7 Leanne Ford Tricks I'm Stealing to Nail the “Sloppy Chic” Home Trend

I love to continually update my home, swapping out outdated styles for the latest spring home trends here and there, maybe investing in some new cleaning tech or browsing stores like West Elm and Crate & Barrel for new décor. Crate and Barrel is a favorite online hangout of mine thanks to its star collaborator decorator Leanne Ford. I’ve stanned the Pennsylvania-born designer, HGTV star and Feel Free magazine creator since 2016 when she made a TV show called Restored by the Fords with her builder/contractor brother Steve. Since then she’s flipped houses while making more TV, publications and not incidentally, renovated a 1906 cabin in such a cool way, it was snatched up for $200,000 over ask by Lana del Rey.

In Ford’s first-ever solo book The Slow Down: For the Love of Home, the Pittsburgh native describes her Covid-era decision to move from California to her home state, with husband and preschool-age daughter in tow, and renovate a large home in her trademark funky, imperfect style. I have to say, lately, I’ve been following tips from Leanne Ford in sprucing up my own home. Here are my top seven takeaways from her style.

Ford loves a reno project, but she’s not someone who is going to just smooth everything out with drywall and laminate flooring. Instead, she likes to leave rustic wood beams visible, highlight rough plaster or paneling on walls and for heaven's sake, not worry over a perfectly made bed. (Design lady, you are singing my song.)

In The Slow Down, Ford describes how she reused original hardware from her Pennsylvania kitchen, but didn’t follow the usual rule of kitchen (or bath) matchy-matchy metal sourcing. Today brass, black and stainless all play nicely together and add a homey and layered look to the kitchen.

Large mirrors are a way to create the illusion of more space as well as amplify light—and Ford believes in carefully arranging them so that they will reflect your most precious objects (and people) in a room.

This woman is a marvel with a can of white paint. Walls, floors and antique furniture are all improved with whitewashes or full-on coats of white paint—and she’s not one to worry if a few chips or scratches form on the surface. Somehow, her interplay of complementary white paints never look soiled, and instead brighten up whole homes.