126 | Rescued & Reimagined: Creating Timeless Interiors

(00:05) How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to the Healthy Home Hacks podcast, where we firmly believe enjoying optimal health shouldn't be a luxury. Healthy Home Authorities and husband and wife team, Ron and Lisa, will help you create a home environment that will level up your health.
(00:25) It's time to hear from the experts. Listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts.
(00:46) Bow biologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans, and avocado afficionados, Ron and Lisa Bareris. Hey friends, whether you live in LA, OC, or are just visiting California, we all need an escape from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. We're on my favorite secret getaway is Lake Arrowhead. It's just a short drive up the mountains, and this little slice of heaven is Southern California's bestkept secret.
(01:12) And our absolute favorite spot to unwind is the exquisite Trinity Home Lake Arrowhead. A luxury mountain retreat overlooking a crystal blue lake. Designed for rest, creativity, and connection, it's just a short walk to the Lake Arrowhead Village, Trinity Home is where we go to unplug and be inspired. The designer and me drools over all the details while the house has everything to pamper you.
(01:39) From fire pits and fireplaces to a game room, theater, jacuzzi, and more. Learn more or book your stay at trinityhome lakehead.com. You're welcome. Welcome back to the healthy home hack show. I'm Ron and today we're diving into something I think a lot of us struggle with. How do you create a home that feels both beautiful and sustainable without breaking the bank or overwhelming yourself with stuff? Exactly, Ron.
(02:11) Hey guys, I'm Lisa and I have to say this conversation couldn't come at a better time. We are constantly bombarded with the message that we need more, newer, better. But what if the secret to a healthier, happier home is actually about choosing quality over quantity and breathing new life into old pieces? If you're looking to bring more nature and peace into your space, you're in the right place.
(02:40) Our guest today says, "Creating a home that is filled with love and characterized by joy is important work. Do not underestimate the value of doing it." She also believes that finding new ways to appreciate your home is key to maintaining balance and peace in your everyday. That's music to our ears, and she is with us today. Sarah Tro is an award-winning interior designer, global travel blogger, and HGTV's flea market flip champion. Woohoo.
(03:06) Celebrated for her sustainable, biofilic, and small space design solutions. We're going to ask her what that is in a minute. The biofilic, I mean. Founder of Funcycled. Sarah blends soulful creativity with construction knowhow, transforming historic homes and upcycled pieces into works of art.
(03:32) Her work has been featured in Country Living, House Beautiful, and Life at Home magazine. A dynamic speaker and advocate for traumainformed fateg guided design, Sarah inspires audiences to uncover beauty in the old, bring peace to their spaces, and live with greater purpose. Her company offers custom interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and sustainable furniture makeovers.
(03:56) They love taking something broken and making it beautiful. Welcome to the show, Sarah. Thank you so much, Lisa. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm so excited. I feel honored just to be able to get to chat with you for a little bit. Oh, me too. I'm really looking forward to this. I told Ron, "This is going to be such a fun interview, and I'm so bummed you're missing it.
(04:21) " So, and he's usually the really funny sidekick, so we'll miss you, too. We'll try to bring the humor. We'll try to bring it We'll try to bring up that run today. But, we are thrilled to have you with us. And I see you're in your You live in a farmhouse in upstate New York, correct? Yes, you farmhouse. Oh, I can already see the character behind you.
(04:40) Like I can tell it it's probably a treasure trove just to go through there, right? It is. We just did a fall festival over the weekend where people through it and they can see how we've redone everything. We call it our repurposed idea house. So, we try to repurpose as much as we could in it. Yeah. Oh, I love it. And how it's pretty big, right? So, it's Yeah. 3600 square ft for a farmhouse.
(04:58) And what year was it built? 1802. Oh, they think it could have been a little earlier than that. The person we bought it from, she was 95 when we bought it from her and she was born here. And she has a receipt that her family rented the land from the founder of this area. And it was in 1699 for farming.
