7 Interior Design Problems Solved: Open Floor Plans, TV Placement & More

0:00They think they need to push all their furniture up against the walls. Any surface, any situation, level five is always the goal. Do you know what? I don't have a doorstop. I'm going to have to get one of those rubber domes. Yeah, I know. I'm going to paint something right there. So every time I just like hit stock, guys knows. People on TikTok were ruthless. They hate my solution. They're just like, you can't see the art. And you're like, well, yeah, it's not that interesting. It's like two pieces of seaweed. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Dear Alice. If you're new here, we're the designers behind Alice Lane.

0:29We are an interior design firm that has spent the last 18 years designing custom homes. We've done remodels, full interiors. And each week we sit down at this podcast just to discuss what we're learning, the design principles, the mistakes. I feel like that's how we learn the best. And just any insider knowledge that we have every single day with our own clients, we're paying forward here. So if you're new, welcome. We're so glad that you found us. We are going to do an episode on listener questions. Sometimes we get them and we can build an entire episode around. Sometimes they're just quick little answers.

1:01So we compile those and put them in one episode. And if you guys have questions, please send them to DearAlice at alicelanehome.com because we'll be able to answer them here. We feel like we've recorded a podcast on everything. We've been at this for six years or so. So it's always fun when we see your questions and we're like, oh, maybe we haven't answered. We haven't talked about that. We need to talk about it. So we love hearing from you. Or it's time to do it again, to revisit the subject. Yeah, exactly. Our first question today is from Gabrielle. She asked, I would like to ask about the trend of shifting away from open floor plans to separate rooms.

1:33I like separate rooms where possible. However, I want to make the most of my vaulted ceiling in the kitchen, lounge, dining space. What are some tips and tricks you could offer to make open floor plans more cozy and better flowing without putting up full walls? Gabrielle, I have this exact same situation at my house. And I think a lot of people have sort of that kitchen lounge dining situation, which is all sort of sharing a roof line. And a couple of things I like to do to sort of define these spaces without putting up walls are rugs. Really grounding a space in a rug, I think, gives it sort of the feeling of walls.

2:12It defines the space, gives the furniture something to sit on. It also softens it. It gives you like this really fun sort of color scheme to work within. I was going to say, and go larger than you think, even like, especially in these open floor plans, sometimes like the space starts to feel quite vast because you have vaults and like these spaces are shared. And, and again, like Jess said, almost every home that we do, we have some type of gathering space like this. It's usually off the kitchen where we do still employ the open floor plan concept for this area because that is their like main big gathering area, but we do have to define it.

2:44And I think one of the best ways is by the, by the rug, go bigger than you think. Drapes also are going to help define those spaces. What we're looking for is definition. And Gabrielle, what you're looking for, you're saying, I don't want to put up full walls, but you kind of are trying to define these spaces. So drapes are going to give you those full height, really beautiful fabric folds. And they're going to give you interest at architectural. Visual walls. Exactly. Also the cozy. It brings the cozy in. To your, when I first, you read this question, I was just like, Jess, how's this situation?

3:17And it is so cozy. I do think the way that you define your areas is really, really smart. So I want to hear your other tips. Well, I think another really cozy thing is in the dining portion that you also have, Gabrielle, I did a banquette. So I tucked that into a corner and it's an inside corner just off of my family room. And the banquette is two walls of it. And then I have a round table up to it along with some chairs. And there's big windows behind it and drapes that are really helping to define that space. And that is like the definition of cozy. I have a lamp on top of my table. We all gather around it.

3:52If I'm working on a special project, I'm actually not even going into my office. I'm sitting at my kitchen table. I'm opening up my laptop. I've got my notebooks and books all piled there. And that is my place. I just love it. It really is just so homey and cozy. Yeah, I love that. I'm thinking about even just some of these larger rooms that we're space planning. And usually you do have a couple of different zones. Again, if you're thinking about a party, like you don't just have one big giant sectional and then just everything's focused in this one big group. You usually have like a part that like we're watching TV or conversing around a fireplace.

4:25You have a banquet. Sometimes we'll just do like a little game table or something in this corner. And again, even though it's like this big room, if you can create intimate moments within that thing, I think that that depending on how big or small this open floor plan is, you can create definition in the zones and make it feel cozy. because you've identified things that you can do in this space except for do cartwheels because it's so big. Yeah. You have to give zones. If you're having a party, it's lots of little conversations. It's never one big conversation where one person is talking to everybody at once.

