The Boys

S1:E18 Tips for Adding Style to A Small Home

• Jeremy Rice • Season 1 • Episode 18

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Just because you have a smaller home or space, doesn't mean that you can't have lots of style or charm!  We get it, all those Instagram influencers show these massive, beautiful homes and we have a little style envy!  Well, you can make your home a jewel box too packed with style, even if you don't have the square footage!  In this podcast, we discuss some of our favorite ways to add big style to a small space as well as something we wouldn't do!  We enjoyed it so much, we're going to do a whole series!

How placement of paint can affect the feel of a room.

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stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Oh, Jesus.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

to the, what is it when you go to, um, um, a dinner or something that's after the people have already got married, is it still called a reception?

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

would like, yeah, I think so.

stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

After they've got the reception?

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Okay. Well, we're going, yeah, they've, they've gotten married. Uh, and this is just like a few weeks later, they're doing something.

stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

So now they're just having a party. Yeah.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

They're just having a party and it's XXXXX XXXXX and this is her. I don't, we don't want to record this, by the way. This is not something we're posting, uh, cause I don't want to share her story.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

This isn't her first wedding.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

This is, oh, four or

stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

who's counting? I mean, come on. I mean, you know, the first few experience

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Well, this week we had a message from, I don't have it queued up, which I should have, but, she asked how do you add style to a small. I don't know if she said a small home or a smaller home. I thought, that is a good question because you see all these houses, like in Pinterest or people share them on Facebook or Instagram, and they're all these rich bitches. I don't, first of all, where all their money comes from. I'd love to know this, but they have these gigantic homes and they're ridiculously manicured. And I'll done up and I'm like, yeah, that's lovely, but that's not 90 percent of the people's homes that are out there. So I thought this was a good little question to have and for us to try to help out because everybody wants to live in a house that they love, right?

stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I would think, I

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Nobody wants to live in ugly. I

stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

in a shithole.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I did have some customers once where I walked in and I was like, how long have y'all lived here? They were like 10 years. And I'm like, y'all still have boxes that aren't unpacked. Like they're just sitting there from when y'all moved from the last house. There's not a piece of art on the wall. It was 10 years.

stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Wow,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

That's, that's sad. That's, that's,

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I think, uh,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

you unstuck him. Did you unstuck him?

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I unstucked him. I think that they felt paralyzed because they just didn't feel like they knew what they were doing. I would have hoped that they would have reached

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

I think hair lasts for six weeks, six months, but. Six years. 10 years. That's, that's,

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

heh

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Well, no, no, no. They're different. I, I, I, that's it. I, have never walked into anybody's house in 30 years and boxing. Been sitting there for 10 years later. Might be a few months later. Might be a year. Right. But you don't have boxes sitting in your living room for 10 years. That's odd. Judge.

stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

oh

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

people live lives.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Judge the ice might, the tin can. You know what that

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Not a clue.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Okay. So, I lived in a trailer by a mobile home on the side of a hill. Right? That's my daddy talking. That's how it was. Yeah, you've done fine. You've got a house with two staircases now. You're fine. You're good. And, uh, but one person, it was a cousin actually, and she said, you know, I've thought about this. She said, I just don't understand God's wrath sometimes and I said, what's that? She said, it feels like he just looks down upon the earth and he looks upon the mobile home and he says, I smite thee tin can and flicks it. And I was like, wow. Okay. Okay. I don't know God works that way. I really don't. yeah, just don't think Yeah. But every time I think of a trailer tornado, I thought I smite thee tin can. Okay.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

you always say that I judge trailers and I do not. God, they have no, listen, they work for a lot of people and I'm glad that they have them. But I would never say Smiley Tin Can.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

no.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Because they're not a tin can.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

know, um, we'll, we'll bring up the Shonda Rose. Shonda Rose has a client who sells Clayton Homes mobile homes. And, uh, I have Facebook followers. She, some of the homes that she posts truly, and these are modular and double wides and all that kinda stuff. They really are quite well done. Uh, it's surprising. And their biggest investor who owns it is, uh, structure Hathaway. You know, oh boy, that's the billionaire.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Buffet.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Warren Buffett, his company owns Clayton Homes because it's, I think, I talked to the woman because she bought fly arrangements and stuff in here that, um, uh, Shawna had wanted her to do for her house. Anyway, uh, I think she said it's the fourth most profitable company in their portfolio is Clayton Mobile Homes. Isn't that fascinating? Yeah, anyway, yeah, but it really does say anybody can have a home if you work and try you don't have to Like what we're just talking about. You don't have to be the gazillionaire. You just You can get there

