Listener Q&A: 7 Design Rules to Break

Hello, everyone. On day three of leftovers for lunch, have a day off. Switch it up with a double cheeseburger for $249 on the McDonald's Savor menu. Leftovers left the chat. Talk about Savor satisfaction. Served from 11 a.m. Price and participation may vary. These apply to delivery orders subject to availability. Everyone, welcome to Dear Alice. Today, we are answering your questions. This is one of our favorite episodes. It really is. I feel like we get to get really tuned in with what you guys are wanting to know and get a finger on the pulse. And so we usually batch all these questions out and answer these like, like once a quarter or every other month or so. So we have chosen the questions that you guys want to know. So here we are. And I wanted to give a quick shout out to our Instagram. It's at Alice Lane home is the store site of our business. We have a showroom in Utah. So follow along there. This is all of the new product drops. We make our own and manufacture our own furniture and we also have a design firm called a LID and that has its own Instagram account. I'll say an interior design and we used to get in the car once a week. Sue and I and we would answer questions on what we called carpool Q&A where we would answer these questions and we started having so many questions come in that we're like, we should sort of podcast and just answer all the questions so they can live somewhere. So we still will get in the car and answer and answer a question like every other week. So tune in for those because those are really fun. Those are like a quick bite to, you know what I mean? And but this is why we started the podcast so we could spend a little bit longer on each topic because they're good questions. You guys have really intelligent questions and are hitting the ground hard on your houses. So we're here to help. Yes, we are. And our Instagram handles are at Alice Lane home and Alice Lane interiors. So check us out there. Thank you so much for being here today and let's get into all your questions. Awesome. Okay. The first one is from Sophie Holman and she asks what height of baseboards is considered luxurious and does the height of the baseboard matter relative to the height of the ceiling? Okay. Sophie, great question. I will say like in all houses, let me first. Okay. Just go. Well, I just want to quickly say to Sophie and to all of the audience, the standard baseboard height in a standard home is four inches. So if you're buying a builder grade home, that's generally what you're getting. If you're buying an older home, smaller ceiling heights and whatnot, the standard used to be four inches. So now Sue, tell them what is considered luxurious. I think the high, if you're looking through a millwork catalog or something that your builders telling you, Hey, choose a baseboard, I think the seven inch is really, really nice. I think anywhere from seven, most of our projects are seven to 10. If we're ridiculous and you like have really tall ceilings or you like a really stacked base with like lots of curves definition 12 is awesome. I will say in regards to the ceiling height, yes, a taller ceiling. Definitely you should have a taller base, shorter ceiling. You can have a shorter base, but I lived in an attic that was built in 1911 with pitch ceiling starting at five, six feet, even shorter in some cases. And we had the 10 inch baseboard because it was historic and it was amazing. So to all you shorties out there, do a tall baseboard anyway. I love it. That's what you're going to do. I love that. So go 10 inches. Yep. Why not? So scale will always make you feel luxurious and that that scale of anything. So of course, scale of the baseboard is going to just absolutely feel so well finished and it's always going to feel custom. Yep. Go big. Like Jess said, the standard is in the four inch range. Yeah. They typically make that same profile on a few different sizes and I think seven around seven inches is where that max out. So if you want to go taller than that and you don't want to get a custom knife, baseboard made, you can stack like you were talking about. So get either flat stock and put that on top of it and layer something in front. So there are a couple of other options without getting like knives cut. I know you like got knives cut for your house and stuff like that and it does get kind of pricey just doing it for one home. So that is an option as well. I will say aside from paint, finish work is especially the baseboards case. That is the next least expensive thing you can do to upgrade your house. And we're in again, we're in a really traditional trending and we're in a real decorators mood where we are getting a little bit more curve and we are getting a little bit more stacked on our moldings. So it's a really fun game to play right now. If you're into it, so go crazy. Also, I'll say this. I don't know where the going rate is on getting a knife cut, but I built my house 10 years ago and it was only $500 to cut it to get a knife made. And I really wanted to do a custom base mold. All of you guys listening, you love design. So having something that nobody else has feels really special and I was able to use that same knife. We just cut the back end of the baseboard off and I used that for inches for all my case around my doors and windows. So for $500 to skin, you know, the entire 5000 square foot home with a custom knife felt really affordable. Again, I don't know what the, I don't know what a knife costs today. I'm not sure, but I think for the opinion of how big of a home or how, how into it you are, again, I think it's, I think it's a good investment. I really do. Yeah. Or you play the stacking game. Like