Interior Design Insights: 17th Anniversary Q&A with Dear Alice

0:12Welcome to Dear Alice, a lifestyle approach to interior design.

0:23Alice Lane:Hello and welcome to Dear Alice. Today's going to be another fun episode. We've got your listener questions we're answering today with the help of cory and suz and myself so buckle your seatbelts hopefully we'll say your name today um we have our anniversary going on at alice lane which is so wild it's kind of endearing happy anniversary thank you yeah we we opened um this time 17 years ago 2008 that's crazy yeah that was before my time here i came in 2000 early 2013 so a little naive Jess over here was just so naive, had no idea what was going on in the housing market of 2008. If you guys want to think back, it's crazy that we're still here.

1:08Alice Lane:I feel so blessed to have you guys here. And just to see like where we've come, like how far we've come in it. And yeah, it's been awesome. And just, yeah, this, our friendship, I mean, first, you know, thinking back to the old, like Orem Design Center days, that's, those were, yeah, those are the best. the best the best yeah i don't know what it is about doing something hard with people together but it really bonds you in a way that i feel like will always be in each other's lives yeah yeah yeah it's really fun building something together and fun honestly just be able to sit down and reflect on it all and talk about it around this table it's like i don't have time to journal but this feels like my journal exactly so if i'm ever wondering what happened in my life i'm gonna go back and listen to Dear Alice for cues that I was alive back then.

1:57Alice Lane:Proof of life. Yeah. And feeling things. So thanks for joining us, you guys. And thanks for being a part of our story. It means so much to us. The website is going to be doing an awesome sale for the anniversary. It's up to 25 % off all of our exclusives. That's over 700 items. So go to the website, get yourself something really nice. It's a great time to buy it. And yeah, hopefully, hopefully you don't miss out. should we jump into questions let's do it okay we don't know any of these questions bs yes off off of the cuff um yeah the first one is from uh taylor who's from ontario yeah friends up north yeah um i'm assuming that's candid i guess there's a yeah it's ontario california could be that too um still a cool place uh but she wrote and asked i would love to hear your your advice on how to mix wood tones in a home, flooring, cabinetry, and furniture pieces for an intentional and cohesive look?

2:53Is there an ideal or maximum number of different tones to have in one room or throughout the whole house? It's a great question. That is a great question.

3:03Alice Lane:I think so too, especially where we're starting to see just kind of the return of staying grade furniture instead of everything being paint grade. So yeah, how much is too much? How to mix it? I think this is really, really intelligent. I'm excited. It's a very smart question. I think also, but like how to, like my question in that would be, uh, how not to get it too like matchy, you know? Cause if you're doing like a stain grade cabinet and like you're doing a wood flooring, getting those too close together, like let me take you back to the eighties when everything was oak. It's exactly where my mind went.

3:38Yeah.

