Remodel Masterclass: Jess' Home Office

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0:20Jess:Would you like fresh towels? It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton dot com. Hilton for this day. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Dear Alice. Today we're in for a really fun, very personal episode of Dear Alice. This is part of our Remodel Masterclass series, but this is our special host edition. Much like Suze remodeled her bedroom, I, at the same time, was remodeling my home office. And I'm going to take you on that journey with me as I made decisions. It's really, really hard to do your own. so extremely we as designers can help other people all day and have vision for them but when it comes to our own house we're like I could see this going a lot of different ways and being happy and how do I hone it down so I want to take you guys through doing your own it's a different journey than giving advice to other people yeah but it's nice when you have a phone the friend because I feel like we were doing this in tandem yeah it'd be like okay same issue we're gonna pull you about this and you're gonna tell me what I need to do totally anyway I feel like that was it was like like your pink color and everything, just getting a second set of eyes that you trust is always really nice to have on any project that you embark on or your own homes.

1:33You're like, remind me who I am on this journey. It's like if you're on a hard hike with a friend and you're like, give me a pep talk because I can't make it up that next part. Exactly. So I'm so excited. I think 2014-15 Jess did a good job with the information she had about who she was at the time. Yeah, she did. As we all evolve and change, so can our rooms. and you know this wasn't this wasn't rocket science I mean for the most part it's it's paint and and it's a little bit of furniture changing it up but the vibe really changes and that's why this is so important because this remodel master class isn't rocket science this is something that all of us can do that are listening or watching to this podcast hopefully this empowers you just to make a new high gloss change to one of your rooms and just reimagining it it's this is not hard what I'm about to show you but it's entirely different love it before we do there are some pieces that Jess has in her office that are from our collection the new classics that just launched two weeks ago so this is a reminder to go to alicelanehome.com and to shop the collection again it's called the new classics yay especially after you see it in her room you're gonna want to snatch some yes definitely it's so good and I think that was like such a springboard for wanting to do or finish the office up was that I was like, I've got these new pieces that we should work into an environment because it's better than just shooting on the showroom floor.

2:55Showroom floor is neutral. It's beautiful. Lots of natural light, but bringing these into smaller spaces, making it in more of an environment that's a color and personal. It just. And you're living with it every single day. Exactly. It just, it feels at home and I think people can better picture it in their own homes. So that was one of the big impetus for myself to get the office done in time for us to be able to shoot this at the beginning of January. Diving into just how and why you started your room. Again, it had been done 2014-15 and then enter in 2025 and this launch. What were your biggest takeaways from how it was to how you wanted it to feel that you started with?

3:36Yeah, that's a great question. I love what you're asking, Sue, about how did you want it to feel? A couple concept photos. I'll show you guys these if you're watching on the screen. I did go with like, how do I want to feel in this space? And so these were a couple images that I pulled up and started saving to my board because I was like, I don't know what I want the room to look like, but I want to go with how I want to feel. And there's this image of an old Italian sports car that's this really beautiful automotive paint, which is really glossy and kind of icy Italian blue. And something about this just does something to my insides.

4:13I don't know what it is about me and blue, but it's just so restful and so at home. But there's also sort of this getaway or vacation feel, also sort of like an escape, summery. It feels restful. and I thought that picture is how I want to feel when I'm in my office. And so that was a real North Star for me. And there's something about not looking at other people's rooms that helps me figure out a feeling, right? Such a great point. Yeah, if you don't look at that, sometimes it's looking at an outfit. You're like, ooh, I want to turn that outfit into a room. And sometimes we'll do that with clients and say, show me your favorite pieces of clothing or what is so you, you know?

4:51And it's not looking at another Pinterest room or whatnot because it's too easily to be compared or to want to copy something like that. So this, I think, is a really good thing to pay forward to you. If you're having a hard time, especially working for yourself, identifying what you're wanting, maybe don't look at rooms. These are some more colors that I looked at. These are rooms. There's an image with a barrel vault in the middle. It's a hallway. And I have a barrel vault in that room that has been living in untapped potential. I left it undone because I kept feeling like, I think I'm going to silver leaf it.

5:24I painted the walls before in 2014, 15, this sort of blackened navy color. And then I did this art installation on my back wall, which is Dick Blick hand marbled papers. They were all like 17 by, what is the big paper size off of our printer? We do presentations 18 by 24. 11 by 18. 11 by 18. They're like large 11 by 18 hand marbled papers that I had my paper installer install one by one on a back wall. And so many of these, there's so many colors in it. And I could see that old Italian sports car living in some of the marbling here. And so I knew I could paint the room that feeling, that color, and have it connect better to the art installation than the Navy, the blackened Navy that was there.

