In this episode of the Uploft Interior Design Podcast, I start by venting about being snowed in after multiple Nor’easters, with schools canceled, no babysitter, restless kids, and me slowly losing my mind despite trying to make it special with city outings and Broadway shows! I dive into a listener question from Pam in Arkansas about her cream-on-cream living room and reassure her that the real issue isn’t the matching end tables but the lack of color, encouraging her to bring in an inspiration piece, and layer in textiles with three or more cohesive colors to energize the open-concept space. 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 Helmuth. >> The Groundhog predicted six more weeks of winter, and he was not wrong. I cannot take it anymore. This is our second Nor Easter in I don’t know, a
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month. And we had 18 in of snow before that had not melted even a lick. And now we have another 12 to 24 in coming. We got I don’t know at least a foot last night and we’re supposed to get seven more inches of snow tonight. The schools were cancelled all last week for the
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President’s Day holiday. They were cancelled today and they’ve already been preemptively canled for tomorrow. This means that I have been without a babysitter for the toddler, without activities for the teens, for a week and two days. And I am going crazy. I took
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them out each individually, the teens for their special day where we went to the city and we got dinner. We did jazz with one of them. Did a Broadway show with the other one, did Spy Museum, did ice cream museum. I tried to make everything so special,
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which of course made it very hard to get work or anything done. And then I thought I was at the end. I thought I had reached the finish line. You know, every year at about this time, my family and I, we don’t take a trip during winter break with the kids because we’ve
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just come off of Christmas and we just can’t get it together fast enough to plan it. That’s just the reality of why we didn’t go away. Oh my gosh, I should have gone away. I’m losing my freaking mind. The fact that we’re going to have another foot of snow pile up on the snow
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that’s already there means that the snow is like not even playable because it’s so thick that if I put my 2-year-old on top of the snow, she’s just going to sink right down. It goes well past your knee. Can’t take it anymore, guys. I can’t take it anymore. I’m just so grateful,
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knock wood, that we have not lost power. So, there are certainly things to be grateful for. I’m going to lose my mind. I think my son has played all of Fortnite at this point. I’m certainly behind on a lot of work and I could just use, you know, some time at the coffee
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shop, but we’re stranded because the roads are so treacherous. Anyway, I just had to vent. But I have been making good use of my time with catching up on TV that I hadn’t been watching since the Olympics were on. I have caught up almost on Love is Blind and I
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do need to talk about it here. So, we’ll be covering that in the second half of the show, but in the first half of the show, we’re going to be answering uh a question that comes all the way from Arkansas. Now, you might be asking yourself, Betsy, I’m not from Arkansas,
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or Betsy, I have a design question. How do I get it into you? It’s just so easy. You head over to uploft.com/mpodcast. Once again, that’s uplift.com/mpodcast. There’s a quick and easy form that you fill out. You can ask me a question. You can show me pictures of your situation.
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You can recommend something for me to watch or read. I am open to all suggestions, but please keep those questions, queries, and thoughts coming because they are what power this show. It gives us content to talk about each and every week. So, I’m really grateful
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for Pam who wrote in this week. What else did I want to say about life? Oh, I hope you’ve been heading over to my Tik Tok channel because I have been having so much fun making wild and crazy Tik Toks. It’s a relatively new venture for me. I think I’ve been on Tik Tok for two
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months now, but it is a blast. And so, if you haven’t checked out Uplift Interior Designs Tik Tok platform, well, it’s time. Uh, and if you want to watch along on YouTube, head over to Uplift Interior Design. Pam has sent along some beautiful pictures. And of course, I’m
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going to do my best to describe them. But there is nothing like seeing the picture, hearing the question, seeing me read it. You know that I am recording in my bathroom, guys. So, you can check out my bathroom. You can check out all the snow behind me as the sun sets. Don’t be
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deceived. It looks beautiful. It’s turning into a nightmare. I’ve had ice dams. I’ve had ice dams. We had to have somebody professionally melt our gutters. I mean, it’s just been a lot. Calgone, take me away. All right, without further ado, let’s get into
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Pam’s note. She writes, “This is Pam. My first time writing in after discovering your podcast a few months ago. I love all the design inspiration and help you’ve provided with your clients and such detail, too. My husband and I moved into our new house this past summer and
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we bought a furniture set in a cream color to go in our living room. We just recently purchased a new coffee table and in tables to go with the furniture, but now I’m worried that there is too much white going on. Is this overkill on the creams and whites that we already
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have in the living and kitchen area? If Oh, I’m sorry. I wondered if a darker color or completely different in table color might work better in our space. What’s your advice? I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing your thoughts. Pam from Arkansas.
