as this is due us and also with the file duo we are so excited about our segment today it's a topic that is so interesting and i don't know why we didn't think about it before interior design and how it relates to fashion because that's what we always bring everything back to fashion absolutely so we'd like to welcome chris we love everything about christine's theory on interior design and waiting to hear what she had to tell you guys  little i was always helping my friends do things renovating my house and everything and i just decided when he went to kindergarten i was going back to school that's kind of our story too we went when our kids went to school at five we decided to know really know like when you go out and what your passions are and i think you feel more confident i think yes yes and you're looking for something to do that you can work into your family so you can be there for the sports or the homework and all that stuff so interior design offered me that opportunity going to school that i worked for somebody for five years and i was fortunate enough to work three long days so i was able to be home the other days with the kids and stuff and then it came to the point where i was ready to go out on my own on my own and then three design how they kind of you know collide how those worlds do collide well i think one influences the other and i can't necessarily say fashion influences interior design i think interior design also influences fashion you know the colors the textures the fabrics it's all the same it all works together and when you are addressing yourself you dress yourself to feel a certain way to portray a certain luck and when you are do living in your home or in an office or something you are having the same feeling you want to invoke a feeling and have it represent us or it's your brand fear commercial spaces or your family and the journey that your family's been on it's where you are going its own true how it's really the thing how you know you might feel really good in a color when you wear it you might feel really good walking into a room in that same color yeah we get this all the time for clients who say they don't like to shop or they feel very confused about what to wear when clients no matter what the project is whether you're a d i y person looking for some advice or you're starting a huge project we always start with the design because this is a strategic meeting onsite or in your home or your office wherever the project's going to be and we go through what you want for your place your space and we talk about all the things that nobody wants to talk about we talk about budget we talk about investment things where you can stand where you can save right we talk about the reality of timelines you know you can't  a kitchen in three weeks right like that like we don't like to tell you that you are done does you know construction's a little rough but you can't do it like that so we talk about timelines we talk about if you have a huge project and your budget is not big enough implementing in phases and we tell you where you should start and where you should proceed so at that point it's one have to to our meeting if you're done you know if you feel like that's enough for you and you can do it on your own that's great and then if not we move to working with them to create the design and implementation and the whole package and everything so low they were great and so similar it's like the expert who really could just like help make your life easier i mean i think a lot of people feel very insecure when they're you know trying on clothes or embracing new  fashion i think of the same way with interior design what you know about being realistic about time and all that yes people have to be very very realistic about their age and their body type right when they're buying clothes you can't you know we're not plastic people because you know people say i want to open concept i want this i want that but open concepts great but you have structure well yeah there's some things you just can't move you can't you can move a staircase but it's going to blow your whole budget so you have to be realistic about it and you can move a staircase if you have that budget you know sometimes people buy an older home and this is happening a lot now because you know new york or new jersey are so congested that people are buying older homes and they're knocking down all of it or part of it and rebuilding it and adding on to it going up or going back so there's a lot of data overwhelming you get overwhelmed i mean because for me we love fashion we love styling we love over everything we're talking about us and you're dressing the house exactly right yes exactly i do get overwhelmed actually when it comes to interior design i really do and i people think that's funny you know think let's talk about some of the trends so like what is something that's trending right now in fashion that we could talk i mean in interior design that we could talk about so trending right now in interior design slide oh who here is black ok and when people say black they're like oh my gosh now i could never do black black you know you're creating a whole it looks terrible ok now here black works because we have the brass accents there's some merit to reflect from my job and then to look at the ceiling there's texture on the ceiling in pattern which brings your eye up so you're not getting this focused little whole thing it's really creating a lot of movement and then the floor again creates up we always talk about certain ways to you know if you want to emphasize a certain body part that you feel very calm i write about you know you know certain ways there are certain you know different silhouette dollars or you know i don't make your i draw into that area if you want to make your legs look longer we always spending a lot of time in it but if you did something like this in your foyer i would say you have to carry this team not necessarily the black walls ok throughout your whole space so that all the common areas make sense ok so like the kids bedrooms your bedroom you can change things up a little bit but the common areas you know kind of have something running that has right otherwise it looks just jointed in right and but again i'm not going out here talking i'm thinking about like when we dress somebody and