In this episode of the Uploft Interior Design Podcast, I walk through a fast-paced lightning round of listener questions, sharing practical and budget-friendly interior design advice. I start by tackling how to make a plain TV wall feel more elevated, emphasizing that instead of trendy fixes like wood slats or accent walls, I focus on overall room balance, styling, and subtle upgrades like hiding cords and adding thoughtful decor. Next, I help reimagine a cluttered entryway by prioritizing cleanliness and function first—encouraging smart storage solutions over unnecessary furniture like a console table. Finally, I explain how to mix wood tones without creating chaos, recommending that I stick within the same wood “family”… 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. >> March came in like a lion and is going out like a lamb. My mailbag was full to brimming and now we’ve almost gotten to
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the bottom of it. Today we have another lightning round because we have quick questions. No pictures. Let me just get right into it. But I could use some more questions. Let’s make April’s showers intense. Make it rain with questions in my mailbag. Head over to uploft.com/mpodcast.
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Once again, that’s uplift.com/mpodcast. There you’re going to see a quick and easy form. You fill it out with your design questions. You send me some pictures and I’m off to the races giving you my advice for free on your home, your spring project. I can’t wait. Guys,
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if you’re thinking to yourself, what does Betsy do in between projects? What is she thinking about? How does she spend her days when she’s not recording her podcast? Well, never fear. You can check me out on Tik Tok. I make Tik Toks. Go to Uploft Interior Designs
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channel on Tik Tok and you can see lots of little tips coming at you from places like HomeGoods, places like my living room, my family room, my kitchen. I love recording Tik Toks. It’s like my new hobby. And I hope you love them, too. Go over there, let me know what you want to
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hear about. I’m always looking for new content ideas and the best way to get them to me is heading over to uplift.commpodcast and shooting me a note. Now, something I’ve been forgetting to do lately. I have been forgetting to introduce myself. I’ve been on the airwaves for 11
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years now. Can you believe it? And I just assume you guys have been listeners for a long time. But every now and again, people discover a new podcast. And so if you’re new here, I’m Betsy Helmouth. I make interior design accessible. I own a company called Uploft Interior Design where we
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transform clients spaces, whether they have low budgets, high budgets, and everything in between. I work primarily in the New York City area and its suburbs. I live in one of its suburbs in Connecticut and I have three kids, a kitty cat, a husband. I
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live in an old historic home and I love to design, especially on a budget. That’s how I design for myself. That’s how I design for most of my clients. And I love sharing my affordable tips with you. And basically what happens on this podcast is you send me questions and I
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answer them. Let me give you an example. Heather has written in all the way from Peoria, Illinois. She writes, “Hi, Betsy. I feel like my living room is almost there, except for one glaring problem. The TV wall. It is just a mounted television with a long console
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underneath. That’s it. No architectural detail, no depth, no personality. Every time I walk into the room, my eye goes straight to that wall, and I feel like it looks unfinished. I’ve been debating built-ins, panel molding, wood slats, a darker paint
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color, or even a gallery wall around the TV. I’m nervous about committing to something that could feel trendy or overwhelming. I also do not want to sink a fortune into custom cabinetry if there’s a simpler move that would still feel elevated. From a design impact
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standpoint, what usually transforms a basic TV wall most dramatically? Is it architectural framing, contrast and color, added texture, or layered styling? And how do we know when enough is enough? One word that I’m really stuck on, Heather, that you wrote me was elevated.
