In this episode of the Uploft Interior Design Podcast, I hosted a lightning round of listener questions and shared my practical interior design advice on three common dilemmas. First, I explained that kitchen islands should prioritize function over decoration, recommending useful items like trays, herbs, oils, and tools while keeping surfaces mostly clear. Next, I discussed dining room rugs, saying that formal dining rooms with hard floors should usually have a rug that extends 30–36 inches beyond the table… 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. >> So many amazing questions have been flooding the mailbag that I am doing a lightning round today. We are going to
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try and get through three questions. Feels like a record. Um, yeah, I have just been inspired. I have been doing lightning round interior design for months now it feels like because when I record my Tik Toks, I’ve hired a local college girl who knows all the Tik Tok
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trends, who loves interior design. She loves to keep up with what other design influencers are doing and she creates a whole shot list for me of places we’re going to go, things we’re going to do, and then I just show up and give my tips and answer her questions and we are
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having the most fun. The other day she came over to my house for an hour and a half and we did 33 Tik Toks in an hour and a half. It is a blast because a good portion of them now is just me responding to people’s comments. Uh, I have feelings about Gromma drinks. I
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have feelings about people’s artwork. I have feelings about heated rivalry. So, it has gotten heated on my Tik Tok channel. If you haven’t been over, you want to check it out, head over to Uploft Interior Design on Tik Tok. Now, if you want to add to my mailbag
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questions, I promise you I will get to them very soon because I am ready to go cruising through these. Just head over to uploft.commpodcast. Once again, that’s uplift.commpodcast. I’m eagerly awaiting your questions. I’m just sitting here in my bathroom. If
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you’re watching on YouTube, you can see
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Lightning Round Kickoff: Three Listener Questions.
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exactly what that looks like. Sitting here in my bathroom waiting for your questions to roll on in. Well, let’s get to the three that I’ve got right now.
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Question 1: Miguel’s Kitchen Island Styling
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So, the first one comes from Miguel all the way from Miami. And Miguel writes, “Betsy, I love your podcast, and I feel ridiculous even writing this, but my kitchen island is driving me absolutely crazy. No matter what I do, it never looks right. When I leave it empty, the
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kitchen feels cold and unfinished and slightly staged in a bad way. But the moment I start adding things, it instantly turns into cluttered chaos. I’ve tried bowls, trays, cookbooks, flowers, decorative objects, practical objects, you name it. Somehow it always
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looks either too sparse or like I just dumped groceries there 5 minutes ago. I love those beautifully styled islands you see in magazines where everything looks effortless, balanced, and intentional, but I cannot crack the code. Is there a general formula or
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styling philosophy you recommend for kitchen islands? How do you decide what belongs there visually? What just becomes noise? Okay, I have a lot of experience with this. In my past kitchen, it was a galley kitchen. It was so small, so tight, there was definitely
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no room for an island. My previous kitchen had a little more space and we did have like an island that we bought at IKEA, but we pushed it against the wall and um pretty much just use it as a butcher block surface, but not really an island in the middle of the kitchen.
