Dear Alice | Interior Design

Today we’ve got Adam, Jess’s husband on the podcast who will be interviewing her, which we have been wanting to do for a while, but haven’t been able to until now because Sue just had a baby and will be away for a bit. Adam has a very good understanding of construction and the quality of how and why things are made a certain way, and Jess has a great eye for design, so blending them together is al...

Today we have a special treat for you. We’ve got Kristina Kellett and Jessica Talbot who are both senior designers at Alice Lane Home. We had a question from one of our listeners about how to keep traditional design fresh, so we brought in the designers to get their opinions, some of the work they’re doing, and some of the risks they take to just update, freshen, or even what our fresh approach is...

We have lots of opinions about the trends we think should go, which is very polarizing, so don’t be offended if you have something we don’t like and love it. You do you, but we definitely have some opinions to share. This kind of got sparked in our idea bank when we were looking at an article called “Ten Designers Share What Trends Need to Disappear Forever.” Naturally this caught our eye, and we...

Today we’re talking pattern, scale, rhythm, and repeats. This is a really important part of design and keeps things from looking too stale, static, or flat. Pattern preference really depends on what kind of person you are and whether you end up wanting something different down the road hinges on if you’re the kind of person that constantly needs to be changing your style (like in what you wear) or...

Today we’re doing listener questions again because after looking at the data, it shows that these are your favorite podcast episodes. Whenever we answer your questions, everyone seems to tune in, so we always want to make sure we do this for you guys after saving up the questions until we have enough to do one of these. If you have a specific question you’d like answered on here, send in your ques...

Today we are going to be talking about pools and it’s Summer time, we’re all thinking about it, and some of you are planning them for your future homes, so we’re here to talk about everything we’ve learned and all that we can share with you from an interior designer’s perspective. There are a lot of questions we’ve had for different pools and price points, so we want to talk about the different ty...

Today we’ve got Paloma Contreras who is an award winning interior designer and taste maker based in Houston Texas. Her design is a modern take on traditional style gravitating toward classic silhouettes and timeless pieces paired with a touch of glamour and an infusion of color. Paloma is highly decorated when it comes to being a designer. She’s in the Next Wave interior designer by House Beautifu...

Today is part two on cabinetry. We had 4 pages of questions from you guys and got tired the last episode and quit early, but today we wanted to try and be less wordy with these ones and get through them all as best we can. We talked about a whole plethora of things, such as what tones have become more popular, or what styles will stand the test of time, to which we answered that it depends on you....

Many of you may be wondering what the party pantry is, which is why we have set aside a whole episode on it. We didn’t really feel like the party pantry had a name, but we felt like we were doing it even before and we first saw it on Veranda, which also goes by the name of party closet. In a word, it’s a place where you’re going to store all your things to party, such as your cake plates, tea pots...

Laura Kirar is the founder and Creative Director at Laura Kirar Design (LKD). She is an internationally renowned interior & product designer as well as a sculptor, a design industry connector and a creative experience producer. She’s in every single highly published shelter magazine that we love, she’s an artist, she’s fun, and we got to hang out with her at Market this last Fall, 2021. You just g...

We’ve had so many questions about cabinets, so we have gone to some experts and done quite a bit of research in order to be able to answer the various questions you might have on this subject. The cost of cabinetry is speculated to be around 15-20% of the home, which is similar to what we recommend for furniture when people are willing to go all in and style their home to its fullest potential. Th...

We’re talking about one of our favorite topics, which is High Point Market. We’re gonna tell you all about it, answering the questions of what’s new, what’s the latest, and addressing concerns about making huge purchases like new furniture, which can cost a lot, so we’re here to answer your questions and give you the information you’re searching for. High Point is an entire city and all they do is...

Today we’ve got a really fun guest with us who is a big hero and favorite of Susan’s and mine. Kara Mann is the founder and creative director of KARA MANN established in 2005 with offices in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Over the past fifteen years, she has acquired the reputation of a cultural vanguard for pushing the boundaries of tradition. Her impactful, refined interiors draw inspiratio...

