10 Reasons Your Home Feels Unfinished

0:00Hi, everyone. Welcome to Dear Alice. If you guys are new here, we are the designers behind Alice Lane. We're an interior design firm and we spent the last 20 years designing custom homes. remodels doing interiors and every single week we share design principles mistakes we've made gosh and insider knowledge that we use every single day with our own clients and we just wanted to pay all of this information forward we shouldn't be the only one that knows these things we gotta not gatekeep no and pay it forward and we love to talk and we always say if you want to learn something talk to a woman we just we get all everything out and we need to say while we feel today we're going to be discussing 10 reasons why your home feels unfinished and how fix them i love this came from a listener question i think so right did it come from a question it sure did okay you gotta own it you betcha you gotta oh you gotta stick the landing on that one okay okay i believe this came from a listener question i just spent all this money i got all this nice furniture but why doesn't it feel finished and there are key things when we started to list out what makes a room feel finished there are some really key takeaways i bet you can walk around your house and employ some of these and feel like your home feels finished.

1:08It feels like you. And of course it will evolve because that's what homes should do over time, but it'll evolve correctly. And you'll know all the things that are missing that you can implement. Absolutely. This is for everyone, not just the interior designers out there. You're all going to find something on this list that you can implement. And maybe this is the one thing that's been missing. So the first one is lack of color. Oh man. Suze, you recently went to a consultation in. Sure did. For a home that's been done for a decade and they're just not feeling it. Yeah. And it was white on white with some more white.

1:39With some gray and clear. With some gray and clear. You bet. Mixed in there. Let's tell them what color does for a space. She came to us and she just doesn't feel like me and doesn't feel finished. And so when we were looking at the pictures and walking the space with her, even on the first FaceTime consultations, it's really just lackluster. There was nothing there. What are your favorite colors? And she started to send pictures of warm tones things that just they weren't necessarily bright red it wasn't a primary scheme everything else was warm and we know we're kind of leaving that the old the white the gray the anemic interiors that we had for that last you know from that decade until covid hit and then we all felt this mad loss you know that we're just like we need soul in our homes and color does that and so she wasn't a crazy bright person as far as primary tones or anything but she wanted to feel warmth and so we started to introduce warm woods cognacs deeper velvets that had hue that could still play with a lot of her successful decisions that weren't all bad there were still some good she didn't want to throw a baby out with the bath water but the thing that we did was we introduced color she was actually going through a remodel so we proposed this idea of painting the pantry an actual color and it was a risk for it but it's been fabricated installed She said for the first time, this feels like my house.

2:54It's feeling finished because there's color. Yeah. Even some of the neutral stuff she kept looks so much better because it's bouncing off of a color. You know, be it the icy blue in the pantry with some of the warm textures that we included to the veining on the countertop to the new pillows that we introduced. But color, you can implement it in these small ways, but it's such a payback. Yeah. The rugs too. All of her rugs were so void of any soul and color. And so we did, we pulled all of them out, even getting them out of there felt better just because they were gray and they were white and black.

3:28But we actually added warmth in there, the warm tones, the cognacs, the art. We changed out art that had more color. Anyway, all these steps of adding more color, how we could, it felt like her for the first time. yeah that's one way we added color and we're still even now we're stepping back and okay this room adjacent what should we do in there and i'm just i think if we just switch out the pillows and then when you're ready we can do the window treatments that'll feel good your your base pieces are good but we just need to finish it off and make it talk to the rest of the house that does feel right yeah i think so many people are stuck in this space a lot of you can probably relate to this and maybe it's just too many neutrals right we were kind of in that space where the floors were blonde.

4:06The fabrics were linen in color. So everything's sort of living in these beige notes, these biscuit colors. So bringing in a new rug is going to be really easy for a lot of people. That's the biggest piece of art in the room. And then like Sue said, getting your pillows to sort of speak to that, bringing in artwork. A lot of people don't even have artwork. Or if they do, it's too small or they're just missing a lot of places where they could really evoke a lot of mood into the space. In that example, we painted the pantry. Paint is one of the biggest impact, least expensive things you can do to add that soul and a finishing touch to room.

