Episode #168: Design Your Dream Home – Deep Dive

This week, we are here with our first deep swoop episode, and we’re diving into designing your DREAM HOME.

In this episode, we’ll imbricate how to segregate a verisimilitude scheme, create mood boards, and grow into an evolving stimulating as you update your home.

You can find the podcast posts gazetteer here.

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Show Notes:

7 Tips to Diamond Your Dream Home:

1. Let the home speak to you

• Research the era of your home.
• Find iconic homes (even buildings/restaurants) from this era.
• Become an expert in this type of home: what makes it special, what materials are often used, craftsmanship, and original features that stand out from that time.

2. Pinpoint the feeling you want your home to embody

• What spaces have you been in that had the feeling that you want?
• What spaces have you been in that fell short for you?
• What is it that you want to finger repletion from?

3. Pinpoint the functions of how you use your home and how it can support your lifestyle goals

• Imagine your home in all four seasons, as your children grow, and other events that will happen in your life. Go room by room.
• Mini-journal prompt: Thinking of your last home, were there any spaces that you had set up that you didn’t use? And what are your most used spaces?

4. Create a pinboard

• Pin everything that attracts you.
• Go when through and delete the oddball pins until you see cohesion in your scroll through.

5. Describe the style for your home in three words

• Pick three words that describe the style you are going for.

6. Segregate a verisimilitude scheme

• Collect paint, tile, and fabric swatches.
• Order wallpaper samples and small decor items that support your style.

7. As you renovate, refer when to your mood workbench and verisimilitude scheme

• This keeps you on track, cohesive, and working toward a chosen goal and resists new trends.

Bonus tips:

1. You need at least three collections that are ongoing.
2. Collect personal decor.
3. Decorating with memories, photos, relics from travels, etc.
4. Leave room for magic – unchangingly have something weird and magical in every room.

Miss an Episode? Get Caught Up!

• Episode #167: It’s Complicated – Repletion Rewatch Episode
• Episode #166: 2023 Decor Trends
• Episode #165: New Year’s Goals and Plans

Episode 168 Transcript:

Emma: You’re listening to The Trappy Mess Podcast, your cozy repletion listen. This week we are here with our first deep swoop episode and we’re diving into designing your dream home. In this episode, we’ll imbricate how to segregate a verisimilitude scheme, create mood boards, and grow into an ever-evolving stimulating as you update your home.

Elsie: I am so excited to do this episode. So one of the reasons why we started this deep swoop series is considering as we like, we’re on episode 168 now. As we have built a worthier library, it’s wilt kind of challenging to like refer back. I know I’ve talked well-nigh this before, but I don’t know when or where. So in this episode, we’re gonna kind of combine everything, like all of our translating well-nigh designing a dream home into one mega episode that you can re-listen to it next time you are moving. I act like that’s like a normal thing that everyone’s like, oh, just, you know, the next time you get a new pair of shoes or you move.

Emma: Some people move a lot. Some people move a lot increasingly than us. I mean, it really depends on your life.

Elsie: That’s true. When I was in my twenties, I moved like every six months to a new apartment. I definitely have realized that I’m a serial mover. I don’t wanna be, but it is true. Okay, so anyway, we are gonna go through seven steps to diamond your dream home. And I honestly, recommend doing all seven. If you are, let’s say that you’re a person who’s moving, a person who’s ownership your first home, and this is moreover for someone who, you have a home that you like, but you don’t love it like you finger like it’s just not personalized in the way that you dream of it being. Anyone in any of those situations can use this. I think it works for, you know, your first suite and it can moreover work for your quote unquote, forever home. Plane though we don’t believe in Forever Homes.

Emma: No, we don’t. But also, I don’t know if we have anyone who listens, who’s very young. You know, they’re like, I haven’t bought my first home yet, or moved into my first home, that’s gonna be long term. Like I don’t really know if anyone listening is that young, but I will say, I finger like a lot of these tips to you could wield to variegated areas of art, like let’s say fashion. And I just think it’s like a fun hobby to get like excited well-nigh variegated things and plane like homes that you’re never gonna live in, but you study it and it’s just fun. I finger that way well-nigh malleate and other things too, where it’s like, there are unrepealable things that I’m just never gonna wear or buy, but I still like to know well-nigh what designers are coming out with and how the construction is, you know, just like variegated things. It’s fun to learn.

Elsie: Now that you mention it, I see that completely, that is interesting. Yeah, I think this will be fun. You could moreover use this if you are designing one room. You can do this whole process for just one room too. But my thing is I like to do it when I’m moving if I can surpassing I buy anything. Considering when you move, it seems like that’s the highest concentration of necessary purchases quickly, and it’s easy to make mistakes. So expressly the part well-nigh the verisimilitude scheme, it’s just so handy and so helpful. I was recently at a family dinner over the holidays and someone who I hadn’t seen in 10 years was there, and they were reminding me that I had a lime untried painted kitchen in one of my first apartments, which is so funny. And it had so many colors, which I love it. I love it, I stand by it. But I think that is a problem when you just love everything and you, but you buy something that’s very specific and then you love something else and you try to decorate a variegated way, and then you finger like you have to replace everything all the time. I think that’s the problem. So when I started doing the verisimilitude scheme, I specifically remember it was very life-changing. Have you overly washed-up a verisimilitude scheme?