4:55It's like the women are over here and the husbands are over here and the teenagers are up at the island. So yeah, people just kind of gravitate towards whomever and it's tons of conversations. You want to create little spaces for them. I know a really big popular thing right now. I just had gotten sent a text maybe a month or two ago from a friend who wanted to create like a mahjong table within sort of that open floor plan space because you want to leave that out you don't want to have to clear it off in order to eat on it and so she was adding kind of a separate game table to the space which is also super fun so defining those spaces so we talked about rugs we talked about drapery banquets lighting I think really much like a rug grounds a space I think the lighting helps to do that as well from the ceiling down.

5:40Yeah. So over your island, you're going to use really nice size lights, I think. When they're too small, they don't really help identify the space that much. It feels like dust speckles. Yeah. Instead of just like actual like substantial sculptures hanging from the sky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it's also lighting up your surface and making it feel glowy and more cozy and warm. And that light is really getting on everybody's face and everybody's looking really gorgeous. I think the immediate thing you can do to make it not feel cozy is to turn on all the cans. Don't turn on the cans. If you only have cans and you don't have any of these specialty lights that Jess is talking about, and you're like, why does it feel so empty and cold and like alone and afraid?

6:19That's probably the reason why is the lighting's off. Even if you don't have all the, you know, the key players to like the banquet, all those things, I guarantee if you start to like incorporate just like the right lighting, the pendants over the island, and even just the lamplight. You know, if you just have like all those spots turned on without having overhead, you're going to automatically be drawn to these like cozy moments in this grand big space because they're offering conversation in this group and then in the mahjong table and then on the island, you know, just because of your lighting.

6:49And I also want to say about lighting, like your kitchen table is probably going to have some sort of large pendant or chandelier over it. You really want to hang that, what, Sue, no more than what, 36 to 42? I usually say 36 to 42 is kind of like where we lie depending on the light, depending on your ceiling. But like recently we've been hovering on the lower side and I've been loving it. Yeah. Like at the 36. No, even like the 36. There's these ones like in our Desert Oaks projects. The actual like pendants, they were from Sown, which is this British company. So they're not massive, but the space is big.

7:23But they have like some really interesting present. But they're kind of, when you look at it, you want them to kind of hover. and just like dropped a little lower. So when they had them initially hung. They're more important in the space the closer they are to eye level and you actually get credit for them. If they're hung too high, it's just kind of awkward. So the lighting piece of this is really important that you're defining each space, but getting the height of it where it really matters. Anyway, when you were hanging these sewn pendants over the island. The builder initially like hung them, I bet around that 38 to 40 inches.

7:57And I was just like, okay can we go lower can we get go lower and what i realized is not only is that shade kind of hovering so i can like see it and feel it like when i'm sitting at the island but also the chain story was so interesting that i wanted to fill that architecture because it was so good it has four chains and so that became pendants hang from so that became part of the hero of the pendant that i wanted by if it was choked up you would never see the chain and so you want to pull that down to really define that space in this open grand area. Honestly, it's like about adding interest to create the cozy.

8:29I'm going to say this too. This isn't something you can do with an open floor. I think it's something you should do. I think that's probably the reason people are getting fatigued of huge great rooms. It's because most of the time it is just a sectional with an entertainment console and a TV. And too small a rug. Yeah. But if you kind of use that space and define smaller spaces within them it's going to create interests obviously going to fill your space with more and yeah you're going to love that so not only can you do it you should do it depression and anxiety are on the rise and i i swear i'm like space is such like an important thing for our brains yes if you do create just like this idea of feeling safe and cozy you know in what feels like an ominous world that really does help with your mental state your home shouldn't feel like a gymnasium.

9:19Exactly. I feel like Gabrielle's going to ask a follow-up question that's if I have pendants over the island and if I have a chandelier over the dining table, am I still putting a light in the great room? And to that, Gabrielle, I would say I didn't in my great room. I have cans up in my ceilings, but what I did do is use the most lamps in that space. Every surface has a really nice size lamp. Can I say one thing I love that you did in your vault is that you have the tongue and groove poplar up there. So that texture and that element of like wood feels like it lowers that ceiling a little bit too.

