Welcome to Creating Your Happy Place! A podcast that explores how our spaces support (or sabotage) our happiness and make it easier (or harder) to reach our goals, then empowers you to do whatever it takes to get happy at home. 😊🏡

Today, we’re chatting with special guest Hollis Rendleman!

Hollis Rendleman Interiors is an interior architecture/design service for people who desire more from the four walls of their home. Through design theory and years of experience, Hollis creates custom designs that feed your soul and elevates the way you live. She also supports the DIY-ers through one-time consults and offers workshops for those folks who need guidance to create their vision. Please visit hollisrendleman.com for more information, or to schedule an introductory call. Find her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hollisrendlemaninteriors/ !

If you would rather read the episode than listen, we have provided a full transcription of the episode below. Enjoy!

Rebecca: Welcome to Creating Your Happy Place, a podcast that explores how our spaces support or sabotage our happiness and that empowers you to do whatever it takes to get happy at home. I’m Rebecca West, host of Creating Your Happy Place and author of the book Happy Starts at Home. And I am so glad you’re here today.

Now. Not all of us grew up in homes we would have called happy and that can really influence how we set up our homes as adults. So maybe you grew up in a really clean, but not happy home. And now you tend to be cluttered, not just because it’s your personality, but as an act of rebellion against what you associate with a clean home.

Or maybe your parents always argued from behind a closed door. So you hate closed doors, closed spaces, and you prefer an open living plan. Or maybe you were beat-up in a grade school locker room that had yellow tile, and now you hate the color yellow. It can be really funny how our associations can manifest in our physical spaces.

On today’s episode, we’re going to chat with a gal who did grow up in beautiful homes. Some of them were even published in magazines, but she shared with me that they were not always happy homes. As a result she has spent a lot of her adult life dealing with the disconnect between beauty and happiness. Which is funny because ultimately she became an interior designer. I’m so excited to talk about the connection between our wellbeing in our homes, how our past, for good or bad, is connected to our homes and how our homes can shape our futures.

Let me welcome to the show, CEO and principal designer at Hollis Randleman interiors, Hollis, Randleman. Welcome to the show.

Hollis: Thank you. I’m very excited to have this conversation this morning.

Rebecca: Oh, I know that we could go on for hours and hours. So our only trick is going to be keeping us in half an hour.
Now you live in Seattle, like I do, in a fabulous townhouse with your dog, poppy. And I think it’s safe to say you’d call your home a happy place now. And if anybody’s watching this, instead of listening, you can see her living room. It’s delicious. What I’d like to do is start by talking about how the fact, the fact that you haven’t always been able to call your home happy. Can you share a bit about your childhood home and tell us about the journey of reconnecting happiness and beauty? It’s a big topic.

Hollis: It is. Um, I think you mentioned in your first podcast that you are a military brat. Yeah. Um, I am as well, air force brat. So I did not have one childhood home. We moved about every year. It was really frequent, we were in the States. But there was this kind of magic of, you know, so we, we lived on military housing. My dad got out of the air force when I was in the middle of elementary school. Which was this really interesting evolution about homes after that.

But while we were in military housing, what was amazing was this magic my mom created by pulling out lamps and curtains and pillows and artwork out of a box. And all of a sudden it was a home again. And I feel like, you know, I know a lot of military brats and I feel like people as adults, either hunker down as soon as they’re on their own or they’re kind of nomads for awhile.

And I was one of those people who was like, wow, home is so important to me. And the second I get a chance to like establish my own and buy my own house and make it mine. I think that stemmed from how frequently, how frequently we moved.

Rebecca: Yeah, that totally makes sense.

Hollis: Yeah. So, um, we also just had, because he got out of the air force, we had this evolution of economic difference, you know, kind of this growth of financial stability in my house and even abundance. And so the style of our home also evolved. And like you mentioned in the intro, by the time I was in high school, you know, our home was getting featured in kind of local design magazines, but still we were getting attention from, from folks based on the remodels my mom would do in our house.