6:13because I wanted it all to sort of melt together and just feel very continuous. And then back to that concept photo with the light blue barrel vault, I just loved how glossy all of these paint colors felt, how reflective, how infinite. Automotive. And automotive, like the car. It just really, I don't know, it just really brought me to a new place. And the walls before were so dry and so dark that this just felt fresh and, you know, candy coated or lacquered. And so even though I was going lighter in the color by lacquering it, it still gave it a lot of intention and it gave it a feeling and it brought me back to that sports car.

6:51So that's the feeling I wanted. And so the color I landed on is Rain by Sherwin-Williams. It's SW6219. What a great name for it. Rain, yeah. We tried so many, so many blues in this room and I'd look at it day and night, all different planes. The funny thing about the room is there's not very much wall. No. There's a little bit of wall on both sides of the window, top and bottom. And there's a little bit of wall on this set of French doors that have side lights. A tiny bit of wall above it. And then there's a huge cased opening with no doors on it. And then this art installation on the back wall.

7:27So the biggest wall in the room is my ceiling. That's the most uninterrupted space for color. And I had nothing there before. It was white. And it was textured on the soffit areas. and then it goes up into the barrel, which was all just dry, sheetrocky, you know, just flat paint that was untapped potential. Being able to paint the entire room, including the windows, I have wood windows and French doors in that room with wood mullions. So we just sprayed everything in there, the Sherwin-Williams rain. Before we did that, though, we had to float sort of the soffit areas to a level five smooth that could take the glossy paint and then the barrel was already smooth.

8:08We had to smooth out the walls as well because they did have a little bit of texture to it. You can see I had white windows before with my white mullions. I decided to take it all the way all the way down to the baseboards even became Sherwin-Williams rain. I feel like people have asked who's just like well that's an accent wall. I just want to define why that is not an accent wall yeah yes it is accident but it is an art installation yeah an art installation you have again you're all windows and you just have this one beautiful wall where you do have this opportunity to install a large piece of art come you know enter your dick book yes paper and painted so anyway that and in this case architecturally yeah that is not what we're considering considering an accent wall we don't love accent walls but this is an art installation that then gets it just kind of echo up into a beautiful barrel that's being the exact same colors everything around it and speaks to the Dick Blick.

8:59So totally beautiful. Well, what I love too about the Dick Blick papers, and I had it before in my room before I painted it and after is I have two large brass edigeres. So an edigere is a fancy name for a shelf that is open on all four sides. So you can see the Dick Blick marbled paper on the back wall through the shelf. And it gave it this feeling of an old first edition book that has marbled paper on the inside. I just thought it would look so smart and studied behind all my design books and really beautiful behind the brass. It just wouldn't be the same if I just had this color, this, you know, Sherwin-Williams rain behind the bookshelf.

9:36I still really, really love that old 2014, 15 Jess hooked me up with this beautiful marbled paper. And so I honored her and we stayed with it. Yeah. We painted all of the beautiful white casings, everything in the space out that blue color all in with it. and it has been an absolute thrill. I will tell you, I painted this the exact same time that I painted my grass cloth teal. So these two projects were going on at the same time and I've never talked about this because after I did it, I was just like, oh, we'll get to it. It needs drapes. I need to refurnish it. I need to restyle it. It still needed more and I wasn't quite ready for where it goes and because we have so much design going on all the time, I'm sure all of you guys have unfinished design projects.

10:20So this was probably painted in June and by December I was ready to just finally really really take it on and so we did custom drapery in here I never had drapes in this space I had window coverings from Hunter Douglas that louvered and were beautiful and they filtered light so here were like the window treatments of my dreams I have this big arched window in the space and what I did in there was a fixed Roman in the arched portion that's inside mount. So beautiful. An open weave white fabric because I wanted it to be semi-transparent. I really think it's cool when I see sheer Romans. I just think it's so sexy.

11:01I've always wanted them. And I was like, this is my chance. It's an office. Nobody's getting dressed in here. Let's just go with something semi-sheer. So we did a fixed Roman in that arch. If you guys are living with any arch top window coverings and I didn't have the ceiling clearance to get a rod above it because it's a barrel vault. There was no way to get a straight rod in there. Or you can custom make a rod, but then where do the drapes go? It's like, are you going to have graduating rings up into the arch? That just felt like the wrong answer. There'd be no way to span the window with the whole height of it.