Emma: Yeah, kind of. I mean, yeah, I would say yes. But I don’t think I have quite as bad of like FOMO as you in life generally. Considering I do finger like that’s a piece of it with design. Considering I do have some of course, so like I think everyone has it, somewhere, you know, well we’ll talk well-nigh this more, but like you start to put things on your pin workbench that is really not like they’re kind of wild cards, but you love them. And then, I don’t know, I think sometimes it can be really nonflexible to kind of decipher or wade through like, what should be in my home versus what can I just admire? And I maybe don’t need to paint my house that verisimilitude or buy that unrepealable hovel considering it’s just not gonna make sense. But I can still revere it, you know?

Elsie: Right. Yeah. No, I think that’s very true. I think that you’re increasingly decisive and you’re increasingly just like often okay with like, you kind of have increasingly of a like, I don’t care. It’s all a good kind of attitude. And I don’t have that at all. All right, so let’s jump into the tips. I’ve tried to put these in order. , the first tip is to let the home speak to you. And here’s what I midpoint by that. So every home that you’re going to move into has an era when it was built and it has natural strengths and natural weaknesses or challenges. So I think it’s really important to research the type of home that you have and find the sort of to fall in love with it. I know it’s not unchangingly maybe possible for like if you’re moving into a home that just wasn’t the home you would’ve picked at all. Like you had a variegated thing in mind, but this home had like a largest location or a largest price, or, you know. But I think it’s very important to just do whatever you can to get interested in the way your home was meant to be. Like the thunderstroke was built in the style of architecture. You can really fall lanugo a rabbit hole. So there are homes that are increasingly flexible like if you’re moving into an suite towers that is sort of like, say it’s a two-bedroom suite with one washroom and an unshut kitchen and it’s pretty like vanilla. That is like a very flexible style of home and like the style of home I live in now, that’s a nineties McMansion. It’s moreover very flexible considering it’s like, kind of like no one cares. Like you don’t have to honor the history of it. I think you can sort of icon out what style and what era they were trying to emulate when they built it, but that’s well-nigh the closest you can get. And then there are other homes like mid-century home that was built in the fifties or the sixties or historic home. And if you move into one of those, it could be sort of like you’re swimming versus a lazy river if you try to decorate it in a completely variegated style than what it was meant to be, you might not be happy with the result and it might turn out bad.

Emma: I think that’s one thing that I think about. So I was on the, you know that Instagram worth that’s like Zillow Gone Wild. I unchangingly see what’s on there. I guess the algorithm knows I like it. But they had a really trappy home yesterday that it’s a Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the last homes that he designed, it’s like the circular home. I’m sure you can do that. Anyway, it’s for sale and it was very expensive as you can imagine. So obviously I would never buy it. It’s not something in my budget, but I was just looking at it. But the thing I kept thinking as I was looking at it, other than what a breathtakingly trappy home, I would love to stay there for an Airbnb experience, but I was like, you really wouldn’t finger well-appointed waffly unrepealable aspects of it. Considering if you’ve overly seen a Frank Lloyd Wright home and there are other designers who diamond this way, it’s pretty specific. And if you were to go in and really transpiration unrepealable parts of it, like the shelving, it wouldn’t make any sense. I’m not saying it would be wrong, I’m just saying it would be really weird like I don’t finger like if you buy that kind of home, you finger like you can make those. So I guess what I’m trying to say is some homes are really specific and maybe it’s good to plane think well-nigh if you want that kind of thing, or if you know you want something way increasingly blank. And then like Elsie said, you may not unchangingly have a nomination cuz you may be on a deadline and a upkeep and there’s only so much misogynist in the zone you’re moving to. But it’s just a good thing to think about. If you do have the option.

Elsie: Yes. So here are some of my suggestions for researching your type of home. First of all, find movies that have sets that are similar to types of homes and take notes as you watch them. This is like what we do for our rewatch episodes now, and it’s so fun. My dream home would be like a father of the bride house, you know? And it’s so fun to just sit there and write lanugo all the specific little mannerly things that they did in their movie set version of the home that you could incorporate in tears. Flipside idea is to order old books. So most styles of tracery have many, many books misogynist and I usually get them from thrift books. So it’s very affordable. Yeah, So find out what style of tracery your home is, and then order as many books as you can on that style. And I think the really tomfool thing well-nigh this, expressly for mid-century homes and older ones, is that you can learn well-nigh what people were doing at the time to decorate and replenish the homes. And that is gonna be really helpful for you cuz it’s something that you can emulate the things well-nigh it that you think is special. You can modernize it or update it for your taste or your colors in some way while still getting inspired by what they would’ve washed-up in that era. It’s just increasingly natural. For the majority of people, it’s going to add increasingly value to the home to do something that like fits with the home’s original features.

Emma: It’ll probably be cheaper too considering you will probably end up waffly less or getting to save unrepealable parts of the home that, you know, maybe you’re gonna paint it something, but you get to alimony the very specific molding or whatever it is.