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Don't you wonder where they get their money? I just look at these people. I'm like, what the hell do y'all do? And I just assume it's family money. That's all I can figure it out. Either that or the husband's like a pimp. I have no idea. I just, I can't figure out where. I'm just like, Lord, these homes just go forever, which I'm happy for you. There's no jealousy, but jealousy there, but Lord, God, mm

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

know that you have a nice home, but it's not ginormous. It's nice, isn't it? Right, and I have a nice home and it's okay size, and then we Stuart in Tara. So where did he get his

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Oh

stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Oh my

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

my God,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

telling you

stuart_1_06-20-2024_090736:

God,

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Lord. Okay, well, let's, well, how about instead of us picking on each other this morning let's help our wonderful people out talking about some easy ways to add some, good design to a home, no matter what the size

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Same thing I do for a big house. Crown molding, trim, baseboard, built ins. Even more so for a smaller house. The less furniture you have and the more built ins because it utilizes every inch and every little niche and every little space better. Um, It's always a smart approach always. So, you know, you always go into houses and if, if they even have crown molding, like a lot of little, I always go with the idea as a starter house and that's not necessarily true, but let's say, let's revert back to me and my first little,, small house and it's, it was, this is a date yourself, it was 56, 500. Okay, so there you go and that didn't exist in this world anymore now I will say that we moved in and had a love seat in the love seat the next morning was on the curb because the The carpet was infested with fleas and then infested the love seat over the two days. It was in the house And I woke up with bites all over me. Yeah, I can't make that up So needles. Yeah, that was not. So, uh, yep. So ripped the carpet up and started over. I just, and I ended up putting in hardwood floors, um, and did at the time, this was a house on the concrete slab. So 56, 500. So you got to understand it wasn't bougie by any means, There wasn't such things as luxury vinyl flooring. It's the only thing you had was real hardwood flooring and couldn't afford that. So I did like Bruce hardwood flooring, which everybody, if you know this at all, you cannot put hardwood floor wood on concrete cause concrete has moisture in it. Right? Well, let me tell you. Didn't listen to him, didn't care because that's what I wanted. Uh, I was there for seven, eight, nine years. It was still there and it was still perfect. I still don't recommend it by the way, but sometimes just don't listen to people because they, they, they overly cautious, but we never, um, I have one problem with that by the way, but, uh, that was, so the revert back to is it didn't have crown molding and, you know, a lot of times you'll put like a two inch piece of crown molding in a house that has eight foot ceilings. I'm like, Oh, I did bigger, larger scale crown molding. So that's one thing. It's about scale and size. And so you put crown molding up, but you do bigger than what you think it should be. Right. That's one of the things I got to get across is do bigger than what you think you should or normally would do. That makes

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

the story of my dating life.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Is it really? That's what she said. That's

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

No, you know, it's funny because I started a list, um, when we discussed that we would talk about this, started in a trim was the number one thing on my list as well. Yeah. Just because it doesn't have to be crown molding, but it could be any, you know, any kind of additional trim. It just starts to add those architectural details and that really can dollar for dollar. I really do think that, that that's one of the best things that you can do. Um, Um,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Absolutely.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

bit of interest to it, because it doesn't, it just doesn't make it for plain walls on the ceiling, right? Like you're going to add,

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Well, yeah,

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

some, some, kind of detail

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

I mean, my um, the draperies. Take them all the way up and take them all the way across the wall. Don't, don't stop at the top of the

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Mm hmm. Mm

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

your room look stubby. You know, no matter what, I mean,

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I. I.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

does the carpet match the drapes? I don't know.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