And, you know, like we moved justice frequently when my dad was in the private sector and my parents would take on remodels. Not knowing that six months later we would move. So we’d be in this house that was just so tumultuous. And I’m dealing with, you know, trying to make new friends in this new state and then, and moving in the middle of the school year.
And so I feel like for homes just had such power, both positive and negative in my life. And, um, I feel like it’s been this lifelong journey to learn how to connect to a home in a solely positive way.

Rebecca: And that’s interesting because you had shared with me that in your twenties, you remodeled two homes yourself, right. And you had said the phrase to me, something like. It’s time for my home to work for me or to serve me instead of me always serving myself.

Hollis: Oh my gosh, that gives me chills. But that is it’s so true because I, so my first home, um, was in the central district in Seattle, just a few blocks from where I’m living now. And you know, that was, uh, got the kitchen, get the bathroom. I learned how to plumb. I learned how to do electrical work. I mean, I definitely hired some professionals, but I did a lot of it. So that was literally blood, sweat, and tears on that house. But I would work every day after work all weekend and, you know, just really.

I was so beholden to that house because I had a vision of how it could be, but I had zero balance around that. And you know, when friends wanted to hang out with me, I’m like, great, come rip up my yard with me, or knock out the tile in the bathroom with me. And that was our social time. So, um, it took me years to figure out that homes are really supposed to support us.

We are not supposed to be beholden to our homes. And obviously, it doesn’t mean we’re never going to do work on our homes, but to actually kind of approach the work we’re doing from this place of how can I make this space take better care of me. But that took me, I mean, probably over a decade to learn, honestly. Because I’ve been someone who’s always had a vision for a space and always wanted to execute it, but, you know, again, complete lack of balance in doing that well.

Rebecca: And I think this is something you can say about any relationship or relationship with any job or relationships, any human relationship with any house. There is the balanced version and there’s the out of balance version. And I, one of the things I’ll see from people sometimes is that they’re using their homes as a way to hide or disassociate or they’re trying to fix something that they’re fixing the wrong thing.

We can hide behind a project, hide behind food, hide behind all kinds of things. And it’s not always solving the problem. On the other hand, sometimes changing our space is part of solving the problem, or at least emerging from a problem. And I know you’ve experienced that before. What does that bring up for you? Because that brings up several things that you’ve shared with me. But when you think about using your home to heal, what are your thoughts on that?

Hollis: Well, so again, in my twenties, so this home I owned, um, my first home had several bedrooms and, you know, this was the stage where I was having roommates for a while and my partner was living with me. At some point we had like six people in that home.A nd then there came a point where everyone kind of cleared out and I had all this leftover furniture. I also had a bunch of stuff that I, my mom had given me that I didn’t know if I wanted or, um, and just really at this place where I’m like, I’m not sure what my style is.

I remember very distinctly getting rid of everything. And in this three-bedroom house, having like two pieces of furniture left and writing a friend over to eat dinner and watch a movie, which we did on the floor because I had no furniture, but I just needed this clean slate to figure out, you know, What is me what, you know, because obviously, I was buying a lot of stuff from Goodwill or Ikea, but it didn’t feel like me. And so it wasn’t until the last couple of years in that house that I started to actually create a vision for what my aesthetic was. And Ben moved to a second house and realized that that still wasn’t my aesthetic and so continued to evolve.

Rebecca: Do you think that was connected to other work that you were doing for yourself and figuring out who you are as a human?

Hollis: Yeah! Actually I was in pretty intensive therapy. I was, you know, Saturn return and big life changes and I was changing career and I was actually kind of coming to terms with the fact that I really actually wanted to be an interior architect and designer, because I had kind of, I had come up in the world of social justice and I had kind of thought that was too frivolous to do as a career is the truth.

