouse estate, she worked with a local carpeting company to install new sisal carpeting in the off-white color “alabaster” for a refreshing new look. If you’re ready to replace the carpet in your home, contact a local carpet installer for stress-free installation.
Whenever possible, strive to reuse natural materials found on your property or the surrounding area in your home. For example, Martha Stewart recently transformed a large yew tree cut from her property to make an outdoor table perfect for dinner parties and barbecues alike. If you have a tree or other outdoor element that you’d like to create into something new, contact a local woodworker to make your vision a reality.
We have bought and sold numerous times over the past 50 years. Sherman Hall and Top Line are top notch. Thorough and detailed, he explains every possibility, probability, and eventuality. High class and pleasant. The best.
Top Line Home Inspections, LLCSupreme Brick & Chimney did a great job with a cleaning and inspection of the fireplace! He was efficient, on time, and very pleasant. The space was kept very clean, and the fireplace was spotless when he was done. He also performed a thorough inspection, and did a great job talking us...
Supreme brick & chimneyCustom Paint Jobs LLC is the go-to choice for all your painting needs. They painted both the interior and exterior of my house flawlessly. Their work speaks for itself!
Custom Paint Jobs, LLCThey were very helpful with design, very quick to respond, good quality work, and competitive pricing!
Cooks CabinetsOn time, clean and finished fast. Windows seem sturdy and the finish is good. Caulking was done with no smudges. Would recommend.
Window Depot USA of Central OhioIf I could give 10 stars for Kitchen Tune Up, I would. I cannot say enough good things about my experience with Kitchen Tune Up and the entire team involved in the process of my kitchen project. They went above and beyond as far as service and quality with my cabinets, paint, countertops, and...
Beginning with the estimate, Larry and Peyton were super helpful in getting my new condo's interior re-painted. Not only was the job well done, but also done in a super timely manner as promised.
Five Star Painting of Plain City and PowellGreat job...edging and pre clean up went well with a great job with seal coat. Friendly, efficient and professional.
All Star Paving and SealingWe were having 2”x 2” tile installed . There was a small installation error and the new additional replacement tile was from a different lot and the colors didn’t match. Joe assured us that he would rectify everything , which he did without hesitation. We decided to go with the 18” x 36” tile...
CarifaTileWe live in a condo and had space to add a tall cabinet. The problem was the space was already occupied by our catsâ litter box. We needed to still keep the litter box in that same corner. Beiler Custom Cabinets was able to work with our need and design request. What was created was an...
Beiler Custom Cabinets, LTDFrom average costs to expert advice, get all the answers you need to get your job done.
We asked expert designers and organizers how to decorate the home to promote mindfulness. Here are their top tips, including images of their work.
The grandmillennial style, a.k.a. “granny chic,” is a fresh take on antique home decor with bold color and a modern twist. Here’s how to make the look your own.
Your yard can be a functional, appealing extension of your home. Learn how to design a landscape that brings out the beauty of your property.
What better place to look for chef kitchen design tips than the chefs themselves? These celeb chefs have all the insight into the secrets you need.
Older homeowners want to create accessible, low-upkeep outdoor spaces that grow with them. Discover six landscape designs for enjoying your home and nature.
Staying on top of work in your home office is effortless—with the right setup. Find out how to make a productive home office with these easy tips.