(05:23) So sometime between 1699 and 1802 it was built. Oh my god, the stories that must be in there. Have you seen any ghosts? My daughter claims she has but I have not. That's a good thing. We have a cemetery on our property. So Oh, you do? Yeah. But fun for Halloween, right? You probably Yeah, it's true. Although we don't really do much, but as someone just said this weekend, you should do a Halloween weekend here. Yeah, that would be fun.
(05:47) That would be fun. Well, I would love to visit it sometime. So, you're welcome. Anytime. Anytime. Okay. It might take you that. So many of our listeners want to make their homes both beautiful and healthy, of course. Is there a simple way to choose natural versus synthetic materials when designing a room? And how do you approach that in your own work? Yeah.
(06:14) So there are usually easier approaches instead of buying in our expertise we try to repurpose as much as we can because you know you're not having things like MDF in your furniture that's offging and that's a simple clean solution. Buy solid wood. Buy old wood that is real wood furniture pieces that's good for your home. You can make simple changes like the type of countertops you use.
(06:40) use stone countertops versus more of a synthetic material. I paint that's low VOC, things like that. And even with furniture refinishing uh and painting, we try to do low VOC paints. If you're a DIYer, you can do mud paints or chalk paints. And that's a much cleaner way to redo furniture or even like mirrors or whatever you're painting in your house.
(07:02) So, it's kind of some simple solutions that when you go to buy, you can just consider, hey, why don't I buy solid wood? Why don't I buy something that's real natural earth material? Yeah. That's going to last the test of time. Cuz for listeners who don't know what MDF is, that's medium density fiber board. And they basically adhere those little pieces of wood chips together with formaldahhide adhesive. Formaldihide containing adhesive.
(07:26) That's what you typically see in kitchen um cabinetry, floorboard. It's a hidden in a lot of areas in your home. So, I couldn't agree with you more about the real wood and it's getting harder to find. So your work of repurposing those old pieces is so important because we're getting, you know, we have a disposable society with clothing, fast fashion, and also with HomeGoods a lot because everything's really cheap on Amazon and you kind of have to look at the price and that's going to pretty much tell you the material, right? And the weight. I
(07:59) think the weight. And one thing that's interesting is since we redo furniture a lot, you'd be surprised buying big name brands. I won't name ones in particular, but there have been quite a few big name brands that they say solid wood, but when we've disassembled them to do repair, they can get away with it cuz they take wood and cut it and glue it together on the inside. And the legs are not real solid pieces of wood.
(08:25) You still have a bunch of glue and adhesion in that sense. Yeah. And then people think a lot of larger brands will they'll say, "Oh, of course it's a solid top table and of course it's solid wood." But if you look underneath it, you'll see it's not solid wood. It's just MDF or plywood. And that's fine.
(08:43) But just know you probably shouldn't be spending what you're spending when you can get a solid wood, locally made farmhouse table or something bought on Etsy that's actually made from solid wood for a similar price point. And then you're supporting local too versus transferring overseas. Yes. Right. I bought a beautiful fireplace mantel on Etsy and it's gorgeous.
(09:02) I love it. But can you go back to track a little and tell our listeners what biofilic design is? Oh, sure. Biofocus design is when you're trying to bring nature into an interior space as best you can. And soyally that would be like as simple as we pull back or remove curtains so that the light can more naturally come into a space or we want to use stone and wooden accessories like a coffee table with a stone top or coffee table with a wood top, a live edge perhaps mantle or dining room table.
(09:40) Or it could be something as basic as let's say all cotton throw blanket, something soft, something natural, natural textures, natural fibers. And then also we've had spaces where someone wants a bofilic feel, but there was no way to really bring in natural light for instance. Like we like to bring in plants as much as we can because it's good for the air quality of your home.
(10:03) It's good thing to have real plants if you can if it works for your health and your animals health. But a lot of times, for instance, I did this really tiny bathroom, no windows. There was no way to get light in there to grow plants. But they wanted that bofilic vibe.
