Remodel Masterclass: House of Flora

0:00Hello, everyone. Welcome to Dear Alice. We are in February. Happy Valentine's Day coming up. Today is going to be another episode in our series called Remodel Masterclass. This is the fifth one. And this is called House of Flora. This one lives on our portfolio. And it's a remodel that we did in Utah. And I remember we got the first time consultation phone call from the client during the pandemic. Things were, it was like the summer, like June, July timeframe. And we went up to see the house for the first time. This is, I think, a story that so many of you can relate to. and so I'm excited to be able to to have us all share just some of these remodel tips tips and tricks if you guys are looking at making changes to your house this year or just even seeing things through a new lens not some of not super super difficult some some things the right way to do it some smart space planning and so we'll get into it buckle in for another remodel master class first up though I wanted to tell you guys to check out our gift guides for Valentine's Day because we've got really beautiful gifting.

1:04Maybe a lot of you need to share the gift guides with your significant others. I think Alice Lane does a great job of thinking of those really beautiful gifts and details and things that all of us as women love in particular. Because we're all here at the table. We're all good at gifting. We're thoughtful. I've gotten better because of you guys. I'm going to say that. I know. Seriously. And you can get better too. Stick with us. We've got a gift guide for you. I love it. Sue, tell them about our free design service too. Oh my gosh, this is another gift you should give her or him. Our free design service is our home furnishings design.

1:37And it's so great because these are all qualified designers and the service is completely complimentary. So if you are looking to furnish a room in your home that has just like that hasn't worked correctly or you are empty nesters and it's time to allocate your office to the guest bedroom, whatever it is, we're here to help. We have qualified designers that are working on CAD that can put all of our vendors and the furniture thereof and all of our exclusives in these spaces. And you don't have to pay for the design services. You just get to buy the furniture and it's going to look amazing. And you finally can get it done before people come to town for summer.

2:12Wouldn't that be fun? So fun. Yes. Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day. To you both. How do you sign up for that is you go to aliceleinhome.com on the design service tab. you're just going to go down to our home furnishings design and you're going to fill out the application and we'll get to you within 24 hours amazing thanks freaky fast

2:35really quick too i just wanted to put in a quick plug i'm sure you've already watched it but if you haven't we started a new series called dear alice the reveal inside the install and this is us taking you inside of one of our installs at Alice Lane Interior Design, a new build. All of these homes are new builds. There's one remodel that's coming up where we took our cameras inside and we filmed a week-long install. And the house that we just barely revealed, we actually revealed it on January 21st. So it's already on our YouTube. Go look for it. But it was a five-year build that we did in Odessa, Texas.

3:11And I cannot wait for you to see it if you haven't seen it yet. That is a real treat for you to go watch after this. It's so beautiful. I'm so happy to finally be able to share, you know, in a real way, like what goes on inside of an install. And I think you're going to love that content. The best part about it too, is when you're doing the interviews and obviously all the footage and stuff, you're in the thick of the install at the time. Yeah. We're glowy. Yeah. Yeah. In Odessa. It really is awesome. Yes, for sure. And you guys all love details. And I mean, that's why we're going to be going through this home to share some of the details, but this is a really visual way for you guys to see and experience the details of what we do so yeah yeah it's like we took you with us I've had so many people be like if you ever need help on an install I love interior design I'd love to to come schlep the bags or like whatever it is legitimately had so many grown women that maybe have one kid left at home or that have always wanted to do it and they always like want to volunteer their services for an install I'm like you we're literally moving a family in and it's 100 degrees and it's in the middle of the desert are you sure you'd want to do that so now we're finally like okay yeah come help us with the install just come be a fly on the wall without the labor pains and exactly and in an air-conditioned and you get to sleep in your own bed at night yeah anyway so that's a real treat um to watch dear alice to reveal okay cory let's get into it okay so like jess said we're gonna go over the house of flora and our remodel master class series this is our fifth one and you guys have enjoyed it so thank you yeah but see let's take it away and let's tell people about the project so the year's 2020 we get a call from the most darling client who is an empty nester and I think as everybody knows as you transition from one phase of life to another your space changes the function of it changes and she was really ready to move on and kind of reclaim this space for herself because I can only imagine I mean I'm still in the thick of it I still have three little boys we'll start crying if we start thinking about the rooms being empty I can't imagine that day when they're gone there's probably a sense of hallelujah, but then tears at the end.

