Ep. 480: Trials and Triumphs

Welcome to How to Decorate! It has been quite a while since our last Trials and Triumphs episode, but Caroline, Taryn, and Liz are back with plenty of personal decorating updates. Between full basement renovations, bold reupholstery projects, and a very exciting upcoming video series, the hosts have been incredibly busy getting their homes in tip-top shape. Plus, learn why you should always provide your upholsterer with a detailed spec sheet—and why you might want to leave sewing box pleats to the professionals.

Taryn's Trials & Triumphs:

Guest Room Swap: Taryn officially transformed her downstairs primary bedroom into a guest room, painting the bed a beautiful muted green and bringing in some fresh floral pillows from Ballard Designs. She also finally brought up her old black picture frames from the basement to add contrast to the space.

Basement Progress: The basement walls are finally closed in with drywall. Taryn and her husband created another guest bedroom (shopping the basement for leftover furniture and adding a queen mattress) and finished a bathroom complete with a tiled standing shower.

Home Gym: Taryn finally got a dedicated workout room in the basement, requesting foam flooring, mirrors, box fans for air circulation, and a TV to check her lifting form.

New Art & Wallpaper: Taryn hung a gallery wall on the back stairwell featuring a new briny, acidic green mixed-media floral painting from AK Hardman. She also installed a botanical grid Sanderson wallpaper in her breakfast room, making the window-filled space feel like a beautiful greenhouse.

Taryn's Trial: Feeling confident after pulling her sewing machine out, Taryn spent eight hours attempting to sew her own box-pleat cushion covers for her dining chairs using a purple lilac gingham and maroon piping. It was a total disaster, looking more like a kindergarten drawing or a Catholic school skirt.

Liz's Trials & Triumphs:

House Tour Prep: The team is filming 10th-anniversary house tours for YouTube. The filming deadline gave Liz the kick in the pants she needed to finally tackle lingering projects. She replaced the original "boob lights" in the laundry room, swapped out a rusty bathroom vanity, and scrubbed and repainted her front security door.

Pillow Perfection: Liz utilized Ballard Designs' free in-house design services to help coordinate and select all the pillows for her primary bedroom.

Liz's Trial: Prepping to send her son Finn across the country for art school. They are clearing out old boxes—including one labeled "pre-move" from six years ago—and preparing for dorm life. She plans to eventually completely renovate his bedroom and bathroom, but is holding off until the dust settles from the college move.

Caroline's Trials & Triumphs: