Color Drenching & Liz Gilbert's "All the Way to the River"
I embrace the Halloween spirit by sharing my love for festive decorations and the joy of going all out with spooky decor. I then tackle a design question from Jess in Cleveland, who is seeking advice on color drenching for her baby boy’s room.
If you have questions for me, make sure to submit them here.
[Music]
Links:
Website:
https://www.betsyhelmuth.com
Book:
https://www.betsyhelmuth.com/my-book
Become a Premium Member:
https://www.affordableinteriordesign.com/podcast
Submit Your Questions:
https://www.affordableinteriordesign.com/podcast
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/uploftinteriordesign
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/UploftIntDes
TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@uploftinteriordesign
0:00
00:08
Design inspiration, real life makeovers, and the latest in pop culture. This is the Uploft Interior Design podcast with Betsy Helmouth. The day after September 21st, the day after the end of summer, I immediately put up my Halloween decorations. My husband said, “Isn’t it a little early?”
00:29
The answer is absolutely not. We have such a short time to have all the pumpkins, all the gourds, all the ghosts, all the spiders. I love it. And the thing I like about Halloween, unlike say Christmas, is goddy is the goal. Christmas I like it to be classic, class e, sophisticated, elevated,
00:56
aspirational. Halloween. Let’s just go all out. Let’s do the spiderw webs. Let’s do the things that make noise that are made of plastic that are shipped directly from China. Let’s do it. Uh so, yes, I’ve gone a little overboard. Luckily, my mom sends us large boxes of decor. uh normally not
01:18
welcomed on other holidays when I like to do my thing with a more refined eye, but Halloween, all the dollar store items in every window. Yes. If it screams boo at you when you turn the corner, I want it in my home. If it has a fake candle that flickers in the haunted house mansion, I
01:41
want it. So, that’s what’s happening in my house. I hope you’re having a similarly festive holiday season. Halloween holiday that is. Um, I have so many things to talk about and so many podcasts to do. I would love to kick it off by answering a design question and
02:02
then I’m going to review a book that I just finished reading. I literally finished it this morning and have so many thoughts and feelings. If you guys are Liz Gilbert fans from Eat, Pray, Love, if you’ve been following everything she’s done since, like I have been, well, you might be interested in
02:21
her latest book, All the Way to the River. Uh, I I have thoughts. Okay, without further ado, let’s start with your design questions. I’m going to reach into our mailbag and I’ve come out with a question from Jess. Jess is writing from Cleveland, Ohio, and she says, “Hi,
02:41
Betsy. I have a question about color drenching. I’ve attached a couple of pictures from the room I will move my baby boy into. It’s a smalish room at approximately 175 ft. The reachin closet takes about 25 ft of that space. The ceilings are 8 ft high. You can see a
02:60
photo from one corner of the room with the light on and from the opposite corner with the light off. Although the window, which you can see is the only window in that room, it does actually get some pretty decent natural light compared to the other rooms in our house. I’d love to do a nice rich color
03:18
for his room. Perhaps a bluey green color. However, I am not a fan of darker colors where they meet the white trim and the ceilings. I just find the contrast is too stark for my tastes. I would love to paint the whole room the same color. However, I’m conscious that
03:34
in the pictures I see online or in the magazines of color drenched rooms, they have beautiful paneling and molding. My room has neither. It’s very plain, and the baseboards are basic, bordering on ugly. In addition, I have a textured ceiling, which I would not want to draw
03:51
attention to. So, bearing in mind the features of my room, are you for or against color drenching? Thanks for sharing your opinion. PS. I will be changing out the window treatments and the light fixture and eventually the carpet. All right, let’s get into it. So, for those of you following along on
04:10
YouTube, you can see Jessica’s pictures. You can see what she’s working with. For those of you listening in your car on the way to soccer practice or coming back from stop and shop, I will describe this for you. Okay, so the room itself right now is very neutral, a creamy, but
04:30
practically just plain white color. The trim looks to be a very similar tone. Uh hopefully a different sheen and that the trim should be a little bit higher of a gloss than the wall paint, but in a child’s room, I would do an eggshell finish on the wall and a semi- gloss finish on the trim and doors.
