Ep. 426: Designing Family-Centric Spaces with Cate Gutter

27:04It's day to day because sometimes I'm just like, OK, you're older. You go do a puzzle in there is fine. But but the younger one that's going to like draw or something. No, no. Go to the breakfast room. But it is your formal dining room. So it's, yeah, like it's not like your kitchen table. I'm not using it daily. Yeah, absolutely. And I knew that getting it. But to your point is it is one area where I'm more cautious and not with friends. It's just my own kids. They're the ones who are going to ruin it. Sometimes adults, though, are the biggest mischief makers. I mean, in terms of like really breaking yourself in.

27:37But that would happen any other way. But like you said, but then it'd be like living with it. It's either live with it or get a fix, you know, to your point. so that was just that and acrylic i feel like acrylic stretches yeah but you know i feel like you can like the important thing is to to have a mix yeah or i guess you don't have to have a mix but to me i'm like i can have a mix i can have some things that are nicer and like be like okay like we don't eat our snacks here or and i can have some places where i'm like okay like i'll I can live with that and and so I feel like you can have but knowing what goes where is really important right like picking the correct finishes and materials for the correct rooms is just even just a part of an equation of the equation because we we are more familiar with that but yeah like our listeners definitely it's good to know what can handle a little bit more yeah like which material should go on a barstool and you know like a faux leather or vinyl like is so easy to wipe up and um i saw some like beautiful banquets that y 'all had in the store today and we do a lot of banquets um at our firm with our clients because it's just great for like kids climbing in and everybody like filing and file out and um we do a lot of like faux leather because it looks so much nicer now than it used to or real leather if someone's okay with like the scratches and the old stains and stuff like that.

29:03But that is like an area where you could go really wrong if you did the wrong material. You might feel like a viscous and say like, oh, this feels so great. This will be so great. And then it's just day one gets totally ruined and not in a like lived in patina sort of way. So in a disgusting sort of way. No, that's a good one. And you talked about you love cooking. So what are some things you do in the kitchen to make it that kind of, again, comfort and ease for guests. So do you mean like in terms of entertaining or in terms of materiality? Both, really. Like what are your favorite go-tos in your kitchen?

29:41Like is it the dishes you're giving out to people so you're not worried? Is it the surface you're working on? So we are, our house is a fixer-upper and we have not done the kitchen. So I do feel like I'm speaking at a place of luxury in terms of like, please break it, please. You know, I would love to redo my kitchen. Oh, and you said that though. You said you're going room by room. We are going room by room. We kind of bought the location with the intention of my father-in-law as an architect and I'm very blessed that he is so talented and has been drawing space by space for us kind of as we go.

30:15And the kitchen is going to be the last one, but that's because it's so important to me. I'm like a cat. I've had a lot of lives. And one of my previous career, I was a wedding cake baker. So I love to bake and I love to cook. And the kitchen is going to be like a really big undertaking in terms of like where all of my pieces go and all of that. But when we are hosting, I love to have appetizers out that kind of spread across the island because I want everybody to sit and talk to me while I'm cooking and have a glass of wine. And we intentionally have a very We like we moved some walls and we moved in and we added there was a little tiny outdoor space that was too tiny even to put like a bistro table.

30:57And they had these dual French doors that opened out. And but we didn't have a breakfast table like because the people who had the House of Forest, there was a breakfast table. So right when you open the front door, you saw this like messy table. And that is like one thing that I like make the mess. but like a disoriented table and chairs askew, like that wouldn't work for me on a daily basis. So we actually took the doors off, did like made a case opening, enclosed this like little outdoor patio, did a built-in banquette. I kept the brick flooring and did these just big windows. Like when you're sitting in it, like it feels like you're sitting in a tree house.

31:33It's awesome. And so it's really great. Like it's kind of like living in your space and taking it bit by bit. Like we do want a place to sit down casually. We don't want to always eat in the dining room because like you have my grandmother's dining table and it's like that is something that I can fix it but I don't want to fix it all the time. So yes exactly. I actually did a porcelain top like a real thin porcelain top that looks like marble on top of our table so like you can pour nail polish on it permanent marker like there's it is indestructible and so I just let my little dinosaur nephew just run around circles on the table and And I'm like, have at it.