my God. Well, you know, so all of this, I think, so trim was my first one. And then right underneath of that was, um, be intentional. And I think that's, that's probably like the bigger picture or the bigger, like bigger idea of like what we've already said so far is that when you go in and you put furniture in, when you go in and you put a rug in, You've got to make sure you have the right size, right? It's the scale. So you don't want a tiny little rug in front of your sofa, because if you do, then it's going to make everything else look small and odd. You also don't want the sofa that looks like an eighth room, right? We don't want furniture world sofas everywhere. Um, and I'm not talking about a tiny house. I'm just talking about in general. Right. but it also comes to draperies using those to help you make the windows look as big as they can be. Um, cause I think that's. That will immediately give you, I mean, those are the easy, like foolproof things. My, the third thing after that, which I thought would be Duane's first was edit because, and it goes back to this word of it being intentional. You don't need all this shit, right? So everything that you put in there, make sure it's the right size, the right finish. That you get the biggest bang out of it, I guess. Ultimately, like, you don't need 7, 000 tchotchkes. Let's, what you put in there, let's make that be impactful and be the right kind of look for what goes in there.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Which goes back to your whole furniture and big sofa comment, because, you know, in a smaller space, people are like, I want as much seating as I can get. Well, you don't get the sofa that seats 14. You don't need that. know, you can have two seating groups in the same small space without having one sofa that takes up three quarters of it. So, you know, think of it that way as well. Yeah, big sectionals are nice for movies and family and kids and TVs, but if that's the only room you got, you gotta kinda divide it up a little bit, you know?

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Mm hmm.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

page in that when Jeremy posed this to have this discussion, one of the first visuals that popped in my head, my little filing cabinet, was what you're saying, Stuart. It was the world's largest poofy sectional in this room that lined the room. I have seen it time after time after time. And when you say that, it's like, You just walk in and go, why? Why? Why would you do this? I mean, just why? Who locked? Because real comfortable. Well, that fat ass needs to, to lose some weight. not said this right. I don't wanna tell you because this don't fit. I'm like,

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

me of a TikTok I saw the other day and it was at Christmas time. And it was these people that had bought, the grandfather of the family had bought him a recliner And had put it in the living room, and evidently his wife had lived 80 something years refusing to get this man a recliner. And so you see him walk in, and you see him be so excited, and she has the biggest scorn, she is pissed. Look, them people are not getting any Christmas gifts the rest of her life. They better hope she goes quickly, because she is going to make the rest of their lives a living hell because she's so upset about this recliner. You

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

80 something. Papa needs his

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

let him sleep. Listen, you know damn well she would have sat in that thing. She'd fall asleep immediately.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Mm hmm.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I never understood it either because my grandfather loved his recliner and then and then I started sitting in it after he passed away. but I'm sitting in that thing and I felt like I was sucked into a vortex after eating Granny's McMeals on Sundays. I'd fall asleep and I'd be like, oh God, how many days have I been out? So I Get it. I get it.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Was it. the right scale though? We'll ask

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Hmm. Yeah, no, no, it wasn't big. No, you know what props to granny props. She got it, right? She got it, right?

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Guess for

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Ugly color ugly fabric, but she got it, right?

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

got the

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

you know, I think she bought it like one of the little small, furniture stores, where we're from. So they're probably wearing a ton of options, but you know,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

right.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

So going along with like us talking about like proportion and trying to make sure you just get things right for me, art is a huge thing. Uh, is a huge way to add character and look and style and stuff into a space. But what I always find is people will always gravitate to the small, to, to too small. So I would rather put one big piece above the sofa versus a bunch of small things. I feel like once you do that, then it starts it just starts making it busy. So if you do, The larger sizes of pieces of art that you can, I think that that will be more impactful is the place for it personally, but

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Mm hmm.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Well, and it, you know, it pops in my head on that one. It is. Little stuff in little house just makes it little, Right? But the other thing is right little and little and little means little, but the other thing is. Uh, quit being cheap, right? It is a whole lot easier to go out to the home goods and buy a 20 picture and buy 20, 20, 20, 20, right? And you got a hundred dollars worth of crap, right? You come in here and it's going to be several hundred dollars. Now it's okay to wait for the 20 percent sale, all that kind of stuff. Get you a deal on it better, right? But buy the right thing and buy the right size. And I'm not trying to just tell that, I'm just telling you the truth. Do it right. And every single time, and you, I'll look at both of you on the screen, every time that you've settled, it ends up going in your garage sale, or you stick in the closet, you buy it and you get it right, and you might have had to wait a little bit, right, or it pinched you a little bit to go, Ooh, I'm going to eat ramen noodles this week, but every single time you buy what you love, right, and it's usually more expensive than what you want it to be, truthfully, Right. Okay. You end up loving it forever and because of that, it's larger scale is always going to be a lot more expensive, but it's always the right answer, especially in a small house. All right, just get it right the first time. I have dealt with this time after time after time. You're just buying crap because it was cheap. Well, cheap is cheap. I don't want to tell you cheap is cheap Especially when it comes to art and scale right and size. It really is I I do think yeah, it really is the size and you can buy big art and it'd be inexpensive I don't think that's true any longer post covid. Everything's um, There's no deals out there that I can find Uh, but anyway Quit being cheap. Just buy big stuff

