Decorate Like Dolly
How to decorate your home in the spirit of Dolly Parton, and what interior design can learn from the queen of authenticity
“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.”
That’s what this little 8x8” wooden painting I have featuring Dolly Parton says. I got it in 2019 as part of my first ever inventory order for my little online shop, Lola & Rose Emporium.
It never sold. It was in my basement for a long time, but not too long ago, I moved it to my guest room/office, and just last weekend, I hung it up in my newly-painted gallery hallway.
Dolly passed just two days later.
Dolly Parton is the human equivalent of all-American apple pie, except I think more people love Dolly than apple pie. She’s always been a part of life here, even if I can’t claim to have been a really dialed-in fan. Dolly just is.
Her death has brought her into the zeitgeist in the most bittersweet way. Dolly serves as a white-hot icon of what it means to be authentic to your very core. She’s also the epitome of love, kindness, acceptance and generosity – all rooted in empathy and authenticity.
I obviously didn’t know her personally, but I don’t think anyone would argue with what I just said.
Dolly knew who she was and where she came from, and she also knew what she wanted and where she was going. Typing that out makes it seem so simple, yet that one sentence pretty much sums up what all of us spend our entire lives seeking!
I was listening to an interview of Dolly’s this week, and she was grinning, talking about how she idolized a bleach-blonde-big-boobied woman in her town, whom her mother called a “tramp.” Dolly said, “Well, I wanna be a tramp when I grow up.”
And then she built an entire identity out of who she wanted to be, and she waivered for no one. She stood on business, and she never had to change her views, beliefs or politics because they were rooted in the values she lived out herself.
It’s admirable, but it’s rare to live this way.
Invite Dolly to Come Inside
Culturally, we’re socialized to drop, diminish and hide the parts of ourselves that make us different and our most authentic selves. If it were socially safe for us normies to dress as audaciously as Dolly, more of us would be doing it!
It’s not just our clothes that don’t match who we are though – it’s our thoughts, our beliefs, our words and our actions – they all add up to an expression, our personalities, yet so many of us feel lonely and unknown even to ourselves.
This might be bold of me to say, but I feel my new guardian angel, Dolly Parton, thinks this is a damn tragedy.
Inside the Home Alchemy Method, my clients and I spend 8 weeks together peeling back layers of built-up personalities inside their homes – we spend one entire week just connecting with the art and décor that feels like “letting your freak flags fly” whatever that means to you.
To me, reflecting on it now, this feels so Dolly. Our homes, even more than our clothes (in my opinion), are powerful mirrors of who we really are. Before we ever leave the house, we wake up in rooms that tell our stories, whether we write them ourselves or let life have its way with what winds up in our homes.
I think Dolly would ask, what do you want your home to be? Then she’d tell you to make it happen.
3 Ways to Decorate Like Dolly
To be clear, I’m not telling you to change your entire house because something is wrong with it the way it is. Everyone has different priorities and seasons, and a home that looks and feels off isn’t because you did something wrong.
It’s just that I think now, more than ever, you do care about what’s in your home. You care about how it looks because you care about how you feel – and that was the lesson Dolly imparted on us when she proudly declared she wanted to be a tramp when she got older.
She thought that woman was beautiful, and she aspired to that beauty. Our homes work the exact same way, only they’re the foundation we lay before ever think about getting dressed in the morning.
1. Find your Tramp (get clear on your style)
This is the first thing we do inside the Home Alchemy Method – I call it finding your North Star. It’s all but impossible to create a home that you love if you don’t even know what you like!
Spend some time visualizing and connecting with things that you genuinely find beautiful – this is the whole “letting your freak flag fly” sentiment in action. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about your home and your style. If you love it, that’s all the approval you need.
2. Set your own rates (spend on what matters to you)
When Dolly said, "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap," I felt that. Her style was, by her own account, "bimbo" — a word historically glued to "cheap." Dolly took that and built something that was, in fact, not cheap to pull off.
Meanwhile the rest of us are digging through H&M for "quiet luxury," buying disposable, mass-produced pieces so we can look like we didn't have to try. We’re doing the whole thing backwards. We spend money to hide effort instead of spending it on things that are actually, unmistakably us.
I try to invest in quality where it counts, but there's nothing better than a $12 thrift-store lamp that's more you than anything in a designer showroom. Once you know your own style, the price tag stops being the point. You can curate a room for $100 or $10,000.
3. Find comfort in your Coat of Many Colors (take pride in your home)
Dolly’s recounted childhood will never not move me to tears. Even as a kid, she knew her home was full of love, which was more valuable to her than things. That kind of self-awareness is rare, really, because we live in comparison culture instead of presence and gratitude for what we have.
When it comes down to it, there are always going to be parts of our lives we want to change. Truly, so, so many people don’t ever pour anything into their homes because they don’t feel like it’s worth it.
They leave the bland gray paint on the walls for years, just because the room’s smaller than the one they wish they had.
They let their little closets overflow, JUST because it’s little. It’s not the walk-in, so it’s not worth care and organization.
But I think Dolly would think exactly what we have is worth love and celebration. I have to agree.
You don’t need 3000 square feet and a designer budget to be obsessed with your own house. You can make the one you have into the best version of itself – and give me one good reason not to!
You can and should patchwork your house into your Home of Many Colors.
The Dolly in Me Recognizes the Dolly in You
We lost a global treasure last week, but I’m grateful that Dolly has been catapulted front and center in the zeitgeist. Celebrating her life, I feel like the grinch whose heart grew three sizes.
I have been thinking so much these past few days about how I can personally be a little more like Dolly every day, and I keep coming back to creating joy.
For me, that looks like helping you finally love (and feel joy) inside your own home. Dolly followed her passions, and she did so with the goal of making people feel joy. She showed us the example in every way.
I can't teach anyone to be Dolly, but I can teach you to stop dimming the parts of your home that are actually you.
My passion is creating beautiful homes with people who want to live in them, which is why I offer a Do-It-Together decorating service called theHome Alchemy Method.
It’s basically style coaching for your house. We spend 8 weeks together “finding your tramp” (inspiration) being “Bimbos” (owning your style), and creating a Coat (Home) of Many Colors that you’ll always be proud of.
The waitlist is open now, and doors will officially open September 2026. If you’re feeling inspired and ready to step into a home that’s authentically you, you can learn more and join the waitlist just below.
I’ve taken so much inspiration from Dolly Parton this past week, and it’s always so damn sad that it takes a death to truly appreciate a life – and hers was one for the ages.
I’m grateful to have been alive at the same time as her, and I think “What Would Dolly Do?” has a nice ring to it.
Thanks for reading, and if you like this blog, be sure to jump on my email list so you don’t miss a thing.
Talk to you soon.