5:11You walk by those rooms and you kind of have to do something. You need a project to, again, reclaim it for yourself. And so that's what this client wanted to do. She did a few different spaces. We really just tackled, didn't tackle the main level of the house. We tackled the upper level where her primary suite was. She always hated her primary bath and she always wanted an office for herself. So we played Tetris and that's what we're going to get into today, starting with her office. Shall we? Let's do it. Okay. So this is like your typical bedroom. When you guys look at the floor plan, those of you that are watching on Spotify or YouTube, you can see the before on the left.

5:50It's just your basic bedroom, one window and then a closet that's sheet rocked in and you've got sliding doors. So when we're looking at doing this space, I'm sure a lot of you would be tempted to try and keep the closet for storage. but if you will get rid of that irregular architecture and give yourself the most beautiful vantage point coming into the room you can see we were able in the new floor plan to come up with what looks like a recessed built-in we furred out the walls a little bit on each side and then did beautiful custom cabinetry right in the center to house a tv and then lots of storage for her things and then it gave us the ability to float the desk in line with that window so she could look out and have a view so we're just going to go straight to the afters because the befores again were just a basic bedroom but like you said when if you can have a built-in to really identify what are your storage needs what do you want this to have her biggest want she's just like i want a place where i can have a little sofa or a chair and i can go sit and i can watch tv but i can also have a desk that i can be working at my husband could come and hang out and so they wanted a tv and she wanted she is a collector she just has like if you go into her house she's just like an anthropology of a thing she dresses like that she collects all the things and she's just the sweetheart of the ball and so she just needed shelving to be able to display her life and her loves and just kind of be reminded you know of those prime years so anyway so that's what we did so the cool thing about this built-in that you're seeing on the screen is that we took up one whole end of this room and in the center we did there's two doors that slide and that is what conceals the tv or exposes the tv which is really cool if she's wants it's like look from proper she can close that up you don't have to see the tv you just have a lot of versatility to be able to close the built-ins if they're not styled the way you want them to be and then they're not swung into the room taking up space and doing all that yeah yeah I will say the sliding door is such a good real estate saver swing.

7:54Anyway, I'm just so happy with how this turned out. She has a desk. She has a little sofa. Okay. We actually have a little video showing kind of the operation of how those doors swing open, close, but I was just so happy that she finally had a space that she can like call her own, that she can like do special projects in, write love notes, you know, command center. Yeah. It's her command center. Other than having a little spot that every mom has by the kitchen. it's just like cluttered and filled with mail like can you imagine just having a space yes just like kind of call your own and honestly this room has the best view of the whole valley and so I'm so glad that she was able to clean as her own I think another thing that's fun about having a space to call your own is that you can do a colored piece of cabinetry like this in a feminine color like this beautiful plummy mauve tone antique mirror on the doors and I also love that we furred in the walls and brought down the sheetrock down from the ceiling to do this little soffit to really make this cabinetry just truly truly built in and it's just so handsome there's brass rod details there's beautiful hardware antique mirror all the bells and whistles it's just it's really just truly feminine I think if this was a shared space or a shared office you'd probably be tempted to you know given to make it look more masculine or to make it look more unisex and I think this is great that it can just be all you there's not very many times in a home where you can do that as a married couple you know so when I look at this it's just fully fully her it was very custom yes and it was very custom so high five and our next space this was probably the biggest portion of the remodel was the whole primary suite now you guys are probably I don't know if you're like living in this I think you mentioned you're like oh my gosh that looks like my mother's bathroom yes and i don't know this has to be the early 2000s when this house is built if you're looking at this on screen this is a vanity that's a 90 degree angle and then they have a little mitered corner in the middle where there's a tower a cabinetry tower on top of the counters and then you've got this sort of diagonal bank of drawers that lives in there on the 45 when you're getting ready you're kind of bum to bum you know sort of uh getting ready your mirrors and their sconces just up on top, shining down on it.