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Those are things you can spend, like spend money on, and I'm sure we'll discuss more of those, but something that you don't necessarily have to spend money on or spend a whole lot of money on, I think is how you approach paint in a space or in a home, um, as far as like get good quality paint, but let's also be cognizant of, if you've got low ceilings. And you're trying to make the space feel bigger. Let's not paint the walls a darker color and then the ceiling white, for example, like it's, it starts breaking it up, right? It starts exaggerating stuff. So can you paint the walls and the ceiling with the same color? That will help make everything feel more voluminous. I guess I'll say it that way. I'm just saying, don't paint the ceiling a dark color and then bring it down. If you're trying to make it feel bigger. Right. And so I guess there's two parts of this conversation is adding style or if you're trying to make it feel bigger, if you're just trying to have a look or feel for it and you want to bring down the ceiling, then do that. But if you're trying to make a smaller house feel bigger and feel more impactful, then let's not chop up the walls with weird, you know, dark and contrasting kind of colors. Um, I saw, uh, uh, like an infographic and it really, it was very interesting. They had like the same, they were just illustrations. Um, and I'll see if I can find it. I'll put it in the show notes, but it was like, you know, basically if you paint the walls, one color and you paint the ceiling one color like it showed you how it how big how it made your room feel how it felt differently and I thought that was so

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Well, and being consistent with that color, too. So, if you want to paint a darker color, that's fine. But use different sheens on the different planes as well. You know, if everything is going to be the same color, then your walls are, let's say a satin, and the trim is a gloss, and the ceiling is a flat. Because those are going to read different in different lights anyway, but then it's a consistent box, so to speak. And just like you're saying, it doesn't break it up. And you can do that with a white color too. You can do different sheens of white or, or whatever. It's just, you want your eye to go around in a circle and not fixate on one spot.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Well, um, some will know that I finished my basement off last year and, I painted everything a color it's a PP and G Porter paint colors called delicate white, and it's white, but it has a little bit of softness to it, but really ultimately it's. I don't see gray. I don't see pink. I don't see yellow. It's just a little bit soft white. It's a white and in the basement, there's only one wall that in a bank of doors, it gets a light in. So bedrooms, no windows, right? So I did the experiment. I thought, Oh, I don't know if I'm like this. I painted everything, trim walls, ceiling, everything delicate white. And I thought, Oh, this is going to look like an institution. Now I changed it up a little bit in that one, um, of the bedrooms, I painted the ceiling really, really barely their blue color. And I got some grass cloth in a place and I got a dark hallway, a lot of blue color also, but 90 percent of it's white. And. I love the end result with that because it really does make these rooms any windows feel much lighter. So the basic is you may not want to go that drastic and white, but what Stuart's kind of saying is a lighter color and even possibly the majority of the house, you don't do every room this way, but the majority of the house is all one color as opposed to a coloring box and chopping it up because you want it to kind of be a little more seamless. for me, that's how I see a smaller house is not so many colors because it's just like you don't have any break between the colors and it just gets really, really busy. You get the color through the bedding. For example, you get the color through a rug, not necessarily through the wall color for me. And that's in a smaller house.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Absolutely.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

What about the idea of flooring? Also, if possible, the same everywhere. Yeah.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

chop it up into little boxes or little squares by changing that flooring, but maybe do something interesting with the

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Yeah, Yeah,

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

You know, maybe lay it at a pattern if you're going through the whole spot. or border. If it's a big space, border the whole space and inlay it. And then that still creates an interest,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

You know, when you, when you have the luxury of having a bigger house, usually you have room to have a little sitting area and a chair, like in a bedroom, right? Or you have some built in benches or some bookcases around a room. But let's say that you've got a 12 by 12 bedroom, right? That's tight, but that's. That's what you're dealing with. Uh, you know, you might keep the full size bed queen at the most and some small nightstands and a dresser if you don't have a built in. But the other thing is like, well, how do you take this small room and you don't have any other way? We've got the draperies. Right. We got the hardwood floors. We've got the crown molding is what do you think about? Should the door slabs be just painted white? Whatever trim color it is. What do you think about in a small house painting the door slabs a color? And like I've done like Black charcoal in medium to larger houses. And I love that. In the chest in

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

So to me,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

And we've

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

on the floor plan as to if I would paint the doors or not. Like the proximity, the proximity of the