9:56So potentially treating the ceiling with something, not just like drywall. Yeah. And I have some big white wood trusses up there as well. But what I was going to say, another kind of like my chandelier, my big moment was I did a really big bird of paradise on my, you know, our Ollie table on our website. So we designed that after an antique I have, and it's like 40 inches round for a side table, which your sectionals are over 36 inches deep. So you can get the Ollie side table and you can sit that as a side table next to your sectional. And because it's so massive, you can put our biggest black planter on it and plant a full-size tree um the bird of paradise and it just is so tall my ceilings in there are 17 feet tall i'll bet the bird of paradise is like at 15 feet because it's sitting on three feet on top of the table yeah right so it's maybe like a 12 foot plant at this point but you get a cheat by putting it on top of it and that's my chandelier that's my big organic wild moment and i think trees and plants help define the space as well without adding walls and you got to go big.

11:03Like you've got to get big pots and you've got to play big. You've got to get a big tree, get them in the corners of your room where they can hang out in the light because they love that. And you're just going to water it once a week. It's not hard, but it adds so much to your space and it's way less than buying a chandelier. I was just going to say really quick on that point. A lot of floor plans that we see have like the kitchen, it's stacked with the dining kind of sandwiched between the great room and the kitchen. Yours is great because it kind of has like this little corner that you've carved out and you've dropped a light over that table, which is like a really I think like unexpected move if you can do that if you have like a long dining table you know kind of consider like yeah our Berkshire hall right where you have all this like a big lighting thing happening in the kitchen I wouldn't do anything over your dining I would then do something in the great room agree you know so you're not going to want again I think that's it gets too many when you have island lights then a dining right next to it sands the dining here and push that over to the great room yeah another one is adding a daybed we said banquet or a day bed.

12:01I did both. The day bed is a really nice room divider. So again, it's not a wall that we're putting up, Gabrielle. This is a beautiful day bed, or you could do the tête -à-tête, which we have on our website. And this is just kind of like a room divider. You can flop on the day bed from the kitchen side. You can flop on it from the family room side. It's just so fun to lay on. Nobody expects it. It's not a sofa with a back. So it's creating a wall for that room. It's just this really beautiful open. I have the Gwen Daybed in my house. I love it. The Nicholas Daybed on our website would work for this.

12:33Yeah, I'm at Tete-A-Tete or even the - Leo Sete. Leo Sete would work because it's open. Yeah. Yeah, this is really great for open concept. Yeah, it's that 360 player. Yeah. She's cool from all angles from whatever side you're going to use her on. Yeah, she is. And I would say maybe that's the most, when you see that, I think it's the most unexpected thing because it's like, you know, not done often and you get a lot of points for that. And it's floating. Yeah. And I feel like people don't dare float furniture in a room. They think they need to push all their furniture up against the walls. And when you have a daybed floating on the one side of your rug, you're just like, what?

13:08Yeah. What? Did you hire a designer? What is this? You know, it's just so chic. Yeah. So I love this trick. I think those are all of our favorite tricks for really defining spaces. And I guess the last one is color. Yeah. Don't be afraid to throw some color in the mix. that's also going to help define some of these spaces. You can imagine even if you say you get the rug, you get all the window treatments. Imagine if all of it was light and white and neutral. You're not defining anything. So by adding contrast or color, that starts to like identify spaces and like give a personality to each of these zones that you're creating to make people feel more cozy in this big bathroom.

13:42You know how some girls are like yoga pant girls and other girls are like sweat girls? Yeah. I'm a pajama girl. Yes, you are. You know, seriously, I feel most graceful in pajamas. And I have to tell you, I just got the bamboo stretch knit set from Cozy Earth. I got it in black with the white piping. I'm living in these. I get home from work. It signals to my brain I'm home. I cook dinner in them. I do everything in them. I'm obsessed. And don't you feel so graceful because they drape so well. I too got them because I like that there's no elastic at the ankle. Yes. I'm like, that has been a thing when you're wearing sweats.

14:16I'm like over it. And I just need to feel like I'm wearing nothing. And that's what it feels like when I'm in my Cozy Earth. Yes. And it's just like one long lean line. I think they're so chic. I find that they're also somehow very light. They're very breathable. They're cooler. I don't overheat. I don't know what they're made out of. I think it's powdered sugar. They're just so light and fluffy. We should have a pajama party. We should have a pajama party. Head over to Cozier.com and use our code DEARALICE for up to 20 % off home and sleepwear. That's code DEARALICE for up to 20 % off on home and sleepwear.

14:48And if you see a post-purchase survey please be sure to mention that you heard about cozy earth right here our next question is from jenny she asked i deeply love my faith and the art artwork associated with it but when it comes down to styling it's rarely my immediate first thought for the walls i naturally gravitate towards things like abstract pieces or photography i've never been the type of person who wants every painting to be religious nor do i think a home needs to be styled that way to be meaningful how do you mix meaningful pieces of faith into a curated layered home alongside other art styles without it feeling disjointed or crowded it's a great question i love this question i love this question too and i think this is something that like all clients have something that they believe in yeah right regardless of like what denomination or anything i love it when i walk into a home and i know what that person's about and so and i think but i do think that there is a more clever way to do this than just again pasting it.

