But what do you do when you’re staring at four white walls with no idea where to start? Or worse, a room full of furniture you thought you’d love by now, wondering how tf anyone makes anything look good?

I’ve been in both situations for my last two apartments. And now I’m decorating a new one from scratch, again. No design knowledge. No professional help. Just a process I’ve refined over six years and actually trust.

Here’s my step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Choose a color palette

When creating anything, it helps to know your guardrails, and color is an incredible one to start with. If you’re not a trained designer, and I’m not, it’s much easier to experiment with shape and texture than with color. So give yourself a framework first.

I find all my color palettes on Pinterest. And “color palette” doesn’t mean your space has to be boring or all-neutral, unless you’re into that, which I also respect. You can absolutely choose bold palettes. The palette just helps you understand which bold colors actually work together. Some people see this as unnecessary constraint. I’d argue constraints breed creativity.

If you’re redecorating an existing space: look up a palette you love, then look at your room and assess honestly. Are there colors in your space that clash with the palette? Those are your first candidates to go. Are you missing colors from the palette entirely? That tells you what to look for next.

Exit criteria: About 5 colors you’ll use for 90% of your furniture choices.

Step 2: Build your mood board and your shopping list

Now that you have your palette, gather inspiration photos of rooms you genuinely love. Pull as many as you want, then do this one specific thing: circle a corner of each room that you’re most drawn to.

For example these are two photos from my current mood board. Notice how one photo isn’t even in my color palette, which is fine. This step is more about see how furniture pieces look together and we will continue to let our earlier color palette guide us. From these pictures, I am taking away the bed frame with the simple side table as one corner and the curtains with the painting on top as my other corner that I will recreated in my space.

This is a hack I swear by. It’s nearly impossible to recreate an entire room from a mood board, and honestly, why would you want to? That’s copying, not designing. But if you can get specific, identify the one corner of a room that really speaks to you, figure out what furniture or lighting or color makes it work, you can recreate that corner in your own space. Do that with four different corners from four different rooms you love, combine them into one space, and you have something that feels curated and personal at the same time.

From those corners, build your furniture list. Every piece you identify in those corners, write it down. This is your shopping list for the rest of the process. You’ll come back to it in step 4.

Pro Tip: If you are specifically looking for a “cool girl apartment” aesthetic like the photos below, check out this popular Substack article, “get the cool girl apartment” to see how to decipher those mood boards.

Exit criteria: A list of every furniture piece and accessory your space needs to recreate your favorite corners.

Step 3: Choose your statement piece first

Before buying anything on that list, identify your statement piece.

When someone walks into a room, what is the first thing they are going to notice? That’s your statement piece. Often the answer is obvious. The couch in a living room. The bed in a bedroom. But sometimes it’s something on the wall, or a coffee table that’s doing all the heavy lifting. Look back at your mood board corners: what was the statement piece in the rooms you loved most? That can help you decide.

Then ask yourself: how do you want the room to make a statement? A good place to start is whether you want that to be through color, texture, or shape.

If color: maybe your statement piece carries the boldest shade in your palette. If texture: skip the generic linen, look at boucle, corduroy, velvet, something with some actual presence. If shape: look for something sculptural, something with an organic curve or an unexpected silhouette. This is personally my preference. In my last apartment my statement piece was my couch, a curved organic form in a fine velvet. In my very first apartment, it was a large bamboo fan on the wall.

If you’re redecorating an existing space, ask yourself two questions. Does this room have a statement piece? And do I actually like it? If the answer to the first question is no, you don’t necessarily need to buy a new couch. Something for your walls can solve it. If you have a statement piece and you don’t like it, I’ll be honest with you: it’s going to be very hard to love the room even after everything else changes. Think seriously about whether selling it and replacing it is worth the investment. I sell furniture through Facebook Marketplace constantly, ask me if you need tips on that.

Exit criteria: One statement piece per room, with a clear sense of how it’s making its statement.

Step 4: Buy everything else on your list

Go back to the list you built in step 2. Everything left on it is a supporting piece, meaning its job is to complement the statement piece, not compete with it.

Think of the statement piece as the star and everything else as the supporting cast. Nothing should outshine it, but everything should make it look better.

Use contrast intentionally. If your statement piece makes its statement through color, your supporting pieces probably don’t need to be doing the same thing. If it makes its statement through texture, you don’t want to surround it with pieces in the exact same material because then nothing stands out. If it’s a curved sofa, consider straight-lined furniture around it so the couch actually reads as the standout.

Two Pro Tips:

• Keep your color palette in mind across all of these purchases: With many supporting pieces it’s easy to accidentally end up with everything in two colors while ignoring the other three on your palette. That’s how a space ends up feeling generic without you being able to pinpoint why.

• Do not buy all your furniture from one place: As tempting as it might feel to be able to decorate faster, this never leads to a more well designed room. Look at options across as many sources as possible. This is also how I decorate on a budget because I am typically ale to find a inspiration piece on one website and a cheaper alternative on another.

Exit criteria: Everything on your list from step 2 is accounted for, within your color palette that supports your statement piece.

Step 5: Measure everything. Seriously, everything.

This is probably the most important step and the most skipped one.

Think of a space you’ve seen that felt just slightly off. Now try to identify which piece was too small or too big for the room it was in. Once you start noticing how much proportion affects a space, you will never be able to unnotice it. This is like opening a third eye that cannot be closed.

Before you buy anything, buy a tape measure. Measure the area you want to fill. Check the specs of whatever you’re considering and only buy pieces that comfortably fit the space. This applies to art, how large should it be, how high above the couch should it hang. It applies to chairs, how does the seat height relate to your table. It applies to rugs, which are the most common offender. A rug that’s too small makes your whole room look unmoored.

A genuinely useful tip: bring your measurements to ChatGPT and ask it what furniture dimensions make sense for the space. It’s surprisingly good at this.

The difference between a loosely related collection of furniture and a home that feels curated and intentional comes down, in large part, to proportion.

That’s the whole process. Five steps, no design experience required. A color palette, a mood board that becomes a shopping list, a statement piece that anchors the room, supporting pieces that serve it, and measurements that make it all feel like it belongs together. I’ve done this in every apartment I’ve ever lived in and I’ll keep doing it.

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Join a paid subscription if you want a free interior design consultation and sourcing call where I will help you craft your vision and follow up with 3-5 pieces that fit your specific space and budget.

This post walks through those similarities, but also highlights the key difference that is sending Substack down a very different path than Tumblr, for better or for worse.

Where Tumblr Came From

To understand Tumblr, you need to understand where it came from.

Tumblr was created by New York City high school dropout David Karp. Although he built the Tumblr that most of us knew and loved in the 2010s, he did not invent the concept behind it. The idea of the “tumbleblog” was coined by German teenager Chris Neukirchen in 2005.

Chris described the origin of the concept like this: “I already had a blog with longer articles, and it felt inappropriate to spam it with such short pieces of content. So I decided to make a separate site with a list of interesting links, quotes, and pictures I wanted to share. It turned out I digged up enough things to publish this list daily.”

He called this format a ‘tumbleblog’, a combination of tumble and web logging.

Soon after, engineer Marcel Molina created Projectionist, another early version of a tumbleblog. In 2007, Molina received a message from a young David Karp saying he loved his blog and that it inspired him to create a new platform that he was launching with a friend called Tumblr (source). Within two weeks of launch, Tumblr had 75,000 blogs (source).

But what made Tumblr different from existing social platforms like Facebook and Twitter?

Interestingly, it comes down to many of the same factors that differentiate Substack from today’s titans like Instagram, TikTok, and I guess still Twitter: 1) Personalization and a positive reception to vulnerability, 2) tools for curator to become creator and 3) controversially, a lack of moderation.

A Place to Be a Person, Not a Brand

Celebrities from Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy to Frank Ocean to Ariana Grande used Tumblr. But they did not use it the way celebrities use social media today.

David Karp said, “We understand that just because you are a band, music isn’t the only thing you are going to be sharing which is one of the reasons musician artists and lots of people have really taken to Tumblr” (source)

Tumblr was not a social media PR engine. It was a personalized blog. Ariana Grande would post outfits and meals of the day. Frank Ocean wrote one of the most famous social media posts ever on Tumblr, his coming out letter.

But the culture to share beyond just music when you are a musician is not the only reason why celebrities of the time felt comfortable sharing such personal things online. Another reason was Tumblr’s overall positive and supportive online culture.

Tumblr is the inventor of something extremely notable. The reblog. This is the predecessor of other similar functionality like retweet, restack, or pin (source). This led to another limitation: Your comment only showed up if you reblogged the post. Naturally, you only reblog if you identify with the post. That led to a more positive leaning environment.

Positive environments create room for vulnerability. Celebrities who were often brutally criticized by media and paparazzi at the time could bring their whole selves to the internet in a way that felt safe.