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

We're we're in my little starter

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

I know, but as there are all the doors in one hallway and they're all at the same end and there are five

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Yes, there is. It's a house and there's this door after door door Just this generic hallway and there's probably only four inches between each door and there's like four or five of it It's just door city hallway. It's what it is. I'm just telling you this house

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

I probably wouldn't paint them then.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I you know,

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

to do something to the hallway.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I, love a painted door. I do I love a painted door. Um, but what I automatically think, and of course, and maybe the homes in our heads are different at this moment, right? Like what we're thinking of, but like, I love a little cottage and I'm talking about like a tiny, small little cottage that where all the the doors and the trim are painted, um, and it gives it so much, it's so much more interesting than just a little white house. Right. Um, but then for me, what that also does, and it may be because of my size has been six, three, that it, it, it, then for me, it makes the house feel like even smaller. And I feel like it's this little, um, What are

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

a gnome

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Lord of the Rings? The Hobbits! Like a little Hobbit home? Like, but I love that. I could visit it but that makes me nervous what I would do is instead of, now this, this is spending money, and they did not preface this with not spending money by the way. This was just me just trying to throw out different options. But like, I would do a, Texture like a grass cloth or something on the walls and even it doesn't have to be high contrast grass cloth, right? Like it can be more solid color but for me that adds a level of depth and richness to it without Then doing the doors and the trim and all that really really super dark. I think I could do a color on that Um, on those, but then do that on the wall. And then, and that helps me make it feel like that's a lot of impact. Um, and a lot of style and it is, it doesn't shrink the room unless you do like a black, you know, like, unless you pick some kind of

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Yeah,

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I think we're

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

so what I hear from both of you is, uh, that's a real iffy proposition and probably wouldn't do it, that it doesn't feel right in this situation. Yeah. No. I'm kind of with you. I was like, so you just gave me the solution. It's funny. It's also. The solution was already there. I just wasn't willing to accept it. And it was about the grass cloth. And because this is an easy, subtle way to get texture and personality of this hallway where paint wasn't simply, it just didn't, it wasn't enough. Right. And, um, funny you, even when you proposed to do this podcast, Jeremy. Uh, there was something that again, initially popped in my head and it was a Facebook post or something. And, you know, it's like, it went from this to this and what the designer was showing was this generic hallway. It seemed like a smaller house. I've had to guess, cause I only showed the foyer, but you didn't really have a great place to land. It was lots of doors and. The little tagline said, they said, just don't worry about the four year, just don't do anything. And then she clipped her fingers and then it had this lightest powdery blue grass cloth in there. And it instantly create a mood. And you only saw slivers of the wallpaper, right? The grass cloth wallpaper, like what? But you instantly gave it warmth and character and texture, even though you didn't see very much of it. And you didn't walk in and just go, Oh, that's a lot of doors. What you felt when you saw this image was, Ooh, that's a pretty space. That's, that's, that's elegant. So that goes back to our good old grass cloth, small house, medium house, big house, grass cloth is your friend in so many different ways, other than bathroom boys and girls, because boys miss the toilet and they pee on your grass cloth and it smells like urine. So all the designers out there and some of our friends, they put grass cloth in the powder bathrooms, unless your husband has Cheerios in the toilet and he hits the little Cheerios, he's going to piss all over the

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I'm

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

I'm just telling You there's your visual and the smell is in hope. I wish we had smellism so you could smell the urine in the bathroom. There you

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

I Okay, so I have

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

head. You don't look for it. I

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

yeah.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

not saying you're

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

I mean, I'm gonna, I'm gonna sidebar here because I sit down a whole lot more on the toilet than I ever did in my whole life. Because, I have a five year old, and you know, we went through potty training, and she is proficient at the toilet all on her own. But there was a time where she had walked in one time, and I was using the restroom, well she thought she could stand up and pee too, and just peed right in the floor. So, I thought, you know what? Children do walk in rooms unannounced all the time. So I'm just gonna sit down from now on. And then she got it! She's like, oh, I have to sit