4:42I tell you what, rooms do not feel better than when it has a fresh coat of paint, especially in color. If you want your room to feel finished, to give back to you and whoever's living there, paint it. Paint it a color. Every time that I have done that in my own home, in clients' homes, those are the rooms that people love the most. And you're like, what's your favorite space to go to? The library, the powder room, the dining room. It's the spaces that have an emotion, a feeling. They have saturation and hue. And I love that your client did it in the pantry because that's probably the ones, let's start here and see how I feel afterwards.

5:14And then I guarantee that leads to different rooms. I know. Yeah. It's a gateway. Yeah, exactly. Pantry is a gateway drug. A hundred percent. I love it. Second thing that people don't know why their house doesn't feel finished is window treatments. They don't have window treatments. And sometimes at the end of a build, they're feeling fatigued on spending more money because they're like, let's go ahead and invest in the landscape. We'll do window treatments down the road. And so maybe they get window coverings, which are your blinds, which will give you privacy if you're taking a shower or trying to sleep at night, but they don't actually get the draperies or those Romans, those topical treatments that make the house feel soft.

5:52And it makes the home feel finished. It also helps absorb sound. If you feel like your house isn't finished, it's probably because you're missing window treatments. I go into homes that are decades old or a decade old, and they still don't have anything on their windows. You stop seeing it too after a while. So this is something if you've lived in your home for a while and you don't have it, try and imagine it with. We will say even when we finish a house, we'll install the furniture and that window treatment layers, the last one thing to go in, right? And we will hold a year plus to make sure that the window treatments are in before we take a picture because it makes a difference how you live in it, but just for even the pictures that we're trying to capture of what the space feels like and it feels better with window treatments.

6:37It feels finished and it adds a tangible softness and or to a space. I don't know how else to say it. I'm going to say too, if you have not put up window treatments, and let's say you've been there for five to 10 years, start with one room. Oh yeah. Do it. When you walk in there afterwards, you're going to be like, I just moved in. That's how it's going to feel. I've experienced myself a hundred percent. I know my bedroom. This is the key point where we added color and window treatments. And I tell you, it feels like the most finished room in the house because it's so tended to, it's been paid so much attention to.

7:10And it was so choreographed with all the color. And it is my favorite room in the house. I cannot wait to go to bed and I will stay there for a long time. When I wake up, I'm like, no, but look at that beautiful caviar light up there. It's so pretty. But it's the one room that I have panels. Again, I have little kids. I get little kids with three priests. Sometimes it's a pain, but you train them and do it in your room. Have that softness in a space, you know, start there. And I think that that's actually really fun. I think advice, because I think so often we leave our spaces to the very end.

7:42As you're finishing your home, give yourself that gift and do window treatments in your home. You have the blackouts. Now you're going to actually give yourself some window covering to add that softness that you deserve and the room deserves it. Definitely. The third one is kind of like window treatments to me, but obviously just, it does the same exact thing when you hang art in your home and just talked about this a little bit earlier, but it just, it brings life to it and expression. I think it's a great way to infuse some of yourself into your home or others in your family. When I started hanging art in my house it was probably even a few months after we moved in got some stuff framed and i felt like we're finally here this is us yeah yeah it feels really permanent when you install something using a nail on the wall but i know when i've gone in to do my daughter's dorm room or my other daughter just moved into a home a year ago i was like we're making your bed and i'm putting art on your walls i have my nails i have my hammer i've got art with me we're getting it on the wall because it will feel like your space.

8:41So many people aren't going to do it in temporary housing. They don't want to put a hole in the wall or they're going to lean things up. And it just never really feels like anybody. You've got to put stuff on the walls. And art is a great expression. You can make art yourself. You can start collecting things. The art can be images, favorite photos of you, your friends, whatever, but it is proof of life. And that is one of the biggest things that people just don't do and they need to do it. I would say art hangers too. The hardware for it is just the tiniest. They're two nails, the tiniest little nails too.

