Ep. 443: Holiday Throwback Special, Pt. 1 - Janie Molster

0:00Hi, and welcome back to the How to Decorate podcast from Ballard Designs. I'm Caroline, and normally I'm joined by my co-host, Taryn and Liz, but today it's just me because we are kicking off a very special three-part holiday series. So for the next three weeks, each of us, myself, Taryn and Liz, will be replaying one of our favorite holiday-themed episodes from the entire podcast catalog. You'll get to hear why these particular episodes resonated with us, why we think they're worth a revisit. And Taryn and Liz are also going to share their picks. So to start us off, I chose episode what was originally episode 117 with incredibly talented Richmond interior designer, Janie Molster.

0:40She has such a pretty layered and happy portfolio and style, but I love the twist that she puts on her rooms for the holidays because they are so traditional and timeless, but they're also really surprising. And I think that is really what excites me about the holidays. I want them to feel familiar, but I also don't want them to be the same every year. I like to mix it up. And so seeing Janie's portfolio really inspired me. And one of her insights totally blew my mind. And I incorporate this now into my own holiday decor. And it's really about your holiday color palette and how your color palette should enhance your room and not fight with it.

1:21There are tons of other tips in there too. So, you know, using natural greenery and ribbon and choosing colors for your room that's going to last. But this was a real pivotal moment for my own holiday decorating philosophy. And I just loved everything Janie had to say about decorating your room for the holidays. So I promise you're going to walk away with some fresh ideas, whether you're listening for the first time or revisiting this gem. So let's dive into the conversation with richmond interior designer janie molster

1:55where is daredevil a minor don't miss the return of marvel television's daredevil born again so what's next i've been liberated i'm gonna take this city back in an all new season now streaming only on disney plus they're hunting us it's time we started hunting them i can work with them This should be tons of fun. Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again, now streaming only on Disney+. I do want to talk, since we are in the holiday season, I wanted to talk a little bit about Christmas decorating. Because there were two houses that I saw that you did that were all decked out for the holidays. And something I particularly loved about it is neither were red and green.

2:44Right. You know, there was a lot of, you know, pinks and blues and chartreuse, which I guess is green, but it's not a traditional Christmas tree. Yeah, but it's a fun fresh green, yes. So talk about how you, I mean, and how do you decorate a pink house for the holidays? Oh, gosh, it's so easy. Pink looks so good with green. So, no, we, you know, decorating for the holidays for me is so simple. And I do go into homes at Christmas where I can tell, you know, they have incredible collections of Christmas accessories and the Christmas pillows come out on the sofa and all that. And I love it. It's hard for me.

3:27For me and for my clients, I tend to dial that back a bit. And I do have a few things that are over the top. And then the rest of it is sort of quiet. And I think, honestly, now that I'm actually saying that and listening to myself, that's probably how I try to treat design in general. You know, everything cannot be, you know, the star of the show. Give a few places for your eye and your mind to go and then let that thing sort of stand alone. And in my house and in my client's house often, it's the tree. You know, we go kind of crazy on the tree. my personal home. I don't have a house that, a tree that has children's handmade ornaments and then the designer tree.

4:08It's all jumbled in one big hodgepodge of a tree that I can't ever find a tree with enough limbs. So my limbs are dripping and sort of that's my thing that I do. But so to your point about color, I don't think red and green are necessity. I think what is key is greens. So I'm so about the greens in a house. And if you live somewhere where you can, you know, walk into your backyard and clip magnolia or poet's laurel or holly or whatever, fabulous, go for that. If you don't, or, you know, we actually have clients that are allergic to that, and oh my gosh, they're just the best looking faux greens now.

4:51So you can get that look. And we tend to really focus on bringing the greenery, not just adoring on your wreath on your door, but bringing the greens inside. So we often buy exterior wreaths and hang them, you know, on mirrors or, you know, on a big bay window. And we will layer the greens, you know, rather than, you know, if you buy the beautiful fur or boxwood wreath, we'll layer it with another type, you know, a green, just like we layer interiors with finishes, we'll layer greens. I'm a big believer in ribbon and go to your craft or hobby store or whatever and just buy the beautiful bolts of beautiful wide wired satin ribbon in your color choice, but pick your color palette.