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

let's just say one grown up one did recently on me, by the way. Well, how, uh,

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

yeah. So, you know.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Um,

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Sitting down ain't half

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Well, I won't say the client's name, but I'll call her Mrs. Russell.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

put

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Mrs. Russell, I was at Mr. and Mrs. Russell's house many years ago and I needed to use the restroom and I said, could I, could you tell me where the restroom is, the powder bathroom? I couldn't remember. And Mr. Russell said it's over there and I said, oh yeah, that's right. So I go use the restroom and I come back and he says to me, how'd you like that heated toilet seat? And I was like, well, um, for what I did, I didn't have to sit down. Oh, you don't sit down when you pee? Um, no, this is going to a weird conversation. I'm telling you this happened. I went, uh, no, Do you? Yep. Yep. Mrs. Russell makes me sit down and she's like, I sure do. She said, I got three grown boys. 30 something, 40 something. And she said they just pissed all over everything. She said, I just made'em sit down. I

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Ha ha ha ha

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

And I went, oh. And he said, yep. He said so.'cause I have to, uh, I'm older and my prostate's gone. I have to go to the bathroom a lot. And so I got heated toilet seats on every toilet in the house. Light this up. So Mr. Russell and his grown men. Children boys should sit down every time they come to her house. So there you go Stuart

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

the powder room in downstairs we put, some trim around the bottom two thirds of the wall or whatever and I really didn't want to drill into the trim to put a toilet paper roll holder. So my solution at the time was I had this big glass vessel that could hold toilet paper and so I walked in there one day and was using the rest trim and I looked down and all I could see was, um, spots all over the glass.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Oh. ha

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

And I went, well, here we are. Guess I'm peeing sitting down from now on. Like that was my immediate solution. Oh lord. Back to the grass cloth for a second. For a second. I would, because I think this is going to bring up a conversation or a thought from someone listening, that Is grass cloth and by the way, there are vinyl interpretations of grass cloth that are really good that you can't use in bathrooms that we, I know that we all have used. Um, so if that's the look that you want in a place like that, um, but I would tend, and this is, maybe this is, maybe I'm wrong, but I would not try to use really super patterned wallpaper if it's a smaller space or a smaller home. Like I would tend, I always tend to go more textural. Anyway, but I'm thinking of like somebody putting in some small print, you know, like those old, um, Well, they're coming back now, but like all the printed, the block, the small block, little patterns that they did, uh, and then all the fabrics are coming back in, I don't want to call it a little house on the periphery, but I can just see somebody thinking, Oh, that's, you know, that's coming back in as trendy, like whatever, and using it, that is a nightmare for me as far as like that small print. I'm just afraid to just make it even worse. So,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Yeah, I'll go the opposite. That's like a

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

A bold.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

if you want to have a bathroom where probably I wouldn't do a bowl bathroom if it's the main, but I keep coming back to living in my house and there was like, uh, there was a main bathroom off the hallway and then a bathroom off the master, uh, you know, toilet, toilet, bedroom, but yeah, it's, it did have its luxury of this little singing toilet by itself, but I can't imagine doing a really, really busy paper in that cause I just go blind. But if you are going to do a really. Uh, if you want to do a wallpaper, I'd probably go super bold and bigger again, the whole concept than just small. Um, but I'm with both of what you've alluded to, um, is this more textures, it's better, uh, in a smaller, um, because you don't need it to be too bold once it says it done.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Somebody said to me, isn't grass cloth in that dated or old? And I'm like, no, it's one of those things where I think it's always, there's always the Right. place in the right application. Like I don't think it's dated or trendy or anything like that. But what I will say is that not all grass cloths are created equal, and it's not in a positive versus negative. Some have a lot more texture. Some of them have a lot more color variation in them. Some of them have bigger weaves, looser weaves, tighter weaves, all those kinds of things. So. Somewhere in there is a right answer. I think as far as like how to put that on and add texture into it. Um, what else? So you sent a list this morning, Dwayne, of things that you thought, and I can't,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

But one of the things, as you were looking at that is I've asked you to put crown molding up and bigger baseboards and all this stuff, I'm actually asking you to rip out some, um, trim work too. Like what? Seems like if there's gonna be trim work somebody's gonna put up a

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

God, just get rid of it

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

especially during a specific time,

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Just tear it down.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Right? It's like this is this is the the molding you chose to do is put it right in the middle of the room to Divide it in half, right? It's like no if you got a chair rail for me generally Ignore it, paint it out, make it become the color of the grass cloth, make it just a little texture kind of thing, or rip it out 99 percent of the time. Right? Jer or Stuart Riley said, you know, you do draperies and you make them long. Right. And you hang them, you got 12 inches from the. Top of the window to the bottom of our new crown molding. Well, you take the drapery up at least half that, right? A good rule of thumb is half of that, right? You make it long and tall. Well, then you don't go back and have this big strop of piece of wood, uh, running horizontally around the room and dividing in half, right? The whole point is to make. Something seemed taller and then you need to make it stubby. Rip it out. Rip it out.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