So I was realizing all these things about myself. One of which was like, this is actually where my passion is and I think I can do good in the world through helping people with spaces.

Rebecca: Yeah. That’s a very familiar story for me. You know, how do you take the idea of interior design and go, okay, it’s not just throw pillows for rich people It actually can do good. It’s not the classic idea of what interior design is. If used well, wielded, well, it’s a very powerful tool.

Hollis: I, I think it’s extremely powerful and even more so now that we’re all spending so much more time at home than we were say six months ago. Um, yeah, so, so yes, it was a huge evolution and my aesthetic was one of them, um, which took me a while. Took me a long while actually. So my second house, I also remodeled. I had learned a few things about doing it that time. But it wasn’t until I moved into this space, which honestly, the first time I signed my lease here, I rented this space. It was a six-month lease. Cause I’m like, I’m not staying. You know, I went from a 1500 square foot house to this 560 square foot townhouse. Wow. And I’m like, I’m not staying. This is just transitional. I’ve been here 10 years now. Wow. So this is definitely the evolution and it’s been interesting cause I’ve taken photographs as I’ve kind of developed.
So one it’s a rental- I’m not supposed to paint. Obviously I painted.

Rebecca: For anybody who’s not watching her, her living room is this amazing deep Emerald color. The walls are a gorgeous deep Emerald. There’s curtains that clearly did not come with the rental. It does not at all look like a temporary space, so continue talking about it!

Hollis: So that, you know, that too was an evolution in part, because I wasn’t sure how long I was going to stay here. And then finally, I was like, I don’t know where else I’m going for right now. So I’m going to make this at home. So I started to do that. And then, for me, the kind of the biggest aha with homes has come in the last few years.

So my dad died in the fall of 2016. Um, And he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. So I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of anticipatory grief, but when you know, someone is dying, um, There’s that whole grieving process. Unfortunately it does not mitigate the fact that you then completely grieve when someone does die. So that kind of knocked me on my ass with grief. Um, and then when I was coming out of it towards the beginning of 2017, I was like, okay, I need a new level of security. And you know, when there’s a death in the family, I feel like. Let’s shake this thing up. And you feel a little untethered to the world.

And so I was like, I need to make this, even more, my space. So that’s when I committed to, you know, putting up drapes and doing some things that I had still been avoiding because it was a rental. I focused on my living room in my bedroom at that point. And my dad was buried at Arlington cemetery, which has a six-month waiting process the way they navigate. And I do not recommend waiting six months for a funeral. It just, it, um, I didn’t think it would be hard, but it was actually really hard. And so I came back from DC having gone to his funeral and, six weeks later was diagnosed with breast cancer. So I just, you know, this was like a one, two punch. Just under a year. Um, and so I had mostly finished this space.

I was interviewing with doctors and making a plan. And then there’s something about cancer where you have to get a PhD in cancer and like six weeks. It’s just amazing how much information you have to take in and process and decide about treatment. And so I had been totally overwhelmed. So I decided I was going to postpone my surgery for about six weeks and just enjoy the end of summer, because as we know in Seattle, that doesn’t last very long here. It was really important to me was my space going into surgery because I knew, you know, it would be surgery and then, radiation, and then Chemo and then drugs. And so I knew it was going to be this long stretch of treatment.

Like a week before surgery, I had a couple friends come over, who both happened to be Virgos and were wrapping up chords for me and helping me hang the final artwork. And my best friend came for a week, um, during surgery and as she was taking the link from the airport to my house, I’m like still finishing upholstering chairs and stuff. But, you know, having help with putting my space together was such an amazing gift during that time. And my friends know me well and know that that’s what was important.

Rebecca: Yeah.

Hollis: But then I got to go into surgery knowing that I had this space that I could come and retreat and that just wasn’t anything to do with cancer.