(10:21) So, we went with tile that looks like wood because they didn't want to use wood. They wanted the whole thing to be able to rinse. I love that tile. It's beautiful, isn't it? Yes. And then we did things like kept everything floating off the floor so it was less about an anchored piece. So even like the toilet went into the wall and out more like a commercial toilet would.
(10:38) And so everything just felt more light and airy. And then we used artwork of natural fl like greenery and flowers. And even though we couldn't grow it in there, it still had a biophilic feel. Very natural, very beautiful. And that's kind of the go-to if you can't make natural light happen in the space or plants happen in the space.
(10:58) Picking natural textures and and fabrics and that kind of goes handinhand with more of like a trauma-informed design too because what is that? What's a trauma informed design? So trauma-informed design. We did a lot of proono work in this area last year where we worked with sex trafficking homes and homeless shelters, a homeless shelter.
(11:22) And what we studied and made the focus of the design in those spaces is creating emotional health as much as we can through color, through fabrics. And when you're talking more of a commercial space, for instance, like the homeless shelter, we had to be really careful about the fabrics we used. We couldn't use all natural fabrics necessarily because they needed it to be very easily cleaned for instance.
(11:44) We couldn't put soft textures on the wall because it would get dirty too quickly in this area, right? Use rugs. So, we had to be creative where we added wood in in certain spaces that like wrapping the desk. So, the first thing they saw was more of those scalloped wood base all the way around it for some warm tones. And we used blues and greens for calming effect instead of like Yes.
(12:07) The brighter exciting colors that you might see like behind you like the yellows where that exudes more very bright. Yeah. And that's fun and that's great in the right space, but you know when someone's already coming in in an anxious state or Yeah. stressful state, you want to kind of calm the nerves. So, right. Pulling that back down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And same thing in sex traffic at home.
(12:30) They had like a quiet room they call it. So, we pick a room that's facing where the sun is hitting it most of the day, for instance, so there's lots of natural light. We leave out things that cause extra noise, like anything that would create music or be really texturally loud as you walk through it. We want soft rugs. We want again artwork that's soothing.
(12:52) We want everything to kind of And it was blue. They're always blue rooms in this one now for profofit that we work with. And it really like people walked into that space and it was interesting because of the research behind it. Mhm. To see the reaction, right? Because you're kind of like, well, you know, how this all go like how it work.
(13:11) Well, they notice it. They feel a difference. Yeah. Yeah. They would cry. Like I watched people walk in and cry. Not not even not even any of the clients, but just people who work there walked in and just instantly was like, "Wow, isn't that that is powerful. the power of design. You know, we don't like we spend 90% of our time indoors and a lot of people don't realize the impact because everything I mean I'm very into energy and frequency and vibration.
(13:39) So everything has a frequency. Yeah. Okay. And so even fabrics, we talked about this in the show, the synthetic fabrics have a very low vibration whereas like cotton and hemp and silk they vibrate much higher. linen and you know a lot of times we just go for the trend. What's trendy? Let's go get the new trendy mirror and you know sofa style and that and don't really think about how it impacts our mood, our energy, our just feeling good and then you know that's a real good testament to those people just crying because they just felt so soothed. Like a warm hug, right? Like that room was like a warm hug.
(14:17) Exactly. And that's one one thing that I'm really passionate about too is when you're talking about especially the nonforprofit world, their budgets are limited, right? But we have to consider more the traumainformed design spaces in the sense of how do we make the hurting population look and like walk into a space and feel like you're important enough to us.
(14:44) you're important enough in this space that you deserve a design that makes you feel valued, that makes you feel peaceful, that makes you feel thought of where I think that's something that we often we're meaning well like the we're tight on budgets, but I think there's ways for the community to partner with nonforprofits to create these spaces and work with designers to do so.
(15:09) And when we do that, man, is it a game changer in in an emotional state. Yeah. Uh and like you said, even just the color. So even when you are on a little small budgets, even just a common color or you know going to your local thrift store and getting the artwork or you know there's a lot of things you can do right to make that space.
