159: Style Surgery

The Great Indoors

In this final episode of the Back to Basics series, hosts Sophie Robinson and Kate Watson-Smith conduct a 'Style Surgery' to answer various

Key takeaways

• For multi-functional dining rooms, use different lighting circuits to allow for both task lighting and atmospheric moods.
• A slipper bath is a practical and charming option for a bedroom as it requires less space than a full-sized tub.

Main topics

• Multi-functional lighting strategies
• Bathroom and bedroom integration

Notable quotes

If you've got a multifunctional room, you need multi... functional lighting.

Conclusion

The episode provides a wealth of practical, budget-friendly hacks for

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:08) Hello Speaker 2 (0:08) and welcome to The Great Indoors. The Speaker 1 (0:11) podcast which reveals everything Speaker 2 (0:13) you ever needed to know about interiors Speaker 1 (0:15) and explains how to make it all really work for you in your home. I'm Sophie Robinson. And I'm Kate Watson-Smith. And today, for the final episode of our Back to Basics series, we're going to be answering your questions. Now, we've taken you through planning and layout, lighting and budget, and last week was all about styling and finishing touches. So this week, well, it's over to you. Hang on a minute, actually. Before we give the floor, I would just like to say, for those of you who are watching us on YouTube, or possibly for those of you who aren't, I would like to lay down for the record that Sophie is wearing a beige tee. Don't at me with the it's brown, it's oatmeal, it's cream. It's actually beige. Speaker 2 (1:08) I mean, I'm so busted. You're so busted. You see, it Speaker 1 (1:12) was Speaker 2 (1:12) your idea to do video and now it's busted you. Oh Speaker 1 (1:15) my Speaker 2 (1:15) God. It is. What's going on? I think it's caramel or like. It's not caramel. Caramel is darker. Speaker 1 (1:22) It's not coffee. If someone gave me a cafe au lait that was that colour, it's the colour of dishwater. It's beige. Oh, I quite like my new Speaker 2 (1:30) t-shirt. I am wearing it with pink trousers. Is that, does that? No, because we can't see Speaker 1 (1:35) the pink trousers. Speaker 2 (1:36) I just, Speaker 1 (1:37) you know, I mean, after everything, after all years, years of attitude you've given me, I'm reigning in my language. Speaker 2 (1:48) And Speaker 1 (1:49) now look at you, turns up in a beige T-shirt. My gust is flabbered. Speaker 2 (1:58) It's flabbergasted. I'm quite enjoying this colour. I think, I don't know, I was in a mood for... Maybe I'm in a mellow mood today, Kate. You should be rejoicing in the fact that I'm feeling a bit softer and caramelly and... Look, I love all the colours. No, you don't. No, you don't. Speaker 1 (2:13) You've got a hashtag called Ban the Beige. Speaker 1 (2:20) Yeah, I mean, as I see it here, I'm not even trying very hard. You have not a leg to stand on. I Speaker 2 (2:25) have not a leg to stand on. I literally have no comeback, do I? No, nothing. No, nothing. Maybe it's because I'm wearing beige. I've Speaker 1 (2:32) got no mojo. Yeah, there you go, you see. Speaker 2 (2:34) You know, this is what happens. Yeah, you'll be asleep Speaker 1 (2:37) before the episode's out. It'll just be the KWS show. It's Speaker 2 (2:41) marvellous. Because meanwhile, you're looking quite... I'm not... Only am I seeing colour cake. I'm seeing pattern as well. Yes. Well, I like pattern. Speaker 1 (2:54) Yes. So this top is, I'll tell you exactly what colour it is. This is Farrow and Ball Arsenic. Oh, I love that colour. This top, which is a kind of... Speaker 2 (3:03) Which Speaker 1 (3:03) is Speaker 2 (3:03) a spearminty green, I'd say. Speaker 1 (3:06) Minty green with a bit of pattern on it. And the reason Speaker 2 (3:09) I'm Speaker 1 (3:09) wearing it actually is I bought it. It's very old. I bought it in 2019 because I was writing the second book in the Mad About the House series. And we'd already decided the first one was pink and we decided the cover of the second one was going to be this arsenic green colour. And so I bought the top and I was all ready to wear it for the launch. And the launch party, you won't remember this, was scheduled for the 24th of March 2020. And I don't know if you remember what happened on the 23rd of March 2020. Oh, Speaker 2 (3:45) oh. 2020? March? I do remember what happened. Locky Speaker 1 (3:51) D. Yes, the country went into Speaker 2 (3:54) lockdown. Speaker 1 (3:55) So this top has been in lockdown. And I just thought today, and the reason I thought I'd wear it today is because actually it's got these. I'm showing for the benefit of the camera. Who Speaker 2 (4:06) even are you? Are those bows? Speaker 1 (4:07) I do love a statement sleeve, actually. And this has got massive kind of ties and bows, which makes it... totally impractical for doing anything at all other than sitting around chatting. So I thought, oh, look, I've got an hour where I've got nothing to do apart from sit and chat. I can wear my flappy Speaker 2 (4:25) sleeves and they won't get in the way of anything. I was going to say, they'd be dripping into your dinner, into stirring your soup. Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:32) It's not a practical top. It is a stand around, look glamorous at a party top. But I thought we'd do sit around, chat on a podcast. Speaker 2 (4:40) I'm now feeling woefully. You're feeling drab in Speaker 1 (4:42) beige. I am feeling so woefully Speaker 2 (4:44) underdressed. I can't even tell you. In fact, my top matches my hair. So I'm sort of like. Is that the problem? Are you fading into your own background? Fading into my own background. You know Speaker 1 (4:58) what it looks like on a Zoom? You know how people blur their background so you can see them? You've gone the other way. I've Speaker 2 (5:03) blurred Speaker 1 (5:03) myself. It's really highlighted your background wallpaper. And I'm sort of groping through the mists of beige to find Speaker 2 (5:12) you. I think what's happened, what's happened is I've just been to the Love Supreme Festival and I have been wearing all the colour, all the pattern. I've been completely living. I've been channelling what I'm calling my gangster era. Speaker 1 (5:26) Oh, God. I wore Speaker 2 (5:27) that hideous necklace that I brought into your inn that you really, really hate. The really, really plasticky one. It's just... Super Speaker 1 (5:34) plastic. Speaker 2 (5:34) Super plastic. Big gold chain. Lots of plastic purse backs. Medallions hanging from it. Faux Chanel tags. Everything to upset you. But I love it because I bought it with you. So every time I wear it, it reminds me of you and how angry I make you. I think after a weekend of partying, wearing all the colour, wearing all the bling, I've just hit the ground. Needing to ground myself, recenter myself. Well, Speaker 1 (6:04) I have to say, guys, this is a momentous moment. So she's never, ever felt the need to ground herself or to recenter herself or to, you know, fade into the background. So I don't know what's going on. These are all Speaker 2 (6:16) words. These are all words you would never expect to come Speaker 1 (6:18) out of Speaker 2 (6:18) my mouth. No, exactly. Speaker 1 (6:21) They're your words. They're you. Do you even understand what you're saying? Speaker 2 (6:24) I don't even know who I am anymore. I think we should just crack on with the show. Enough. Enough. So who's first up? Who are we going to help out now that I've been completely assassinated by my co-host? And I've lost all my self-worth and self-belief and I don't even know who I am anymore. Oh, my God. Let's Speaker 1 (6:42) see if Speaker 2 (6:42) we can help any of our lovely listeners out. Well, I Speaker 1 (6:44) mean, I don't know. It's not looking good, is it? Let's see if we can help Melissa. Melissa said... We are unsure about whether to put any recessed downlights slash spotlights in our dining room. We have two wall lights, a pendant over the dining room table and a five amp socket for a large lamp. But I'm thinking that at times the dining table will be used for homework, art, jigsaws. And I'm erring on the side of putting some downlights on a separate circuit to brighten the space up when needed. and a few on another circuit to light the wall of cabinetry which is our main storage hub for downstairs Is six spotlights too much? We are planning to colour drench the room in a denim type colour, so that's a denim-y blue. And I'm wondering, will the spotlights look ugly? But surely function trumps this. And then, how do we pick the right wall lights? I like simple lights, maybe even ones I can paint to match the wall, but I don't like the ones that make a very clear triangle of light above and below. What would you suggest for atmospheric diffuse light? So, well, there's a lot of lighting going on there. Did you listen to the lighting episode? Speaker 1 (7:56) Failing that. Speaker 2 (7:57) We're all right. We're all right. We can go all over this again. I think this is a really interesting question because it starts off, you know, we talk about the dining room, but actually this is one of those classic multifunctional rooms. Speaker 1 (8:09) So Speaker 2 (8:09) it might be used for more atmospheric stuff in the evening if you're throwing a supper party or whatever and you want something a bit more on the down low. But then, yes, if you're doing art projects, jigsaws. homework, you're going to need task lighting. So I think first up, well done, Melissa, 10 out of 10 for realising that you can put your lighting on different circuits. This means that some lights come on with one switch, other lights will come on with another switch. You don't have to have everything all on at once. And I think just that as a basic bit of advice, that if you have got a multifunctional room, you need multi... functional lighting. So for a traditional dining room, I would say that the pendant, the wall lights and a lamp in the corner, perfect. I do worry that if you're colour drenching, Deneem's is a very, very dark denim blue from Farrow & Ball. I absolutely love the idea of this and this will be brilliant for your more atmospheric evening supper parties. But you're right, when it comes to doing home work or art projects, it's going to be a bit of a cave. I've... I've got a few spotlight down lighters, recessed down lighters in my snug, which is in a similarly dark colour, be it more of a sort of like aubergine colour. What I would say is if you are going to put down lighters, I don't know whether you need six for a start. I think I've just got about three in my snug. You might just want a couple over the dining