House Beautiful May 2012: Designers Share Their Best Home Decorating Tips

Do You Know These 'Secret' Design Tips?

The secret is out. And, by secret we're referring to House Beautiful's latest May 2012 issue, which is all about the decorating tricks that interior designers keep hidden up their sleeves. Filled with insider tips from well-known decorators, the new issue features '101 Designer Secrets' for the home -- ranging from advice that may sound vaguely familiar (Start your living room furniture plan with the best seat in the room and work from there) to surprisingly useful pointers (The perfect amount of space between a mirror and the top of a mantel is 7").

And, in addition to the magazine, House Beautiful also interviewed several designers on camera, including Nick Olsen and Mary McDonald from the Bravo reality show Million Dollar Decorator. But, our favorite clip is the one above of decorator Alexa Hampton, who breaks down how to comfortably seat guests at an eight-person dining table. While we're mostly of the mindset that there are no firmly set rules in decorating, we definitely wish we would've known about this tidbit from Hampton sooner.

To see the more videos featuring designers sharing their tried-and-true decorating tips, head over to housebeautiful.com.

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