(15:26) And now we have like such high rates of depression and suicide amongst teens today that you know this is good for any parent listening who's like hey my child's like suffering from a lot of anxiety. think about like is their room in a bright color like you said like a like a red or a purple or a you know even black.
(15:44) I've seen like kids paint their bedroom walls black. Black has a place but I don't think your bedroom is a good place for it because that's going you know dark colors absorb energy and so that's going to be like a lot of heaviness for whoever's in that space. Um, so yeah, I think that's really important to talk about, you know, because a lot of people, like I said, they're following the trends instead of like what feels good and what's going to heal. Yeah.
(16:12) So, you're known for infusing homes with nature through this bofilic design that we just talked about. Can you explain a few easy and affordable ways to bring that outdoors in feeling to any space? And what does the research say about the health benefits? Yeah. So, I mean, some of it I already mentioned like is some easy things like I live in a country home where no one can really see me from the road.
(16:35) So, I don't have any curtains on the majority of my first floor. And I know that's a huge accent piece, right, in a room that people love curtains sometimes, but I love natural light. To me, it it brings down anxiety levels. And so, it's just I don't have all the stats memorized on neuroscience.
(16:56) I actually have some links if you I can get them to you. Basically, I'll put those in the show notes. Sure. Okay. Some of the studies of like how even things like the shapes of furniture pieces when they're more rounded versus sharp edges, all of those things add to how our emotional state feels in that. There's more of a calm when it comes to more of a natural curvature, a natural line to it and when natural light is brought into a space. So pulling off if you're feeling down like open that up. Let's get more light into a space.
(17:28) Um switch for maybe well we already talked about bright color but sometimes similar effects happen when it's like a dark almost gloomy gray. You know that color I mean right? Yes. Yes. I love that color. It seems like a I do too. And it seem but it seems like a stormy night sometimes.
(17:47) And if you're kind of dark and low like try something that maybe is just a lighter brighter gray. It doesn't have to be a huge change in your house, but it can be a nice accent. I love creating little accent spaces even that have wallpaper accents that are a simple peel and stick because that can be used for that's what I have behind me. Peel and stick. I need to redo it.
(18:05) It's been like a long time coming. Like I don't love the color anymore, but it's that's the whole point. It's so easy to change out. Yeah. Right. Exactly. And that really can have your personality pop in a space, even like a tiny half bathroom.
(18:23) I was going to say a powder room is such a great place for that because you can go really bold and it's not going to be overwhelming, right? Yeah. But even more than that, before we were to get into all of that, one thing I like to say to my clients is take time to actually learn your emotions. Like so much of us, so many of us go through this life and we don't even pay attention to how things affect us, right? We don't say how am I feeling when I walk into this space. We don't take pause and consider that.
(18:46) This summer, this past summer, I had multiple friends in one week say, "Hey, even if you're not home, can I come to your house? I feel such peace while I'm there." Wow. Wow. Yeah. That kind of got me thinking about how creating a space can create peace. You know, these sacred spaces in your house. And I think a lot of that comes from a knowing of yourself, right? Like, how do you know what brings peace if you haven't had time to go, when I'm here, how do I feel? I know when I'm in nature, I feel most at peace. Right. Yeah, it's like
(19:16) just instantly during co when I was just having such a tough time with the worldly events and our gym was closed. My husband and I started hiking. We live in Newport Beach area and there's a lot of beautiful hiking on the coast and we were just going to the gym all the time which is so weird cuz we live here and we were forced to go out and hike as our workout every day and it was like oh my god we explored and discovered all these places right at our fingertips that we didn't know and instantly as soon as you would get outside like just the way your
(19:47) mood and energy changed versus the gym with the loud music and the noise of the banging of the dropping of the weights and all of that. So, yeah, 100%. It's funny that you say that, too, because that was our experience. We started weekly going on these hikes on Sunday afternoon with all of my family because we were outside. We'd see each other.