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All right. Well, I’m excited to get into it, Pam, because first of all, you have a really cool, very beautiful space. Let me give people the lay of the land because it is an open concept room. So, the changes that we make in one spot are going to deeply inform changes in
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another spot. We want to make sure to get it right. So, you walk in the home. Just getting my bearings here with the pictures. And you’ve got these beautiful wood doors that open up into an entryway. On the right hand side is the dining area. The left hand side is that entryway I spoke
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about. Straight ahead is this beautiful family room space that has a TV and a stone fireplace. There’s also beautiful wooden beams in this room. And as you look to the left of the entry, going past the ent um entryway and going behind the family room, it’s open to the
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kitchen. The kitchen appears to have
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How to Submit a Design Question
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like sage green cabinetry. And I’m calling that out specifically because I’m looking for color for us to incorporate in this space. Now, it may not be sage green. It could be gray. On second look, it does appear to be gray, but it’s hard to tell exactly with
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these pictures, but it looks like the walls are actually a gray color as well. I think you’re feeling, Pam, that this space might be a little devoid of color is 100% accurate. I have a couple of thoughts for this space. The first thought is that yes, the in
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tables are cream, the sofas are cream, the love seat is cream, the over stuffed chair is cream. You do have a black leather chair, and the end tables are topped with a wood top. The TV stand is wood. The fireplace surround is stone with a wood mantle. We have those beautiful wood beams.
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Right now for me there is a lot of cream and wood. I do think you need to break it up quite a bit. My recommendation would not be to change out the end tables even though I don’t exactly love how matchy matchy it is. And I do wish the space incorporated
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more elements. For instance, maybe a stone topped coffee table or a glass topped coffee table or even ceramic lamps instead of the cream washed wood ones. But what I would be more inclined to do is bring in color with the pillows, with the throw blankets.
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I’m looking throughout the space and I’m looking to find that anchoring inspiration picture. Now, you’ll remember that the inspiration picture or inspiration item, if you will, but I’m thinking about it as a piece of art in this room because we already have the
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rug. We already have a lot of these larger elements. But basically, it’s going to have three Roy G. Biv colors or more. And it’s going to give us our color palette for the entire space because it is so open. So, the colors that you’re using in this family room
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are going to need to be reflected in the dining area, in the kitchen area, and then it looks like you have an eat off Eden space off of the kitchen area. So, you’re going to want to be mindful when you’re selecting your color palette that
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Pam’s Cream-on-Cream Living Room Dilemma
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it’s something that you’re really into. Now, even though I’m using the same colors throughout this very open, large space, I might use them in different doses. In other words, I might use more sage green in the dining room, more of the pale blue in the living room if
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these are my three colors that I’m pulling out, and then let’s say I had like a sandy yellow that I was also using. So, sage green, light blue, sandy yellow, but I’d use more of the green in the dining, more of the blue in the living. And then as I’m moving over to
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that eat and kitchen area off of or the Eden kitchen off of the kitchen, excuse me, I might kind of emphasize that sandy yellow color a touch more. Now, these are arbitrary because like I said, I don’t see an inspiration picture in here. Now, for an inspiration picture,
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you could use the piece above the dining buffet because that’s a piece that you see the minute you walk in. And I do think it’s too small for the wall that it’s currently on, the piece that you have. So, it’s an opportunity to buy something new that would better fit that
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wall. I would go for something square rather than something long and horizontal just because you do have these beautifully high ceilings. The other opportunity for artwork, you have these pieces on either side of the door when you walk off of the family
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room. Oh, no, it’s not a door. It’s just a long window. Excuse me. It’s a big panoramic window that overlooks the backyard and maybe the back patio. You have two what looks like photographs flanking each side. From my eye, they’re a little too bit too big for those walls.