11:32Most people usually just cut it off at the flat portion, and then you're just drawing such a, I don't know, a harsh tension line belt right there. I loved what you did. It almost creates this sheer cornice box inset into this arch. which it feels it enhances the architecture yeah of what you guys paid for yes and then there's a break where after the fixed roman goes where i could put an operating roman and we did an inside mount on that and you can draw it all the way closed but the semi-shear portion of this was just like such a mood gave me that feeling back to the sports car again there's like white hydrangeas in that scene it's just airy it's floaty and then i did draperies over the french doors that span the whole 10 foot ceiling.

12:13I did polished nickel rods and the semi-shear just feels again like a breath of fresh air and it's just dreamy. I love going in this room now. It makes me so happy. You know what I love? I love that you can see your window grids. Such a smart organization too, how those are broken up and so I love that you're not covering it up with something you know that's like thick and opaque. It's that sheerness is just such a dream and drawing your window treatments. I would keep those. I'm sure you open it every now and again when you want to Calamity Jane and step out onto your deck or something. But having them drawn all the time, there's nothing sexier.

12:47Aren't they pretty? I love that Roman goddess. Hello. I love a sheer. It's so beautiful. These are a little bit more opaque than my living room ones, but it's just such a vibe. It's such a feeling. And it just, I don't know, it gave, I guess that was it. That was the feeling that I wanted was this beautiful icy Italian blue moment with semi-sheer drapery. I feel like my loaded up design books and collections still look really smart in here, but it doesn't you don't have to paint it dark to make it feel serious in the middle of the brass shelving I have a slim errands piece it's this blonde woman on top of a tiger and I just love the old Hollywood of it all it's just such a mood and a feeling also that caramely wood of your chest with that blue is so it's money it's so good so pretty Jess I just got a new comforter from cozy earth and it is my favorite new thing you know how much I love to get into my bed at the end of the day.

13:41I am tired. Yes. And their comforter, like everything that they do is cool. It's like a cloud. And like when I put it on myself at the end of the day, it's just like, it's perfectly like regulating, but the temperature for not only me, but for Tom as well, like it is the perfect weight and it looks so pretty. The construction on it is perfect. The stitching is lovely. And I just, I cannot tell enough people about this and I want to give to all my friends and family. Oh, I love that. You know what's great about Cozy Earth? Yeah. I just feel like the quality is so great. I've never been disappointed in anything.

14:15Ever. The comfort, the hand, the drape. I know that this comforter has got to be the most beautiful thing. I cannot wait to see it on your bedroom. You've got to show it to me tonight when I drop you off. Okay. I'm so excited. Every purchase from Cozy Earth is risk-free because they have a 100-night sleep trial. Try them for yourself. Every detail is designed to feel effortlessly comfortable. Returns are easy, but after feeling this level of comfort, you won't want to let them go. They also come with a 10-year warranty. Discover how care and every detail transforms simple routines into moments of true comfort and ease.

14:47Head to CozyEarth.com and use our code DEARALICE for up to 20 % off. That's code DEARALICE for up to 20 % off. And if you get a post-purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Experience the craft behind the comfort and make every day feel intentional. One thing that we did that was new in the space was Cori and I are prototyping our brand new ModSconce in red. We had the single that launched in January, and we're still working on the double. So I'm living with our prototypes here in my office. We're going to show you these before. Nobody's seen these yet because we're still working on them.

15:25So they'll release later on in the year. But aren't they so cute? They're so good. Something about that icy blue with red, that combination is so fresh. I feel so French about it. No, it's the red nail. It's the red lip. It's just like the classic French girl. Totally. I love it so much. You know what my favorite? It's probably because they're new, but I think it really is my favorite. It's just going in there. There's a bank of four switches. So I have an art light. I have the overhead light. I have lights in a soffit. And then my third switch is these sconces. And it's my favorite light of all.

15:57I just turn on the sconces and no other lights. And they shine on the room. They just give the room a glow without it being overhead light. And I love to pull up on my driveway at night. And this is the room that you see. And you can semi-shear through the room and just see it. And I'm like, this is my favorite. This is my favorite new pet. I just love this so much. The sconces are giving me so much life. I can't even tell you. It's back to what you were saying, Sue, earlier. It's like, what is it with sconces? I don't know if it's like the eye level. It's kind of like when you are getting ready and you have that light hitting you and your makeup goes on all right.

16:29right? It's just, there's something about it being at eye level and not casting shadows, casting like through the room rather than down on it. But onto the wall too. And when you're so jazzed about what you just did with this high lacquer color on your wall, you're just reminded, you're like, that was such a great decision. I love myself for doing that. It's so good. And the red is just so like French and just like your signature lip. I mean, you wear a red lip so well and there's something so unexpected about it. It really feels designer. It's unforgettable. That's what it is. That's what it is.