(20:07) We weren't seeing anyone else then. And oh, we explored all of these places near us that we've never explored. Like, what? I grew up here. What? Yeah. What took me this long to Oh, good. Now I don't feel so bad. Yeah. Don't feel so bad. Yeah. Yeah. Now it's like a must. like I can't go without my my hike and just the beauty of the nature like you talked about. You really get to know the animals and the trees and the wildlife.
(20:31) You really have this immense appreciation for it whereas a lot of people just go through life and don't really look at birds or don't pay attention to insects and there's so much beauty and magic I think in nature. So yeah, bringing that in I think that comes from I just went on a short silent meditation retreat and I think part of that taught me the importance of complete silence in nature and that heightens the awareness of the things around you. It was such a beautiful experience but I think that
(21:00) type of experience also is walk into spaces in silence and say how do I feel like do I feel anxious in this room? What do I hear? Is this too loud? Is there fridge making a noise that needs to be repaired? Is there a humming of something that I'm not noticing but probably is bothering me and walk through your space like that? So when I, for instance, when I had a storefront before I opened my own storefront, I went to different storefronts in New York City in Hudson and walked in each one and said, "What about this do I
(21:30) like? What about this don't I like?" And it was I found a combination of the music that was played, the smell of the space and then how they laid out all of the different accents in groupings. What I liked it was like it what felt peaceful to me. It's what felt good.
(21:50) And I explain it to my clients in the sense of the same thing needs to apply to your house. Go to some friends who have nice houses and say, "Can I just walk around your house for a little bit?" Like, "Right, what do I like?" Yeah. Yeah. And then from there, create the spaces that are peaceful for you and that incorporate nature as much as possible to bring that peaceful lowers your stress, improves your mood. Yeah. And speaking of sound, because I'm very into sound, too.
(22:13) And I'm going to do a shout out to this my favorite new toy. It's the Aura sound machine. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's based on the Sophagio frequencies. And it's this little white box that um it uses no Wi-Fi. You you basically charge it or plug it in and you can take it with you on traveling and it basically goes through each of the sophageal frequencies which all have a healing benefit of some sort, right? It might do physical healing. It might reduce stress or whatever the issue release guilt, shame and fear as one of
(22:43) the frequencies. And every single person that I've introduced this to bought it and is raving about it. So you do you are you going to put a link to that? Yeah, I'm going to put a link to that. And then you'd probably love it for these trauma informed, is that what you call it? Trauma informed spaces would be so good in those meditation rooms because the first night we put it on, we were like, "Wo!" We woke cuz we played it all night. You can do it however you want.
(23:09) You could just put it on for 90 minutes or you could have it play all night. And in the morning it was like whoa. Just the difference, this calmness of the sleep, the way that it's working without you knowing it. Even if you have it on a very low level, it's working because your body is reacting to that sound, right? And it's job without you even realizing it. So I one of the most amazing things that I've bought.
(23:34) Have you ever done a sound bath? Oh yes, yes, yes. Um yeah, we had a retreat. We had a wall master retreat last year and we did a sun bath outside on the lawn. It was gorgeous October day and the sun was out and um there was one well we've done probably at least 15 of them I think but yeah nice okay there's a lot of them here in California it's newer to me in this area I mean maybe it's been around but I at the silent meditation retreat we did a sound bath I've done three over the last month and never had heard of it before then so really yeah it's like a reset isn't it?
(24:05) It feels so good on a cell cellular level. There's um if you ever come out this way, Orange County is where we are. There's a hotel in Newport Beach and they do at their pool they do a floating soundba on the full moon.
(24:25) So you get in like these floaty raft kind of things and you get your blankets on, your eye mask and the guy does this with the gongs and everything cuz like some of the sound baths can be minimal. This one's like all kinds of instruments, not just the bowls. And I'm that's on my list. I want to do that soon. The floating. Doesn't that sound amazing? I did one. That was one of What? Yeah, but it wasn't with like the actual bowls.
