* A note about the picture: this is a stock photo and this grandma is unknown to me. The world needs to know that grandma's trump everything I say in this episode. They've earned the right to to have a home that may look tired and dated. Grandma's homes are meant to be filled with laughter, love, warm embraces and chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven.
*A note from the author: This podcast episode (as well as all future episodes) will be transcribed automatically. The author is currently aware of, and getting hives at the thought of, all of the grammatical errors she's finding as she proof reads her transcript. She recognizes that her former English teachers are likely rolling over in their graves, if that is where they currently reside, but also knows that some things just have to give. Please feel free to listen instead and be sure to read non-podcast posts so you can rest assured that she does, in fact, know how to compose written words into proper story telling.*
Links mentioned within the show:
Facebook Community: bit.ly/design101group
Instagram and Facebook: @figandfarm
Work with me: https://www.figandfarmathome.com/design-packages
Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey, welcome back to fig and farm at home where we define happy living. In today's episode, we are talking about recognizing when change should happen or not. Sometimes you can be so caught up in life that you let days and weeks, and months and years go by and you look around and you think, oh my gosh, my furniture has been in the exact same space. Since the day we moved in, what happened? Time just moves so quickly. And so sometimes that is the case where we have decorated. Once and years have gone by, and now we're ready to get a fresh start, have a fresh start. There are some things that are giving you clues within your home. That could be indicators of your home feeling tired or your home feeling outdated. And we're going to talk about those five today. Of course, there are more than five, and I might not mention one that you've already identified for yourself, but today we're only identifying five. And with each of those five, I don't want you to be landing there and saying, yep, that's me. And now what too bad for me. I'm going to give you a quick solution for how to make that remedy, if you would like to. All right, so let's dive into the episode. This is couch. Make my room look small. Here we go. Enjoy today's show.
Speaker 2: (01:23)
We grew up with the phrase. Home is where the heart is, but our culture has shifted and now the messages home should be Pinterest. Perfect. I'm calling BS on that message home. It's not about the stuff it's about the story and whether you know it or not, your home is a reflection of you and is already saying something. So what is it that you want it to say, Hey, I'm Danny. A former first grade teacher turned home decorator going from a dual income to a single income. So I could stay home with my babies, meant budget, like ramen, eating, Goodwill, shopping budget. And I learned a few things along the way, like how to bring big styles to your home without breaking the bank. And I'm sharing it all with you. Tips, tricks, decor, and design advice. See, you can learn to tell your story with your style where you can start living free from the Pinterest perfect trap and start living a life of intention. Welcome to fig and farm at home where redesigned happy living and where it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.
Speaker 1: (02:24)
You have all heard the titles, read the title, seen the titles on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, wherever you do your browsing. There say things like this, 10 things that make your home look stupid. Five solutions to making your home look beautiful. Seven things that you need to do to change the look and feel of your home this weekend. Those are all triggering and they're all clickbait, right? What we're going to be talking about today has a little bit of resemblance to that, but I want to remove the emotion and the tugging behind it. Some of those titles could be really, some of them could be enough to raise walls and say, well, what do they know? But sometimes there could be a little bit of truth behind the information. It's just the outpouring, the way that it's presented, right? It's not what you say is how you say it.
Speaker 1: (03:16)
Remember that face, that phrase from years ago. So here's my title. Here's my title. Five things that could make your home feel tired and dated. Okay? We said it, there it is. There are maybe some things to keep your eyes out for that could make your home feel a little bit tired and a little bit dated. And we're going to talk about those today. And we're going to talk about a solution to get yourself out of that. But I want to give us a little bit of perspective here. A couple things, one you really could have moved into your home 10 years ago, placed your furniture. When you moved in exactly where the realtor had their staging furniture placed, or you could have moved in 18 years ago and you have not moved your furniture since maybe 12 years ago, you painted your walls and those walls haven't been changed.
