Jenia Zhданova Design Rules

Successful Russian designer and decorator, founder of the boutique Diva Decor, Jenia Zhданova talks about design rules, internal calculators, and mistakes as invaluable experience.

Feel freedom. Freedom of choice, freedom from rules and stereotypes, freedom from others' opinions and smart advice. Rules exist to be broken, and the most striking design solutions are born precisely against the rules. 

Design: Jenia Zhданova

Become the conductor of your orchestra. A designer, in a certain sense, is the conductor of the entire orchestra. The tools are your partners, suppliers, contractors, your main performers. Listen carefully to each instrument, pay attention to the motif and mood, keep everything under control. The more organized you are, the greater the chance that each instrument will play its part brilliantly. 

Design: Jenia Zhданova

Mix expensive and budget materials. Expensive items need a backdrop to stand out, and budget items next to expensive ones will look more expensive. Also, blend old and new, cold and warm, neutral and vibrant, masculine and feminine. Harmony always hides somewhere on the edge because life is not black and white but a complex palette of colors and emotions. Only such interiors are truly alive and sincere.

Do not copy. By doing so, you discredit yourself as a designer, that is, a creator. Copying is the privilege of losers. Your task is to create an idea and provide a step-by-step instruction for its realization.

Design: Jenia Zhданova

Never turn off your internal calculator. When implementing a project, you are spending your client's money. This is a great responsibility—do it wisely.

Design: Jenia Zhданova

Play with color. Even if your clients are fans of neutral tones and fear bright hues, add color in details. Color is the best antidepressant, vitally necessary for all residents of our strip. Bring accessories and decor for fittings, and your clients will definitely appreciate the play of colors and color dialogue.

Design: Jenia Zhданova

Travel. See how others live, study traditions, compare, analyze, draw conclusions, seek answers. Look at the world with wide open eyes, absorb, enjoy, find inspiration in architecture, landscapes, natural phenomena, museums, theaters, and, of course, people.

Value and protect your partners. Seek enthusiasts with sparkles in their eyes, those who won't sleep at night until they find the one and only right solution.

Design: Jenia Zhданova

Make mistakes. Any mistake is primarily invaluable experience. And no matter what others say about learning from others' mistakes, your own are the most valuable.

Design: Jenia Zhданova

Devote yourself completely to your passion. It's like loving without looking back or living as if it were the last day. Money is not the most important thing in any job; far more important is a sense of satisfaction and joy that your work brings to you and those around you, as well as the trace you might leave in history. If what you do doesn't evoke any emotions in you, it's time to think about whether that's the right work for you.

Also read:

• Home Day: How Does Designer Jenia Zhданova Spend Her Day?
  
• "The Impossible Is Possible!": One Day in the Life of a Decorator
  
• 10 Ideas for a Country House You Will Love