‘MINIMUM EFFORT, MAXIMUM STYLE’
Probably the thing that viewers like most about Canadian decorator Samantha Pynn, host of HGTV’s Open House Overhaul (in which Pynn and her team make over an open home listing to increase its market value) is her openness and ability to simplify home decor.
“A woman came up to me two years ago,” she says. “And she had an open house that was happening in an hour and she was like: ‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to put at the front door, so should I do these sprigs of grass and put in petunias?’ And I said, ‘No, save your money; do two planters that are black and do either hydrangeas or just do simple boxwood topiaries, that’s it, that’s all.’ ”
At the time, Pynn was writing a National Post column and said the note of thanks she received from this woman clarified what she wanted to do with her career.
“She wrote me an email, and said, ‘I don’t know if you remember me, but you really helped me and I drove home and felt so happy,’ and I just thought that’s what I need to do. I need to make it easy and make it simple for people,” Pynn says.
Pynn says one of the first columns she wrote in 2010 was on “design paralysis,” in which people become so overwhelmed by the amount of home-decor product and advice out there that they can’t make a decision.
“You need to come up with a plan,” she says. “The first thing I always say to people is go through all the magazines, go onto Pinterest and pull the things you like, with abandon, then what you need to do is go back and look for recurring themes; look for the repeat offenders. So if you see a lot of lavender, don’t paint your walls beige. If you like marble, don’t go for black granite.”
A regular home and garden expert on Cityline and contributing design editor for Chatelaine magazine, Pynn is now working on a book and has just released a second collection for the home section (Maison) of Canadian department store Simons. The collection includes bed linens, drapery, towels and tablecloths, and was designed with simplicity in mind.
“The colours for me, it goes back to that minimum effort, maximum style,” she says.
“And I just want people to be able to pull their space together in a snap. Not having to overthink it. So the colours are all really livable, workable colours, and all the patterns, they have to have longevity.”
The lattice pattern, which features strongly in this collection, was inspired by a recent trip to Portugal, Pynn says.
“I’ve always loved lattice pattern tile,” she says. “And so I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to do it as a shower curtain?’ So even if your tiles aren’t amazingly phenomenally fantastic, as soon as you hang your shower curtain it’s like, ‘Oh my bathroom looks great.’ ”
Pynn says she’s probably most proud of the drapery in this collection, as window treatments are expensive and make such a big impact in a room, so she’s happy to be able to make them more accessible.
“The cost to have drapery panels made, for one panel it’s in the 300 to 400 mark,” she says.
“But because these are available in bigger quantities, I think they’re $95. It’s the perfect way to finish off a room and pull all your decor together.”
Pynn says she is a big fan of banding (the big stripe favoured by designers) and so used it in her drapes design.
“I’ve always been big into the white top, pattern on the bottom,” she says. “This time we did linen, so it’s really easy for people to use, and a stripe in between. So we did it in blush pink, we did it in this smoke colour, as well as the navy and grey.”
Even with everything Pynn has accomplished, she said this year was tough. “When we launched the collection in February, my dad passed away at the same time. So I took a few months to live in a bubble, because he definitely was supportive, he watched every show, in fact when he was in the hospital I brought him a duvet and he was like, ‘Can I keep this one?’ ”