Bold Dining Rooms & Netflix's "Love Is Blind" Latest Recap
In this episode of the Uploft Interior Design Podcast, I dive into a design dilemma from Lori in Las Vegas, who wants to incorporate a bold peacock blue into her dining room while keeping the surrounding areas tan. I share my thoughts on how to make a dramatic statement in less frequently used spaces and emphasize the importance of a cohesive color palette.
If you have questions for me, make sure to submit them here.
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[Music]
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Design inspiration, real life makeovers, and the latest in pop culture. This is the Uploft Interior Design podcast with Betsy Helmet. Wow, do we have a lot to catch up on. Not only have you guys been sending in amazing design questions, and since I took the last two weeks off of the
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questions to deal with fall trends, trends are always one of my most requested podcast episode types. Well, now we’re done with fall trends. We’re ready to move back in and reach in the mailbag, listening for your questions,
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your design dilemmas, all while you’ve been writing in, sending me pictures, and amazing questions. New episodes of Love is Blind from Netflix have been dropping. They’ve been rocking my world. I try and pay attention to other things, but I am sucked into this vortex. I am
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not only listening to podcasts that are having these people from Love is Blind on, but I have been looking at Tik Tok and Instagram. Oh my gosh, information overload from the Vile Vile Files, excuse me, podcast to um lots of other places. I have thoughts, feelings about
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those new episodes before another batch drops on Wednesday. Let’s get into it. But but we’re going to start we’re going to start where I should start. I’m going to do a good job. I’m going to be a good girl and I’m going to start with the
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design dilemma and I’ll save the juicy tell all reality TV show stuff for part two. So guys, come for the design. Stay for the reality TV show dish that is coming up. All right, without further ado, we’re reaching into the mailbag. We
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have a lovely question from a lovely listener, Lori, who is writing all the way from Las Vegas, and she says, “Hi, Betsy. I would like to add some color to my house, particularly a sort of peacock blue. I love blue. Right now, I have a lot of tan and white. I’m sending you
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pictures of my dining room and my front entryway. I would like to paint three walls. Wall with mirror, back wall, and window with half wall in my dining room peacock blue. My question is, how will
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that look if you walk in my front door and to the right is a blue dining room. Straight ahead is a tan living room and to the left is a tan hallway to the bedrooms. I don’t plan on painting any of the other walls. They will stay light
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tan. Maybe the hallway should be blue, too. Or the archway to the kitchen that connects to the dining room. Mainly, I want to know if it’s going to look odd to have this blue room when everything else is tan around it. I’m sending you
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pictures of what it looks like right now and I’m also sending you an AI generated blue dining room and blue archway idea. Thank you so much for your input. I really enjoy your podcast. Yay. Well, I am so excited to get into it. I bet a lot of people have questions about can I
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make a really big bold statement in one room and have the other rooms be more mellow and subdued in terms of wall paint? And the answer is yes. I love the dining room being a really dramatic
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statement because it’s not a room that you’re in a lot of the time. Sometimes it’s just for dinner. Sometimes it’s exclusively when you have guests. My worry is when you paint a commonly used room, say a family room or a living room, a really bold color, it impacts a
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lot of your activities during a lot of the day. I had um way back when, way back when, a studio apartment that was painted bubblegum pink and it was such a strong shade of practically Pepto pink that it was all-encompassing and really
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began impacting my days. It was so loud, so bright, and I was trying to do everything from cook, work, sleep, you know, everything that you’d want to do needs to happen in that one room. since it’s a studio apartment and I just could
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no longer see straight. The color was so dominating that I wasn’t able to live a wellbalanced life in that space, which is why I’m so excited about keeping those bold colors in less used spaces that really revolve around one idea. So,
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the dining room is for entertaining and eating. And so, it’s a really good place to make a bold statement. Um, I like doing those bold color splashes in places that have only a couple of uses and formal rooms are such a nice place, but you don’t want it to stick out like
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a sore thumb. So, you do, especially in an open concept flow where I can see one room from the other, you need to bring in that same color palette, but you don’t have to do it in paint. You could do it in artwork, rugs, uh, drapes. I would love to tie in that paint color
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with some drapes in the opposite room. You could also do it with things as small as pillows. Now, let me reference your color your pictures exactly when I’m describing where I might use these color pops. Okay, so looking at the
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pictures, everything is very neutral when you walk in these double entry doors. And looking now at the current dining room, it’s also neutral. And it looks like you can see it right from the front door. When you walk in the front door, it looks like that half wall is leading you
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right into the dining space. It’s kind of hard to get a sense of the flow, right? And then you’ve got this. Oh, okay. Hold on. Yes, you’ve got the half wall on one side. I’m just trying to get my bearings. I always like to have more pictures rather than less.
