Home & Lifestyle, Design & Style
Defining Your Style
Lesson time 10:08 min
Corey believes spaces should perform well in terms of function while also being satisfying and beautiful to look at. In this lesson, Corey provides a guide for approaching every room with a high level of respect, dignity, and seriousness.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Look to the Runway for Inspiration · Start With Your Mood Board · The Living Room Mood Board · Assignment: What’s in Your Closet?
Teaches Interior Design
Acclaimed interior designer Corey Damen Jenkins shows you how to make bold, functional interiors on any budget—from mood boards to space planning.
Get Up To 50% OffPreview
[MUSIC PLAYING] HOST (VOICEOVER): One of the most important things that should inform your interior design choices is your personal style. - Here are my five steps for developing your own personal design style. Here are some cues. First step-- consider touch. Touch is all about texture. It's about the silks and the velvets and the metals that you may use in the space. They are the literal hard and soft surfaces in the room that really define the overall vibe for the design. So for example, a navy blue velvet may play very different than a navy blue linen, just because of the way how the texture is constructed-- the way how the light hits that texture. Those are all things that really communicate your style and taste and can really project a theme for your overall development of your design. My second style cue is considered dropping it if it's hot. So if everyone's doing it, if it's all the rage, and you see every person down the street putting in this particular sofa or this particular color scheme in their home, it might be better to maybe not follow the crowd. If it's too hot, maybe consider dropping it for a while, because you do want to be timeless. You want to be classic in your approach. That way, you're not redoing your design over and over again, every single time the winds of design change. So you might want to consider dropping it if it's a little too hot. My third style cue is translate the bling. So many of us appreciate a little touch of glam, a little bit of glitter. So crystal chandeliers, sconces, things of that nature, certain shimmery velvets and silks-- they also can translate an element of glam into a space. So consider layering that in as well to give your design a little bit of sheen. My fourth step is to cast a very wide net. So again, you don't want to restrict yourself to any one particular pathway. Go to Google Images, for example. Get the magazines out. Get out other sources that express different types of design or even communicates your overall vision in different ways. By casting a very wide net, you can then whittle down your overall vision to a more narrow and more tailored outlook. And that will only benefit your overall concept. So my fifth step is togetherness has its limits. As designers, the biggest tool that we have at our disposal, aside from our creative powers, is the ability to communicate. People of different backgrounds, different genders-- maybe they're married, and you have two different partners you're working with, the two different spouses-- often have very different viewpoints when they approach design. So there's going to be a need for some diplomacy, right? You have to make things work because you're sharing this space with that person. So it may be a bit about giving and taking. Maybe the person you are living with wants a more neutral palette, and you want, you know, bright, vibrant color. Well, in that situation, maybe you paint th...
About the Instructor
Considered one of the most prominent interior designers working today, Corey Damen Jenkins creates elevated spaces for clients across the globe and believes everyone should have access to great design. Now he’s teaching you how to build bold, functional interiors on any budget. From mood boards to space planning, learn how to embrace the design process, make choices with confidence, and turn your home into a true haven.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Corey Damen Jenkins
Acclaimed interior designer Corey Damen Jenkins shows you how to make bold, functional interiors on any budget—from mood boards to space planning.
Explore the Class