How To Steal HGTV Alum Sabrina Soto's Home Style
Choosing whether to redecorate your house often comes down to budgeting. Fortunately, interior designers like Sabrina Soto have plenty of advice on remodeling our living spaces without breaking the bank. As a television personality on HGTV and an entrepreneur, Soto is known for her budget-friendly yet innovative designs that never fail to bring a pop of color. "It is my belief that any space you live in can (and should) be a representation of who you are, regardless of budget," she wrote in her website biography. "Each of us have a unique personality and set of experiences, and our spaces should reflect that. Embracing who we are and where we come from is the only way we can truly begin to design for ourselves."
Some of Soto's top design tips include always having a design goal in sight, starting the design process in layers, selecting heavy pieces first, and remembering how essential accents and décor are to a space, shares Chairish. With this in mind, here are some key ways to renovate different areas of the home using Soto's advice and the inspiration of her personal Los Angeles abode.
Backyard oasis
Our outdoor areas have a vital role in creating a healthy home. This space encompasses many uses, like relaxing in the sun, letting the kids out to play, and hosting Sunday grill-outs. In a YouTube video for World Market, Soto dives into the critical components of our outdoor spaces. One of the big points she drives home is how essential it is to choose functional furniture, which helps to create an area that can be transformed to accommodate different settings. She suggests using drum stools that can be used at seats and side tables, or keeping extra pillows nearby for added seating when needed.
Regarding incorporating colors and décor, Soto also recommends laying the floor with a vibrant area rug and accessory pillows and blankets. Regardless of your palette choices, you can't go wrong with pairing colorful elements against larger neutral pieces of furniture, while minor additions like table trays and string lights will help tie it all together.
Kitchen Flare
Many people feel that the kitchen is the heart of the home, where warm meals are served and family dinner ensues. With such a large amount of time spent in the kitchen, creating an uplifting space will make all the difference in your daily mood. In her Los Angeles home, Soto doesn't fall short of this with her colorful choices against white kitchen cabinets and gray quartz countertops. Photos of the kitchen shown on HGTV highlight the mint green stools sitting at the island and the funky yellow light fixtures hanging over the dining room table.
Soto also shows her clients that you can repurpose old furniture for an entirely new look. Her dining room table, for example, which once featured a wooden top, now holds a glass surface. Just this small change is just one way to dramatically change the way light reflects in the room, giving off an entirely new vibe.
Family room fun
Family rooms, or living rooms, are often diverse areas due to the amount of use it receives daily. While many spaces in the home have designated uses — kitchens for cooking, bedrooms for sleeping, and bathrooms for hygiene — family rooms take whatever is leftover. Due to its many functions, it is only fitting that Soto finds the family room as an opportunity to mix and match. Featured on HGTV, the interior designer's family room features a melody of different materials with her metal and leather accent chairs, gray upholstered couch, and wooden waterfall coffee table.
If you are one of those parents who feels like they can never keep their living room clean, remember that it is okay for spaces to look lived in, and this doesn't equal messy. Keep board games on the shelves next to family photos with statement frames, let school books stack nicely on the coffee table, and tie all these loose ends together with fun mixes of plants and wall art.
Bedroom elegance
The great thing about our bedrooms is that these are one of the few spaces not designed for our children, in-laws, or any other guests we invite into our homes — they are for us alone. This personal space is ideal for decompressing after a long day and preparing for the one that lies ahead. For Soto, this means engulfing herself in a sophisticated yet vibrant space that incorporates a gray upholstered sleigh bed with bright blue bedding, per HGTV.
Once again, bringing in her budget-friendly touch, she has added a vintage Turkish rug and DIYd her old nightstands. "They were really banged up," she told People magazine. "I had a little slab of marble left over, so I cut it to the exact dimensions of my nightstand, and now they have a marble top." Since clean and sophisticated spaces tend to feel flat, Soto added dimension with sculptured wall art and bedside light fixtures.
Nursery nesting
Like family rooms, a child's nursery will experience many activities, from nap times to diaper changes to afternoon playdates. For Soto's seven-month-old daughter, HGTV shows her choice of white modular bookshelves to hold toys and accessories. One thing Soto particularly loves about the shelving choice is that it can grow with her daughter and serve multiple uses over the years. The white faux sheepskin rug is another piece that will still be loved farther down the road, too.
Since color is very stimulating for infants and aids in visual development, nurseries and children's rooms allow ample opportunity to experiment with vivid palettes and fun shapes. Soto used rich shades of pink to contrast with the white crib and glider. A gold elephant lamp sits on a hot pink flower table, which correlates perfectly with the colorful overhead light shade. Peel-and-stick wallpaper is another accessible and lively accessory to consider. "You can use it in bookcases, inside drawers, or going up your stairs," Soto told People magazine. "You could also make it a big piece of art by framing it."