Farm Girl to Design Pro: Interior Design Tips & Trends with Joanna Baker

In Episode 73 of Spilling the Title Tea, Ashley sits down with her longtime friend Joanna Baker, an interior design consultant with a true farm-girl foundation and a designer’s eye. Joanna shares how her love for design started with classic TV shows and HGTV, what inspired her to earn a degree in interior design, and how homeowners can avoid the most common decorating pitfalls, especially after buying a new home.

From furniture sizing and paint palettes to staging advice for sellers, budget-friendly upgrades for first-time homeowners, and what trends might define 2026 (including the debated return of brass), this episode is packed with practical, relatable design wisdom that helps people turn a house into a home.

Highlights:

Joanna’s background: growing up on a Berea farm, raising animals, and now raising her own family on a farm with horses and cows.
What sparked her design passion: Designing Women, HGTV obsession, art classes, and eventually a Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in design.
The most common “mistake” homeowners make: struggling to visualize the final look of a room before buying furniture or choosing finishes.
A simple, genius tip: using painter’s tape to outline furniture size and wall décor placement before buying or hanging anything.
How to create a color palette that flows: keep main spaces neutral, then add color through accents like pillows, throws, and art.
Why neutral furniture wins long-term: trends change, but neutral pieces let you update style without replacing expensive items.
How Joanna decides when to refresh her own home: seasonal resets, inspiration from Pinterest/Instagram, texture, and cozy vibes.
The difference between decorating for yourself vs. staging to sell: buyers want clean, neutral, uncluttered spaces they can picture as their own.
Budget-friendly upgrades for first-time homeowners: paint, trim/molding, board-and-batten, peel-and-stick wallpaper, and DIY with YouTube help.
2026 trend talk: modern farmhouse continues, more texture and mixed wood tones, patterns creeping back—and yes, possibly brass returning (cue Ashley’s protest).