Elsie: Hell yeah. Yeah, and then the last thing I would suggest is to learn what the original features and craftsmanship from this time period were like the ultimate most desirable details. The type of thing that if people who love old houses find it in a house, now they like to freak out, you know, like the pocket doors and all those types of things. Okay, so the second tip is to pinpoint the feeling you want your home to embody. So this is super important and I consider this one a journaling exercise. So get out your journal, and I’ll tell you everything to think about. So the first thing to periodical well-nigh is what spaces have you been in that had the feeling that you want and try to remember as many details, no matter how specific or no matter how random they seem that widow to that space. And then the other thing is what spaces have you been in that sort of fell short for you and why? So if you’re doing a mid-century house, I talk well-nigh mid-century houses a lot cuz I had two of them and yeah, historic homes. That’s like my main, the main houses that I have wits with. I guess moreover the nineties McMansion. So I think that, with mid-century, I would periodical well-nigh the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs. It has everything, it’s like the decor, the feeling, the fireplaces, plane lanugo to the details like the painted brick and the ware and the server, you know, the dishes that they use to serve breakfast and like just everything is sort of perfect and magical, and I can use that as a template. And there are so many other places that I’ve been in my life that have like a fifties retro theme that fell short of that feeling and that magic. So I can identify, why, how, and what are the differences. And I think that’s the kind of journaling exercise I would encourage you to do. And then moreover to just imagine yourself, so this is an imagination exercise. Imagine you’re getting home from a weekend trip or a night out and it’s late at night and you walk into the home, you put lanugo your keys, you put lanugo your bag. What is it that you want to finger repletion from? What is it well-nigh the home that would bring you that immense feeling of stuff at home? So maybe it’s the kitchen, maybe it’s a unrepealable type of couch, a unrepealable type of like well-appointed seating. Maybe it’s like a puzzle out on your dining room table. There can be a hundred variegated things, but think well-nigh what are the things that just make it finger like home to you.

Emma: Maybe a little bit since we have our journals out and we’re journaling. If you think you’re going to be in a home for a very long period of time, and of course, as we all know, it is untellable to know the future unless you have a crystal ball. But let’s just say you’re thesping for now that you’re gonna be in this home for the next 10 years and you’re gonna watch your kid grow up or have a kid. Whatever you think is gonna happen, you’re gonna get a dog next year and you’re excited well-nigh that, whatever. Then I would also, kind of think well-nigh some of those things, like what you want the house to finger like for them, moreover for you with them. Considering things like dogs and children and other considerations in life, you know, they come with stuff. We’re gonna talk well-nigh function in the next point. But I think there is moreover this feeling of home and family. However, you pinpoint that, and that can come out through decor and things you buy and colors you pick, and I would be thinking well-nigh what it is you want in that sense too.

Elsie: Yeah. I love that. So number three is to pinpoint the functions of how you use your home and how it can support your lifestyle goals. So this one I would really spend some time on and I would make a room-by-room list. And I think it’s important to imagine you’re home in all four seasons. Imagine your home if you have children, imagine your children five years older than they are now. Things like that considering lifestyles can drastically transpiration in your kids’ younger years of life, as we all know. Just really list out room by room how you see yourself living there. And I think the first step towards having a dream home and moreover a dream lifestyle, I guess, is just figuring out what you plane want it to be.

Emma: Yeah, and I think too, like at this point, the pinpoint the functions time it’s moreover really important to try to be really honest well-nigh that considering there are times you’re like, I’m gonna set up a painting studio in this corner, and you never paint. And it’s like, well you can if it just makes you happy to see that in the corner, tomfool and if you have the space for it, alright. You know? But maybe it would’ve been largest to do something else if you could have been a little increasingly honest with what you really do want to use and plan to use and will use. Kinda like setting up a huge home gym and then you never, overly use it. It’s like, well you might as well have made it a cozy movie room considering it’s just at least then you’ll use it. You know? If you never overly entertain, you don’t need a big sprawling dining room.

Elsie: I think that’s a unconfined point.

Emma: I’ll requite an example. Maybe that’ll make it increasingly clear. For years and years at one of our last houses, my home office, which I work from home all the time and have for years and years, my home office was in this kind of unshut space near our dining room and living room. So you could see it all the time. So it was not wipe all the time, but it felt like it should be considering you could see it all the time. In the meantime, for like five or six years, we had a guest bedroom that I think got used maybe twice. And towards the end of living in that house, I just sort of realized I’m gonna move my office into the guest bedroom and we’re just not gonna have a guest bedroom. Considering the truth is we don’t really have guests that often, and it’s kind of worrying that I can’t have a meeting without my dogs barking constantly, or I finger the pressure to alimony my office really wipe plane though there are days you just barely get your work washed-up surpassing It’s time’s up. You don’t have time to put everything yonder all the time. And my work can be kind of messy sometimes cuz I make things. So anyway, I just kind of realize I’m not prioritizing what I really do all the time and instead I had this idea of oh, people are gonna visit us a lot and it’s like, well that’d be nice. I love it when people visit. But the truth is that they just didn’t without a year or two that would’ve been pretty obvious and I was like, well, we don’t need this guest’s bedroom considering nobody visits us and we can just put out an air mattress if they do.