Rebecca: yeah, well, it, it felt not like it had anything to do with cancer. It felt done. So it wasn’t on your to-do list, which a lot of people are jealous of as they went into COVID season going “Huh, I wish I’d gotten some of those projects done earlier.” Um, but it also gave you a space that you could rest in. You loved, that there was a place of healing.

Hollis: I mean, it, it sounds so corny and woo woo, but like, I mean, you can see, I have a green velvet couch and just laying on that couch and being able to touch the velvet, you know, was grounding and soothing. And, you know, my curtains have these like really fantastic yellow and orange flowers on them. And it just was the sanctuary. I mean, I’d like to say that cancer didn’t come into the space at all, which is obviously not true, but there were textures and lights and temperature and, you know, smells, I’m a big fan of candles and all of that kind of stuff that just really helped create the space in here that, um, was so vital.

Because it’s, you know, going through treatment like that is so exhausting and I was going to work full time and then doing treatment and coming home and just being so grateful for this space. So, and same with my bedroom. I mean, I think had I not tackled my bedroom, it would have been much harder to get the rest I needed.

Rebecca: Absolutely. So I mean, given that obviously you and I are on the same page, we know that our spaces have had huge psychological effects on us when we were children and now, and then helping us heal you through some very serious things. Me through my divorce. What do you think, you know, and as an interior designer, how do you help people navigate the, am I just hiding behind this project? Or am I doing this project because it’s going to help me heal? Like, how do you think somebody can identify when a project has gotten out of hand or isn’t being helpful and beneficial?

Hollis: I really, when I start working with clients, I really like to talk to them a lot about how they want to feel in that space.
What is their ultimate goal? And. And, you know, not everyone is willing to go there with me, but kind of even talk about  what’s their fantasy vision of how they’re going to operate in this space once it’s done. And, you know, is there a fantasy that suddenly all these things that are currently a problem, outside of, you know, counter space and organization, that’d be solved, you know, is their marriage going to be better? Or, you know, like obviously that’s something really different, but if they can talk to me about how being in that space is going to have a positive impact on them, then. You know, to me that that’s a worthwhile endeavor of money. And especially if you’re doing construction people in your space and all of that

Rebecca: And the chaos and upset that goes with living in there too long. And I also think, I find that when it’s couples, sometimes one person is perfectly happy living in a construction zone for nine months and the other person is going to lose their mind. And so it’s also a matter of balancing all the people in the house, obviously.

Hollis: Yeah.

Rebecca: Yeah, I love that you really took charge of your rental space. It didn’t happen immediately. It sounds like you lived in a generic space for a while. What advice would you give to renters specifically? Because I think a lot of renters don’t necessarily think that interior design is even a conversation for them.

Hollis: I know. Yeah. Um, you know, I think I love to paint. I think my theory is that, um, new paint washes away all your sins. So I feel like even when you have a rule that you can’t paint, you can easily paint it back to a neutral color. And I just got to the point, I think it was about year four when I started to paint and I was like, well, I’ve been here long enough. They’re going to have to repaint to rent it out again anyways. So, um, I don’t know. I think pain is easy. I also feel, I mean, I’ve always lived in houses that have laughed and plaster.

So patching holes is a little bit of a challenge, but I mean to have artwork that makes you happy up on the walls, I think it’s a price that is worth paying. Um, you know, I’ve definitely been, I do have some shelves that I put up, like in my bathroom and kitchen, which was way more thoughtful about whether that was worth it and really serving a purpose to put, um, anchors in and all of that sort of stuff to.  But yeah, rentals are hard. I understand. You know, the rule in here was I was allowed to have one, um, accent wall and I was like, well, if I could paint one wall, I’m going to paint all of them.

Rebecca: It’s always, it’s a matter of your risk tolerance. So you have to ask, are you an act now ask for forgiveness later person, what kind of landlord do you have? Obviously, there’s a lot to explore, but I think, you know, obviously, I am in the, I love to paint camp, because it’s just so little money, especially if you’re doing it for yourself.

