Interior Designers React to Your Hottest Design Takes

0:00Hello everyone, welcome to Dear Alice. We have a fun one for you today. It's a juicy one. We're going to be doing some hot takes. We've gathered them from a couple different places. You guys have sent some in. We got some from around the office. We have a couple to share with you. If you're not familiar, a hot take is an opinion that someone has that is maybe a little bit polarizing. Or absolute. Yes, or an absolute. An absolute thing that just needs either to be agreed with or argued with. And that's what we are about to do. Yes, we are. It's going to get spicy. But first, if you're new here, we're the designers behind Alice Lane.

0:33We are an interior design firm that spent the last 20 years designing custom homes, doing remodels and interiors. And we learn a lot from mistakes we've made. We've got a lot of insider knowledge, a lot of design principles. And we use these every single day with our own clients. So we just wanted to pay this forward to you. So if you're not familiar with Alice Lane, check us out on Instagram. We're at Alice Lane Home. And then at Alice Lane Interiors is our interior design site. You're going to love, love, love, love the behind the scenes there, especially if you love interior design. Should we get into the hot takes?

1:05Let's do it. Okay, perfect. The first one is expensive does not equal good design. Original decisions make good design. I would agree. I would agree with that. I think so too. That's the cool thing about this podcast, I will say, is that any of the things that we're talking about can be implemented at whatever budget you sit at. I think as far as if you're showing yourself good taste you're going to recognize the best that you can afford and you're going to do things at the right scale and all those things and that's good design paying attention to those principles and making sure it feels like you that's good design it doesn't mean that you have to have an unlimited budget no one has an unlimited budget and I especially love the first part of that because just because it was expensive it doesn't necessarily make a good design it's a hot take with this but it's a little hot take yeah sub hot take if you I think luxury is more within reach than it ever has been, maybe in the existence of time.

1:59So with that, it puts a strong emphasis on cultivating your tastes and defining your personal style. So those that can do that will almost not be influenced by trends or outside opinion. So therefore, cultivating your tastes, defining your personal style, and doing so with confidence is the new luxury. It is. Love it. Mic drop. I love that take. That's a hot take. And cultivating your own personal style is really hard to do. But those are some of the most fun accounts to follow are people that are great at street style or people that pulled their space together by digging through salvage yards and different things to get this really exclusive, unique look.

2:39And those are the people that people are trying to hire is because they have personal style, because they know how to dig, because they know how to cultivate, because they've worked so hard for it. They didn't just phone it in with some luxury designer or luxury product, right? Yeah, or pay for it. Yeah, it's in them. Yes. Yeah, I love that. Yes, that's so good. The next two kind of go together, and that is resale value. That was mine. And this, unfortunately, is coming from realtors most of the time. It's like, don't do this because you need to think about resale value. It's like, well, I'm just buying the home.

3:12I'm not thinking about reselling right now. You know what I mean? I think you need to make decisions that are going to pay you back and not worry about the resale value or that goal. Because if you do that, you're always in service. Your home is always in service of someone else. It's not in service of yourself. And that's a difficult way to live. And I think there's no greater therapy than figuring out who you are and representing that in your space. Yep. As far as just you're painting everything neutral for the sake of a resale value, that is the murderer of joy right there. Absolutely. But if you do something and you're really introspective, there's no better time than right now.

3:49There's so much influence around us as far as what is good taste, what is luxury, what can be personal. I think you'll be the happiest in your home if you pay attention to those things. If you do have to sell your house, if you do it in good taste, it's going to sell. Everybody's going to want it. It's going to have memory points like all over it. So that's the one that's going to be bought quick. Yeah, so true. Do it for you, not for a resale. Along with that, we have written down going all neutral is not designer or memorable. So that's sort of the whole resale value thing. And I get it. Sometimes neutral is the only thing that you and your significant other can agree on.

4:26But it's not that interesting. It's not that personal. I'm so bored. Yeah. I think if you were going neutral, let's say on cabinetry. Sure. I understand that. That's a large investment. But there are other ways you can pull interest into your kitchen that are not so permanent. We had a kitchen episode that came out a couple weeks ago. I kind of think if you're doing a white kitchen, go more bold on the countertops. I know that is still a permanent fixture, but it does something to bring interest to your cabinetry. Or there are other ways. You have to go more bold on the countertops. You've got to make a really interesting hardware choice.