5:37So if you're going to have a lot of greens and you sort of look at your house, what if your house is salmon and, you know, a yummy sort of light blue. What if that is your color palette? Then you'd go to the store and you'd pick salmon or you'd pick a beautiful light blue and that would be your ribbon, you know, and you would take that and that mixed with natural greens has a complete Christmas look. So I do it to enhance the design of a house, not to enhance, you know, the hallmark color palette. Right, right, right. So anyway, that's how we start. And then, you know, we take it on down to tabletop.

6:18You know, when we're setting our tables for the holidays, if you've used that, if pink is your ribbon color, accent color of choice, then the tabletop fruits, which I do tend to use natural things like fruits and vegetables and greens on the table, too, we'll probably use pomegranates or something. So we'll pick fruits in the same palette. So it's really just picking a palette that makes your house look good and then just taking it to holiday type accessories. That makes sense. I like that. Totally makes sense. Easy. Do you change your color palette? Yeah. Your hair? No, not really. I do have, you know, big boxes of ribbon.

6:58And, you know, I went through a thing where instead of, you know, having a pink ribbon on my door, you know, I kind of went for white and green and sort of just, you know, eliminated that accent color. and that was great um i kept that i'll do that again um and at one year i did white and ivory but my go-to and then one you know i've done the range of pinks i've done a pretty sort of petal you know pastel pink and then i've done fuchsia and uh so yes i guess i do but you don't switch it every year you just use it until you're kind of tired of it yeah and i save it and sometimes I'll rotate back and I do keep all those things and I find oh and then one year I did because I was just looking at that box visually and remember all that I had to gold and kind of an acid green and that but I the trick is if you have that color festooning down your stair rail and the ribbon running through your tree then that color also needs to connect to the wreath hanging on the door.

8:02You know, just keep it consistent. And it doesn't, because Christmas can clutter a house. Yes. It can. And you're going to have a ton of people. You're going to have family rolling in. You need to be entertaining. So, you know, you need to work Christmas in so it doesn't, your house still shines. Yeah. I have two questions. Yes. One. Okay. Since you do have hodgepodge tree, which I have hodgepodge tree, you use the ribbon to unify that with the rest of your decor. Yes. Smart. It helps. And so we, you know, go crazy with lights because that's a curse of every designer. You know, they can't get enough lights on a tree.

8:38Right, no. And then my next layer, oh, I even, you know, well, I probably wouldn't tell my client to do that. But I have a little, you know, construction paper, you know, garland that my daughter made for me as a child that I've saved. Now, I will tell you, when I helped her and gave her the construction paper, I picked the palette of the construction paper. So we even mixed that with beautiful satin wired ribbon. You know, and I think when you're doing a tree, you know, if you have multiple garlands, you know, to rotate some in a circular pattern around the tree. And then the next layer needs to layer from the top vertically down, you know.

9:18And you can actually layer that. We love doing that. but yes. Okay. I do. No, I was just thinking I need to go in and like truly... Hi listeners. If this episode has inspired you to tackle a project in your own home, we want to help with a special offer just for podcast fans. We know how exciting it is to bring your vision to life whether you're updating a room or starting a refresh. You'll find everything you need to create a space that feels uniquely yours. As a thank you for listening, enjoy 20 % off plus free shipping on your next order with the code podcast20. Visit BallardDesigns.com to get started.

9:53Your dream home is just a click away. Use Podcast 20 for 20 % off plus free shipping. Code's not combinable with other offers. See terms and conditions for details. All right, happy decorating. Let's get back to the show.

10:08Study and screenshot your trees because I have tried to put ribbon on my tree and I find it to be so hard to make it look like what we were talking about where make it look effortlessly flowing. It's not as easy as it looks. Do you have any, like, I like that tip you just gave, but maybe if you... Sure. Yeah, well, if you do do the vertical, you know, ribbon, start at the top and, you know, be very rigid. Get it, you know, completely symmetrical. Make sure, you know, if you're starting at the top of the pyramid, you know, you're spacing it all correctly. And it goes straight down. And then mess it up.

