Rita Konig’s Rules of Decorating

Designer. Author. Expert. With a new masterclass, London-based Rita Konig is our go-to for brilliant home how-tos. From Notting Hill flats to LA hideaways, Rita is well known for her approach to space planning, layering, and lived-in interiors—all of which she covers in conversation with Chairish co-founder Anna Brockway in a recent podcast. Read on for some of Rita’s top decorating tips, and shop her style.

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Rita generously shares her rules for decorating—with the caveat that rules were made to be broken and personal style, above all, should prevail.

1. Know your client

Every project begins with two thoughts—or two questions, really: 1) Who is this homeowner, and 2) How do they want to live? In other words: Who do you live with and how do you all spend your time? How much space do you have and how does it make sense to allocate that space based on your lifestyle?

Interior design is so personal and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to decoration.

Rita Konig

It’s almost like doing detective work to hear what clients are saying, and then to read between the lines to figure out what they might need or want that they haven’t even thought of. Our goal is that when they move in, their house feels like them. After the first questions, we move into specifics and often begin our designs in the principal rooms, but it’s definitely not one room at a time. It’s important to think about your house or flat as a whole—all the rooms need to work together.

2. Start with a layout

We always start with plans and layouts. You have to understand the dimensions of a room and how it will flow before you can start putting things into it. Oftentimes, when developers and architects are doing the initial plans, they plop in the furniture to give the clients some perspective and set the scale. It’s usually not exactly right—that’s why clients have us!—but it’s helpful to have somewhere to start from.

The secret to a well-designed room is picturing how people will actually use it, then designing furnishings and details to make the most of that experience.

Rita Konig

Recently, we were working on plans for a guest room that had a fireplace on the main wall. Large windows overlooking a gorgeous vista were completely forgotten, because the furniture was centered on the fireplace. (Fireplaces can be wonderful but they can also be complicated—when they commandeer all of the attention, you forget the other views and details in a space. If you’re having trouble planning around a fireplace, then just ignore it and pretend it’s not there.)

The sofa was a barrier—blocking off the flow of movement and the view. We looked at how guests would be in the space. We thought about them spending afternoons reading, looking out the windows in the summer, curled up in front of the fireplace in the winter, and even lighting a fire while getting ready for bed. We redrew the room to include a corner banquette, and moved furniture around so that guests could enjoy both the fires and the view.

3. Always add vintage

Antiques and vintage pieces are often the soul of a room. I always advise my clients against buying fashionable antiques. Oddly, antiques do go through trends—for example all that peeling painted furniture from France and Sweden suddenly looks a bit out of place now. Even saying that, you can always use a few pieces that are “trendy,” especially if you love them. Just don’t go full tilt down one trend avenue. Georgian furniture is always good and the earlier the George, the better.

If a house is decorated from one moment in time it will date quickly, but if you have some special antiques, the room has a timeless feel because it literally is that—not of one time.

Rita Konig

I never feel like I‘m incorporating antiques—that’s to say, I don’t make a concerted effort to bring antiques and vintage pieces in. Really, I’m just buying furniture. And I like to use more than just furniture. For example, lamps, textiles, trays, china—all the details that make a room. When you reupholster a chair, it becomes new. A lamp that’s rewired and cleaned and given a new shade becomes something totally unique. When we’re talking about bringing in antique pieces, we aren’t talking about rickety, old, crusty things. We make them new—just not the kind of new that’s from a factory, made yesterday.

4. Balance patterns purposefully

The trick to working with fabrics, wallpapers, and pattern—in general—is not to do the same tempo the whole way through the house. It’s important to create a cadence between spaces. You might use a soft, small pattern in a corridor, and then a bolder pattern in a bedroom, and then create a separate, painted space hung with pictures.

A house is a balancing act. Understanding how color and pattern play not just in their own spaces, but connect with the rooms around them, is what makes it feel cohesive.

Rita Konig

5. Make your house yours

When you’re doing your house, don’t lose sight of your personal style by copying the rooms of designers you admire on Instagram or Pinterest. Get inspired, but make your house yours. Take bits of those rooms that you like, and then make them work for how you live. Don’t forget to study iconic rooms of the past. Almost all the rooms I study are quite old ones. (Old design books are great for this!) I love decorators from the 50s through the early 80s. And further back, too. Older rooms are great for looking at layout, and it’s especially useful to see where designers from the 60s, 70s and 80s positioned things to fit so much seating.

On Chairish & Vintage Pieces

What do you find most compelling about Chairish?