5:04You've got to make your white kitchen feel so special and interesting. Otherwise, it's just going to look like everything else out there. But neutral on neutral is not interesting. You're going to spend money on your hood now. It's going to get expensive. For real. Our next one is accessories with no meaning or function. Oh, shoot. I hate this, guys. I think of you every time. I have something like this in my own, by the way. This is the stuff that as far as when I'm looking at other design and I'm zooming in to be like, what did they put on that book? Also, why is there so much stuff on top of all the books?

5:39that means you don't open the books i know sometimes it's a little bit of lift and we're composing all the time so sometimes you do do that but accessories that have no meaning when we go into a client's house again they need us because their home doesn't feel right we're going in there because they filled it all up with a bunch of stuff from tj maxx it's ridiculously unimportant and unpersonal and like it just takes up space and luckily they called us because a lot of people stop seeing it and they just have a shelf full of unmeaningful things that have no function nor meaning nor any personal story and you feel that i think we've all felt the the other side when you go into a home that feels curated and that feels personal and that feels warm and you're like my gosh everything was done in such thoughtfulness it doesn't have to be expensive but it was thoughtful and that is how you should style that's how you should accessorize and that's how you feel a pulse when you look at that image or when you're just in the space versus just getting things to get things and honestly just clear your shelves right now go throw that stuff away go donate it you don't need it be personal condo art sue how do you feel about condo art will you define condo art for the people also my four now four-year-old whenever he is mad at something like he'll be like you need to go clean your room uh god so when i say that that is in reference to louis so uh god condo art uh god so gross what condo art is is exactly what it sounds like as you see it in dental offices it feels so low budget because it's just a printed canvas It's usually not framed, and it's likely an abstract with zero brush marks, with zero signature, with zero soul.

7:12It's never the right size. It's just like the murder of, seriously, it's a hangnail. It's always neutral, too. Yeah. It's so impersonal, and I just, I hate it. And often, a lot of times, they are abstracts. Or a landscape. Yeah. Especially if you're dealing with a landscape. I expect to see some brush strokes or something to show that it was like, you know. Painted. Yes, exactly. So, anyway, do yourself a favor. Don't buy it. I don't care if it was cheap on Facebook Marketplace and it's going to fill that wall. you'll never replace it. Don't buy it. It's ugly. Don't buy it. So just wait until they Wait.

7:41I'd rather see a blank wall. I'd rather see your kid scribble with pencil on that wall versus seeing bad art. There it is. Hot take right there. Here's another one. Quartz often looks better than marble. Quick repeat. What? Quartz. Not quartzite. So this is the man-made material. Often looks better they say than marble. Oh God. Oh God. Okay. Yeah. So quartz everybody That's the fake art of countertops. Condo. It's the condo art of countertops. It's actually the condo countertops. Yeah, exactly. 100%. It is. And I know people are like, oh, they're getting better. They're getting better. But you can still tell.

8:18I can still tell. Inside your heart, you know it's not real. And so. It's a liar. No, it's a liar. Liar pants on fire. You don't want to live with a liar. I would love to hear the argument to this. So if you sent this in or whoever it was, dearalice at alicelandhome.com, I would love to see why, hear why they think that. Or he wants face-to-face. Yeah. Give me a call. Face-to-face. I was trying to figure out why, and maybe it's because, you know, like marble will. Patina. Yeah, patina and soak up things. There's something charming about that to me. It feels like you've used it. It's a sign of life.

8:59I kind of think opposite in that too. but again I would love to hear that argument and that probably is they're saying quartz often the thing that triggers me looks better than marble that's a lie that is I'll go face to face with that people might think quartz performs better than marble if that is your absolute kill you're dying on that you don't want anything to look lived in sure get quartz but you're gonna look really boring doing it and I'm not gonna want I'm not gonna want to party like anyway so So to that, quartz does not look better than marble. That's a lie. It melts too because it's ground up quartzite with plastic.