10:09So this arrangement just feels so dated. It's hard to get good lighting because the windows are behind you. She's got it painted dark green. And I just think there was such a great opportunity. There must have been something about your regular architecture in the 2000s that was really celebrated. Even the jetted tub is sitting in there on a 45-degree angle with lots of faceted angles around it. So this must have been something that was really beautiful to do. I feel like they're trying to maximize space. But when you're there brushing your teeth, you feel like you're putting a corner on both sinks too.

10:45Talk about marital divide. You don't even see your person in the mirror. Serious. So I think they're trying to take advantage of like the corners of areas. And typically, you know, most people will like 45 that corner. Yeah. I don't buy it. If you are living like this, this will really set you free because you don't actually have to do that. And I think the space planning here is so, so smart. And we were able to take an extra bedroom. We're going to show you on plan view how we work this out. So take them through how we solve this problem. I was going to say, I dare say with those clipped corners, that same developer that like came up with those ideas also came up with the corner fireplace.

11:21Yes, he did. Yes, he did. Okay. Subscribe to that. Okay. Back to the programming. Okay. So this is a before on the screen showing what we just showed you and some pictures of how the bathroom sat originally with this kind of like weird cornered shower. again quite small you know for like it's a lovely dream home like on the top of a mountain and it needed a larger space and really she just needed more space with her vanity and just she didn't need this guest bedroom that was just adjacent to the primary bedroom so we completely we got rid of that wall and we just joined forces with these two spaces and it turned out really really great we had a water closet potty closet and the original one we did push that and move that up to grow her closet they share a closet wasn't huge so we were able to grow their primary closet but then we're also able to get them like a really like lovely tub you know and the biggest thing i think here is the vanities in front of the window this was i think the biggest win um they have this incredible view amazing light and we're able to straighten those out so they could take advantage of the actual view um we had this vacant corner where they had these two corner windows where the jetted a tub used to be that she's like I would love to have a chair in here so like if I'm getting ready and my husband's waiting for me he has a place to sit and fancy like after all this was done I'm like what's your favorite spot and she's like that corner chair in my bathroom I go there all the time that's where I do scroll that's where I shop you know and so she's not in her office you'll often find her in this corner chair in her bathroom like just basking in the light because it's so beautiful I'm gonna say this too this is my personal opinion every realtor probably is going to disagree with me, but I think taking over, especially an unused bedroom, if you do it right, you're not going to lose value.

13:08Because think about who's buying the house. Who's buying the house is the mom and the dad, right? They're the owners of the home and this is their suite. And so they're like, I could, I could live this lifestyle rather than having an extra bedroom, just for a bedroom count, being able to show this big, beautiful, grand suite with all this space and all this natural light, that for sure would make me want to buy the house. And also we got a bigger closet, which I know is really important to people today too, is they look at the closets, they look at the primary suite, they look at the kitchen, right?

13:40We have more stuff than ever. That's the truth of it. Yeah, I think taking that over and doing something useful with it, making great use of the space that you're putting in the guest bedroom, if anything, I think you're going to get more for it. Sure. And I know you say this all the time, Jess, you're just like i'm ready to sell my house if i don't change something quick yeah like this is something that they can grow well you know to end of life in just because it's actually livable and so again it's just going to bloom where you're planted whatever phase you're in if you're planning on staying there and you're not worried about resale value really think about like how can i live more beautifully how can i live more smart more better yeah more better for sure yep for sure.

14:20I've been watching my sister go through this empty nest phase this year and she is les miserables. It is the saddest thing to witness. And there really is something about walking past empty bedrooms to get to your bedroom. And I was like, you've got to just change those bedrooms. You've got to turn it into a bigger closet or an office or a study or something that you would use. And also the project of becoming something different, I think would be really therapeutic. to, you know, to get her mind off of the emptiness. You'd be so busy after a full day of work that you got to come home and make decisions.

