INSIGHTS + DISCOVERIES

There’s a conversation happening in every creative industry right now, and interior design is no exception. AI is here, and I’d rather talk about it openly than pretend it isn’t sitting right alongside the fabric swatches and finish samples. I’ll be honest with you: We use AI here at Rachel Cannon Limited. It’s useful for research, helps us work through marketing ideas faster than I could on my own, and supports business development. And that’s a good thing because it allows

There’s a version of the design process that a lot of people have experienced and absolutely hated: the one where they feel like they’re managing their designer. Chasing updates. Following up on orders. Wondering what’s happening with the project they’re paying for. Feeling like the whole thing would stall out if they stopped pushing. That experience is unfortunately common. And it has nothing to do with how high-end the designer’s portfolio is. What separates a reactive desi

Two things happen fairly reliably when a client tries to direct the creative process of a project they’ve hired a professional to lead. The work gets more expensive, and it gets worse. Usually, both at the same time. I say this with zero judgment because the impulse makes complete sense. You’ve invested a significant amount of money in your home. You have opinions. You’ve been pinning things for years. Of course, you have ideas about what you want. And a good designer absolut

Let me tell you something that doesn’t come up nearly enough in conversations about hiring an interior designer: their contract expiration date matters just as much as everything else in it. I know that’s not the sexy part of the process. Nobody pins a contract clause to their inspiration board. But understanding where your project scope begins and ends (and what happens when you push past those edges) is genuinely one of the most important things you can know going into a de

Photo: Jackie Haxthausen It’s my birthday month! Every year, I treat this as an excuse to finally pull the trigger on things I’ve been eyeing, restock the things I can’t live without, and add a few things that are purely and unabashedly for fun. This year’s list is a good one. Here are ten things I gifted myself for my birthday, and why I think you should, too! TWEED LADY JACKET 01. Lady Jacket Lady jackets are everywhere for spring, and while most are in the soft, pastel sh

I didn’t plan to spend my birthday month making a case for my own career expansion. That’s not really what this was supposed to be. What it was supposed to be was a simple explanation: here’s why I do all of these things, here’s how they connect, here’s what it means for you. A month of content with a through-line. Tidy, useful, done. What it turned into was something I didn’t entirely expect. As I spent this month leaning so far into my love of color, it became clear that I

In my 21 years of experience as an interior designer, I’ve specified thousands of colors for clients’ homes. Paint, fabric, tile, you name it. And the most common thing I hear when we start a project is some version of “I want color, but I’m scared to mess it up, so maybe we should just do beige.” This breaks my heart every single time because living with color costs exactly the same as living without it. The paint is the same price. The fabric is the same price. The only dif

With the Weiler Plastic Surgery group on their podcast, The Consult Before The Cut Today, I’m giving you the inside scoop on color analysis as an interior designer, color expert, and certified color analysis pro. And, just like when I was a guest on The Consult Before The Cut podcast, I want to start by telling you what color analysis is NOT. It's not a set of rules about what you can and can't wear. It's not me forcing you into colors you hate. And it's definitely not ab

Photo: Jackie Haxthausen People who know me for my career in interior design are sometimes surprised when I start talking about fashion. People who found me through color analysis occasionally wonder what that has to do with their living room. And anyone who discovered me through organizing is probably still figuring out how all three fit together. Here's my short answer: they're the same problem. They've always been the same problem. It just took me three certifications and

Photo: Jackie Haxthausen Wanna know a secret? My favorite color combinations rarely come from paint decks or fabric swatches. I find inspiration in my Tuesday morning coffee runs or the way the vegetables at the farmers' market look radiant next to each other. I have over 40,000 photos on my phone, many of which are color studies I hope to bring forward for design and wardrobe styling for my clients later. My camera roll is basically a very organized color library that I refe

Interior Design: Rachel Cannon Limited Interiors | Photo: Jessie Preza Before I became a certified professional organizer, I hired a team to organize my house. They came in, made everything look beautiful, and essentially hid everything from me in the process. For weeks afterward, I wandered my own home like a stranger. Lightbulbs had always lived in the utility room, but now they were in the pantry. Extra hangers had always hung in my closet, but this team decided they belon

Interior Design: Rachel Cannon Limited Interiors | Photo: Kim Meadowlark | Stylist: Amanda Smith I’ve been thinking a lot about how organizing and design are the same thing. In my latest Journal entry , I explained that when I design a primary closet, I’m designing for Tuesday mornings when everyone’s running late. When I plan a baking station, I’m mapping it to where your hand naturally reaches. It’s all about building spaces that hold up under real life.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Bu

Interior Design: Rachel Cannon Limited Interiors | Photo: Jessie Preza When people hear that my team and I are certified professional organizers, they usually assume we’re coming to their house with label makers and matching bins to reorganize their pantry every few months. That's not what we do here. Traditional organizing services are helpful, but they're also temporary. Someone comes in, makes everything look beautiful, and two weeks later, you're back to searching for the

Once upon a time, I was a chronic overpacker. I’d convince myself I needed options, backups, “just in case” outfits, and shoes for every possible scenario. Then I’d pay $35 each way to check a bag I’d inevitably overpacked. That all changed when an airline employee told me (gravely), “Never check a bag,” after I did, in fact check a bag which was subsequently missing for about 24 hours. For my trip to London last month, I stuck to my preferred packing method: one carry-on, on

PART ONE: The Weekend Itinerary The Art of Arriving We landed in London on Friday, with the Design Destination market kickoff on Monday looming on our calendars, but my philosophy is that you can’t design spaces inspired by history and culture if you never stop to actually experience them. So we started the way any reasonable design team would: staring up at Big Ben like tourists, walking the Thames as the city lights came on, and ending the night over dinner in Soho. It’s

Interior Design: Rachel Cannon Limited Interiors | Photo: Kim Meadowlark Every January, trend predictions flood the internet like clockwork. Most of them are created by an industry that wants to sell you something. You just painted your dining room green? Congratulations, fire engine red is back. (I called that in last year's predictions, by the way. I was right.) Those cabinets you painstakingly painted over? Turns out you should have left them stained. Your skinny jeans can