15:47Because I've also seen that where they just paste it up on all their walls, which if that's what feels good to their heart, then that's great. It's such a subjective thing. But I do think that there is a way too where you love design and you love abstracts and you love all these other things to fill some balance with that. And I feel like all of us have done that because again, we all have things we believe in and we love other mediums and other types of art and things like that. Well, I feel like we all, like for me, I love Jesus. and I feel like I'm still looking for like my Jesus that's out there.

16:18I don't want to just buy the one that's available at the bookstore or, you know, the one that's maybe more poster art. I want to find something that feels so personal to me. There's a local artist named Brian Krushysnik. His take on religious art is really fantastic. It's kind of humble and feels even almost modern in some ways. It's kind of like if you know, you know. Like you look at it and you want to hear the story and then the more you learn, you're like, oh my gosh, this is that from the Bible. But you don't absolutely know it always at first bit. I also really, I know this is an old fashioned thing to say, but I really love James Christensen.

16:54I have a couple of pieces in my house of his, but you don't necessarily know what they are. You have to read the little plaque on the back to know what this story is about. I like that there are personal things that I can tell people as I walk through. It's not so like on the nose about exactly, which would be okay if it's on the nose i also think like suz you've had luck looking on etsy fine art on etsy but even even more so probably have gotten a more like in small art galleries and things but it is finding the i don't know the more niche artists in a more abstract way than just having like a two-dimensional print or a photography of what jesus with blue eyes would look like that's not my jesus you know and so probably one of my favorite pieces and i put it on this wall opposite like when you go down my stairs i got this from it was j um j kirk richards who's also another really great artist his interpretations of christ and and are just really beautiful i bought this like he did these it's like a modeled clay profile of jesus and it's really loose and everything and i had that with us for a long time when we lived in the attic it's fallen it's been glued back together it's been cracked and so like this thing has been carried with us.

18:04And when we moved into this house, I wanted my framer, who I always speak praises about. I wanted him like, can you make something that this feels like a relief of, you know, I want to memorialize it, but there's something about like these 3D bits that again, not, it's not on the nose, but he did the most beautiful frame around it. That just, it did feel like it was always with this piece. And I put it on its own with like a lot of reverence. There's white space around it and nothing else. And that is my Jesus. You know, it's broken but it's beautiful and restored so i'm just like it's finding these things that are just like they're reverent to you and i think that's finding your jesus or finding the thing that you believe in even other people's like religions i have like this court site rosary that we got at market it lets me it lets my family know like what do we believe in but it also like is like when people get a snapshot of who i am like those are there we have like this nativity painting you know those painted on cowhide when we were in austin one time and anyway and we just we grabbed it and later got it framed and then later found the spot for it.

19:03So it's kind of just wherever you are on your path, whether you're looking at Etsy or whether you're at, you know, a farmer's market. I've bought art at farmer's markets about Jesus that is just like, that's in our hallway, you know, of Jesus holding the black sheep. And anyway, it's just like, whatever speaks to you, that is, that is the, I think the key to finding art, like all art, really, what speaks to you and what like pokes at your heart. And especially when you're talking about something deity and theology and what do you believe in make sure that that hits you because it's something you want in your forever collection like all those pieces i don't think i would ever rotate out i think if i bought something more general it's beautiful but it's probably something that i would have grown out of my collection or been like okay i love that for everyone else i loved it for her but it's not mine you know and so i think it's really finding what speaks to you and framing in an interesting way that it feels like your collection your choices all amongst all your other things that you've also paid great attention to in your house.

20:00And here's what I'm going to say too. It's a lifelong search. You're always going to be looking for it and it will find you because you're always looking for it. Like Sue said, at one point they bought this little nativity on a cowhide. Eventually they framed it and they found a spot. You probably took years to get that whole thing completed and in the right spot. I just think it's that you're always looking for it and you're always looking to add more and more of it to your space. And I think if you have eyes for it, you'll see it. And then kind of echoing what you guys said, I don't think the goal is to how to incorporate this religious art with someone's curated collection of abstract art or, you know, whatever art form you may love.