9:37Adhesives. That's bad for your health. That's cancer-caught. Yeah, microplastics is what people are talking about now. Yeah. Cool. Next. Open shelving is just dust storage. Negative ghost writers. Yeah, yeah. We love open shelving. I think the things on the open shelf, at least in my kitchen, they are flanking my stove. Those are my everyday dishes. I am grabbing my plate to plate whatever is on my stove and slide it across the countertop to my kids. And then you're throwing that in the dishwasher to get sanitized. It is so utilitarian. And I love the look of stacks on stacks on stacks of dishes.

10:13It's so culinary. It's beautiful. It's full. And that is where my everyday dishes live. Yeah. So therefore. Not dust collectors. Again, if you're buying accessories with no meaning, sure, that's a dust collector. But if you're utilizing open storage to be utility and honestly to even show off, whether it's in a kitchen or even just open shelves in the living room, unbuilt in and things like that. If it's to show something important in a memory that is not a dust collector, you're going to dust. Noted. But you're going to put meaningful things up there. And so therefore, it's not a dust collector.

10:45It's holding memories or it's holding a function. Yes, for sure. Also, it makes your kitchen look lighter, not in a lighting sense. It just doesn't feel so top heavy. With all the upper cabinets. Got a reduction. Yes, exactly. Okay, the next one is, it's okay to paint over wood. I am so torn on this. Okay, let's define. Go. I grew up building furniture. We all know that. There's this part of me that is, if it's an exotic or interesting wood, I feel like you can't. That kills a part of me. Yeah. But I do understand it. You have naughty alder or pine oak, yellow oak. From the 80s. Yes. Yes, definitely paint over that yellow oak.

11:28That is a glory for no one. That was a poor decision from the get, and so you're going to make it better by painting that railing or painting that old piece of furniture. That's the distinguish for me. If it was done with good taste, even if it's, let's say, a home built in the early 1900s, but it has really cool figured oak or even maple of some kind, so hard to paint over that for me. I think it's also an application thing. We've had clients before where they've had stained Nadia Alder casings. Window casings. Baseboards. Yeah, that were Nadia Alder. They did not want to paint those. And I still look back at those pictures and we're like, oh man.

12:08The house looks dated. In fact, when we were shooting it, we were like, don't shoot towards the windows. Let's shoot the room. But let's try not to get the windows in it. Because it was a time stamp that this happened before the year 2010. When Nadia Alder was just really popping off and Tuscan was king, you know. And everything in the house was so beautiful. But this was the thing that dated it and gave all these hard tension lines everywhere. It was beautiful to them and they get to live in the home. And we got to capture it the way we wanted it and it all worked out. So there is a real case for painting over wood in our house, House of Kennedy.

12:41She had old 80s oak railings. Yeah. You didn't have to replace those. This was a remodel where she had a certain budget for it. And we're like, let's just paint those black. Yeah. lean into this make it feel kelly worseler make it interesting red black front door black within the marble and it was a really great way to extend the budget and i thought the rhythms looked really good as a solid color instead of all of these oak figurines and actually you sought more because you were able to define it versus having just this complicated molding with a stain grade in the color of honey you actually highlighted the profile of it yeah i thought that was really great there's a time to paint wood and then there's a time to be reverent Yeah.

13:22Yeah. To preserve history. Yes. Pendant lights are overused, especially in kitchens. Just another one that I'd love to hear the argument to this, because I don't know what you would put in place of a pendant over an island. I know. If they're thinking the whole room should just be cans, they're so wrong. I love a pendant over a kitchen island. It really just sort of grounds and highlights the space. It finishes it. No. I feel like it wouldn't look done. I have seen the monopoint over the island on an eight-foot ceiling or nine foot at the most in a very modern application. Totally get it. Don't need the pendants there.

13:58For 99 % of the time, though, we're always going to want a pendant. And we're going to want it big and we're going to want it interesting. And this is a fashion point, a memory point for the kitchen. It's going to look more expensive and a lot more beautiful. And it usually frames out the hood. Yes. Whatever is happening behind there. So a group of them, I don't think I ever want that. I like two. I like two also. Kind of just like framing that whole composition and moment. You guys know how much I've been talking about the Cozy Earth towels. It's ridiculous. It's my personality. It was just something about having the same towels for like a decade on my shelves.