04:50
It’s very basic. Yes, you currently have wall-to-all carpeting that looks to be very low pile and it looks to be a shade of grayge. You have one small window that’s adjacent to the closet and then the ceiling texture for me is troubling. Now, we are all familiar with popcorn
05:09
ceilings, but this is a floral patterned textured ceiling. So, the contractor who was working on this space was feeling creative, was wanting to make a bold choice, and these look like ponyies that have really um populated in a significant way. Or if we’re thinking of the season, mums.
05:36
These are 6 to 8 in in diameter, and they are everywhere on this ceiling. And not only does that not scream baby boy room to me, it also is just problematic for me in terms of a treatment. I feel like the green eggs and handbook here, I would not like these anywhere. I would
05:57
not like these in a chair. I do not like this flower ceiling. I will not eat it with fresh bacon or whatever. I do not like this. And you can have the ceilings retextured. You can have them smoothed and skim coated, which I would recommend here if you own. If you’re renting, we might just want to
06:20
forget about it. Now, I have a few questions for you that are not answered here. How old is this baby boy? Because how long do we plan on having these colors? You know, I find when my clients kids turn about seven or eight, they start having opinions about their space
06:41
and what they want the design to look like, if they like the color we’ve chosen or not. How close are we to that age? Because when we get close to seven and eight, I would refrain from making any big choices. Paint color is not particularly expensive in terms of that
06:58
investment, but it’s the time and energy and if you’re outsourcing it, the cost of getting the room actually painted. So, something to think about. That being said, I like color drenching for a more sophisticated space. And by sophisticated, I’m not talking about the
07:15
architecture here. I’m talking about like a more adult space. If we think about color drenching this boy’s room or any kids’ room, I love it until we start incorporating their toys, their books, their clothes, the natural things that kids are going to keep in their room
07:33
that are always multicolored, always vibrant, always adding splashes of color. You know, in the past, my clients have said, “Betsy, I want an all gray baby room or I want an all white nursery.” And the problem is all these toys, all these books, all these plushies are going to stick out like
07:52
sore thumbs against your onetone background. And that’s a little bit what I’m worried about with the color drenching. Though I’m less worried because at least color drenching involves a color, typically a Roy G. BIV color. But that’s why I like to keep it exclusively in like a formal living room
08:09
or a dining room because we can control all the variables in those spaces. It’s not like we’re going to be bringing in a ton of games, toys, books, stuffed animals that are then going to break our color palette and force us to deviate from this very specific design vision,
08:28
very limiting design vision. And I do think color drenching is a trend. I don’t think that people are going to love having navy walls, navy trim, and a navy ceiling with navy drapes and a navy upholstered chair. I don’t think that that’s going to have a lot of longevity,
08:49
which maybe works in your favor because your child will want to change up the design in a few short years, but it’s something to think about. This is definitely of the moment, and I don’t see it becoming something that’s timeless. All right. I love a teal. I love that
09:07
bluish green you were talking about. I think it’s very in. I think there’s ways to do a saturated bluish teal that don’t feel overly mature or even overly dark. For instance, a few years ago, Benjamin Moore’s color of the year was a gian teal. I have it in my bedroom. I love
09:26
it. And I’ve since painted several other spaces for clients in that tone, and it is just a winner every time. It has kind of this gray undertone, which keeps it sophisticated, keeps it from looking too playful and over the top, but it certainly reads teal, which is so nice.
09:44
Now, the other problem is there’s not a lot of teal in terms of baby stuff. Typically that sticks in more of a primary range or a pastel range, but still. I mean, I really think you should do what you love when making this bold choice. Um, I know what you mean as I’m looking
10:06
through these pictures. Your moldings are just the 3in baseboards that look like they came from Home Depot. Nothing special. Typically, when you do a color drenched space, the architecture does have a lot of presence. And when you don’t have really awesome architectural features, I feel like
10:28
it just would look a little cheap. I would tend to keep the trim a neutral. Now, that being said, you could go for like a moody gray, right, for the trim. You could go for a color that’s darker than the AGN teal. That would be pretty fun. Just do like two or three shades darker.