14:56You don't have time to grieve. Exactly. And then pretty soon it's this new chapter. You can go put your clothes in there and live this life. And her kids have rooms downstairs and, and she doesn't need to look at these sad childhood bedrooms. They have a place to sleep if they want to come home for the holidays, but there really is something therapeutic about moving into a new chapter of your home as you do this with your life and it was really fun to get to see her do this work and get to this next chapter and get to live so beautifully and and see her love it totally yeah okay you guys i got a great idea for valentine's this season let's hear it well cozy earth is offering bogo pajama deal did you know this no way they've never done it before so bogo means buy one get one so i'm gonna buy pajamas for me.

15:42And I'm also going to buy a pair for my daughter Jane that lives at home because what mom doesn't want to dress just like her daughter? Exactly. She's going to hate it. She's 20, but she's going to love the pajamas. In the most comfortable jammies that have ever existed on planet earth. The most comfortable pajamas. You want to know who I'm going to give mine to? Who? My mom. And my sister, which means I get two pair and they each get one of the most comfortable pajamas on planet earth. Seriously though, these are so lightweight and cozy and I like how tailored. They look, you know me, I want to still look good even in my pajamas.

16:15The little piping around the collar. I like the draping too. I think so too. I have not seen these not look good on anybody. They drape beautifully. They're so soft. Also, they're cooler than cotton, which is very important. And the color fast. The color fast. They stay the same color and they do not peel years later. I tell you what. Yes, I agree. So comfortable. You look chic in them. You wake up feeling good. I'm in love with the pajamas and love that there's a BOGO going on. These viral PJs are so good that they sold out during the holidays and now they're back with an exclusive deal only available January 25th to February 8th.

16:53Head to CozyEarth.com today and use our code DearAliceBOGO to get these PJs for you and someone you love. And if you get a post-purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Celebrate everyday love with comfort that makes the little moments count. Here are some of the after pictures that we're looking at. If you're not viewing this, if you're listening to this in your car, do pull over or come back and revisit the pictures because they really are beautiful. Again, it's on our portfolio. It's our House of Flora project. But I think, again, I think we did it in a beautiful and not like irresponsible way.

17:29You know, yes, we do have slab, but this kind of shows you, this is, I think, my favorite elevation those doors where you have yeah the actual cabinetry i think is something to really like stop and zoom in on but just so much storage space so much light she i think again every woman's dream is to have this drop down vanity this is kind of like your bathroom jess where you have that sitting between the two sinks um and it sits right in front of a window and one fun thing she's like i take my little granddaughter up here and i do her hair right here and so I'm just like just anyway she's proud of it her family gets to appreciate it you know in this new phase of life so making new memories in the same space just using it differently well pass that on Colleen yeah I know I love that I love that here's that chair just basking in that corner with her tree so beautiful the tree is so dope by the way so great yeah it's a really good one especially in the bathroom that's yeah that's what it needs um those of you that love design probably aware of a designer called Ross Cassidy.

18:32He's one of the AD100 designers and recently watched him shop Round Top, Texas. How fun. And he was just saying how he loves, one of his favorite designer tricks is to put a chair in a bathroom. And I think it's just so unexpected to have something soft where everything else is so hard and waterproof. It almost feels like you're breaking the rules. Ever since he said that, I was like, oh gosh, even if it's only a dining size chair or something very petite just getting something soft in there I really like okay I want to experiment with that I want to get a chair in my bathroom this year I got to find the right space to tuck it but I just love so much that hers isn't just a dining type chair it's an actual full lounge swivel chair where she can just really get comfortable bask in the light like a cat and just pulls her legs up on there yeah that's beautiful what a luxury you know and also this let's talk about the floor pattern too let's do that deserves a mention we did a large format but again this is just straight cuts on like square linear tiles and so um you're able to do really we did this like zipper pattern like within you can see a couple of the repeats like when you get to the tub portion but so it's basically two tiles this is a custom um floor pattern that we did we always will do this in people's entries where we take large format marble tiles in two or three colors and create our own sort of geometry and then we'll show the tile setter and it's really simple cuts to be able to make a custom pattern but the payoff is so huge so this is a custom pattern and suz is going to tell you how we achieved it and so these are large 12 by 24 tiles as the majority of the field here but then we did the zipper pattern i think i believe it was like a 12 by 12 and then we cut that into three i could pick them as like a four by 12 to create this kind of offset pathway as you go into the space and I just think it feels so graphic so cool again they're they're fun they're a really fun couple and a fun family and so they deserve to have something that was felt reinvented and then when you say they're all straight cuts that's just like alluding to it's not crazy hard to do so it's not going to break the bank yeah to apply a pattern like that the fabrication we didn't do any radiuses or anything we try whenever we do this just because we do get the backlash from builders and saying, no, the designer specified an ANSAX again.