20:40It's representing your spirituality and your religion in art. So it's not just like taking the stock photos, like you guys said, but having a piece that defines your spirituality or speaks to your spirituality and then adding that to your collection. And you'll find little spots for it. Like you've isolated that little spot with the relief of the savior in it, like above the stairs. It's not that it's trying to go in a gallery with your other contemporary arts that you find. I mean, and same with your rosary bead. That's a three dimensional, you know, oversized object of these beautiful beads you have on a nail and then on a hook.

21:16The way it drapes is so pretty in your entryway. And that works great in tandem with your mirror and your Frida and your other pieces because it's three-dimensional. So kind of think outside the box, too. Maybe you're not looking for something that's stuck in a frame. You might be looking for objects or a tile or, you know, things that are three-dimensional that, of course, will work with other things because it's not the same medium. My really good friend, she knew a guy that he did cross-sections and elevations, architectural elevations. And he did one of the original Salt Lake City Temple, which is a place of worship.

21:46and it's again it's an elevation just like a cut through of that and I I love it and I don't have like I had it on my wall before we remodeled the bedroom and then it's taken down so I'm like I want to get it reframed and find the right spot for it but again I that like speaks to me because that's what I do I draw or you know we look at architectural drawings and cut throughs and sections all day so I love that that's like that's where I was married and it feels like me you know it's part of my story so that's what you're just trying to find part of your story Our next question is from Suzanne.

22:16She asked, not me, not, not this Suzanne. You work all over the United States. How do you find the right specialty trades in your varied locations? Or do you focus on the design and trust that the general contractor will have trades with the required skill sets to bring your vision to life? Yeah. Another great question. What a great question, Suzanne. I will say, I don't know, just if you want to speak to this, I think it's really important. And we've done this for a long enough time where we have started with like, oh, we'll do the design and then see what the GC has in that location across, you know, how many states.

22:49It's kind of bitten us. So I'm like, this is a lesson learned that you should find out what are your, as far as like your demographic superpowers, talk to the builder and understand he's a great cabinet maker. Awesome. Or if you go through and you see some of his past work and you're like, if I want to do something like this, I haven't seen this in any of the homes you've taken me through. Is this something you guys are capable of? That's great. You know, then you can understand like, what are his limitations? And he'll be like, actually, no, there is this one company I've been wanting to use.

23:16So you're just like sometimes out of the price range. So just understanding all those things. If it's something that your client will value that detail that you should go ahead and do that work on the design end. I mean, you just want to know that it can be fabricated because that's the worst. When you design something, the client falls in love with it and then it can't be made, you know, the way it looks like in the picture that you drew for them or, you know, the concept photos or things that they fell in love with when they were visiting another place. So I think definitely talk to your builder, find out who his trade partners are, talk to like, see their work.

23:47I think it's like the biggest takeaway. We did that for a client in Northern California and we walked through his stuff and I was like, okay, it's okay. But my cabinet maker in Utah will do this job. And he did. Yeah. Just based on like what his network had in it. And because it's California, it's sometimes is most cost effective for us to have our custom cabinetry shops here, truck it out there and install it. It's all still expensive. I'm not going to say it was less money, but it definitely it looked the way we wanted to at the end. And we knew it would function well because we know the cabinet maker.

24:19I feel like there was a job in Seattle that they would only do semi-custom cabinets. We wanted to do custom. We had like a corner sink in the island and all these things. And we indeed used our cabinet makers to truck up. And I thought it was more cost effective than using their semi-custom shop yeah that was yeah but even like recently when i have had like our custom shops here price it out for out of state like in california it hasn't necessarily been less money like some of them have but like by the time they go out if they're one thing you do want to kind of pay attention to that we've done are the guys are the gc's guys gonna install it are my cabinet makers gonna like fabricate it truck it out and then install it that's when you start to get expensive if they can build it out here and he has qualified installers there then that that like you might save a couple pennies but like to do all of it from here have them track it have them stay out there lodge them install it then that like that bill starts to rack up so you just you really just kind of have to understand like also what does the client value like what's going to be the most important like things to them in their home and then you kind of scale it from there and be like okay this is your guy he does semi-custom can he do these things he can awesome I'm going to get a great slab to go with that.

25:33And then we're going to do these tricks because that's what the client values. So understanding like, what does the builder's Rolodex look like? What does that work look like? You know, and then kind of that's how I go from there. And that in really developing those relationships with your contractor, with his trades, like even at the forefront of the project, they'll know how you best work. Send them your drawings. If you're like, if I provide this much detail to you, is this going to be what you need to like produce a great cabinet maker. Most of the time on our end, they've been like, yeah, this is more than most people ever provide.