In this episode of the Uploft Interior Design Podcast, I share how I’m fully in hibernation mode thanks to freezing temperatures and Olympic binge-watching, while also being completely glued to social media for updates on the shocking Nancy Guthrie case. Between juggling sick family members and recording late at night, I dive into listener Kassidi’s design questions, starting with updates to her living room—where I praise her larger rug and new additions but caution against using formal art lights over casual canvas prints, urging her instead to add more functional lighting and better surface 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 Helmouth. >> Hello everybody. It is freezing cold. I refuse to leave my house. My husband’s like, “When are we getting groceries in
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this house?” I signed up for Pilates. I was like, I can’t even think about leaving my bed right now. It is so cold. There is still 15 plus inches of snow on the ground. And I am officially hibernating. Not good for the waistline, not good for the mental health, but I’m
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just leaning in hard to this wintering. I hope that it’s a little less chilly where you are. I think it’s -3° this week. I I can’t I I just can’t. I lived in Minnesota and I was like never again and now I find myself here in Connecticut just all over again. Uh but
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that being said, there is so much going on. I am an Olympics addict, which was one of the main reasons I can’t leave my bed is cuz there’s so much coverage to catch up on every day, especially when you work and are raising kids and making dinner. And then, you know, you’re not
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on the same time zone as the Olympics, so you’re trying to just scramble to catch up on your favorite events. and I love all the events in the Olympics even though I hardly watch them at all in the off season. So that’s a little bit about me there. Um but the other thing is I
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have been glued to my phone and to social media trying to get the latest on the Nancy Guthrie Savannah Guthrie updates. What is going on in that case has kept me riveted. I’m shocked. I’m confused. I’m hearing all these conflicting stories from different media
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outlets. It’s always the French media outlets that seem to have the breaking news. So, I’m subscribing to all these new Instagram accounts. And I just can’t stop watching from the footage they released today of the actual perpetrator that they managed to get from the Ring
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camera headquarters to then FBI profilers saying that perhaps the kidnapper has nothing to do with the actual kidnap or I’m sorry, the ransom note has actually nothing to do with the person who took her and maybe it’s less a kidnapping and just, you know, a
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homicide. side. And then um what else was I reading today? Oh, today I was reading and by reading I mean watching on Instagram or Tik Tok or Facebook. I was watching this person who said that it could all be related to the Epstein Files because Savannah Guthrie
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interviewed a lot of um women from the Epstein Files and was kind of sharing their stories and giving them a platform and now that all these Epstein files have broken, they wanted to find a headline to compete with that. And so somebody who has a stake in the Epstein
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files, I don’t personally believe it’s the Clintons, but that rumor is going around, but I think there’s lots of other nefarious people who would want to do bad things to somebody who is giving a platform to these women. Anyway, no matter what has happened, it sounds like
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it’s destined to be horrible. And um it’s just so spellbinding on so many levels. If you like true crime, I was a big Today Show watcher. I’ve been on the Today’s Show multiple times. Um, there’s just such an investment and this really is just so perplexing, especially when
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you’re of similar age. I’m not exactly Savannah Guthri’s age. I think I’m a little younger, but I have a mother who’s roughly this age. And I really just can’t imagine the devastation, the shock, you know, I could go on and on. So, all that is to say that I don’t have
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anything new that I’ve been watching cuz I’ve literally been watching my Tik Tok and YouTube or the Olympics. Speaking of Tik Tok, I hope you’ve jumped over and checked out Interior Design on Tik Tok. I’m doing lots of fun things. I hired a local college student to get me on Tik
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Tok and to get me playing with the silliest trends. And so, not only are we talking about what’s out for 2026, we’re also going to HomeGoods, scrolling the aisles. Strolling the aisles, I meant to say. I’m recording at night, which is something I rarely do. I just got the
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baby down. I was just about to sit down and watch the men’s short program, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, I got to get a podcast out. I’ve got a son who’s sick, a husband who’s sick. I’m doing it all and I have no bandwidth, but I am making this happen because we have letters in