Substack offers glimpses of that ethos today. You can find founders of multimillion dollar brands like Dianna Cohen of Crown Affair or Emily Oberg of Sporty and Rich writing personal Substacks. These are not spaces where you only read about their companies. They are places where you read their thoughts directly in a way more personal than an Instagram caption can ever be.

When Digital Curation Became an Art Form

In 2011, David Karp said, “Tumblr is vey much about creative expression, in fact, limitless creative expression… you can share anything. any type of media, you can upload d a song that you are working on, anything at all and I think if you compare it to twitter or Facebook today you realize that these platforms are where there is some creative expression that can come through in those timelines or those feeds they are not tools built for creative expression” (source)

The goal of Tumblr was not to compete with single medium platforms but to create a platform for the digital curator. David went on to say, “I’m not a writer. I can’t write. I don’t enjoy it like prolific bloggers John Gruber or Jason Calacanis do. But I do have things to share.”(source)

At the time, publishing on YouTube often still meant producing heavily edited videos. Publishing on WordPress meant writing long form essays. Both required specialized skills. But Tumblr created a home for the curator. The person who does not specialize in one medium but can identify the beauty of many. The most creative people rarely express themselves through just one format, a trend I’ve written about before with Solange and also within the crossover of hip hop and design. They practice noticing. And noticing results in appreciating things across many different forms.

Substack is similar. On Substack you can publish posts, notes, short form video, long form video, podcasts, chats, or go live. What is notable is that these formats feel relatively equal in importance. On platforms like TikTok or YouTube, one content type clearly dominates. On Substack, growth can come from notes just as easily as from essays.

No Ads, No Rules

This is where things become more complicated. One of the reasons Tumblr was culturally differentiated was its lack of moderation. Content moderation on social platforms is often driven less by user wellbeing and more by advertiser preferences. Advertisers do not want their brands placed next to risky content.

Tumblr launched in 2007 but did not introduce ads until 2012. (For reference, Facebook’s first ad was in 2004, the year it was founded, source.) That allowed Tumblr to prioritize users over advertisers in its early years. That meant allowing content that was vulnerable, raw, and often not brand safe.

David Karp said himself: “I’m not into moderating this stuff. Tumblr’s an excellent platform for porn, which I don’t personally have any moral opposition to.” (source)

But that freedom became difficult to maintain after Tumblr was acquired by Yahoo for 1.1 billion dollars in 2013 (source). Profit expectations followed. After Yahoo itself was acquired by Verizon, increased moderation was introduced to make the platform more advertiser friendly. This disrupted a culture that had been positioned as a safe space for creative freedom, leading to the nail in the coffin for the social media platform.

Substack exists in a similar tension today. Substack makes money when readers pay creators directly. There is no advertiser intermediary that needs to be satisfied. That allows the platform, for now, to prioritize content that readers are willing to support financially, even if that content might be controversial elsewhere.

Why There Will Never Be Another Tumblr

When Tumblr launched in 2007, celebrities were the coolest people on the internet. They made their money offline and they came online to have fun. Nearly twenty years later, that dynamic has changed.

Today, the coolest people on social media are creators, and they make their money online. Being online is no longer recreational. It is economic. Social media is viewed as an opportunity maker or breaker.

Creators are aware of both the risks of cancellation and the upside of monetization. On one hand, this creates an online culture where moderation has become partially self-enforced. The pressure to maintain reputation influences behavior before platforms intervene.

On the other hand, even today’s most authentic content will never be as authentic as it was on a platform like Tumblr. The act of posting now exists within a system where visibility can be converted into income. Even people who are not trying to become creators are influenced by the unspoken norms of platforms that are increasingly built around monetization.

So will Substack ever be like Tumblr? Will there ever be another Tumblr again?

In a social media ecosystem powered by monetization, I do not believe that is possible. The creator economy did not just change how people make money online. It changed how people behave online. And once posting becomes economically valuable, the conditions that once made Tumblr feel truly unfiltered are very difficult to recreate.

The Last One to Win

In conclusion, Substack is the current home for digital creative expression, but it is not the first. Notably, Tumblr paved its way.

And as Marcel Molina, whose tumbleblog is credited as the inspiration for Tumblr, once said: “The people who plant the seed are often forgotten through history. Even though one could arguably associate substantial or equal credit to them. I’m not saying that’s what I want. I just think it’s interesting how the last one wins.” (source)

So the question is simple.

Will Substack be the last one to win? Let me know in the comments :)

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What do these artists have in common? They’re all members of one of the most exclusive clubs in Black creative culture. Paulin, Paulin, Paulin operates on an IYKYK basis. It is members club disguised as a furniture brand where you can only receive pieces if you have a personal connection.

How it started

On the surface, Paulin, Paulin, Paulin is a furniture maker showcasing the unreleased work of late French designer Pierre Paulin. Created by his wife, his son, and his daughter-in-law, the brand is known for space-age couches, low seating, and innovative mid-century design (source). Before Benjamin, Pierre’s son, began releasing his father’s designs, he had a 10-year career as a rapper under the name Le Vrai Ben. When the son of a French designer happens to also appreciate hip hop, you get something entirely new: a bridge between two worlds that had never been connected before.

This is the story of how a furniture brand became a cultural force by doing what no one else had yet done at scale: take Black music’s creative elite seriously as collectors of fine furniture design.

Who’s in the club?

The world of hip-hop and R&B is often presented as a monolith, but real fans know these artists are deeply creative with interests spanning far beyond music. Before Paulin, Paulin, Paulin, we just didn’t publicly see that interest extend into furniture design.

Kanye West changed that. While recording Yeezus in Paris in 2013, he became obsessed with furniture design. He visited a furniture exhibit at the Louvre five times. He spent hours in galleries and became obsessed with designers like the late Pierre Jeanneret, whose chair has recently gained more popularity (source).

Around the same time, Paulin, Paulin, Paulin was finding its footing. After Pierre Paulin’s death in 2008, his family began producing his most innovative unreleased designs. Their first major moment came at the 2014 Louis Vuitton show in Monaco under Nicolas Ghesquière’s creative direction. Instead of traditional folding chairs, the fashion show was styled entirely with Paulin’s Osaka sofas.

And this is likely how Kanye got exposed to the work of Paulin. In 2016, Kanye tweeted: “Hey Nicolas Ghesquiere I grew up on Tron too... Let’s be best friends!!!” Shortly after, the Yeezy Season 3 showroom in Paris was designed exclusively with Paulin pieces: custom versions of the Osaka sofa, Dune sofa, and more (source).

After that Yeezy showroom, Paulin’s pieces began appearing in Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s “Apeshit” video and Rihanna’s T Magazine shoot.

The visibility was building, but the real shift came when Frank Ocean specifically requested to meet Benjamin while in Paris. Benjamin received 20 messages saying “Frank Ocean is in the building and he’s looking for you.” The now-iconic 2019 photograph of Frank on the blue Paulin Dune couch was taken in Benjamin’s personal home (source). From there, the pieces have been seen with Travis Scott, Pharrell, Cardi B, Rich the Kid, Steve Lacy, and many more.

So why are these specific artists gravitating toward French mid-century furniture? They’re genre-defying creatives whose work can’t be put in a box, and now they’re not only blurring genres but also blurring mediums.

Steve Lacy produced a Grammy Award-winning album from his iPhone at 18 with music ranging from R&B to indie rock. FKA Twigs is another whose avant garde music has been described as trip hop, a combination of electronic, hip hop, and soul. These are artists with an appetite for all forms of creativity and who are true tastemakers. And this is furniture that represents that blend. One of Paulin’s couches, seen in Pharrell’s Homework furniture collection at the latest 2026 Louis Vuitton show, is actually a speaker. When you sit on it, you hear and feel the music. True artists can have an appreciation for all forms of art, as long as it’s communicated in a way that actually includes them.

The Ethos of Paulin

But this sudden appreciation raises another question: was Black Hollywood’s previous absence from furniture design due to lack of interest or lack of connection?

Benjamin occupied a unique position as a hip-hop artist who happened to be the son of a French designer. He was positioned to bridge the gap between some of the world’s most creative people and his father’s innovative designs. And these artists gravitated toward Paulin not just for the design, but because it was run by someone who understood their world. That understanding is now leading to innovative spin offs like Sounds Like Paulin, their new music label, which only makes sense because of Benjamin’s authentic ability to genuinely speaks both languages (source).

And speaking both languages goes beyond the surface of connecting furniture and music. The brand has an ethos on how furniture should be a lived experience, very similar to that of Black music.

Early in the revival of Paulin, Paulin, Paulin, Benjamin saw one of his father’s pieces in a museum. What once was a relic of his childhood was now an untouchable exhibit. He realized that if he had kids one day, they would never experience the freedom he had with these pieces (source). So his solution was to change that and reproduce the furniture in a way where people could truly experience it.

