Interior Design Tips with Laurie Smith of Trading Spaces

Jacqueline:

Well, thank you for speaking with us all, we're very excited to have you on.

Laurie:

Thank you.

Jacqueline:

You may not be familiar with our podcast, but this is a vipHome Podcast. And our mission is to help equip homeowners with everything they need to know when it comes to safety and optimizing their living space and just to live comfortably in their homes. So we started beginning of the year and we're just starting to get some momentum. So it's really exciting to have you on and talk about your experience and your great career, helping homeowners make the most out of their spaces.

I don't know if you've met Caroline before.

Caroline:

Hi, I'm Caroline.

Laurie:

Hi Caroline.

Caroline:

I work on our partnerships team here at vipHomeLink and we're so excited to have you, and I think we're going to have a great conversation.

Laurie:

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Jacqueline:

Why don't you take us through a little bit about your career, what they'll know about Trading Spaces, but how you got into design and your time in Trading Spaces and what you've been up to recently?

Laurie:

Design was a mid '20s choice for me. I have a degree in journalism, broadcast oddly from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and immediately went to work out of school for CNN in Atlanta. And my very best friend was an interior designer. And the only way sometimes to see her on the weekends and designers will understand this or to see her on the weekends was to trail behind her, helping her work because she was always loaded down, being low man on the totem pole with trying to go get fabrics, textiles, find things for clients. And so I would just kind of trail along behind her. And I was an art history minor. I had studied abroad. I loved architecture. I moved a lot as a child and my mom always had a beautiful aesthetic that I just kind of took for granted, but I appreciate beauty and love beauty. And she would send me off to like, "Hey Laurie, see this swatch. Can you just go try to pull some things?" I'm like, "I don't know what I'm very," she's like, "Just do it, just do it."

Laurie:

And I'd come back and she'd be like, "Wow, I wouldn't have put that together, but I like it." And so this was like 1996. So I'm like, "Okay, well." So I started speaking to some professionals in the field that I was in Atlanta, Georgia, and they all said, "Are you tied to Atlanta?" I said, "No." Are you tied to anything? "No, I'm single." And they said, "We suggest you go to graduate school, go to school, go to school. Don't just come to work for us. If you are free and can do that, go." So I applied to several schools and my dream school became the New York School of Interior Design. Every side it really was a classical training and it catered to a lot of people. The median age was more mid '20s. People coming out of investment banking or whatever career they were in really making that shift.

Laurie:

And it just seemed like the perfect fit. So I was New York bound and I graduated from there, working for an architecture firm. Life takes interesting turns, I end up back in the South in Mississippi and oddly the same best friend who I would trail around behind gave me a call one day and said, "I just got the strangest phone call." And I said, "What?" She's like, "There is a production company in Knoxville, Tennessee who has bought the rights to a British show called Changing Rooms." And I said, "I know that show." Because one of my best friends in New York was from London and her mom would send over the sea every week, a VHS tape of Changing Rooms and I became completely addicted to it. So here I was with this kind of, I hate to say how important advantage of knowing the rules of the show two days, two sets of homeowners, a $1000, get it done.

Laurie:

And I said, "Heather, did you say you're going to audition?" Because they were literally looking up designers in the yellow pages. There was no internet. I mean, remember this is like 1998. There was no searching, no Google search. They called her in the yellow pages. She was like, "Laurie, I hate to have my photo taken, I'm not going to do a television show, but I've giving them your name." Because she knows I broadcast journalism. I had done theater classes in New York, she's like "I told them, I knew this. I have a friend whose background is so interesting." And they're like, "Wow, we haven't spoken to any designers who had a television broadcast background." So long, long story long. I ended up there three weeks later auditioning. I will never forget it walking into this sea of people from all over the country.