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So, I didn’t have too much to say, but this kitchen that I have moved to now has a huge island. I mean, I think it’s like maybe 16 ft long, maybe 42 in wide. It’s big. There’s so much real estate. I was like, “Oh, wow.” When I saw this house, going from never having a true island to
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having the biggest island I’ve ever seen in my life was um to say the least, intimidating. And first of all, you would be so surprised at how quickly I could fill that thing up. Yes, there’s a sink on one side which requires soap and towels and so that’s, you know, by its nature a
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little bit packed. And then there are, you know, the other sides that have fruit and cookbooks and whatever. But I do have lots of thoughts and feelings, especially because I’ve been dealing with this in my own life. And I will say that my 16ft island typically becomes
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cluttered chaos. If you can even believe it. I can’t even imagine. My first rule of thumb is that on an island, you should only have things that are functional that you’re using in the kitchen. I don’t think it’s a great place for display. Now, the reason I
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don’t think it’s a great place for display is because I am actively using it as a cooking surface all the time, every day. At most I’ll put like a large vase with flowers, but you also have the beautiful pendants hanging down. And so you don’t need to gild the lily. There’s
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already sort of these beautiful decorative elements above it. And I imagine your island probably has pendants as well. All right, so I’ve got the flowers and that’s about as decorative as I get because I do love to have a catchall tray. Now on this
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catchall tray, and it’s a large tray. I think it’s like 14 by8 from West Elm. I have a lazy Susan on there with my oils, with my spices, with my salt and pepper. So, while I’m cooking, I can just rotate it and instantly reach and get what I want rather than going over by the stove
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where I also keep some spices, the oils, etc. Then I have my countertop herb garden. So, I’m growing fresh basil, fresh cilantro. I have skylights above it, so they’re getting lots of natural light and thriving on the island. And that way, I can just grab some fresh
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herbs and put them right into whenever I’m cooking. I have a cash po that has pencils, some kitchen scissors. I mean, these are things that I absolutely must have. Well, I mean, not absolutely must, whatever, but that I’m regularly using at my little command center while I’m
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cooking. And all of that goes on a tray. And if ever something else crazy pops up, I put it on the tray because it kind of wrangles all this randomness. Now, the other thing I keep on my island is I have a cookbook stand. And I don’t actually use cookbooks, but I do use
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cardboard recipes from the box meals that I create, or I’ll pull something up on an iPad and then use it to hold the iPad. So, I’m regularly using my cookbook stand, and that’s really cute. and interesting as well. And then I have paper towels on a roll because when I’m
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cooking, I love to wipe up my surface or when I’m washing my hands, I love to grab a quick paper towel, even though I also have a holder for fabric towels. As you can hear, my 16 ft island filled up pretty quick. Um, and then there’s some stools on one side and inevitably my
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kids are leaving some homework or a little bit of a folder or something like that. There’s always something going on. So, I try and keep it tidy. But the
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Functional First Rule
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bottom line, Miguel, is that most islands are like mine where they are a busy hub and you want to make sure that everything on the island is being useful, is doing some good in some way. I also have like one of those fruit bowl towers that has several tiers so that we
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have um fruit on the top and then on the bottom I have my potatoes, my garlic, my onions. And again, I’m using that all the time when I’m cooking or my kids are grabbing a healthy snack. Having those bananas in their face will hopefully inspire them to eat one. What do you think?
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I am always about practical first, pretty second when we’re talking about a kitchen or a bathroom. I really want to make sure that it feels clean, fresh, and useful way before I think about anything decorative. And it’s why I love wow light fixtures in a kitchen. I love
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a wow light fixture because it’s not going to take up any of that useful surface area and it can really steal the show and create that artistic statement without cluttering anything. Miguel, I hope that’s helped give you some ideas of what you can do with your island.
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First things first, make sure you’re able to get all your work done. If those boxes are checked, add some flowers. If those boxes are checked, why don’t we just leave some clean open space? I think nothing feels more decadent and more luxurious than a wide open surface
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area. Oh my gosh, that sounds like truly the best way to accessorize or I guess not accessorize your island. Okay, Alexis has a question from South
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Question 2: Alexis asks, “Should Dining Rooms Have Rugs?’
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Carolina. She writes, “Betsy, I’ve been struggling with whether my dining room should have a rug. I love the softness and the grounding effect rugs provide, but I also love the clean look of barewood floors. Some dining rooms with rugs look incredibly polished, while
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others feel somehow heavy or visually crowded. Meanwhile, rug-free rooms can feel sleek and modern, but occasionally a bit stark. Is there a guiding principle you use whether a dining room truly needs a rug? What factors usually tip the decision one way or another?