The famous blue Dune couch Frank Ocean was photographed on is marked with drawings from Benjamin’s children (source). Travis Scott and Larry June were photographed smoking a blunt on Paulin’s couches. (I know people with far less precious couches who won’t allow that.) Music, especially from the artists in this circle, is a lived experience. Not something precious made in a studio about a life never lived. The furniture from Paulin, Paulin, Paulin reflects that same philosophy: it’s not about pieces to stare at, but pieces to live with. Furniture that holds memories of playing as a child, hearing your favorite song, even smoking a blunt. It represents real experiences that are a part of your life, not just art for a showroom, similar to the music of these artists.

Paulin, Paulin, Paulin represents something rare: genuine respect for hip-hop culture within the world of elite furniture design. From the innovative speaker-couch to the ethos of living in art rather than observing it from afar, this brand has earned its success.

More importantly, it shows what’s possible when someone understands multiple worlds deeply enough to build bridges between them. When you create access for communities that have been overlooked, you don’t just sell products. You create spaces where the most creative people in music can be themselves while appreciating all forms of beauty, not just the ones they’re expected to care about.

I can’t wait to see what they do next.

If you like sculptural design like Paulin’s furniture and happen to love nail designs as well, you will probably like the brand I am building. Find out more at narrativedesignclub.com.

Which one of the artists affiliated with Paulin, Paulin, Paulin do you think is the best tastemaker?

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"What would happen if the energy people put into maximizing profits was instead directed towards the body’s ability to experience joy and playfulness" - Solange

Solange is an artist who amplifies Black voices and stories through multiple mediums from critically acclaimed albums to museum performances, from glassware collections to ballet scores. After doing an extensive deep dive on her career from 2002 until today, I’ve realized that Solange’s remarkable taste didn’t happen by accident. It evolved through three intentional practices: understanding that proximity matters, staying consistent in mission across mediums, and being willing to do things that don’t scale.

This article explores each of these principles while taking you on a trip down memory lane through some of the amazing projects she has put out over the last 20+ years.

Proximity Matters

The Hollywood Years

Solange is originally from Houston and didn’t move to LA until 2007 but she didn’t just pick any place in LA. She purchased a loft at the corner of Hollywood and Vine in 2007, gravitating specifically to that area because there was an underground punk scene happening there. She was also a songwriter and as she told Apartamento magazine: “I loved its proximity to all of the recording studios that I was going to in the Valley and North Hollywood.”

So we see even from the beginning she understood that proximity mattered. Now this one is a bit obvious as musicians living in Hollywood isn’t groundbreaking, but it gets less obvious and even more intentional as time goes on. That takes us to her second big move: Solange’s Brooklyn millennial era.

The Brooklyn Era

She relocated to Brooklyn in 2011 and this is when, at least publicly, the image we have today of Solange really began to take shape. Important context is that Brooklyn was having a MOMENT for millennials back then. The Brooklyn hipster was an aesthetic known nationwide full of American Apparel, skinny jeans, Tumblr, Wayfarers glasses, Chuck Taylors, flannel shirts, tote bags, and the earliest days of Instagram filters. Now that is not to say that Solange herself had that exact aesthetic, but it was hard to be of this generation and not know about the transforming culture of Brooklyn for millennials and I assume this influenced her move.

While she was there, she met people who seemed to have had an impact and inspiration for her style. One notable person was Kesh Kumari. Kesh is a designer who started selling DIY t-shirts through MySpace that were eventually worn by people like Kanye West and Mariah Carey. She also had a collaboration with American Apparel and ran in similar circles as Solange. (source)

People are influenced by the people they are around and that is one of the reasons why proximity matters. Not just for the things and places you have access to but also for the people and the networks you end up forming of creatives.

The New Orleans Move

The last notable move I will mention is her move from NYC to New Orleans in 2013. This is how she described her connection to the city: “When I trekked down here, … I felt very at home here, but I also felt a pulling and a yearning. There was a deeper connection here, with my lineage, that I needed to understand better, clearer, as I moved forward.”

She further explained: “A huge part of me moving here was to create this body of work throughout the process of self-discovery and self-reflection. On one hand, I moved here because it’s an incredible place filled with so much soul and history and magic. But on the other hand, I knew that I needed to move here to complete this chapter in my life.” (source)

While in New Orleans, she started her brand, Saint Heron, at a time when she “needed to find my community, and there was no space or outlet that embodied the nuances that represented the people who surrounded me and the space we took up in the world. And so I thought, I’ll just create it.”

She also had her infamous wedding here that was not just iconic because of the aesthetic but because of the authenticity. She participated in New Orleans traditions like a second line and even said she didn’t have bridesmaids but had ‘majorettes’, a type of dancer well known in the south. That authenticity really came through because she wasn’t just a celebrity having a wedding in a relatively unusual place for celeb weddings, but she was actually a resident with ancestry from Louisiana and used her wedding as a moment to celebrate a culture she had grown to know from living in New Orleans.

Now let’s talk a little deeper about the art she has created while in some of these incredible places.

Medium Does Not Matter (When Your Mission is Solid)

One Mission, Many Forms

Two things I think everyone can agree upon when it comes to Solange:

1. She tries many different mediums

2. Her mission stays consistent throughout

From an iconic wedding shoot, to incredible albums, to a glassware collection to a ballet to an opera series, Solange is not afraid to try something new. But what is most powerful is that each new thing she tries seems to go back to one mission: amplify Black voices and stories. Here is the purpose of some of her most famous projects:

Saint Heron: “We are dedicated to becoming the historians of our own stories. We feel an urgency in building and preserving collections and archives of our own artists’ stories and works and having a voice in what we deem worthy of preservation. We want to make sure our great-grandchildren have access to the collections and stories that represent who they are, and find that in an institution built for them.” (source)

Small Matter 001: Form Glassware: “Designed by me and produced by glassblower Jason McDonald, the glassware reveals the sentience of household objects through the landscape of Black domesticity. It is our hope that these glass works become cherished objects in your own sacred spaces.” (source)

Eldorado Ballroom Series: “The whole series is just about honoring voices I think should be taking up more space in the conversation, specifically about Black women in music.” (source)

So although she changes mediums, she stays consistent on her mission. She even went as far as to remind an interviewer that although her very first album, Solo Star, was a more traditional teen R&B album, she made the cover in very afrocentric colors, something relatively unusual for a teen album. Her mission has been clear from the start.

Just zooming in on her music career, her evolution has been stark. From Solo Star to Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreamsto A Seat at the Table to When I Get Home, you see that each album begins to sound more and more unique until you get to When I Get Home, which I feel like can’t even be categorized properly into one genre. But each album truly had similar themes, one being to amplify Black stories.

Drawing Inspiration Across Mediums

For A Seat at the Table, Solange listed all of these as inspirations, from things in the music world to things outside of it, showing she doesn’t look at art or her mission through a single lens:

Inspirations for A Seat at the Table:

• Rothko’s work at the Menil Museum in Houston

• Lauryn Hill - MTV Unplugged No. 2.0

• The town of New Iberia, Louisiana

• Syreeta Wright - “Black Maybe”

• D’Angelo - “Africa”

• Her father Mathew Knowles

• Citizen by Claudia Rankine

• The artist Robert Pruitt

• Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Charles Blow

• Warren Campbell’s piano and horns on Kanye West’s “We Major”

• Master P and No Limit Records

• Minnie Riperton

• Tweet’s Southern Hummingbird

• The artist Lynette Yiadom Boakye

source

Another example is her gorgeous infamous wedding shoot. She didn’t take inspiration from the wedding industry but more so from the art world, Black southern rituals, and her lived experience in New Orleans. For example, it is rumored that the famous shoot was inspired by the work of Vanessa Beecroft, the art director on Kanye West’s “Runaway” mini movie (one of the best pieces of art I have seen). When you work across mediums, you are able to pull inspiration from all of them, creating things that are truly innovative that the world has not seen.

Now one thing I will mention is that I do not think Solange’s goal is to be a multi-hyphenate (a term I personally find a bit redundant because who does not have multiple interests and talents), but her goal is to fulfill her mission and through the execution of that she has found herself in different mediums.

And exploring so much and so often leads to my last point which is something else really important that she does…

She Does Things That Do Not Scale

First, what does that mean? Doing things that don’t scale means that you are not restricting yourself to things you think you can do consistently or do for the next 10 years or do for everyone. This is a common piece of advice given to startups as there is a fear that if you do things that don’t scale early on, you end up creating a business that will never scale. Well that is not quite true and Solange is a great example of that.

Solange has put on performances at amazing architectural destinations like the Getty Center, the Hammer Museum, and the Guggenheim Museum. She’s also performed at the Tate Modern in London, the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg in Germany, and La Biennale di Venezia. Gorgeous events but someone focused on scale would say I can’t have a performance there because the venue isn’t big enough for my fandom. Not Solange. She puts her art above all else. Sure you might need a completely different choreography and set list for each of these unconventional concerts but that doesn’t stop her from creating what she considers her best work, even if it doesn’t scale.