Laurie:

And yeah, this was the beginning of 1999. And it was very edgy to wear a little black framed glasses, whether you needed them or not. And I just couldn't look more different than everyone in that room. I had big red hair and I was probably wearing bright green and the Southern accent was back. I was like, "Oh, my." But I remember looking across the room and thinking, "Well, things could be worse. I could be that guy." And it was Frank violet. Who's our older castmate who I love and adore and who we recently lost. I don't know if you've heard that Frank passed away a few weeks ago, but what a dear man, but oddly enough, it was the odd couple that was chosen for the very first episode. So we shot The Pilot in 1999 and the show would be nominated for a Primetime Emmy three years later.

Laurie:

Our one claim to fame is that we beat Oprah Winfrey in ratings one for a little pocket of time, four o'clock it's just like this little engine they could, and it was just a phenomenon and none of us saw it coming. So when we would have the ability to reboot a couple years ago and come back, I think it's just overwhelming the entire past came back because every single one of us has eternal gratitude for that show and how it propelled our careers. And some people have remained in television. Pennington who remains a huge superstar with extreme home makeover. A lot of our castmates stayed in television. I stayed home to raise kids. That was my personal choice.

Laurie:

At the time that Trading Spaces ended, my son was four and my daughter was two and it was just getting to be too much. I traveled for four years with nannies and behind the scenes doing all that craze, I had an infant and I was pregnant on the show twice, just a whole lot of juggling. But that's the story in a nutshell, it really is. I'll never not consider it a miracle in my life. Because I know the odds, I know that industry and I never took it for granted. That's for sure.

Caroline:

That's such an exciting story. I feel like when I graduated from school, I had no idea what to do, but also never no one ever directed me. I kind of ended up here just by some false turns along the way. But interior design is amazing. And the fact that you got to show from a friend like, "Jacqueline, come on, hook me up more with different things."

Laurie:

I know, and then that led to, I was able to write a book called Discovering Home. I had a lighting line. I had a textile line. I mean a lot of doors opened with that. So I'm yes, I am eternally grateful. And currently I'm doing some consulting. I've recently moved to Nashville, Tennessee. So I'm kind of a newbie here finding my way, but I'm working for an Italian tile company, writing a blog on design @atlasconcordusa.com. If you all want to log on, I do a monthly blog. It's just a lot of beautiful imagery and hopefully good information. So more about beautifying home although who knows, maybe we'll talk more about eco-friendly here, there are a million topics we could cover.

Caroline:

Could talk a little bit about beautifying homes and what you sort of think if you're talking to maybe a first-time home buyer or somebody who's buying a home again, but has in many years, what you would suggest is sort of the first places to start in terms of beautifying your home. And also what you think the most standout points are? I think for our readers, our viewers, I feel like everyone's sort of in a different stage and just hearing tips on what to you would make something beautiful, but also if you're selling, what would make something also a little bit more beautiful to the gamut than just yourself?

Laurie:

Right. Well, everyone when you're looking for a home, what are the three things? Location, I realize you want to account for that. For me, things that I know I personally, when I was just searching for this home that we're in here in Nashville, ceiling height is always nice because of natural light. So I'm always looking for as much window light, natural light coming in, things to look for, which also become very eco-friendly is natural light. Hardwood floors are always a nice thing to look for, tile as opposed to synthetic rugs and carpets that may have the VOCs, things that are going to emit toxicities in the long run in your home. I just hate to say good bones, but it kind of is.

What are your visual access? I think so many people don't look at the whole picture when you're standing in the entry. What are you looking? Are you looking through the home? Do you look at a blank wall? Is there a window with a pretty view of the backyard? What are you seeing through that view? Is it straight up a staircase? What interests can you bring at each visual axis? How do the rooms flow from one to the next? Are they symmetrical? Are they asymmetrical? Is that going to be a challenge? Are there architectural elements that maybe weren't great choices that you may need to rearrange or pull out, depending on your budget, some people can come in and say, "Oh, I'm just going to blow through it." "And great. I wish I could," but and I have plenty of clients that do, but through looking for something in the mid-range and really know that your budget is more conducive to repainting, maybe putting in some architectural elements like bookshelves, enlarging some windows.

