Ep. 422: Trials and Triumphs

0:01Liz Toombs:Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a weekly podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home. I'm Caroline. I'm on the marketing team. And I'm Taryn, and I'm a product designer. I'm Liz. I head up the creative team. We're your hosts. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists, and other talents in the design world. Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each episode. We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email us at podcast at balordesigns.net. Now on with the show.

0:33Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu is now streaming on Disney+. What are you waiting for? Hop on. The must-see galactic adventure comes home on Disney+. This is the way. Our only chance is to work together. I like this kid. Always wear your seatbelt. Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu. Now streaming on Disney+. Read PG-13.

1:03Liz Toombs:Ladies, we have not done Trials and Triumphs in a hot minute. So that is what we are here to do. And who wants to go first? Not it. What a big start. Also, not it. I'm starting. No, I'm good. I'm starting. I wrote my down in advance. You're all welcome. I'm just kidding. I was prepared this time. Some things I've been doing recently. So I think I talked about how I redid my younger son's room and put in two twin beds, finally got his crib out. He is way into four. Should have happened earlier, but it didn't. Um, so I had put the trim on the bed on the actual, um, duvets. And so I had just these white, very basic, uh, bed skirts.

1:55And, um, my mom had actually purchased me two creamy bed skirts from Ollie's at some point for like$2 each. Something she just likes to shop. And she was like, oh, I'm here. And I was like, sure, if I put these to Goodwill, they will, it will be fine. So I was like, I don't think these match the actual duvet, but I'm just going to get them and see. So my mom got me these. I had these white ones on the bed. So I had these two different sets of bed skirts. So I had decided a while ago, I was like, I'm going to dye them, I think. I'm just going to try dyeing them because. Oh, this is your classic move.

2:28It is a classic. I know. I always talk about my writ dyeing and I always, it's either a fail or, you know, half the time it's a fail, half the time it's a win. So, oh, I think your odds are better than that. Oh, thank you. Towards when, I mean. Thanks. So I'm like, all right, do I dye the white ones that are very cheap, like super cheap material? Or do I try dyeing these like off-white ones, which because the base is off-white, even the dye, when I'm making it, it's going to absorb and look different because it's on a creamy base fabric. Right. But they were a nicer, heavier weight. So the creamy ones.

3:05So I'm like, all right, I think I'm just going to dye both and see what happens. Like, see which one looks better. Because in both cases, my investment was, I mean, I'm up to$30 plus, I don't know,$15 for two bottles of dye to make the tone of blue to match the Wayne's coating. And that also complements the wallpaper in this bedroom. So I, like, kind of figure out the blue I want to kind of go with. I put it in the big hot boiling thing of water outside in some bucket. And then I do the dips of paper towel. And this is all on their website, Rit Dye. So I'm just following suit. And then I'm like, ah, it's too blue.

3:45It's not dark enough. It just needs to be lighter. I'm playing this game. And I dye both sets. I just decide to do it. So I do one set first. Then I do the second set. and of course the white looked ended up coming out like baby baby blue like this soft weird blue that was not good and then the creamy one ended up being like too light of shade but like it was the correct shade of this like it's it goes teal this blue goes teal in his room it has this hint of green in it it's definitely a greeny blue so i'm like okay i'm gonna try again I'm going to dye it two times. So I did the whole wash and like see how it came out.

4:30And because of the amount of fabric I was putting in, parts were still like, it almost looked tie dye, you know, like not the actual solid. And I didn't do it in the machine. You can do it in your washing machine. But for me, I just am like, is it going to get stuck in there? I don't know. I just, I did it in the bucket again. so I did in the bucket again and this time I did it uh one bed skirt at a time and I got it more evened out the dye was much more even and that was like perfect so I washed them and dried them and I ironed them and I was like let's see how it looks and it is perfect because now that the bed skirts match the wall you don't see them and that's exactly what I wanted in this case I didn't want your eye to see it but I also just wanted to keep the metal rails and I'm not redoing the headboard or anything like that right now so I'm kind of just sticking with the wooden headboards because I owned those already and I love them they're a little too short for the space but you know I'm making it work as as we teach everyone and it matches my blue Balor gourd lamp too so it's like right in the same shades and anyway so I was really proud of myself so that was definitely a triumph.