9:13Yeah. With the little hook on the end for any weight, you can get one for 25 pounds, 25 pounds, put a huge thing up if you need to. It looks really, really fantastic and it will feel personal once you get the art on the walls. And I will say for most clients, even the ones, obviously the ones that are building these massive homes majority of them haven't got the art bug yet they haven't caught it and so picking out the art it becomes the hardest thing you know and trying to understand what do you want to have on your wall so if that sounds like you i think you just need to start exploring you need to figure this out because that is what's holding your house back it's not having the right art on your walls and the right art is right because you love it and it makes sense for you and it makes sense for the room it's a real study even when we moved into our house before we started remodeling anything We painted the place white and I started putting up art.

10:00It wasn't mine. It was still Barbara Parks. And I needed this space to fill out. And it felt good with nothing else in it. Even no furniture. I'm just like, just get art up. That's awesome. Then it started to have a pulse. And you'd stopped looking at some of the other things that weren't done yet. Because there's art on the walls. And that speaks so loudly for a home. That there might be projects that you haven't finished yet. But the art. If the art is great. If you're throwing a rug up on the wall. If you're paying attention to what you love and doing something opinionated. that will speak volumes for who you are and for what the house could be.

10:31I love it. I think this next one, it's occasional pieces. I think this looks like you hired a designer. Yeah. Nobody puts occasional pieces in their house, but the designers. And so I'm just telling you right now, if you're out there, if you'll look for these little iconic pieces, these are the little tiny side tables. They're the interesting chair that's the size of a dining chair that has really beautiful fretwork in the back. It's carved. It's got a lion's paw for the foot. It's a little teeny tiny table that's marble that's only big enough to hold one drink. It's these little occasional pieces that feel like jewelry, peppered throughout the room that make you look like a collector, and nobody buys them.

11:10In fact, they usually don't even buy side tables. It's usually two sofas in a room, no tables. So once you get the tables in there, and then you start to get the little details in, you're this fine furniture collector. You're interesting. You have stories to tell. The room looks fabulous. It looks finished. Yeah, I'll say this. We just got back from a photo shoot in that Odessa Desert Oaks project. And Homegirl's been collecting things over the past year since we installed all the big pieces. And those pieces are what set it apart. Yeah. All the little nuances, just that last 15 % is so critical to make it feel finished and to make it feel personal.

11:45And honestly, it's like the sculpture sitting on the ground. It's the cool little chairs that isn't the, you know, it's not the Barker lounger that your husband was wanting. It is the stuff that you just can't take your eyes off of. It gives room shape. It gives the room memory points. It's iconic. It's interesting. And I cannot say enough about how important occasional pieces are to finishing a room off. Yeah. They'll be your favorite pieces. They're the thing that you can carry under your arm when you go antique shopping. Yeah. There's no reason not to have them. You can open your trunk and stick it in there.

12:15You can hunt it, kill it, bring it home with you. Put it in your luggage. You can put it in the luggage, guys. Yeah. That's the good stuff. Yeah. Or carry it on the plane. Put it in that little closet. Those are our favorite trips. It's like, what are we going to go rescue? Let's go somewhere and rescue some stuff. Yeah. Get that stuff. The occasional pieces. Next one is lack of side tables. I hinted at that a little bit before, but nothing's worse than when you go in to do a consultation. I can't figure out why my house doesn't feel done. I got the furniture. I got the set. I got the love seat and the sofa and the chair and a half.

12:46Weird. It feels like, I can't remember what episode it was. I was just trying to think of it within the last two or three months. But we were looking at photos of a room like before and after. That room just looked like they were storing furniture in it. Yes. But then you bring in the occasional pieces and the side tables. Yeah. And it looks put together. Someone lives there, you know, rather than we just have stuff in storage there. That's our catch-all room. Side table is really huge lift. And I don't think people pay enough attention to them. Yeah. Not only is it a hard service for you to set your drinks down on and kind of break up all the upholstery to kind of give it the cheekbones of the space.

