In this episode of the Uploft Interior Design Podcast, I share how much fun I’ve been having creating TikTok content for Uploft and invite listeners to submit their design questions, then dive into my current pop culture obsessions—the Olympics (especially figure skating) and Netflix’s new documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. I answer a listener’s question from Palm Beach Gardens about choosing a new sofa and layout for her open-concept living space, encouraging her to move away from a cream sofa, embrace a deeper neutral, add a dining room rug, and break up all the wood tones for a more sophisticated look. If you have questions for me, make sure to submit them here.
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Design inspiration, real life makeovers, and the latest in pop culture. This is the Uploft Interior Design podcast with Betsy Helmouth. >> Hello there. I have been having so much fun with content lately. I don’t know if you’ve been over at Uploft Interior
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Designs Tik Tok channel, but we are having blast. I hired a local college student to teach me all the trends and to edit my videos. She comes up with the video idea or theme and then I come up with the tips and we head to HomeGoods and we find items and we are silly and
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then we shoot around my house and we incorporate my cat. So, we are having a ton of fun. If you’re looking for more content, if you’re looking for some fun infoacked videos, head over to Tik Tok and check out Uploft Interior Design. And since you love design, I know you’re
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working on projects out there and I want to hear about it. I want to help you. I want to answer your questions as we move into spring cleaning and spring redecorating. Go to uploft interterioresign.com or you can just do the shorter version uploft.commpodcast.
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Once again, uploft.com/mpodcast. And there you’ll see a form where you can show me what you’re working on with pictures. You can write in with a question. I will give you free customized interior design advice specifically about your project and photos. I mean, come on. That’s the best
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deal on iTunes. Head over to uploft.com/mpodcast. And there’s even more. There’s a premium membership where you can get access to a back catalog of over 70 questions. As a premium member, you get um first access to your questions in the mailbag. So, if
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you’re working on something that’s really timely, like a renovation, or if you’re wanting to capture some sales, like the President’s Day sales that are going on this week, while you just write me a question, and if you’re a premium member, you’ll get yours answered first.
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Nancy Guthrie Case + Olympic figure skating drama
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Well, I feel like I have a lot to talk about. It’s been funny because in terms of pop culture, I’ve been obsessed with only two things for the past two weeks. the Olympics or Nancy Guthrie, her disappearance, Savannah Guthri’s situation in terms of
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what’s happening on her end, the videos she’s making, will she return to the Today Show. So much is up in the air and I seriously refresh my algorithm every time I wake up, including throughout the day. But in the morning, I’m always so hopeful that something will have come to light at
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night. Anyway, we’re still waiting. But the Olympics are certainly producing and I have non-stop footage to watch. Thank You Peacock app because even though they’re in Italy, which is 6 hours time difference, I can watch things as I need to, which is 10 generally between 10:00
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p.m. and 2:00 a.m. when my kids are well, some of them are in bed and some of them are not. But at least they’re not needing dinner, needing help with homework, kneading, needing, needing, and I can just unplug with my electric blanket in bed next to my Siamese. Okay,
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so I can’t wait to watch the women’s short program and then of course their free program this week. I just finished watching the pairs last night. Oh my gosh, it was such a nail bright biter. Really, anyone was in contention for the medal, it felt like and it just came
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down to who could skate clean and it was not an easy task. And then of course the devastating loss um for Elia Malanin where he was you know the shoein for certainly the gold but everyone expected him to meddle at least you know in some color and then he had those devastating
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mistakes in his long program which took him off the podium completely. There’s been so much drama just in figure skating alone that I have barely paid attention to the other sports even though I’m usually all in with the halfpipe and the luge and the bob sled
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and the skiing and the mogul. Oh my gosh. Okay, but anyway, just real quickly, I am so obsessed with the Olympics because when I was little, we only had three channels, but the Olympics were always on one of those prime time channels. So, it was something my mom and I could like fully
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get into and watch. And they were often in other countries as the Olympics are. So, the time change would be different. We weren’t able to watch them um in real time because I’d be at school and then we just missed them. Like, there were no replays. There was no sort of um
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recording device even when I was younger or certainly we didn’t have one, let’s put it that way. We were very broke. So, she would let me stay home from school on the days of the big events so that we could watch them live and we wouldn’t miss them. I became addicted and have
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been addicted like that since I was small. So, of course, I try and pass that addiction onto my children. I’m like, “Come cuddle. Let’s watch.” Nobody in my family cares. Nobody wants to watch with me except the cat. Anyway, I’m still into it and I still call my
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mom during the Olympics and we compare notes on who did what during each routine. I hope you’re as into it as I am. The other thing that I’ve been very into, which I’m going to talk about on today’s show, is Netflix’s new documentary. It dropped this week. It’s Reality Check
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Inside America’s Next Top Model. Oh, wow. That was a show that even though I watched it late, so I didn’t see it in real time, I have seen every cycle, even the ones hosted by Rita Ora, and I have so many thoughts and I thought that documentary was very compelling. I
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binged it all in one session, but I did think it was a little bit problematic, too. So, I’m excited to get into that. Okay, let’s first answer a question,
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Listener question: open-concept living room dilemma