Corey said, there's a lot of ways to skin this cat, but there's so many cool companies that are, I think like coming, maybe it's my algorithm. I don't know. I think at Decora DC or a to have really gooey little trims and pieces. You can even add onto base case moldings, shelves, everything. Anyway, so if you're into it, this is a great time. Start get that in your mouth. Yeah. The next question is from empty. Love the podcast. Quick question concerning ceilings are coffered ceilings in or are they out? Juicy question. I'm going to say yes. You're, you're yes to what? Yes. They're out. In. Oh, fascinating. I was going to say the opposite. Okay. I mean, if we inherit one with a remodel, we will embrace it and do things to it. But today I don't think we're putting that treatment in. We're going to put a different treatment in instead, but addressing the ceiling is in. Yes. You should definitely do it. Trims are in. Traditionals into. So again, if you inherit a coffered ceiling or if it feels historically correct for your home, go for it. Yes. I think what we're doing more than anything again, ceiling treatments for sure. But depending on the look, we're getting bigger windows in our homes. And so therefore those are going higher. And so you just don't have as much like headroom, you know, from ceiling to the top of window. So we're doing more shallow treatments. So there's still interest, you know, whether that's a shallow beam and a more interesting rhythm. That's what we're doing a lot of or interesting cool applied moldings and things like that. Just to decorate the ceiling, but not necessarily take away height per se, depending on the situation. So traditional coffered that's heavy that feels like you're in a library. Do you know that six? That's where I'm thinking, like, if I had a cool, easy style, I would be down with that and just hanging out and doing something creative in it. Yeah, but it was great to me. Yeah, it is handsome. I think of those, those spaces and I think of men's spaces. So when you're talking like that feels like the right thing for that. I wouldn't do to do like straight stacked boards creating the grid. I would do something more interesting. Yeah. It felt like that was the, the one move that you could play on a ceiling in the 2000, you know what I mean? And now we've got more, we've got more tricks to play. So if you're into empty, if you're into the conference ceiling, do it, just be creative about it. That's what I would say. Great advice. Ayesh, one of the coolest names I know. Hi, Ayesh. Now I'm mad at my mom for giving me Jessica. There's something eternal and transcendent about the way you all speak about design and I love it. Oh, it's so nice. It is clear that it matters to you, to each of you on a deep, deeply personal and even spiritual level. Her, thank you. Yeah. So nice. Can you talk more about why creating beauty matters and the power that beauty and design have to transform a home and an individual? That is an insanely good question. That's a great question. I expect anything else from Ayesh. She wins. I'm so glad that you asked this question Ayesh because like creating beauty around you is something that we can control. And I think it is absolutely important. I think we're in design all day, but it's, it's fun when we get to bring it home and we get to actually employ these tricks and our own lives and watch what it does to ourselves is when we can talk about our individual experience. For example, I just finished my bedroom. It's not big, but the design is and I will tell you, I live differently. I act differently. I get ready in the morning differently. I want to make my bed because it brings me joy. I want my husband to enjoy the space as well. That's why, you know, we just make it, we make it beautiful and we light the candles and we care about the lighting and how it smells and all the things. And you dress a certain way. You get ready and you pay attention. I'm like, my skincare is more important to me than any, than any other time because I just have this gorgeous environment to get ready and I'm like, am I at a boutique hotel? Maybe I am, but it does definitely affect how you act and how you act with others too. And so the feeling that it cores deep. It changes you as a person. Yeah. I was gonna say it's enriching. Like it's inspiring. We've all felt the feeling of being somewhere that kind of, you know, heightens our senses, like gets us excited or wherever that place is. And I think, I mean, that should be the place that you wake up in the morning, you know, or spend most of your time at at home. Yeah. And I will say I'm the reason why I think it's so deep for myself and just as because we spent so much time really figuring out who we are and why we take the way we do, you know, and so, and what colors resonate and what, you know, depth of color resonates. And anyway, so I think it's, it's so important for everybody to really figure out what do you want to be surrounded by, even if it's just the paint color, surrounding yourself at even just that level, you know, and building upon that, you will act differently and you will act more like yourself. It's a discovery. It really, really is. And it's so important. I feel like our last, your last space that you did your bedroom and me in my living room, I feel like we asked more from ourselves when we did these spaces, we had to dig deep and go, we're using color and we both used gloss. And so we've reinterpreted our rooms in such different ways, but to figure out your color is kind of a process. Like you had so many shades all in the same sort of range up there, but you were looking at it in different times of day and different light and same with me. I mean, it was