Speaker 1: (04:10)
The curtains haven't been changed. You decorated it at once. It's one and done and we're, we're moving on and that's okay. That is absolutely okay. If you are loving your home the way it is awesome, don't do a thing. But if you're walking into a space and you're thinking, Hmm, I wonder if a change could be made here. I wonder if I could do something a little different, you know, I'm kind of tired of those curtains. If those are the inklings you're feeling, this is for you. And I want to give you another piece of perspective. You're in a great position where you get to have this information. You get to choose to take it in and you get to choose to act. If you want to, you don't have to. No, one's forcing you to, let me tell you a story from a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: (04:57)
So at the beginning of my decorating career, I worked collaboratively with a local realtor and the realtor and I, um, he, he brought me clients who he was selling their homes, but they needed help staging. He presented it. He was, he had all the communication upfront with the client. Hey, let's get a home stager in here to help you sell for top dollar, which, which we did, which we did repeatedly. The tricky part was where I came in and the, the advice was given. Let's get you a stager. Let's make some changes here. And then when I came in and assessed the home and made the laundry list of suggestions that should be done, could be done, um, would benefit them to be done in order to sell their home for top dollar. Sometimes there was resistance and being in that place in the middle between the realtor and the sale of the home was tricky because there's an emotion attached to all of the pieces of furniture, home, home decor belongings, the way that you've arranged it, even the memories associated there and to go in and say, um, I think we might do better to make a cohesive paint palette.
Speaker 1: (06:18)
Let's rearrange the furniture and have it here. You know, you remove those antlers and that ginormous moose head. Can we remove that? The buyer might not be able to see the and appreciate that you were a hunter. How about, um, let's remove that, um, nail salon you've got going on in here. What about, you know, the cat food on the dining room table, whatever it was, let's remove that. And that was tricky. That is tricky, but you're not in that situation. Right? You get to look at these titles and you get to pick and choose and decide what is relevant to you and what changes you want to have mate. And if you don't want any changes, awesome. Move on, go to the next episode. And if you do want some awesome, well, let's dive in a little bit deeper, but before we do that, I want to say this.
Speaker 1: (07:13)
If you find any value in what I'm saying today, or any value in what I've said before, would you share it with a friend? I know that a lot of podcasts say, Hey, tag the show and post it on Instagram. Awesome. You can do that if that's your thing. But sometimes I find that when you share about something word of mouth, you share with a friend you're on a walk with a friend you're, you're hiking with a buddy. You are having coffee with one of your dear friends, share it with them, let them know. Maybe they want some help too. Okay, here we go. Five things that could make your home feel tired and dated. If you've been hanging around me for awhile, this number one is going to come as no surprise. It is one of the top things I recommend to anyone, any time in home, decorating home staging, or even refinishing furniture.
Speaker 1: (08:07)
And that is to take a look at the paint. Think about the last time you painted your walls. What was the trend then? And is it still hanging around on your walls today? Some of the trends we've seen come and go are the rag rolled walls, tope heavy shades of tope. Sometimes it is the accent wall. That is one color and the other three are a separate color. And that one is still kind of hanging around today, but it's generally one deep saturated color and the other ones are more neutral, more, um, a more pale color. But the, the trend that has kind of come and gone is the deeper tope we'll and then a darker color. What about neutrals? You moved into a brand new home years ago and you were drawn to the neutral color. It was almost white. And we know that sometimes white is a really great foundation, but it was the builder grade white.
Speaker 1: (09:12)
And now, you know, that it, because it's so flat, it has taken on the appearance of lots of memories, via fingerprints, lots of hand prints going up and down the walls that just can't rip off because flat paint, you can't really scrub. You can't really wipe clean. Maybe that is the indication. Maybe it is the indication of having glossy walls or semi-gloss when nowadays the idea the suggestion is satin, or even if the color is still the color that feels pleasing to you, how beat up is it? How old is the paint color? Was it original to the home? Was it painted on 20 years ago? Does it need a refresh? How is it through the filtered light that can all change the appearance. And sometimes that fix is as quick as a coat of paint, but let's talk about walls in a different way.
Speaker 1: (10:16)
This is not number two, but this is just a part of number one. And that is what are your walls saying with wallpaper? Do you have all paper? Do you have textured walls? Like, um, wood paneling that might've been put up in the eighties or wallpaper that was put up in the eighties. Sometimes those can date your home and make your home feel a little bit tired. And when you modify those, it can create a space without tearing down a wall without changing anything else. Sometimes the changing of the walls can make a huge difference. Let me give you an example. So a few years ago I was ready to redo my voices bathroom, and I may have already shared this story. I have a Facebook group, by the way, if you're not a part of it, please come join. I give lots of great information in there.