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shall we? That sounds good to me. All right, my podcast question for this week comes all the way from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and Gabby is writing in. Gabby says, “Hi, Betsy. I’ve been a longtime listener and absolutely love how you break down design dilemmas. I’m
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hoping you can help me with mine. I live in a town home in sunny South Florida with an open concept main space. The living room, dining room, and kitchen all share one large footprint. Natural light is limited to the sliding doors on one end and a single window near the
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dining area. So, I’ve tried to keep the palette light and airy with a few pops of color to prevent the space from feeling dark or boxed in. Here’s where I’m stuck. I’m ready to replace my well-loved and very tired 87in IKEA sofa. And I’m considering sizing up
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slightly to a 92 in width, but I can’t decide if I should stay within the white cream family to maintain the brightness or introduce a true color for more depth and personality. I’m also questioning the layout. Is a standard sofa still the best move here, or would a chase
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sectional help to define the space and feel more intentional? I recently purchased two beautiful Mau side chairs that add a great punch of color and I’d love for the new sofa to work harmoniously with them. I feel completely stuck and would so appreciate
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your guidance on direction of color and layout. I’m sharing photos of the space and the new side chairs I got. They would replace the woven ones that you see in the picture. Thanks so much. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you, Gabby. My pleasure, Gabby.
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So, let’s get into it. First things first, if you’re watching on YouTube, you can see all of Gabby’s pictures. Just head to Uploft Interior Designs channel on YouTube. If you’re not, I’ll try and explain them to you. So, yes, it’s a big open space. It looks
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like it even has higher than normal ceilings because it has a tray ceiling and it has cream colored walls. Looks to be coordinating trim that’s also cream and looks like a white ceiling. The floors are like a light to midtone wood with a visible grain.
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And the furniture there’s a lot of this wood tone as well, more midtone leaning, but we’ve got the caned chairs which are on their way out. We’ve got a wooden rectangular coffee table. We’ve got a wooden drum end table that’s carved. We’ve got a wooden dining table since
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the space is open concept and we can see the living from the dining and vice versa. And we’ve got a midtone wood bar cabinet. So, lots of midtone wood going on here, which I think could contribute to a little bit of the darkness. You’ve also got that same wood on a woven Roman
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blind that is covering that window you spoke about. Now, I always hate it when people are so worried about making a space feel dark that they feel like they have to do everything in creams and whites. I think that’s a big misstep. And I can see in one of your pictures an adorable little
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boy. He looks to be about four to six um 3 to five. uh could be a girl by the way, but I’m just assuming based on visual, but you never know these days or any day really. I had short hair and was always called a boy as a little person. Um, so I think having a creamer or white
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sofa with a child is just a big misstep. Certainly you can have a slip cover, but those look saggy, baggy, wrinkled, and they’re not as easy to take off as they make it sound. So, this one does look saggy, baggy, and wrinkled. And it’s time for a sofa that
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brings a deeper tone. Not only the camouflage stains, but also because we’ve got so much cream and white in this room. I mentioned the walls in the ceiling, but I didn’t mention that the bookcase directly next to the sofa is also white. And then the credenza opposite the
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dining table is white. Now, in terms of layout, I can’t really get into that here because there’s so many things to talk about with layout. For instance, do we have a TV to consider which I don’t see in the space, but I’m not capturing every wall with this
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um submission. So, there are a couple of crucial walls that I can’t see where maybe a TV lives, which would deeply impact the layout. The one thing I would
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Sofa color advice + breaking up all the wood tones
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say is that typically the biggest piece of furniture, which is in this case the sofa, does feel most at home on the longest unbroken wall. And that’s exactly where you have it. Whether it should be adjusted more towards the windows or more towards the hallway, I
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can’t really say because I cannot see a TV if there is one or a natural focal point like a fireplace if there is one. So, it’s really hard for me to give you more information on that. I can say that I’m really excited that you’re switching out these cane chairs for the mauve
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fabric chairs. Uh first of all, they’re slipper chairs and they look super comfy and they have a really cool contemporary profile with a slightly low and curved back and these really chunky feet that I just think give it um a lot of personality. And I think they really
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work well with what you’ve already got going on in your space, which is kind of a mid-century modern/contemporary leaning room. We need to break up all this wood, and these chairs are just the thing to do it. I’m really excited for you. Good change. The other thing that
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would be a good change is putting a rug under the dining area. Now, you may be saying, “Betsy, I don’t want to put a rug under the dining area with my four-year-old son.” But I say, “Do it.” The good news is you have a Roomba. I can see. And you’re saying, “Betsy,
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there is no Roomba.” But there’s a dog. And a dog is every room’s Roomba. Your adorable little pet will run around and eat all the food that your son drops, and it’s going to be amazing. And it’s no big deal to have a rug. You just don’t want this to be a super expensive
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rug and you also don’t want it to be a super high pile rug. If it’s very plush, that food is going to get kind of ground in the weave versus keeping it a flat style rug like the one in your living area in which the food will hopefully just rest on top or it’ll be easy to
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clean if it does stain the rug. Uh, but I definitely think a rug under this dining table is going to help alleviate this oppressive amount of wood tone that’s layered on wood floors. All right, back to the question at hand. Yes, I think you should do a sofa that