5:40Definitely. You're so resourceful.

5:42Liz Toombs:That is so great. Yeah. Love your dyeing stories because I've never tried it, but I've always wanted to try it, but I'm too nervous. I respect your nervousness because you do like, it's one of those things that like, if you splash anything around, you've like put dye on it. So you're like wearing all black. I'm doing it outside. I've got gloves. I've got paper towels and newspapers down. Try not to even dye the like the cement because I don't want to do it in the grass because no grass in it so it's like this whole like where do you do it how do you do it but it it turned out and it was so worth it because it's exactly what I needed in there because I couldn't do another pattern because there's a gingham on the bedspread the wallpaper so it's like it didn't need any there was no more pattern needed so it needed to be a solid and I think it was the perfect it's great and I didn't have to like have ones custom made so it just worked out so it was worth it yeah because had it been a loss it would have been 30 bucks and I could have just been shopping around for the right blue but it's perfect um other things I worked on I about this time last year was finish trying to finish my mural in my dining room and then I fully lost steam and shoved things against the wall called it a day so I did spend some time recently finishing up some of the elements and I was very proud of myself.

7:02I'd still say I could, there's some areas I'd like to finish connecting over the doorway. Just some of the rows kind of intertwined above the arch that I wanted to do, but that required the bigger ladder. And anyway, but anything else, I finished out some birds on the wall, added some flowers to the ground and stuff. So that was kind of a fun, so now it just feels a little more finished in there to me. so that was another triumph that I was very proud of um it looks so good are you just not so proud

7:34Liz Toombs:of yourself I would think that every time you walk by that room you're like oh my god I did that right I weirdly am at like am I over this does that make sense I'm I know it's like I finished it and then I was like am I over this yet but I do I think the color combo that I went with I'm still in love with the bright yellow and the soft lavender And I know right now it's like I feel like those colors have fully submerged the market and we're just getting past it, you know. So it's a little bit of this dream come true, but now it's here. And then I'm like, do I still love it? But I do. I think I enjoy painting is also why I said like instead of it feeling like wash your hands of it, I'm like, oh, is there more to be done or do I need a dab?

8:19There's more to be done. I mean, there are more little birds and butterflies and things that can pop in here whenever you feel like it, right? Oh, absolutely. I mean, the later elements I have liked more. And so even the trees in there, some of them that were my initial ones, I'm like, these need a lot more branches and leaves. So to your point, I'm not done, but I've been working on that, I should say. I always feel like I get such a, like, you had a vision.

8:50Liz Toombs:Oh, that's true. And you made it happen. Yeah. Right. Yes. Really cool. Yes. I still don't have, again, the cushions made in there. And I do think I need that element to finally, like, truthfully feel like, oh, and art. There's art I need on one of the walls. I didn't finish the mural there knowing I'd kind of put something on top of it. And my husband said he does dabble and stuff, and I kind of gave him direction, and we're just playing to see it while we're, like, also looking for something. Because it's really got to complement, you know, my table is black and so stark. And everything else is, like, these weird light colors, but then the yellow and the black are these really hard colors.

9:31It's weird. My dining room's weird, but, like, I love it. It's just, I think it goes together when you're in there. But it's one of those things where I feel like the art needs like some black to it. Like it needs some heaviness to make you look up there, but it needs to not be so light that you're looking at the painting on the wall. You know, like the walls themselves are art. What about a black frame? A black frame would probably really help in there. Because then you'd at least like the art would be separate from the wall mural, which is art in itself. Right. So I've been looking at a lot of, again, Gracie and Des Gournets wallpapered dining rooms just to see how other designers have like kind of handled the art in the space.