Speaker 1: (11:07)
You can find it at design, a Bitly dot, uh, forward slash design one-on-one group. Um, anyway, it'll be in the show notes if I got that wrong, but a few years ago I was redoing my boy's bathroom. And when we first moved in, it was green and it was fun. It was kind of, uh, um, bright like granny Smith green. And it was fine. We had a preschooler, a toddler and a brand new baby, and it was just a punch of color and fun. And I grew tired of that color and fun. And when I was going to redo it, I was literally thinking, I'm going to change the floors. I'm going to change the countertops. I'm going to change the whole thing. And of course, as I'm going through the design center or the home improvement center at Lowe's or home Depot or wherever I was at kind of price checking some of the flooring, some of the, the cost to these things and trying to do it as economically as possible, it was just way out of reach.
Speaker 1: (12:07)
It was one of those. Um, my boys are still gonna pee on the floor. So why bother, why bother making this change? When I know that it's just going to kind of, they're not quite ready to take care of the space, like I want them to, but we are ready for a change. So you know what? I'm going to try paint. And I did. And I'm so glad I did because that paint change the entire look and feel of the, of the room I added, of course, a jute rug. And I changed out the ginormous wall mounted mirror that comes with a builder grade home and put into smaller mirrors, changed at the light fixture. All of those together helped update the look, but if I would have left it at the paint, wow, it would have really popped. And it would have made the diff it would have been the difference between, you know, thousands of dollars for a floor or $80 for paint.
Speaker 1: (13:02)
I don't know, not a hard choice for me anyway. It's not a hard choice, $80 for the paint any day and a little bit of work. I'll do it. So think about your walls. Think about the color of your walls. And I know some of you right here with that are going to be paralyzed by the idea of so many colors, right? Is that you, there are so many colors. How do you make the right choice? How do you make it a, make a solid choice so that you can live with it a little bit more timelessly than maybe the choice before, or it can flow seamlessly into the choices that you've already made. Choosing a cohesive color palette can be tricky, or it can not be tricky. One way to think about it is if the room is shut, um, pretty much it can be any color you want, but if the room is open, if it flows into a hallway, maybe think about having one foundational color throughout the entire space, and then a couple accent colors.
Speaker 1: (14:03)
And having those accent colors be repeated throughout. We're going to get into that in more depth in a couple of weeks time, but that is just a quick cliff notes version, keeping it cohesive by having one foundational color, lighter color neutral, um, is a great, great place to start. Okay. Number two. Another thing that could be making your home feel tired and dated is oversized furniture or too much furniture in your space, um, that can have the same feeling. If you are a, if you really love the Scandinavian cleaner line, look, uh, similar to mid-century, you might not have oversized furniture just in that design, but how much furniture do you have in your space? How much walking room do you have in your space? If you think about furniture in a room, similar to painting a painting on a wall, and that painting a lot of times, artists will use negative space to have some breathing room, to have a little bit of space for your eyes to land and rest furniture can be similar.
Speaker 1: (15:08)
It can act similarly to that. And if you have a couch that is too large for your space, that could make your room feel tired, it can make it feel a little bit out of, out of date. It could make it feel a little bit dated. Sometimes if you have too much furniture, it can make your room feel a little bit claustrophobic and that claustrophobia can make it feel like something is off. You might not identify it as claustrophobia. It could be. It could just feel something is not right here. Something doesn't feel quite right. I want you to think if you have not gone back and listened to the show, the purpose of the room it's episode six, go and do that. Helping identify the purpose of your room can help you really identify what pieces or furniture are necessary in order to create the space and the look and the feel of the room that you'd like.
Speaker 1: (16:00)
Uh, and that's the thing to think about is, is your home serving you in that purpose? And if you're not quite sure, go back and listen to episode four, that's your home serve you and does it serve it? Well, of course, it's really easy to say your furniture is too big, get a different piece. And that takes time. So if you're not entirely sure how to create that plan, I want you to listen to the series, but where do I start? We talk about purpose in episode six, we talk about finding your aesthetic, which is helpful for anyone in episode seven. And then in episode eight, we talk about that timeline and the budget and the budget is really not as easy or simple as creating a monetary pinpoint. It's really about understanding the importance of what changes to make first that are going to make the biggest impact first.