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the mailbag. We have two questions from one listener. So, I’m going to dig in and try and answer both. Now, guys, if you have questions for me, if you want free interior design advice, and let’s face it, who doesn’t want free interior design advice? It’s so easy. All you do
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is go to uploft.com/mpodcast. Once again, that’s uplift.com/mpodcast. and there, I’ll be able to help you with everything you need. Send me pictures, write me questions, write me follow-up questions once you’ve done the initial first pass of my advice and want to show
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me the reveal. I love to hear what you’re up to. I love to see what you’re working on. I’m always working on things over here except for this particular month where I’m just working on bed rotting. Is that is that a thing? Can I work on that? Okay. Anyway, without
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further ado, let’s dig in to my first question, which comes from Cassidy in Fischers, Indiana. Cassidy writes, “Betsy, I’m back with an update on our living room and questions about a new project I’m starting to think about as we work on finishing touches. Attached
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is an updated photo of our living room. We’ve added a new, larger rug. Thank you so much for pointing this out as it was not on my radar, but has made a huge difference. We also purchased a new chair to replace the toddler trampoline and three large canvas photos. As you
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can see, they’re not hung yet, but I do have them set where they will be placed. To complete the space, we plan to install picture lights above the canvases, hang a gold framed fulllength mirror behind the chair on the cream wall, and place a small drink table next
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to the chair on the green wall. Please note in the updated photos, we have the Christmas tree up as we work to replace some burntout bulbs, but we will return a neutral kids tepee in that corner once the tree is back in storage. For the next project, we’ll be tackling our
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entryway. It’s very small, has no immediate closet or built-in storage. I’ve attached a simple mood board I created on Canva that has the left side showing the wall with the front door where the front door opens and the right side showing the wall to the right side
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of the door directly in front of the staircase. Functionally, we are a family of four. Our two children keep their shoes at the door, but my husband and I generally do not except for a pair of slide-on shoes for walking out the door or boots in the winter. Please give me
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your thoughts, especially on what to do with rugs. I don’t know why, but I’ve struggled to feel confident about our rug placement and size in the entryway and down this long 12 1/2 ft hallway that leads to the living spaces. Thank you for your advice and fun banter,
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Cassidy. My pleasure, Cassidy. Let’s get right into it. The first thing I want to talk about are the changes that you’ve made to the living room. Uh, so exciting to see everything coming along. Of course, I’m going to be offering some advice. I love the rug placement. I love
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the larger rug size. I really like the idea of these three canvas prints on the wall. Um, I think the teepee is going to be a fun change from the Christmas tree. They both have similar shapes and uh footprints. But you know what this room is calling out for? It’s really calling
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out for lamps. I know you want to put art lights above the canvas photos. Let me say something. I would not do that. Canvas photos are casual and art lamps are not casual. They are formal. And I think when you do something formal like an art lamp, above
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something so casual as a canvas print, it’s a little inongruous. I would do it above a painting. I would do it above um artistic photograph print. I would do it above a line drawing that felt special. But it would
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Living room progress & larger rug win from listener Kassidi
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really need to be special because it’s going to be drawing a lot of attention to it. And I love canvas prints. I love pictures of family. Do I think it merits a fine art lamp? No. So, in my mind, that’s not the place to do it. I could definitely see a cute little task floor
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lamp next to the leather chair. I think you are challenged in this space because it’s a multi-functional space that also opens up into a dining area. So, there’s not a lot of room for additional lamps. Maybe you could scoot the couch back towards the dining area a
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little bit more and accommodate a floor lamp next to the teepee. Um, cuz I am concerned. I don’t see a coffee table here. So, we have a large sectional. Where are people putting their books, their drinks, their remotes? I really wish we could forego the teepee and do
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like an in table in table lamp. Maybe even a nesting table. I know you’re bringing a small drink table in which I’m really excited about for the chair, but I’m really worried about servicing this sectional. So, Cassidy, you’ve done a great job already. I am inspired by