You had mentioned bookcases originally, like if you can build in a bookcase or something like that, I think that that is a great way to add architecture and style. But aside from that, I think that's another great place for you to be able to detail a space to add things into it that adds a lot of interest and character into a space. So it's just like another workhorse. Following along with that is also think they're great places for storage. So that's always like for me in a smaller home is trying to figure out, okay, where can I store stuff? Cause there's always stuff you don't want to see out all the time. And so I'm always looking for great baskets or if it's clothes where I can put things away. Cause I think in a small home, you always feel like you never had enough space, right? You've always got

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Where are you going to put your photo albums and board games and You got a place to have to shove this crap and I keep coming back I keep when we talk about this I keep having the visual of Kathy and, our first little starter home. And I, I did exactly what I'm saying, that I had an empty little hole on one side of the fireplace.'cause the other was a door going in the garage. Right. I had a built in book case built in, and that's where the TV went and stuff stored. I had an literally had enough room to have a 12 inch, um. on the end of the kitchen cabinetry. They left blank. You're like, well, you can do a 12 inches. Well, that's where the trash can went in and was hidden. And that's where three cans of Campbell's soup was, you know, there's a pantry. So you find every inch and people also say, well, again, not all small homes are starter homes, but again, I can only tell my story. So. You know, the worry is like if it's your first home and it's your starter home, well, I can't justify this expense. I'll never get it, my money back out of it. Oh, yes, you will. Right? Because if you, if you do it well and you think it out, first people, it's hard for them to visualize this. And then you just give them the answer. They're going to go in and go, I never thought of that. I love this idea. And it makes the house sell. So we sold our, we only, Kathy and I have only owned one house and then we built the other one. So we were kind of outliers, not, not typical. We were on a cul de sac on the corner. So it was a very visible house. So I said, and I got lovely realtor clients. And I was like, who do I choose as the realtor, to rep, even back then, a long time ago, as my house. And I was like, you know what, I'm just going to stick a sign out here for sale by owner and let's just see what happens. Right. And if it, if I don't have any action on it in two weeks, I'll figure out who to, it literally sold for the first couple, the first day. And this is

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

I was gonna

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

25 years ago. This wasn't like in this boom where we're, it was nineties. Right. And we have plenty of homes to choose from. It literally was the first person, the first day. And it was about, yeah, it was pretty. Right. And it was cute But it also, I know to this day, this lady said, you were able to get so much kind of storage in here, and it goes back to what we're talking about is you will get your money. And so it goes back to 56, that when we sold our house and it was primarily cosmetic, hardwood floors Cosmetic cram on in some bookcases, but I didn't in some landscape in which I did myself. We sold it for 96, 000 right? Well, let me tell you I didn't spend 40, 000 on this house. I just didn't so there you go. Okay, sorry

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

that I would try to add style into a home, no matter what the size is, make sure you're layering your different kinds of lighting. I despise overhead lights. I just, I hate them. I don't even like recess, but I know that they're a necessity in certain places. But if you layer in with a sofa on a side table, wait, a sofa on a side table, a lamp on the side table for a sofa, and then you've got accent lighting in there. If you've got some lighting that's on the bookcase, if you've got some, you know, Art lights that, you know, that you get hung above some pieces, it starts adding these little moments of just like little sparkle that I think make a room so much more interesting, so much more stylistic than it just being the overhead boob light turns on. You know, it's like long, please let those go away, please. But lighting, I think that the lighting is always one thing that people can often forget about. And I, and I

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

You. why are you touching your why are you touching your breasts right now? I see

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

This is my breasts.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Are you Well, you were scratching your breasts, so that's just say, I was like, okay, I see you. Stop it. Stop it. Ooh, ooh, you're looking good,

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

That's what it was.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

said boob light.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Like, That's what it was.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Like, oh,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

telling you, Susie, it's like, I'm sure you started scratching. I was like, okay,

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

know,

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Well, I know there's a lot of evolution when it comes to lighting. Uh, especially how long ago Stuart started, right? I mean, centuries ago it's things have changed.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

it hard to get four candles going at the time with all those people breathing?