So little money for such big reward. And I also love that you installed custom curtains because whether it, you know, I tend to be an off the shelf curtain kind of person. Not every window allows for that, but light control and noise control is a really big part of a home functioning. Yes. The, you know, the blinds that come with most rentals, some aren’t always a great solution when you’re needing light and noise control or temperature control.

Hollis: They aren’t. Yeah. I have blackout shades in my bedroom for that very reason. Um, and yeah, I mean, again, I, you have to put giant holes in the wall to get those rods up there, but, um, it is transformative to the room. And so, I mean, obviously I think someone’s timeline in a space really impacts how much you’re willing to do, but by the time I rolled it around 2 can turn into 10 years.

Rebecca: When you think about your childhood home, I know that you had mentioned to me that you, you know, figuring out your own aesthetic, there was some challenge to that because you kind of said, well, this was my mom’s aesthetic.
This is what she created and trying to find your voice was a challenge. So when you think about your journey and finding your aesthetic and your voice, as it related to- how am I different from my mom or whatever. What advice would you give people around that journey?

Hollis: That is an excellent question, because I would hope for other people, it might not take quite so long. It really did take quite a while for me. But, you know, I also think when I was doing this Pinterest wasn’t around and I’m such a huge fan of Pinterest and being able to just kind of go down the rabbit hole of looking at living rooms and seeing that there are 9 million variations of how your living room can look.

I feel like seeing inspiration, especially outside of catalogs, it’s hard to go to say a West Elm site and just feel like that’s what you have to have because that’s, what’s in front of you versus finding what actually. Matches for you and what appeals to you? I am very visual. I think it helps to have visual inspiration and, and, you know, I tell my clients to 10, 20 to 25 images that they like and then narrow it down to five. And then we start to dissect what is common about those five images?

I really like working with clients who have a distinct style, even if it’s not kind of on trend right now. I’m working with someone who is very arts and crafts, which isn’t, you know, what you’re seeing in all the Instagram feed. Um, I’ve worked with someone who did a whole Safari theme for her living room, which was fun and totally unexpected. And, you know, I like, I like people who know what resonates with them and, and I’m a big believer in kind of the environmental design psychology that, you know, just like a lot of information we have as adults, we learned what we liked and didn’t like early on in our life. And it’s okay to go back to that even if it’s not trendy.

Rebecca: And I love you said so many important things there. One is definitely having a visual conversation instead of trying to put your style into words. Most of us, even designers can’t use words to describe a feeling it’s it works better with pictures. So using the tools that we now have, which is great. I also find that a lot of people think they don’t know their own design style, but I find, and you can tell me if this is true for you, with your clients too, that when people just pin 10 pictures or go on house and do 10 pictures. It is amazing how much consistency there is from picture to picture, even if they don’t see it at first, but like instantly they’re going to be drawn to either clean lines or more decorative traditional lines. You’re going to be drawn to richer, warmer colors or lighter airier colors. It’s rare that I have a client who is all over the map. And when I do, I have to step back and go, there’s something else happening here.

Hollis: Yes.

Rebecca: Because we all, you know, we all know if we like chocolate ice cream or not. Even if you’ve never had it, you just try and be like, Yeah, I can go with choclate ice cream. Right? Same thing is true with our interiors. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to be able to name it and say, I like Louis the 14th chairs who cares what they’re called. Doesn’t matter. This is what you’re looking at. So using those visual tools, the other thing that you had shared with me about your journey was you ended up figuring out that you had an aesthetic aligned with your moms.

Hollis: It’s so true.

Rebecca: So you battled that for a while. You’re like, Oh, I don’t want this.