3:38Alice Lane:Cause that is, I also feel like such a bummer move. It doesn't feel designed. It doesn't feel as interesting. It just feels like a kit of parts. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like not thought out. Just yeah. So I think you probably want like, I think right now today you do like a mid-tone, right? So let's just say you have walnut floors and then I think you're going to get some deeper notes of in your furniture, right? Or you could also get shades of walnut that are a little bit darker, but mixing in some of those interesting burl pieces or antiques that have a bit more depth I think are interesting um we're not seeing a ton of the light tones that was also the 80s remember the pickled oaks yeah they were almost pink they look like a skinless cat yeah we're not seeing those as many I don't know the light light tones in wood that we're going to be seeing going so I think you're mostly going to get some of your natural walnut type tones and then some darker ones maybe even some exotics like your macas or ebony's yeah would be really pretty in the mix depending on how dressy you are and sophisticated or casual you can picture in your mind those mid-century homes that had a lot of the the walnut notes and some of them are more natural and then a lot of darker furnishings or darker finishes on the furniture yeah so I don't know how are you guys what are you seeing right now in the projects you're working on I know a lot of it's client driven so I don't know how much wood um with wood with wood that you're doing but how's it what's a good way that you're mixing it actually quite a quite a bit everybody's like cute and obviously like we're leading them that way too that just like we're not seeing as many of like the light white oaks and the light blonde oaks for your flooring we are getting warmer you know if we can be in that kind of like as the darkest that we're going is more of the medium walnut just so it's still livable it's not getting too dark where you're like putting your dirty feet and puppies are running around and kids are being kids so like medium on the floor is usually what we're at and even if we're if we're not walnut we're going oak stained walnut medium walnut so again you're getting the highs lows which is really great for you if you can have a wood on your floor that does have like darks and lights because and that allows you to kind of like extrude some of those onto the furniture the cabinetry those things and so usually what we're doing like we have one home here down in the Berkshires here in Utah and we have like this kind of more that medium walnut floor and then we're going a little bit darker on like the cabinetry in the kitchen like specifically their island they want to have some wood grain so we have some painted um like the perimeter cabinets are painted and then like the islands are a darker wood because they're a little bit more formal so also dependent on how formal you are depends on like how deep you go and how shiny you go so again kind of think about it that way are you are you relaxed are you formal and that and he really loves the contrast of wood and so like we're seeing at several different layers now with that you need to make sure that you're giving some other things for the wood to pop off against so if like already your cabinetry is wood your flooring's wood you're not going to be doing wood paneling you're going to be up against a neutral ground so that these things can be highlighted so um I would just say that like he has a really large home so we're doing a lot of wood stained things, exotics, burls, you know, things in furniture, beautiful antique chests, things like that.

6:58But we also have a lot of other things to offset it. So depending on your size of home, depends on how much wood you incorporate into a room. And I would say like no more than probably three at different levels of variance, like from the floor.

7:12Alice Lane:Here's what I just picked up on what you were saying. Tell me if this is right, but as a really easy rule for Taylor. It sounds like the floor might be the lightest of the woods. So if that's your mid-tone and then you're going to go darker on top for cabinetry or your kitchen island or your furnishings will be darker than the floor. They're not usually going to be the same and they're not going to be lighter than the floor. And also by keeping your floor the lightest of the woods, it's also going to be the lowest maintenance because that's where, I mean, you think about it, the darker the thing gets, like your black car, how hard it is to keep clean.

7:44Alice Lane:nothing's prettier than a dark car when it's clean but it shows every little thing so you want to keep your floors I think having those be more of that mid-tone walnut range like you're saying and not seeing them in dark walnut otherwise you really are going to need to have somebody mopping that a couple times a day yep yeah so I would say your lightest tone is on the floor and then you start to go deeper and darker through furnishings and cabinetry on top of that yeah and some of your lights also come like as far as contrasting that you're not necessarily doing light woods but you're incorporating like stones lighter stones like on the darker wood that has some dark veins that's kind of tying everything together like the rug say in a kitchen or the rug is like a lighter feel there has lightness to it so that again it can like juxtapose with the wood floor and the things you're putting on top of it so it's a balance yeah yeah love awesome hopefully that helps uh the next question is from christy krimsky she wrote in and asked we just remodel our kitchen and primary bathroom and i dare say I think you all would be proud.

8:45Our funds are not unlimited though. So we're saving the other bathrooms and the basement for phase two. My question is around the timing and pacing of decorating a new home. How long do you think it should take to complete? I'm setting an internal deadline of a year and a half. That's when we're thinking about having kids because I imagine I would lose steam with other things to focus on. Also, how would you approach doing things over time? one room at a time, one layer at a time. People are already coming over and I hate to show off an unfinished product, but homes take time. You know what, Christy?

9:23You're normal. I was about to say, you're so normal.