Laurie:

It is amazing what taking a window from mid-height to see it, ceiling to floor will do. I mean, absolutely transform a space. So lighting, lighting, lighting over and over again, lighting. I mean, as you know, you are designer, you can have the most beautiful art, the most beautiful textiles and this beautiful rug, but if you're just constantly in the dark it's tough.

Jacqueline:

What are some lighting elements that people could add into their space? So say they don't have the budget to expand their windows. Are there ways that they can bring in light or enhance natural light other ways?

Laurie:

Absolutely. If you can bring in and have some incandescent or recess lighting put in, although I'm very mindful to say, please, please, please don't make your ceilings Swiss cheese. I've gone into so many homes where it's just and it's just crazy. There was no rhyme or reason people just started poking cans in the ceiling. I'm not talking about that. The best places for that kind of lighting are in task. Because they're more task lights. They're going to be a more harsh light, but in the kitchen down a hallway an entry if it needs a little spot, in addition to a ceiling fixture, but in living spaces, I really, really love to look for hanging fixtures and it doesn't have to be something crazy expensive. I can't tell you one of my favorite fixtures has come out of a flea market, just cleaned up spray, painted a whimsical color and put in a living room ceiling and it's fantastic. So I mean, you can find those pieces on a budget and again, I cannot express enough the importance of a dimmer switches.

Laurie:

These are very simple things to add to your home. I think a dimmer switch costs 899 at Home Depot. And while you have an electrician over, if you are installing just a few incandescent or cam lights, or ceiling fixture, it is very simple to have them, put it in. I have a dimmer in every room in my house because I can either bump it way up in the day. And then at night I don't come into a fishbowl. You just dim it down. And that just sets a mood just to complete, immediately it's like I can exhale "Huh, okay." Yeah, this is my nurturing space not an abrasive light. I still love lamplight I'm a stickler for incandescent, sorry all the people with their LED but I just love a good old fashioned bulb.

Laurie:

It's warm and I became so paranoid and I know it's so energy efficient, forgive me, forgive me. And I went and I bought boxes and boxes of light bulbs when everyone said, "They're going away forever." I was like, "No." But the the incandescent, the LED has changed significantly in the last five years. And it is not a cold light anymore. It's on a blue light. It is a warmer light. So it really has become much better bulb and it is important for energy efficiency. But I had a darker corner in a rental house that we ran a couple of years ago. Because we just had a couple of years in Memphis and we knew we weren't going to be there long. And I couldn't, it was a rental.

Laurie:

I wasn't going to do anything to it, but lamplight even going and getting one of those cans that sits on the floor and pivots, I stuck one behind a pretty standing plant and it just put a glow in the room that was nice and subtle. And I could just switch it on and off with a light switch because the outlet was attached to the light switch. I put it on a dimmer as well. I did have some dimmers installed, because it was an inexpensive fix and it makes all the difference.

Jacqueline:

I'm going to do that, because I'm really particular about my lighting, but I haven't found a way to manipulate it.

Laurie:

Yeah, I am telling you and then also if you have a great pair, Lance, and you're just kind of tired of on whatever, it's amazing what a new lampshade will do, to completely change the face of a lamp. There are so many specialty stores now and lampshades were so difficult to find 10 years ago and now you can go in and just buy them at so many home stores in boutique stores and looking for a paper parchment as opposed to a silk shade and the light that, that gives off, parchment is going to give this nice warm glow and it's very crisp, clean more modern, fresh look. I love the juxtaposition of a parchment shade on an old ceramic kind of boss like lamp. So there are ways to play and manipulate even with the fixture itself.

Caroline:

That's great. How do you think, so we just talked a little bit about lamps and lighting. So when you think about lamps and lighting, I feel like I also think about like colors of walls or wallpaper. How do you think all that sort of ties together and what do you think the best colors are or maybe for selling or buying a home? What would you love?

Laurie:

Well, I think if it's your longtime home, I really, really dislike the word trend because home is a reflection of you. So your favorite color may not be my favorite color, what soothes and comforts you, may not soothe and comfort me or the next person or whatever, but that home at the end of the day is your nurturing place. And so if a certain color, if you love yellow then I say, you should have a yellow room and make your home gloss. It will be gorgeous. So I know color intimidates so many people and it can be intimidating and I myself have even, looked different at four o'clock than it does it 9:00 AM the swatch I just painted on the wall.