we get them this fabulous outfit will always say you you have to think about the assessors too though because you know you can have the best outfit on but things could look this jointed or not totally put together i don't think about and it looks kind of flat yes that's so it's i mean where is that what i love that and it's something i never would have thought of on my own  danielle you know the right type of person you know but that's what design is we figure out what you are personality is what your style is what you're comfortable with not many people would be comfortable in the sight of room do you find that people when you interview them do they lie  could try to portray themselves as something like you probably are the question we actually have a very detailed questionnaire that we only mail them to fill out and we ask the wife the husband whoever is going to be involved in the decision making we even talk to the kids so by the time we g the questionnaire we've already reviewed it before we meet with them ok so we have a little bit of a sense of how they are and then and do they tell the truth we're pretty good about picking up on that and you know they say something that to me doesn't feel like it's jiving with everything else they say your want or whatever you just we just ask more questions we ask a lot of questions that's good we have to do more of that too because when we get you clients we know without them fashions to size and lifestyle and all that and sometimes we're also going to feel like they're not as big as they say they are they're not as yeah forwarding you know thing right there right right or i think a lot of times they'll tell us you know when we have a consultation they'll tell us kind of what you know i guess they're drawn to but not really what they wear or feel and i know you need fabrics with that adorable that you know a little resistant to staining and stuff which those are all the considerations that we had it's so funny having this conversation with you christine is like these are the things we say also like you know you could be wearing this or you could be dancing and you know telling us the right to an event but they want this long train well you know or you can be dancing right in the fitting or you can be eating you know thing right that you know like the same kind of conversation yeah yeah and then you know do you do you are you the type of person who is are you investing in the long term right now and we be in this house right or spend a lot of money exactly rally or you the type of person that gets bored and as much as you want to work with a designer you want to change every few years so then we're not going to invest in itself is that our long term goals you know go with a less runs of one so these are all the things you have to think about and it comes from having conversations and we have a lot of conversations we ask a lot of questions throughout the whole process we ask a lot of questions because things come up along the way and also sometimes when we go back and iris i will talk i was is my business partner we'll talk about the project and everything and then it's like oh you know let's ask you this question so the mother should do an e mail and you know or attacks and stuff so it's a process and it's getting to know you and it's establishing a relationship and that's really the key to figuring out what somebody wants and to give them what they want and didn't always necessarily know what they want and it sounds like you're earning their trust absolutely when you have thousand dollars you know relationship was i mean i'm from their home and yet person right meeting their you when you're doing a project you learn a lot about very recently that you're very clear that i'm you know they start to tell you things so it's definitely establishing trust and and if they don't trust us we can't do our job well because we're you know where you think you have an idea of what you want but we're going to push that idea and give you something that you might not want like we had a client who was doing the bathroom and we said pay the ceiling black and they were like black get out of  and then the bad guy that yeah i was great right i'm a question what is the biggest mistake that you find that people do in their own homes and for the interior design the biggest mistake i find people make is they start the project and then they call us started you picked up some colors and you know sometimes you make a mistake and yeah it's definitely better to start from the beginning and we can guide you through the whole process because the things you're saying it makes so much sense it almost seems like why didn't i think of that  but if you need the expert the expert i really has it all covered so yes well you know like we said before a lot of people are intimidated to hire interior designer or to call on even just for a consultation because they feel they're going to be judged and with silence where not i want to feel their body that they  storage somewhere you know the sports the kids are playing sports or the kids are musicians so maybe music room so all these different things so we really need to just see the way you live and i was fascinated by the fact that these like two fields that seem because i'm going to repurpose pieces we don't like to stuff you know everything out so this was the fabric that they had they got it somewhere and so we pulled all these pieces because this city is very traditional and it has a lot of different places we can  because i think a lot of people don't like green that's you know it's not i so i run across run into more people who don't like green than who do i agree and i just think it's so beautiful it's such a fresh color it's so springy and made me feel good and guest room in one of our clients homes who's an equestrian or just so we took you know the hotel style sheets with the greenery and the little pops of yellow if i did but i just think green too though it's like the undertone is like you're saying oh the yellow home are equestrian so it just the whole thing fit you know so it's really in a severing of an interesting question like do you think most people i guess kind of connect their house to their to their outside hobbies and passion usually the house yes yes yes i do find that most people's taste in their home is very similar