Annie Meyers-Shyer on Creating This Oak House & Her Best Design Advice from Paint Colors to Dream Kitchens

All on the Table with Katie Lee Biegel

Host Katie Lee Biegel interviews Annie Meyers-Shyer, the creator behind the @thisoakhouse Instagram account and author of 'This Oak House'.

Key takeaways

• Annie Meyers-Shlyer transitioned from working in fashion editorial and PR at Chanel to home design after documenting a four-year renovation project.
• Practical paint tip: Requesting 50% or 75% tint levels for colors can help achieve the perfect shade for specific lighting.

Main topics

• Home Renovation
• Career Transitions

Notable quotes

I truly could write a dissertation on paint at this point.

Conclusion

The episode provides inspiring and actionable advice for anyone lookin

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Annie Meyers-Scheyer, I'm so excited you're here. Thank you for having me. We had to stop to start this conversation, Speaker 3 (0:27) which I had a feeling that's what it was going to be like. I'm so grateful that you're having me here. Thank you. Speaker 2 (0:32) Well, I'm so thrilled because I've been following you now since the beginning of At This Oak House. Yeah. And now it's a book. And now it's a Target line. I had my Target order and I got my notification that it was delivered. I'm so excited. I got the rattan tray. Love it. I love that tray. I Speaker 3 (0:49) know. Yeah. I love a Speaker 2 (0:51) tray. I love to contain things. Yeah. And put it on an ottoman. Yes. And then you can have like your coffee sitting there. Yeah. Your remote controls on it, whatever. I Speaker 3 (0:58) feel the same Speaker 2 (0:58) way. It's just there and nice always. I feel like I have so many things that I want to talk to you about that it's going to be hard for me to like stay on track. Okay, I'll go with that wherever you want to go. I made Speaker 3 (1:08) myself. notes. Okay. I Speaker 2 (1:10) want to talk about design, organizing, the second act of your career, all of it. Okay. But I guess we should start from the beginning. Sure. So for anybody out there who hasn't gotten into this Oak House rabbit hole, so they can know what it is you're doing and about your account and how you got started. Speaker 3 (1:27) So Through sort of a crazy set of circumstances, my mother-in-law, who had lived in her house for two decades, she moved to Montecito at the beginning of the pandemic and decided she didn't want to sell the house that she had been living in, but she also didn't want to live in it. And so my husband and I decided to take it over. I thought it would be like a modest renovation. It turned into a four-year project. And I sort of like on a hoot. thought maybe I would start an Instagram account just to document the process. I thought some of my old coworkers or friends might want to follow along, but there was no plan. I mean, absolutely no plan. And because of that, I was able to just be really authentic about what I was sharing. I also have a tendency to kind of obsess over things. So I was able to take people along on the deep dive of going to the marble yards or, you know, obsessing over paint, which took over my life. I truly could write a dissertation on paint at this point and sheen and all of that. But these choices you make with a house are so long lasting. And so I went. Very deep on it. And then the other thing that I think is interesting is there's so much gatekeeping in interiors and people don't share a lot. And so I was just out there sharing kind of the good, the bad, all of it. And the account just sort of started to take off. I had no idea that was going to happen. So it was really a surprise. I mean, it kind of still is a surprise. And then at some point. Along the way, people were like, what are you going to do next? Are you going to do another house? I was like, I am not going to do another house. I might never do another house. And I got an email from an editor at Chronicle saying, do you think there's a book in here? Speaker 2 (3:07) And Speaker 3 (3:07) it was the first time in the, I don't know, at that point, I'd probably even posting over a year that I was like, I think that's the next thing. And then it turned into a book and then it snowballed from there. Speaker 2 (3:19) You know, you're right about the gatekeeping and design. And sometimes when you're in the thick of trying to figure out what you want in a house, you just want somebody to tell you what to do. Totally. That's one of the things I love so much about your account and also about the book. I've been reading this book cover to cover is that you tell all the details. And I didn't even know that there could be percentages in paint, like to do the paint at 50 % or at 75%. Like that's all news to me. Yes. Well, I met with, let's Speaker 3 (3:52) see, I met with a Farrow and Ball paint consultant. Then my mom gifted me some hours with her personal paint consultant. So like I did. I did so much paint research. And also, I mean, this is really, we're getting into the weeds, but all paint companies sort of have an 800 number. You can call and ask them questions. Like if I'm painting a bathroom, which line do you recommend? There's just so many nuances to it. And the gatekeeping thing was interesting. I mean, I remember DMing people in the beginning being like, hi, I really love, you know, this rug. Would you mind sharing the, no, nobody wants to tell you anything. But in fashion. or in beauty, you know everything. Right. Everything. You know somebody's eyebrow pencil. Like they're giving you all the details, but in interiors, it's to the trade. And by the way, I respect that and I understand that, but I did my sort of own journey and so I could share my part of it. And it was fun learning about it. And the truth is, like, during this process, I felt something kind of like reignited in me. Like I found a passion that I didn't know existed. And so. Wait, one second. What's a paint consultant? Okay. That's a great question. So Farron Ball offers a paint consultancy service. So basically they'll come over and they'll look at the lights in your room, sort of where you get natural light. They'll look at the fabrics in the room and they'll make recommendations. So that is an amazing program that they recommend. And then the paint consult that my mom worked with is a guy named Scott Flax and his whole world is paint. And so he'll look at your room, he'll mix things for you. And he taught me like all kinds of tricks. Whatever the walls of the room are, you paint the ceiling 50 % lighter. He believes in certain finishes on certain woods and things like that. And yeah, I know more about paint than any regular human being should. Paint makes me mentally ill. It's so hard. Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:42) It's so hard. I've had times where I've been awake all night thinking about the Benjamin Moore wheel. I know. Going Speaker 3 (5:48) to color, color. And it makes me Speaker 2 (5:50) crazy. I need a paint consultant. You do. Speaker 3 (5:53) So Gil Schaefer, who's like the most incredible architect. out there. And I found his books to be my Bible during this. I'm lucky enough to know him. And the last time I saw him was in the middle of my project. And I said to him, Gil, what is the perfect exterior white paint for my house? And he was like, well, you know, there's different lights and different things in different parts of the country. I was like, Gil, what's the paint color? Give Speaker 1 (6:15) it to me straight. Speaker 3 (6:16) He was like, well, I really think that if you're, you know, getting Southern light. I was like, Gil. what's the paint color? And then he gave it to me finally. And obviously that's exactly what I painted my house. And Speaker 2 (6:27) that's all in the book. It's all in the book. And you also put in there like ask for it 50%, ask for it 75%. Because Speaker 3 (6:33) if the color looks just about right, but you wish it was just a hair lighter, they can mix that for you. I had no idea. Speaker 2 (6:41) All news to me. And I mean, that's one of like the great things about this book is that it really does lay it all out for people. Speaker 3 (6:47) We're getting ready to start building a house if we can Speaker 2 (6:49) ever get our permit. I've renovated multiple times, but I've never built from ground up. I think it Speaker 3 (6:56) might be easier Speaker 2 (6:57) because Speaker 3 (6:57) you're not dealing with, oh, the. ceiling's not level or something like that. Yeah. And you can kind Speaker 2 (7:03) of, you know, do what you want. But I still feel constrained to like, here's the space that we're allowed to build on the lot. And like, what can I do within it? Like, we're Speaker 3 (7:12) at such a disadvantage because we just don't know Speaker 2 (7:14) what we don't know. Right. So I remember my builder would Speaker 3 (7:17) be like, this room needs a new footing. I'm like, okay. You don't know. What's a footing? Yeah. Right? So you just have to take, there's so much trust. And the first part of my book, which I call House, is really sort of like the what to expect when you're expecting. And it's all the things I learned that I wish someone had taught Speaker 2 (7:35) me. So let's talk about how you found this new passion and ignited something in you. You have had what's become like a second career now. Because I was... learning more about your career path and how you started in fashion, Bazaar, Chanel, became a stay-at-home mom. And then this has led to a whole new world. So tell me what that feels like. Speaker 3 (8:00) So I started my career in fashion. I lived here in New York City and it was very much, I worked in magazines. It felt very Devil Wears Prada. It was really fun. Like I was young, I was in my 20s. It was... really fun time to work in editorial. And we would go to the fashion shows in Europe. And it was pretty fun and wonderful. But I moved back to LA in my sort of mid-20s. And I started working at Chanel. I was the West Coast PR. And it was great. It was an amazing company to work for. I was there when Karl Lagerfeld was there, which was incredible. And we would go to the shows. And I loved fashion. I think There's a lot of parallels between design interiors and design of fashion and also the craftsmanship. And there's just a lot of parallels. But the truth is, I kind of fell out of love with fashion somewhere along the line of working in it. And I also, while I was at Chanel, I got married and had both my kids within six years. And it's hard. It's hard to want to get on a plane and go travel or feel like you want to. I had a hard time being pulled away from my kids. And so I then was very content being a stay-at-home mom, like really happy. I did not have a yearning for something else. Like I felt like this is good. This is the stage I should be in. But I do think something inside of me was, I guess, unbeknownst to me, still ignited in some way. And then this project, it was just, I don't know, it just all happened. I fell in love with interiors. I fell in love with the idea of turning something that is how you can turn something into a home, making a house into a home. And that idea was so alluring to me. Speaker 3 (9:41) keep the integrity of this old house, but make it work for our young family? And also, what did I want this house to say about us? The house I lived in before I moved into four weeks before I had my kid. So like my mom and my mother-in-law moved me in. Where they put things down that day we moved in, they never left for like 10 years. You know, we just like, we just existed. And then it was COVID. And then, you know, all the rules went out the window. So I felt like this was my opportunity to like really do something special. I definitely didn't see any of this coming, but it unleashed a new passion in me. And I feel really lucky. Speaker 2 (10:20) I've used Branch Basics for a long time, and it's one of those products I recommend constantly, especially for the kitchen. I cook every day, so there's always something to clean. Splatters on the stovetop, crumbs on the counter, greasy fingerprints on the refrigerator. I want something that actually works, but I also deeply care about the ingredients I'm using on the surfaces where I prepare our food. That's why I love Branch Basics. 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After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support the show and let them know I sent you. Wrap yourself in luxury with Lola Blankets. Speaker 2 (15:36) I saw in another interview with you, you said that you were on a retreat or something like that for Chanel and you had the three words to describe yourself and you said, mother, sister, wife. Yes. And that everybody else was writing. It was a shock. Yes. Speaker 3 (15:52) We were out somewhere gorgeous in like the south of France and we were at this all hands retreat and it was like three words to describe yourself. All the words people were using were about work and how they saw themselves. And I said those words. I think I went first. And I remember as we went around the circle, it was like by the time it got back to me, I was like, I think it's time. I think it's time for me to turn this in. I Speaker 2 (16:14) thought that was such an honest answer. And I think so many times we're pressured to