32:09I love it. Yeah. So that's a good one to talk through, too. What about bathrooms? What's something you do in there for like all the ages? So bathrooms, this is definitely like a sort of client preference. If a client comes and says like this is their primary bathroom and they want it to have this sort of like longevity, they want to be able to love it in 20 years, which most people do when they're redoing a bathroom. tile is when I was talking about the sofa earlier and I was like you can reupholster it like tile is not something you want to redo that is like not where you take a risk on trends and I love like all the beautiful trends of all the like crazy tile work that I see and it is like takes everything within me to not do that because I think it's just like functionally doesn't it's so dates yeah the project and so in in sticking in that lane sticking with things like marble that is forever it's been around forever it is outdoor all over europe and like it can patina and age and if you're okay with that sort of like you know the veins like kind of get more color to them over time like it does it's a living kind of material it does like i had a client he always said like let the rock be a rock like don't make don't make it too precious let it kind of like be and let it have like a leather texture.

33:31And I love that because, you know, when it's marble but don't touch it and we polish it and it has to be perfect, it kind of loses that sort of approachability. And to me, like, that doesn't feel long-term. So when doing bathrooms, definitely lean towards marble now if the budget doesn't allot for it, which in children's room it does not. And I do like unlacquered brass in primary bathrooms as that patina is too. and if someone doesn't like a patina look then we'll do like a porcelain but do a very traditional sort of classic design like maybe a checkerboard floor or a penny tile and I usually lean towards like a warm polished nickel so something that feels timeless there's you'll never look at that and say oh that's so 2025 it's just yeah yeah so and you can have fun with like the wallpaper and the window treatment and all of that yeah and like a mirror the window the the lighting right you know sconce or something yeah a lot of the more removable like yeah right yeah you're not going to get anyone in there with a sledgehammer to change out your tile right no yeah i mean that is like that is real serious because it's dusty and it's messy and it's not something that you want to do every five years yeah yeah yeah and bad tile like yeah oh i yeah no i remember my first reno and this was like in 2010 and the the main contractor just was like oh do you want some accent tile in here and i was like i don't i just want you to run the tile normal he's like are you sure you don't want like a strip and i was like i don't just fine just leave it just can we just go the whole just the same.

35:15And I remember him being like, okay, your decision. And I was like, well, it's my decision. Thank you. They really wanted to like zhuzh it up there. You know the strip I'm talking about that like, yeah, it was one line of like brown. Yeah. Yeah. Tile. It's always brown. I love all the great tile work. And like, there's definitely a part of me that is like, oh man, I just would love to lean into that harder because it's so beautiful. But when you're dealing with people's money and my clients, that is not something that they want to do all the time. Like, they're coming to me because they were like, we need help.

35:48This is a big project. They're not wanting to come back in five years or 10 years and do it. Yeah, totally. I'm thinking of a friend of mine who did a whole project redoing all the bathrooms in her house and, like, did her daughters and sons bathrooms and like one was pink and it was a jack and jill and she did one it was like blues for her son and then found out that she was pregnant with twins and was like i wish that i hadn't maybe been so specific because had i known i was gonna have two more kids then i might have like rearranged their rooms a little bit because we thought we were done but now like she's kind of stuck a little bit like she could probably do a few things and like change the wallpaper and stuff but yeah it's yeah pink is hard i feel like blue we're doing a little girl's bathroom right now and we're doing blue and it's like that feels timeless and and has some legs on it pink is that's harder to kind of yeah you know maybe stick to because yeah you know and even and they weren't even selling it and like if you're selling it that's that's one thing you're kind of passing on to someone else who might be annoyed with your tile right but this was like something that she picked and she really loved but she was just like yeah six months ago i loved it and then now i'm like oh oh man i still love it how it looks but it's yeah it's like limiting her you know totally and we took that approach and every a lot of listeners know because we built or whatever but i and i ran out of mental capacity to design the boys room bathrooms and it was I just, I did, I went with all white.

37:31I was like, we're just doing white subway in here, you're little boys and white vanity. It's best decision ever. And like you were saying, and that way everything else, you know, from the tile up, I can paint it, whatever. We can add whatever window treatments to add pattern. But it has allowed, like, it's a fully, I mean, it is boring in a way, but like I added hardware on the cabinets. That was a little fun. A fun mirror. Yeah. Like little sports things. I mean, my boys' bathroom, same thing. We moved in our house. I just did all white towel. But I did go up, you know, 40 inches because I was like, they're two little boys and they are just running around, splashing around.

