What is it about those fabulous homes in glossy magazines that make you want to be transported onto the page?
According to one of the world’s top interior editors there are simple tricks to giving any space the X factor – and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune either.
Adding statement flowers, using the same colour twice in every room and making sure you pay as much attention choosing a carpet as you would a pair of designer shoes are just a few of interior editor extraordinaire, Carlos Mota’s top tips.
Venezuelan-born Mota, who has been an editor for both Architectural Digest and Elle Decor, has revealed his secrets to lust-worthy interiors in his new book, A touch of Style, which is also brimming with images of some of the stunning interiors he has helped create.
As an editor for some of the world’s most influential interiors magazine Mota says he has worked alongside single-minded photographers, fussy interiors designer and anxious celebrity homeowners.
‘My job is to help everyone to present the best possible version of a home, to find its soul, to have and to realize a vision,’ he says.
‘A scarf may need to be draped, not folded, across a bench, as if someone had just strolled in and left it there.
‘Sometimes moving a chair four inches to the right is what it takes to make the cover of the magazine.’
Despite having photographed some of the most beautiful and expensive homes in the world, the stylist and editor insists style needn’t come with a hefty price tag.
‘Really, for me, monetary value means nothing,’ he says.
‘I may drop a small fortune on a porcelain plate that steals my heart, but I have no problem mixing it up with some inexpensive bamboo silverware for an eclectic table setting.’
What IS important to Mota is getting the carpet right.
‘Carpets are like the shoes of a room,’ he says. ‘They make or break it – but I don’t object to wearing Manolos with a T-shirt!’
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