table. I was going to Speaker 1 (9:34) say, if you've got the pendant in the middle of the table, maybe just a couple of spots either Speaker 2 (9:38) side. And then that will be enough to brighten that tabletop. I don't think you need spots anywhere else in the room. Also, you can get recessed spotlights, which you can paint. And that's what I did in my snug. So you don't get that white or chrome ring. Oh, that's crucial. I mean, if you're going spotlights, Speaker 1 (9:57) you don't install them until you've found some paintable ones. Because white spotlights in a dark blue ceiling is going to be horrendous. Yeah, or brass or gold or any of those finishes that they come in. In fact, I would say Speaker 2 (10:10) paintable spotlights. even if in a white room or a pale painted room, I never want the spotlight to be something that shines out in a metallic or something. Speaker 1 (10:21) And I would also say it's really key. I mean, you don't say what sort of pendant light you've got, but I think. You know, you can get pendant lights. The key with the light is if it's got a sort of metal shade, like a sort of vintage rise and fall, then the light is only going to come downwards. I suggest you might want something like that old old fashioned paper ball light. I mean, you can get more sophisticated versions now which have got linen. material stretched over the frame. And that's going to give you a decent amount of light, but it will do a certain job of lighting the whole room. So I think you want to choose that pendant light carefully because I would say, what time of day are you doing these jigsaws and homework? I mean, I'm assuming there's windows in this room. I mean, is there any form of natural light? Well, Speaker 2 (11:11) I suppose the thing is, is in summer, it's not an issue. Let's remember it gets dark at four o'clock in the winter. Speaker 2 (11:18) I suppose that's when the lighting is going to be really, really important. I did also just think as well, when we're talking about just lighting the table, you remember, I remember doing a project for that Channel 5 TV show that I did a few years ago, Dream Home Makeovers, and we painted somebody's whole living room black. They wanted a black Speaker 1 (11:37) living room. But there wasn't that huge room. It Speaker 2 (11:40) was a huge room, but they wanted to have a snooker table in it. That's right. And we used, I got an actual snooker table light to hang over the top of it. Oh, yes. So long, Speaker 1 (11:54) what are you saying, a long, thin Speaker 2 (11:56) one? Yeah, long, with the light focused on the tabletop, which is obviously important if you're playing pool, that you can see the bays and the balls, and I assume that's kind of important. I don't play either of those sports. But it did allow the rest of the room to stay quite atmospheric because the light was just all on the tabletop. Speaker 1 (12:15) And there are lights, and I think I've seen the very beautiful, more expensive ones from Original BTC, which is an international company, so you can all look at them, which can be like a rectangle with glass in them. Or I think possibly Graham and Green, which is only British, have versions. I mean, there's nothing to say, I suppose, that you've only got to have one pendant light in the middle. Instead of a spotlight either side, you could have three pendants over the table. Like, everybody's really comfortable with doing that over a kitchen island. Oh, I've got a kitchen island. I need three. pendant lights well dining room table you know you could have three pendant lights over the dining room table um and do it that way because you also mentioned the spotlights on some storage unit uh a wall of cabinetry you could have spotlights in front of that washing the light down but you could also use that led tape which you just sort of stick it on and you could stick it on on the bottom of a shelf to light the things below or on the top of the shelf to wash the light up and then it has a transformer. And if it's a wall of cabinetry, you can easily hide that behind a speaker or a book or something else. And that's a different form of light. So actually, when you're having dinner, we're not talking about homework. You could have, you know, maybe one of the pendant lights and just the cabinetry lit and some wall lights. So you could, again, it's all different circuits. You can choose which ones you put on. Well, Speaker 2 (13:38) I would say, though, when we... talking about the cabinetry, she mentions it's her main storage hub for downstairs. And I saw a little red flag when she said that. And I thought, just check that this main storage hub, anything that's on show or being lit needs to be really beautiful. Yes, Speaker 1 (13:57) it's got to look nice. So it Speaker 2 (13:58) shouldn't be lighting up the pile of jigsaws neatly stacked in a shelf or the... piles of homework books or whatever I would say if you're going to light your storage area make sure it's showing off beautiful glassware or vases or artwork well and also Speaker 1 (14:13) what she doesn't say if it's a wall of cabinetry but it's solid doors there's nothing to light Speaker 1 (14:23) I'm glad you worked that out, Kate. I got that. I was just assuming it was shelves. But yeah, you need to think about that. And then Speaker 2 (14:31) lastly, the wall lights. I love this idea of