38:09I mean, like, if anyone has any tricks for how to get your kids to not be so messy in the bathroom, I would love it. Yes. Because it's just like— Nope. Nope. They're just—they're busy. Sorry. We can't help. They're busy. They don't have time to, like, use a towel and, you know, hang things in there. Oh, my God. And they're like little tiny pieces of toilet paper all over the floor. Yeah. I think that's a good— like do y 'all ever have yeah no i was not like i was just going my brain my latest story where he wanted he wanted the new role on his thing so he just like used a whole bunch of toilet paper and i was like what are you doing he's like oh it's time for a new role and you're like no it's not is your toilet paper like fun like is it like no oh sorry it's not it was fun to him i don't know if it was like you know i don't know something like a a patterned one or whatever i don't know i know i'm like what the ventry no no why are there like tiny little like flakes of toilet paper all over.

38:59I think they think it's like maybe it was confetti at one point. Yeah, I don't know. The way the kids' brains work. It's so fun. I mean, I oftentimes I'm like, I wish that my brain worked that way still because they can just make this whole magical world out of nothing. And we see it as messes. Just mess after mess. Is there anything that you, well, actually, I was thinking about, this sort of goes along with kids rooms. I was thinking about kids rooms because you have several in your in your portfolio that I loved and are so pretty. And I've been thinking recently because I kind of have redone my girl not redone, but like, you know, I decorated my girls rooms and I did a wallpaper, a pattern on the headboard.

39:42And and when I'm when I sort of was putting it together, I was putting it together with like a tidy in mind. Right. Like I'm putting it together thinking of what it's going to look like when it is neat yeah right at its best exactly but it never looks at its best it always has like you know every single picture she's ever colored and like all of her art projects and and i love all those things but it like it's hard to like live with well i thought like is there something i could have done when i was decorating it to make it to where this looks good every day and looks put together every day instead of like all the little, you know, things that you get from goodie bags like on every surface and like all the trinkets.

40:30So I, it's so, it's so interesting because I think every like mom can relate to the story you just told and all of those beautiful rooms that like were so intentionally designed. When we shot them, like we went in and pulled all of the trinkets out and all of the bits and all of the things. And, you know, ironed all the stuff and got it all looking back to the way that it was designed. But I've just had like a shift in thinking about how when I was little and I was at my grandmother's house and my grandmother before interior design was like even a trade. She went to Ohio State and had a home ec degree and she would decorate too.

41:10So she had beautiful homes and she every room had a color very similar to my mom's. So when we would go, there was the green room had this like beautiful canopy bed and the blue room had two king beds in it. And it had this like hidden storage door where you would like go through a closet and then you would open up this hidden door and it like connected around. And I always wanted that room because that was like where the secret fairies lived. And I would pull off these things in there and she either like sweetly left them there or did not know that they were. I created all these homes and villages like back in this like little storage and I would just spend hours.

41:50I'm sure they were like, Kate's so entertained. Just leave her up there. Like whatever she's doing is fine. And I just, I go back to that memory of how magical and accessible that room felt to me and how that sort of like creative freedom. We all want that for our kids, right? Like we all want them to feel just not attached to a screen, not having to be in a certain box and just being able to really like let their mind go there. And when we come in and I'm like the worst at doing this, I come in, I'm like, everything's going in the trash can. My kids are like very creative, all three of them. And there's like a million they've really their rooms are their rooms and but I just think back on like how that is the safe space that we've created for them and like those little knickknacks and things that's their world you know so to us it's like this little messy thing but there's there's so much smaller and they they have like where it looks like a little tiny ball to us to them it's like, you know, Saturn or something.

43:02So I try to give grace in terms of the mess and I don't do a very good job at it all the time, but that is my goal. This episode is brought to you by Welch's Fruit Snacks. Back to school season can be tough on parents, but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks made with whole fruit and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks, now made with no artificial dyes. Yeah, so it's embrace. I think the answer was embrace.