Elsie: Yeah, no, that’s interesting. Okay, let’s add a little bit of a mini journaling prompt here. Thinking of your last home, your last two homes, were there any spaces that you had set up that you didn’t use I do think that’s useful information for the future. And what are your most used spaces considering yeah, obviously for us, forever, having a home office is my number one priority. I’ve unchangingly had a home office and plane in some of my smaller apartments, I would use the whole living room instead of, I had no living room. I only had a bedroom and an office. And that worked for me considering it was much increasingly important to me to have a big home office that was nice and felt creative than to have a TV or whatever and we just watch TV in bed for those years. Whatever. You know, people do what they have to do. Yeah, I think that’s a really good point. I do defend to the death that no matter how big your house is, you can and should use all of it regularly, and if there is a part of it that you just never use, then transpiration the function, definitely. So yeah, defining the functions I think is one of the most important steps considering expressly when you move into a new home and you haven’t really thought through where you’re gonna be, one of the biggest mistakes I made in my whole life, that caused me to have to move very quickly was thinking that I didn’t need a designated office.

And it just happened to be surpassing the pandemic hit, and I learned very quickly that was Not just not healthy, not ideal, but it was unquestionably like on the line of not possible for me. I couldn’t do my job in the space that we were in. So I think making sure that you prioritize the things that you use heavily and then moreover prioritize for yourself some sort of like treats, like some lifestyle treats, things you want to do increasingly of, things like the person you want to become.

Emma: Yeah, and I think too this is the brainstorming and dreaming and some of it’s gonna wilt real, but as we all know, considering we’re adults, life is full of trade-offs. So you may not get every single thing, that’s just how life works, but at least it’s gonna help you understand the priorities and what you should try for. And you probably won’t get everything, no one gets everything. Elsie and I don’t get everything either. Life is a trade-off and that’s okay too. And that’s fine. You shouldn’t view that as, oh, I didn’t get my dream home. It’s just more, you know, what are the top priorities? How can I work towards that? Considering that’s gonna equal the most happiness for myself and my family. Cuz now I have a useful and trappy home to live in considering I prioritize, but I didn’t get everything and that’s okay too.

Elsie: So yeah, I think you can be very creative too if you need room to function in two or three or four ways, those things are all possible as well. As a person who spent my younger years studying IKEA catalogs, I can tell you there are so many variegated ways. The whole IKEA itemize in the early two thousands was like, how to make a one-room suite do all the things in your whole life. Yeah. And it’s so fascinating and really tomfool how much you can make out of one space. So let’s move on to tip number four. We’re getting into increasingly diamond and stuff. The first step is to create a pin board, and I midpoint a pin board. So if you have time, if you know you’re gonna move in, Six months or a year, or three months, I think you have time. I have a pinboard that has over a thousand pins on it. That’s unquestionably kind of excessive, but it’s been a good creative exercise for me to really, really icon out what I want. So I think pinning every single thing that attracts you is the first step. And don’t worry well-nigh if it matches or if it’s cohesive at first.

Emma: I just checked my pin workbench on my computer considering you said you had a thousand and I was like I bet mine’s hilariously smaller and I literally have 21 photos that I worked with surpassing we rent outed and moved into this house that I’m in now. So there you go a thousand or maybe 20, it’s all good.

Elsie: Anywhere in between those two numbers, let’s just say. Oh my gosh, that’s funny. So we’re gonna make a giant pinboard. We are going to pin everything that attracts us and doesn’t think well-nigh why. Pinning, I think it can wilt very intuitive where you’re just going off of the feeling that the photo gives you. So later on you can use increasingly discretion, and I’ll teach you how to do that too. But at first, you’re just gonna collect everything. You can moreover do a folder if you want. I would suggest either a pin workbench or a folder on your desktop. If you’re a person who just only uses your phone, you could moreover do a folder on your phone, or you could moreover do a favorites folder on your Instagram. It’s just kind of like whatever you use. For me, pinning is the weightier considering I just finger like I can see increasingly options for everything all at once, it’s easier to find and navigate for me. So then the next step without you have your giant pin workbench is to, I like to let go through my big pin workbench and just pull it out into a folder on my desktop just like my top picks.

Emma: That’s what I have, that’s what my folder on my desktop is. It’s just the 20 photos. It’s just the like final, we’re making the house squint like this kind of thing.

Elsie: Yeah. That’s what we’re trying to get to is something that’s sort of cohesive. So at that point, go through them all and delete anything that doesn’t match. Like, I like this, but this goes in a variegated house. Get it to the point where all of your 21 pictures or more, squint like they could be from the same house, this is very important. This is the process of defining what style you’re going to commit to. Considering if you are like me and you love kind of like every variegated style, you will have a hell of a time decorating if you haven’t single-minded lanugo a little bit to a style and a verisimilitude scheme. And if you do the commitment, you will unquestionably be worldly-wise to focus and create a home that is cohesive and where you don’t waste things or transpiration your mind a lot. So that’s the next step.