9:25Alice Lane:Yeah. Well, do you want to go? Yeah, yeah, I would love to. I mean, I think, Sue, you've been living in this world for a little bit when she talks about doing her bathrooms, right? But there's different phases to this. So she also asks, how long should it take to complete something? I know just coming off of your install, right? Even though all of the big pieces were thought of and even all the art layers, there are still things that take time. And one of the things we've learned from publishing agents is they aren't even that interested in seeing the home or getting it shot for at least a year till after you've lived in it.

9:59Alice Lane:Because things evolve. Even landscape grows in and looks more beautiful as the home matures. And you start to just the lifestyle really comes together. And it feels more honest, which is what people are wanting. They're done with these glam, perfect looks. They want these more just true to life moments. And so giving your house a little time to work the newness out and have it really start to feel real, I think feels good. I also think the deadline of a year feels good because then you can stay focused on it because you do stop seeing your project after a while. You just get used to living with it and you stop seeing that you don't have draperies.

10:37Alice Lane:You stop seeing that you haven't fixed that one thing or you don't have a knob on that cabinet or whatnot. So keeping the project open and alive for a year, I think, seems doable. But if you go beyond that, you're going to lose steam on it. Other things are going to get your attention. You're going to have other emergency remodels that you need to tend to. So I think that's a really nice time frame of the year and just really completing things if you can. there's certain things that you're going to get to know let's just say your drapery workroom that maybe you want to hand off all your drapes at once to them so you don't have to babysit each room with the drapery workroom that the efficiencies of scale will really start to come into play so maybe those things you kind of stockpile to the end of your project but I don't know, what insights do you have Sue?

11:25Alice Lane:You just went through two emergency remodels last year I'm sure you have another project on the horizon for you do you have any advice for Christy? Yeah, again, just like Jess said, you're very, very normal. Like from start to end, from like flood to finish, I was saying, this is my autobiography, it's called flood to finish. It was about a year for those emergency bathrooms, just like, and you think that you're going to go faster and you think that people are going to respond quicker and no matter who you are, like it just takes time and you kind of just give yourself permission to live within that.

11:57And even when people come over, it's okay. I think everybody sits in an unfinished project. And if they don't understand you, they're not your friends. So I think that that's very normal, but it is nice to have, you know, just some, like you said, deadlines on the horizon, have people scheduled, have people like at whatever pace you can afford to go, that you can have those people coming in, you know, just like you would, you know, get your windows washed after a certain, you know, season, you have them scheduled to come minute that deadline because that feels good same thing with like you know plan a party plan a party you know and then that's there's nothing like some urgency of like knowing that you're going to have a big gathering to celebrate your new kitchen or you know whatever and it's okay the other like places aren't finished because again life will happen you'll get them done when you can and a home's never done a home is never ever done and if it is um you're stale you're not going to evolve you're not going to change it means you're going to keep the same outfit you know for the next decade it's never going to be done you're going to continue collect you're going to continue to be inspired and like we're always changing things in our houses you know it it's never done I know that feels like a little hopeless when you're about to start your venture with kids and things um but that will take that will take the I don't know that'll take the priority and the projects will will come I don't know I've given myself a lot of flexibility um as life has you know handed me a flood here and there but it's good and when it's complete like spaces of it are complete I can close that chapter and think about the next project so yeah give yourself some

13:31Alice Lane:grace what's your thought on one room at a time one layer at a time like she asks um I did two rooms at the same time you did two rooms at the same time just barely do you feel like um I mean you're kind of in the same thing you're doing two bathrooms so it's it's tile you're at that you're that tile showroom anyway, you might as well pick it up. So it does lessen the work, even though you're doing them in tandem. I think like I had the same contractors there to paint both my rooms, to float both my ceiling smooth. So it just sort of, I think was also more affordable to be able to add on just one more room where if I had to have them come out again a few years later, floating one ceiling smooth would be probably twice as expensive.