10:40And then, like, push it in in different places and kind of just like I talked about messing up the symmetry. Mess it up a little bit so it looks a little more organic. and do all this before you layer your ornaments because your ornaments are obviously last. And when you put your ornaments on, that's going to mess up a little stuff anyway. You'll mess up your garland that way. And cover up bits of it too, which is nice. Yeah, yeah. Does it drape at the bottom? Well, I always do it extra long because I know I'm going to push it in and then I'll cut at the very end. Yeah. Okay. Do you buy your ribbon at the craft store?

11:10Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. And then there's some sources online, you know, if you're looking for sort of a funky color. But yeah, I do. And sometimes, you know, I love to go in January when all the ribbon is practically free. And I'll buy just tons of ribbon. And if I find I haven't used it in my decor, you know, I'll use it the next year for wrapping presents or something. Right. That was my second question. Does your gift wrap coordinate with your decor? Okay. True confessions? No. In photo shoot styling, of course. Yeah. So if you look at my trees online, of course they do. And there's some years where I'm more organized than others and, you know, and I do a better job.

11:51But the reality is, but, you know, if you pick what you like, typically you're going to find out, you know, that you are drawn to the same type of wrapping. So sometimes it appears as if it's coordinated, but that's just consistency in the wrapping that I like. You know, my favorite sort of go-to thing is paper craft paper and then, you know, pretty special ribbon. So, you know, that's always if I, you know, run out, you know, dash to the store for 10 rolls of craft paper. Here's a good tip. What? If you use the butcher block paper from like Home Depot, I think especially if you have kids, Because kids' toys are always huge and unusually shaped.

12:33And butcher block paper, even from Home Depot, is like several inches longer. A wider. Good to know. Wider than regular Gifra. So if you have a giant box, it's great. It does help. Strategy. And it's like 8 million yards long. I do like the butcher block paper. It does look great under the tree with fun ribbons. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm looking at this tree that you did with the acid green. And you're right. Like you've some ribbons are sort of spun on the way down into like a little almost like a candy cane swirl. And then some are straight down. So, OK, I'm going to I'm going to try the strategy this year.

13:08I am too. I want to see the tree, your tree. And the ribbon does tie in with the room, which really is. It makes it look designery, even if it was shoved full of my kids kindergarten ornaments. Right. Yes. Which it will be. And we even have we even have our own ornaments as kids. Oh, I do, too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And so, you know, of course, my mom was like, Anne, these are yours now. Take it. I don't have this on my chain. Okay. So I am such a, you know, they are my favorite thing. I always complain. You know, I've spent hours on this tree or days and nobody's helped me. And my family, you know, fires back and they say, you won't let us help you because they'll go to the box of my children.

13:49I'm like, don't touch that. It's my favorite thing in the world. But I haven't given them away because it really is my, you know, favorite thing at Christmas, standing on that ladder at one o 'clock in the morning, drinking eggnog and unpacking all those little children ornaments. So kudos to your mom for partying with them. I'm a hoarder. I can't do it. How old is your oldest? 33. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, he has a beautiful Christmas tree and he would love to have them. His wife would love to have them, I'm sure. But no. Well, I do my version of what you're doing, which is I sit with a glass of wine while my children do it.

14:22So I see each one as they pull it out. We talk about it and look at it. Yeah. But they do the work. Yeah. Oh, OK. Well, you are a freer person than me. I'm proud. Well, your tree's prettier. Well, you can always be like, you're tall. You can get up there. That's right. Well, they kind of fight over certain ones, which is kind of funny. That's sweet. Yeah. Now, I look in magazines and on television at families that, you know, are sort of all in on it. And it's really sort of my thing. Now, my husband, he does do the heavy lifting on the front end with lights and what have you. Yeah. So I love him.

14:55I wish my husband did the lights. The lights are the worst. Because I'm obsessed about them, right? Just like you. They have to be amazing. That's what makes your tree glow. Yeah. Yeah. And a trick on that, I always tell people, they say, when is enough? And I'm like, you know, get several feet back from your tree and squint. And, you know, just see if the blur. There are any dark spots. If there are any places that you can see. And I learned. Then I started walking out, you know, my front door out on the street and squinting. And at that point, we knew I was really losing it. She's crazy. I know.