14:32And then I replaced them. And I got like, you know, I probably got like four. And I was like, wait a minute, now I need eight. Because I wanted to fill all the shelves in my bathrooms with the exact same towel, hand towels. Now my kids all think that they deserve new towels because they've experienced my towels. I'm telling you, they're gorgeous. they're so soft and plush I love the band on them even the way that they folded them in the box to me now I'm folding my towels a different way cozy that's my new personality I know tastemakers you know what I got this season for summer they have beach towels now that I'm obsessed with I have all these like little boys and so when we do go to the lake or the beach or boating I have the most lovely towels everyone's always like where did you get these because they're softer they're not hard and crunchy and they have the most beautiful striped options which I adore you know you can't have too many stripes so true anyway it's better than everyone else's Cozy Earth beach towels are oversized ultra plush and completely built for your best summer days head to CozyEarth.com and use our code Dear Alice for an exclusive 20 % off that's code Dear Alice for an exclusive 20 % off and if you see a post-purchase survey mention that you heard about Cozy Earth right here The next one is most people aren't great at decorating.

15:43It's hard. And even if you know what you want, it still takes time or money to pull it off. Like all things, my friend. Like all things. I'm not good at science. That's hard. I'd have to do. I'd have to take a lot of time and things. It's the 10 ,000 hours concept, which is such a true thing. You have to have passion for it. And I don't know if anyone's ever just going to stumble upon. I think there are some people that just maybe are born or at a young age trained to have a good eye, whether that's their parents influence them or they're just around it a lot. So kind of through osmosis. We've definitely had people that have worked here that have kind of just have had it, whatever it is.

16:22I think even with those people, there are tools they need to sharpen in their own bag. You have to really know oneself in order to take the time to go make one million decisions that it takes to design a space. You need to be willing to put yourself in that space to figure out what you like. It takes a lot of time and energy in figuring out your personal style. And I can see why it's easier just to sit on a couch and scroll on your phone and watch a TV at the same time and not ever phone it in and just rent a space for the rest of your life and not buy decor. And for some people, that's great.

16:55And they'll find joy in other things. But there really is this very personal journey one can go on of figuring out who they are and what they identify with and what their personal style is and what their favorite colors are and what makes them tick. And these are the memories in my frames. And this is the story I tell, and this is what my house smells like when I walk in. It's a personal journey that does take time. And hopefully if you do saddle up with somebody and have a partner in life, maybe they like it, even if you don't. And it's going to be so easy to live with you because you don't care.

17:25You know what I mean? But they'll tell your story with you. And you'll love the way that feels. I mean, I know my husband lets me make all the decisions, and he's just like, I just love our house. He's honestly always saying that and loves it the longer he lives in it, which is so great. So it doesn't necessarily mean you have to be great at it, but maybe the people around you or the people you live with can help tell your story and you can be a part of that. It's proof of life. I think it's very important work. You saying that kind of just made me think of you guys in the design center. Building a home, anyone who's ever done it knows it's an exhausting process.

17:57You have to make a million decision and it's very hard. And you guys have elected to do that for 10 hours a day. For 10 on all eternity. Exactly. For perfect strangers. Yeah. There's no light at the end of the tunnel like, oh, we're wrapping this house up on this day. Then I can turn the brain off. You know what I mean? So it takes like a special type of person to really just want to do that. It takes passion. And I think that passion derives from experiencing space. Experiencing space that's been done well. We work for brilliant humans. They're brilliant in their own right. And they're good at what they do.

18:30in their lane that's what they excel at they're not good at decorating she's absolutely right but because i've felt what space can do we're invested we meet a client i'm like i want you to love your space i want you to love your home that is why this is a calling designers you know this it is a calling to do this work you know better at the end of the day they're not going to be happy with you if it doesn't feel right to them all their insides because it's not their natural thing they're not good at decorating that's why they hired you yeah that's why they hire us to pull that out of them and reflect that in their space so yeah for sure 100 most people aren't good at decorating if it's important to you you figure it out 10 000 hours if you're doing it for yourself or you hire someone to help you figure it out for yourself sorry i had to interrupt this conversation to talk about the house collection which is launching monday guys this is 18 pieces and you're going to want to shop it early.