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Now, this is why, guys, if you’re listening to this question, pictures are critical for me to really give you tailored advice. Now, I’m going to give some generic advice to Heather, and I know it’s going to help her. But when you send me pictures of the space,
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especially from each corner, so that I can really get a 360 view as to what’s going on. When you send me that series of pictures, then I can understand what’s going on in the other walls and best guide you. For instance, if Heather has a gallery wall above her sofa that’s
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facing the TV, I do not want a gallery wall around the TV because that is too many gallery walls. I only like one gallery wall per floor and certainly not opposite each other in the same room. But if Heather already has a wall of bookshelves on one wall, well, I would
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not want her to do a built-in on the TV wall, most likely, unless it might balance things out. Unless she has 6,000 books and wants this to feel like a cozy den. So, without that context of how the space looks right now, it’s very hard for me to give her concrete advice. But
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the word I’m hearing is elevated. meaning that we’re wanting to take this sort of pedestrian item of a TV and make it feel, dare I say, lux. Okay, wood slats are over. Let me put it that way. Shiplap is so done. Wood paneling, no thank you. So, we can do process of
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elimination on this question and immediately let that one go. Darker paint color right behind the TV. No, ma’am. Accent walls, as you may have heard me say earlier this month on a podcast, accent walls are so not chic. In moments of desperation, I will allow
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them. But that is not this case, Heather. That’s a no. We’ve determined that a gallery wall is not the best idea if there’s another gallery wall on this floor. But I would argue that gallery walls aren’t generally elegant anyway. Now, if everything’s symmetrical, if
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it’s all black and white, I definitely think gallery walls can be elegant. But typically, a gallery wall is a collection of a lot of different ideas and pictures and elements that are brought together in a curated way, but they don’t naturally go together. So,
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while it can be called eclectic, while it can be called um, you know, unique, elevated is not typically a word I associate with a gallery wall. And having a big old black TV in the middle of a gallery wall can be playful, whimsical, interesting, especially if
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it’s a frame TV. It can look like a painting and kind of trick the eye. But none of that is what I’d call elevated. Now, you could build it in to a piece of furniture, like having bookcases that flank and having doors that open, and that I think could be elevated. Um,
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and I wouldn’t put architectural moldings around it or anything like that. Typically, I might want to elevate the space as a whole rather than just concentrating on the TV wall. Now, a couple things you want to be wary of. If you do have a console underneath, which
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you do, you don’t want the TV to be wider than the console. You don’t want it to look topheavy. You do want the cords to be invisible, whether they’re sunk into the wall or whether there’s an outlet right behind the TV. That will immediately elevate this area.
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You may want to accessorize the top of the console, especially if there’s a good amount of space between the top of that console and the bottom of the TV, such that anything that you put on the console isn’t overlapping with the TV screen. All those are ways to elevate that area.
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But overall, I think the room itself has to have a sophistication. I think you want to capture people’s focus there, but maybe have a secondary focal point so that I’m not just staring at a TV when I’m sitting on the sofa. And by incorporating these other elements in
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the room, I think you can uplift the entire space rather than just that one moment. Next question, because this is our lightning round. Uh Amanda writes from Columbus, Ohio. Hi Betsy. I’m a total beginner when it comes to design. Please be gentle. Our
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entryway is the first thing you see when you walk into our house. And right now, it feels like a chaotic drop zone. We have shoes piled near the door, backpacks on the floor, and a small table that I bought because I thought every entryway needed one. The table
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looks tiny and awkward against the wall, and I never know what to put on it. I tried a lamp, a bowl for keys, a little plant, and it feels messy and unwelcoming. I don’t know if the problem is the size of the table, the lack of storage, or just that I don’t understand
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how to layer things properly. As someone who does not naturally see design, how do I approach an entryway from scratch? What are the essential elements that make it feel organized and intentional rather than a hallway we dump things in? All right, lots of thoughts and
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feelings. I should have added in this when I was talking the other day about kitchens and bathrooms. The first thing we want to know is that the kitchen is clean or the bathroom that it feels fresh and clean. The second thing we want to know is that it’s practical and
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functional, that I’m able to do all the things in there that I need to get done. And the third thing we want to think about is that aesthetic beauty. That’s exactly how I feel about an entryway in that order. First thing, is it clean and tidy? Second thing, is it practically
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functioning the way I need to? Now, when we’re talking about practical function, we’re talking about a place for those backpacks and shoes that’s closed behind doors. Nobody wants to see that. A place for the coats and jackets that’s closed behind doors. Nobody wants to see that.