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Ideally from different angles. So I’m just kind of getting a sense now. All right. Here are my thoughts as pertain to your circumstance. Your space is very open, more open than most spaces in terms of it not just being like an opening to the dining room. Instead, it’s like a dramatic
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almost wallless moment. So, if I’m looking to the left, and guys, if you’re following me on YouTube, you can figure out if I’m describing this well or not because it’s a little complicated. And for those of you who are listening to me while you’re driving, well, just try and
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follow along. But there’s a lot of architectural features that are tied up in this opening. It’s slanted up when you walk in from the entry door. The half wall is kind of split into two. this kind of truncated column and then that pony wall. And the walls also kind
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of seem to curve into each other. So, as we’re moving into the entryway and as we’re moving into this adjacent room, it’s not like a clean stop necessarily. There’s almost a little curve and the
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walls appear to be quite textured. Now, I’m bringing all this in because it’s going to be very hard to create that really crisp clean line when there’s not a real crisp clean delineation between these rooms. And architecturally, there is a stopping point. I mean, even the molding does a
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little turn when the dining room wall is separate from the entry. But I’m just worried about that texture kind of making it difficult to get a clean differentiation between the rooms because you are going with a dramatic shade of peacock blue which I love and
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think is so fun for this room. However, that dramatic dark shade against this very mellow and unobtrusive tan needs to be a beautifully crisp line or it will look wonky. Now, maybe that’s why you’re saying you were only going to do three walls. But
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no, if you are doing three walls in a space, a color, to not do the fourth wall would be redonkulous. It would look like you ran out of paint. It would look like you had a big oversight. We need to do all four walls. Now, I rarely even do an accent wall
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that’s only one wall. I save that for places that are very contemporary, super modern architecture or for renters or something like that, but I want you to go the distance on all four walls. And I’m just hesitant about
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you getting that clean, crisp line. We do not want it looking like a wonky jiggity jaggedy differentiation. Yeah, I love the bold color. The way that you make it make sense without doing it in any other place is that you bring that color in every room that we can see from the dining room. And I
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guess I mean to say that in the opposite way. If we’re in the other room, can we see the dining room? The peacock needs to be an official part of the color palette. Now, when I have an open concept space, you know, in this dining
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room, the peacock color is going to be at least the 60% color. Remember the 60 3010 color palette formula where 60% is one color, 30% is another color, and 10% is that final color to create the floor plan. And that’s not including our neutrals. All right. So, because it’s
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the wall color, it is for sure 60%. Then, one of those rooms that it opens into will have the same tone curtains, right? And I would probably buy the curtains first and then color match the paint. It’s going to be very hard to do
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the reverse to pick this super specific paint color and find drapes that are totally coordinating. But you’ll have an easier time if you find the drapes first and then for that different room, find a rug that has those tones. That way there’s harmony throughout. The one
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thing I will say is I absolutely hate the arch doorway that you sent me. So, you sent me an image that was AI generated of just painting the trim on that fourth wall, the peacock blue. I could not hate it more. That is a big no for me. Trim needs to be consistent
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throughout. We do not do accent trim on only one piece of the molding. Oh, no. Ma’am, I’m not opposed to painting trim, but you have to do so very mindfully in order to keep it sophisticated. and you would paint all the trim in that particular room. In this case, that
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particular room already has painted walls on the other side. So, we would not want to do blue trim and blue walls in my opinion in this space. I’m not saying I would never do it. I’m just saying 99% of the time I would never do it. And this is not a 1% circumstance. I love the bold choice that AI has
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generated. I love that you are using AI to generate ideas. Guys, if you’re on the fence with something, if you’re wanting to play with something but not have to do it in real life, chat GPT is your friend. At my firm, we are using using renderings more and more to help
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show our ideas to clients, to help sell our ideas to prospective clients, to throw up on social media and just say this or that. It’s a great tool and the rendering services are getting more and more accurate and it’s free. So, if you
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are on the fence like Lori, if you’re trying to decide if you should do something bold, chatg is a great way to kind of get a taste of how it will look. And then, of course, you can email me. All you have to do is go to affordable interioresign.com/uplo or I’m sorry,.com/mpodcast.
