I Don’t Want Your House to Look Like I Designed It

That might sound like a strange thing for an interior stylist to say. But I mean it. I don’t want to walk into your home, erase everything that makes it yours, and replace it with a version of mine. I don’t want every Harlow project to have the same sofa, the same color palette, the same perfectly placed stack of books. And I definitely don’t want someone to walk into your house and immediately know that a designer was there.

I want them to know that you live there.

Your home doesn’t need a label.

We’ve gotten very good at categorizing our homes.

Modern. Traditional. Organic. Western. Transitional. Vintage. Minimal.

And while those words can be helpful when we’re figuring out what we’re drawn to, I don’t think your home needs to fit perfectly inside one of those boxes.

Maybe you love an old wood cabinet next to a clean-lined sofa.

Maybe you have your grandmother’s dishes but also love modern lighting.

Maybe you’re drawn to western art, European antiques and something completely unexpected you found at a thrift store.

Good.

Those combinations are usually where things start getting interesting.

Keep the things that mean something.

Not everything in a beautiful home needs to be beautiful on its own. Some things stay because they have history.

The slightly worn chair.

The books you’ve had forever.

Something your kid made.

A piece you inherited.

The strange little thing you found on a trip and couldn’t leave without.

Those pieces tell a story that can’t be recreated by ordering an entire room online.

My job isn’t necessarily to get rid of them.

Sometimes it’s simply figuring out how to make them belong.

Collected beats perfect.

I will almost always choose a room with a little tension over one where everything matches perfectly.

Old with new.

Polished with worn.

Something expensive next to something thrifted.

A little western influence without turning the room into a theme.

A beautiful home doesn’t need to look untouched.

It should look lived in.

The rooms I remember aren’t necessarily the most expensive or perfectly designed ones. They’re the ones where I can tell something about the people who live there.

That’s what styling should do.

Interior styling doesn’t mean everything has to stay- and it doesn’t mean everything has to be new.

Sometimes we start with a room full of pieces worth keeping. Other times, we’re working with a nearly blank space and building something entirely new.

I love both.

The goal is knowing what deserves to stay, what isn’t working, and what needs to be brought in— whether that’s a new sofa, a vintage piece, art, lighting, textiles, or the finishing layer that finally makes the room make sense.

It’s not about avoiding new. It’s about choosing new intentionally.

A fresh set of eyes can see possibilties that are difficult to see when you’ve lived with a space every day.

That’s the kind of home I want Harlow to help create.

Not a Harlow house.

Your house.