There’s so much to discover on Chairish. The platform has such a broad spectrum, and it’s so fun to go looking for one thing, then fall down a rabbit hole and find all sorts of other wonderful things that you can’t help but add to your cart. It’s very user-friendly to look things up, which also makes it very helpful as a decorator. So many pieces today are either from a luxury brand and horribly expensive, or are big-box situations (which means they’re everywhere!).

There are fewer boutiques selling special, one-off things, and Chairish has helped fill that gap, making it accessible, and fun, to find one-of-a-kind things.

Rita Konig

How does sustainability factor into your design choices and love of vintage?

I love that antiques and vintage pieces are sustainable, but if I’m being honest, I also just like antiques better. I especially love mixing antiques in with new, well-made pieces. My collection with The Lacquer Company was designed to last—the process, called son mai, is an ancient Vietnamese technique and art form, which means the pieces will be tomorrow’s “antiques.” The shiny finish of the authentic lacquer is a lovely juxtaposition paired with older pieces.

I’m passionate about using pieces that my clients already have, so that being in their homes is its own experience. Beyond antiques, it fills me with horror to see beautiful things, like swaths of marble, being ripped out of bathrooms and thrown away. Marble is something that will run out. As decorators, it’s our job to think about the bigger picture while also making our small spaces beautiful, and I truly believe you can do both.

A Few Design Favorites

Favorite way to create a statement-making moment in a room? The way you hang pictures can make or break a room, whether it’s floor to ceiling or a large piece on a wall. Get creative and it will make the room special.

Favorite paint color? At the moment, I am Ioving a color called Toad, from Little Greene, which is a pond-like green. I painted my own staircase balusters in that shade, as well as the big French doors in my sitting room. It sort of does what black does, but it’s much warmer. Jet black can be a bit cold and feel almost witchy, so I love the earthiness and warmth of this sludge green.

Favorite piece of decor in your home? I have a pink ashtray that my mother bought me over 25 years ago. We found it together on Ledbury Road at B&T Antiques while shopping on Saturday afternoon. It looks like a lump of gelatin and is just very pretty, this dark pink lump of glass. Not only do I love the piece, but I love the memory it has. Seeing it always reminds me of that day. I took it with me to New York when I moved there and then brought it back and I have it in my London flat now. I can’t imagine giving it up.

Favorite style icon? Bunny Mellon. Jaime Parlade is another icon.

Design destination every creative should visit at least once? Ballyfin is a must-visit. Liam and Jay Krehbiel have a way of understanding the character of a place and then infusing that into their hotels, making a stay an immersive and truly beautiful experience. Ballyfin is a remarkably clever balance between private house and hotel. It’s also just beautifully decorated by Colin Orchard, a close friend and someone whose taste I really admire.

A Few Lifestyle Favorites

Favorite historic place to visit? Visiting Raby castle in County Durham is like being transported to a different world. It’s an extraordinary medieval castle and I am lucky to go quite a lot with my friend Kate Barnard. There are nine different towers. Over the course of hundreds of years, as different generation of the family came up, they would reside in different towers, essentially sealing off the turret of the previous generation and moving into a new one. The different towers and the impressive art collection make it an especially fascinating source of ancient inspiration. And the gardens, done by Lucciano Giubbilei, are just as incredible as the interiors and architecture.

Favorite host (or thank you) gift? There’s no easy answer for this, because I think a gift with a personal touch is the secret to good gift-giving. I was recently with Deborah Needleman, staying with mutual friends, and she brought a handmade bird’s nest by Joe Hogan for our hosts. It was such a lovely present. The idea of giving this little house, a treasure, for a new house, was so meaningful and the nest is just so beautifully made. I’m sure our hosts will enjoy it forever.

Favorite vacation destination? After a long London winter, I love to recuperate by the beach.

Favorite flower? Lily of the valley. They are so truly seasonal and it’s so exciting when they suddenly appear. You just want to inhale that delicate scent forever.

Favorite entertaining essential? You must have a good bar setup and that’s something I am always sure to create for my clients. It doesn’t have to take up a ton of space—a terrific bar tray organized with pretty glasses and cocktail napkins is chic and even the tiniest New York apartment has space for that! Stock it with ice and tonic and all the necessary accoutrement—lemons, a small knife, a little jug of grapefruit juice, a good corkscrew. Some of this is perishable, so you will need to restock and prep it a bit, but the beauty of a well set-up bar is that if you take care of it, you can offer a guest a drink the moment they arrive and they will instantly feel at home.

Lead Image: Interior Design by Rita Konig, Photography: The Interior Archive x Trunk Archive / Miguel Flores-Vianna.