43:41Well, I'm not necessarily trying to get rid of those things. I'm not necessarily trying to get rid of those things. I guess I just wondered, like, is there something that I could have done to add more of a framework or, like, carve out, I don't know something to where like there's a balance they pull it out they would like pull it out into those rooms even if you had a box and were like put all those things in here like my kids have a desk and they have made like curtains and a house and there's all these like dolls that they made out of sticks that live in there and they have real dolls like I don't know why the dolls have to be on the sticks outside and like there's ants on them and like moss and like I I don't do there have to be stick dolls, but that is the dolls that live in the house.

44:21And I don't think that there's anything we could do to to make it better. I think that they're just I don't either. Because if I to your point, you throw one of those little things away. It had a name and a family. Yeah. And they'll they'll ask where it is. I do a lot of I don't know where it is. Yeah. Or blaming. Oh, I'm like, if you if you leave it on the floor in the kitchen or on the in the TV room, it's fair game. I get to decide if it goes in the garbage oh man I love the dog a lot not like a real toy yes for sure definitely blame the dog it's the goodie bag toys that really get me I'm like why is this little I need a piece of plastic like come on yes we don't need this well I also blame the parents and I'm like why did you give that to all of us like yeah I don't think you had this great party it's a broken slinky you had a great party you don't need to give us a bag of yeah of slinkies you know I don't know it is part of your childhood though rather than I guess like there's there's certain things where I'm like, well, I gave you I have a bulletin board.

45:20The bulletin board is for all the art. But then the bulletin board is empty. She takes it all off the bulletin board and like steps. I'm like, what? She sounds really creative. She might be a designer in her. I think that's what it is. Yeah. She will be a designer. But right now it's just a trap. Yeah. She can't. She can't be put in a box. She's got. I mean, it's the same for me. He has a bookshelf, all his books, but he likes to lay them all out. the whole dog man series we have to show how they're all in the line yeah and which order and you're like yeah i get it just put them on the bookshelf like that and he's like no no can't see the cover yes yes foolish yeah so i do i mean for me i have let his closet like to your point be more of that like i'm just like i've added some shelves in there because i'm like just go ham in there then like make that your world like yeah but it still doesn't help the counters are covered like front to back new monster trucks in the front awards in the back you know you're like i could sweep this off today and have no remorse but he would yeah yeah lose it yeah yeah okay well i guess at least i'm not the only one you're not like yeah well at least we're yeah the three of us are aligned that we haven't figured it out but maybe we'll just keep asking we'll find somebody who will be like here's the time at some point i'm like once they get older i feel like they have less little toys and more just like big stuff you know what I mean I don't know I got a 12 year old and that's we still got a lot of little stuff a lot of artwork although I will say that like he's my art kid so there's like art all like he tapes it all over his wall and like sometimes he's like a little mad scientist in there and I come in and I'm like what is all of this he loves history and so he'll paint like these portraits of all these historians and he like it's like a little art gallery on his wall that sounds cool though yeah it's cool but it's like um they're like sheets of paper you know and some of them i have framed and they actually hang on our gallery wall because i love them but yeah yeah there's a lot of them we might be we might be starting a new business of like oil um not oil paintings but like knockoffs of oil paintings i love that it's even better yeah really so if you're in the market you know let me know well i think we were going to talk about art.

47:30That's probably a great way to pivot about. Like as someone who loves art and collects art, this is something, again, I think we ask a lot of designers on this, but I, you know, we keep, art is so important to a space and we want to make it less intimidating for listeners. So like, how can we do that? Yes, I do think that art is very intimidating. There's some sort of, because art is such, it's a challenging thing. It's been around forever. There's a lot of like prestige that comes around with some really great art, but you don't have to have like a special degree and, you know, to be a gallerist, to have like a beautiful collection of art.

48:12My husband and I, one of my most favorite and treasured pieces, we were, I was studying abroad in Barcelona and And we had only been dating a very short time. And I was 19. And he was, like, tall and had this, like, long curly hair. And he played all these, like, old hippie songs on a guitar. And he was teaching me how to play. And I packed up my guitar and, like, flew across the ocean with it. And my five roommates in, like, a one-bedroom apartment were like, get out of here with that guitar. Like, you don't even know how to play it. Like, why did you fly to Barcelona with this guitar? And so I would go to this park.