Emma: And also, I finger like this is the stage where if you are designing a home with someone, so you have a forever roommate, a husband, a partner who’s gonna live with you, and they’re not Uber involved. Some people are gonna wanna diamond like from scratch with you, and that’s cool, but if your partner’s like, I care, but I’m not doing all the pinning like you, then at this point, as you’re starting to undeniability it down, that’s when I would start showing things to whoever’s gonna live with you, your partner, whatever. Basically, you can kind of get their buy-off. Or if you’re well-nigh to remove some of the oddballs but they love them, then that might be kind of informative. It might be like, you know what, maybe I’ll lean a little increasingly in that direction. Considering this is a good stage to kind of be like, we’re not making the million specific decisions we’re gonna have to make throughout the house. But if you like this overall folder of 21 photos that I’ve put together, then you’re gonna like a lot of those little decisions like what hardware I’m gonna pick for this or that, you know, all the little things and you can kind of get an overarching clearance or whatever you wanna undeniability it, like, we’re on the same page at this stage.

Elsie: Yeah. I think that it’s a unconfined time to do that as well. And every partner’s different. We get a lot of questions well-nigh this, and I think that if you have a partner who feels like they need or want to be equally involved, then you should definitely let them. I do you think it’s a lot easier if you have a partner like I have where they are like, looks great, you know? But I moreover think that’s something that reverted over time, we built trust over time. It wasn’t like that at the whence of our relationship, but now that we’ve washed-up so many houses together, he kind of knows what to expect and he really just doesn’t plane barely need to like squint at anything.

Emma: A lot of the fights, at least in my life that has happened, it’s considering somebody got their heart set on something surpassing they really talked to the other person well-nigh it. And then when they’re like, oh, I don’t really love that verisimilitude for the kitchen or whatever, and you’re like, oh, but I’ve been thinking well-nigh it now. I’ve once pinned 50 photos that have this kitchen color. And so you kind of finger like they’re, stopping this thing that was once in your heart. So I would say surpassing you get to that phase where you’re still kind of loosely holding things, you maybe still have some like odd stuff in the overall workbench and you’re starting to undeniability it down, then I would bring them in so that basically no one’s getting their heart set surpassing someone else can veto it. It moreover sucks if your partner’s really excited well-nigh something and you’re like, oh, I really don’t like that, but I can tell that you’ve been thinking well-nigh it. Now. It’s like, oh no. So, just trying to stave that where you can talk increasingly in the whence and if anyone really wants something or really hates a unrepealable verisimilitude or whatever, then you can hopefully discover that early on and then alimony moving forward.

Elsie: Yeah, and I think that it’s just very normal in a renovating or decorating situation where one person is doing most of it and the most involved and one person is not very involved, that there are gonna be these moments where there are misunderstandings or there’s like, oh, but why would we pick that? Or, but I like that, you know, and that’s super normal. It’s like kind of nothing to worry about. I think just stuff prepared to show lots of examples is the most important thing. So we’ve made the pin board, and I will say without you have the board, it’s important to put it on a, like make a mood workbench with it. So a couple of ways to do this. The easiest one is you could just put it in a folder on your phone and take a screenshot of the folder and then you’d have an easy do nothing mood workbench that you can refer when to. Flipside way to do it is to use Canva, which works really well. We use it for work. And flipside thing is Photoshop, I finger like Photoshop is rhadamanthine kind of like if you once knew how to use it, you know, but people aren’t learning it for the first time as much. Is that true? Like people are learning other things?

Emma: I don’t know. I once know how to use it, so I tend to gravitate towards it, but if you’ve never used anything, Canva is very easy to use.

Elsie: Canvas is easier than Photoshop. But whichever one, honestly. And there are probably moreover a million other apps and I don’t think we have an app that can make collages in that way, but I know there are many. So anyway, make some type of a mood workbench and this is going to help you so much. So the next step is to describe the style of your home in three words. And I know this is sort of a cheesy exercise, but I think that it can help so much. So a lot of people do words like transitional bohemian, eclectic like words like that. But I think moreover you can describe increasingly personal things, the three words that I wrote lanugo are cozy, creative, and weird. So I do want it to be cozy. I want it to be basically a Nancy Meyers house, point zippo that’s what I want. And then creative, I want to have a large designation of Homemade and craft. I wanna have a whole pantry for my bakery stuff. I wanna have a whole room for art with my kids. Like things like that. It’s a very upper priority for me, the creative living activities that we can do. And then weird is pretty much my vintage collections that I just think that a home is not well-constructed until you have like contumely insects statues and that just brings joy and texture and it’s sort of, funny, I don’t know. It’s the sort of the vintage oil paintings and stuff that is like the soul of the home for me.