really asking someone's like pulling something out of the inside of your body out onto the wall. And there is something. I, I actually love this question so much where you say, can you talk more about why creating beauty matters? Being in creation is a really spiritual thing. Being able to create something. And I just think it's powerful to do that work. And we're so fortunate that we get to do this for others and we get to pull this out of people's insides and we get to get that on the wall. And it was so fun to get to be in a design presentation and have somebody cry because they feel so seen. And this comes from their heritage from, from their lived experiences, from their combined lived experiences and getting to have a designer that sees you and asks the right questions to be able to pull this out is so powerful. And it is transforming. This is kind of a step sideways, but my husband was just barely talking. He was like, Oh man, I really got to invest in some new pieces for my wardrobe. He said, Neil Patel was just, he has a marketing podcast. Some of you, of course, know who Neil Patel is. He said that somebody had talked about this study that was done. And so Neil said, I'm going to go out and take this challenge and I'm going to, I think he worked with a stylist and he spent $200,000 on a new wardrobe. Crazy. Go Neil. And he said, I wanted to say that it wasn't going to make a difference, but I wanted to do the work anyway. So he went and he got the new clothes and the way he showed up and the deals that he closed from there were six X what he had done before. It matters the way you show up. It matters how you dress. It matters how you live. These things affect our performance. The effect how we live. I don't know. It does. It affects your spirit, it affects how you show up, it affects how you wake up. It affects how you want to make your bed and have pride in, in your setting, you know, that, that you're just like, Oh, you know, I'm going to clean up my nightstand because this is so pretty. I just made my bed or I'm going to throw that little thing away or I don't know, you just have more pride of ownership. You want to take better care of your stuff. You want to live beautifully. Yeah. I was going to say, and it teaches, I have little kids, but it teaches them what is a priority. Like in the morning, you make your bed. Yeah. You know, you take care of your things. Yeah. Show up. You put on your clone, you wear deodorant suns and you go to school. You're a hall during it and get there. So I, yeah, I love that. And you know, at whatever level you're at to, whether you have $200,000 or you have $10,000 to invest in your home, whatever you do, you're going to just like love it so much because you're going to dig deep and create something beautiful and that is spiritual. Great question. I need you. Thank you. Send in more. For real. Catch you next time. The next one comes from Crystal and she asks, I know how we all feel about the dreaded accent wall, but how do we feel about Venetian plaster on one wall and then a colored drench on the remaining others, including ceiling? I want to do something funky in my home office and I just love the look slash texture of the Venetian plaster. Do I do it on one wall or all of them ceiling too much? Any thoughts would be appreciated. If you can, you do it on all of them. You do it on all the walls and you do it on the ceiling. I will tell you for an example, we did a home with a great client. She wanted the wall to be dark black, like our favorite hotel room in Capri. We specified to do it in plaster. So moody. And when you do get that up over the ceiling, I think the ceiling is the most magical part of it because you get to feel like you're just like cocooned. You're enveloped in it completely. When I went to the site, they decided to cut costs and they just did a Venetian plaster on the walls, no ceiling in the ceiling's pitch. And they went to a paint and I was just like, bummer, that could have been great. You spend all that money and all I can see is where those two finishes meet and it's disappointing. It really was like such a bummer to that. I know that we're both big advocates for just if you can't afford to do the whole thing, do the ceiling. That's the accent wall. Don't do just one wall on the vertical plane. Go hit the ceiling. And that's what we did in our Odessa, our desert oaks project in the pantry. We had specified it to be caged and I think we were just going to do a neutral at the very end. We called an audible and I'm like, that should be a more interesting color. I want my eye to know that that's plastered and I wanted it to see the Cove and so by doing that little architectural detail and then plastering it, we highlighted it and we like gave, gave everybody something to look at. And that was in an accessory kitchen, a pantry that's utility, but it felt special all of a sudden. And we have a couple of pictures here to show you because it's one of my favorite things and you're in again, this kind of blue color community and you fill this glossy level of denim or something. It was, it's such a cool color that I think everybody would feel comfortable in. It's what we have. We, you know, we wear this color, we wear denim every day and I just, I love it. So definitely hit your ceiling if you can't do the whole room. And if you guys are tuning in and you're watching this and you can see these images, there's something magical about plaster. Probably most of you know this. If you don't, the more that they burnish the plaster, the glossier it gets. So you can get that beautiful matte ethereal plaster look as you picture plaster here in the photo. You can see the light reflecting in from the window and, and