Similarly with her Eldorado Ballroom series. In Los Angeles and Houston, each night of her series had a completely different theme with different performers, instruments, setlist, etc. Inherently, that does not scale. But again it is not about scale. It is about executing a vision despite the restraints that normally prevent people from seeing their ideas through.

Another example is being a star of Solange’s magnitude and releasing a glassware collection that only had 198 pieces total. Now in this example she did eventually release more items but even then they were only available in the MoMA design store. If she only focused on profit and scale, she would have made a full business out of it that probably would have been really successful.

But this brings me back to a quote about her inspiration for the ballet, Play Time, that she scored: “[imagine] what would happen if the energy people put into maximizing profits was instead directed towards the body’s ability to experience joy and playfulness,” which I think really sums up her approach to all of her projects: The intentionality and experience is more important than the traditional metrics for success.

All in all, Solange is such an inspiration but it truly goes beyond just “taste”. Her intentionality, from her mission to what she creates to how she creates it, shows us that exceptional taste is developed through deliberate choices about where you place yourself, what you commit to, and how flexible you are when executing your vision. She’s created a blueprint for artists and designers who want to cultivate their own distinctive point of view.

If you like Solange’s aesthetic and wear press on nails, the brand I am building might be for you. Check it out at: narrativedesignclub.com

Nobody asked but my favorite underrated Solange songs are “Lovers in the Parking Lot” and “Junie”. Tell me yours and any of your thoughts or opinions in the comments!

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if you’ve been here a while, you know this is our year to fully step into our taste. people with a point of view. people who notice the shape of a water glass or the color of a wall. people who care about how things feel just as much as how they look.

for me, that journey has led to something new: designing a physical product that i actually need and that deserves a place in a beautiful bag.

here’s the idea:
a nail system designed for people who treat their manicure like part of their personal uniform.

you’ll get 30 nails, all in your exact size, neatly packed in a compact, design-forward carrying case that fits into your purse and looks good on your vanity.

the goal is to make your nail routine more practical, more sustainable, and more aesthetic.

• always have a spare: never panic when a nail pops off, you’ll have backups and glue ready.

• keep your signature manicure stocked: your go-to nude or french tip should be easy to maintain, not something you have to rebuy every time.

• reduce waste: no more full sets with sizes you’ll never use.

it’s a portable nail wardrobe for people who care about design and detail in every part of their routine.

(p.s. if you have a friend who would love this idea, make sure to share this with them!)

now, i need your thoughts.
would you use it? do you like the idea? what would make it better?

you’ve been part of this design snob evolution with me, and your feedback means a lot. reply to this email or comment below. i’m personally responding to everyone who shares feedback so i can shape this with you in mind.

until next time,
mya

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the iconic house tours (book these early!)

of course you need to do the house tours. mexico city is home to many famous architects, most notably luis barragán. he created multiple homes across cdmx that have been converted into museums, and they’re absolutely essential viewing for anyone who cares about architecture and color.

the last time i was in cdmx, i took a guided tour of casa gilardi. typically you can choose between self-guided or guided tours, and i really loved the guided option because our tour leader actually grew up in the house. it was incredible to hear his perspective on his own childhood home—the kind of intimate detail you simply don’t get from a placard on the wall.

if you’re feeling super cool, check out this traveling beetle tour group where they take you to some of these sites in a vintage vw beetle. because why wouldn’t you want to arrive at a barragán house in the most perfectly nostalgic vehicle possible?

pro tip: these tours and guides are normally pretty small, so book in advance.

world-class cocktails in world-class spaces

an aesthetic girly normally loves an aesthetic cocktail, and cdmx is just the place for that. mexico city isn’t only known for its wonderful food but also for having some of the top bars in the world.

notably, the top-ranked bar in the world—handshake speakeasy—is in cdmx. when i went, i had a fig martini that i never stopped thinking about. the presentation, the taste, the entire vibe—chef’s kiss.

there’s also licorería limantour, which has a back bar experience where they don’t have a menu and just make drinks based on your preference. these bars create a full, well-rounded experience that goes far beyond just drinking something delicious.

soho house cdmx

you do need a membership for this (or a friend who has one), but if you happen to have access, this is so worth the visit. it’s housed in a gorgeous historic building—i believe it used to be a private home owned by a general—and the interiors are stunning.

i know i said this wasn’t about food, but if you happen to go to soho cdmx, i would recommend going for brunch where they have bottomless food and drinks. it’s the kind of leisurely, beautiful experience that makes you feel like you’re living in a dream.

galleries and concept stores

who doesn’t love these? although i haven’t visited all of them yet, here are some that have been highly recommended:

concept stores:

• lago / algo – a concept store and gallery in a renovated mid-century building overlooking chapultepec

• utilitario mexicano – everyday mexican objects with minimalist flair

• taxonomía – a curated design store inside a restored porfirian-era mansion

• xinú perfumes – architecture and scent meet; the space itself is art

• hi-bye – tiny shop in roma norte that blends fashion, objects, and color perfectly

galleries:

• ago projects – top design gallery with collectible furniture and installations

• masa galería – mexico’s most important collectible-design gallery; very “design snob” in the best way

• galería omr – contemporary art and design intersect beautifully here

• taller luum – textile design studio doing installations and workshops

now, i know everyone has their cdmx opinions, so if there’s a place you’re excited to check out or something you don’t see on this list, please let me know in the comments! i’m always looking to add to my ever-growing mexico city bucket list.

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why meditation sharpens your aesthetic sense

mindfulness cultivates self awareness. taste is really just an acute awareness and practice of what you like versus what you don’t like. but what most people don’t realize is that it isn’t something you’re necessarily born with.

some people might develop it more quickly because they become aware of this muscle and practice it at an early age. they’ve gone through more iterations to develop their sense of taste. but others look at those people and think, “that will never be me.”

and that, my friend, is where you’re wrong.

the awareness advantage

if taste is a practice of acute awareness, to develop it better you need to increase your ability for awareness in general. what is the opposite of awareness? distractions.

many think these distractions are external, but i argue that your most detrimental distractions are internal. they are your thoughts. those things that you think define you, although they are mostly run by your subconscious and largely out of your explicit control.

and that is where meditation comes in. no matter your meditation practice, meditation helps you detach from your thoughts and emotions to cultivate an awareness outside of the one already memorized in your body.

from meditation to design

now imagine having that awareness and stepping into a design showroom. imagine being more in tune with your body in a way that you can become aware of not just what you like but why you like it.

and then, more importantly, imagine being able to practice that wherever you go. because people with the most immaculate taste don’t just source design inspiration from design. they source it from life.

the awareness that meditation gives you is what allows you to translate a mood board into a nail design.

that acute awareness at all times is how you develop taste that is not just a copy and paste of others in your field. it’s how you develop taste that truly allows you to innovate.

ready to start?

i’ve been meditating consistently for three years now, and if you want any tips on how to get started, let me know in the comments.

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1. the nostalgic ease: why the future should feel like a fond memory

we’ve all heard that manifestation means “acting as if your future has already happened.” but what does that actually mean in practice?

the breakthrough for me came when i started paying attention to nostalgia. think about a challenging time in your past that ultimately worked out beautifully. for me, it was applying to graduate school. at the time, i was stressed, even depressed. the uncertainty felt overwhelming.

but here’s the thing: when i look back on that period now, knowing i got into every school i applied to (including what many consider the top university in the world), my body doesn’t remember the stress. it remembers the ease of eventual success. there’s a carefree, guilt-free feeling that washes over me because i know how the story ends.

that nostalgic ease is exactly what you want to cultivate when visualizing your future.

your mind and body should feel that same relaxed confidence, as if you’re remembering something wonderful that already happened to you. this isn’t about fake-it-till-you-make-it positivity. it’s about genuinely accessing the emotional state of someone who knows their dreams came true.

2. god meets you halfway: the partnership between faith and action

this sunday at church, our pastor spoke about peter walking on water to reach jesus. the message was clear: peter’s ability to do the impossible was directly tied to his belief in christ’s power.

this perfectly captures something i’ve learned about manifestation and faith: god will only meet you halfway.

think about it like chasing a bus. you’ll only sprint at full speed, looking completely ridiculous to everyone watching, if you truly believe you can catch it. if you don’t believe it’s possible, you won’t even try, or you’ll jog halfheartedly while already accepting defeat.

your work (your effort, preparation, and action) will only be as strong as your belief that god is conspiring with the universe to help you reach your goals. faith without works is dead, but works without faith lack the supernatural momentum that makes extraordinary things possible.

the lesson? always do the work. but recognize that your work becomes exponentially more powerful when fueled by genuine belief in divine partnership.