13:20but it's also to house the lamp the lamp gets to sit on the table it's not finished why doesn't my room feel finished once you get a table that then allows you to get a lamp or a small occasional little spot table you know over here by the chair then you're going to get a floor lamp to bask some light on that anyway all these little layers that graduate height and graduate different materiality that's what finishes a room guys it's even harder even working with our design teams and things when all the big upholstery's pull them it's great no context yet let's start pulling the tables let's pull the lamps because once we know what those things are those are almost heroic then i know what needs to kind of be more subdued or raise up to be more of a hero yeah because they all should talk to each other yes well said next up was lamps actually oh man yeah graduates lamp your table's gonna hold your lamp yeah lack of lamps and not having the right bulb temperatures is not gonna make your room feel finished you've got to get lamps in my brother loves to tease me that we've We did his home.

14:18There's lamps. He's never put light bulbs in them or plugged them in. At least they're serving as sculpture, I guess, and adding interest to the room. I need to go over there with a pack of bulbs and some extension cords. Amazon some to him. I should. I should. He won't believe what will happen when he turns those on. You get lighting at different levels. It's so flattering. Your room's actually going to be prettiest just with those lamps on. It's going to be most interesting, and everybody's going to look the most beautiful. Let's talk about bulb temp. $2 ,700. 100 yeah you don't need to go above that in a lamp in my opinion and actually when you're buying them buy multiple packs so that anytime somebody puts a bulb in it's the right temperature yeah do not buy one do not buy one pack because guess what your husband's going to go to the store and he's going to get the most bang for his buck and he's going to get the three the four thousand oh yeah yeah and and the voltage is going to be crazy a daylight weird temp on it yeah and then you're going to have all that going on in the ceiling in your cans and then these guys are going to be trying to be glowy and then pretty soon it's just an oh it looks the room looks terrible yeah and on your actual lamps you're just looking for soft warm white that's what you're looking for your 60 your 40 whatever candescent like it can hold it's led but you're looking for warm look for warm white don't look for daylight don't look for any of those other ones you look terrible is closer to your face than your lamplight you want to look good you want to look really good sitting down on your sofa and having that lamp shine on your face.

15:46That's the look that you want. You want warm light. You want to look like a baby angel. You're going for 2700 Kelvin. And at night, there's nothing more relaxing than just having the glow on. You don't want to flick those lights on. That's when I'm trying to decompress. Your kids need to quiet down. You've had a long, hard day. Fill those lamps on. Dim them if you can. Yeah, exactly. Do yourself a favor. Great tip. Okay, let's talk about too small of lighting this makes a room feel like it's not finished when all you have are the boob lights the flush mounts that came with the house such a bummer oh and then they put the boob light on your vaulted ceiling gosh dang it nothing makes a house not feel like it's yours or finished that was just a builder trying to get the job done by going to home depot or lowe's or wherever sold those in an eight pack and just sticking them all over and calling it lighting he was passing inspection that's what he was doing he was passing inspection those are there is a placeholder for you to go in and buy the chandeliers and buy the pendants in the kitchen and buy an actual beautiful fixture for your bedroom that boob light isn't meant to stay that's a placeholder that's how I think and I will say I've walked into enough homes where even ones that have been designed designed and the chandelier it's a massive great room and the chandelier is so small it's always too small it's so small it's always hung way too high not enough chain and they're just, why doesn't it feel finished?

17:07Well, you need a solid eight feet of chain there. It just needs to be taken down. You need a new light. That will make your space feel finished. And it gets, just like a lamp does to your face, it gets it more to human perspective. It's funny because when you mount a light too high, people don't even really notice the volume and the architecture because the light's too high that I don't even look up there because it's going to hurt my neck. You want it to be more down at human scale so my eye can grab it and then graduate and understand what the architecture is doing, the vaults, the windows, the window treatments you just added in.