For today’s episode we will be answering all of your questions you’ve asked and sent us in recent months. We do an episode like this about once every quarter in which we answer the questions that have a shorter answer, but we sometimes do whole episodes around one question if it requires a lot more explanation. Send in your questions to dearalice@alicelane.com Walls and trim color 3:13 Favorite wo...

We’ve got John Valdez with with Epic Windows and Doors and we’re so excited to have him because we get asked all the time as interior designers about windows and we don’t have the answers always, so we felt like if John came on and answered all the questions, then all of us would know all of the answers. In this episode he gives us a vocabulary history lesson and answers all the questions you guys...

Not everyone wants to have an outdoor kitchen and in fact, none of us on this podcast has one, but we know there are plenty of people out there with great backyards who love to be outside, entertain, and love to grill. So if this is something that sounds fun and interesting to you, we’re gonna tell you which products we recommend and we’ve been calling all the experts this week to give you the ver...

In this episode we’re talking about home theaters and entertaining spaces, or as people like to call them today, media rooms. There are some great brands out there for carpet that we love, one being Stark, which has really gorgeous authentic designs to its quality and is super fashionable, but they have some tailored options too if you’re a little bit more preppy. There’s a line or sister of Stark...

Today we talk to our special guest Gady Yesil, the owner and creator of Orientalist Home, where they bring more than 25 years of passion and experience in fine rugs and textiles. They travel around the world, collecting exotic, traditional, and modern handmade pieces and bring to the market the latest designs and color trends. We’re going to discuss vintage rugs and all things rugs, such as hand k...

We get asked this question again and again across all our platforms, so today we decided to give the people what they want and talk about how we do gallery walls. It’s a visual game of Tetris and memory collecting, and we talk about where to do it because you don’t want a gallery wall in your entry. For gallery walls, you want to have somewhat of a theme where you don’t want to have a picture of G...

In this episode we’re talking about our favorite TV and movie sets that are pop culture, and somehow they influence the decisions we make for purchasing. Certain trends that bubble up, whether it be for the home or fashion, or for the way somebody tucks their shirt in, or flips their hair, or whatever else, we are all influenced in some way. There’s an undercurrent going on, sometimes it’s stronge...

Today we’re talking about those things that can be a splurge and don’t have to be, but they just make us so happy. They make life easier and more beautiful. Sue loves linen sheets as they look nice and breathe super well, improving one’s sleep, and we can agree that a good pillow, like the brand called Coop, can go a long way in terms of luxury and comfort. Getting alluring aromas is a pleasure we...

Today we’ve got indoor plant and tree expert Brock Saucier with Northland Design and Landscape Architecture. They do land planning, we use them a lot in our projects, and Brock is kind of a unicorn because he has a background in interiors and landscape, so he’s the perfect one to whom we can really ask these questions. A great trending plant right now is cactus, which are low maintenance and you c...

In this episode we’re talking about how to shop online. We’ve gotten to this age where people make so many decisions and like to do it online because it’s hard to get out and do it in the real world during a pandemic, so we just want to give you a few guidelines based on our shopping experience. We shop for other people all day every day, make decisions for them in making a home, and we would like...

Today we talk to Allison Baddeley, the founder of La Fete Florals, an all Inclusive event production and floral design company, creating artistically designed and flawlessly executed local Utah and destination weddings and events since 2012. Greens in florals are no longer really in style, but we are now in a trend where anything goes and people have become more individualistic in what they want,...

We’ve had a lot of questions lately about hardware. Kitchen hardware, bath hardware, all the different types of hardwares and we felt like we should get an expert in here to sort of break down what makes amazing hardware, so we’ve called on our best buddy, Kirk, who is the provo showroom manager for Mountainland Design, which is a place that sells appliances, hardware, and everything for bath and...