you can see some of the glossiness because this was burnished and there's this really beautiful sort of difference in texture between the satin of the paint cabinets and then the glossiness of the ceiling plus the color and the different finishes. I don't want to see this pantry without that ceiling. It is the big move. Like this is such a feeling in here. Crystal, definitely plaster your ceiling. I think this will give you a lot of confidence that if you're only going to do one wall, it's the fifth wall that you're going to do. Awesome. Great advice. Would you, if you're going to color drench, do the same color, you know, would you do the walls the same color that you do the plaster or just let the plaster be its own thing on the ceiling? So he's saying like in this room, if you have a blue plastered ceiling, would you take, obviously this is a kitchen, so all the walls are cabinets. Would you take blue down onto the walls in plaster as well? Or you're saying in paint? Well, yeah. Crystal's question was just like, she was going to do Venetian plaster on one wall. So if that wall became the ceiling and then color drenched the rest, would you have that match the same color of the ceiling? I think for a whole room experience and I can only do one, like, yeah, you're going to go high glass, burnish the ceiling. And then I would take either that same, because again, as we know, the ceiling, even if it's all the same paint color base, is the paint color for everywhere. Plaster, this is what you're going to base your plaster finish on this color. It's going to look different on the ceiling. So whether it stays the same color, you're still going to feel the difference. And yeah, I for sure want to see that on the walls and the ceiling and it does. If you do want to kind of play the color blocking game and do like a lighter blue or a darker blue or kind of play with it with the ceiling playing in your walls, I think that that's also really fun too, because we know it's going to feel like a different finish or, you know, it's going to feel more flat on your walls and high gloss on plastered on your ceiling. And so I might actually call attention to that and change the color. I agree with what you're saying because having, let's just say that you give your, your plaster guy a Sherwin Williams color. I wouldn't mix that same Sherwin Williams color for the walls. I would do something that's a different, a different shade or a different color block because they're not both plaster and will feel like that initial bedroom. You were just talking about the black boutique hotel where you see in the corner that you didn't go for it. Yep. Then the walls are plaster and then the ceiling. So you have to make it feel really intentional and do a different shade of, you know, blue in this case that we're talking about. And then that's, that's why you switched it. I think you got to make a reason why. Yeah. I mean, we see that all the time in fashion right now with the color blocking. You know, whether it's two different colors or just different versions of the same color and it's so cool. I love that. It's so, so, so cool. So definitely like play that up. I think it's a real fashion move. Jess, I just got a new comforter from Cozy Earth and it is my favorite new thing. You know how much I love to get into my bed at the end of the day. I'm tired. Yes. And their comforter, like everything that they do is cool. It's like a cloud. And like when I put it on myself at the end of the day, it's just like, it's perfectly like regulating with the temperature for not only me, but for Tom as well. Like it is the perfect weight and it looks so pretty. The construction on it is perfect. The stitching is lovely. And I just, I cannot tell enough people about this. I want to give it to all my friends and family. Oh, I love that. You know what's great about Cozy Earth? Yeah. I just feel like the quality is so great. I'm never, I've never been disappointed in anything ever. The comfort, the hand, the drape. I know that this comforter is got to be the most beautiful thing. I cannot wait to see it on your bedroom. You got to show it to me tonight when I drop you off. Okay. I'm so excited. Every purchase from Cozy Earth is risk-free because they have a 100 night sleep trial. Try them for yourself. Every detail is designed to feel effortlessly comfortable. Returns are easy, but after feeling this level of comfort, you won't want to let them go. They also come with a 10 year warranty. Discover how care in every detail transforms simple routines into moments of true comfort and ease. Head to CozyEarth.com and use our code, DEARALIS, for up to 20% off. That's code DEARALIS for up to 20% off. And if you get a post purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Experience the craft behind the comfort and make every day feel intentional. The next question is from LT. They asked, is it worth refinishing an existing door or is replacing it usually the better investment? Cory, I don't remember. Yes. You guys are so lucky. I don't know if you know this about Cory Place, but he worked in a door shop for how many years? Nine years. Nine years. I'm sorry about custom doors. Cory, will you help us answer this question? Definitely. I'm going to try to take my bias out of this, but this is, if you're going to consider refinishing your door, like let's say your house, for instance, you lived in it for seven years before you refinished it. Yeah. You just have to know if I refinish this in seven years, it's going to look the same as it does now. If you want to do that and repaint it again, refinish it if you're cool with that. If you like your door. Yes. If you like your door. I love my door. So yeah, I think that's