10:14And, you know, art is so personal. So we'll see what I end up like doing in there. But I have like I want something a little more modern because my walls are so like feminine, girly, whimsy that I'm like I need something a little more. a little bit harder a little bit like stronger like what what genre are you thinking like um like well I have the big bright yellow graph so I already have a abstract so I don't think I need another abstract so it does need to be I think graphic but not whimsy not too abstract all at the same time so it's kind of i don't know i've been thinking more sort of a still life like in my mind like some kind of funny dining like kind of playing off the fact that this is a dining room is like something in that i love that yeah that's that's what i'm looking for and i kind of have i'm brainstorming so anyway those are two other things in there that but yes and then i will feel you know it does feel good to cross off rooms like my son's room he still needs art in there But like the actual twins and beds and side table is, you know, we did the Burlwood side table in there to kind of complement the darker woods and some retain in there to get in that kind of mix.

11:34So I'm feeling pretty good about how that turned out. And it does. It feels so good to kind of sort of check off a room in a way, you know, like you said, your vision. Yeah. So, yeah. So my only trial that I was even going to mention is we have hit my house's. been here now for four years in the elements and i feel like it wait okay i'm sorry i'm really i'm like i can't believe it you you've been moved in for four years yeah yeah 21 that's crazy i know

12:06Liz Toombs:wow i'm sorry i know that's like the most cliche thing ever to be like oh my gosh time flies i think wow maybe i'm wait yeah this is our third third summer here i think so i think the house has been So the point in my story, it's been about four years of this house standing and being finished. And obviously still tons to do because I'm in the near same boat where I'm like, how do I not have drapery in my living room? As somebody who preaches that everyone needs it and it's been four years, Tara, you know? Right. Things like that. But my point was there's a lot of things that have settled now and we've hit that.

12:42And so I was just letting anyone else know I've hit the window where like the cabinetry where it was all connected perfectly has now like everything settled a little. The stairs treads have settled a little. And it's things that you would walk into my home and I'm sure never notice. But like as the homeowner and something that is driving me nuts is all the white columns outside have started. the wood has started to rot like because it was wood that has been attached to an outside surface that you know like moisture gets in and so like some of these like decorative elements have already started to like rot and need to either be painted or replaced with new pieces and then painted and obviously that's like you know it just feels like i gotta go to the store and get the pieces cut them paint them it sounds like a whole weekend but i'm sure it wouldn't be in reality but you know so that was my like i felt like i needed to tell everyone so they knew like yeah it's i'm already there i'm already at like all right we need to fix this stuff how are we already at fixing and the stones have settled you know like so now not everything's perfectly even outside in the stonework you're starting to get you know so anyway well i it's so funny you say that because

13:55Liz Toombs:i have a friend who um like her and her husband always have a debate about um like they wanted to buy a new house and he and she's like no i want to renovate our current house and he's like no i want a new house that like i don't have to be constantly updating and i'm like dude every house you're gonna have to like house that's just how it is so you i mean if you want a new house get a new house but it's not like it's gonna be free of maintenance no so we we've had these crazy storms in at least in the southeast i think across the country everyone's had crazy summer storms and one of them I was working here and all of a sudden I was like it was the rain was coming in sideways have you had one of these storms at your houses yeah it is coming like everything is all of a sudden just blowing sideways and you're like this storm is insanely intense and it's only like 10 minutes but super intense so I kind of got nervous and I was like I'm going to kind of go towards the interior of my house because like I was watching the trees and I was kind of like I'm just going to go towards the center and I ended up in one of my son's rooms and I heard this like and I'm like what is that noise and it was from the ceiling and I'm like that has to be a drip you know where you're like that has to be a drip no yeah and David wasn't home that day so I climb up into the attic and like go across all the beams and I like get to the spot and I see it is dripping and I can't find from where but like it's a perfect story of like it there wasn't other water damage there so it's not like a constant leak when it rains but this sideways rain somehow i think it like did it shift some of the like roofing the shingles or how did this happen but i like couldn't lift the like anyway i put a towel up there and i was like david this happened it was only like 10 minutes but yeah it's a brand new house and that happened Yeah.