Speaker 1: (16:51)
And so go ahead and listen to that. All three of those together are going to help you. If you are at that point where you've identified, oh, shoot, the couch is making my space look tired and dated. That is the thing I need to change, but I don't have the money to do it. Go back and listen to all those three. And that will be a helpful tool for you. All right. Number three, something that might be making your home feel or look tired or dated are the window treatments I can go on and on and on about window treatments. As much as I can go on about paint. And in a few episodes, we will be talking about everything you need to know in order to choose the curtains that are best for you and hint and spoiler. It is not just about the curtains.
Speaker 1: (17:37)
It's about other things too. Okay. But today, take a look at your window treatments. What are your window treatments? And when were they put up? When were, when was the last time just like with the paint? When was the last time you focused any intentionality with those? Some of the trends that have come and gone are valances cafe curtains, vertical blinds, plastic blinds. Some of those are trends that have come and gone. And actually they don't even mean trends. Trends are generally fleeting. These are more styles. These styles were around for a long time, just like styles, come and go. Maybe they'll be back, but it could be years from now until they are. Um, kind of like my red overalls. Dang it. I had those red overalls years ago, kept him, kept him, kept him. Cause I knew they'd come back in style and I got rid of them, but now overalls her back.
Speaker 1: (18:33)
Darn it. Probably not the red. So I'm better off for it. Okay. I really could go on about window treatments, but here is the rub with window treatments. They are a lot like the finishing touch. They are the piece de resistance. They are the thing that help your room feel complete. They add a lot of layers and depth and texture to your space. So the not the more that you have, but if you have them, the more complete your room will feel and look, and sometimes if you have no window curtains or no window dressings at all, your room can feel empty. Incomplete. You add a layer of, let's say bamboo shade, you're getting there, but then you add the layer of the curtains to the side. And then that is such a beautiful look. It just makes it feel more and more complete. It's kind of like getting ready for date night.
Speaker 1: (19:32)
And let's say, you're getting ready for date night. And you have, you decide to wear a dress, but with your dress, you choose sneakers instead of the heels. Well, sneakers are fine. Absolutely. But the heels probably make the look a little bit more elevated, but then you're not going to stop there. You're not going to go out with the hair that is just wet out of the shower. You might do your hair and you might not stop there. You might actually put on some makeup and maybe doing your eyes and adding the lip gloss or the lipstick and adding the jewelry. All of those complete the date night, look just like curtains, complete the room. Look, they add the layers and the depth and the texture and make that look, feel stunning. But you might be listening to this and think, well, great. I have curtains, but something still feels off.
Speaker 1: (20:23)
I want you to look at how long your curtains are, where do they land on the wall? Do they go to the floor? Do they pool a lot on the floor? Do they even make it halfway down from the window ledge to the baseboard curtain length matters. And it matters a lot. You could have the same curtain in an 84 inch length or a 96 inch length. And one of them would look better than the other. And of there are more nuances to choosing the right length, but that is just the cliff notes version. And we could go on and on about choosing the right style. But that again is something that we're going to save for a couple of weeks down the road. So being mindful if something feels off in your room, if something feels a little bit, Hmm, it's not quite right.
Speaker 1: (21:08)
Take a look at your curtains. Okay. Number four, the fourth thing that could be making your room feel tired or dated are the pillows. I bet you weren't expecting me to say that. Okay, here is the hard truth. And I know I'm going to trigger several people by saying this because I see it more often than I would care to more often than I would hope to. I'm just going to rip the bandaid off. Are you ready? If you bought a couch, chances are your pillows came with a couch. Those pillows are immediately dating, um, and making your room look tired. I don't even actually have to see the pillows to know that this would be true. Here's the thing. The couch manufacturers are creating this package that makes it feel like a complete room. Hey, here you go. By the couch, you get the pillows.
Speaker 1: (22:07)
But when you look at the pillows, generally, they are a muddled muted pattern that compliments the color of the couch. And generally the color of the couch is a, is a darker shade, darker, gray, darker, beige brown. Sometimes those actually I'm going to back up most of the time, the pillows that come with those couches, lack personality, removing those pillows and adding some of your own can do two things. One is they can help soften the look. So when you contrast the color of pillow to the couch that you have, which I'm assuming is going to be a darker gray, any type of gray, any type of brown, the pillow contrast is a good thing. Something that contrasts with it. But the other thing that I've noticed with the couches and the pillows that come along with them is that the texture is it's meant to be a very durable texture.