Emma: Yeah, and I love the three words thing, but I am gonna offer up an volitional just considering sometimes I finger like that can wilt really utopian and maybe you’re wanting something a little increasingly like, you know, I think of this as your elevator pitch for your home. So, you’ve met someone, you have 15 seconds to tell them how you’re designing your new home. This is what you would say, you know? And I think the three words are the perfect amount. But then moreover I think of it like whenever you’re pitching a book, you do this thing tabbed comparative titles. So you say, my typesetting is zippo and blank. So you pick two variegated things and you match them together. So for a home you could, it could be something like, my Home is the downtown proper hotel meets its complicated kitchen. So you just say, I’m smashing these two things together. And those are the two worlds that I wanna work in.

Elsie: Oh my gosh, I love that. Okay, I’m gonna do that one as well.

Emma: Yeah, comparative titles, but it’s just comparative spaces considering it’s not titled, obviously.

Elsie: I’m Gonna Do My Dream Home is the Spooky Mansion from Knives Out mixed with the cozy colonial revival from Father of the bride.

Emma: That’s how I would honestly describe your house. Immediately, I’m like, yeah, your house is the Knives Out house and the Father Of The Bride house. It really is a mashup of those two things, which is really funny and cute and cozy and spooky and fun.

Elsie: The dream, okay, that one is fun. This step is moreover flipside way to fully commit to the aesthetic, and I just wanna remind you that it is so normal to have other philosophy that you love plane scrutinizingly as much as the one you picked. But you still have to pick one or else it is going to be challenging to make everything spritz together. But I think one part of designing a dream home is deciding what it is and really fully committing to that. Okay, we’re getting to the fun part. So step number six is to segregate a verisimilitude scheme, so choosing a verisimilitude scheme I believe is the most important part of creating a cohesive home. I unquestionably think you can get yonder with floundering on your style a lot easier than you can flounder on your verisimilitude scheme. I think that if you stay within a verisimilitude scheme, plane if your style is, quote-unquote eclectic, where it’s like a mixture of so many variegated styles. You really haven’t single-minded to anything. If you stay within the verisimilitude scheme, you can still turn out with a room that is like weird, interesting and works together. For anyone who has problems with commitment, this is the essential, most important step, and I completely understand loving a hundred variegated colors. But I think narrowing it lanugo to a scheme of colors, you can still have a hundred, but they all have to fit together on the same mood board.

Emma: Yeah, like how many colors do you recommend? And I finger like a lot of times when I see mood boards you’ve made, or just other things from the internet, there’s three that are like big. You get a big swatch and then there are these smaller ones that are kind of like the complimenting vocalizing colors. If someone’s like, I really don’t know how many colors to pick, or whatever. So what would be your recommendation for that person?

Elsie: So I think of the verisimilitude scheme as it’s very loose and I pretty much never worry well-nigh getting the word-for-word color. I think it’s helpful for paint, expressly if you’re gonna paint in your home all at once, all surpassing you move in. If you’re gonna rent a painter and you’re gonna have to make a lot of decisions quickly, then it’s probably good to have, I would say like four to six paint colors where you have two whites and four or so colors that are fun colors or vocalizing color, moody colors, whatever your theme is. But really it’s just staying with things that match within your scheme. Ultimately, it’s not really like it unchangingly verisimilitude matching exactly. If we’re doing the earthy moody tones, that’s one thing. If we’re doing the bright, cheerful, pop of verisimilitude with a lot of white, that’s flipside thing. And those two styles wouldn’t really play well together in the same home, you kind of have to segregate your path.

Emma: Yeah, plane understanding the tone, like this is gonna be increasingly earthy, or I’m going with increasingly like jewel tones. Like it’s really emerald green, but it could be dark. It could be light, but it’s not necessarily increasingly of an earthy, muddy green. You know? That would be a variegated vibe.

Elsie: I think it’s scrutinizingly tomfool to think of your home as like a movie set or something like that, where it’s like we have variegated scenes and there are variegated feelings. And you can have a room that’s very unexceptionable in a room that’s very dark, but you still want the colors to complement each other and you just don’t want them to finger like they’re from variegated movie sets. I like to do probably like 10 colors though, just to finger like I have some freedom. And then after, let’s talk well-nigh what happens without you’ve single-minded when you find something that just doesn’t fit considering that’s unchangingly gonna be a thing that happens. So you have single-minded to your verisimilitude scheme, but then there’s you know a launch at Target where they, come out with all this really tomfool yellow stuff. It’s like really unexceptionable and fun and it’s like, oh, maybe I could just, you know? You have to commit. This is the thing, this is the most important thing.

Emma: Or plane worse, there’s a big sale, and it’s so tropical to the verisimilitude you wanted, but it’s on sale. That’s where I get trapped, where I’m like, oh, it’s such a good price. And it’s like, Emma, it doesn’t fit with what you’re doing.

Elsie: Yeah, I kinda think you just have to pick your little color-storied universe and stay within that universe and evolve towards that goal, not yonder from it. You can find so many ways to explore verisimilitude within your palette once you’ve single-minded to it. You’ll unchangingly find if there’s a trend you like or something new that comes up, you’ll unchangingly find a way to work it in. Don’t worry well-nigh that, but I think you just don’t wanna get things that don’t fit with it. Let’s talk well-nigh some of the advantages. So if you do this, then without a year or two on zero budget, you can move things virtually and switch things from all over your house and pretty much redecorate your whole home just by swapping, and everything matches. To me, this is like the ultimate money-saving hack.