Hollis: Yeah. I kind of went this, you know, which was fun, but you know, in some ways expensive, but I just want this kind of. Curvy path to land here. And then, um, a few years ago, my brother and I were looking through, um, old family slides, um, several of what several years of which were before either of us were born. But they started showing there were slides of homes that we had lived in and I just turned to him and I was like, I did it. I recreated our childhood home in my living room. I don’t know how I got there, but there, I mean, like to the chairs, to the colors on their drapes, like the work. So I was like, okay,

Rebecca: Actually having a conversation with somebody who is not yourself and is not necessarily a family member. Cause they don’t, they can’t always get out of their own heads. But with somebody who thinks about design in terms of psychology and because as you said, your journey was maybe more expensive than it had to be. But if you have somebody who can ask you the questions of like, okay, well, why do you feel like you should not like blue? Why do you feel like you should change your living room? Anytime there’s a shift, that’s a big red flag for me, because that should, is almost always coming from something external. And maybe it’s true. Maybe it’s not, but if it’s not connected to something internal, like my mom thinks I should change my living room. And I hate my living room. Those go together. My mom thinks I should change my living room and I love my living room. That’s where I, as a design psychology coach would be like, okay, well, let’s talk about the confidence you need to say to your mom- I love my living room. Because it’s not hers.

Hollis: Yeah, I think, I mean, and I think that’s for me, a lot of why I get frustrated with design trends is because I feel like that’s another external force. Um, and you know, again, I love Instagram, but I feel like there’s such a trend. Towards, you know, kind of overexposed white, um, you know, all the things.

Rebecca: Plants that I know I’ll never keep alive.

Hollis: And I just don’t think that that, like I can admire them and think they’re pretty, but that does not resonate with me and my soul. And I don’t think it actually resonates with a lot of people.

Rebecca: Everybody has done the work you’ve done to figure out your own design compass, your aesthetic compass, your life compass. And so we all want to belong, and these trends help us belong. Right. It helps us say, yep. I’m part of the tribe I’m doing what I’m supposed to.I belong. I feel like I’m part of the group and that’s a very comfortable thing. It’s very challenging to walk a path that doesn’t feel like it’s in the tribe. It takes a lot of courage.

Hollis: Yeah. I think, I mean, part of what I want to do for my clients is to have their space truly reflect them and not just aesthetic, but like their rich history and where they’re going in their life. And, um, and I don’t think trends always support that. Like again, going to Instagram, like I can see three images that look the same, and I can’t tell you whose feed that is on. And I want to see someone’s space and be like, yes, that is absolutely Rebecca. You know, like I get a sense of Rebecca as soon as I walk in here. And to me, that is way more important.

Rebecca: And it’s going to be in the weird things, you know? Totally. And like, for me, I got a pink front door and I have a squirrel, a portrait of squirrel right in my head right here. Like other people obviously would like the same things, but it’s, it’s in, it’s in the individual ingredients and it’s in the combination of ingredients, it’s just like cooking, right? What was grandma’s special sauce? Usually she put nutmeg in there and nobody knows it. It’s still just tomato sauce, but she added her flare and that’s how our homes can be for us too.

Hollis: Absolutely. Yeah, I think especially with COVID and you know, everyone feeling like the world is just really hard right now to come be in a space that is reflective of you. To me, feels ultimately more rejuvenating than coming into a space that looks good, but you don’t have this like soul connection to.

Rebecca: So a space that’s done like you were talking about when you went in for surgery, for cancer, having that space be done so that it wasn’t yet another thing weighing on you is, is essential. So whether or not somebody is in a place where they can afford to make it aesthetically the way they want like maybe a kitchen or is not in the budget. That’s totally fine. But make sure that you replace the faucet if it’s leaking. Right. The small things, like don’t let the big thing be an obstacle to the small things that you do have control.

Hollis: Absolutely. Yeah. I’m a big fan. I think we both really like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and addressing safety first, like you said, you know, do you have a leaky faucet or too much noise coming from your front window or does your lock on your door not work? Like let’s take care of those. So psychologically you can rest even more in that space and then we can build the pretty things on top of it.