17:37You got to drop the light because all that is like a composition and needs human scale reference. I'm just going to say something really drastic. I love it. Go. I think if you've just purchased a home, you should plan on replacing all the lighting. You're probably going to keep the cans because those are a gift with purchase and they're countersunk into your ceiling. But just plan on at some point replacing every light within the house. You're probably going to be disappointed with whatever's there. You're going to keep it until you've moved in and you're furnishing, you get the windows covered and everything else, but eventually you're just going to plan on replacing it.

18:09I haven't been in very many homes where good decisions were made by way of lighting. How many of the lights have you kept in your home that came with it? Zero. Zero, yeah. I can't think of very many people that keep the lights. I've said this before, even before I could afford to replace each one of them, just get that thing off, get that boob light out of the hallway. I'd rather have a loose bulb. And you did. And I did. I just looked like Einstein. I don't know. It was just brilliant. But it was better than looking at their bad decisions and having to live with it. It was embarrassing. Take it down.

18:36Strip the place. I'm out because it made me so unhappy because I know better. And so do you because you're listening to this podcast. Exactly. You know better. Take it down. The next one is no hardware on cabinets. And I see this a lot in builder grade cabinets. There are companies out there that just make standardized cabinet sizes. And you can go out there, you know, pick 10 boxes and Lego up a kitchen. And none of them come with hardware. so they have that little design detail on the edge of the door and that's you stick your fingers behind and pry open that door or drawer. That's painful. And it's an over mount cabinet.

19:07Yes. So you just reach behind the lip and pull it open. Exactly. You guys, did you know you could put a knob on that? 100%. Yep. And it will look like you have a more custom kitchen. That will make your kitchen feel finished. And I would say that's probably something most people, especially if you're doing a knob, could do on their own. Yeah. A pull is a little bit harder because you're dealing with two holes. You got to figure that out. You have to measure center to center on that one. You got to make a jig or something. Or just be really good with your measurements. But yeah, knobs, I think anyone could do.

19:38And honestly, not that expensive, especially for what it gives you, what it's paying you back. Yeah, it's a wide range. And so you don't have to be ridiculous as far as get something you love. That'll help anything that you can do that feeds that as far as you're obsessed with it and you get to put it in your house, that will make it feel finished. those little things will make it feel finished so understand what is your passion project in this house if it's lighting go hog on the lighting and start to implement that to start to figure out what are the absences as we're talking about all these things too small of rugs oh yeah say less that could be in every single room probably is yes if you have it in one it's probably in many unfortunately even your porch rug shouldn't be the two by three thing you should get an outdoor rug that's four by six and put that in front of your door that's going to make your entry feel grander same thing on the interior you're not going to get that little two by three mat you're not doing that you're going to get a rug that's going to fit even if your entry is a hallway you're going to get a beautiful antique runner anything you can do to get a larger size rug in your space your space is going to feel more generous more lovely bigger gracious generous and it's going to be more beautiful to live in yeah we see this problem mostly in your great rooms your bedrooms all of that where they're just too small and then the room feels small.

20:56So you're really going to measure the size of your room and come off by the foot two feet at the most to find your rug size. Everything should be sitting on it. The front legs of your furniture are just sitting on that rug. That's why it doesn't feel finished because you have all that weird negative space hanging where a rug should be. Just grow your rug and I bet you'll feel so much better just by doing that. Get all four feet of your furniture on that rug. Your whole sofa on the rug. That entire chair on the rug. Not just the front of it like susa saying that's going to feel gracious and big and your home's going to feel finished last one we have is something living trees plants this really makes a space feel complete really really really does power of a tree guys is no joke i've said this for years even if we're designing room someone print out a picture of a tree throw it in there i need a tree i need live zebra i need something i need these organic matters living with it sometimes becomes formulaic with how you're playing tetris here it needs something to throw the balance off and i'll say this is like when we're planning actual furniture groupings this is when we are doing a photo shoot someone get a big ass branch in here it bigger 48 50 get bigger cut a tree down and put it on that tabletop because we need something that's going to crawl and point my eye up toward that ceiling because it's beautiful and trees do that they just start to crawl and that's what you want your eye to do and it breaks things up and the green is just so fresh it adds life.