15:28And then turn the lights off and look at it to see where you're missing ornaments. Oh. Okay. I will try that. Okay. Yeah. My college roommate taught me that. Laura. Yeah. You know, we bought our, I think I talked about this on an old episode. But we re-bought our lights this year, and they're like more blue. And I really hate it. Gosh, yeah. Do they have lumens listed on Christmas tree lights? I wonder if they do. Probably. And I made the mistake of sending Will to the store to get the lights. Uh-oh. We'll make that again. But I probably won't buy Christmas lights for another 10 years. You can't live with blue lights.

16:04Think of the investment. It's like$50, maybe. Lights are expensive. They're like$7 a string. You bought yours like 15 years ago. So they're more than seven a string. Yeah, they're kind of expensive, I think. Okay. Now go to the store in January and get your beautiful warm colored lights for next year. They're free. Practically. I did last year. Some listener listened to me griping about my lights and told me to get a dimmer. And I did do that. And it helped a lot. Wow. It's just a little like$10 dimmer on Amazon. And you just plug the lights into the dimmer before they plug into the extension cord.

16:39And you can change it. I love that. I need to get the remote control for my lights for the Christmas tree, you know. Do you all sell that at Ballard? No, Amazon. No, you should. Shouldn't we? Yes. Right. Uh-huh. We should make all of our Christmas trees come with a remote. A remote. Brilliant, Caroline. We'll have to leave this and go tell merchandising. All right. I think we should answer some questions. Oh, a decorating dilemma. Will you help us? Yes.

17:16This is a good one. Oh, this is from Jade, who is adorable. First of all, Jade, I totally cyber-stalked you and got on Zillow and looked at your new house. It was so cute. She's like 25 and just bought this adorable house, and she's getting ready to decorate it, and she needed some help. So she says, Hello, Ballard has been my guilty pleasure since I was a girl, stealing and folding down the corners of my mother's catalogs. I longed for the day when I could decorate my own home. Well, that day has arrived. This first house of mine has presented a few design challenges, but none so challenging as the bedroom upstairs.

17:50Why? Dormer windows. And not the cute kind with the window seat where one might read a book all day. No. The wall-obstructing awkward kind that make having a headboard nearly impossible. Since I've come to terms with tossing my cast iron headboard, I need help with what to do next. Do I go bold and wallpaper all those awkward angles, embracing the choppy space, or go neutral to smooth out and distract away from the lines? And window treatments? Where do you even begin? I've scoured the internet for inspiration photos to no avail. Any insight from my favorite Ballard gals would be of great assistance.

18:21I should note, the pictures below only show one side of the master, but the opposite wall poses the exact same issue. The bed pictured is a king. And so I think these are photos from the online listing. This isn't even her furniture. So she does have this little attic bedroom with dormers, and between all the dormers are windows. What should she do? Okay. Well, surprise, Chaney. Yeah, get to work. So if budget allows, I love her idea of wallpaper. I mean, this is a very attic, eavey kind of feeling space. And we always, if a client is open to wallpaper, recommend that. As a matter of fact, I would not only wallpaper the angles and the eaves, but do the ceiling, do all of it.

19:13Because if she doesn't do the entire room, what's going to happen is she's going to end up with the way the eaves, you know, angle in. And she's going to end up with this weird little small space that if that is separate, it will shrink visually the room. So she needs to pick a wallpaper and a good installer that can take that pattern and wrap front to back is how she'd start. Is there a pattern that's better than another, you know, an all over floral or a geometric or a stripe in a room like this? Well, a stripe could be or a vertical pattern could be really fun because, you know, depending on what it is, she could run it, you know, up the eaves vertically and then take the pattern sideways on the top to create sort of a cabana tent effect.

19:56So, you know, there's all kinds of fun ways to play with wallpaper. But I do think this room would be transformed with wallpaper. And then she's got these funky little, you know, trimmed doors to fix the attic eaves. and I think they are so fun and sort of filled with personality and I can't see if they have paneling or not but they almost look like flat panel doors in which case you know depending on her color palette it would be so fun to accent them I mean she could wrap them in a fabric and put a really fun stud pattern on them to make them sort of be a great architectural piece The other thing, what they need to do is they need to be treated in something that connects to the wallpaper pattern so that you don't end up with, in this case, two big white spots on that side of the room.