(24:44) Everything else was the bowls and stuff, but this one they did it just they played it, but we did floating and the mask and the It was so relaxing, right? I loved it so much. I know what I was talking about design, but I I know. Go, too. Well, it's all important, right? It's healing and paying attention to all this. think it's amazing.
(25:08) So, in your upycling work, you transform old furniture into functional pieces. How does using reclaimed or repurposed material contribute to a more sustainable environment? We kind of touched on that a bit. Yeah. I mean, there's so much waste in our country, in our world. That alone should make you want to reuse instead of rep. Go to a landfill, right? Go visit.
(25:25) Take a take your kids and do a field trip to a landfill. It'll change your mind on a lot of things. Yeah, that will change your mind on a lot of things. So that in and of itself you could say one of the things I love is telling a story. So the other thing I think is really valuable for ourselves, for our children, for our friends is to hear the stories of why something is important to us. And it could be something as simple as this is important to me because I found it alongside the road. I put my blood, sweat, and tears
(25:51) into redoing it. And I'm proud of an accomplishment that I see every day that says I did something that I've never done before. I learned it myself or have someone else do it. That's fine. But you salvaged something that would have been tossed. Once you start that, it's this almost addiction of like so good. Right. Yeah. And so I say that a lot in what I do. It's very fulfilling.
(26:16) It's very exciting and exhilarating to say I saved I have a house full of salvaged things, right? So that in of itself is really important to me. But then the story of in the design world my clients. So, like for instance, I took this old, you know, the kind of orangey yellow roll top desks that are huge.
(26:35) They're like super deep, super wide. We took one of those and it was his grandmother. So, they hated to get rid of it, but at the same time, it's ugly and it's huge, right? So, how do you keep the story alive and actually keep it from going to the landfill? Yeah. And that's repurposing. What we did was he took the roll top part and actually hung it on the wall as a backsplash.
(26:58) Took the top of the desk, hung it above that. Oh wow. Made like wine glass folders, painted it all black. Put in a countertop, a soap stone countertop with a copper sink, a mini fridge, and drawers that have spaces for like the food like uh lemons and limes. And it added a faucet so it could rinse out drinks. And it became this whole wine bar drink station.
(27:22) So now this ugly clunky thing in the corner that was your grandmother's is now the hub of community. It's the hub of conversation and to me everybody wants to hear the story when they come. Yeah. I remember Nate Burrkus, you know, the designer talked about that like your home should tell a story and like people when they walk in there should they should know a lot about you like the pictures, the artifact that you picked up on your trip to Spain or whatever or this was a handme-down from my grandparent or tell a story. Not just be
(27:56) picture perfect, right? Or or the opposite like clutter. We didn't talk about that, but I think that's a really big energetic block, right? Too much clutter. And you know, you talk about you should feel that calmness in a space. So clutter, what clutter does is it makes you feel anxious. Like at least it does for me. It makes me feel so anxious. I'm behind schedule. I have stuff I need to do. It's bugging me.
(28:20) I heard someone talk about like every time you walk by a pile of whatever. There's that guilt feeling and you don't really realize it's happening, but it's like I need to do that. I should be doing that. Oh, let me fix that. So that affects your whole mood, right? Yeah, you're 100% correct. And often times I'll go into a space and they'll want to design, but I know they haven't even gotten to the first step, which is organization, right? And usually in every area, if you look up organizers that specialize in flow or energy, they'll help you get Yeah. kind of like
(28:54) a funu idea. I think there's another name for it, too, in this area. I'm trying to remember what it was. But I recommend my clients to different people based on their personality type. Some are more of like a come in and create the function for me. And some are like let's take the psychology of why I want to throw this here and understand okay there's a deeper thing let's fix this this and this.
(29:17) And there's different organizers that I recommend based on that. And so for instance I went into a client and great lady still love her but when I went in it was just a disaster. I mean, didn't matter what I would make or create or design in the space. I knew wouldn't matter. Most designers would not have taken her on. I can tell you that much.