17:00It's unforgettable. You can't forget someone that always wears a red lip. I know. You can't forget somebody that always. You're going to get so much credit for the red sconce. And it's the classic thing. Yeah. What's more classic than red nails? What's more classic? You try the other nail polish, but you're always regretting. Red looks so much better. You're just like, two weeks, please come past her. So true. I just want to give a quick note. On the furnishings, I'm using two of our cocoon chairs. Which is such a vibe. Here in front of the French doors. Yeah, I mean, before I had two upright occasional chairs that felt like business time.

17:31When I put the cocoon chairs, I was like, let's do a face-off, just kind of a skew. So they look like they're having a conversation when you come into the room, and they're not just facing the desk. And then I brought our Shirley table in, which just very much feels like a vintage drinks table. It's such a vibe. I also brought in the little Oscar stool. Again, you could put a drink or a cell phone down. I love accommodating the guests. I have these sitting on top of a cowhide, a dark brown one. and it just kind of corrals the space, gives the ground something to really connect to these chairs.

18:02They're camel. They could not be prettier in this Italian blue atmosphere with the shears. I don't know. It just feels like the definition of chic. I also have our new Bruno pedestal in the space with a white sculpture on it. I'm just absolutely so happy that I finally finished this space after 10 and a half years. Yeah, that blue, I feel like it highlights everything. Those chairs go so well with it. the pedestal does the brass you know of your etigeres i'm like that thing that color is amazing it's just paint and drapery i mean but it's not a difficult remodel and i know we all have a space that is feeling a little bit tired to us in our house and i just wanted to say like some remodels can be this easy yeah you can go for an image that gives you the feeling you can incorporate that feeling into your house and live like this in 2026 feels like a vacation does also in there And I was just going to say to the cocoon chairs before you were upright.

18:55And I think most offices, you're just like, okay, business time. We're going to be, I feel like there's a real confidence with pulling that weight down and being more relaxed in the blue. There's, you know, not only are you, you're working in there, you're getting stuff done. The visibility of being relaxed. I feel very relaxed when I look in there. Yeah. When I stand in there, being inside that blue, it is freaking tropical smoothie. It's so lovely. Yeah. You feel like you're in vacation. Yeah. I like that you said there's a confidence to them because it's, you'd almost think the opposite. You think a confidence would come from an upright, occasional chair with arms.

19:27Highly molded. Exactly. A lot of successful. I did that when I first moved into the house, you know, and this, this way I'm like, I feel like I'm more comfortable and confident in who I am in my brain today. And the confidence is more of this really low, wide stance swivel that just makes you feel relaxed. And like, you can just sit down and stay a while instead of sitting upright and be postured in a space but also like cool points it's that wait like who whenever you're feeling like your coolest who is not the most confident at that point in time yeah you know what i mean they're usually a little more relaxed and they're comfortable and they're sitting low in their chair and their leg is crossed and their arms in the air and they're laughing and they're talking to their friends and this is like a space where you can just get low get lean take a call don't care who's watching yeah and like just a surety of like, you know who you are, the posture on this is just so low and comfortable.

20:22It makes everybody else comfortable and confident around you when you put pieces like that in a room. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it so much. Yeah. That's so, so great. One little note, because you know, when you take everything out of your room, you got to put it all back in again. And so in putting it back a few notes to pay forward on the bookshelves or on these editors of mine, if you will, I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you will stack books with like colors. It looks very, very studious and put together. In the old days, I probably would have wanted it to be more happenstance and not as considered, or I might have even stood all the books up with bookends.

20:57But I think laying the books down horizontally also gives you that confident low stance. And you can just get three books, same colorway, all your black books, all your white books, all your colored books. If they're colored, putting those in shades that look great together get boxes on top of them or objects that was sort of the the thing that I just kind of kept playing with throughout the holidays was reimagining these stacks so I just wanted to give you that quick cheat code because it took me a while to really figure out what I liked and that's what my eye liked so you have Bruno pedestal in that corner which is such a cool punctuation point back there yeah it gives the eye another height too to have something to look at because really everything kind of hangs out.

21:41You know, like your desk is 30 inches tall. The Bruno chairs are probably around that. I have a chest. The editors are tall, but they're on one side. So it gives a new atmosphere and height. And I feel like as designers, that's our job is to figure out how to bring in height to spaces that feel kind of low. You can see here like the organization of some of the book colors. It just feels good in the eye. Layered lighting with that penny light. It's fun too, because I'm like, I've seen Jess have all these objects. I've seen all these paintings in different spots in all of your houses and all of your rooms.