Speaker 1: (23:05)
And that's a good thing, but it's also a very upholstered texture. What do I mean by that? Because it's upholstery, right? So shouldn't that be a good thing? Sure. But when you have that texture laying on top of an upholstered couch, with that same texture, you are creating a monotone scape, a mano scape, you are creating something that doesn't, um, add interest visually texturally. It doesn't create a layer of depth. Even though you have the pillows, it doesn't treat a layer of depth like something with a different texture or a different contrast in color wood. So generally speaking, I call that look, bed in a bag, you know, a bed in a bag, right? When you go to we'll say home goods or Marshall's or Ross and or any big box store, and you find the bedding that comes along with, um, it has to do, they cover, it has the shams.
Speaker 1: (24:06)
It has the cute little throw pillows. Those are all good in concept, but they lack personality and sometimes taking off any, any teeny, tiny little component of that bed in the bag, look and replacing it with something more attuned to your style or your aesthetic is going to add personality to the room in ways that the bed in the bag just can't it's like in school when I was teaching, assuming that every kid who walked through my door was going to come into the classroom with the exact same background experiences. And if they did that, they would make my teaching experience really, really easy. Of course he didn't. It's a good thing because it meant that I could, I got to know them as little people, of course, but it also meant, um, that their learning instruction needed to be more nuanced. So does your decorating, it needs to be more nuanced so that one girls, if you do have that those couch pillows and you were on the other side of this screaming at me, I am S I'm sorry, not sorry.
Speaker 1: (25:17)
That is hard truth. And, um, I am happy though, to take a look at pictures of your couch pillows and, um, give you some suggestions of which colors might be a good contrast to that. Okay. Whew. Are we done with that one? I felt a little like Daniel walking through the lion's den kind of thinking I am going I'm treading on some thin ice here. I'm I need to be really careful. Oh gosh. And if you are now looking at your couch thinking, oh, oh my gosh, she's right. I need to go and change my pillows. Okay. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to my website, fig and farm@home.com. And I want you to find underneath my blog, I wrote a couch pillow formula article that gives you the basic basic idea of how to choose pillows for your couch, mixing patterns, keeping solids, all of that.
Speaker 1: (26:13)
So go there, rest assured I'm there to help secure that little band-aid that I just ripped off. And then we will be talking about it, of course, in the, in the future, in other ways, in more nuanced ways. Okay. Moving on number five, the fifth thing that could be making your home feel or look tired are the light fixtures. One of the things that I think go unnoticed pretty often are the light fixtures. The ones that came with the house, not necessarily the ones that you brought in, in, in the form of lamps, floor, lamps, or table lamps. But these are the ones that sometimes you just don't see because they're, you know, above your head, right? They're not in your sight line, but if you take a look or if you think about your home in the timeline, it was built in when you moved in and any updates that could have happened, chances are you could still be living with a builder grade, light fixture.
Speaker 1: (27:12)
And those builder grade light fixtures are a dime, a dozen. They lack personality. So I could be in my home with that light fixture and I could have a block party say, or a progressive dinner. Do you remember those? And I could walk door to door to door and I could see in less, they've changed theirs. I could see the same light fixture, same light fixture, same light fixture over and over and over. And that idea is wonderful for the builder because it's efficient and it's cost-effective, but it's not necessarily a wonderful when your home is a reflection of you and tells your family story when your home reflects your family's personality and aesthetic, those builder grade light fixtures don't they don't cut the snuff, they just don't do it. So changing those out can be a way to add an update and an immediate transformation in a way that is just more reflective of your style.
Speaker 1: (28:08)
Now, changing those out, that's a little bit tricky or not, depending on what your skillset is and what your real house is. I am an electrician starter, but I still don't change my own lighting. My husband, however, does. And what I want to suggest is, um, if you do it yourself, just take lots of precautions, follow all the directions. Even though my husband would say, I am not a direction follower. I am promoting directions for this fund and be as safe as you can. But chances are, if you don't know how to do it, or if you don't feel safe enough, because this is a pretty typical, easy ish day. Why you probably know someone who could help you out, who could guide you along the way and teach you that new skill or hire an electrician. They're always looking for jobs. Okay? Those were my top five, the top five things that could be making your home feel tired or dated, or that could be something that you should be mindful of.