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Have you, um, I'll ask Stuart to see if he has any experience, cause I haven't. Have you bought any of those light bulbs that you, uh, charge and put in your lamp? If you don't have a place to plug up something or some crazy people don't want to cord and don't want to see that.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

because Typically they're that ugly blue light and they don't really

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Right. Okay.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Kelvin that I like, so I just refused to buy them.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Now explain what that means to the people. Cause that's a big, important conversation. I think. What you're talking about lighting and

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

you know, you know, this whole daylight blue light bulb, which is typically 5, 000 Kelvin, which, you know, you're seeing everywhere. That's why things have a blue, gray, purple cast to them because they're horrible. Whereas the

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

yeah, this is hospital

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Yeah, basically, you know, and it's led. Well, I think because this is my personal opinion, so many people complained about it now you can get an led light that has a 2, 700 or 3, 000 K, which is more of the yellow light or daylight, or excuse me, soft light. So that's what I prefer. I hate, I hate blue light. Um, most. Actually every project I'm working on right now and that the builder is doing this, they're like, yeah, we put in 5, 000 Kelvin. I said, I will rip them out of the house. Just don't even put them in here. But a lot of those can lights now. Or recess lights have a color changing button on the back of them. And I always make them set them to the lowest one just because it makes colors read better. It's a softer light. It's more appealing. You know, there are some people who love that blue light. That's fine. You love it. I, I'm not coming

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. yeah.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

I will carry my candle

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

I had to, the way our kitchen is, it's, it's really the stupid design is very cute. Uh, it's vaulted in the kitchen, so it's almost impossible to lock this kitchen up truthfully. So we have these bank of, old school can lots. so now what Stuart's talking about is when you're doing, a remodel or building a new house, you get, LED. Can lights. Now you don't ever change the light bulb out again, and it has this little switch and you can choose how warm or how cool looking, and it's just built into the light bulb, which is kind of crazy, but long story is I have old school light, uh, can lights and I did end up Stuart having to put daylight Bulbs in those four in the kitchen because I couldn't see truthfully the way our kitchens made it was Everything else is warm and glowy. I could I

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

but now you can, uh, you can get it. You can get a retrofit for those lights. It basically screws in just like the light bulb and fits right on in there. And it is an led and you can get the, the soft white.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Can you Can you share those with us? Can you give that and then he'll put it in our notes because I don't know about this and I need to buy this and get this done if you can share

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

as putting in a new light bulb. You literally, it screws in and goes bloop and it's in there and it's done and it's led and you don't have to go up there again. And it gets rid of that.

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Okay, this is a thing. I don't know about I love this Yeah. never knew about this. Well, I go back to the other question I was asking you Stuart was, you know, about this, you know, trying to get lights, like in places and corners and stuff that you may not have electricity to, but that kind of, kind of bunk that. The other is, Jeremy, you said, well, let's just put up an art lot, a picture lot. Well, that's electrician and money and stuff. Have either of you tried to use those battery operated, uh, picture lights? You're shaking your head, Jeremy.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

actually have, we have two downstairs actually, because we should have put

dwayne_1_06-20-2024_090737:

Okay. Can you post those and tell the

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Yeah, yeah, I mean, they're fine. Yeah, we don't, we don't turn them on every night. We usually have like 40 percent of the time. I guess I'll say it that way. They came with remotes and all that kind of stuff. I do like having them. The ones upstairs are all hardwired, but downstairs when we did it, we just didn't have the electricity to put in. Um, but now they're pretty good, and the colors of those have been pretty good. Not a problem at all. You could choose. Yeah, it's, they've come a long way with the technology with the led lighting. I think people often disregard cabinetry hardware. That's a super easy thing to just add a little bit of character. You don't have to like do something stupid. You don't need an octopus holding a candle. Uh, But like you can add something a little bit of bling there that can easily change the feel of it just by changing that out from whatever stainless steel horrific Ikea bar that used to be there from, you know, some previous homeowner that they put in every damn house that was built. Remodeled or sold between 1995 and 2010.

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Right.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

jewelry. You know, I think that um, Cause I know that there's more things that we have on the list, but I think that we're okay as far as time here. So I think we'll maybe do some others and maybe we'll focus in on like, If you're gonna do a bathroom, Here's some ways we can do that. How's that sound? We can, uh, focus in on some more areas in the future. Alright. Awesome. Well, guys, you all have a good day. And, uh, we'll see you all

stuart_2_06-20-2024_091742:

Okay. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Thank you.

jeremy_1_06-20-2024_090736:

Bye.

People on this episode

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Dwayne Anderson

Host
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Jeremy Rice

Host
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Stuart Hurt

Host