Leanne Ford’s “Slow Down” Method Will Change How You Decorate Rooms
Designer Leanne Ford isn’t afraid of taking design risks and doing things differently. Her use of coffee grinds to get a just-right patina on the walls of her guesthouse, her bedside faucet, and putting a yoga studio in a toolshed all come to mind as examples.
While her laissez-faire attitude toward decorating has always had a motto, “Feel Free,” (which is also the name of her print magazine), her method of decorating maybe hadn’t been fully coined until now. With her return to her hometown, Pittsburgh — and the purchase of her dream home with her husband, Erik, and daughter, Ever — the designer has crystallized what she’s calling the “slow down” method of decorating. And today she’s releasing her first interior design book, appropriately titled The Slow Down: For the Love of Home, where she’s detailing the journey of furnishing her house into a welcoming family home.
The Slow Down: For the Love of Home
Amazon
$39.29 (was $50)
Aside from the beautiful visuals (which you’ve probably come to expect from Ford’s work and that of her frequent collaborators, photographer Amy Neunsinger and stylist Hilary Robertson, both of which participated in this project), this book feels like a warm conversation with Ford herself, an atmospheric annotated journal-meets-scrapbook of everything Ford has done in her personal home over the past few years — and the things that maybe she hasn’t done just yet. Take the piles of books on the floor in her library (pictured above). She found hundreds of vintage volumes in the home’s basement and plans on cataloging them someday. But for now, the stacks are a fun reminder of the home’s own history — and a functional surface to lean a piece of artwork or an acoustic guitar on.
Make no mistake about it, though: The “slow down” method isn’t a gimmick for procrastinating. Ford’s number one design tip, even while taking your time decorating, is just to start. “As Mary Poppins says, ‘Well begun is half done,’” Ford says. “Just get started; don’t wait until ‘someday.’ Your home does not have to be perfect to be beautiful!”
Ford’s “slow down” method is more about taking some breathing room as you move from room to room, feature to feature, and even item to item while making design decisions. It’s about enjoying the ride and the sometimes messy process involved in decorating and embracing what’s already there to a certain extent. Sure, Ford demoed the kitchen without waiting the customary “year of living with it.” But she listened when the house spoke to her during that process, reworking her plan when original windows were unearthed beneath the ’70s cabinets that needed upgrading. If she weren’t committed to a “slow down,” she’d surely have forged ahead by staying the course. But instead, she took a moment to rework and reconfigure, and the kitchen as it stands now, which you can see above and on the cover of the book, is all the better for it.
For all of Ford’s incredible design vision, there’s a certain amount of going with the flow that happens when you embrace the “slow down” method. Maybe you don’t replace those timeworn tiles in the bathroom, she says — or paint over the dark woodwork. Sometimes what’s there can be worked with, when you give yourself the time and space to get creative with it.
Consider the home’s upstairs hallway, for example. After removing the wallpaper, Ford decided to keep the old plaster underneath it as is, stains and all. A little bit of fresh paint on the trim and lower wall was all the area needed to sing. She now hangs drawings and favorite sketches there, rotating them out as she feels fit as a sort of “living” wallpaper.
When you go slow, each space doesn’t have to be some grand departure from the next, either. Perhaps this is the message that’s at the heart of the book and the “slow down” method itself. “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel in every room,” Ford says. “Don’t be afraid to use the same materials from room to room; it will make for a cohesive conversation throughout the home.” The marble that pops up in her kitchen, for example, recalls the backsplash on her vanity sink in her dressing room closet hybrid.
If you’re looking for a step-by-step, perfectly linear process of designing your home, maybe the “slow down” method won’t quite be your cup of tea. But you’ll get something out of Ford’s The Slow Down regardless. It’s a beautiful coffee-table book full of great design ideas I know you haven’t seen before, pages on pages of visual eye candy, and maybe most importantly, all the permission — or really encouragement from Ford — you might need to just take a beat while you decorate rather than bulldozing through the process.
Further Reading
We Tested (and Rated!) Every Sofa at West Elm — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Article’s DTC Furniture
We Tested (and Rated!) All the Sofas at Pottery Barn — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need