48:46And I would just sit and, like, strum terribly. and there was this like artist guy and it was just this little park outside of our apartment in Barcelona. And so when my now husband, boyfriend at the time, came to visit, I was taking him through the park and the street artist had this like 4x16, it's kind of sketch painting of this like tall, long guitarist. And it was like 15 euros and we bought it and it hangs in our house today. And I just love it because it was not expensive, but it reminds me, it like gives me goosebumps just like where we were and this like, just like how crazy and love we were that I like brought this guitar across the ocean.

49:29And now my son, like, you know, is going to art school next year. He played the guitar for his audition. He played Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan. And so it's just kind of like a full circle moment on how art It doesn't have to be anything priceless or like by some big name. Like sometimes it's just something you find from a street vendor and it makes you feel something. And I do have some clients that we go on a lot of art sourcing trips. So one of my favorite places is in Charleston. And there's one really high-end gallery, Meyer Vogel, that I love and George Gallery. Those are both some like, not everything is high price, but you can get some like really kind of pieces that are more investment pieces.

50:12And then there's some more approachable galleries that are down on King Street. And one that I love is Miller Gallery and just kind of a little funkier and fun. And I've taken a bunch of clients down to Charleston and been like, let's just see what you feel. We have, you know, hop around the galleries and sometimes we're really successful and sometimes they just get one thing that they love. But art isn't something that you can walk in and just say, we have to fill these walls. Like that is gives me the biggest ick. Like I think I'd rather see a blank wall and have something that takes time for you to fall in love with than for you to just go online and purchase, purchase, purchase.

50:53Like it should be something that feels makes you feel something. And again, going back to function, if the room is meant to be calming and studious, like maybe the art reflects that. If the room is meant to be fun and bright and maybe the art reflects that. And sometimes the art doesn't make any sense. It's just something that made you feel something and you want to have it in your house. And I say, buy it and we'll find a place for it. So whether it's getting nailed on top of a bookshelf or if it's going on a staircase. I also love for art to be silly sometimes. So it doesn't have to be like I was telling you earlier about my sister's tuna, how it like judges you while you're eating dinner.

51:37My sister is an artist and she paints. She's a fisherwoman, too. So she paints these like beautiful fish paintings. And they're very like realistic. And I just love them. I think that they like have a playfulness and a seriousness to them. There's like a pull there that I really like. And my husband really loves art. That is something that he takes super seriously. So he's more on a sort of hunt for something that has a little bit more of a history of a story, some like a little bit more of investment pieces. And I'm grabbing things at flea markets and like antique stores. And we were in France recently and I saw this art for a client and it was so beautiful.

52:26It was a piece of fabric that the artist had taken and just sewn all these like crazy, like chaotic stitches throughout of them. And I sewed growing up. And so, you know, when you sew, you knot it and then you clip the thread so you can keep the clean line. But she kept the threads. And so they're all sewed on top of. So it's really like kind of chaotic feeling. And then she painted with these really beautiful pinks and blues. And it's like feminine and floral and but like chaotic. And it's just cool. And I like sent it to a client. And I was like, I think this needs to go in your living room.

53:04And she was like, I love it. So sometimes the clients find art because it makes them feel something. A client texted me a couple of days ago. She's in Portland. She was like, we love this barn painting. And I was like, get it. We'll hang it up. They're in Chicago. And then sometimes a client feels really intimidated. Even in the galleries, it's hard to see how all of those pieces are going to go together. And so we'll buy things when we are at flea markets or in different places. and we have like some stock at the office. And so sometimes we'll pull a bunch of things in and lay it out. And the client will be like, this feels right to me.

53:40So I really don't think that there's a perfect approach to art, but there's just a lot of different ways to make it work for you and your space. Yeah. And I mean, I'm with you on that where I've bought certain pieces, but then it's just either too small, like where it needs to live with other things on a wall. And that's a me problem too, of like we have a lot of space, like a lot of big walls right now because it's a newer build so there's just a lot of wall and I'll buy something or I had things and it really is like all right you you can't be alone because you'll just be there'll be too much space around you so I've been kind of group like you know holding it and like trying to place it with other like waiting to get more it's like a long game and that part's hard but I also love putting like a smaller piece on a little sliver of wall you know what I mean like sometimes like at the end of a hallway or like between two doors so I always feel like those are yeah yeah no you're overlooked like because especially like in a hallway you get up or in a bathroom you get up so much closer to your wall whereas in a living room like you're never you know there's a piece of furniture there or there's like a sofa there or sometimes there's like a barrier or there's a lot of fabric and so it's like not totally getting the attention.