Rebecca: Yeah, and those little things actually build momentum too, because you know, now you fixed a faucet and you replaced a burnt-out light bulb, and then you freshened up the paint and your guest room. And next thing you know, you’ve taken so many things off your list. You’ve gotten so much of a sense of relief from having accomplished those projects. Like those are all things I just mentioned that I have accomplished in my home and like it just, and then when I look at the thing, that’s now not broken, I’m also like, I, I did that. So I feel a sense of accomplishment and I’m like, Oh, that’s not on my list. So it’s like an antidote to the millions of things that are.

Hollis: And you get the reward of the space feeling better. And so every time you walk in there, you’re like, this looks good. This feels good. I can keep kind of that created space.

Rebecca: yeah, before we wrap up, I always like to bring it back to reality because especially when I interview interior designers, people can think we have perfect homes. And that’s obviously so not true or not true. So I would like to know, have you ever had a design failure, something that you were like, oops! And did you learn from it, what would you, what would you share that was a life lesson.

Hollis: I will just say I’ve had so many design failures, so many, but, uh, you know, and I, I like to think as an interior designer for my clients, I help them avoid the majority of those. So like I said, I’ve always lived in houses that have lath and plaster. And so, I always have holes that weren’t successfully, I wasn’t successfully able to anchor whatever, so, you know, all of that kind of stuff, but I do think having done two kitchen remodels.

I really feel like the second, the last nail goes in into a kitchen. You’re like, I wish I had done this instead, but I also feel like I can get really woo woo and think that, um, homes are actually organic, evolving, you know, beings in themselves. And so it’s not about getting it. Perfect. Um, I mean, certainly when you paint the wrong color and you just can’t stand it, paint over it and get the right color. But, you know, we’re always going to have these little things that were, we wish were slightly different about our homes and, um, but yeah.

Rebecca: Or buddies or relationships because life isn’t perfect. And I think that is a really important thing for people to hear like, if you’re going to go into a project, whether you’re doing it yourself or hiring somebody to execute it for you, if you’re going in with your standard of success, being ultimate perfection, you will not be happy. Because that is actually impossible.

Hollis: because humans are doing it right. It’s we’re laying your tile. Humans are assembling your cabinets. Like humans are doing it. It’s not going to be perfect.

Rebecca: So when you stand back and you look at whatever that project was like, it’ll say the crown molding has a weird seam in it. Or one pile is crooked. You have to really check in with yourself and go- is this worth fixing because the fix is hard to fix. Those are always hard. And you know, you’ve just spent so much money and so much time. And so it’s appropriate for you to have that visceral response of, I paid for this to be right. And some things you need to say to your contract and go no, make this right. And other things you can go. You know what there are, there are children in the world who didn’t have dinner because they don’t have enough money. Let’s get a little perspective.

Hollis: Yes, and again, that’s where, I mean, I try to talk all of my clients as they start the demo process that that’s not, you know, that it’s not going to be perfect. And in the end, can you walk in that space and this early feel different? And are you feeling how you want it to feel in that space when we started, then it’s a success. Whether that tile is askew or not.

Rebecca: And do you even have furnishings yet? Like, I’ll have people buy a house and they’re like, I hate all the crown work or the, or the base molding in his house and like, okay, but you don’t have any furniture, like all you can see is that horrible base molding I’ll be like, yeah, I totally, that looks awful. I agree. But do you really need to spend $10,000 to have all the trim work in your house? Redone? Can you just put your furniture in and not even see it?

Hollis: I also feel like most of my clients have that reaction to paint every single time because pink goes on the wall and they’re like, what have I done? And then two days later they’re like, okay, I love it. Yeah, there are a lot of people out there who get very intimidated about having that much color in their space.

Rebecca: If you’re trying to take risks, which obviously you love color, I love color. We encourage people to take risks.
You can take it on things like paint or a rug that’s are easier to change rather than the tile or the sofa, because I’ve had some major fails. I talked about, I think in  the first episode about how I painted the ceiling black in my divorce home. But also I painted my hallway on a different chapter of my life in, um, ketchup and mustard, yellow and red.