3. receiving as worship: why your success serves others

this principle has been the biggest game-changer for me, even though it might sound counterintuitive at first.

what if receiving the gifts you desire is actually an act of worship?

often, what stands between us and our dreams isn’t external obstacles. it’s internal shame and guilt. we tell ourselves we don’t deserve success, that others are more qualified, or that pursuing our goals is somehow selfish.

but here’s a radical reframe: what if god and the universe want you to succeed just as much as you do? what if your success isn’t just for you, but for everyone who needs to see that extraordinary things are possible?

i think about those “school of hard knocks” videos where successful entrepreneurs share their stories. so many trace their achievements back to their faith. their success becomes a living testimony, a platform to inspire others and point them toward something greater than themselves.

when your goals align with your purpose, stop viewing the pursuit through the lens of guilt and shame. instead, see it as a pathway to deeper gratitude. the more grateful you become, the more present you are. and the more present you are, the closer you draw to god.

your breakthrough isn’t just about you. it’s about everyone who will witness it and think, “if it’s possible for them, maybe it’s possible for me too.”

these principles aren’t magic formulas, but they’ve fundamentally changed how i approach both my dreams and my relationship with the divine. what if your biggest goals aren’t obstacles to your faith, but expressions of it?

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And a lot of times I end up having revelations about my own roadblocks; the kind of insights that make you think, “i wish i’d known this yesterday. or even just this morning.”

there’s something about the quiet space of meditation that cuts through all the anxiety and noise, getting straight to what’s actually blocking me. this past week, through meditation and journaling, three insights emerged that felt too important not to share.

1. fear and curiosity are both responses to the unknown. choose curiosity.

ever feel like you know exactly what you want to do and how to do it, but somehow you can’t get yourself to start? maybe you’ve even tried before?

you’re probably not trying again because you’re afraid of disappointment. something unexpected happened that led to unexpected hurt, and now instead of being blindsided, you’re disappointing yourself daily by thinking about something you’ve decided you “can’t” do.

here’s the reframe that changed everything for me: fear is a response to the unknown. you wouldn’t be afraid if you knew you’d be okay. but here’s the thing: nobody knows that. fear exists in everyone.

curiosity is also a response to the unknown, but it carries neutral intent instead of dread. that awful outcome you’re afraid of? it hasn’t happened yet. instead of fearing that unknown outcome, try becoming curious about it.

curiosity helps you trust and move forward even when you don’t know what comes next. it transforms the unknown from a threat into an adventure.

1. love how you do something, not just what you do

we live in a culture obsessed with the idea that if you “follow your passion,” everything will fall into place. here’s the secret nobody talks about: even taylor swift and beyoncé (two people who seem to have found perfect alignment) probably don’t love every single aspect of their work.

the person with the dream job at google? they still have parts of their role they’d rather skip. we all have to “take out the trash,” metaphorically speaking.

but here’s what keeps your spirit alive when you’re doing the unglamorous work: loving how you do things. it’s that quiet satisfaction of knowing that whatever you touch, you do well. it’s a validation that only you (and perhaps the universe) can confirm.

and here’s the beautiful part: when you finally get to do the thing you’ve always wanted to do, you’re already trained to do it with excellence. so instead of just chasing what you love, fall in love with how you show up. that’s your foundation for both short-term satisfaction and long-term success.

3. want to achieve something? get genuinely curious about it

sometimes we have goals but no clear path. we stand at the base of the mountain with no idea where the trail begins.

start with curiosity.

want to be a content creator? get curious about what it would actually feel like to make a video every single day. because here’s the truth: the reality of what you want and how you perceive it from the outside are probably two completely different things.

if you actually want to bridge that gap (not just fantasize about it), you have to step out and learn things about that reality that don’t line up with your perception. the more gaps you close, the closer you get to that goal. but you can only begin to bridge those gaps when you’re curious enough to discover what you were wrong about, what’s different than it appears, what surprises await beyond your expectations. and you’ll only be happy if you’re okay with some things being different than the fantasy in your head, which brings us back to leading with curiosity, not fear.

watch a baby who spots something they want. they don’t strategize or overthink: they get curious. they start moving toward it, and before you know it, they have it (whether they should or not). but if you keep staring at your goal from a distance, convinced you already understand it, unwilling to be surprised by what you might learn, you’ll never actually get there.

moving toward what you want requires becoming something new, something unexpected. and if you’re not curious about that transformation, it simply won’t happen.

your personal aesthetic is simply a reflection of how you experience the world in ways that feel pleasing to your senses.

this week, i noticed a few things that shifted how i think about beauty and i picked out the ones i really think you would like. i’ve captured one observation for each of the five senses:

visual

i wrote a post this week about music videos which reminded me of my love for k*nye w*st's runaway video. i know we hate him for many many valid reasons but i would be lying if said i don’t reminisce on his earlier art.

the ballerinas in all black surrounding him in his black and creme tux, the beautiful low contrast costume design of his bird (really a bird, i am not insulting her) girlfriend, and the gorgeous long dining table. truly a visual masterclass and, if you haven’t seen it, i still highly recommend.

scent

it is time for my lush haul and there is nothing i am looking forward to more than my sticky dates body wash. if you want to smell like the most decedent, sinful dessert, you need this body wash. nothing makes me more excited for a long shower than the way this scent completely takes over my bathroom.

touch

this week, i spent a full 8 hour day touring furniture shops around los angeles ending the day with 4 course italian meal. literally a perfect day. but my favorite showroom was form because of the gorgeous textures that they would mix together. their curation style if complex in stones, textures, and shapes creating a beautiful melody that is exciting and comforting at the same time. here is their instagram if you want to see more of their beautiful collection.

sound

ok so we all know by now by the people who won't let us forget that justin bieber's album was very influenced by two other artists: dijon and mk.gee. and because of that i have been doing a deep dive into their music and discovered this gorgeous song called “How many miles” by mk.gee. for the sultry listeners, i highly recommend.

taste

another amazing cocktail recipe for you that is so delicious. if you love a fruity cocktail, this is the one for you. it's super cheap and beyond easy. it is going to sound too simple to be be good but trust me make it and everyone will love it. i met the guy i am dating's siblings this weekend and i made it for them. i am pretty confident i am now in their good graces because of this cocktail.

1. 0.5 oz peach puree (linked but you can find it at most large liquor stores like bevmo or total wines and more)

2. 2 oz bulletproof bourbon (or any bourbon will do)

3. 4 oz simply lemonade

the rise of the curator economy

we're living in an age of information overload. between ai-generated content flooding our feeds and an endless stream of creators vying for attention, consumers are drowning in choice. this chaos has brought a familiar figure back into the spotlight: the tastemaker, the curator, the person who can cut through the noise and show us what actually matters.

i know this world intimately, not just from my day job building monetization tools, but from running my own curated nail art inspiration page, narrative design club, on threads. through this dual perspective, i've witnessed firsthand how different the monetization landscape looks for curators versus traditional creators.

creators vs. curators: the monetization gap

the distinction is simple but crucial:

• creators make original content

• curators remix and organize existing content

this difference creates a fundamental monetization problem. while creators can easily justify brand partnerships (they made the content, they deserve the payment), the value chain for curators is murkier. who gets paid when curated content drives sales? how do you price the art of digital curation?

this ambiguity explains why platforms with primarily curatorial content struggle with creator monetization. take pinterest, arguably the web's largest curation platform. their creators are mostly curators, which explains their underwhelming investment in creator tools and the shuttering of their creator fund in november 2022 after investing $20 million into the program.

why current solutions fall short for curators

pinterest creators today rely on two main monetization methods, both fundamentally flawed:

1. affiliate marketing while affiliate links can work, they're heavily skewed toward brands rather than creators. unlike brand deals that often include guaranteed flat fees for creators (think of it as an "a for effort" payment), affiliate marketing only pays for results. this requires massive scale to succeed, making it nearly impossible for smaller curators to earn meaningful income. additionally, curators are naturally more selective about the products they promote, which further limits their potential scale for affiliate marketing success.

2. traffic driving to owned properties many pinterest curators funnel traffic to their own cpg brands or blogs. while this can work, it requires the enormous additional effort of building and running a business, not exactly a viable monetization path for most people.

the white space: micro-brands need micro-worlds

here's where it gets interesting. algorithm are so niche and personalized (built brick by brick) but brands are not. there are thousands of micro/small consumer brands launching every year, and every single one faces the same challenge: building a brand world that speaks to their customers' aspirations. these micro-brands hace a chance to win niche markets, but can’t afford marketing support.

this is where curators should shine. i discovered this opportunity through the work of dai media, a curator who helps brands communicate through carefully crafted moodboards. it made me realize: what if curators could monetize by building brand worlds for micro-brands?

think about it:

• the world is becoming increasingly personalized, with gen z spending growing twice as fast as previous generations

• algorithms serve us niche content, but branding remains generic

• micro-brands are typically shut out of traditional creator partnerships due to budget constraints

• these same brands desperately need marketing support they can't afford

the solution: curator-brand matchmaking

imagine a very niche product that solves a specific problem, paired with a brand world created by a curator who runs that exact niche community. that's not just marketing, that's a cpg brand starter pack.

the beauty of this model is that it serves everyone:

• curators get paid for their taste-making abilities

• micro-brands get affordable, authentic brand building

• consumers discover products through trusted community voices

the future of curator monetization

as we navigate this oversaturated, ai-driven content landscape, the role of human curation becomes more valuable, not less. curators are the immune system of the internet: they filter, organize, and add context to help us make sense of the chaos. with the creator economy projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2033, there's room for curators to claim their piece of this massive pie.

the brands that recognize this early, and the platforms that build infrastructure to support curator monetization, will capture enormous value in the coming years.

what do you think? are there aspects of curator monetization i'm missing? i'd love to hear your thoughts on how this space evolves as content saturation continues to accelerate.