19:27So if you're not already an insider, you're going to want to join the insiders to get access this weekend before it goes live to the public. Some pieces sell out fast. I'm going to tell you about a few of them because I have a feeling they're not going to last long. We've got some best sellers in the collection, which you're going to see in new fabrics like our Mushroom Ottoman and our Stevie Ottoman. And we have a brand new dining chair called the Kelly, named after Grace Kelly. and of course everybody's favorite Hermes bag, the Kelly. We are doing the Kelly chair and we have a Kelly vanity stool.

20:00Guys, you all have a makeup vanity at home where you get ready and what are you sitting on? You need to get the new Kelly. I can't wait for you to see it. We've also got the Lucy Lucite shelf, which is a darling little shelf just big enough to put above your toilet or next to your vanity to load it up with all your beautiful perfumes and jewelry. We have a new beautiful Calcutta Viola lamp and two new rugs and so much more. Check out the house collection. It launches Monday. Unless you become an insider, you'll get early access this weekend. The next one is rugs on carpets are a waste of money.

20:32Said by a man. It wasn't Corey. That's hilarious. Poor Adam. I'll say this. If we know we're going to be putting a rug on a carpet, we're going to select a carpet that's a loop pile. It's not going to be a cut pile because if you do put a rug on top of a cup pile, that rug is going to go surfing and it's going to move around every time you walk on top of it. But you've got the legs of your bed, right, that are weighing it down. So now it's making lumps and bumps and you're pulling on it every time. And I can totally understand why you think that that's a waste of money. It's because your rug's probably surfing on it.

21:11But you really do want a rug to ground your space. And I knew this at my house. And so I got myself a real wool loop carpet. It's not a high pile. It's not super soft, but it's a beautiful ground to put rug on top of. It will not surf. It stays in one place. I can put my beautiful rug on top of it and it layers really pretty. It's kind of like when you see people use a sisal rug and then on top of it, they use their hand knotted rug. It's that same idea that sisal rug is a loop. So if you're building or if you're a designer and you know in a bedroom, you want to keep it quiet you want to still have a soft ground with bare feet do a loop pile do a real wool one it's so beautiful and luxurious then you can use your rugs on top it took us a long time to figure that out we used to put rugs on top of cut pile until we really learned this the next one are white ceilings need to go that's true agreed yeah yeah it really does it feels like primer especially as you're now we're into color we all love color we're doing rooms in color you cannot not leave the lid white.

22:12It really looks like you forgot something. So even if you're going to use it at 50 % of the wall color or 20 % of the wall color, what did you do in your bedroom? I picked it. Oh, that's right. But it looked like it was like, it looks like I wanted it to feel like different. And sometimes doing the percentage on that ceiling plane, it doesn't pay off because of the shadows. So you're going to want to go significantly lighter on your ceiling. So you're going to go at least 50 % lighter than your actual wall color. Yeah. to start to feel a difference. And you're going to sample it and see if it looks any different.

22:43And then you're going to go lighter and lighter depending on the color that you chose on your wall. Or just choose a lighter color. If you don't want to deal with the percentages, it's really, really worth it to be fully enveloped in a color, especially if you're using color. If you're using neutrals, you're not going to notice it as much. If your ceiling is white and your walls are taupe. Yeah. Yeah. But the way that everything's going is using color in the wall and hitting the ceiling. The next one is fake plants are lame. i can understand how someone would be so passionate about plants and stuff that they would feel this way yeah having said that there's no way i could keep up with stems in in my home i have to have faux ones sometimes i lose track of the season and we don't pull the christmas branches out no the cherry blossoms and swap them or or even sometimes the christmas branches are up until february yeah i have to have those because i can't do it i think the difference is is like getting good ones honestly we didn't carry any faux stems or anything for a long time because nothing looked good if you can keep something real alive do that 100 if you're like going out and you're foraging all the time high five i love that look we all do we love a live tree i'm gonna say this we're just in odessa shooting that project and she had this faux palm that had several several stocks coming out of it it looked like we were in a ralph lawrence showroom i had idea it was massive and I think that's the thing is usually fake trees are just a little small and scraggly looking so if you're going to do it you're going to spend a lot of money and get a great one because she had said to us I cannot keep anything real alive yeah and they travel and everything else so she's in Corey's camp and to that you're just going to buy great ones and then you're going to have the volume and the fullness another tip is you're going to want to use a ginger jar that's opaque because you can tell that those stems are faux because there's no water in there and you can see the plastic at the bottom of the stem right so a ginger jar is solid it's also good looking and global and interesting you cannot see through it you can't see if they're fake or not if the tops look fantastic which we really pride ourselves in getting real looking cherry blossoms the green wood stem looks like a forage tree yeah those are fantastic look great in any of our ginger jars and then you don't have to worry about it.