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Oh, guys, it’s a Monday. I’m recording on Monday for tomorrow’s episode and I’m all over the place. I feel like I did not have a relaxing weekend and it is showing all over my work today. I needed rejuvenation and instead, oh my gosh, should I tell you what happened? I know
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we’re solving Lor’s problems, not mine. I had a weekend of anti- FOMO. There were things I wanted to do. It felt like the last gasp of beautiful weather. It was 70 degrees. My entire family had
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flexibility and availability. We were not saddled with tons of ball games like we usually are. I felt like there were opportunities and I wanted to seize them. There was an exhibition at Grand Central Station of Dear New York, which is the guy Brandon Stanton who writes
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Humans of New York. his exhibition where he took over Grand Central Station and basically put all of his work in there. If you are not familiar with Humans of New York, check them out on Facebook and Instagram. They are one of my favorite
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Facebook pages and I’ve been following him for a decade. His exhibition closed this weekend. I was like, I must go. Nobody in my family wanted to go with me. Going into the city just for like a walk around Grand Central is not the best use of my time. I wound up feeling such FOMO and
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overwhelming need to go that at 6:30 at night once all my family had reconvened in our house from whatever we were doing during that day, I said to my husband, “I must go or I will regret this for the
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rest of my life.” I hopped in my car. I drove to Manhattan. I went to the show for an hour. It was really good. Maybe not life-changing. I just did it for the FOMO and I came right home. It could have been missed. The next day I was like, I am taking my daughters to
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the Renaissance Fair. It is a beautiful day. The Renaissance Fair holds so many memories from me going from my childhood. And my daughter and I, who she’s 12, have been going regularly for several years in a row now. We get in the car, we go to the Renaissance Festival. Nightmare. Nightmare. They
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only take cash. I did not bring any cash. They did at the door take Venmo or a tap card, so that’s good. But only two food vendors that we could find inside took tapping or Vinmo. So, it really limited what we could eat. It really limited the games that we could play. My daughter was not
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having it. Taking a baby to a Renaissance fair is a huge problem. It was exhausting. It was horrible. I spent more time driving to and from the Renaissance Fair than we did spend at the Renaissance Fair. At a certain point, my 12-year-old daughter looks up at me and she says, “Mommy, can we just
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go?” I was like, “No, don’t you want to see the jousting? Don’t you want to see the flamethrower?” She’s like, “No.” And I was like, “Fine, fine. Who am I doing this for? I don’t want to do it either. The baby missed her nap. You are not enjoying yourself. I am not enjoying
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myself. let’s get back on the shuttle and just go home. Then we got caught in Sunday evening traffic and it took twice the amount of time to get home that it did to get there. Anyway, it was very draining and
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all of that is really showing right now as I try and share with you design tips and instead I’m trying to piece together my piece if you know what I mean. Okay. All right, everyone. That’s what’s going
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on with me. Please share what’s going on with you. Head over to affordable interioresign.com/mpodcast. That’s where you can send us your questions, where you can send us your pictures, and I want to see everything
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that’s going on and answer your questions in an upcoming episode. Now, let’s segue. Let’s move into Love is Blind from Netflix. This is giving me life. This is a place where I feel like I have a lot of momentum. In fact, there
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is so much bad TV on right now. there’s like very little that’s interesting. If there’s not a playoff game happening, I don’t have anything to watch. So, I’ve been re-watching these episodes after I
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listen to these people on different podcasts and whatever. Let’s kick it off with Nick Amato and Annie Lancaster. Now, Nick and Annie have been very controversial from the beginning because
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Nick was interested in someone else. He basically was telling both Katie and Annie that he was in love with them in the pods. Oh, and by the way, guys, in case you couldn’t sense it, if you have not been watching, first of all, what
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are you doing with your life? Go to Netflix and watch. Second of all, I will be revealing a lot of spoilers right now. If you do not want to hear the spoilers or if you have not caught up with the most recent episodes, you might want to go catch up and then come back
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and listen. Anyway, Nick had told Katie he loved her. Nick had told Annie he loved her. Nick said he would love these people till he was 10 feet in the ground. He was being very over-the-top, very affusive, and then he winds up breaking up with Katie because she’s not
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religious enough for him and being with Annie. And ultimately, I felt that they were not compatible from the beginning. There have been a lot of questions as to Nick’s sexuality, and I must say watching, I had questions myself. He
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definitely said he is not gay. He definitely said he’s heterosexual. and it does not align with his religious values to be gay. Um, and Annie was not open to having children who are LGBTQ.