But again, my biggest recommendations for paint and it is an amazing way to make immediate impact. Let's not deny it. I happen to love my green dining room I'm sitting in, but because that is comforting to me, but it's like a celery color and I went through five different colors to find this color. One was too bright, too dark, you have to, and I know it's more work, but do a two-by-two swatch, two coats, line them up, look at it at different times of the day, that is just or do your poster boards, whatever you need to do. But that is the way to do it. Key things to look for low to no-VOC. Now they have this green sealed certified. It is so much more accessible to find these nontoxic paints for your home and the colors are rich and beautiful.

Laurie:

And also if you fell in love with a textile often I will start with a piece of inspiration. Let's say you have a gorgeous thermos with multi-colors in it. And that's kind of your reference point that you're beginning when you notice that the one unifying color with your textiles in your rug and this vase and or lamps or whatever you're putting in the space, what is the one color that is going to just easily serve as a backdrop? Maybe the slight vein of celadon or whatever. You can take that and have it color match exactly with technology. So, I mean, it's now more so than ever, color is less and less intimidating to research and find wall coverings are big time back. I love that wallpaper's back.

Laurie:

I love the adhesive wallpaper that you can peel and stick yourself. If you're in a rental property, it does no damage to the wall. I mean, you can have a graphic, accent wall and do it yourself. I mean, that's so amazing, so these they're great ways to make impact. And if you're reselling just don't paint the whole house beige, try to find just a more, yes. I mean, neutral does sell more because people walk in and see a deep red dining room, they may think, "Oh, I don't want to deal with that." Whatever it's paint, but yes.

Caroline:

My parent's house looks like just from the snippet, I can see of yours looks exactly like this. They have a mint green dining room and a yellow living room. So it's looking like at my parents.

Laurie:

Oh, I love it. Yeah. I'm a color girl, but more pale colors. I have a lot of art that I've been fortunate enough to collect and love. And so I tend to go for more toned down, unless it just is a piece that requires a super vibrant deep wall but yeah.

Jacqueline:

You mentioned the technology matching color is easier than ever before. Are there other ways that technology has influenced design or you as a designer or how you approach designing a space?

Laurie:

Absolutely. I mean, when I was in design school, I'm still dating myself everything was hand drafted and drawn. I mean, CAD was maybe just coming onto the scene, but it was not used by anyone at that point in design other than just strictly architects and usually commercial space. But there's so there's so much software now. I mean, I know that there are apps that you can get on and take a picture of your wall and see the color, choose a color whether it's Benjamin Moore or I think Sherwin-Williams, I know has an app where you can literally choose from their fan book, press it. And it'll superimpose that color on your wall.

Laurie:

And I know that's not the same as what we said with the poster boards and seeing it in a certain light is certain time, but at least it gives a visual of, "You know what? I thought I liked that color, but now it's feeling a little overwhelming seeing it visually on all the walls." I mean there are programs that you can get on and take dimensions of your room and furniture dimensions, and it'll put it into floor plan for you. I mean, I know that there are wonderful resources out there, so yes, I think that's entirely different. And on top of that, just retail alone in the last five to 10 years, I mean, I can remember first shopping for the show and I don't know if target even had a home division. I mean, it's just so much is accessible to us. I honestly, I found it challenging more challenging coming back to Trading Spaces 10 years later, because there was something almost less overwhelming buying in that particular $1,000 budget.

Laurie:

I would go into a flea market and find some unique piece or whatever, and trying to plan it from a distance and not having the time to shop it because we have to do this in less than 48 hours. And it was kind of a double-edged sword because it's like, there were so much online that I'm like, "Oh, I'm a little overwhelmed because what if it doesn't ship in time?" Everything I did I was like, "We're just the good old fashioned flea market. It used to be or the rummage sales." And so almost like there's so much in retail now that you've gotten rid of, but there are less and less of those places where you can really find unique objects and character filled objects. But I mean, but retail has so many beautiful things now and any kind of genre and look I just think it's completely changed. I've watched the industry completely change.

