The 6 Secrets for Revitalizing a Room Like the Fantastic Joanna Gaines
How do you take a room that needs a little love and transform it into something spectacular? Follow the advice of the master fixer-upper Joanna Gaines.
Joanna Gaines is the founder of Magnolia, one of the most successful interior design companies in the United States.
However, it’s more likely that you know her from her TV career.
Along with her husband, Chip, she’s the star of Fixer Upper on HGTV. Joanna has made a career out of taking unloved properties or spaces and turning them into something the owners can be proud of.
Dealing with a fixer-upper is a challenge for any interior designer.
Part of this challenge may come from the struggle to visualize the space for what it could be, rather than for what it currently is. However, a large part of that challenge also stems from working your way through the many ideas that you may have for transforming the space.
That’s where this article comes in.
Instead of leaving you lost in a sea of ideas that you can’t choose between, we’re going to lean on the master fixer upper herself. These are the secrets to revitalizing a space that Joanna Gaines has used throughout her career.
Secret #1 – Start With White Walls
The idea of painting walls white can feel like anathema to many interior designers.
White is a boring and somewhat neutral color for many. Why would you want to start by painting the room white when you’re trying to fix it up?
Joanna explains:
“White walls can actually provide a neutral and clean foundation to design around that other colors can’t, giving you more freedom to get creative with decor.”
Think of white walls as your blank canvas.
With the canvas in place, you can get creative with every other aspect of the design, from wall décor to furniture. Better yet, that blank canvas plays a huge role in helping you to see what an unloved space actually has to offer. That means you’re no longer limited by what the space appears to be.
And remember…
A blank canvas doesn’t have to stay blank forever.
If you’ve finished the rest of the room and still don’t like the white walls, you can always paint over them. Only now, you’ll be doing it with a more complete vision of the room available to you.
Designed by C Y Wash Designs
3D Rendering by Duke Renders
Secret #2 – The Fundamentals Are Critical
Most interior designers aim to tell stories with their rooms.
We want the rooms to feel like experiences that reflect the owner’s personality and style. That’s why it’s always so tempting to jump into dealing with the layers before you have the fundamentals in place.
According to Joanna, that’s a huge mistake. The fundamentals are key, as she explains:
“In the beginning stages of designing a home, the fundamentals should be your timeless elements. Everything else that you layer in are the pieces that tell your story — what will make your home feel personal?”
Think of interior design in the same way as building a home.
You could have the most complex and interesting blueprint imaginable. But if you don’t have a foundation to build the home on, all of those clever design elements mean nothing.
The same goes for interior design.
As Joanna says, the fundamentals of a room consist of the timeless elements that tie everything together.
Figure out what they are and put them in place.
Once you have them, you can layer up from there to tell more of a personal story with the room.
Secret #3 – Large Furniture
Opens Up Smaller Spaces
Sometimes, rooms fall into disrepair because they’re small. The owner has no idea what to do with the room, so it just becomes a catch-all for anything that they can’t put anywhere else. This creates a chaotic effect that makes the room feel uninviting.
Eventually, the room gets neglected to the point where people actively avoid going inside.
For example, think about what a lot of people do with small bedrooms. Instead of using the space to create a room, those bedrooms often become glorified storage spaces or wardrobes.
Why?
Because the owner can’t think of another use for them that doesn’t result in what appears to be a tiny room.
Joanna has some advice for people who are trying to revitalize a small space:
“In tighter spaces, people think you have to go smaller, but I always like to go the opposite.”
Let’s stick with the bedroom example.
If the room is just about large enough to fit a king-size bed, you may decide to go for a smaller bed instead. This gives you more space to add nightstands and other small pieces of furniture.
The problem is that all of these small pieces are a giveaway that the space is small.
Instead, fitting the king-size bed in the room alongside a larger piece, such as a large mirror, makes the space seem larger than it is. Better yet, you end up with a usable space, instead of one that gets neglected.
Secret #4 – Corners Can Become Cornerstones
Let’s assume you have a design in mind when revitalizing a room. Everything meshes together nicely but there’s a chunk of space in one of the corners that you’re not using.
Should you just leave that corner empty?
No!
In her book, Homebody, Joanna talks about working with a client who had one of these empty corners at the far end of their kitchen. Instead of leaving it empty, Joanna suggested turning that corner into a wooden coffee bar.
The result?
That previously unused corner is now one of the most popular features in the kitchen.
The point is that unused space can make a room feel like it's unloved. Get creative and come up with a cornerstone that complements that centerpiece of the room.
Secret #5 – You Don’t Have to Do It All At Once
It’s tempting to try to redesign a room in one sitting. You’re tired of the space going unused and doing it all in one go means you get to enjoy it faster.
The problem with this line of thinking is that it can lead to design faux pas.
For example, you may choose to order all of your furniture from a single catalog to expedite the design process. But once the furniture’s in place, you find yourself with a room that lacks variety and can feel rather boring.
What does this inevitably lead to?
The room gets neglected again in favor of more interesting ones.
Designed by G. Lebron Interiors
3D Rendering by Duke Renders
Joanna says that the best way to avoid this issue is to accept that you don’t need to perfect a design overnight:
“I think people are finally starting to understand the idea that a home will evolve over time...the pieces that you wait for are what make the process so fun.”
Pay attention to the word “fun.”
That’s what interior design is supposed to be!
Instead of stressing out about how you’re going to transform an entire room all at once, focus on the fundamentals first and build up. Let the story you’re telling with the room guide you towards the pieces you’ll use to furnish it.
Remember that it’s a lot easier to add over time than it is to take away a large portion of a room you’re unhappy with.
Secret #6 – Keep Original Fixtures
(While Updating Them)
You may want to redesign a room because it feels dated.
That makes perfect sense. However, the desire to modernize can lead to you overdoing it. This means you may strip away some of the elements that give the room character, leading to a bland result.
The solution to this is to keep at least some of the original fixtures the room came with.
We see Joanna do this regularly on Fixer Upper. For example, if a living room has a period-centric fireplace, Joanna will keep it in place and make it a centerpiece for the more modern design she builds around it.
But there is a caveat…
If the original piece is worn or weathered, she will go to great lengths to restore them.
The idea here is to return what made a room so wonderful in the past to its former glory. And once you have that attractive and character-building feature in place, you can design around it to create an attractive space.
We often grow attached to the things we own. By donating instead of discarding, you can at least feel good about the idea that a piece of furniture you no longer need is going to somebody who can use it. And of course, that donation also means you can open up your space for new ideas.
There’s Always Hope for Unloved Rooms
In many cases, rooms get neglected because people can’t see the true potential they hold.
Joanna has built a career on recognizing this potential and ensuring it gets realized. These six tips are just a few of the many techniques that she uses to revitalize unloved spaces. And by using them yourself, you can breathe new life into the types of rooms that often give interior designers nightmares.
But how can you know that these secrets will do the trick for the room you’re working on?
That’s where we come in!
At Duke Renders, we take your design ideas and turn them into photorealistic 3D renders. That means you can see what your ideas will look like before you take the first steps towards transforming a room.
We’re waiting to help you fix up your space.
