I recently agreed to become a Create Academy affiliate because I absolutely love their courses and what they have to offer. As part of this they have kindly given me free access to some of their courses and I wanted to use this opportunity to review one I’ve completed. I had actually been planning on getting it as a birthday present later this year so was very excited to be able to take Rita Konig’s course over the last few weeks called ‘The Ultimate Guide to Interior Design’. This is a totally impartial review and I hope people who might be interested in the course find it useful to hear about how I found it. Rita's green living room was the inspiration behind my own back when I was planning it over a year ago (pictured below!).
The first thing to say is that if you are embarking on a new house or project and want to invest in interiors that will stand the test of time, I think this will be money very well spent. If I had done it sooner I would have made less mistakes and been happier with the process of decorating and renovating my home. The level of practical and detailed advice she gives about things you probably haven’t even thought of is unbelievably helpful.
There are 5 hours of lessons that are spread out into 36 bite-sized chunks which are great if like me you have a busy life and want to be able to dedicate small pockets of time to it over a few weeks or more. It also makes it easier to come back to the bit you need if you want a reminder. She covers such a huge range of topics, from planning electrics to working with fabrics and paint, that whatever stage you’re at there will be something useful.
Crucially she delivers the course in a really non-judgemental way and without laying down lots of rules you’re supposed to follow. Instead she gives advice based on her experiences that you can then apply to your own home, style, taste or budget. It’s more a set of tools you can use in any house to ensure it ends up both comfortable and beautiful than an instruction manual you follow to get a certain ‘look’.
I won’t repeat too much detail of the course itself as the website sets out everything she covers but some great little pearls of wisdom I gained from it and give you a flavour of the range of things to expect are:
Furnish sitting rooms with a variety of types of seating so when people visit they can opt for what is comfortable for them. It’s easy with a young family to assume big and squishy is always better but actually, if you are having people over for drinks regularly or older relatives are staying, it can be far better to have the option of firmer more upright seating that is easy to sit up properly in, and get out of! And aim for a table within easy reach of every seat - this is probably the single most useful piece of advice you’ll ever get in terms of room layout.
Place your light switches lower down. There is no need to have them so high up if you think about where your hand naturally sits and it means they are right in your line of sight despite often not being particularly attractive unless you are able to put a decent budget to those sorts of small fixtures. Also consider floor sockets for lamps - this never occurred to me but is such a good idea so you can dot lighting around and not just have it sitting round the outside of the room.
When sketching out a lighting plan or indeed any other plan that you are relying on tradespeople to follow, make sure you label them with what version number they are on as it is so easy to end up with several sketches and either not remember which is correct or have someone working off the wrong one. And based on her own painful experiences, never ever assume they will do something a certain way or that a verbal instruction on one day is enough; specify every level of detail in writing and make sure the right people have that information in hand.
When creating door curtains where you will see the back from outside in the garden, line them with a proper fabric rather than a normal lining so they look beautiful in both directions.
Getting prints you love mounted in antique or bespoke elegant frames can elevate them considerably, providing a good alternative to original art without it feeling such a compromise. (She gives a great example of this in her living room where the difference it makes really does show!)
Now of course this isn’t ‘DIY on a budget’ vibes, be prepared for advice that is assuming you are prepared to save up and invest in quality over time. This makes it right up my street as someone who is committed to sustainability and champions the motto ‘buy once, buy well’.
I hope that helps give you a flavour of what to expect from the course. I have found it so useful and I’m sure will revisit the lessons and notes over and over. Rita is also very lovely - she is relaxed, charming, and a joy to listen to!
Do let me know if you have any questions, and if you fancy this course or another one from https://www.createacademy.com/ you can get 15% off using the discount code HOPEHOUSE15 at the checkout.
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