Public Speaking Debut

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to talk to some high school aged girls that a friend of mine teaches at church. I'll admit when she asked me, I was actually really excited; an opportunity to speak about my all time favorite subject to a captive audience of young impressionable minds! Yes, it's true, I can talk about furniture, fabric, and architecture 24 hours a day, but I knew I had to keep things short and interesting to keep a 16 year old's attention on a Saturday. I thought back to when I was their age and I knew there were two things that were a must: lots of visual aids, and a gift for them to take home (because, let's be honest, everyone loves free stuff, even if they have no intention of putting it to use).

I wanted to put together an inspiration board to give them an idea of how they can use something like this as their guide when decorating their own rooms. One of my favorite interiors when I was first developing my aesthetic, and that I still love to this day is Ruthie Sommers' Santa Monica home that was featured in the premiere issue of Domino Magazine. It is an interior that most designers, bloggers, and pinterest users are all too familiar with. However, I knew it would be new to the girls so I thought it would be a fun room to use as a guide for my inspiration board. Also on the board I pinned up fabric and paint swatches that help define the color palate and overall feel, along with a scaled space plan of a living room. 

I gave them this little decorating kit to use for their own space. It included a cork board and pins so that they can create their own inspiration board, a folder to hold images and drawings, a notebook to jot down ideas and sketches, graph paper to create a basic scaled drawing of their room and furniture, and of course, a tape measure to help them create their space plan and to also take with them when bargain hunting around town. All of these things are necessary for me to organize my thoughts when working on a project of the largest or smallest scale, and I think they apply just as much to a teenage girl decorating her room.

One thing that I really wanted to focus on with the girls was the importance of accessories. If they didn't have the time, patience, or money to purchase or DIY themselves some new furniture, I wanted to stress the huge impact that even one vase of flowers or one killer piece of thrift store artwork can have on a plain space. I brought a lot of random accessories with me that I have collected over the years. I wanted everything that I brought with me to be around or under $10 so that the girls could see how accessible this was for them to do if they wanted to put forth a little bit of effort. I shared with them the price and where I purchased each item to get their wheels turning.

I emphasized simple but interesting and personal things that they could do with accessories. Some of these ideas were: use an old bottle as a vase and fill it with a couple of fresh picked daisies, fill a bowl or jar with a collection of something small such as seashells or spools of thread, create a piece of artwork by gluing rocks/buttons/paperclips onto a plain white sheet of paper and framing it with a ready-made shadow box frame. 

I tried to keep things simple and wanted to give the girls tips and resources that I thought would be applicable to them and their budget. I followed this outline during our little talk and gave each of the girls a copy. It has websites, shops, and ideas that I hope they, and you, find helpful!