Hollis: delightful.

Rebecca: Oh, it was, um, it was impactful. It was bad, but it was just an experiment. I’m like, I don’t know. It was neat cheerful and out of the box and fun. And it could have worked. It didn’t and it was just paint. And I went, Oh, all right. Lesson learned. And what I learned from that, cause this was way before I was an interior designer.. What I learned was that if you’re, if your colors are too clear, if there’s not some complexity to the color, they can get really intense really quickly. And having a little bit more, a little bit of a gray tone, a little bit of complexity, maybe going darker than you will think so that it’s not so like the neon and your face. These are all important parts of making color work. I didn’t know that at the time. So I just threw literally yellow and literally red up on my wall. And I learned that I changed it. So don’t be afraid to experiment. Life is way too short not to have the confidence to experiment, but it’s also too, too short to live with the mistake.

Hollis: Go change it. Yes.

Rebecca: Yeah. If it was expensive, I’ve had people who call me and they’re like, I bought the sofa and I hate it. And it’s $3,000 sofa, which in the world of sofas isn’t even that much money. It’s crazy. What’s in our industry. But, you know, for normal people, $3,000 sofa as an investment. And they’re like, I hate it. Nobody sits on it. And I’m like, you might want to consider getting rid of it because you’ve already spent the money. The money has gone. You walk in your living room. You’re punishing yourself for having made, quote unquote, a bad decision. It was just a decision. We all make decisions that aren’t super, this one was just about a sofa. It’s not like you, you know, had a child. And I like, gosh, I’m really reconsidering that choice. Now that they’re 18 years old. Right. Some things you can’t put back like children. Sofas you can move on from.

Hollis: Yes. I think, which again is just kind of the evolution of, you know, discovering what you like, why it didn’t work, what you want next time, you know? I don’t, I just don’t think any of us have homes that are even how much we love them, are stagnant. Like they’re elements that always have to changing. Yes. Exactly.

Rebecca: So let’s leave our listeners with, what advice would you want to give them for creating their own happy place? What do you want to leave our listeners with?

Hollis: Oh, that’s a good question. I am a huge fan of picking art that just gives you a visceral reaction and ideally one, that is how you want to feel in that space. So I love when clients either already have art or we can start by finding art and then kind of build the room around that. Um, and it can be a photograph from a vacation. It can be a painting, it can be a print, you know, it does it, whatever it is, doesn’t matter, just joy. And that, you know, you’re going to be really happy to look at that for the next few years.

Rebecca: I love it. That’s fantastic. So if people were wanting to work with you, how can people find you?

Hollis: Um, my website is Hollis randleman.com. So www.hollisrendleman.com And it’s lots of pages about services and workshops and all of that sort of stuff.

Rebecca: Perfect. And I will also say that her Instagram feed is delicious! You should totally go check it out as well.

Hollis: Thank you very much.

Rebecca: And this has been a wonderful pleasure chatting with you. Thank you for sharing a little bit about your journey of creating your own happy home. And I know that this is just the start of many more wonderful, happy home chapters.

Hollis: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. This was fun. Thank you. You’re welcome.

Rebecca: So, listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode of creating your happy place and that you feel a little bit more encouraged and empowered to make your home your happy place. If you feel stuck, do check out my book, happy starts at home. It’s full of exercises that are meant to help you figure out why your home isn’t working for you and identify what needs to change. And if you have a specific design dilemma in your home, you can also reach out to either my team or to Hollis. We’re both in Seattle at seriously happy homes. And thanks to the power of the internet, we can help out wherever you are in the world. In the meantime, no matter where you call home, I do hope it makes you seriously happy. Until next time!

MAY YOUR HOME ALWAYS BE HAPPY!