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these changes. I’m inspired by this room. It is on the right track. Is it there? Not yet. All right. Now, let’s get to the question that you really had. Okay. Um, you had a question about this entry area. Now, I’m trying to kind of get my bearings because yes, there’s a
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lot going on. When you open the front door, to the left of the door, you have like a shoe bench type thing. It actually looks like an old defunct TV stand that you’re using as a shoe bench. Um, and what bothers me is it’s not really doing a good job of holding shoes
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because the shoes are next to it. I’d rather have one good piece that’s able to do multiple functions. And it looks like you’re thinking about that, too, because I’m looking here at your inspiration um, mood board, and I’m seeing that you’ve got a kind of shoe
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cabinet that’s more tall and vertical and just meant to hold shoes. And I think that’s smart because if your kids are taking off their shoes, if you’re putting on your boots, well, you can sit on the stairs for that. The stairs are right there. The main question you were
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wanting to ask me is about this hallway or just rugs in general. And yes, I think you need a runner rug down this hallway. One side of the hallway ends about 2 in shorter than the other side of the hallway. So, the side of the hallway that also serves as the wall that
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separates the stairs from the hall appears to be going further into maybe that living and dining area than the other wall. I would anchor the runner on that wall, the wall that shares the space with the staircase, because it’ll be further away from that
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entry mat. And then I would do a long runner. Now, I don’t do a runner that’s as long as the hall. So, if the hall is 12 and a half feet long, I’d probably do a 10-ft runner. Maybe a nine foot runner. And I’d center it on that staircase wall. You’ll want to use a rug pad so that
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it’s not slipping and sliding. But you don’t want to do the entire length of the hall because then it’s going to look like wall to-all carpeting. Then you might as well have done that, right? And the other thing that I’m recommending, the other reason why I’m
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recommending a shorter hallway runner is also because you have an entryway rug right at your front door. And I don’t want those two perpendicular rugs to get close to touching. Now, I like a large entry rug. And with your new setup with this console that’s going to be less deep
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than this TV stand/bench you’ve got going on, I’m wondering if maybe we should even extend this rug. So that h you know, we’ve got the door, we’ve got the wall adjacent to it that’s now going to have the taller shoe cabinet, and then you go right up the stairs. What
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I’m grappling with, what I’m thinking about is, do we do a rug that’s big enough to be fully in front of the entry door, but also in front of the shoe cabinet? I’ve landed on No. No. That would be sort of a longer rectal linear rug. I think it’d be hard to find. It
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might be a custom size. Let’s not go down that road and let’s just do a nice big rug in front of the entry door. Right now, you have a cream rug there, which would be very difficult for me and my family with the amount of dirt, snow, soot that gets brought in. Um, so I
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would think about incorporating some color with this rug. Maybe even some colors that we’re going to see later as we walk down the hallway and we see that beautiful green wall in the family room. Something with a pattern to camouflage stains. But, uh, definitely you need
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that long hallway runner that, um, will really lengthen this space and make these two rugs look different. You know, the rug in front of the door is going to be a small, maybe 3×5 entryway rug, whereas this is going to be a 10-ft long thin runner. And by
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thin, you know, this is kind of a wider hallway. So, don’t go for those 2ft or even 2 and 1/2. I think you can go for a three foot wide and really make a much bigger statement. Well, Cassidy, it was a pleasure answering that question and it so excited me when I looked into the
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mailbag and saw that the next question
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Why art lights don’t fit casual canvas prints
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is also from you. So, let’s let’s get right to it. Cassidy writes, “Hi.” Oh, here it is. Here it is. Here it is. Betsy, we are in the midst of our own projects. My husband and I are teaming up to makeover his parents’ hall bathroom. While everything will be
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replaced as far as the tub, the vanity, the linen closet, the mirror, the lighting, toilet, and flooring, we are slightly stumped on the trim and door. The entire house has old wood trim as well as the barebones hollowwood doors. As of now, we plan to completely replace
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the trim in the bathroom, but do we leave the door? Excuse me. All of the other doors in the house are the same as this one except for their master bedroom door, which was added later and now has builder grade six panel white door. I’d love to go wild and replace all their doors and