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Is it a closet? Is it a freestanding armwire? We have lots of options, but they should all have doors if possible. Now, my family’s very messy. I cannot wrangle these people. I have tried. They will put their coats away. They will put their bags away. They will kick their
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shoes and just leave them in the middle of the floor. So, I’m creating my entryway from scratch right now. And the cubbies for the shoes are not going to have a door. So that way my kids can easily kick them in with no sort of obstacle to organizing. And yes, it’s
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not going to look as beautiful as I would like if they were shut away, but I know my kids will never open a door or drawer to put their shoes away. I have seen this in real life. I bought a stop gap armoire to kind of see what they would do before investing in a custom
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piece because it’s going to be $5,000. And now it’s time to go the distance to have the piece built and to invest in that custom solution now that I’ve tried the other solutions. You mentioned that you feel like every entryway needs a console table and that
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is wrong. That is absolutely not true. I would not do a console table if it doesn’t have any function for you. You’ve mentioned trying to accessorize it with plants, picture frames. It’s feeling messy. It’s feeling unwelcoming. You have to be really intentional. If
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you’re going to have a bowl, make sure that only keys go in it. If you’re going to have a tray, make sure only mail goes in it. But make sure that it’s functional. Or if you have the luxury of having a space that doesn’t actually need to be functional in your entryway,
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maybe you’re always coming in through the garage and have a mudroom there. Then go for it. Really make that more of a decorative, welcoming statement. But what I’m hearing in this email is that you need this entryway to do a lot of quote unquote jobs. And lots of those
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jobs are messy ones we don’t want to see. That’s going to involve some doors. Whether you have to pay for doors like I’m going to have to do with my custom buildin or whether you have a coat closet right there and you have conscientious family members who are
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going to abide by those organizational guidelines you set forth. All right, that was a lot to take in. Alexis, but I hope it inspired you in some Oh, I’m sorry, Amanda. Oh my gosh. It’s all a blur, guys. All a blur. So many questions, so little time. And I do want
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to get to this last question before signing off today. Kelly from Prescott, Arizona wrote in and she says, “Hi Betsy. I’m very new to decorating. I feel completely confused about mixing wood tones. My floors are a medium oak color. My dining table is a darker
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walnut, and I recently bought lighter wood chairs because I liked them individually. Now that everything is in the same room, I worry it looks mismatched instead of curated. I’ve heard that mixing woods can look sophisticated, but I’ve seen rooms where
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it feels chaotic. I genuinely cannot tell the difference. Do wood tones need to match exactly? Should they be close but not identical? Or is contrast actually better? For someone who does not have a trained eye, what guidelines should I follow when combining different
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wood finishes so the space feels intentional instead of accidental? Well, I love that you are thinking about this, Kelly. Great questions, and I have answers. So, when you’re talking high-end design, when you’re working with a high-end designer, they are going to mix
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everything. They are not going to worry about really anything being matchy matchy, and they are going to find things over time. They’re going to curate a collection of found object from an antique place here and from a fancy art gallery there, from a bespoke
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furniture shop here and another boutique down the road there. Okay, they are not going to worry about wood tones or at least not very much. But for practical normal people who are trying to design rooms holistically and are not wanting to take years to do so, you do
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need to think about wood families. My rule of thumb that creates a sophisticated, beautiful, and cohesive room every time is that you want to stick to your wood family. We have dark wood families, we have midtone word families, and we have light wood
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families. light are say the beach and birch and whitewash and oak. Those midtone families tend to be like the walnuts, the acorns, the um medium stain, right? And then those dark woods tend to be those really black or ebony style woods, those cappuccinos,
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those rubber woods. And I do not mix the families in one room. Now the room’s architecture, say the wood flooring or say the wood trim can be whatever it is. And you do not have to adopt that wood family as the one you select for your furniture. But all your furniture,
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whether it’s dining tables, dining chairs, buffets, if it’s got a wood tone, they all need to be in the same family, either dark, medium, or light woods. And that’s just a quick and easy way to create cohesion. They do not, however, have to match. You
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do not, and I dare say you do not want them to match. They don’t all have to be walnut if they’re the midtone family. They don’t all have to be birch if they’re the lightwood family. In fact, you want to mix it up so that there is variation within the family. You don’t
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want it to look like you stop shopped at the birch store. You don’t want it to look like you shopped at the cappuccino wood store, right? So, we do want some, what’s the word I’m looking for? It really just left my mind. We do want some differentiation within, but we
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don’t want differentiation that’s so drastic that we’re picking a completely different tone of wood. All right, guys. I’m fried. Doing that rapid fire sure has worn me out, but I will have more energy for more questions next week. So, head over to uploft.com/mpodcast.
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Once again, that’s uploft.com/mpodcast. Send me your questions. Send me your pictures. I live for this. I love to answer them. And if you’re bored in the meanwhile, head over to our YouTube channel. So, at the Uplift Interior Design YouTube channel, you can see even
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more videos. You can see our YouTube shorts. Additionally, if you’re feeling like Betsy, I have even more free time. I have online classes. Again, your one-stop resource, uploft.com/mpodcast. Head over there, check them out. You can take my courses three at a time. They’re
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sold in a beautiful bundle with my signed book, and they’re quite a bargain. All right, everyone. Until next week. 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 Uploft Interior 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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