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Pinterest is having a moment. After years of being pigeonholed as a platform for wedding planning and home decor, it's experiencing a quiet renaissance. The numbers tell the story: Pinterest saw a 23.2% year-over-year audience growth rate in 2024, reaching a record 570 million global monthly active users by Q1 2025. But here's the thing: Pinterest's comeback story is built on a fundamental decision to be anti-social, and that choice reveals everything about how platform design shapes business outcomes.

The Tumblr Lesson

To understand Pinterest's strategy, we need to look at what happened to Tumblr. There was a time when the internet's inspiration economy was split: older users turned to Pinterest, while younger demographics flocked to Tumblr for pop culture, urban aesthetics, and that specific kind of cool that only comes from curated anonymity.

Tumblr had everything Pinterest didn't: a thriving social graph, cultural cache, and content that felt authentically youth-driven. But Tumblr also had a fatal flaw: its content strategy completely undermined its business model.

The platform was full of explicit content that users loved but advertisers wouldn't touch. This created a brand safety nightmare. Many advertisers don't just avoid explicit content; they won't even place ads on platforms that host it. When Tumblr finally banned adult content to court advertisers, users had already migrated elsewhere. Without scale, the platform couldn't offer the reach advertisers needed, making ads expensive and inefficient.

Pinterest saw the opportunity and seized it.

The Positive Corner Strategy

Pinterest's response was brilliant in its simplicity: become the positive corner of the internet. This wasn't just about content moderation; it was a direct attack on social media's most toxic element using external validation as the north star.

Think about what makes other platforms feel "negative." It's not just the content; it's the comments, the social pressure, the constant measurement against others. Pinterest eliminated all of that. When you see a pin, you rarely encounter other people's opinions about it. Half the time, the person posting isn't even the original creator. The only opinion that matters is your own.

There are no comment threads to scroll through. Like counts are virtually invisible. Pinterest makes you the only approver needed to decide if content is worth pinning. This keeps the platform remarkably positive, but it also keeps it remarkably anti-social.

The Creator Economy Problem

Here's where Pinterest's strategy gets complicated. My best friend uses Pinterest more than I do, but I have no idea what she looks at. I can't follow my favorite creators because half the time, they're not even on the platform. I've seen posts from 200k-follower aesthetic accounts that weren't even uploaded by the creators themselves. Other users had saved and reposted their content.

This reveals Pinterest's new pigeonhole. First, it was demographic. Now, it's a lack of investment in the creator economy. If Pinterest's main currency isn't external validation, why would creators build there? The entire creator economy runs on external validation.

The creator economy that does exist on Pinterest is almost entirely affiliate-driven content that links to products. This aligns with Pinterest's shopping-focused business model, but it limits the platform's potential. The platform's shopping success is undeniable: Pinterest achieved a record $1.15 billion in revenue in Q4 2024, and shoppers on Pinterest spend twice as much monthly compared to social shoppers on other platforms. Over 85% of users have purchased something they discovered on Pinterest.

The Missed Opportunity

Here's the irony: People like me download photos from Pinterest to create mood boards and build audiences on other platforms like Substack, TikTok, Instagram, and Threads. Pinterest is essentially providing ammunition to power other networks.

Pinterest could have been the definitive place to understand every tastemaker's aesthetic. Rather than building their own solution, Pinterest chose a different path: partnering with LTK in 2025 to automatically distribute LTK's top-performing, human-curated images as shoppable Pins. It's a smart strategic move that acknowledges the value of creator-driven commerce without having to build the infrastructure from scratch.

What Pinterest Could Do Next

The LTK partnership is a strategic win, but Pinterest still has untapped potential. The market is crowded, but Pinterest still has a massive advantage: scale. With 570 million monthly active users and an average revenue per user that reached $2.12 in Q4 2024, Pinterest had the foundation to build a comprehensive creator economy solution in-house. While partnering with LTK brings immediate value, it also means sharing revenue and control that Pinterest could have kept within their ecosystem.

On Instagram, I saw one of my favorite creators post a very aesthetic photo that looks like something I would typically see on Pinterest. (Note: she did not post it to Pinterest, nor does she seem to have an active Pinterest account from my searches.) She then added her ShopMy link to the photo. I searched the items that were put in the ShopMy link, and they are ALL available to buy on Pinterest.

The LTK partnership addresses some of these challenges by bringing proven creator content to Pinterest. But imagine if Pinterest had built this capability in-house: creators could post original content directly to Pinterest and receive a cut from purchases, while also generating shareable links for cross-platform promotion. This would create a true Pinterest-native creator economy rather than relying on external partnerships.

Pinterest's anti-social strategy doesn't mean it needs to turn its back on the creator economy. The LTK partnership shows Pinterest recognizes this opportunity, but it's just the beginning. Pinterest still has the scale and shopping infrastructure to build more comprehensive creator tools that would keep both creators and revenue within their ecosystem while maintaining their positive, anti-social brand identity.

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what is a design snob?

design snob /dɪˈzaɪn snɒb/ noun

1. a person with impeccable taste and unshakeable confidence in their aesthetic choices

2. examples: solange, tracee ellis ross, and *you*

below are the articles i wrote this week to help you on your design snob journey:

how to actually develop good taste

everybody talks about taste like it is this elusive thing that you are either born with or you're hopeless. what if i told you it's something you can easily develop with just a bit of refinement on how you look at the world? this post helps you understand a step by step process to refine your taste so that it fits your unique vision and aesthetic. read more here.

the members' club trap

ok as a design snob, emphasis on the snob, i would be remised if i didn't talk about membership clubs, like soho house. let's be honest, if you want an aesthetic place to work or eat or just hang out around the world, a members club is typically a safe bet. but a lot of people don't like their members club or don't know which one to choose. this post helps you understand how to make the most out of your experience. read more here.

how to: not regret home decor buys

the worst thing when refining your interior design style? buying expensive home decor that you hate. it's so demotivating and can put you in a negative spiral. but don't fret - here's a guide to help you understand if a home decor purchase is actually worth it. read more here.

things i fell in love with

so taste is all about noticing. noticing what you like and what you don't like. and aesthetic is the story of the senses. so here are aesthetics things i noticed this week that have refined my taste:

visual

i wrote a post this week about music videos which reminded me of my love for kanye west's runaway video. i know we hate him, but do we hate that video? the ballerinas in all black surrounding him in his black and creme tux, the beautiful low contrast costume design of his bird (really a bird, i am not insulting her) girlfriend, and the gorgeous long dining table. truly a visual masterclass.

scent

it is time for my lush haul and there is nothing i am looking forward to more than my sticky dates body wash. if you want to smell like the most decedent, sinful dessert, you need this body wash. nothing makes me more excited for a long shower than the way this scent completely takes over my bathroom.

touch

this week, i spent a full 8 hour day touring furniture shops around los angeles ending the day with 4 course italian meal. literally a perfect day. but my favorite showroom was form because of the gorgeous textures that they would mix together.

sound

ok so we all know by now by the people who won't let us forget that justin bieber's album was very influenced by two other artists: dijon and mk.gee. and because of that i have been doing a deep dive into their music and discovered this gorgeous song called “How many miles” by mk.gee. for the sultry listeners, i highly recommend.

taste

another amazing cocktail recipe for you that is so delicious. if you love a fruity cocktail, this is the one for you. it's super cheap and beyond easy. it is going to sound too simple to be be good but trust me make it and everyone will love it. i met the guy i am dating's siblings this weekend and i made it for them. i am pretty confident i am now in their good graces because of this cocktail.

1. 1 oz peach puree (linked but you can find it at most large liquor stores like bevmo or total wines and more)

2. 2 oz bulletproof bourbon (or any bourbon will do)

3. 4 oz simply lemonade

   ---

because music videos carve a place in your mind. they take you to a world so sensory, so complete, all built around a beautiful song. they're three to five minute films that manage to capture entire moods, entire aesthetics, entire worlds. in an age where we consume content at lightning speed, music videos remain one of the few mediums that demand your full attention and reward you with something transcendent.

to give you a dose of inspiration, i wanted to share some of my favorite music videos from the 2010s that truly changed the way i see art, design, and everything else.