14:15Alice Lane:Yeah. I was going to say that, Like just while you have the subs there, like doing that layer, that's probably the, the most efficient as far as cost and time goes. And you're probably more likely to find a subcontractor to do that. Cause if you have a guy who like, you know, does texture on walls and ceilings, he probably wants to do a whole home and stay busy for a few months or as much as he can, rather than come and do a powder bath. You know, it's just not your job versus the guy that has two or three rooms. Exactly. Just like cabinetry, right? They're more excited about your job because you have more cabinets to give.

14:48Alice Lane:So Christy, I can tell that you're probably an organized person that's really on top of things by all of the questions that you're asking. So you're probably hating this answer because we're like, you know what? But with the economies of scale at play, you might as well bang out these things, right? Well, you've got that one sub in there. I'm sure that it will feel good to have one room done at a time and have the one year deadline. But there are things that if you're willing to be flexible that you can accomplish, you know bigger parts of the whole rather than just taking one bite at a time yeah totally agree so but you do need to give yourself grace it never goes according to plan as much as you want to it's you know for people that are wound more tightly I would say just buy an existing home right and maybe change some top layers you also know exactly what the price of that home is when you're getting into remodels and when you're getting into new construction there's this huge like you have to stay really flexible.

15:44Alice Lane:Things change. And it's not the contractor's fault. It is the economy's fault. It is, you know, there's all of these. The previous homeowner. Yeah. However it was done. I don't know. There's a lot in play when it comes into the remodeling. So I don't know. The one room at a time thing seems really nice and focused. And if it is just decor and furnishings, for sure, you can do it. If it's remodeling, then you might want to ask yourself what else is in that same realm that might need to be touched and bang it all out so that it's a good job for that contractor yeah if it's your flooring you're tearing everything up anything that has that wood flooring you're going to tear all those things up which then snowball so you just have to prep yourself it's like a it's like preppers yeah right now yeah you have to like really like wind yourself up because they're going to open wounds in a remodel yeah and they're gonna need to touch it so just yeah brace yourself yeah i'm so excited for you Hope that helps.

16:37Alice Lane:Yes. Okay. The next question comes from Jesse from Phoenix, Arizona. They wrote, hi, love your show. It has helped me so much to pull my historic home together. Well, still working on that. But you guys have steered me straight through a major remodel. My question is about hanging curtains for my French doors. We need some privacy at night. Should I hang them all the way to the ceiling or somewhere between the case and the ceiling? The gap is fairly large to the ceiling and not sure if it will look off balance if I hang high, as you guys always recommend. Also, is it okay to have the curtains stacked to one side?

17:18And then she gave us a picture. Girl! Yeah, you're going to go all the way to that crown, I think. We just installed a house and they had really tall ceilings. And installing all the window treatments and things, even with tall ceilings, even like obviously these doors aren't as high as the ceiling like it's still so grand it'll make your doors seem taller makes everything seem taller instead of like just cutting it like short sheets like in center of the casing in the crown you're gonna go all the way up and I love a

17:49Alice Lane:stack I love a thick stack I do too I um justifying the drapes to right or the left rather than having them flank the door I think is very chic I actually just did this in my living room um I was kind of playing around with it because I wanted to see how it would look. You're still going to run that rod just as if you were flanking the doors because that's what your eye wants to see. It wants to see it's believable. And you know, maybe in five years you want to change things up and, you know, and have them be centered on the doors. But I do love a justified look. I think it's very chic. Yeah. And it'll amplify your fullness too, which will look very expensive.

18:23Alice Lane:We do love fullness around here. Yeah. Very good. Jess, you have an expert tip on how to sleep cool during these hot summer nights. Let's share it with the people? I really do. Guys, it's the cozy earth sheets. I have to tell you, they regulate temperature. And by regulate temperature, I mean, between me and my husband, we sleep very different. He's a much bigger person than I am. And he sleeps so hot, even just touching his body is hot. So I got the sheets and I have to tell you, he's sleeping through the night and we're both comfortable. Also, they have this really pretty sheen to them, which I appreciate beautiful things, as you know.