Caroline:

What would you consider a big design dome? I feel like, I mean, again, I know it's preference and you would say like, "Oh, you really like color and maybe suggest not neutrals," but what are something big that you'd be like, absolutely not, never and no matter what?

Laurie:

Well, just from a logistics and it's a mistake I've seen, I've made it, other friends have made it, just not having correct dimensions, really making sure that the pieces you're ordering, if you're ordering are going to land correctly on in the space and not be too large, really understanding scale and proportion is just an absolute must. Another big, no, no, I can't tell you how many times, speaking of scale and proportion that I would get a piece and think, "Oh, it's going to be perfect and I'm working this time crunch and then it wouldn't fit through the front door." Like we were in an odd shaped, complex and the door was too narrow and I'm like, "Oh, my word I should have checked that." I can't tell you my very first job working for a designer. I made this huge mistake working for a very high-end client.

Laurie:

And I went over there and I was working on her kitchen and her living room. And I looked in it first she had said they were going to make their bar counter height. But in the last minute I heard bar height, there were still because they were in for construction and I didn't verify and went off old measurements and ordered these crazy expensive that were on back order counter stools. And they were supposed to be bar stools, totally varying height. My bad, these are big design no-nos. I don't know if that's the kind of thing you're asking, but the scale dimension, because you confine on this beautiful sofa on the planet, but is a nine foot sofa going to be too overwhelming for your space.

Laurie:

Really get in there with a tape measure, if you have graph paper and you're doing it yourself, cut out little pieces of furniture, lay it out. Do you have at least three feet of wall clearance, around pieces, you don't want to close off the living room. For instance, you may have a sofa floating in front of a fireplace, but have you just totally blocked the entrance to the room? You want a seating arrangement to be inviting. You want it to be accessible. You want to pay attention to traffic, traffic patterns I like to call them because you want the house to flow. Yeah.

Caroline:

That's so funny that you bring up your bar stool or counter stool. Sorry we tried to do with all of our guests a segment on homeowner horror stories. I feel like that one might count for ours.

Laurie:

Well, in the grand scheme of life and in the climate we're in now, you must feel silly saying that, but if someone's paying you to order the correct thing. You need to make sure you have your measurements correct.

Jacqueline:

So talking about scale and because I'm not great with depth perception, for whatever reason. You talked about graph paper in the space, what are other things you could do to kind of get a sense of the fit and the shape? Because I feel like for me, I often underestimate or underestimate how much space, what are other steps that someone could take in that design process to really help them understand or feel the scale that has to be?

Laurie:

I mean, the good old fashioned ways to spend a Saturday, rearranging your furniture. Push yourself, take a chair from your bedroom that you think is great. It may be great, fireside, whatever, I don't know. Just if you can bring some friends over, don't try to do it yourself and just spend an afternoon kind of just playing that's great. If you don't have the ability to do that, I'm telling you I'm so old school, but I still get graph paper, one squares of foot. I get my tape measure out. I know exactly my living room is 15 feet wide by 20 feet long. And then I know my sofa is a seven foot sofa, four feet deep, whatever. And I cut out and I place and if I play, I know that a coffee table should be at least 14 to 16 inches from the edge of the sofa to be able to get by carefully.

Laurie:

So I measure that out on the graph paper, playing all the putting together design is a puzzle it really is. It's puzzle it's problem solving and it's making it work for you and your family. And so sometimes every it's kind of like the pros and cons. I mean, technology is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. But also that might be intimidating to some people, I don't know how to work a CAD system, how am I supposed to do that? So just good old fashioned scissors and tape measure and going one squares a foot, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.

Jacqueline:

Yeah, now that's really helpful. That's great.

Laurie:

Good.

Caroline:

What would you say is some of the most challenging parts of doing design work for a client? I mean, I could tell you exactly what I want in a home and so how does that relationship work and what do you see some challenges are?