"runaway" - kanye west

we hate him now, i know, and so do i. but there was a time when i didn't, when i was so impressed by his artistry and his ability to mix multiple genres in such a beautiful way. and this "runaway" video is one of my favorite examples of that lost brilliance.

the composition is flawless: ballerinas dressed in all black surrounding his cream and black tux as he plays piano. his girlfriend looks gorgeous in low contrast bird costume design that makes her feel otherworldly. then there's that long dinner table that would be completely impractical in real life but is a dream to look at on screen.

the message around acceptance, of the monstrous, of the different, of the misunderstood, elevates what could have been just a beautiful visual into something profound. this song and music video is 2010 gold, nothing less. it's a reminder of what kanye was capable of when his artistry was allowed to speak louder than his ego.

"national anthem" - lana del rey

this music video was my first introduction to lana del rey, and i've been hooked every day since. it's a beautiful, haunting depiction of jfk, marilyn monroe, and jackie kennedy, with a$ap rocky as jfk and lana embodying the tragic blonde archetype that defined an era.

the aesthetic matched lana's brand so perfectly, moody, sultry, drenched in americana nostalgia. watching it felt like you were at the coolest white house that ever existed, where worries didn't have room to grow and life was luxe but simple. everything bathed in that golden, hazy light that made the american dream look tangible.

but then they show the jfk assassination in the video, a stark reminder of how quickly the sham of the american dream can crumble. and it always does, doesn't it? but you might as well enjoy the ride while it lasts. that tension between glamour and tragedy, between hope and inevitable disappointment, is pure lana, and pure america.

"perfect" - tyler, the creator featuring kali uchis

a very simple video, but a masterclass in color theory. this song is gorgeous, exploring the tension between two people navigating the complexities of love and attraction. the video's simplicity is what makes it beautiful, the color grading makes it trippy without being overwhelming, dreamy without losing its edge.

this is a perfect (and i mean perfect) example of 2016 art. clearly tumblr inspired, clearly influenced by the soft, pastel aesthetic that dominated that era, but elevated through tyler's unique vision. what an artifact of its time. and since this is the deepest cut on my list, this is the one i think you should stop reading and go watch right now. thank me later.

the 2010s gave us a golden age of music videos, a time that will be remembered as tumblr was on the rise, where aesthetics became a language people could speak together online. these three represent just a fraction of the visual art that shaped an entire generation's understanding of aesthetics, storytelling, and the power of marrying sound with image.

maybe one day we'll get that music video museum. until then, we have youtube and our memories of the first time these videos made us stop scrolling and start dreaming.

what are your favorite music videos from the 2010s? let me know if you want a part two, i have so many more to share.

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here's the truth: taste isn't a gift you're born with. it's a skill you can develop.

why taste actually matters

taste isn't about impressing people or buying expensive things. it's about knowing what you like and why you like it. when you have clear taste, decisions become easier. you stop second guessing yourself. you stop buying things that sit unused in your closet or decorating with pieces that never feel quite right.

this is especially true in the age of AI where people continually repeat that the one thing AI won’t be able to have is taste. so it is the perfect time to cultivate your own.

step 1: build awareness through presence

before you can develop taste, you need to notice things. really notice them. the biggest barrier to good taste is distraction. we move through spaces without paying attention, making choices on autopilot.

start with simple awareness exercises. when you walk into a room, pause. what do you notice first? what draws your eye? what makes you feel calm or uncomfortable? this isn't meditation (though that helps too). it's just slowing down enough to actually see.

step 2: study what you love and hate

think of three places that make you feel amazing. maybe it's a specific coffee shop, a friend's apartment, or a hotel lobby. go there with intention. sit down and really look around.

ask yourself:

• what are the first five things i notice?

• why did these catch my attention?

• how does my body feel in this space?

• what would i change, if anything?

then do the same with places that feel off to you. is it too chaotic? too sterile? too dark? the contrast will help you identify your preferences.

step 3: define your rules

taste is really just a personal set of guidelines. after studying spaces you love and hate, patterns will emerge. maybe you notice you're drawn to warm lighting and natural textures. maybe you hate clutter but love one bold statement piece. these observations become your taste rules.

write them down. not as rigid laws, but as starting points. "i prefer spaces that feel calm but not boring" or "i like clothes that feel effortless but intentional."

step 4: practice with low stakes experiments

now comes the scary part: testing your taste in real life. start small. buy one piece that follows your newly identified rules. a pillow, a shirt, a plant. see how it feels in your actual space or on your actual body.

don't be surprised if you hate it. this isn't failure, it's data. maybe you love minimalist spaces but that stark white chair makes your apartment feel cold. maybe you like bold patterns on others but they overwhelm you when you wear them.

step 5: work within your constraints

here's where it gets interesting. your constraints aren't problems to solve, they're creative opportunities. small apartment? you'll get really good at multifunctional pieces. limited budget? you'll develop an eye for thrift finds others miss. non standard body type? you'll discover combinations others never think to try.

constraints force you to be more thoughtful, more creative, more uniquely you.

step 6: keep iterating

taste isn't a destination. it evolves as you do. what felt right five years ago might feel wrong now, and that's normal. the goal isn't to lock in a perfect aesthetic forever. it's to build the muscle of noticing, deciding, and trusting your own judgment.

the confidence that comes from this process is what people really notice when they say someone has "good taste." it's not about having expensive things or following trends. it's about being intentional and confident with your choices.

the real payoff

developing taste isn't about becoming a tastemaker or impressing anyone else. it's about making choices that actually feel like you. when you know what you like and why, other people's opinions become background noise. you stop buying things because they look good on instagram and start choosing things because they work for your life.

that's not just good taste. that's freedom.

the networking reality check

if you aren't naturally extroverted, don't expect proximity to success to magically change that. be honest about your social habits. when was the last time you struck up a conversation at a bar or made a friend on a plane? if networking through casual encounters isn't your style, there's still hope, but it requires a different approach.

the real networking happens at events. choose clubs with programming that genuinely interests you or attracts people you want to meet. then, actually attend. most members skip events entirely, but the ones who show up are there to connect and build community.

make sure there are some events unique enough that you can't get them somewhere else. if their best programming is a book club you could join at your local library, save your money.

pro tip for introverts: host your own event. focus it around your expertise and suddenly you won't need to approach anyone because they'll come to you. i do this myself at every club i'm part of, and it's been a game changer.

beyond networking

entertainment value matters too. i love my s*ho house membership because it gets me into intimate r&b concerts from some of my favorite artists and album release parties i'd never access otherwise. and there is nothing i love more than party in aesthetic places. so ask yourself: what unique experiences does this club offer that i genuinely can't get elsewhere?

the usage test

consider how the club fits your actual lifestyle:

do they have a gym? be honest with yourself. if you don't already work out regularly, maybe try working out for free or at a cheaper spot for a few months before using gym access as an excuse to justify an expensive membership.

how often do you eat out? this is where i personally struggle because i can rarely justify paying for mediocre overpriced food just because the restaurant is exclusive.

do you travel frequently? access to other locations worldwide is valuable, but shouldn't be your primary reason to join.

the bottom line

a lot of people join membership clubs to become an aspirational version of themselves, and that's fine. but you'll only become that person if you actually use the membership properly. pick a club that makes it interesting and easy for you to become that person, not one where you feel like you're forcing yourself to like the experience just to please others.

my rule: only join if the club can replace a weekly or biweekly habit you already have and offers events you'd actually attend. the goal isn't to buy into exclusivity for its own sake. it's to find a space that genuinely enhances the life you're already living.

are you a part of any clubs? what are your thoughts?

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while there's no one-size-fits-all budgeting formula for interior design (everyone's needs are different, after all), there are three guiding principles that can help you make smarter purchasing decisions without breaking the bank.