20:48Right. Even if she does nothing other than taking the ground color of the wallpaper and treating the trim indoors the same. Got it. So that is just more of a blend. And then, you know, I do think she's a little bit stuck. She's going to end up with a low headboard. She's probably going to need to do an upholstered one there. And then I think the best thing for the windows behind her bed are a remote control blind. Because getting in there to raise and lower them, I think, will really, you know, eventually be problematic for her. And on the odd window, she can do whatever she wants. She can do floor-to-ceiling curtains.

21:27You know, she can treat that separately because it really isn't another place. Doesn't have to map. It doesn't have to match. It's different as well. These are double hung versus a single hung. But it's a cute room. I mean, it has so much potential. And I think, you know, the wallpaper would just be a game changer. Right. Yes. It felt so light and bright. Okay, I have a crazy idea. What is it? For a headboard. Okay. So for people who can't see, the king bed is centered sort of in this dormer. And so two really angled pieces of the dormer are cutting into the bed. So part of the bed has maybe six feet above it, but part of the bed only maybe has like six inches above it before it hits the angle part.

22:20So my weird thought was, what if she has a custom headboard made to where it starts like right below the top of the dormer, comes up like in a swoop above. So it sort of makes a little arch. Yeah. So she kind of gets the feel of like a arched headboard, but it's tall where the window is. Maybe it covers a little bit of the window. That's a fine idea. And then swoops down. It started, I was very skeptical when you started that idea. I was like, this is going to be ugly. and now I can envision it. Yeah. I mean, definitely the wallpaper is going to look freaking killer. So I definitely like that idea.

22:59And if she can only do one or the other, then I would say do the wallpaper. But you can do it in phases. Yeah, and you may even actually find a king headboard. I know our Camden. But she doesn't, she might not have a king. That's true. Yeah, she might have a queen. She's a young single girl. Same rule would apply regardless of your bed size. And you may be able to find a bed, a headboard that kind of fits, depending on, you know, you really get out your measuring tape. But having a headboard made is really not that expensive. No, it's not. So, yeah, I mean. And if you're handy, Jade, you might be able to do it yourself.

23:33Yes. I mean, if you've got a jigsaw and some padding and some fabric. Yes. To be handy, though. So, you do. Jade, this is so exciting, though. I know. She's like 26 and has her first house. I don't think there's anything more charming than a bedroom with dormer windows where it's all treated well. Where did I make up her age? I don't think she's tall to sit. I've made up a whole personality for Jane. I was judging my own children. Why aren't they having their homes? All right. One more? Yes. Yeah. Are you all game for one more? Are you game for one more? Okay. This one's from Lauren. She just recently discovered the podcast and it is everything.

24:10She put in all caps. Thank you, Lauren. We love you. My family and I moved into our new house. It's a 70s build about six weeks ago, and she's itching to make it hers. The room I'm currently struggling with is the family room. It opens on one side to the entry and on the other side to the dining room. The furniture in there now is stuff I had on hand already from our previous house, but none of it feels right. We have a small list of to-dos like retiling the fireplace, adding built-ins around it, and possibly closing off the space above it. Would love your thoughts on furniture placement and or new pieces, drapery, etc.

24:44I'm itching to get started, but feeling stuck, help. So it is a room, like just say it's a rectangle. There's a sort of a double opening on one of the walls, the long wall, which looks like it goes to the entry. I can't tell. Oh, dining room. I think that's the dining room. And then there must be another door we can't see. Oh yeah, there's a small door to the entry and then a long bank of windows on the long wall that opposes the one that has the entry to the dining room. So furniture placement she's struggling with, it looks like. Right. Well, one thing, I can't see if there's room, but if there is room on the other end of the sofa, I think if she put another chair there, you know, we always talk about there's a little bit of too much space between the two sofas.

25:34And we always try to create rooms where there isn't, as we call it, the timeout chair, like the person that's sitting so far away from everyone else that they can't really be in the conversation. So even if it's just a small, low-profile sort of fireside chair or a bench, but creating a space there for you always want to have at least two to three people that can interact in a more intimate way. So having a little seat there. One thing I would suggest her television is in a deep recessed niche above a fireplace. And I think with very little effort, she could remedy that. I mean, I think it was probably there from the old days where we had big, fat, bulky televisions and we needed, you know, a nice big, you know, cavity to mount them.