25:02And then to this, fake plants are lame. They're not lame. They look really exotic and extraordinary. The good ones. And they're like 40 something inches tall, just like a forage tree would be. So just get the good ones. Yeah. There are some lame ones. Don't buy those. All shag carpet needs to be thrown out. So many sins in those things. Yeah, probably. Yeah. I'm trying to think of a case for when you would want it. I don't think you'd want it anywhere right now. I know the 70s are coming back, So we'll probably see some version of shag that's interesting. I know some people love a high pile. We've had a client that's like, I need the thickest pad available.

25:38I love to wrestle my kids. We don't want to break anything. I'm not loving this look for anybody right now. So I agree. If we're designing for a rock star and you're Harry Styles and you want shag carpet, gosh, I'm going to get you the best shag carpet ever. Let's do a shag stairway. Okay. All right, Benson Boone. Surf down it. We'll get you shag carpet. Yeah. The next one is people should have two separate toilets in the primary bath. I've never heard this one before I hear people say this is the the key to a successful marriage I think in all of the really large homes we work on there's his and hers toilets they both come home from their date they both go to the toilet you know so I don't know people really love it that have had it I've never had it you guys have never had it it does seem like the ultimate luxury sounds awesome to have his and hers yeah it makes me feel bad as a man but honestly my wife's side of the bathroom is way messier than mine yeah it's crazy i mean you've seen those videos where the on instagram where the wife's like my husband i tell him to put this stuff away and then she like scans past her it's like stuff everywhere i relate to that hardcore there is just so much stuff to be a woman the husband should be like hey let's get separate potty closets yeah this could have been we'd be like gladly yeah yeah something we both can agree She can have that heated seat if she wants it.

26:55She can have all the waterworks. Maybe he doesn't want it. It's a very personal thing. He wants a urinal. High five. You can do that. Instagram is making people worse at decorating. This depends on your algorithm. I have to say, my algorithm is pretty great. I bookmark a lot of stuff. I love what's happening on Instagram. Got to work on that algorithm. It's so good. It's so good. There's so much great design that's happening globally, and we get a front row seat at it. It used to be that we could only see what came out in a published magazine once a month. It's very expensive. It was very expensive.

27:28And then you would tear it out and you'd keep a binder for your house, living room tab, bedroom tab. I was doing a Pinterest, which I invented it. Don't you think Instagram is so fun? I love the bookmark feature. Yeah. Interior inspiration is amazing. Amazing. The thing that I really disagree with this on is that people are becoming more informed and are developing their point of view. And sometimes that's rocky. It's not like we're publishing our very first works when we were getting started, right? You have to start somewhere. And social media and those platforms give people some ground to start building their point of view and what they love.

28:05And I think that that's fantastic. I'm going to play devil's advocate a little bit on this, though. Okay, okay, okay. In a lot of cases, not just interiors, social media has given people a platform that maybe haven't put in the work to be able to get the clout. that they deserve. 30 years ago to get published in a magazine, it wasn't just like, I'm going to do this, I'm going to DIY this and post it. And as long as I'm good at marketing, there's going to be a million eyes on it. Unfortunately, that can't be the case now. I know I think about music all the time. I'm just like, it is not necessarily the greatest bands or artists that are being seen and heard it's the ones that are the best at marketing so in that sense I can see where why this can be true yeah that's a really good point people saying that they're expert when they're not that's not cool it's hard work designing's hard work it's offensive to the art of it yeah you know yeah it's patronizing to the people that have put in their hours and have not learned marketing because they're really entrenched in their passion.