Speaker 1: (29:04)
If you walk into your room, your home and you think something doesn't feel right here, something I'm ready for a change, maybe where should I focus my attention? Look at those five things. Look at the paint, look at the furniture and how oversize or how much you have look at the window treatments or lack of look at the pillows. Did they come with a couch and look at the lighting? If you have made changes based on those, I want you to take a picture and I want you to tag me on Instagram at fig and farm. Or if you're looking at those things that I just mentioned, and you're still not entirely sure you're still your head and wondering, I don't know, do these curtains work? Do these pillows work? Does this work? Give me a call. Good fig and farm@home.com. Look under the tab, work with me and book a call 45 minutes over zoom.
Speaker 1: (29:56)
And we can walk through those things together, or I can answer any questions you have within that 45 minute timeline. Another way you can work with me is to book a room, edit. This is for someone who is highly motivated to do the work themselves. They generally have an idea of where they're going. Maybe they have an idea. I like modern farmhouse and that's it. How do we take what they have and transform the space in a way that they are still in control of the decisions, but there's lots of guidance. Here's how it works. I get lots of pictures from you. And I do a presentation. I do it over zoom, and it's kind of like a PowerPoint. So you see, we are talking to each other and you see my presentation going through with your pictures and all of the ideas of what it is that I'm recommending for you to make changes into your home, to make it so that it is compatible with the style that you're going for.
Speaker 1: (30:50)
And you make the changes easy-peasy. Or if you know that you're ready for more. I want you to join me in a small group of women on a 10 week journey, where we start from scratch, identifying one room in the home that we want to transform and go from beginning to end so that we can understand what the purpose of that room is, how that room is serving us and serving our family. How we can create a cohesive look within that room that can carry over into the other areas of our home, how we can identify and define our aesthetic learning, how to create mood boards so that we can use those visuals to inform design, how to create timelines and a budget that really make it so that if you're not ready to purchase, now, you can understand what it is that's going to make the biggest impact change first.
Speaker 1: (31:38)
And then second, and then third, and then fourth, how we can make that project map work for you in this room. And so that you can carry it forward into other rooms of your home. This is for you. If you don't want to piece me a one room at a time, if you want to learn it once and then apply it to other areas of your home in this course, we're going to do a bonus bookshelf styling. We're going to have giveaways. We're going to have an idea of where to shop, what to shop high, what to shop low sources for saving money and so much more. This format is going to be over zoom. It's going to be a weekly group coaching calls, where you have lots and lots of opportunities for me to have my eyes on your design as you take it and transform it from beginning to end.
Speaker 1: (32:22)
And the accountability of the ladies who are going to join us is going to be remarkable. It's a fun space. It's a safe space and it's open and it's ready for you. So if that interests you, I want you to email me, email me today@figandfarmathomeatgmail.com so that I can reserve your spot. It is only going to be for a small group of women. Why is that? Because I want to make sure that no one goes unnoticed. I want to make sure that I am intentionally pouring into each and every one of you so that you get the room that you want, the room that your family deserves. This is going to be so much fun, and I don't want you to miss it. That 10 weeks starts September 10th, going to November 12th. So if you want to be part of that, make sure you head on over to fig and farm@homeatgmail.com. And I want you to tell me, yes, I'm in, I'm interested or asking questions. Do you have a question about it? Let me know. And I want to encourage you. If there's something that you want to learn that you want me to talk about on the podcast, don't be shy. I want you to pop into my DMS on Instagram at fig and farm. And tell me about it. All right, until next time. See you soon.
Speaker 2: (33:33)
Hey, real quick. Before you go, if you learned something new or found value in today's podcast, would you head over to iTunes, to fig and farm at home and leave a review and subscribe to the show? That would be awesome. And if you'd like to connect with my community of mamas who are learning to be intentional storytellers within their own homes, join us at bit dot L Y forward slash design one-on-one group. There's always more room at the table. See you soon.