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is this the right size for my space?

the biggest mistake people make is buying smaller versions of items to save money. nothing looks worse than furniture that's proportionally wrong for the space.

mirrors are a perfect example. they're expensive, so people think, "i'll just get the smaller one for the same function." wrong. a too-small mirror in a large space looks awkward and defeats the purpose entirely. the same goes for couches, coffee tables, and artwork.

if you can't afford the proper size mirror for your space, go with a completely different option entirely that fits your budget instead of settling for a too-small version.

does this get dirty or break easily?

this question should be your filter once you know you need the right size. think about how much wear and tear an item will face in your daily life.

take rugs, for example. they're constantly being walked on, sometimes with shoes, and they're magnets for spills and pet accidents. this screams "cheaper purchase."

couches present an interesting dilemma. they're typically the centerpiece of your living space, but they're also highly functional, which means they're destined to get dirty. my advice? go with a darker color to hide inevitable stains, and consider it a splurge purchase anyway. the couch is where you'll spend countless hours, so comfort and quality matter.

here's a bonus consideration: resale value. when it's time to move, you'll want to sell those expensive pieces. items that don't break easily and clean up well are much easier to resell, making your initial investment smarter in the long run.

will i be able to use this in any house?

this is your final consideration that can push you toward spending more on a quality piece. portability and versatility are your friends when decorating on a budget. this principle especially applies to kitchen appliances and decor that sits in prominent places.

i have an overpriced but gorgeous kettle and sodastream because they live on my counters where everyone can see them. but i also know these are investments i can take with me to any future home. contrast this with a shoe cabinet i bought: while it won't break or get dirty easily, it's so tailored to my current apartment's layout that i went with a cheaper option because i knew i probably wouldn't take it with me.

ask yourself: can this piece work with different interior design styles? will it fit in various room configurations? if the answer is yes, it's worth spending more on.

the bottom line

decorating on a budget isn't about being cheap everywhere. it's about being strategic with your money. start by getting the right size, then spend on pieces that will last and work in multiple homes.

remember, a few well-chosen, properly-sized pieces will always look better than a room full of furniture that's just slightly wrong for the space. your home should feel intentional, not like a collection of compromises.

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welcome, design snobs

this is your weekly newsletter dedicated to the journey of becoming a design snob: those unbearably tasteful people with the best clothes, furniture, vacations, and impeccable taste. you know exactly who i'm talking about. and yes, it's achievable for all of us with a bit of intention and knowledge.

things i wrote about this week

here are some guides i created to help you on your journey to becoming a design snob

find aesthetic hotels

some people's vacations look as intricately planned as weddings, and it often comes down to their hotel choice. this guide will help you find hotels worthy of your design dreams: the kind that make your vacation look editorial-ready. read more here.

2-step guide to your signature style

being a design snob means knowing how to dress, and signature style separates novices from experts. this simple 2-step guide helps you develop a personal style that's distinctly you: the absolute best way. read more here.

from pinterest to reality: home edition

what's a design snob without an aesthetic apartment? contrary to popular belief, this might be the easiest part of the journey. if you already have pinterest mood boards, this step-by-step guide makes transforming digital inspiration into real-life interior design surprisingly manageable. read more here.

this week's sensory obsessions

design snobs have taste. they fall in love with things through their senses. and here are this week’s sensory obsessions:

music

"diamonds for your pain" by giveon what's a better opening line than "prettier than i remember"? this song captures that bittersweet moment when you see someone you used to love and remember exactly why, but like that feeling, the song fades out perfectly.

taste

homemade lychee martinis my friend put me on to this simple but amazing recipe that will impress literally anyone:

• vodka

• lychee juice (from canned lychees)

• hoka plum wine (find it at premium wine and alcohol stores)

• chill your glass in the fridge for a few minutes first

• put all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake a bunch for the coldest martini

trust me on this one.

visuals

wedding look perfection i can't pinpoint exactly what made me fall in love: the wrap intead of a veil, the dress's simplicity, the half-up half-down hair? all of it? it's girlhood grown up and getting married. absolutely beautiful.

touch

creme de pistachio lotion by eos as a gourmand girlie who's been using vanilla cashmere like i have a sponsorship (which i'm open to), their lotions are impossibly smooth. now they have my absolute favorite scent: pistachio. such a moment.

scent

vanilla skin by phlur delicious without being immature. perfect for a quick spritz before visitors, the gym, or when i don't want to use my expensive perfumes. i actually wore it to bed last night: a small joy that elevated my entire evening.

coming soon

i'm currently designing my best friend's first home and considering creating an in-depth guide on how i am translating her pinterest vision into reality and how you can do it too. interested? let me know!

have a beautifully tasteful week, your fellow design snob in training

here's the thing: designing your room based on your pinterest board isn't as hard as it seems. you don't need a design degree or an unlimited budget. you just need a system. and i'm about to give you one that actually works.

step 1: pick your color palette (your design north star)

the first step is also the easiest, which is great news if you're feeling overwhelmed. good design is really about cohesion, but it's impossible to create cohesion without rules. your color palette becomes your guidebook.

narrow your room down to 3-5 main colors. that's it. suddenly, picking out furniture becomes 100x easier because you're no longer playing a guessing game about what works together.

finding a color palette is dead simple: go to pinterest and search "color palettes." if you're new to design, start with neutral palettes they're by far the easiest to work with. and remember, neutral doesn't just mean beige and brown. soft greens and warm yellows can be surprisingly forgiving too.

if neutrals feel too safe but you're still design-nervous, here's a pro tip: start with neutral base pieces (your couch, dining table, major furniture) and add personality through colorful accent pieces later in the process.

step 2: master the moodboard method

now that you have your colors, it's time to figure out the actual furniture setup. this is where most people freeze up, but i have a game-changing approach for you.

go back to your pinterest boards, but this time, look at just one photo. pick a single corner or section of that room maybe it's how the mirror and plant sit next to each other, or the way the coffee table is styled. focus only on that small section.

then recreate just that corner in your own space.

this method makes those intimidating "perfect room" photos suddenly manageable. most times, there's one specific thing catching your eye in a photo. once you identify and recreate that element, then move on to another pin and repeat the process. before you know it, you've created your own unique furniture arrangement using pieces of inspiration from multiple sources.

step 3: choose your statement piece (the main character)

every great room needs a main character one piece that everything else supports. this is your statement piece, and the rest of your room should be designed to make it shine.

your statement doesn't have to scream for attention through bold color. it can stand out through interesting shape, unique texture, or unexpected material. think of it like a band: you have one lead singer and everyone else provides backup.

a uniquely shaped couch, an oversized piece of art, or an interesting coffee table all make excellent statement pieces. once you've chosen yours, every other decision becomes about supporting and highlighting that hero element.

step 4: measure everything (please, i'm begging you)

i cannot stress this enough: measure your space and your furniture. nothing and i mean nothing screams "amateur design" like misporportioned furniture.

you know what makes a room look expensive and well-designed? it's not always the most unique pieces or bold colors. it's simply seeing a space that makes sense. and nothing makes less sense than a tiny rug floating in the middle of a large room or a couch that's so big you can barely walk around it.

you might think you won't notice or that you'll get used to awkward proportions (please don't get used to it), but there will always be that nagging feeling that something's off. the good news? this is completely preventable.

there's tons of guidance online about proper proportions how wide your coffee table should be compared to your couch, how much space to leave between artwork and furniture. this step is what transforms a collection of nice furniture into impeccable design.

the bottom line? your pinterest dreams are absolutely achievable. you just need to break them down into manageable steps and trust the process. start with your color palette, focus on one inspiring corner at a time, choose your statement piece, and measure twice, buy once. before you know it, you'll be living in a space that feels just as dreamy as those pins you've been saving.

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the building blocks of style

your personal aesthetic comes down to two main categories: clothes and beauty.

under clothes, you have three elements to play with:

• color

• silhouette

• texture

under beauty, there are four key elements:

• hair

• nails

• makeup

• scent

these seven elements are your toolkit. now here's how to use them strategically.

the secret formula: staples vs. statements

the magic happens when you understand the difference between staple pieces and statement pieces.

staple pieces are what you keep consistent - your reliable, foundational elements that become your signature.

statement pieces are where you switch things up and surprise people.

think about hair: rihanna during her red hair era had that color as a staple piece - it became part of her brand identity. meanwhile, nicki minaj's ever-changing wigs are her statement piece, keeping us guessing what she'll do next.

the golden ratio? choose about 2 categories as your statement pieces and keep the rest as staples.

take anna wintour: her staples are the bob haircut and sunglasses. her statement piece? bold, ever-changing patterns in her clothing. you know something interesting is coming, but you can't quite predict what.

or zendaya with her so kate louboutins - that consistent shoe silhouette anchors her look while her clothing style varies dramatically. notice how she rarely changes her hair color or goes for statement makeup, which draws even more attention to her bold fashion choices.

why staples aren't boring (they're strategic)

i know what you're thinking - won't having so many staples make me look boring? actually, staples serve two crucial purposes:

1. they consistently flatter you. when you find something that works and makes you feel confident, stick with it. not everything looks good on everyone, so you should fully embrace the things that look amazing on you.

2. they create your visual brand. staples give people an anchor point for understanding your aesthetic, making it foundational rather than fleeting.

how to choose statement pieces

your statement pieces are where the magic happens - the elements that surprise and delight. here's a tip: whatever you notice most on other people is likely what should be your statement piece, because that's what you're naturally drawn to.

the bottom line

having a personal aesthetic isn't about looking the same all the time or copying someone else. it's about identifying what makes you feel confident and creating a framework around it. it also eliminates decision fatigue, freeing up mental energy for more interesting problems.

and hey - you absolutely don't need a personal aesthetic if you don't want one. do whatever feels right for you.

but if you're tired of staring at your closet every morning feeling overwhelmed, this simple staples-versus-statements formula might just change everything.

what do you think? have you identified your staples and statements? i'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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