18:58Alice Lane:So I think they're gorgeous. The hand is amazing and they just naturally wick away heat and moisture from your body, helping you sleep several degrees cooler. And sleeping in a cooler environment helps offer scientifically supported benefits that enhance your sleep quality and your overall health. So I feel great about that. Guys, this is a risk-free purchase. Cozy Earth offers a 100-night sleep trial. So try them during the hottest nights of the year. If you're not in love, return them hassle-free, but trust me, you won't want to. Upgrade your summer, go to cozyearth.com and use code DEARALICE for up to 40 % off best-selling temperature-regulating sheets, apparel, and more.

19:40Trust me, you'll feel the difference at the very first night. Sleep cooler, lounge lighter, stay cozy. The next question is from Kara Frederico. She asks, how do you suggest decorating the walls of a two-story foyer? Finish work or trim, large-scale art, a tapestry, or just leaving the two-story wall blank?

19:59Alice Lane:I think all of the above except for the last one. Yes to finish work and trim, yes to large-scale art, and yes to tapestry. We'll have to throw a picture up of the tapestry we just hung on this stone wall. Definitely, I think finish work is going to make a lot of that space. Really addressing the whole thing is really, really stunning. I think traditional is something that's really hot right now. I think it's also a sign of a well-built home. It's like we paid attention to every detail and we put the icing on top, you know? So I love when this is done and when it's done really, really well. And whether it be stain grade or paint grade, this is a great idea, Kara.

20:40Alice Lane:Large scale art for sure. You're going to need really large pieces with a two-story and your tapestry that you guys just installed Sue do you want to tell them where you installed the tapestry yeah we had this like round rotunda all stone clad stair hall stairwell um at our home in desert oaks is what it's going to be called and again it's around so we're like and it's so tall we're like what are we going to put on these walls you know that would make sense with how you know obviously the radius and we're like tapestry duh like and it's so good it's so good when they were hanging i was just like it was like angel singing it was exactly what it needed and the scale of it was awesome the history of it was awesome and it just like drew your eye like to that i don't know to the windows of the light when you can like again pull your eye up and notice some of the other architectural things happening like it's it's beautiful i would definitely suggest um the cool thing about finish work too i was just going to say depending on your style whether you're modern traditional historic work you know whatever it is like you can make sure that your finished work matches that style don't just like let your finished workers start because he'll just do like a flat panel shaker blocked panel super boring and there's so many cool things that you can do with finished work so really study it out study it like with the you know the year that your home is built or if you're more modern than that like you can do something funky too so i'll play with that i'll play with the finished work and all the larger love that answer yep uh the next question is from uh let's see it is from rob milton uh he wrote in and said love the show thanks for all the useful advice my question is from the point uh from the point of view of a house oh sorry probably meant point of view of a house owner hiring a designer what are some of your red and green flags when looking around for an interior designer?

22:32Great question, you guys.

22:34Alice Lane:I would ask them about their process. I'd also ask to see their portfolio. Hopefully they have examples of their work so you can get a good feel for their style. This is so easy today with Instagram. I'd also ask friends for recommendations or people at the tile shop or wherever you're looking around, cabinetry mills. If you have friends in the business, even if they're just finished workers, whatever, they'll just say, have you worked with these people? They're a big red flag for me. It's somebody that doesn't get back to you. We are dealing with creatives in this space. And one of the number one things that we see when we go to a home to get hired is they'll say, oh yeah, I've worked with a designer before.

23:14Alice Lane:They just never finished the job. And we continue to hear this. And so you really want somebody with a good process, a good punch list, somebody that's really accountable. And they even surrounds themselves with left-brained organized people so that that way their creativity can be there, but they also have people around them doing the administrative parts of the job because the creative alone might not have that superpower. And once we learn to really surround ourselves with a really good team of people that have both sides of the brain, and some creatives do have the ability to manage a project, but I think that's going to be, to me, the number one thing at getting the job done is you need to be able to have a good team and you want to understand their process and that you're not their first rodeo because it is a complicated situation that involves a lot of psychology, right?