yeah, and yours is facing the right direction. It's getting morning sun rather than all the evening sun and really doing a ton of damage. You have a good overhang. Yeah. So I think for you, it totally makes sense. I am going to have to repaint it again though. Like I can already tell. It's been two summers and yeah. I mean, you just have to know however it looks now, it's going to look like that again if you're just refinishing it. So if you're cool with that, I'd say do it. And if you love your door, by all means. But if you have my door that you inherited on a 1970s ranch, you're probably just going to replace it. I could refinish it, but I want a different door. Hey, this is going to take us off path, but I have a question. Yeah. I don't know if your door is wood. I think it's fiberglass. It's solid wood. Oh, it is? Yeah, that's okay. I think that one is solid wood. Totally. Yeah. I so you could paint her door then. Yeah. If you liked your door, you don't like your door. No, but you know what? Anyway, it's been fun. This is like, and you're going to edit the crap out of this one guys. So sorry. Anyway, but it's taught me a lot of things that I do want. I love having glass. They had textured glass in there. And I love the reflections when light does hit that to the wall inside. And I think you need that little window. You do. Yeah. You do. So Mike, whatever door I end up do having, I probably will pay homage to the 70s for sure. I will have textured glass. You're going to go full palm and springs on your front door. Yeah. It's going to be such a mood. We're taking it Parker. Yeah. Right there. The other wrinkle to this is that if you replace your door with the same material, you know, like it's a oak door and you get by another oak door. Again, again, you're going to have that same thing. Yeah. Same issue. Yeah. So if you want to replace and not have to paint it as often, I am a fan of the fiberglass door and then they make a composite jam. So it's it does really well against like the sun and all the elements. They used to just do fiberglass doors and then you'd still have like a wood frame and wood jam and brick mold and all of that. But then that all rots away and you got to like fix that. Yeah. So many questions for you. Yeah. Fiberglass door. So here's what I love in a front door. I want it to be really heavy. Mm hmm. I want you to really feel like you're, you know, like it's the front door. Yeah. I mean, it is. It's like that fiberglass heavy. Yeah. Super heavy. And then I was picturing it. It's insulated super lightweight. No. Yeah. It's heavy. It's a heavy front door. How can you get a good look at a fiberglass? I think so. Yeah. I mean, they have like standard ones that are you can put any finish on it. You could do like a glossy anything. Any paint. Yeah. It paints like and you can you can put any hardware on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It bore it'll bore and route like a wood door and everything. So your best advice to all of us is go with a fiberglass door and not paint it. What do you do? You put a composite. I mean, you it'll it'll take any finish. Actually, you could lacquer it if you want to. They'll have to like, you know, scuff it up a little bit, but it'll take any finish. You don't have to refinish the. Not as often. Anything outside you're going to have to at some point, but it's probably instead of if you're like really your recommendation, someone's going to tell you every five years. Yeah. I would say so for sure. This is more like 10 to 15 year finish. That is really great advice. Do you have a favorite brand of fiberglass door? If you're shopping to get a good looking style that feels like a custom door. I don't. It's like I did custom doors. Yeah. I mean, I had mine where I used to work, Sierra doors. So I got mine from them. Yeah. And it was custom. So you had a fiberglass custom. Yeah. Yeah. You can get a fiberglass custom door. Mm hmm. That's fantastic. So that's that's my preference. But if you're, you know, people love like wood doors and so by all means, if that's your thing, I say do it. Yep. And then you get to pick a new color every five years. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So back to LT. Is it worth refinishing an existing door is replacing it? You usually the better investment. You would say LT, if you're living with a wood door, it would be worth it for you to replace it with a fiberglass door and not have to refinish it as often. Absolutely. Yeah. And you can get all the style you want out of fiberglass door. Yes. I don't like the wood grain on the fiberglass. So I would just go. No. Yeah. If you want the wood grain, just do real wood and then just be prepared to refinish it every five years. Fantastic advice. And Corey Knox, I wonder if he'll know that it's fiberglass. I'll be able to tell. That's for sure. Like a wood tile guys. Don't go there. It's great. Okay. The next question is from KM. We have so many acronyms. I know. Come on. I love it. LT, MT, KM. Okay. Love all these tips and rules you guys give every week, but that made me wonder if there are any rules you guys break for your homes. So many. Budget constraints. Unfortunately, sometimes you just have to do that. We have designer budgets. Yep. Yeah. We don't have our clients budget. Designer, taste designer budget. Yeah. It's creative. I'll talk about a rule that I broke in my own home since we're talking about the fifth wall. I did an accent wall in my office 10 years ago. I used Dick Blick papers hand marbled on one back wall because I knew I was going to be putting these big brass shelves in front of it. And I wanted it to read like you opened an old first edition novel and you know how they had the old marbled