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trim in the whole house. But as of now, we’ve only been given the rights to the bathroom. What should we do? Thanks for your help, Cassidy. I hate those cheap holo core doors. They are horrible. But I also think it’s weird to only change out a few select doors. And if I
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was changing out a few select doors, the bathroom would not make the high priority list. I would think more about those bedroom doors like you’ve already thought about with the primary. I would think about doors to other interior rooms, maybe even a door to garage. This
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would be the last on my list. That being said, if this is the only door on the list you were given, yeah, it’s time to start swapping these out little by little. It’s going to definitely impact their resale value. Um, but you don’t want to just stop there, which I love
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that you’re already thinking about replacing trim. I don’t know if I would replace this trim. It looks like they have standard height ceilings. It looks like it might even be a textured ceiling. You know, when we’re thinking about what to upgrade in a home, we want to think
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really strategically about what’s going to give us the most bang for our buck. And there’s quite a few things in this bathroom that are dated. Um, now it sounds like you’re going to be switching them out over time, but I’m just not sure what you’re going to do differently
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with the trim that would merit taking it out and replacing it. When people don’t have higher than normal ceilings and normal is 8 feet high, I don’t really like them to get chunkier trim, not only will you have to replace the trim throughout the whole house because
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it really should be consistent. You don’t want to have 6 foot high trim baseboards, moldings in the bathroom and then in the other rooms have this 3-in trim. So, for my money, what I would do, especially because as you upgrade this bathroom, you’re going to have to be
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ripping up flooring, which is going to hurt the trim in some places, I would just paint not only the doors, but also the trim, and a nice version of white or off-white in a semig gloss paint. That is going to go a long way. That is going to really update this space.
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The other thing that you might want to think about changing out are doorork knobs and hinges. Those things can go with you to the next six panel doors. So, if you paint this that nice white color and then you upgrade that doorork knob, you’ll be able to take the doorork
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knob to the new door when you swap that out. And of course, it’ll be a much smaller investment now and something you can use again later. Let’s see what other bangs for your buck. Let me see. I’m going back to the email. Your email was really just about the door and the trim.
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But I just I haven’t seen the whole house. Replacing the whole house trim is not a small feat. And if the whole house has textured ceilings, has 8 foot high ceilings, it wouldn’t be my first priority. I would remove the texture from the ceiling. I would upgrade things like the
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bathroom, which I love that these are on your radar. I would paint the doors and trim initially knowing that I’m going to swap it out later and invest in some hardware that could easily go with the next door. And yeah, little by little be moving through this. I’m one of those people
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who’s wildly impatient and I want everything done yesterday. And if it were up to me, I would have a whole different punch list. and I’m sure you would too. But I’m just excited that
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Adding lamps & functional surfaces
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your in-laws are open to you guys refreshing their space and making it more contemporary. And like I said, we don’t know if they’re planning on moving anytime soon. We don’t know what the next phase is for this house, whether it’s them staying in it, them bequething
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it to you, you trying to resale, but any of the changes we just discussed are going to be amazing for resale, and are really going to not only enhance their experience while they live in the home, but anybody else’s in the future. You guys are thinking along the right lines.
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Let’s see how much we can get done with their budget. Everybody, it’s always a pleasure. Always a pleasure. even at 11 o’clock at night. It’s a pleasure. Um, stay warm and I’ll be talking to you again next week. Until then, bye everybody. A big thanks to our producer Jeremy
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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 one of our talented designers. If you’re
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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 for tuning in and we’ll see you next
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week with more pro tips and pop culture dish.
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