54:58Yeah. And then in a hallway or small room, it's kind of nice to be able to get up close to a small piece, right? Or even just nailing it on a bookshelf. So just kind of like putting it right on up there. I do think I have a client who we went on this big art trip with. We got all these great pieces and they got just a little nervous about hanging things up because is we didn't have all the pieces together to like totally see how the room would go. And I like it's paint. Just throw it up there. If you like it, if you buy more, you want to move it, you just patch it up, paint it up, keep on going.

55:35I just think art should live on your walls, even if it's not a perfect solution. Put it up, enjoy it. And my husband and I probably twice a month, we like rip all the paintings off and move everything out. Oh my gosh. Twice a month? Yeah. I mean, not all of the art, but like definitely some pieces out. Like he likes to piddle around and move things around. That's a lot. He loves to do that. And I'm like, just leave it there. We just recently, we had this one gallery wall going up the stairs and we just had collected enough pieces to start the second one. But until then, they've lived on other walls.

56:09The intention was always to go here. But I didn't. I was like, I love these pieces. I don't want them stacked up in a closet. So they're going to live in a powder room. They're going to live on a hall. They're going to live in a place that's maybe not perfect, but now they're all going up there. And it's a collection of, like, really nice pieces. And also, like, my middle child, he did this great self-portrait that I, like, am obsessed with. And it's right up there in the middle of it. That's awesome. It doesn't have to be perfectly curated. It's so much more interesting when it's not. That's good advice.

56:42It sounds like, Taryn, you just now need to start getting the really big, like, a couple really big. Yeah. I do feel like those are harder to find. Yes. You know what I mean? Or harder maybe to decide. And to align on. I was going to say, it's to, because they're usually investment pieces. And then to align, I think, with whoever you live with. So for me, it's my husband. And I have been, where I've seen something and I have intentionally been like, all right, let's go to this gallery. I want you to see it. And then we've sat there and hemmed and hawed. But I will say we intentionally do try to go a few times a year and look at art.

57:15because I do want something bigger because we do have some big walls. Because there is, you know, it's also like if you do a bunch of walls with little stuff, you do become like, yes, yes, yes, yes. The gallery wall has to be very intentional. I don't think that every wall deserves a gallery wall. It becomes a little too like, just too much visually. It's less of a focal point if you overuse it. You know what I mean? Like, it's in every room. It kind of, it loses its power. you know yeah whereas if you have like a couple really good moments then like they're more dramatic yeah you know and i do think like i think you should go home and you should just hang some things up and move around and who cares if you have a hole in your wall like i'm gonna do this giant painting that i fell in love with it was so big i had to i couldn't even fit it in my car it's 60 inches by 60 inches and it was just one of these paintings I was there for a client and I was so like gobsmacked that I was like, oh my gosh, I love this.

58:16I love this painting. And the woman was like, I'm so sorry. It was just bought by a collector in Boston and like, it's going on their truck tomorrow. And I was so sad. And she called me and I guess it couldn't fit up the client's staircase. So she was like, it's headed back to Charlotte. Like, do you want it? I was like, don't even bring it back to the gallery. Just like bring it right on to my house. And my husband's like, it's too big for that. like over the sofa. And I just think it's so interesting because like I want it to also like stare everybody else in the face like it does to me. Like I think it's just so amazing.

58:50I don't want it to like have too much room to breathe. I think that it's interesting over my sofa with my kids jumping on the sofa. Are there any like non-art pieces that you like, you know, whether it's like sculpture, like wall decor, anything that someone could use to fill a wall space, but that's not like a painting? Yeah. So we just commented on this a few months ago. We have a lot of my grandmother's china that was like hand painted. There's some great little wall mounts that you can buy off Amazon. They're just like little tiny brass bits and you can hang them up and they're in my dining room and they're mismatched and a lot of the pieces broke and I don't have enough to enjoy them to eat on them but they remind me of eating at her house yeah they live um in my dining room so that's a really fun um thing also when I was studying abroad we were in Morocco and there was this like beautiful old window um this Berber window and it's like got all these beautiful like hand-painted details on it and I don't know why at 19 I was like in love with this window that was on a dirt floor that nobody else wanted but I bought it um in the markets and it um also hangs in our house how did you get that home I like don't remember I mean I think I like like it's like they like wrapped it in cardboard and like I just I carried it home through customs?