Emma: Yeah, I agree. I moreover think if needed, you can tailor or tweak your verisimilitude scheme, the platonic one that might be in your throne towards things in your home that maybe you can’t transpiration or don’t plan to change. So if you had a washroom that was once full of tile that you didn’t plan to change, you like it, maybe it wasn’t what you would’ve picked, but you don’t wanna rip it all out, it’s not worth it to you. Then you could tweak it to work with that too. I would think well-nigh those things as you pick the verisimilitude scheme as opposed to trying to like force-fit something with an existing full-length that maybe just isn’t gonna work.

Elsie: Yeah, no, I stipulate with that. That’s referring when to step one. Let the home speak to you. There’s unchangingly something well-nigh your home that is a standout full-length that you wanna highlight and something well-nigh your home that is a rencontre that you want to minimize, and you can definitely use your colors and your furnishments to do those things.

Emma: I think too if you’re feeling like kinda bummed well-nigh something this where you’re like, oh, it’s limiting, this is just, you know, telling me what I can’t do. I would definitely reframe it in your mind. Cuz I think it’s increasingly thinking of it like, the verisimilitude scheme’s gonna help me from making mistakes from ownership something that’s maybe expensive that isn’t gonna work and I’m gonna regret it. It’s not that it’s a limitation that’s like holding you back. It’s a tool that’s helping you craft the space that you want.

Elsie: A hundred percent completely agree. So this is my favorite step out of everything. You’re gonna love this step. This is when you know that you’ve scrutinizingly made it and it becomes like truly gratifying. So you get to spend your night ordering paint samples. First of all, you can moreover just run to the store and pick them up. Tile samples, fabrics, swatches, and wallpaper samples. So anything that you think you might use, try to get a sample of it, and then if you can get items that represent the color. I don’t personally like usually buy just one piece of hardware considering I don’t know. I just haven’t washed-up that. But something that represents the verisimilitude of the hardware, the types of, like I unchangingly put like a few of little contumely items in with mine just cuz I know I like a lot. I think it’s a big hodgepodge that I have. The verisimilitude that you would use for a frame, things like that. And try to just put them all out on your table and squint at them all together and see. I think you can tell from it if this is like the feeling and the value of texture and the value of weather you want to be like busier, clean. Like you can get a finger for if you’re on the right path just from this sample shopping.

Emma: It’s really worth it considering I have definitely had multiple times just when we renovated this house that I’m living in now, I bought a couple of tile samples and I was so glad I did considering they didn’t squint very good when they came in. And so I quickly reverted to something else rationalization I was like, this just isn’t the quality that it looked like online. So I’m really glad I didn’t buy a whole tuft of it and just fill our washroom with it considering I don’t love it. And there was flipside time I bought a whole tuft of wallpaper samples and the one that I was really leaning towards when it came in, the sample was just kinda blurry, scrutinizingly like it hadn’t been uploaded correctly or something. And so then it was like, I’m not gonna do that one. So I was really glad I didn’t buy a whole tuft of rolls of it and then be trying to return it or whatever I would’ve washed-up cuz it just wasn’t quite there. So I finger like if you’re worried about, like, I don’t wanna buy all these samples, it’s a lot of money, is this really plane worth it? It’s like, well, maybe not, but for me, I’ve had times where it saved me a lot of money and heartbreak considering I got to see it in person and it wasn’t quite what I was thinking.

Elsie: I would say it’s 100% worth it to order as many samples as you can. Okay, so the last step is, as you renovate, refer when to your mood workbench and verisimilitude scheme. This will alimony you on track, cohesive, and working towards your chosen goal. This will help you resist new trends or things that reservation your eye but just don’t fit. It’s so easy, expressly for someone like me to get distracted by something new. But if it’s not what you chose in your long planning phase of narrowing lanugo what you really want, then I think that you can take repletion in the idea that you picked this theme and this dream house for a reason. And there’s unchangingly gonna be other things that are good for other houses. Oh, I made some bonus tips too. I was really into this. Okay, and then one last thing is that I think when you are house shopping and then picking your theme and stuff, try to find a mood workbench and inspiration that you finger like you can grow into over time. Something that sort of surpasses trends and surpasses something that you finger like, I would’ve loved this when I was a kid. I would’ve loved this when I was 20. I think I’ll love this when I’m 50. Something that just kinda is increasingly tightly unfluctuating with it and it doesn’t really matter what’s going on in the diamond world right now considering honestly, the diamond world is really annoying. I think it’s entertaining and fun, but moreover like the things that are, like the in and out stuff, it can get old considering it all changes veritably constantly and there is unchangingly gonna be like a new thing that is very variegated from what you’re doing that you still appreciate. It’s not like malleate where you can try every trend if you want.

Emma: No, no. It’s a lot worthier transferral than fashion.