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All right, Alexis, I’m here to help. So, let’s just say that you have a formal dining room. It’s not a part of an open concept living dining. Okay. If you have a formal dining room and it’s not
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Rug Sizing & Placement Tips
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carpeted, it has either wood floors or tile floors, you need a rug. Now, the rug needs to be 30 to 36 in bigger than the table on all four sides. That way, you can pull out your chair without being half on half off the rug and push it in without it catching. If you do not
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have space for that in your dining room, if your dining room is too tight and you can’t do that, well, first of all, that’s a pretty small dining room. But second of all, I wouldn’t do a rug in that scenario because it’ll look like wall to-all carpeting. Heck, it’ll
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practically touch the corners of the walls. The other time I might not is if you have a lot of floor vents. So, if you have a lot of floor vents or large floor vents, you may not want to cover them with rugs because, of course, we need the air circulation. We need the heating
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and the cooling. Other than that, I would always put a rug under a dining area. Now, if you have an open concept living dining, I would not do a rug under a dining table if it’s going to be too close to the living room rug. So, we do want about a foot to a foot and a half at minimum
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between the edge of a dining room rug and the edge of a living room rug. You don’t want it to look like one large piece of remnant that just got cut down the middle. You really want separation of zones. And again, you need a rug that’s 30 to 36 in bigger than the table
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in that dining area. If that brings you too close to that living area rug, the one that should go is the one in the dining area. Now, a couple rules of thumb for a dining area rug. I do like something low pile, not plush, because it’s bound to get some fallout, right?
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People are going to drop things, people are going to spill things, and we don’t want it to absorb into that rug like a thick gummy sponge. So, I like something low pile or kind of flat weave. The other thing I look for is I look for a pattern. Just like I said, people are
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going to spill, things are going to fall, and we don’t want to see those stains. We need a pattern to camouflage it. And that’s why I’m always going for a rug that has something going on. So whether it’s striation or floral pattern, usually it’s going to have a
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mix of colors so that way anything that does fall can be quickly treated and never seen again. Alexis, I think I answered all your questions. One thing that you mentioned that’s a little bit off topic is that you think sometimes in a living room a rug feels like it breaks up the
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sleekness of the flooring. I completely disagree. Every living room needs a rug unless it’s wall to-all carpeted. I just can’t think of a time when it wouldn’t. So, that’s a little aside. All right, we
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Question 3: The Accent Wall “Smackdown”
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are continuing our lightning round with an email from Sophie all the way from Portland, Oregon. She writes, “Hi, Betsy. I’ve been debating whether or not to add an accent wall behind my bed. I feel completely torn. On one hand, I love the depth and drama that feature
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walls create. On the other hand, they might feel dated or overly trendy. My bedroom is very neutral, and while it feels calm, it also feels slightly flat. I keep wondering if an accent wall would add that missing layer of visual interest or if it would just look like I
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tried too hard. How do you determine when an accent wall is a great design move versus when it risks cheapening or dating a space? Okay, it’s been a while, guys. It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but it sounds like Sophie is ready for her first Betsy Smackdown. Do you guys feel
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it? I feel it, too. Now Sophie, yes, a beta smackdown is a little bit h unexpected, a little bit harsh, but the sting goes away quickly. And the exciting news is the lesson lasts a lifetime. Accent walls do cheapen a space. Accent walls do look dated. Accent walls do
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look halfbaked. And I don’t love just an accent wall. It looks like you were so excited to use this wallpaper, you got started and then you ran out of wallpaper because an accent wall is just doing one wall in a room. What about our other three walls? Say you want to paint
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a bold color behind your headboard and you just do that wall. What a bummer. The rest of the walls are hanging out over here like ivory or cream and they just look forgotten. You want to go bold. You want to have that wow factor. If you want to make a strong statement, just go for it,
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Sophie. Paint all the walls, wallpaper all the walls. That is going to be classic, timeless, and awesome. That is going to be the conversation piece, the wow factor you’re looking for. It is going to envelop you in bold personality. That’s really the way to do
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things. Now, there’s always an asterk. Always an asterk. So Sophie, if you’re renting, if you’re just going to be there for a short time, you don’t want to commit to repainting all the walls, you don’t want to commit to spending, you know, all that money to wallpaper all the walls.
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I’m going to let you get by with an accent wall. But I don’t think it has a lot of wow. I think the visual interest is minimal, and I think you could do better. Guys, what do you think? Was I overly harsh on Sophie? you let me know. Head over to uploft.com/mpodcast.
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Once again, uploft.com/mpodcast. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Accentwalls and so much more. Until next time, everybody. 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,
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your trusted source for expert interior 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
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five-star review on Apple Podcasts or 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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