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is not creamer or white. Now, I don’t necessarily think your sofa should be a color. You have a huge piece like a 5ft piece of art above the sofa, but is saturated with color. It has so many beautiful colors and it is such a compelling piece. And now you’re going
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to have mauve end chairs or accent chairs. And so I would be inclined to do this sofa in a neutral. I am more inclined to do it in sort of a gray toned neutral than a beige neutral just because we have so much beige in this room with the wood tone. And I
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would really be judicious when adding future pieces to this room that you deviate from this wood tone. No more baskets, no more retan, no more wicker. Right now, what you have going on is the cream and wood room. And it is just not feeling all that sophisticated except for in
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your art choices. They are bringing the color. They are bringing sophistication. They are oversized and beautiful and I really love the choices you’ve made there. So, I think I’ve answered most of your questions besides that layout which is really, you know, I use a specific
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system when I create layouts where I try every possible option eliminating the ones that don’t work and kind of whittle it down. And the process takes between 15 and 45 minutes in each room depending on how complicated the room is, how many functions we need to perform in a room
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like this multifunctional space. So, I really get into the weeds when I’m working with my clients, which is not exactly fun to listen to while you’re driving your kids to Little League. So, I’m going to leave it here, but go ahead and make the changes we discussed and
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then write in and let me know how things are feeling and looking because I know with just these few changes, this base is going to really sing. You’re already gravitated towards pieces that are extra cool. And you’ve really got a flare for styling because I love the way you’ve
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accessorized your bookcases, your coffee table, even your end tables are just really posh. So, keep going because you have a flare for this. We just need to add a little bit more diversity in terms of elements and colors. All right, everybody. Time for what we’ve all been
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ANTM Netflix documentary review
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waiting for. America’s Next Top Model Netflix new documentary. I’ve literally been waiting and waiting. It’s been on my list. Remind me when this drops. And mostly, it did not disappoint. You do not need to be a fan who’s seen every cycle like I have in order to appreciate
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this documentary. It would be helpful to seen at least one or two cycles. It would be helpful to be a fan of reality television. But the thing I think is so important because not only have I watched this documentary, I also follow a lot of the past contestants on
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Instagram and then I read Sarah Hughes’s book which was called You Want to Be on Top. dad was very juicy, very dishy. She really got into it. This also gets into it. And following some of the past contestants on social, I saw that this documentary only paid the judges to
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appear on the documentary did not pay the contestants to appear. So, not only when you’re watching the documentary did they get screwed on America’s Next Top Model in terms of compensation, in terms of the actual winnings, but then they get screwed all over again because the
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documentarians say it doesn’t feel right to pay somebody for their story, but yet they’re paying the judges for their story. It felt sketch. I think that’s problematic. All right, let’s go for it. So they had the three judges, the three primary judges, Nigel, J Manuel, and
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then Miss Jay, and then they had Tyra. Spoilers are ahead, but people were saying online that Tyra did not apologize for anything, and that’s untrue. Tyra definitely apologized or said that there were things that she regretted, which I appreciated. Did she
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regret enough? Absolutely not. I think and full disclosure I was in this industry in the early as I was a model and talent agent so I worked at an agency all through college as an agent for children models so I was kind of low on the totem pole but I was in the
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children’s division so I was dealing with parents I was dealing with castings and head shots and you know should my kid have curly hair straight hair do we need to change, you know, Jimmy’s hair color or can he get booked this way? Do we need to tone down the freckles or
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should we play them up? Right? The industry at that time had a lot of problems. A lot of problems. And I worked for the kids division, but I was sitting in the same room with people who were doing teens and adults. And the talk about, you know, bodies and weight
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and typ casting, it’s all real. And unfortunately, at that time, it was a real part of the job. We had to quickly summarize these people in order to know if they were a good fit for this casting. Yes, he’s a big nerd who looks goofy. Let’s send him on this. Yes, she
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is plus-size. She will be a great fit for this type of character. I’m sure that that still goes on today. And I’m sure that agents are still telling their talent, whether or not they say it aloud or what this looks like, that they need to lose weight,
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that they need to gain weight, that they need to be more muscular, that they need to be less muscular. I mean, it is an industry that’s all about appearance. She’s too dark for that commercial. She’s too light for this commercial. We were constantly using this language
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among the agents to determine who was going where and what would be appropriate for what job. The fact that that was happening on America’s Dextop, the fact that they were really drilling it into these girls like you’ve got to lose the gap between your teeth or you’re never going to get
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work. You’ve got to get a bigger gap between your teeth or you’re never going to get work. You have to lose 10 lbs. Why are you eating bagels? I mean, I think that this is all horrible messaging. reasons why I would never want my kids to go into the industry. That being
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said, it’s real. That being said, at that time, it was really real. So, when I was watching these almost in real time when I watched the original cycles, a lot of it didn’t feel that crazy because it was a reality of the industry. There were things that did feel crazy,
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you know, like you’re just on a reality show. You don’t take one person’s advice and get four of your teeth pulled. You don’t take one person’s advice and decide to, you know, get veneers and have your teeth ground down to stumps that you can never change back.