Laurie:

Well, I think the most challenging things probably begin as a less established designer. Maybe people aren't familiar with your aesthetic, maybe you're trying to figure out your aesthetic as a designer and so maybe someone comes to you and they have a certain style that maybe is tough for you to for instance, they're super traditional and you're more of a mid-century girl. So it's really a reach, to get to their aesthetic. But the more you mature as a designer, the more your portfolio expands. I really highly recommend interviewing your client on the front end or them interviewing you and having a thick skin. There are going to be people who say, "That's just not my look." And not to say that a designer can't step out and do something totally different. I hope they can't. And then what they're always used to.

Laurie:

But when it's a good pairing, maybe they've come to you because they've seen something of yours that really spoke to them, that helps get you on equal setting from the beginning, at least, now that's not always the case. I have said this on the show for years, and I still say it all day long. I always have a client bring me inspiration pieces. So for instance, maybe they saw a room I did, and they loved it. Maybe that's what, "I like this room. Can you do something similar?" "Okay. Yes. We're not going to replicate it but let's make it yours."

Laurie:

So bringing me something that speaks to you, I've had a client bring me, a Verano, sorry, Murano glass, old ashtray from the 1940s. That was their grandmother's, but he was gorgeous kind of amber coating with gold fleck, rich, kind of creamy tones and glossy. So a little bit of glamor and it wasn't like we're going to make a room look exactly like this object, but I wanted to hear from them. What feeds you? I knew then we were going to put some gold accents in the room. We were going to get some gold leafing.

Laurie:

She loved mid-century, but maybe a little bit more 1940s with just a little bit more glamor in it. So I exposed her to some French pieces and what was going on in the States at the time and she loved a very modular, low slung sofa that we gathered from that even though the piece was very curvaceous. So, I mean, just having them bring in, it can be photos, it can be torn out magazine pages. I don't care. It can be downloaded from Instagram, but I'd just like to see something that spoke to this client, because ultimately I'm creating a home that is a reflection of them, not Laurie, but them. So listening is terribly important. And if you find yourself going off path with the client, you start to feel like you're not connected. Bringing back that inspiration piece becomes a great touchdown to say, "Okay, what were we trying to achieve? Let's back up."

Caroline:

Wonderful. That's so helpful. This has been great

Jacqueline:

So do you find that, when you work with clients room to room, you start to see their aesthetic come to life, or do you find that it can really change for a client? Or what does that look based on your experience?

Laurie:

Well, depending on what they've, I've gone into homes where the people have lived there for 15 years and they're just trying to freshen up. So yes, I can get a much better snapshot about what makes them comfortable, what colors they're drawn to. And we have all these discussions too, because there are some clients that have lived in a home 10 years and say, "We're just sick of it. We never really liked it to begin with. Now we have the budget to address it. So let's start from scratch."

Laurie:

So I don't know if I'm answering your question, but I do think people change, they may love traditional, but to me there's a new traditional now. It's more vibrant and it's more eclectic in it, or transitional. It brings in modern art but yet may still have a floral textile on a club chair under a very modern piece. It's kind of like this freedom of so much goes now than it's like, "Okay, fine. I went to design school, I understand the rules of symmetry and proportion, but then now I kind of want to break them up a bit," because that's going to bring healthy tension.

Laurie:

I love to call it healthy tension into a space. I think the head of design school instructors said every room needs a touch of black. Even if it's just one little piece, it's just anchoring there's a thing called well, it's a triangulation rule in design where if you are working with an accent color, that's maybe even subtle, it should appear three times the space. Odd numbers are incredibly important in design. You may hear when you're accessorizing you should have groups of threes, it's more balancing. But triangulation, there may be a bold cerulean blue, that's splashed through an abstract painting over the mantle, and then you maybe pick it up in a pair of lamps across the space.

Laurie:

And then for that really bold blue to really take shape as an accent, maybe it throws or you've discovered in a lumbar pillow, on a slipper chair across the room. It's just something scientific about this triangular formation that roots an accent wall or accent. It can be an accent wall and accent color into a space. So those are just little tips. How did I even get on that? I don't even know what you asked me. Sorry about that. How did I get to the triangulation? What was the question?