10:51
And with this ceiling, I recommend something I never recommend. I want those flowers to go away. And I think they will go away if you paint the ceiling dark. So, I would paint the ceiling the same color as the walls, that dark tone, whether it’s the teal or navy or whatever other color you choose.
11:12
I think it will help those flowers to be more camouflaged in the dark color way. And then I would keep the trim that different tone whether you do it darker than the wall color or a version of gray or grayge. Maybe even like slightly lighter or slightly darker than
11:34
this carpeting color. I think that could be a really fun way to play with the color drenching without making it all one hue. Jessica, you’re going to have to let us know what you do. I am desperate to find out. But I love that you’re going bold. I love that you are
11:52
making a strong choice. Even if your architecture is not immaculate, right? We all deserve to have fun with color, to try something even if it’s a little trendy. Just knowing that we may have to redo it sometime soon when it no longer speaks to us or that bold choice was
12:09
just too bold and is not allowing our son to evolve in a way that he’s excited about. All right, I hope that helps. Now, guys, let me help you narrow down your reading list. You’ve got things on hold at the library. You’ve got a list for Barnes & Noble of books you want to
12:29
buy. You can cross all the way to the river off your list. Liz Gilbert’s new book has made me very cranky. Now, I like Liz Gilbert. I loved eat pray love and she has a lot of friends like Martha Beck, Glenn and Doyle. She of course was on Oprah. I have been following her for a
12:55
long time. I read Big Magic. I read her book Committed about marriage. I have been very interested in her orbit. And I’ve been reading all of her non-fiction books. Her fiction books I have not been so into. I’m a non-fiction girl so I don’t naturally gravitate
13:13
towards that genre. I was really excited when this book was coming out because I love celebrity memoir and that’s sort of what this is. Additionally, I love something juicy, emotional. I love talking about relationships. This was going to be right up my alley. And then
13:37
before the book came out, she wrote this article on The Cut. So on the cut.com, she wrote this very juicy, very compelling article. In fact, I subscribed to The Cut just so I could read this article that was basically a snapshot of the primary action that takes place in this book. This book is
13:55
all about Liz Gilbert’s love affair with her friend. They were friends for many years. Um, this woman Rehea was her hairdresser. After many years of friendship, many struggles on Rehea’s part with addiction and other obstacles, and Liz bailing her out time after time, they realized they
14:16
were more than just friends. Rehea received a cancer diagnosis that was terminal. And knowing that they had such a short time together, Liz wanted to accelerate their relationship to acknowledge what was actually going on that there was a love affair here that she had been stifling because she was in
14:34
a long-term marriage. Well, I think her long-term marriage actually was with the guy from Eat, Pray, Love. Scandalous. So, I was into this. I wanted to know all about it. And the cut article was so compelling. I mean, not only does she leave her husband and get in a relationship with Rehea, her first
15:01
lesbian relationship that I’m aware of, but they are trying to deal with Rehea’s terminal illness. They’re trying to deal with the fact that Rehea doesn’t really want to treat her terminal illness in a conventional way with chemo, etc. That Rehea just wants to die on her own terms
15:21
and kind of live big. But what living big means to Rehea is ultimately going back to her primary addictions, which were heroin, cocaine, and Liz goes along for the ride. Not only does she facilitate this by buying those drugs in the illegal market for her partner, also
15:42
registering as a user herself so she can get access to free needles and things like this for her partner. but then spiraling into her own addiction with her partner and using these substances and it ultimately restarting this addiction for Rehea breaks up their union and Liz
16:06
reaches a point where she either has to kill her partner which she seriously contemplates doing or leave the relationship which she ultimately does. Now, there’s a lot of twists and turns along the way, especially in this cut article. So, after reading the cut article, I’m like, the minute this book
16:23
