Ep. 480: Trials and Triumphs

How to Decorate

In Episode 480 of 'How to Decorate,' hosts Caroline, Taryn, and Liz share their latest home renovation journeys, focusing on transforming both

Key takeaways

• Repurposing old items stored in the basement can breathe new life into home spaces without needing to buy new furniture.
• Color choices like muted green can create calming, cohesive environments even when they're not perfectly matched to existing decor.

Main topics

• Home renovation progress
• Repurposing vintage furniture

Notable quotes

I went back on our webpage to try to figure out what was the last things I said. It was a long time ago.

Conclusion

The hosts reflect on their journey of transforming underused spaces into functional, beautiful

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:01) Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a weekly podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home. I'm Caroline. I'm on the marketing team. And I'm Taryn, and I'm a product designer. I'm Liz. I head up the creative team. We're your hosts. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists, and other talents in the design world. Speaker 1 (0:22) Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each episode. We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email us at podcast at ballarddesigns.net. Now on with the show. Speaker 3 (0:33) You look so cute in your pink, guys. Matching today. Very rude not to text me. Yeah. I have plenty of pink in my closet and Speaker 2 (0:42) I could have used a call. Sorry. It's okay. It's okay. Okay, but we are here for trials and trials. Yes. Speaker 3 (0:48) Yay. I am so excited. I went back on our webpage to try to figure out what was the last things I said. It was a long time ago. Speaker 2 (0:56) It feels like 1 Speaker 3 (0:57) ,400 years ago. Yeah. Speaker 2 (0:58) Yes. Four score. So then you start. You Speaker 3 (1:02) kick us off. Speaker 2 (1:02) I will start. Speaker 3 (1:04) We have done some good work in May and June. I feel like we did a ton. So the last one we recorded, I talked about how we swapped all of our beds and then we made all of our beds. So we have been utilizing our primary downstairs now as a guest room. It's Speaker 2 (1:23) a Speaker 3 (1:23) fully a guest room. It just sits pretty now for the most part, which is great. I'm Speaker 2 (1:30) so impressed. By the way, okay. I'm so impressed by the bed that you painted. Like Speaker 3 (1:33) you did such a good job. It looks great. The color is pretty. Thank you. It ended up being a very pretty color. And I can, at this moment in time, cannot tell you what the color is, but I can look it up. Because it was a nice, it was a very muted green. Speaker 2 (1:45) But Speaker 3 (1:46) it didn't go gray. It didn't go like brown. It was just a very, like I kind of wish my kitchen was that color now. But, you know. How far Speaker 2 (1:54) off do you think it is from your— It's just a lot. Speaker 3 (1:56) It's Speaker 2 (1:56) a little deeper and Speaker 3 (1:57) dirtier. My kitchen, yeah, I just was in a brighter—I was in a brighter tone in my love for Speaker 2 (2:05) color. Now I went a little bit darker and muddier. I'll come back Speaker 3 (2:07) out around, circle back, Speaker 2 (2:09) I'm Speaker 3 (2:09) sure. So we painted the bed in there. Speaker 2 (2:14) I bought some pillows from Ballard to zhuzh it up, this Speaker 3 (2:17) beautiful floral print pillow. Speaker 3 (2:21) With these greens and whites and creams. Oh Speaker 2 (2:23) yeah, the Speaker 3 (2:23) meritan. Beautiful. I'm now like, I kind of need the drapery, but I kind of don't because I already have our linen panels, but I'm kind of like, do I need the drapery? Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:31) Yeah. Speaker 3 (2:32) That would look so good in there. Speaker 2 (2:34) Because I Speaker 3 (2:34) have our old Larkin chair with glider with the ottoman in there. And it's got like a geometric print from back in the day. We had this like linen base with this black print on it. So it just is like kind of it's got the geometric. I got the floral. I have an old Costa Florentina rug on the floor that's kind of cream. So it's very neutral. It's not me in a good way, the room. It's just white. Staying wide in there for a while. And we did a bunch of our black frames from our basement I brought up. We have all this stuff that got, like, just years deposited into my basement when we moved. And now we're, like. Speaker 2 (3:08) Give it a little life. Speaker 3 (3:09) Yeah. David keeps telling me, just keep shopping the basement. Whatever you want, you can have from the basement. So I'm just, like, back there, like, oh, yeah. this. So that's how that went. I was like, oh, look at all these prints. Because we did a whole bunch of black and white in our renovations back in 2012, 13. I went a whole bunch of black and white. I was very into that very black and white. My nursery was that in Chartreuse. So then we moved into... new home and I have not had a lot of black and white moments. So I had all these black frames that Speaker 2 (3:42) were just too harsh on my white Speaker 3 (3:43) walls Speaker 2 (3:44) and my new house and stuff that I was like, no, I don't think I'm doing black. And so slowly coming out of the basement. Speaker 3 (3:50) So it's great. And I moved around some black shades because I love a black shade. And we've talked about that many times in our many years on here about how some designers hate black shades. And I was like, I kind of love a black shade. Makes your eye like stop. But that was all prior to. shades being more popular in colors and patterns. And now we're in a whole new phase. So anyway, I finished that room. And now it is a guest room. Got all the bedding. It's looking, you know, pretty settled. That was great. And we started on the basement. So the basement, we put up drywall. We all went over that, yes. But now it has been, of course, like, it was an itch. My husband needed a scratch, even though none of us were down there. And we have plenty of space. like footage upstairs but he needed to get down there now that he had spent some money to finish it off so it's just white no there's no moldings i think there actually was a baseboards we did baseboards but that was it like kept it it's Speaker 2 (4:46) a Speaker 3 (4:46) basement um but now you can't see through the walls through the framing so it is really nice