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Especially when you’re just barely 18 to 22 and you don’t necessarily have the bigger picture in mind. That being said, I mean, agents are going to give that advice all the time. So, I did feel bad for the girls who were put in compromised situations. I
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did feel bad for the girls who got negative feedback. I didn’t really feel up in arms. I didn’t really feel like travesties had occurred until the male models started getting involved or the men started entering the picture. not the seasons with the male models, but
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you’ll see that Danny talks about how she was put in a situation with a male model and he was being inappropriate with her and she felt really uncomfortable and she told production, she told Tyra, she told multiple people and everybody kind of um poo pooed it
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even though in the pictures it was really clear that he was being inappropriate. Then another time they were using local Italian guys as drivers to go to the goies. And then they wound up having them over for dinner. And after dinner they all went in the hot tub. They got
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really drunk, the girls and the guys. And sexual activity that didn’t have consent happened and they wound up showing a lot of it on TV. The fact that
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Industry realities, Tyra’s response
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it happened when there’s producers in the room who could stop this and say, “Hey, wait. This has gone too far. these girls can’t consent. They’re this one’s about to pass out. And the fact that then they showed it in like a lot of detail. These are things that even back
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then we knew were wrong. These are things that crossed a big line in my mind. Um, so yeah, I thought it was very interesting. I thought Tyro took some accountability, but I think her experience in the industry, I think she was burned enough herself. I think she
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was like, “This is how the real world works.” And I think that she was just thinking about making good TV and didn’t care about who was destroyed along the way. And a lot of people were destroyed. And the thing that really gets me about this documentary is that we hear from
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the past winners that the prizes that they received didn’t always come through. Like, I’m forgetting Whitney. Whitney was a plus-siz model. She won and she got signed by a big agency. That agency didn’t even have a plus-siz division. They didn’t even want to
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represent her. They couldn’t represent her. They had no path for what that would look like, no division, nobody who specialized in that. So, she was just on her own. The number of times that these winners said that the prize package was not delivered to them was shocking. And
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then the other thing is that actually winning America’s Next Top Model was a strike against them. They would go to castings or they would live in model apartments with other models and they would be told because you went on America’s Next Top Model, we can’t
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represent you. We don’t want you here. You’re a distraction or you’re not a real model or you’re going to cheapen our brand. I thought that was fascinating, devastating, so layered. This is definitely a
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Final thoughts
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documentary to watch. Whether you were a fan or whether you’re just a little bit intrigued, it made me want to rewatch some of the cycles. It made me feel really sad for a lot of these girls. I loved how at the end they told you what they’re doing now. That was also shocking. Um,
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but I think Tyra is pretty ruthless and I think she doesn’t have much of a conscience about what’s happened. But I think the industry is ruthless. I think the industry doesn’t give a bleep. And I was not only in the modeling industry, but I was in the acting. I have been on
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interior design TV in several different capacities. It’s ruthless and nobody gives a burp. So, there we go. Uh, highly recommend that Netflix watch. If you have something you think I should watch or something you think I should read, please let me know because the Olympics
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are almost over and I’m just going to be sitting in bed with my cat feeling so so sad. Please let me know what I should be binging. Head over to uploft.com/mpodcast. Drop it in the message box. Let me know. I’m ready for my next watch. And until next week, bye.
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A big thanks to our producer Jeremy Young and to Eton and the Embassy for our theme music. And shout out to our parent company, Uploft Interior Design, your trusted source for expert interior design. Visit uploft.com to explore our services and book a consultation with
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one of our talented designers. If you’re enjoying the Uplift and Tear Design podcast, please support us by sharing the show with friends and leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s the best way to help new listeners find us. Thanks
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for tuning in and we’ll see you next week with more pro tips and pop culture dish.
Links:
Website: https://www.betsyhelmuth.com
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