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She said she’s come around on the recent episode. She says that was taken out of context, but they definitely certainly seemed to be in alignment in terms of values. What didn’t seem to be in alignment is
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that she seemed to be a hot mess. Yes, she is an entrepreneur and salon owner. That does not mean you’re not a hot mess, by the way. and he seems to have it all together. Seems to but you know he’s like an Olympic level skier something or rather this he is very
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handy around the house. He just has so much going for him and he really sells himself as like a Renaissance man who can do everything well and is very in touch with his emotions and has tons of friends and lives in Breen Ridge and sells luxury watches. But I have a feeling once you got to
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know him, you would see some chinks in his armor. That’s all I’m saying. Anyway, he decides to break up with Annie, which I think is a very good decision because there’s no way in hell they would be compatible. When he breaks
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up with her, she basically says, “No.” She’s like, “You’re not breaking up with me. You are Nick Amato. You do everything perfectly. We are going to take this to the next level. We are going to get married.” I think that she
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wanted to have the full show experience and she didn’t want to stop the show even if she felt there were not compatibilities. And I think Nick also wanted to have that full show experience which is why
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he said he loved two different women in the pods but ultimately wound up just moving forward with one. I think he wanted that sure thing. But I think ultimately as he’s been exploring this relationship, he sees
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that Annie is constantly drunk or high. Like something’s going on there. Something is not right. And I think he just couldn’t do it any longer and keep a straight face. Like couldn’t show up at the altar when this woman like can’t even show up for brunch. I mean, she is a mess.
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So, speaking of brunch, they’ve just been out to brunch. They’re sitting on their apartment couch. He is breaking up with her. She says, “No, you’re not going to do it.” He says, “We just can’t make this
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work out.” And she’s like, “Watch me. I will force it to work out. I will make 1 + 1 equal 3.” And I wanted to say she’s getting a lot of blowback for this. And I want to say that unfortunately I related a little too intensely to her
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experience. If you have ever been broken up with by someone that you just didn’t see it coming, you felt blindsided, you felt like, “No way. I thought we were going to be together forever.” I have had these feelings. And while I regret it now, I definitely
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remember in the past when someone would break up with me, trying to reason our way out of it, trying to be like, “No, that was not the plan.” The plan was we are highly compatible. We are going through a rough patch. I’m willing to work through it. I see a future with us.
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I’m really committed to you. Why wouldn’t we try a little harder? And being so excited to show the possibility, to stand up for the possibility, to be committed to the idea that we have something here worth fighting for. that I don’t even notice that he’s been pulling away for a while or that he
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hasn’t been interested for a while or that there’s no way we can come back from this or it’s clear he’s made a decision that he will not budge on. Of course, it’s clear to us as viewers watching this all go down and watching Annie’s emotional please watching her yes embarrass herself and practically
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beg for him to stay with her. But I have been there unfortunately I think more than once and I really felt for her. I really could see myself there. People are giving her such bad comments. They are
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saying like why would anybody do that? How low do you have to debase yourself? And it’s really hard to watch. But I just think it’s more relatable than people are letting on. And I would like to share that it’s a little too relatable for me. Okay, let’s move on to Joe and Madison. Joe
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at the reveal saw Madison. He admitted to both her and to everyone who was watching Netflix that she is not his type. He prefers more petite girls. And we all know what that means from watching so many seasons of this. She’s too fat for him. Now, she’s not even
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fat. I mean, I’m thinking maybe she’s a size eight. Maybe she’s a size 10. I’m a size eight. Oh my gosh. But, you know, when you compare her to all the other women in the pods, to all the other women on this show and just to, you know, beauty standards in general,
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apparently she’s fat and she has health challenges where her eyesight is degenerating to the point where she will probably eventually be blind. We have no idea when in 5 years, 25 years, but it is, it sounds like an inevitability. Well, Joe stayed with her for a long
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time to the point where, you know, he’d said she’s not petite enough. He’s been treating her like crap. Knowing what happens in these upcoming episodes where he dumps her, I can see it all throughout. He was detached. He was getting drunk so he wouldn’t have to answer hard questions. He was hanging
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out with the guys and really ignoring her when they were in group settings. I mean, it was all over the place. Madison, come on. But she didn’t see it and really wanted to stay with him. And he kept saying the right things like to her family. He’s like, “I will be with her when she is
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blind.” No, you won’t. You won’t even be with her like for the next month. Anyway, I am proud of him that at tuxfitting he decided he’d had enough and ultimately later that night or the next day he broke up with her. I love