papers in that. I just knew it would be a beautiful texture behind all my piles of design books. I would tell everybody that they should not do an accent wall, but I knew what I was going to be doing with it. And Suzanne has said it feels like an art installation. Yeah. And so we can look the other way on it and every single other wall there. You have a massive opening looking into it. You have French doors and a set of windows and then you have your big arch window. So I'm just like, it really is the only one wall in that space. So I'm like that. Yeah, definitely. I'm like, don't just go accent wall, you know, for solid walls. Don't do that. But to K M's point, that is a rule that I broke. Sure did. Home broke it hard. Yeah, I'm sure did. Yep. What other rules? What are you breaking at your house? Oh, I know what you said yesterday. You Suzanne just barely decided to paint all her interior doors a color. Yeah. Coral. F it up with some coral. And it's really fun. And so yeah, a lot of times we're giving general advice to the general public. Yeah, like stay neutral on your doors because it's not something that you're going to want to redo every door in your house. But I broke that rule. Suze is an artist because I'm an artist and I have a lot of art and everything. And again, I plastered the whole place in white. My floors are white. My walls are white. My ceiling is white. So I'm like, I should have colored doors. You know, all my rooms that you go inside are colored. So coral looks great with everything. So yeah, so that was a rule that I broke and it's fantastic. Fantastic. It's paying back in such a great way and it feels so you know, right? You're kind of a signature lip girl. I know you're a red lip, but it just kind of feels like you. I love coral. I love it. This makes me think I have a ton of rules that I break in my house. But again, some of them come from budget constraints and then I built my house five years ago. So I've learned a lot since. Yes. I've been on the dear house podcast. I'm graduating soon. This, it makes me think of this. I was taking, I taught myself how to play bass guitar. And then I started taking lessons when I started college and that was the first time I had like any formal training and I took it from a guy named Scott Miller. So what's up, Scott? If you're listening, he's a great, great guy, great musician. And he was like, I next time write a piece. These are, these are the parameters. Come back with it. I showed him, used my own creative license. Yeah. And I didn't stick within those parameters and he said, it's really cool. Well, you did, but he's like, you got to learn all of the rules before you can break them. And so I think of that in design a lot. And I think your guys, both your guys's examples were, you broke the rule, but you did it through like the lens of how to break it and you were very thoughtful with doing so. So I think that's the most important thing. It's just not like, well, I broke the rule. Who cares? Everyone does it. That's not the sentiment is like, I did it in this way because of X, Y and Z. And that was the outcome. We knew it'd be successful. Yeah. I think another rule that you broke in your home, Sue, you put your bed in front of a window. Oh yeah. Yeah. And it looks great. And it's all how you framed it. You'll have to tune in to see the rest of the story. So I don't want to give too much weight just to KM's point is like, are there any rules that we break in our own home? So those are a few. I'm sorry, Corey, did I interrupt? Did you have a rule that you broke in your home? That was, uh, I do like what you're saying though, is that you have to learn the rules to know how to break them. Yes. Yeah. So in my front room, I did like a version of Shipwrap kind of, and I was doing it definitely after Shipwrap was like gone. Uh-huh. I just saw some images that I really liked. And so I just kind of created my own. It wasn't Shipwrap that I went out and bought and it kind of tongue and grooves together. I just did like these huge wide handles. Yeah. I know that room. I would say that maybe. I don't know. That was something that I didn't think I would have done, but then I saw that and I was like, that's cool. Just make my own and do this. So I kind of used my creative license in that sense. And I will say that trend interpretations. I know we're just like, Oh, please don't do that. We're so sick of the modern farmhouse or so sick of white Shipwrap. But if you look in all over England, you see Shipwrap, you see wood treatments. And so it's really just what version are you doing it? And does it feel like you? Yes. So, and I think that there is a case for most exceptions, everything that we say on here, I guarantee you've made an exception to that rule on a job because it was the right thing to do. Yeah. There's always room to break a rule. Definitely. Fun conversation. Thanks K. M. I know. That was great. Okay. The next question comes from Tracy. She asks, design Hill, you are willing to die on mine is thanks to you guys. And that is rugs that are too small. Yes, Tracy. Yes. Thank you. I feel like you guys give out a book of design Hills that you're willing to die on. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. Yeah. In fact, Tracy, we just really did a photo shoot for a new upcoming collection and we had to use a two small rug during the shoot. We, we pulled in this vintage rug at the last minute just to make this little sitting area. And I'm like, oh man, I hope nobody on the podcast calls me out for this. I'm just messing up. Reckon rules. I know. Listen, Tracy, I know, I know, I know what I did and it looked great in the shoot. So anyway, yeah, there, there's always, there's always those things. I would say living finishes is the hill that like, yeah, that is my mountain. I'm not dying on that. Def, define for the class what a living finishes. A living finish is real marble. It's real court site. It's real wood. It's real whatever. And just like the integrity. I want my home to have integrity. I want to have integrity. I don't like being with people that don't have integrity. Therefore, why would I hang out with wood tile? You ain't wood. Yeah. Your tile or porcelain floors pretending to be marble. So even if your builders just like, nope, the maintenance is going to be so much better on this one. It's going to withstand the flood and the basement. I would still do engineered wood floor in my basement. I would still do all those things because I know, I know what they are. So anyway, that's the hill that I'd be willing to die on. Gosh, that's such a good one. So we're never going to come up with anything as good as that one. You just want to high five it and say that you're on the same hill. I do. I, I guys, I have, I have so much judgment for other designers. I see them not using a living finish and it's happened a few times lately and I was like, no better. Well, I, I feel bad for the client because somehow their designers talk them into that. Maybe it's just so flat. Yeah. And it's too perfect. There's the finish on it is a liar. Yeah. The, the veins are a liar. Yeah. There's, and then the house doesn't get to live up to its fullest potential and these things all clean beautifully and even aged looks so much better and so much character. And you know that it's real when you can see that it's a buy that house a hundred years from now and look at that marble. Like it would be so special. So true. I can't trust like a person that doesn't look their age. I'm cool with Botox. I'm cool with refreshing hydrating stuff. But if you don't look your age, I'm like, how am I supposed to trust you? You have the wisdom that you're imparting on me right now. Whoa. If you can't look right. I went there, but it is the hill that I will die. I love it. A slow death on. Okay. This is our last question from the day and it comes from Trisha first. She says love the podcast. Awesome. Trisha. We never get bored of hearing that. And then she asks, I would love to hear what your go to finishes are for faucets, hardware and lighting. Which metals do you perceive as timeless? Which metals you prefer to mix together or layer or do you keep everything the same? Trisha, this is a great question. I'm sure we've answered this before, but it's time again. Yep. I am a big fan of polished nickel when it comes to faucets. Anything because in the kitchen, you're usually dealing with some type of stainless stove, dishwasher handles, microwaves. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like silver is going to be in the mix anyway. And so I see the faucets as some type of utilitarian thing. Yeah. I'm going to say something really bold. I don't want to see a brass faucet in a kitchen. I know we're going to break that rule for somebody who really wants it, but I really just love a faucet. I'm going to stay in a bathroom as well. I don't want to see any faucets at a brass. I'm going to say this about that. And I do agree with you. Yeah. But then I see stuff like our Beatrice in a bathroom and it kind of like is, you know, it's a kind of like aging just a little bit and has it to me. I think that's so, I don't know. Maybe it's just my mood right now. Oh, no, it's so beautiful. I love that too. I don't know why. I just love that a faucet is, I don't know. It just feels everlasting and without trend to go with some version of that's where I do. I feel like it's more timeless. I love it on a tub. Now we have those romantic clients and people that love brass and people are doing un-lacquered brass and there's beautiful finishes for myself and for my best friends and or my mom or anybody that's advising like, what would you do? And Trisha, I feel like that's you and me right now and we're alone and I'm telling you just go polish nickel and you're not going to regret it on your faucets. Your hardware, it's going to depend on the scene. I'm mostly a polish nickel hardware person. There's going to be a fancy closet. We're going to use brass. You know, it depends on the client, but if you're asking for advice and I don't, I don't know your style, but I still feel like polish nickel for hardware for me and polish nickel. And the reason why it's such, it's our favorite metal is because it's consistent from brand to brand to brand. You're typically consistent on polish nickel. And so when you're mixing metals, when you have hardware that, you know, you want it to not clash and be different than your faucet, Posh nickel is the way to go. If you want that consistency, I wouldn't do brushed. Wouldn't do any of those things. Do not do polish. Make sure you do that. Now I would do Posh nickel, not Posh chrome. Do Posh nickel because it's warm. It's more expensive. Do not get sucked into that chrome one. It's cold. It is cold. Yeah. Tell your plumber. You want the warmth. And because what we're going to talk about next is how do we mix the metals together? You are going to use brass in some things and polish nickel and brass look fabulous together because there's warmth in Polish. Nickel on those like spectrum of brasses. There's so many different ones when we're looking at all these different companies with all these different brasses and even there's like classic brass. There's like brass hardware. That's insane. It's all made out of real brass and they have probably like, I want to say 20 different brass finishes like lucky. Yes. If you like you, Trish, if you get, if you use classic brass, cause