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What I would love to see here are some drapes that flank this beautiful window and that provide some nice texture to break up the kind of intensity of the wood beams and it’s an opportunity to bring in some color. Then I would mimic those drapes on the Eden kitchen window.
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And I also think there’s probably a dining room window. I’m just not able to see it from these pictures. So, I’d be using the same drapes in the dining area and in the family room area. And because the Eden kitchen is a little bit removed and harder to see, you could use a
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different pattern drape as long as it shares the same color palette. But yes, you desperately need color in here. Your instinct is correct. I would not use any of the pillows that you currently have on the sofa that look like they may have come with the sofa
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set. This is an amazing opportunity to pull colors from that inspiration piece. But the thing that’s giving me pause right now, I don’t see an inspiration piece, and we need to get one. So, either it’s the drapes and the pattern that’s on that large panoramic window in
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the family room. Maybe it’s I’m just looking for other opportunities because the room is somewhat finished. It feels very nicely finished. You know what I would say? Pam, you didn’t ask this, but this could be an opportunity. I’m thinking that the family room rug is
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just a touch too small. I might have gone one size up. If there’s an opportunity to use this rug in a different room, I would bring in a rug that serves as the inspiration piece that’s just a touch larger and has a pattern that incorporates three Roy G. BIV colors or more.
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and you pull from that rug in order to give you the color palette for say the drapes or the pillows or the throw blankets. I think that’s going to be your quickest and easiest win. And I think it’s going to make this room look a lot larger. But I don’t think the end
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tables are the problem here. Even though I don’t always love a match set, I think the real problem is that we need to incorporate some actual color in some textiles. And I’ve given you lots of ideas. So, I want to see what you ultimately do, Pam. Would you please
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write in and let me know how the rug shopping or drapery shopping goes? I’m very excited and I know it’s really going to transform this space. So, think about removing the artwork, flanking that window. Because the other thing I want to say about this, you have
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a panoramic window, right? And it looks out into this beautifully wooded backyard. The pictures on either side of the window are of landscapes, one of which is a wooded type of yard, maybe with a lake, and the other side looks to have a water feature. The bottom line is
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it looks like more little windows. It’s almost redundant and it’s not adding in this room. I would rather see those pictures side by side above a bed or just in a different space. I think it’s actually taking away from the beautiful window view to compete with these
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photographs that are also beautiful but a little too similar for my taste. All right. See guys, whenever you write in, you get a lot more than you bargain for because I can’t help myself. I’m going to overshare. Um, maybe that’s what you love about me, maybe it’s not, but it’s
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just my nature to say a little bit too much, to go a little bit too far. And certainly you’ll find that to be true when you check out our Tik Toks because um, yeah, I reviewed Kylie Jenner’s home and I had some pretty uh, interesting things to say. Anyway, I’m uh, bringing
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down a lot of celebrities in their homes. on upcoming videos. We talk about aa garden. We talk about um who else did we do? Jennifer Aniston. That’s right. She has a really cool house. Actually, I think I think I gave her high marks. Anyway, this is a perfect segue while
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Pam goes out and looks for drapes and looks for rugs. It’s a perfect segue to
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Add Color & Inspiration
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Netflix’s Love is Blind. Yes, I have mourned the fact that the Olympics are over. I’m crawling out of my shell. I’m crawling out from under my electric blanket and I am open to watching pop culture things again and I have not been totally enthralled with Love is Blind Ohio. It hasn’t
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really captured me like some of the previous seasons. For me, it feels a little bit like the Minnesota season where a lot of these people kind of look alike. I’m talking to you Connor and Chris. I’m talking to you two tall brown-haired guys who are with um I
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can’t even remember the names because it’s just not really sticking out to me that much. Everybody looks a little homogeneous. The story lines are not that captivating until until I got to episode 8 the other night. Things got a little real. I would
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say the most exciting thing so far, and yes, spoilers ahead, is that so many people got engaged, but they also got engaged so quickly. Now, I can’t say anything. I got engaged after 10 weeks of dating. I had seen him, but um you know, I’m not one to throw stones
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at glass houses cuz there you go. But it felt like in some ways they just wanted the honeymoon. They just wanted to be famous. Especially Chris, who is with Jessica. They seem to be so well matched. They seem to be vibing. Sure, she’s 5 years older than him, but she’s established.
