A Major Design Challenge: My Barn Makeover With Emily Henderson

A few months ago I had the incredible experience working with interior decorator and influencer Em Henderson, and partnering up with Samsung, on a really unique project. You guys may have seen my Instagram stories when I was in the countryside of upstate New York, working on a top secret project at the time – and I’m excited to finally show you what we were up to! Emily Henderson has always been one of my favorite home design mavens, and together we had the fun task of making over a rundown, 150-year-old barn, making into a chic, cozy lounge-meets-library hangout spot.

I don’t know about you guys, but as an interiors junkie and having lived in more than 8 homes as an adult – I’ve always hated incorporating TVs into my space. I love films and TV shows, so I never wanted to go without one, but they can be such an eyesore design-wise – with messy cords and cable boxes often visible, they just never feel very chic. Samsung’s new TV, The Frame aims to solve this problem, by doubling as both a super hi-def TV and a piece of artwork when you’re not using it. There are hundreds of different paintings and photographs to pick from to decorate the screen when it’s ‘off’, so it ends up looking just like a piece of artwork. And even adjusts its own brightness according to the light in the room, so you really don’t notice it at all.

For this particular design project, Emily and I decided we wanted to go for an elegant gentleman’s lounge vibe, with a glamorous and modern twist. We incorporated some of our favorite design trends into the space: luxe textures like velvet and leather, deep moody colors like this dark matte blue, and lots of vintage pieces to give the space character. As a bookworm, one of my favorite elements was building bookshelves and stacking them with old novels, with fabric covers in warm colors. We layered vintage rugs on the ground – after jetwashing the mud and hay from the cowshed floor! We scoured the internet and local antique stores to find unique pieces of art, to create a gallery wall; we found an old wooden chess set that looked so cool on a velvet chaise lounge, and even retrieved an ancient safe from the farm’s basement, to use as a side table (and no, unfortunately we couldn’t crack the code to open it and see what was inside!). We made the stylish gallery wall a focal point, where the Samsung Frame hung flush against the wall as the chic centerpiece. It has customizable frames that you can easily snap on and off, so you can choose between Beige Wood, Walnut and White to go with your color scheme (we chose Walnut). It came out splendidly, and we had so much fun throughout the whole process. Watch the journey below (and see the full episode on Emily’s blog)!

Before… Here’s what the barn looked like before we got our hands on it. It was a beautiful space with tons of character that just needed some extra love.

One Emily and I decided on our design inspiration, we found the perfect pieces, paint and accessories – and got to work!

What do you guys think of the final result? I’m absolutely obsessed with how it came out! Tell me what you think in the comments below.

xx,