it's amazing, but majority of places, you know, top knobs, M tech, they have like one brass that's only offered in a couple of things because it's not tried and true. And it's unlikely that that brass is going to get along with the brass on your light fixture. And so again, if you just say brasses, you have to study it more and you have to like request the live samples and you have to look at it with all the other things because if I see three different brass finishes and I can tell you looking at all three of those, what costs the least amount of money by the way it looks. So that's why you have to be so careful, especially when you're getting into faucets using brass because of just the water damage and the spotting and everything. And that's again, another like big vote for polish nickels cause it like it cleans up beautifully. It polish is beautifully versus a brass. Yep. If you are in a powder or in an accent, like a smaller space where you don't have as many players yelling at each other. Awesome. Like I think that would be where we would do the brass faucet. It would be coming out of the wall with a dope tile behind it and a moody wallpaper just seeing that same song. Anyway, so that is that's some of the reason why. But to your point in mixing metals brass and lacquered preferably with your polish nickel wins every time bananas. Yeah. I don't like a brush brass. I think it looks fake and it looks like a layer or it's just like a painted brush or a painted brass on a steel. It looks cheap. You know, it looks like it's from Amazon. And you saved a lot of money on it. And you did. She wants to know which metals do you perceive as timeless? Which metals do you prefer to mix together or layer? Or do you keep everything the same? We don't keep everything the same. It was like a starter home when you do that. Yeah. We always compared it to just a really dapper gal with that's traveled the world has mixed metals that she's wearing in her jewelry. Like she knows her stuff. Yep. Same thing with house. I think the easy answer for me is I'm a, let's just take a primary bath. I'm a polish nickel faucet. My hardware is probably polish nickel, but it might have like on my own. I have polish nickel with a little brass ring on it. So it's a mixed metal and I'm brass on my sconces. That's generally I'm usually going to go brass on my lighting. Now what's fun Trisha is I keep hearing and I keep seeing one of the big trends for 2026 besides oversight mirror colors, color blocking. One of them is chrome everything. So I think we're about to step into a silver era where it's going to take everybody a little bit of time to get there and everybody has different design preferences and tastes. But I think we are going to see an uptick in silver metals, which supports the polish nickel thing still. Yeah. Whether or not you're going to play brass on your sconces or not. I don't know. I still really love a mixed metal though. And I think it looks more expensive and timeless to mix the metal. I do too. Because again, when everything's the same finish, I just goes completely flat. And so when you have that dimension change and that shade change, that's when it sings like that's when you like notice how cool that sconces, you know, or how neat that hardware is and the riveting around it. You just notice more details when you can call attention to it and you do that by contrast. Yeah. And that's between the metals. So yeah. Great. Great question Trisha. So great. I just want to do a quick plug for a home furnishings design program. This program is amazing and we created it so that we can help more people. We have a team of really knowledgeable designers that are schooled that are in AutoCAD that are waiting to help you with furnishing your home. Now, the great part about this is, is that you don't have to pay for the services. So it's a completely complimentary and you can put all your money, all those Easter eggs into your furniture. So as you prepare for all your summer guests and anticipate the holidays that are going to be around the corner before we know it. You can actually attack some of these rooms and like answer those hard sectional questions of like, what pieces do I get? How big of a rug should I get? What can fit in my room and what would feel the most like you use our home furnishings design? And so how you do that is you go to our website, Alcine Home. You're going to go to our design services tab and you're going to go down to our home furnishings design application, fill that out and they'll get back to you within 24 hours. So such, I think it's such a trick. Everyone should be playing. I get so many nice texts too from people. They've loved the service and they're like, I feel like I'm best friends with so and so. I'm like, ah, I'm so glad you filled that way. It's been such a great program. Really quick. Thank you for all the questions today. If you guys have questions like these, please send them to dear Alice at Alice Lane home.com. We love getting them and we will definitely answer them in the future episodes and make sure and tune in to our Instagram. That's at Alice Lane home and at Alice Lane interiors. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll catch you guys next time. Oh, a great story like Monsters Inc stays with you forever. And Disney Plus is where you'll find your next great story from the return of the award winning hit series rivals. Welcome to the naughtiest show on television to the unmissable crime drama, high potential. Gotta dead body. Gotta go. A lifetime of great stories awaits this spring on Disney Plus 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Hey, thanks for listening. If you like our show, please leave a five star rating.