By Jonny Lupsha, Wondrium Staff Writer
Interior decorating matters more than ever during COVID-19. Wondrium’s new series Decorating like a Designer, with Jonathan Adler hopes to cut the job down to size, one aspect at a time. Renowned designer and potter Jonathan Adler is here to help.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, nearly the whole world has spent a lot more hours at home each week than in the past. Living spaces double as work spaces, some people are seeing their homes during the middle of the day for the first time. Those four walls are starting to look mighty familiar—and even a little claustrophobic.
Living in a practical yet aesthetically pleasing home is more important in a COVID-19 world than ever before, but many of us only learned design knowledge like “warm colors” and “cool colors” or pinning posters to the walls in our dorm rooms. Regardless of your skill level, Decorating like a Designer, with Jonathan Adler will help you to make your home aesthetics more pleasing. Wondrium content developer Susan Lutz revealed what the series entails and how it can put the “living” back in the living room.
Bauhaus Is Not Just a Band
“It’s a very practical course that teaches viewers about basics like color, design, layout, and flow, but it’s also about how to communicate using the language of design,” Lutz said. “It gives viewers a glimpse into the inner workings of Jonathan Adler’s brain, and it’s an amazing place in there.”
Fortunately, Adler makes design accessible to all. He broke into the interior design scene when he sold a collection of pottery to Barneys New York in 1994. Since then, he’s established himself as a potter, a designer, and an author. Lutz said that Adler explains the basic rules of design and how to make any space work for its inhabitants.
“He talks about good design being 99% classical foundation and 1% playful punctuation,” she said. “He shows people the rules of design and encourages viewers to break them, using examples of both how he’s followed the rules and broken them in his own interior design projects.”
In 13 episodes, the series covers practical topics, including how to use colors, layout, flow, and outdoor design. Adler discusses thematic ideas such as how to use branding as a design guide and how to find your personal style.
Beyond a Handle and a Spout
Lutz identified one of her favorite episodes as the one that discusses minimums and maximums in design. “He’s a minimalist product designer and a maximalist interior designer and he shares how those two parts of himself work together and how they’ve changed over time,” she said. “He tells a great story about how he designed teapots. Teapots are the perfect blend of form, function, and fun—three things that he talks about throughout the series.
“So, it’s really practical and specific but he also talks about what makes a good teapot, he describes teapots he’s designed over the years, and then he talks about how they can fit into different kinds of environments.”
It’s apparent that a teapot isn’t really just a teapot. Lutz reflected, “Adler shows how they’re a microcosm of the challenge of the designing process, in general.”
“I will never look at teapots the same way again,” she said.
Decorating like a Designer, with Jonathan Adler is now available to stream on Wondrium.