20:53You know, that's going to cost you. So whenever you can do like a large, like, again, square, rectangular tile that you love, and you can just do straight cuts onto that in like the divisions, then you don't have any waste. And you can, you know, make a really cool, I think, statement in your space. For fun, go back to the plan view because you can see the zipper pattern and how that lays out on plan. yep i just think that's so fun to look at from an aerial point of view great yeah it's just way more interesting than doing it like a you know um offset and i think in a large space you want to do a large pattern right small space like the potty closet you can see here on plan view and in the shower that you've got a small pattern so that's easy to remember if you're embarking on your own remodel maybe you're not a designer but you love design and you're trying to figure out what to do it's a pretty easy rule to remember that in your large spaces you're going to go large format you would never ever ever want to see a penny tile in a huge space like that whole primary bath but you could see it on the floor in a shower or in a potty closet or a small mosaic or something like that yeah and kind of to your point of just like experimenting with like the chair in the space we were able to fit like again that large chair but we were also able to fit like a really large etiger you know again she has a lot of collections she wanted a place to like stack all of her towels and just like have a few more love mementos while she sits and bask like a glorious cat she is and anyway we were able to fit large furniture in a space because we had I don't know we had the ability to because we took that whole room over didn't get a great picture of it but on the screen you'll see her potty closet where it has that small tile on the floor um it has a wallpaper we always 100 of the time in your primary closet we'll take the potty closet and we'll put a wallpaper there just because it is it's the pocket square we do it in the main powder and in these like when you have like a private little like water closet as part of your part of your suite sometimes people have two we'll always do a wallpaper in there because otherwise you just have like four blank walls and a blank ceiling so do something fun so this kind of gives you a shot of that and then these are just a couple shots um in the bedroom we didn't do too much over here aside from refurnish and repurpose some of her existing pieces but just by painting the walls and doing new drapery and just like filling in the gaps to like make it feel complete it's so luxurious and I'm so happy for them at the end of the day that they get to come here so that is the primary suite one honorable I actually have two honorable mentions um this is that a little guest bath um before again pretty ho-hum nothing to you know write home about on the before pictures that we're looking at again it's pretty basic if you're listening definitely pay attention because we went she's like i want to do something really fun i love flowers she gave us like her like pieces in her wardrobe of colors that she loved and she's not afraid of using pattern which is really real i think very timely right now for pattern being such a hot thing um to really pay attention to the visuals on this one but we did this like really kind of retro wallpaper in this floor And this is kind of what inspired the House of Flora was this wallpaper for the whole home.

24:09And again, those small doing like a large pattern, but with a small, it kind of gets the best of both worlds on this tile pattern mosaic on the flooring. And then we anyway, just everything about this, I just think is just so much fun. I think people are going to freak out when they see this. And it makes me want to redo my bathroom again. And even though you have small little tiles in here, the repeat is big. Yes, the pattern is big. The graphic is great. Yeah, it almost feels like a Roman bath or something with a large pattern made up of small little marble mosaics. It's just so lovely. And it brought color in, which related back to the walls and feels like it could be here for 100 years.