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that he didn’t take it all the way to the aisle. I love that he made it really clear that I need to cut bait right now. We didn’t need to be led on any more than we already were by Joe and he’s looking for a 10. He’s looking for
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airtime. He got as much air time as he could handle while keeping a straight face and pretending to like this woman that he did not like. However, I do want to say, you know, they’ve been having a lot of
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sex. They’ve been she’s been talking about it specifically. I worry that maybe having a lot of sex with someone you’re not that interested in is a big problem. Not only would it, if it’s any good, make her more interested in you, it just feels like you’re taking a lot of things to the
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next level. Knowing full well you’re not going to go the distance. Now, Ally and Anton, they seem perfectly matched from the beginning. They seem like practically the same person divided into two. They’re trying to make a big deal. And by they, I mean the producers
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of the show about her lack of cleanliness, like she’s a very messy person and about his drinking, but I think they’re just trying to find things that they can play up. So, we feel some little bit of tension. I definitely
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think that this couple is made for each other. I definitely think they’re going to go the distance. People have been speculating that they don’t. People have been speculating that there’s trouble. I don’t see it. They both seem really
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bought in. Now, a couple that seemed really bought in and now, you know, it’s clear she wants out is Edmund and Calibria. I hope I’m saying that right. So, Calibria was really into him for the longest and I do not know why because he has been
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very emotionally immature. He has been very problematic in the fact that I feel he gets manipulative. he starts crying whenever he doesn’t get his way. Now, I’m fine with that being an authentic
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reaction, but I think it does show some instability because like even small things or large things like her not wanting to have sex with him caused him to basically throw a tantrum, which I thought was a little disturbing. So, there were things that have given me pause with this couple, but now she
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seems to be doing what I don’t know, did people ever do this to you? Where basically they just start treating you poorly and nothing you do is enough and they just pick pick because ultimately
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they want you to leave them, but they don’t have the cojones to just say it’s over. That’s what I feel like Calibria is doing with Edmmond. She’s basically telegraphing to him, “This is over. You
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are not the man for me. You are not enough of a man for me.” She’s all but cutting him down just to get him to go away. I am worried about people making it to the altar. Now, a couple I think is
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going to make it to the altar, and I think they’re going to say yes, and they are totally bad for each other, is Megan and Jordan. Megan Sparkle Megan, as she’s known, is um like a highlevel entrepreneur. She’s a mover and a
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shaker. She values luxury things. She wants a luxury lifestyle. And Jordan is I heard somebody on the podcast um call him a skater dad. And yes, he’s fully tatted, but he doesn’t have the edge of a skater. He’s just like a single dad
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who seems like a good guy, but he has a good enough job and doesn’t really yearn for those finer things in life. They are making it work. Megan has met his son and likes his son and, you know, is trying to buy them a big house and says, “I will be the bread winner. You
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just bring in something. We’re going to live a great life together.” Ultimately, no. Ultimately, she’s gonna pull a Cibria, I believe, and start picking him to death. Start saying, “I don’t like this. I don’t like that. You want a
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luxury lifestyle. It’s very hard for you to marry Joe Schmo or Jordan Schmo in this case.” I think that while they’re very um excited about each other, Megan’s saying she’s having the best sex of her entire life, which can cloud your judgment. I think very soon after they’re married,
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and yes, I do think they’re going to get married. I think very soon after the wedding takes place, she’s going to realize he’s not for her. And by the reunion, Splitsville. Splitsville. So, who do I think is going to make it to
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the altar? Megan and Jordan. And they’re going to say yes. Ally and Anton, they’re going to say yes. Calibrian, Edmmond are going to make it to the altar. That’s a big no for me, dog. Nick and Annie already broken up. Joe and
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Madison already broken up. Now, who’s going to be together during the reunion? Ally and Anton. And that is it. That’s it. All right, guys. That’s what I’m saying. Those are my predictions. You can hold me to them. What are your predictions? What are you watching? I’m
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going to need a new show after October 29th that this show is over. Thank goodness that that is the exact same day that Ink Masters drops. And then this Wednesday, we know we’re getting our Married at First Sight back. Woohoo. I will be reporting all of that on an
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upcoming episode. Tell me what you’re watching. Write to me. Head over to uploft.com/mpodcast and let me know what you’re watching, what you’re loving, what I should be reading or watching. I will do it. I’m here for it. Until next week, guys. Bye. 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
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services and book a consultation with one of our talented designers. If you’re enjoying the Uplift and Tear Design podcast, please support us by sharing the show with friends and leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or
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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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