15:48So you can't win. I think a house is just a lot of love, a lot of love, and a lot of maintenance. Yeah. Yeah. Constant. Constant. Yeah. Okay. I'm done. Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu is now streaming on Disney+. What are you waiting for? Hop on. The must-see galactic adventure comes home on Disney+. This is the way. Our only chance is to work together. I like this kid. Always wear your seatbelt. Star Wars, The Mandalorian and Grogu. Now streaming on Disney+. Read PG-13.

16:33Liz Toombs:15 minutes in. I'm done. Okay. No, that's perfect. We each get about a 15 minute. That's the perfect length. That's great. Okay. So, I'll go next. So I think I have trials and trials today. I like it. And lots of good positive learnings. Okay. Oh, I love that spin. Good job. Yeah. Yeah, I've got some takeaways. So I decided to not wait for my husband to renovate a room in our basement. so our basement is really just storage I use I use part of it as a little greenhouse in the winter I use a little bit as a holding area for stuff in an art studio and then we have one little room that you first walk into that's really just kind of our shed right so that's where we keep like lawnmowers and tools and bikes and things like that and it was getting really crazy so So I hired a contractor to come in and we cleaned out that whole area.

17:48And so just so everybody kind of understands the state of this room, like it's probably about 19 feet wide. And so it's a good width, but then it's only about, I'd say like eight feet deep. So it's a good-sized room to keep all this stuff in. All of the walls were not finished, so it's brick of the house and then this kind of add-on. And wood was rotting. The floor seeps water. There was one wall that was all brick that was covered with floor linoleum. Um, so like there was demo that needed to happen and then putting in new beams and put, you know, the door to the basement was rotting out at the base and at the frame.

18:46So like termite damage, the whole shebang. So, um, I had a contractor come in and I walked her through the house. I walked her through the basement because I have other projects too. Right. So, um, so here's my first learning. is I got really super excited. And I started talking about like, oh, and there's this project over here and there's this project over here and there's this project over here. And then I want to do this to the basement, but eventually I want to do that to the basement. So in my mind, I was talking about all of these different things. And in her mind, she was hearing, okay, paint the dining room, fix the basement, got the basement, great, one room done.

19:33and our level of expectations were totally different.

19:40Yeah, so there were some challenges throughout that. So I hired the contractor and her team to come in and they gutted the basement and they also painted my dining room. So that's a totally separate thing. So we'll talk about that one too, because that's a trial.

20:00But the level of expectations were so different because I had mentioned a whole bunch of, like, I wanted to have water run down from the laundry room above the basement room to the basement and to outdoors. But that didn't happen. You know, I wanted to have the floors kind of just sealed because they're up against dirt. They're going to seep in some moisture. You know, my house is almost 100 years old. No. It's going to happen. That wasn't done. So I reset my expectations.

20:38Liz Toombs:Mm-hmm. Kind of had to level fit that. So wait, that wasn't done and you thought it was going to be? Or you like pulled that off of your list because the list was getting too big? Did you make a list? See, there's my problem. Root of the problem. That was the right question. Yeah, the root of the problem is that I did a walkthrough with the contractor, and we talked about a bunch of things. She did not provide a written estimate. So there was nothing written that could say, like, this is what I'm paying for. This is what my expectations are. So my biggest learning is— We have a podcast, Thomas.

21:19I know, right? I'm kidding. I know. Mine wasn't renovations. So to be fair, fair. Continue. So your learnings are. I mean, seriously, like, I feel like we've even we've talked about this so many times that I went in there just like feeling like I knew what I was doing. And no, did not, did not, did not know what I was doing. Also, didn't have a clear understanding of what her time frame was because she thought she was going to get all of this done within a day. Oh, painting the dining room, gutting the basement and putting up new. beams and boards in the basement. I can't even... I can tell you that's not going to be one day.

22:01I mean, she did have... How many people? Between three people. Right. Three people. I just said I couldn't get two problems replaced pieces in a day. I'm like, that can't be... Right. Three people in the basement maybe would have been a day, but like maybe because they knew what they were doing. Not with like pipes and stuff too, based on what you just said. But we ended up not doing that. We ended up not doing the water. So I'll have to do that in another phase, you know, and the flooring I'll have to do in another phase. And I'll probably do that myself. But, yeah, so my big takeaway from the basement is to write down all of the expectations, you know.