to their personality i think of what areas do the right answer fashion yes you know they're very tailored and you know neutral holler little bit of color here and there stick to the blues you know the soft colors the blues the koreans those come close i find those colors they won their home you know and a lot of times i say you know people like i don't know what i want for color i'm like well let's take a look in your closet and see what's in the so small a lot of times you know people buy what they like for clothing and what they're comfortable and what that what makes them happy what makes right heel good invokes maybe things from the past to know exactly and like for a bedroom you want to be comfortable you want to speak to them whatever it is like some people like a black dramatic bedroom some people like a bright and vibrant people want very neutral and plain and quiet and when i say plain like simple ok not a lot of embarrassment but some people say i don't want to do throw pillows just you know a couple of holes and that's it but i was not so great about the accessories in a room because yes i think it's more it's more of an investment really when you decorated room you paint the walls you get carpet you know going to change it every year you do in fashion you really kind of you can change you know your linens you can add a throw in the greenery color you can a little pop and it changes everything you can you don't have to do custom pillows you can buy store pillow so you can take you know if you mean pillows and add new colors every season if that makes you happy you know you see if your family really is the same because we see that also with our clients i mean you're we really lock the very likely are rare if you know people are either they don't have the budget to buy all new clothes or they're you know scared maybe to like step out of the box a little bit right but we always say work with these recipes yeah because that's and you can do it you can mix you know rustic with gently you know glitzy chandelier is you know everything t a lot of different patterns you have zero print you have this paisley over here you have this geometric on the floor but the scale of them the sizes all relate to each other in a way that they don't fight each other it all works together i love that so you really take that into account when you're thinking about each piece oh absolutely each piece and i like i was just texting with iris because we're ordering stuff for a barn door we're doing for a laundry room so we're talking about the size of the barn loo so we're we're ordering the handle they were so you know we're twenty eight into the ten and so you know we're texting back and forth well it's four inches wide the backplate and it's this bend and the door is ninety inches so these are all the things that we take into consideration deciding on what size handle well not every detail i mean everything had to have a measurement and you know if you can't like the websites great the web the internet is great rather because you can find out a lot of information and many companies have all the dimensions of a sometimes these more unique pieces like this handle they don't have all the dimensions so then we have to call it research and so it takes time but those little details are not makes it be well and that i think so important really to work with the next ma bringing it back to fashion because that's what we always do of course you know it's the same kind of thing to when we you know just a client in like a magnificent you know dress you know well we want to know what earrings she's wearing it makes it makes  you know then right you have to work around that and that's what we do what's important to you what do you want to bring into the space you know what men to what you know a picture from a travel writing from your grandmother somebody or something you really tricky probably trickier than anything we've talked about so far what happens when a husband and wife don't agree yes that happens that we've established that's where the questionnaires that we answered we know going in she loves red and he hates it oh i know that that's why these questionnaires are so important and to review all these things but we just make it work we just talk about it and i think what we do is we try to educate our clients on why we're recommending this and why this works so when you approach something logically and we're giving you concrete reasons why this works or it doesn't work nine times out of ten whoever didn't was on the fence agrees and then in the end loves it why not just saying well i like it i think you should get it now you're i giving like a real solid logical reason why write and explaining why this is going to work better than that for whatever the reasons are you know and given the pros and cons of everything ultimately decisions like that it's the client's you know it's their home it's their office it's their project so we're just there to guide them and put it all together but we like to include our clients in the decision making because that's what makes it unique and personal and it's not our design it is our design but it's for them it's based on their rights and that's another thing we say to our clients you are not using this for yourself to live there you're only going to get this is to be successful for your company and you silent people like we everything we do we end up loving because it's so unique and different and you know the clients always fall in love with it and we do tell like that like that was the best project and i'm like  sick and right color and texture to make it look timeless even if it's a modern space or traditional space we wanted to be timeless we don't want you to walk in the five years that it screens two thousand and seventeen right as they were fash and we like to add you know we wanted to be able to evolve as you go on to travel as your children get married or whatever the mementos and things we you know you inherit things we want you to be able to incorporate those pieces so we it's always evolving it's never done 's a different emotion than you know you're dreaming so i'm going to do that i'm going to do that but then when you move in the reality of the closing was a lot of money life happen right so take your time like the kid running around and like running things