How to Style with Pattern & Colour

How to display your objects: Arranging a sideboard

with GABBY DEEMING — Interiors stylist, former Creative Director of Decoration for House & Garden, founder of Daydress.

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Discover how to arrange a sideboard to create depth and visual interest.

From the Lesson Workbook

How to Display Your Objects: Arranging a Sideboard

Discover how to arrange a sideboard to create depth and visual interest. Gabby takes you through her decisions in styling the sideboard in her kitchen.

Styling the Sideboard

The main problem I saw with the space was that it needed a surface and something to give height behind the dining table. There was nothing to give the picture support. If you are pulling in a sideboard, lamps are always a great choice.

The Importance of Height

The importance of having things at the right level cannot be overstated. You've got the height of the room, and you want visual interest right at the top. As you look around the room, you will see a lot of things at height. The candle sconces are at the mid-level, and the sideboard is on the lower level.

Pulling Colours from Artwork

I pulled the colours from the picture and repeated them on top of the sideboard. I've combined loose floral artwork with more graphic, bold objects on the table.

Gabby's Collection of Things

I have a lot of silly objects that I enjoy adding to compositions. They may contribute a flash of colour or a nice shape, and I enjoy what they bring to the composition.

Creating a Satisfying Arrangement

You need to buy a few decorative objects. Don't purchase them just for the sake of purchasing them. From photos to objects, the most satisfying arrangements have something that means something to you, or has a use.

Don't Get Too Finicky About Arranging

Arranging is ever-changing and ever-evolving. You don't need to get too finicky about how you arrange things. This process of arranging is about learning what you like.

Design Notes - Gabby's Sideboard

An Ikea sideboard carcass with a Superfront panel

Viola Lanari

Painted parchment shade

Colfax and Fowler tray

Fornasetti candle

Papier Mâché Malevich Guggenheim Figures

Choosing Keeping notebooks.

The Rattan Turkic Lamp from Soane

Miranda Sinclair paper flowers

Deruta ceramics are made in the Italian region of Umbria. The region is well-known for its painted tin-glazed earthenware. Similar Deruta pottery rooster jug scan be bought on Etsy, eBay and other secondhand websites.

Splatter Oval Platter from The Conran Shop

*Supefront offers a wide range of door and cover designs to allow you to customise your IKEA furniture.

Superfront

Who are Superfront?

The Swedish company Superfront specialises in providing doors, cover panels, and other elements for customising Ikea furniture.

Superfront sell products for Ikea base cabinets. With Superfront, you can customize your Ikea furniture. Their products are compatible with the following Ikea base cabinets: Bestå, Metod, Pax, and Faktum kitchen base cabinets (no longer available at Ikea). They prefer solid, natural, untreated, beautifully patinated materials, such as brass, copper, vegetable-tanned leather, stone and wood. You may be able to create something unlike anything else!

How it Works

Superfront have a detailed guide on their website about which frame to purchase. Although purchasing both the fronts, sides, and tops from them is highly recommended, ultimately, it is your choice. Superfront also make handles, knobs and feet that help to elevate your simple Ikea furniture. You can visit their website here.

Other Websites

  • Custom Fronts focus on IKEA kitchen redesign. Custom Fronts focus on IKEA kitchen redesigns. Each of their fronts is crafted in Sussex and comes from an FSC-certified producer. They use eco-friendly paint, colour, and oils, ensuring their products are not manufactured at the cost of the planet.
  • Plykea supply doors, drawer fronts, cover panels, and worktops for IKEA's Metod kitchen cabinet range. Each item is created to order using CNC technology, which means that any unusual requests can be accommodated. They typically manufacture and deliver your order 6 to 8 weeks after you finalize the list of required items.
  • A simple cabinet option, according to Noremax, can help you create an incredible canvas for your kitchen. This design can then be enhanced with incredible features to create a stunning centre hub for your home. Designed to fit into the hulls of IKEA furniture, these fronts offer maximum versatility. The company knows how difficult it is to deal with such a large number of screws when installing new cabinet doors, so simple instructions for installation are provided.

Gabby's Kitchen

Design Notes

Base unit and sink from Ikea

Oak worktop from Worktop Express

Shelf brackets were made by The Good Shelf Company

Sideboard

The white sideboard is comprised of the 'Besta' TV bench from Ikea.

The sideboard doors are from Superfront in the 'Golden' design

Supefront brass handles in 'Pluto'

Superfront 'Angles Low' brass legs

Gabby's Hallway

Design notes

Japanese washi wrapping paper from Choosing Keeping is used to cover the hallway. 'Katazome Silk Screen Print, Pink and Green Mountains'. The paper sheets are trimmed and pasted on the wall.

Textiles, Cushions and Comfort: Styling Your Sofa

A well-styled sofa instantly adds a layer of cosiness. Discover how to style your sofa and add the finishing touches to your living room with Gabby's help.

Cushions are where practical and decorative can really meet. You want a mix of sizes, shapes, and patterns. Cushions can serve both a practical need and balance all the decorating ideas. It's important to work out the size of a cushion you want to use.

Tips for Arranging Cushions

I like to have some oversized cushions with a nice mix of heights for an overall look that feels quite relaxed. Mixing up the sizes really helps with that. A great place to start is buying a load of cushion pads before you even have the covers, buying a few sizes of each.

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Very good tutorial from a professional garden...

I have subscribed to access all the courses so have watched one on interior design and this one with Butter Wakefield who specialises in small garden design. She ...

Louise Brown

Apr 10, 2026

Time spent well

I love CreateAcademy. I came in for the gardening and floristry courses, but am also watching an interior design one at present. And the photography course is an ...

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What a great investment

What a great investment, I have learned such a lot from the first three courses. My evenings have gone from not being able to find anything that captured my imagi...

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Mar 30, 2026

I loved this course with Amanda\u2026

I loved this course with Amanda Lindroth! Her approach to decorating is so relaxed and she makes it feel attainable. She explains the reasons behind her decisions...

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Mar 27, 2026

Gabby Deeming

Your Instructor

Gabby Deeming

Interiors stylist, former Creative Director of Decoration for House & Garden, founder of Daydress.

One of the UK’s leading figures on all things interiors, Gabby Deeming has spent the past 15 years pulling together beautiful schemes as Creative Director of Decoration at House & Garden. Her route into styling began in her early 20s, when Gabby fell in love with textiles, print and colour after being exposed to fresh and exciting interiors during a year living abroad in France. Gabby started her career at House & Garden shortly after, honing her personal taste and quickly becoming known as a driving force within the magazine for bringing high-end interior design to a wider audience, championing practical, achievable and beautiful styling. In 2017, after taking a short sabbatical in India, Gabby followed her passion for patterned textiles to launch Daydress - an ethically-minded fashion line celebrating block printed fabrics.

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