so we have a bedroom down there and so again i went shopping in the back room I'm just going to call it the basement. I went shopping in the basement and found some rugs. We pulled in. We had a box spring down there. How much stuff did you have in your basement? I have a huge Speaker 2 (5:06) basement. It's an issue. It's a huge basement. Speaker 3 (5:09) I have talked about how the mistake was when I moved, everyone knows what you do when you move. You clean out. You clean out. No, no. I was very pregnant in a rush. It was just like box, box, box, throw it. And my husband was not. And he wasn't like, hey, should we keep this or donate this and like bring it? No, it was very much like put it in a corner. We will deal with it later. So I'm dealing. Yeah. And so there is a. Yeah. At some point I will get like a I'll get a move on it. It'll be like some big project someday. I don't know. So right now I'm just shopping it. So we were able to pull, I had some old side tables down there and nothing matches. It's just like a, it's going to be a modge podge room, but I owned all this stuff. So we are putting that room together. Literally just bought a mattress for it though, because we didn't have another mattress. So we'll have a queen bed down there for one more guest room and or our storm shelter. I mean, which is always nice too. Like if we do have one of those crazy nights with high wind, it's nice with all of our pine trees to have a place we can sleep. And we finished the bathroom down there. It got tiled. So there's a shower, a standing shower, a sink and yeah, toilet. So you can, yep, everything's running down there. And then we finished the gym. That was my other big one. And that was actually this past weekend. We, my husband was very much like, okay, what's it going to take to get you down to this room to like work out? Because I've been just like carrying my weights around the house, picking my like window that looks outside, you know, to work out. And I was like, well, I'm going to need, and I like listed it. And he went and got it. So it is going to not look like any like. What were you what did you request? I requested mirrors and fans because Speaker 2 (6:53) there's Speaker 3 (6:53) no central air in there. And there's not there's a window, but it doesn't open. So there's no air moving unless you put in fans. I was like, we're going to need some a few box fans in here. I'm totally fine with box fans. Like, I don't even need. anything fancy because I'll only be using it when working out and then turning it off. So we could put one in the ceiling eventually, but we didn't. We didn't wire for that kind of thing. Too Speaker 2 (7:16) much. Remember, just too much. It was too much fatigue. Probably should have. But Speaker 3 (7:19) we're again, just going and regretting. And a TV. So that I could, yeah, because currently I'm just using an app that I can pull up on the television. And so I love that. So I can do all my weightlifting down there. We got a bench down there. So I can now see my form, at least when I'm like, oh, that's bad. So that's what, yeah, because it was just like white walls. And I was like, I really like to see my form just because I feel like when you're lifting weights, if you're doing it wrong, you could like hurt yourself. So it's nice to be like, oh, I look just like her on the TV. Okay. I got to be semi-red. Maybe a little different, but not much. Same thing. So we just finished up that, which is great. And we got the foam flooring. It's nothing fancy to look at, but it has all the function. And so that's great. So I've been working out down there this past weekend and week so far. And it's great. Amazing. So another little corner utilized. So that has been super positive. Are y'all going to do like Speaker 2 (8:22) a big sectional like boys play area down there at some point? Speaker 3 (8:26) So there is, as you go deeper into the basement where there's no windows. So the bedroom and the gym are on the side that do have windows on our lot. So they have light. And then you go deeper where there's no light. And that is where David wants to put a big sofa down there. And we can, and the boys could like, I'm sure they will eventually end up with. Speaker 2 (8:48) Like video game. Video Speaker 3 (8:49) game down there or something. But it's so dark. I have thought about just like sleeping down there on the old sofa that's down there from our original house that was already a hand-me-down sofa. But David will not give this sofa up. It's leather. It's gross. Speaker 2 (9:02) Oh, it's Speaker 3 (9:05) still living. It's still living. And by living, not really living. Remember like the old dog? Like, yeah, it was on. It's just that face, Caroline. No, Speaker 2 (9:13) I just I just am thinking about sleeping on a on a leather couch. And I just I just Speaker 3 (9:18) did it for you. You know what I mean, though? It's like nostalgic now. Yes. Did Speaker 2 (9:22) you wake up stuck to it? Absolutely. Speaker 3 (9:24) Yeah. Speaker 2 (9:24) And Speaker 3 (9:24) like your face is on Speaker 2 (9:25) the leather. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well. Speaker 3 (9:28) Lucky for you. If you come over in the next few months, I might have that as a triumph or a trial. The point is, you're down there and you know where you're like, oh no, this is pitch black and cold. Speaker 2 (9:40) Yeah. And that is appealing. Right now in the summer. You've lost me another bed. Speaker 3 (9:45) Okay, sorry. You can lay on the laminate floor in the dark and complete silence. I was like, this will be like... This would be like if you really wanted to take a long sleep, like that would be where you'd go because it'd be nothing to wake you up. Just like dark and... You Speaker 2 (10:00) could also just use like an eye mask. Speaker 3 (10:03) That's too practical, Caroline. That is far too practical. Can you tell I really want some sleep that I was like down there and it was cold and I was like, oh my gosh, was summer just being hot and the sun out late? I was like, I kind of miss winter. Take me to the basement. So those are some big things we did. We hung a lot of art in June. Again, when we were like scavenging through the basement, found so much and like put together a few different. There's a gallery wall. I wanted on our back stairwell. We kind of got that up. And I got a piece of art for my birthday. Gorgeous. A.K. Hardeman. And I had followed her from a