22:13They feel so at home. Anyway, it's just fun as you collect things and really build your story. It's fun to see the constants that you keep. The ones that stood the test of time that will stay in your collection forever and ever. And I'm just like, I'm so glad you got that on that trip that one time. Yes. In that one corner in the dark. Anyway, it's just so fun. All these things just throw out memories. I'm sure when you're in there, you're just like, this is my story. Tell your story. So good. Well, and there's, I know there's like pieces that I've been waiting on from the framer that I just picked up in France.

22:45And I'm like, I can't wait for those gloppy florals to get here and for them to find a spot on the wall. And it will continue to evolve like all of our houses do as designers. You know, you all have rooms in process. And Suze has lots of works at her framer. And she's always adding more and more art to her collection. So those things will come. But I feel like the foundation is set. I feel like we've met the potential finally with that barrel vault after 11 years, finally getting to see that be realized feels really good. And just getting to have that moment, the feeling of that car just realized in the room feels really, really good.

23:18So I wanted to pay all that forward as you guys are thinking through your projects. Just maybe that's, maybe that's an easier way to start is with a feeling. I love that. Okay, guys, we, we wanted to do a quick special guest here. We brought in Maddie Stewart. She's a senior designer here at Alice Lane, Alice Lane Interior Design. And in part of the launch for the new classics, she volunteered to make over her powder bath and do our single red mod sconce in it. And it looks so amazing. We're going to put pictures up right here. But I wanted her, you to hear in her own voice because she is a senior designer and has impeccable taste.

23:56I want you to hear from her a little bit of her process because maybe you want to just take on a powder bath. Maybe you're not ready to do anything major, but Maddie, you went bold. Tell the people what color you did and kind of the feeling you wanted. So I did Sherwin-Williams Marooned. Sounds kind of weird. Maroon-ed. It's dark. It's kind of a Merlot color. It is complete opposite of what I did before. I had like a light pink before and it was like a good step, but I feel like I wanted to go a little deeper. I wanted it to be interesting. It's like the impression that my guests are going to see and it's better to go bold in a small space.

24:39So I'm obsessed with it now. It's like a game changer for me. How about those sconces? They look insanely cool. The sconces are my favorite. it it's funny my dad doesn't get it because he's obviously not in this world but I feel like the red pops so good on the maroon and it's very like fashion forward it's like in with what's trending in fashion right now but also a classic no we're talking about just like that the French girl their classic red lip the I feel like that little pop of red just takes the seriousness out what because marooned could get really serious or take you back to an era but it makes it completely fresh It's completely fashionable because you're doing the color block.

25:21So, so dope. Yeah. Maddie has the single arm sconce in red. So, oh, and you did the caviar flush mount. So we did the caviar. And this was kind of an interesting thing. Jess was like, do you want to put the caviar in? I was like, you know what? We're going dark. Why not add another light? Because we didn't have a flush mount at all. Did you have a can there before? No can. It was just sconces. So that's why it's really an impactful thing now. because we just had a bar light above the mirror and then we added sconces on the side and then the flush mount so I felt like that also made it be more comfortable to go darker because we had three different lights so and it's just like the perfect size for a small space yeah it's moody too I love that it's transparent and also back to just the French girl the vintage classic I think it does bring that to your space this it feels like an antique that I found instead of a brand new piece which is what I like because I do like to incorporate more unique things in my house and also I just want to say Maddie didn't stop at just painting the walls you also did all of your base molds and you even did the interior of the door marooned you didn't leave the door white and I think that makes the biggest difference in the space because before I had the walls a color and then the trim was white and the door was white but then because i tell my clients to do it i decided to do it too there you go yeah i painted the trim a semi-gloss and then the walls were a satin and that two-tone on the trim and the door makes such a difference than the satin would and what did you paint the ceiling because you also painted the ceiling is the same as the wall so carried the wall color all the way up with satin finish everything okay and the art everything looks so cool on a like a deep saturated color guys bigger with the art size which I think a lot of people are afraid of doing a lot of people just put these like one piece of art or one small piece in a bathroom but in reality you can put bigger pieces yeah it made it feel bigger Maddie also took on this remodel by herself she did the painting herself which means you can do it too do you have any tips for painting a dark color in a small space was it yeah I mean it It wasn't my first rodeo.

27:36I grew up painting with my family remodels a lot. So I painted a lot at my parents' house. So I knew like how to tape and like have all the prep work, which helped. I don't know. The easiest thing is what I started with was the walls. And then I taped the trim and did the trim after the walls were dried. And that was kind of my process for it. It was a small space. Couldn't fit anyone else in the room. So it was just me. But no, it was pretty easy. It probably took me two, three hours to do the whole thing. Maybe I took my time because I knew I wanted to dry and everything. So I dried between the coats.