comes out, I am downloading it. If it is as dynamic, as momentous, as compelling as this piece, I will not be able to put this book down. Boy, was I wrong. Now, I literally thought that the cut piece was an excerpt from the book. So, I expected that we would get some kind of linear
16:44
plot that I would be able to follow. And instead, this book read like opening Liz Gilbert’s journal and just hearing all of her deepest, darkest confessions. It’s all about Liz, which is something I’ve had a problem with from the start. Now, you know, anybody who writes a
17:02
memoir is going to come off as narcissistic because it’s all coming from their point of view and it’s all about their experience. But this one could not have felt more narcissistic as she’s helping her partner die, but also building her own self-image, tearing her
17:22
own self-image down, examining what that means for herself. I just felt like it was really journal forward. In fact, it’s filled with poems that feel disjointed and strange. I don’t think poetry is the best example of her writing. Let’s put it that way. It’s filled with songs and reflections. It
17:43
felt more like a philosophy book or even a guide book of how to use um Alcoholics Anonymous and Sex Addicts Anonymous and 12step programs. It felt like it was trying to be a prescriptive journal entry and there was no linear plot. The cut article was totally different than
18:05
this. These were just like snippets and memories. It felt like a watercolor versus looking at a photograph. And I did not need the philosophizing. I did not need all the self-examination. I wanted good storytelling. I wanted something that I could hook into and follow in a way that
18:29
would have a before, during, after, climactic moment, anything I could recognize as a story rather than just prescriptive ideas and poems strung together in somebody’s journal. I was so disappointed. And the other thing I will note, often times when I’m disappointed in a
18:49
book, I felt the same exact way about Glenn and Doyle’s Untamed. I felt like I’ve read your other books. They were so interesting and compelling. They had stories. They had forward motion. They had reveals. They had entertainment factor. And Untamed felt like a preachy sermon as did Liz
19:09
Gilbert’s. It just felt like these are all the ways I went wrong. Now I’ve seen the light. There was so much talk of God and religion and philosophy that it just wasn’t entertaining. And I’m okay with that stuff being woven in to a lesson that involved a story or some kind of anecdote. But when it’s
19:32
just strings and strings of self-important musings. Now, with Untamed, I did ultimately put it down for a while and came back to it and wound up finishing it and was still just as disappointed as when I opened it the first day. Same thing with Liz Gilbert, but I could not put it down. And by put
19:52
it down, I mean, I listened to the audio book. And I love listening to the audio book by engaging people like Liz Gilbert or Glennon Doyle because they themselves. They know how to read. They know how to present. They’re speakers in their own right. They’re very dynamic.
20:11
I was really interested in finishing this book. I was really interested in hearing her read it. Whenever I found myself with a few minutes of spare time, I would put it on. it was not worth the journey. And I knew a third of the way through it wasn’t going to get any better. I knew I wasn’t
20:31
going to get a plot or even a timeline or even any interesting details about like how do you explode your marriage? Like let’s talk about that a little bit, especially because we’ve been so let in on all your relationship history with this specific man included. I just felt like the interesting plot
20:52
points were not revealed and we were just left with these with essentially Liz rambling to herself and her god about this experience. Do not recommend is what I’m like putting out there, but also I could not put it down. So, those are some things to think about before you purchase this book. I’d love
21:19
to hear what you think about All the Way to the River by Liz Gilbert. I’d love to think hear about what you think about Color Drenching. So, let me know. As always, you just head over to uploft.com/mpodcast. Once again, that’s uploft.com/mpodcast. There you’re going to see a form. Fill
21:39
it out. Let me know what you’re reading, what you’re listening to, what trends you’re excited about in interior design, and we will cover it on a future episode. All right, everyone. Until then, bye. A big thanks to our producer Jeremy Young and to Eton and the Embassy for
21:57
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 enjoying the Uploft Interior Design Podcast
22:14
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 week with more pro tips and pop culture dish.