24:47I love how this turned out, too. And then in the shower, isn't that cute? Just like the striping. You can be really creative, you know, again, didn't break the break. but just like by adding like little liners you know framing your niche and like just kind of creating a stripe pattern is just such a fun way to make it feel really really custom you know but it's just all you have to do is just give the directive to the installer how do you find those like cutoff points do you think like where you're adding the band usually it's like with if you have like windows like we'll line it up with that um usually with like architecture things that are happening in the rest of the room or sometimes it's just a visual thing you know like you'll have one you know that like if you have a tub shower like this one you know that kind of gives you one line and you're kind of offset from there so we've done like a consistent stripe before this one is a little bit less consistent and regular which i think feels like her you know like she wouldn't want something that's so mathematical yeah so yeah she's a lot more fun than that so in the emerald green there's something about showering and like a deep tile so pretty this feels like an old swimming club or something it's just so handsome and the glossiness of that tile and the regularity of it something really retro about these long skinny subways but the glaze is pooling differently in each one and yeah this feels like you would call seek help it's just beautiful i love it and what's so fun even like with you know empty nester how fun for her daughter to come back to this space with her daughter yes and just like to just share that joy of just like being renewed and like this like whole new version of you i just i just love it so much it makes me look forward to that time in my life and be like well what does that look like I also mean it will feel like mom and dad aren't getting old you know what I mean that we're going back to their old house and oh yeah I remember this old faucet and still leaks yeah that you come back and it's your your old house but it's reimagined in a new way and it just I don't know it feels fresh and young and and hip just like the mom and dad are yeah it's celebrating the point in life that they're at.

26:50Yeah. You know, rather than living in the past. That's what I'm trying to do with my kids. It's like, you know, there's some stages that are harder than others. And I'm just like, I'm just going to try to enjoy every single stage and celebrate that. And yeah, so far, I mean, it's led to a happier and easier mindset for me. Yeah, it's joyful. Absolutely joyful. Last honorable mention that I think everybody can do that has a staircase is y 'all can get a new runner. She had a really lovely antelope. I think we've all seen it. We're very familiar with it. And she was just sick of it. She just wanted something new.

27:22Her favorite color is green. And so we found this faux bois green, almost needlepoint runner. And a couple of things that we did, again, it's not a crazy transfer. We didn't do anything like any heavy lifting here. We replaced the runner and we extended that angle. Because before the runner just went straight down. It didn't like extend the width that it was available in. But we actually like took that and like followed the curve. The narrower the staircase looks on the left than before. It's just way underliving its potential. And when you do have the stair runner follow the arcuation of the stairs that slightly get wider at the end, it makes the staircase feel so grand.

28:02Yeah. And then you don't feel pushed up against the wall as you're walking up. Yeah. And oddly, the antelope feels so drab. And it could be that it was just lived on for a decade. But that faux bois needlepoint just feels so original and interesting. And the new railing. it's beautiful yeah we did do a new railing again that little brass ball she just needed this bed knobs and broomstick moment like the corner there and anyway just like gave her kind of a fresh lease on what was old is now new oh yeah so that's I mean if nothing else in 2026 you could just do a new stair runner or a stair runner if you don't have one that just absolutely makes it feel like a brand new entry yeah yeah it's great and I think what the biggest takeaway I think for us to all think about is like what would we do with those rooms you know what could we do with those rooms what is it adjacent to that or what's not working in our current rhythm we want it to work better because I guarantee you that there's some square footage to be borrowed somewhere in that home and whatever phase you're in you know to like make life you know more lovely and then dreaming of that's the fun oh my gosh that's is the fun like window shopping in your own house exactly you know and dreaming of the day start your pinterest boards yeah that's house of floor love it awesome you guys did a great job thank you oh so good well if you guys have any questions or episode ideas that you wish you'd cover just send those to dear alice at alicelanehome.com we'd love it if you would leave us a five-star review how do they leave a review Corey.

29:33So if you go to our Dear Alice page on Apple and you scroll down just above where the reviews are, it'll, there'll be a little blue or purple icon that says write a review. Click on that, fill it out and hit post. Amazing. Or if you're on Spotify or on YouTube, we'd love to hear from you there as well. Write some comments. Yes. Write some comments. And ask us questions. Yeah. That's how this started. Exactly. Just a quick reminder to the listeners to have your partners shop the valentine's gift guide and get you guys something really nice for the new year if you're not already following us on instagram our handle is at alice lane home and our interior design handle where we're working on projects is at alice lane interior design so go check us out there thanks again for listening guys we'll catch you next time

30:33Hey, thanks for listening. If you like our show, please leave a five-star rating.

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