Elsie: Okay, so I did have three bonus tips and these are just like personal things, like things that from my experiences of trying to make my own dream home, I made my mid-century dream home. I’m currently making up, I guess, making up one from scratch for my 1990s McMansion, and someday in the future, I would hope to do a historic home, sort of like my fantasy home. So these are my tips based on what I’ve learned so far. Tip number one, you need to have at least three collections ongoing at all times. You can tell me if you stipulate or disagree. But for me, they’re all vintage collections, but they don’t have to be all vintage. I think collecting something that’s like art, something that’s entertainment, like books or games or even, I don’t know, I started collecting these like vintage dice, vintage dominoes, just I don’t know, pretty things that are moreover useful in your home I think makes it interesting. And it’s a decor item in your home that no one else has. That’s not misogynist at Target that’s like it’s special.

Emma: Also, this is very random. When you have collections, it moreover gives people something to buy you considering everyone knows that you collect vintage dominoes. Let’s just say Elsie just mentioned that one. Then if you know someone happens to be at a flea market or somewhere and they see a really pretty unique domino set, then they know, oh my gosh, this is like a really special present for Elsie who collects vintage dominoes. Just in specimen you’re like on the fence I don’t know if I want collections considering that’s just like me getting stuff. It’s just so you know, it gives other people something to buy you, which is unquestionably kinda nice.

Elsie: I do think that if you show up to a birthday party with the vintage gift, you are so cool. The next tip is to collect personal decor. So decorate your home with your photos, your memories, and weird little relics from your travels, like trappy rooms that you see on the internet, on Pinterest. It doesn’t matter how fancy and expensive and classy. It lacks something surpassing it has personal details. There’s a huge difference and so I think you can have the most trappy room in the world, but until they put out their weird puzzle or their weird typesetting hodgepodge or something like that, it just doesn’t finger like a home.

Emma: Yeah. I moreover think this can be family memories or travel. It moreover can be things from your career. For example, the other day I saved this trammels from my husband’s business, he’s been towers something. But basically, the thing that it made me think well-nigh was I really wish I had like my first quote-unquote paycheck from Red Velvet Art, like the merchantry that Elsie and I own. You probably think of it as a trappy mess, but the name of it’s unquestionably Red Velvet Art. And anyway, I don’t plane know what it was or how much it was or anything, it was so long ago. But I wish I had it, I could frame it and have it in my home and it would midpoint so much to me now. So plane if little things like that seem mundane at the moment, they might turn out to be really special later in life. But if you’re an versifier or a graphic designer, like the first time you got paid for doing the thing that you’re excited about, or your first typesetting deal. I think documents and checks and things like that obviously mark out any private information or write void on it. But I think it’s really special like those things can be really tomfool too. Things from your career, things from accomplishments. So I am thinking well-nigh it and wanna do it increasingly in my life and I just wanna put it out there for anyone listening. Hang up your accomplishments, it’s cool.

Elsie: That’s true. And then flipside thing I throne lanugo is my grandmother’s glasses, eyeglasses from upper school and then I moreover have this swimsuit that she wore on her honeymoon. And I’ve been planning that I should really frame those considering plane though like I can wear them, it isn’t something that I really do or will wear. And I think that it would be increasingly meaningful and special. Like I can unchangingly take it out of the frame, but I just think it is something tomfool and things like that are increasingly special than kind of anything. And then my last tip is to leave room for magic. So unchangingly find a place in every room to do something magical or weird. So substantially each room gets its own party trick. I think that there is something to be said when we started doing our subconscious library, we did debate whether or not it was worth it considering it was financially not worth it. Like I think on paper you could probably make a good specimen that this is not worth it, it doesn’t add really any square footage, and it doesn’t add any value. It doesn’t really add anything to our home besides like a closet that was the most expensive closet of all time. But, now that we did it and when people come over, I can tell, it’s like the thing in our home. It is the party trick and I’m so glad that we did it. So I think that leaving a little bit of space, doesn’t have to be expensive, but for things that are weird and tomfool and unique. I think that is just like really special.

Emma: Also, if you’re on a upkeep and you can’t build Elsie’s Subconscious Library or Subconscious Nia Wardrobe Library, there are all sorts of options. Whatever fits, like just buy a disco wittiness and put it somewhere where the light hits it at a unrepealable time of day. I swear to God, that will be like dollar for dollar that’s a lot of magic for a little bit of money. You can moreover make it, you, there are all sorts of options. I unchangingly lean on, you’re not sure, like something with lighting, something with lights that you either turn on at night or that the sun hits in a special way. Those are just really fun little things to have throughout your house, and they can forfeit scrutinizingly nothing. So you know, that’s an option. I moreover think the magic can come out sometimes in your collections or in the things that you set virtually the house. Like a really special coffee table book. Like I have this David Bowie coffee table typesetting and unendingly people come over, they unchangingly flip through it and it’s just mostly photos of him onstage and backstage, like getting ready and putting makeup on and the costumes that he would wear and things like that. And he’s one of those musicians that is a real chameleon. So he has so many variegated styles throughout the typesetting and it’s fun.

Elsie: Well, I had so much fun doing the deep swoop episode. Be sure to join us then next week. We are going to reflect on living half our lives offline and half our lives online, which I think is a really fun topic. So we’ll be when next week.