1:00:25I don't know. I did. I don't know. I mean, it's like, it's kind of just like, that and my guitar. I was like, all right, here we go. You literally had, yeah, you had not a hand free. You were like, I got my window. I got my guitar. I'm ready to add home. Oh, that's funny. Yeah, that is funny. But it is fun. Those pieces, like you said, that you gather that aren't precious. And then, you know, to invest in a few too. Some of them are great stories, you know, just to kind of remember those different times. And I love sculpture. I think, you know, there's a lot of different makers and people. And I do a lot of high and low, like we talked about earlier, which I know a lot of people say, oh, a mix of high and low.

1:01:08But I do think anything that you can invest in, if that's where you're thinking you would like to invest, is putting it up on the wall or hanging it from the ceiling, whether it's like a light fixture or something. That's just like a great space to kind of enjoy it without worrying that it's going to be destroyed. so yeah i always feel like lighting is like the best investment if you have kids because yeah it's i guess maybe if you have some balls or things in the in the room but are you kidding me to look like you have so i'm waiting to see where you're going with this because i'm like yes there's always a there is always a ball flying in my house like there's always well yeah we have less of those are your bullets i'm like it's less likely to get dance like if I'm going to splurge on something in here, a light fixture that's like way up high is probably the safest.

1:02:00Yeah. No, I think like a wool rug is like the safest. I mean, because it is because it's cleanable. But like, yeah, I guess I don't know. No, you're right. I mean, in a way. But yeah, I don't have girls, not boys. So way less, you know, baseballs and soccer balls than you probably. Yeah, I will say sculpture I do worry about. Like sculpture is still where I'm worried if I put something, it will get knocked. There's space that I'm running. It depends on the sculpture. Yeah. Or like the height. Put it up on a tall bookcase. Yeah. Or if it does amount to the wall. It totally depends, like you said, kind of what it is.

1:02:37Yes. I had this big woman from Curry & Company, and she's, I'm not sure if y 'all have seen them, but she's lying down and she's kicking her leg up, and she's got so much personality, and it's like you open my door, and she's sitting in my foyer, like, welcome. I'm like, we're going to have a great time. And it's just, it's super heavy and it's a sculpture. And like my kids. It's metal. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like it can really like really withstand the chaos of being in an entryway. Yeah. Yeah. And that, well, that's a great example of like something that can. Yeah. You know, work. It'd still be art.

1:03:16Yeah. You were giving me the funniest look. going to i literally was like uh what about what about a lamp is not going to get broken or a chandelier no no i feel like lamps are are targets yes more vulnerable more vulnerable but like a you know a ceiling fixture or like sconces feels yeah no less risky yeah yeah sure i'm just in a weird place in life yeah i'm like yeah dealing with nurse and balls yeah yeah nerf gods i know But it doesn't like my 12-year-old and 10-year-old, like they run around with all those things. Like my, there was a game that I walked in on them and they were trying to throw paper airplanes through the front foyer fixture.

1:04:01Like there was like, that was like the goal. And they were getting stuck on there. And I, oh, wait, I didn't even think about that. But there you go. Yes. And I'm like, why is, why is that the goal? Like go outside and like make anything else. Like why do you have to throw it through the foyer fixture? But like they'll just. Yeah. That's just part of it. and I don't know. I think going back to just embracing it. Yeah. Yeah, we embrace. We do a lot of embracing.

1:04:30So we'll do a Decorating Dilemma. I'll read it really quickly. It's from Delita. And you think that's how she says that? I love that name. I thought so. Yeah, I love it too. Okay, I really enjoy your show. Thank you for taking my question. Of course, thanks for listening. We've downsized to a 1 ,500 square foot home and are working to maximize our small space for grown children and grandchildren. While we like some aspects of open concept, it doesn't always flow well, especially with multiple activities happening at once. We're planning to remove our kitchen peninsula upper cabinets and recess the fridge to create an open kitchen with a large farm table that will serve as an island.