22:47And I'm sure interior designers have all of this. But I don't. And so I'm making a form for myself. If you all need it, let me know. What's on this form? Yeah. What's on this form from your learnings? Okay. So what's on my form is, so, you know, listing the project and the dates, a space for like drawing out your sketches, bullet points for all the things you expect to get done, and like signing off on those things. You know, putting any finishes, wallpaper colors, things like that. So you'd have that as notes. Estimated costs for labor and materials. And then who's buying those materials? Yeah.

23:36Because that was a thing too. So, you know, are you buying the materials or is the contractor buying the materials and you're reimbursing them with receipts? And then a timeline, just a basic, like, when are you planning on starting and when do you plan on finishing? Yeah. And then, you know, just, and I mean, I know this. I've had my own business before. Like, you have everybody sign it off and you're good. And you're good. And there's no drama. I really, I really did my best to keep drama down. But I did just about lose it when they started installing the new door. And they had to, it's an odd size, and they had to buy a door and the door frame.

24:23and then trim it down to size. And the door that they bought swung the wrong way.

24:32And I was like, no, it should have swung the same way that the door swung. Yeah, like in. Yeah.

24:39Liz Toombs:Or whatever way it was. But exterior doors always swing in. It swung in, but it opened. Oh, but like open right is the left or left. The placement of the door handle was on the right side. and so you would open it and it would swing to the left which i'm sure in this small space was an issue the small space was a very big issue especially because we're taking bikes in and out of there we're taking yeah and a door's 36 inches wide approximately so like that's three feet of your eight feet that's like right sticking in the whole flow the whole flow of the room would have been different. So I brought it down a few notches.

25:20I walked away. We came back. We like figured it out. And they were able to reverse the door. But yeah, so like it was a very challenging long weekend. I'm sorry. Yeah, no, but the room looks great, functions great now. It's not creepy to go in there. You're not going to get attacked by spiders, you know, on your first step. It's all great. That was great. Yeah. And so the function of this room where it holds our lawn equipment, it holds our bikes, and it holds our outdoor cushions. So all of those things are very easily accessible. It's organized. It's great. It's great. It really turned out great.

26:08So it's very simple just plywood boards all around the whole thing um and yeah it's it's really nice and it functions it's a basement everybody like don't go crazy but um but i do want to talk about my dining room too yeah oh gosh you said that was a trial i know i don't like that part no i mean okay it's all it's all gonna be okay um so i picked a paint color this winter and i was so super excited i didn't want i didn't want the front of the front rooms of my house the living room into the dining room into the kitchen to be too dramatically different right so i picked Right now they're all white, Sherwin-Williams Greek villa.

27:00And I wanted to paint the dining room something a little bit different, but not too different. So it wasn't a jarring. And I also just don't want to have like, oh, and now you're entering the green room. And now you are entering the blue room or the purple room. Right, you want some cohesion. I don't want to be so color blocked. um so i picked a really beautiful color what's it called um ancient marble by sherman williams and it's a really kind of lovely soft gray green really really pretty okay so the painters came in that they finished you know in a few hours it was great i cleared out the rooms of all the furniture they wham bam got it done and you have all the wood trim right the traditional yeah yes so I have very I have very dark very dark large molding in that room and so it looked really great and it looked like there was a difference between the white and the and the green, there was a value difference.

28:09It was great. Once the whole room was done, and this is now like the spring, summertime, granted I picked this color in the winter, what happens in my house is the green of all of the trees that surround my house bounces that green light into the rooms. So when that green light bounces into the rooms that have the Greek villa, I'll tell you what, Greek villa looks a whole lot like ancient marble. They look exactly alike. So it doesn't even look like I painted this room at all. It's the weirdest trick of a color. How wild. But this is such a classic, again, where we say people ask what color something is in the catalog and you're like, try it.

29:05It depends on the lighting. It depends on...