Stylish London interior designer Rita Konig shares her expertise at a decorating workshop in Washington this month. With her NYC workshop already sold out, this one is not to be missed.

London-based Rita Konig grew up surrounded by great taste. Her mother is the legendary interior designer, Nina Campbell. But Rita wasn’t planning on becoming a designer. She started out writing about interiors for magazines and the highly successful book Domestic Bliss before ultimately joining “the trade.”

Rita has been decorating houses for the past 15 years, both in London and the United States. and has been a columnist since 2000 when she started her writing career with the column ‘Rita Notes’ in British Vogue. She also wrote a column for the Saturday Telegraph Magazine, then for Harpers Bazaar in the U.S. While living in the States between 2005 and 2012, she wrote for domino magazine, shopping different cities around the country.

Konig has been a regular columnist for House & Garden and is the European editor for the New York Times T Magazine. After years of being asked advice by friends and acquaintances, Rita decided to share her knowledge of decorating through workshops. The full day workshop being held in the town of Washington on October 17 promises to be full of practical information and insightful tips. We caught up with Rita before her trip to Connecticut and got the scoop on her background, as well as lessons learned:

You loved art as a child—when did you know that you would be an interior designer?

Not until I was asked to do my first job. It was something that I tried to avoid and after the first job I did was such a fiasco, I swore I would never do it again. But I did! That first job and the disastrous experience with the builders did stand me in good stead and taught me MANY lessons!

How did living in the United States influence your work?

It has given me so many resources that now back in England are more unusual that the ‘go to’ people that designers here use.  It also lightened my palette a lot. The light in America is so different to England, and funnily enough, the light across America is so different. I found decorating in New York, Chicago, and Florida to be interesting as colours looked SO different in each place. I love painted floors which is something I definitely brought home from the States.  I ADORE American fabrics and, most of all, the wallpapers.

I think it is the use of traditional things. I have learnt from her the joy of shopping and the joy of companies that really produce excellent quality. I think that has been the lasting influence—that quality is key. Getting rid of stuff for your home is very hard so you don’t want to waste money on stuff you are going to want to get rid of. Go a little slower, if you have to, and get the best you can—that way you will build a house that is filled with good stuff that will move and grow with you. I hate the “chuck out and start over” mentality—it is so expensive and it is so hard to keep finding all that stuff over and over again. Sorry, excessive use of the word stuff!

In addition to designing interiors, you also write about interior design. Have you always enjoyed writing? 

I do enjoy writing and I literally started as a letter writer and that is really the way I write now. I have always written my columns as though iI am writing to a friend.

Would you say that your taste is less fussy than most British designers?

I am not sure… I would say that it might be more individual. I think that most successful designers are more formulaic than me and probably (sensibly) buy more furniture through the showrooms than antique shops. It is certainly less time consuming and more profitable.

Do you have a favorite room you like to decorate? 

I suppose drawing rooms or little sitting rooms. I have always been a very social animal and I love the creation of a room where fun and chat with friends will be.

What are you drawn to? Color? Fabric? Textures? Pattern? Shapes? 

All of it, I am most drawn most to the life that will be lived in a room, that is always my starting point and from there these other things fall into place. I suppose palette is also the other thing that comes to life first for the plan.

Is there a common decorating mistake?

Too much decorating/design. Quite a lot of a good room is the stuff that comes to you and that you own rather than the stuff that is ‘designed’ to be there.

Where do you begin when working with a new client? 

Chatting with them about how they like to live and I want them to tell me very quickly what they don’t like, especially of the stuff I am showing them. It is as informative as the stuff they do like and they should never be embarrassed or fearful of hurting my feelings.

How has your style evolved over the years?

I suppose I have learnt from clients. I have one client in New York who is very minimal compared to me and it is always interesting to have your instincts challenged.

What can’t you live without?

Pressed sheets.

What can we expect from your workshop? 

To get the lid lifted on decorating a house. To be guided through the pitfalls and around the parts that iI think people find hard. To be encouraged to find your own way rather than follow any decorating dictats and I think that the workshop really helps people with that, finding their own way rather than leaving trying to remember how to follow my regime particularly. I also try to give as many resources as possible.