24:06Alice Lane:A lot of math. Yeah. Personal style, right? Taste. This is a reflection of you. It's going to, you know, take financial, a lot of finances for this to make sense. Their literacy in the field is really important. So I think it's really fair to ask those questions. I think there should be definitely an interview just to really understand the process. Like how often are we going to meet is a fantastic question. We just started working with a gal who said there was never even a meeting schedule with some of the past designers that she worked with. And I know in our firm, we meet every other week. It gives us time to make revisions to the past space and still do a new space and then show them both in the next meeting.

24:50Alice Lane:And every other week seems like a good frequency so that you don't forget about the job. You stay in cadence with the whole project, that they're good with communicating with your subs and with the builder and that they're accountable because you don't ever want to blame why your house isn't getting done by the designer who won't get back to them. That will be so frustrating and expensive, right? You have construction loans and all of these things that are due and so you really need accountability besides being really really good at design so it's a unicorn you're looking for yeah i don't know sue what else do you have anything else red flags green flag any green flags green flags is that they that you like them i think honestly like you're you're locking horns with like your designer for a long time sometimes like hopefully for life if you find a really great designer that can like be your you know phone a friend.

25:41Um, when you ever embark on a new project or just need advice on anything that like dealing with the home, um, that you can call them and you can trust them that they will get back to. I think you know that like it on the nail with like all the things that you said. Um, I think alignment is just so important as far as aesthetically, cause it's just such a bummer when you do hear that somebody hired a designer, but they just feel like it doesn't look like them. I'm like, dang it. Something you guys weren't transparent enough with each other. So make sure that you're really transparent you can like we always tell our clients like you can't offend us like this isn't my house this is your house we're designing for you so if you don't like it please tell me I don't want to go down that that's not efficient for me either it doesn't help anybody to like flatter you know the other by not saying something soon enough like say like be honest and find someone that you feel like you can be honest with so yeah yeah and then did up to everything

26:33Alice Lane:I always hate it when I hear about somebody saying um we'll show you the design and then you get one round of revisions or two round of revisions, that's a red flag to me. You should be able to work at this until it feels right. Nothing should stop you from that. Obviously, you're paying for their time. So you're going to pay for it. Yeah. You want to understand their process, but there needs to be room for edits and for changes in there and that they're not going to put the brakes on you if it doesn't feel right. You shouldn't have to move forward with this half-baked design in your mind where you would like to continue to massage it a little bit.

27:06But all the more reason for you to be clear or really understand what you like from the get-go or do the research. And sometimes that happens during the process. You discover more about yourself. And that's okay. Be honest when something changes. Yeah.

27:18Alice Lane:Love that. I have a brother in business, a very different business than mine, but he often says clarity is kindness. And so getting really, really clear is so helpful to both parties. So making sure that you as the person hiring a designer, you're able to get as clear as you can. And hopefully they can get really clear with you too. Yeah. Yeah. Great advice. The next question is from Jocelyn. She wrote in and asked, when you are helping clients choose a paint color, do you have a step-by-step guide on how to determine it? Or do you just look through a catalog until you find something they like?

27:53I am planning on painting my living room. It's white right now. But I am not feeling very inspired with what I want. hoping your method helps me realize what I want. I will say, I don't know, Jocelyn, if you have anything in the room to help inspire what the color could be, a piece of art, a rug. Those are some like really great jumping off points because when we are designing most rooms, we start with the rug, you know, and understand kind of what that is. It dictates, you know, the personality, the energy, if it's organized and still or if it's wild and floral or those things. And then we start to understand what this needs to be and how pungent it needs to be or how calm it needs to be.