22:18It adds the movement of a sketch. It's different than all of the other straight lines. There's obviously faux branches. We sell, I think, some of the best that you can put in a large jar and you can get that feeling. But if you do have company coming over, I think it's worth chopping a few branches down from your tree outside, bringing those in, putting them in a big ginger jar with water. Your space is going to look bananas. Again, I keep talking about desert books. We just came off that photo shoot and we didn't find a great floral shop. We straight up went to Lowe's y 'all and we got a bunch of trees and plants and found plants anyway yeah it was so rad the whole space we just had trees and greenery and anyway it just felt so original even just doing that guys just go and grab some plants and have that in your room the bigger you can go the better live plants are literally breathing oxygen into your home my wife is getting your nails done at this place in Ormean and she walked in there's like snake plants everywhere and she He asked the guy why those filter the air so much greater than any other plant.

23:17And so it's kind of taking the chemical of the nails out and, you know, safer for him to sit in 10, 14 hours a day, probably. And then I love the point that you made about on a tabletop. When we were talking about side tables, that's another surface for you to style. I know you have a huge bird of paradise on your side table. Yeah, I have our Ollie side table, which is 48 inches round or 42 or something. I think it's massive, but it's low. So it's not a dining height. It's actually made for a side table to put our massive extra large planter on. And then this bird of paradise probably reaches up 10 feet beyond that.

23:53And your eye just goes up to the vault. It has this beautiful tropical leaf. I've had it in there for three years. And it is the biggest magic trick in the room. And the room feels finished when I finally got that. Lived in the house for seven years. Finally got the bird of paradise. And I was like, boom, mic drop. you might just be missing a plant or a tree it will do so much for your space besides adding color it will add this movement and you'll get so many compliments for it it's magic it is magic you guys thank you so much for listening today we have a special little announcement we barely ever get to say this but in ALID our design firm Alice Lane Interior Design we actually have room for a new project it doesn't come around very often so if you are looking to do a new build or a full remodel on a home, we would love to be your designers.

24:42And honestly, if you're in a mood and you want to do something cool, please reach out because we're in a mood too and we want to do great work. To find us, you're going to go to the design services tab on our website, scroll down, Alice Lane Interior Design, fill out the form. We'll get back to you within that first day and we would love to get on the phone and just talk with you about your project. It's a really, really, really fun process and we get to be besties. for years. Yeah. I feel like you learn a lot about yourself. Sometimes you just need someone else looking into what is this beautiful lens of your life to be like you, from what you've told me, you love this thing and we should employ that thing in your house because I think that would make you light up.

25:22So that's the coolest thing is to see people really come into themselves and learn things about themselves that were never represented before. So that's the magic of design and that's the magic of making your home feel complete. Please call us. Yes. We would love to work with you. Also, if you're loving the podcast, be sure to follow on your favorite listening platform. And while you're there, leave us a review. We love to go in and read those. It makes our day. And share the podcast with a friend if you think that they'd like it. If you guys have any episode ideas or have any questions, just send those to DearAlice at alicelanehome.com.

25:55We would love to hear from you. And be sure and give us a follow on Instagram. We're at alicelanehome. That's our store side where we're creating our own product, manufacturing it, showing off that showroom, new launches. And then Alice Lane Interiors is where you're going to see the behind the scenes of the projects that we're working on. Give us a follow, leave us a review. We love it. If you guys engage with us, we'd love to know who you are, what you're doing, what questions you have. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll catch you next time.

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