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She has been married before, but has been divorced. She’s a doctor. He is not necessarily a looker. She seems to have a lot more going for him than him, excuse me, for herself than him. And I was shocked when he told her the other night in not a very diplomatic fashion
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that he was not interested in her physically because she doesn’t go to Pilates 7 days a week. You know, they’re just looking for something. Now guys, when I was dating, and it feels like forever ago, but at the same time, it feels like yesterday. When I was dating,
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sometimes people would say things to me and I wouldn’t understand what they’re saying. You know, they’re trying to break up with you or they’re trying to look for excuses and you kind of take what they’re saying at face value and you don’t read between the lines because
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you don’t want to like misinterpret what they’re saying and also you don’t want it to be real that they don’t like you. I’ve reopened my diaries as I’m writing my memoir and it is so clear like in one of my memories I had that I totally had been dumped by this guy. And as I was
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reading my journal entries and then reading the emails I’d sent to this guy, it was clear I told him I just wanted to be friends. And he was just saying, “Okay, I guess we can still be friends. I’m still interested in you.” Whatever. But my memories were so different.
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And I think that I was taking everything that he said at face value rather than reading between the lines. Anyway, all that is to say that it’s clear that Chris does not want to be with Jessica. It’s clear that Chris is really pining for the other girl he met in the pods, Bri.
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And yet he’s not just being clear with her. And I think it’s because he doesn’t want to look like a jerk on TV. And I think he was getting so enthralled so quickly because he wanted to be sure to have somebody to go to Mexico with. Same thing with the Tyler Kevin Kia triangle.
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Like everybody just wanted to go to Mexico. Everybody was just like, “Okay, are you going to like me? Are you going to stick around? Are you going to like me?” It just became a little too desperate and the connections weren’t real. And I’m so glad that Tyler ended
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up with nobody because he is not ready for any type of relationship. But I thought that the drama at the first Mixer was pretty like low. I didn’t think that the stakes felt too high for anybody but Bri, Connor, Chris, and Jessica. For me, I think the rush for people to
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get engaged has made this season a little bit less dramatic because they’re not as connected. They’re not as invested in each other before they see each other. And then, oh my gosh, I’m blanking on her name, but the blonde with the brownhaired guy. Oh goodness.
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Well, sorry, guys. Sorry. It’s I’m blanking on it. Call it the snow day. Call it being trapped in the house with three kids for a week and a half. But, um, there’s a lot of problematic relationships here. And I have not seen all the episodes yet. I think the next
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batch drops on Wednesday and I haven’t quite gotten to the marriages yet, but I do not see happy endings for many of these couples. My friend wrote me while I was watching the Olympics and was like, “Oh my god, Betsy, are you watching Love is Blind?”
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And I was like, “Not yet.” Because I’m at the Olympics 4 hours every night. She’s like, “Just wait till you get here.” For me, it hasn’t been a nailbiter. Besides the nail glue disaster where the woman put nail glue in her eye, Alyssa, for me, that’s been
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the most dramatic nailbiting moment. Can you imagine putting nail glue in your eye? Oh my god. Well, guys, that’s just my first impressions of Love is Blind. I’m definitely going to dig in deep. I’m definitely going to be watching through the end because what
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else have I got to watch besides Alone? Um, there’s not really great TV happening right now. Married at first sight. Where are you? Where are you? But I’ll keep you posted on my thoughts. Maybe you have thoughts, too. So, write in to uploft.com/mpodcast
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and I’ll be talking to you right here next week. Until then, bye. 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
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design. Visit uploft.com to explore our services and book a consultation with 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
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wherever you listen. It’s the best way to help new listeners find us. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you next week with more pro tips and pop culture dish.
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