1:05:03I also want to add a buffet or a small table in the bay window space. I like to somehow border off the living room from the kitchen dining area. Most walls are limited, either open space, windows, or a fireplace. I'm considering a partial wall with a wide opening, about seven feet, between the spaces, or maybe a wall extending from the bookshelf side with a shorter opening. I plan to place a wingback chair on the left wall, possibly reconfigure the sofas, either removing one, placing the remaining on the gallery wall or in front of the window, or replacing them with a true corner sectional. The TV is above the fireplace and i'd love to add interior window panes as a divider if budget allows i've attached a few photos of my plan for visualization thanks again okay so she actually included a like a hand-drawn floor plan that's so great so um she's got what is the current one and then what she's sort of imagining.

1:06:04So what are your thoughts? So from what I can gather, I believe that this right here is the peninsula and that the kitchen must extend further past that. Maybe we're not seeing the kitchen on this plan. Does that feel correct? Yeah, yeah, I guess so. I'm not seeing yeah there's no indication of an actual kitchen so I agree with you I think the peninsula right now is yeah yeah yeah at the top of the yeah that's what I was thinking yeah like that's the peninsula I think you're right and I love her idea of kind of creating the room dividers I think um beautiful glass panes would be really nice you know not understanding what the style of the home is or the age of the home.

1:06:56Like I would definitely want to take that kind of into consideration and maybe where she's living in terms of if that's like true to the home. But I love sort of the idea of this opening and kind of having the chairs around the room while not obstructing from the flow. I think she's done a really great job. One piece of advice I had was, again, not understanding exactly what the kitchen, where the kitchen goes and what that layout would look like. I see that she has like a one little circle table with two chairs maybe in the bay window. And recently we just put in a banquette in one of those. And I know that Ballard has some banquettes that might look great in there.

1:07:37And I think even if it's floor to ceiling windows or partial windows, you could build the banquette right underneath that. And it's really great with grown families and kids. And also maybe if it's just kind of having that space to grow if you're going to have a lot of kids over, but also being great for just one or two of you who might be there. And I think that would offer her more flexibility in this future kitchen design, depending on how much she loves to cook and what other aspects she might want to enjoy in that space. But kind of tucking away that eating area might be really nice for sort of the flow of the space and kind of utilizing that bay in a more functional way yeah it definitely seems like a good place like if you've got overflow once you've got lots of grandkids everyone can't fit at the table you can kind of overflow over there or like i always love a breakfast table like in the mornings when you're like working on email or just the two of them.

1:08:41Yeah. Coffee right by the window. It's really nice. And I think it would kind of offer, depending on if she's seating at her island, you know, maybe they don't eat at the bank at her dining table all the time. So that would be a nice place to sit down and eat, but it wouldn't have to take up so much square footage in the main level of the house. Yeah. Yeah. And then I was thinking also, having the partial wall, again, hopefully will give her space maybe for more seating in that living room because if it sounds like with the family and so much family it sounds like having more chairs there because she also attached this picture of her inspiration for the wall yeah i thought that was great yeah very pretty and it'll help the i always feel like it's a little a little awkward sometimes when there's not a divider at all right because it's like where do you stop the paint where you yeah like yeah yeah so having some sort of cased case opening case opening is and i i like having flow from room to room and i like how open concept offers that but i do think it's nice to have like a clear division even if it's just a small one of like this room is now transitioning into a new space right so i think she did a really good job with that thought process.

1:10:02And even with this picture, like you can put like, you can like use the space in front of these windows, right? Like if you wanted to put like a demilune or like a little plant stand or like a little side table with keys on it or like whatever she needs. But if it's just an opening, you can't really use it. But you know, anyway, yeah. Sounds like she's on the right track to me. Yes, agreed. at ZocDoc we know being a healthy adult is like living in a video game every day has side quests taxes laundry birthdays and just when you're leveling up you have to book a doctor the insurance portal crashes they put you on hold your doctor doesn't take your plan game over we see you so we made booking a doctor easy download ZocDoc search by specialty insurance and availability book instantly no cheat codes required find a doctor you love with ZocDoc all right well kate thank you so much for joining us thank you so much so much fun so great to chat with y 'all and to be here in your beautiful city of atlanta and see your um new office so thank you for having me can you tell everyone where they can find you follow you and see your work oh thank you so much yes you can find me on instagram at cwg.design and my website is actually cwg.design as well.

1:11:23There's no.com. And yeah, those are the two best avenues to find me. So thank you. Thank you. That's our show.

1:11:52We'd love to hear your feedback. Until next time. Happy decorating.