Jacqueline:

Finding a motif throughout a space through a home but I guess creating a motif within a room, with that-

Laurie:

Why don't you have a room that's adjacent to another one for instance, y'all all comment and you can see just a sliver of my living room through them, and sitting in the dining room, the soft green. I don't know if you can see, but there's, I have a slipper chair where I'm pointing to it way back there that green appears nowhere else in that living room, but I chose it because visually it connected this space, which is so open to that space. It connected the two spaces. So they're not disjointed. Does that make sense?

Jacqueline:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Laurie:

Yeah. So just one for paying attention to that visual access and flow, and I don't want one room next to another room that they don't make any sense together. Let's do something to make that imaginary thread kind of go through the entire house, what's that one thing that's kind of in it's better if it's subtle. It doesn't have to be over. It doesn't mean you have to paint every room in your house white and stick there. Because it's just so anyway, if that makes sense.

Jacqueline:

Great. Well, I think I'm wrapped for questions. Caroline, do you have anything else you want to ask?

Caroline:

Yeah. And maybe we sort of, we probably went through this kind of throughout the whole thing, but what in your humble opinion, would you say are some things that would increase a home's value? If you can come up with three sort of quick tips or tricks on that I think would be, and then I too, I'm out of questions.

Laurie:

Absolutely. I think things that increase the home's value is addressing the flooring. I mean, when you have a newly refinished, floors that are in great shape that a homeowner didn't have to come in and completely readdress all the flooring that can get overwhelming. So if you have hardwood I mean, of course it's difficult but you may say once you've moved, you'll have them refinished or whatever, anything you can do to motivate a buyer. I think kitchens are just big pluses, but then there are a lot of kitchens that aren't done correctly. And then you think, "Oh, I've just having to pay so much for this house. Because they just redid their kitchen and I don't like of it."

Laurie:

So that's why in kitchens, I try to make sure I guess just things that I personally do in a house when I move in, I don't care for soffit space. So those cabinets open space. If I can have cabinetry that goes clean the ceiling, I think that's a great change you can make to a kitchen. Again, great task lighting countertops, marble quartz is so wonderful, kind of newer on the market in the last 10 years, I'd say, but less porous than marble and other granites, clean countertops, fresh countertops. Bathrooms, kitchens tend to be just, if you can get those redone, that takes a lot of burden off people, a potential buyer. So flooring.

Caroline:

So flooring bathrooms, kitchens.

Laurie:

Yes.

Caroline:

I'm actually in the market for buying a home and I have to say those are the three things that I actually was maybe not so much flooring, but my fiance and I don't have the time to redo a kitchen.

Laurie:

To get a kitchen. Right.

Caroline:

It sounds like impossible task. I don't know how people do it. So I think I would agree with those as well.

Laurie:

Yeah. I hope I don't have to move any time soon, but the two things, I mean, I addressed paint throughout the house because it was dated. I had the floors refinished because I thought if I ever move, there'll be in great condition for resale. And I went into the kitchen and I extended the cabinetry to the ceiling because, and it made all the difference, all the difference. And I think just visually, if this house has to go in the market, those two things that I updated a bathroom upstairs.

Caroline:

Wonderful. Well thank you. You're such an amazing guest. Thank you for your time.

Laurie:

Thank you. Well, this is a treat. Call me back. We'll talk more.

Jacqueline:

I can talk to you for hours.

I was just going to have you tell everybody where can get in contact with you. I know that you talk about your blog, where they can find your blog if you're active on social media, how can we continue to follow you after this podcast?

Laurie:

Thank you. Okay. Hold on. Let me think of everything. Okay. Well, I'm writing a design blog for atlasconcordusa.com. I really hope that people will log on to that and enjoy it. I'm having so much fun doing it and I have a website. If you're trying to reach me personally, you can email me through that. It's LaurieHsmith.com. And then of course I love Instagram. Come follow me, Laurie Smith official on Instagram so thank you so much.