(29:36) But I said, "Listen, I want to help you create the home. You're stressed. I see it. I see your anxiety. I see how anxious you are about all of this. How about you focus on over the next couple months decluttering, organizing, and really focusing on only keeping things in the space that you really actually need and that you enjoy.
(29:56) And if you can do that, then we'll step into the next phases of let's make the spaces beautiful. And she really did. I mean, she purged it so much. A lot of people get stuck there. They have a hard time. Yeah. Yeah. We had the clutter whisperer. She's an organizing expert and she's very much into removing the shame of your clutter. People hold on for very emotional reasons. It's not just clutter to them. It's really hard for some people to to get rid of that.
(30:21) And so she works really on a emotional level with people. And I think that's important because when you said that lady quickly started cleaning things up, that's good because some people would have a really hard time doing that. I would say the majority do of the ones I work at a client and everything was like artwork by their daughter or this travel or the I'm like, "Yeah, but nothing matches. It's all chaotic.
(30:45) We have to find a compromise of what can we keep and how can we create little curations of items that can keep memories alive. What can we take pictures of we don't need to keep. I'm not an organizer but yeah. No, that's a great tip, right? Taking pictures so you don't feel like you lost that.
(31:03) And like you great idea with the kids artwork, putting them all in matching frames and making like a little collage wall versus just on the wall. And when my kids were little, I used this app called Archive. I don't know. I mean, my kids are 16 and 17 now, but I'm sure there's something similar where basically instead of when they got home from school, you don't want to throw away their artwork or throw away their hundred on their first test, you know? So, I would just take a picture and then archive it for the year and then at the end of the year, it would send their 2012 kindergart.
(31:32) Yeah. And then it's organized. I'll never lose it. You know, all those paper end papers end up in the trash. Like, what are you going to save it for? 5 years, six years, it's going to end up but a booklet of the highlights of their year mixed with some pictures of that throughout it. It's so cute. And then they can have it too.
(31:49) It doesn't have to be in one space, right? And then there's the dirt with the with the clutter, too, which clutter is very much harbors dust and you can have these mites and dust droppings and all of that. So, it's not just spiritual, mental, it's also very physical to not stuff under your bed. You want to have that airflow.
(32:10) And I think just taking it baby steps is good too because it can be overwhelming if you have a really cluttered space. Where do I start? Forget it. I'm just not going to do it. So start in the garage. Start in a closet. Start with one drawer in your kitchen and just take it. Yeah. So um my mantra in this house when we were redoing it over 5 years because when you live in construction zone, it's always a disaster and that that anxiety it's real and you can't fix it because it's you're in a construction zone.
(32:34) So my mantra over those 5 years was little by little. Like we focus on the little things we can do. And I would do challenges where it's like, "Hey kids, we have 30 minutes. That's it. Tonight for 30 minutes, I'm going to take this closet. You're going to take that closet. I'm going to take this junk chore.
(32:51) And let's just get as far as we can go." And it's shocking how fun it is. Actually, it's fun. Started. Yeah. And how good it feels and how quickly you're like, "Oh, I just organized all the closets on the first floor." Isn't it funny? I feel like that too whenever I do go in and go, "Okay, this cabinet is driving me nuts.
(33:08) " Then I finish and I'm like, "Why did I put that off or so?" Like, it really didn't take that long. Right. Yes. And can I talk about one more thing of this because I'm really passionate about it. Oh, yeah. I often see I think there needs to be a level of self-awareness with people.
(33:27) If you are not a hyper organized like almost to the point of OCD organized person, I do not recommend many open shelving especially in kitchens. So for instance, I just went to a design client. Yeah. She wanted all exposed shelves in our kitchen uppers and lovely humans, but they have a lot of people in a small space. That's impossible to keep clutter free. Yeah. You just you need a place to put Yeah.
(33:51) Yeah. And when we were talking through her design, she's like, "Well, I just want the house to feel more organized." I'm like, "Then you've got to skip on the open shelves. Like, let's hide those. Like, we don't need to see the pancake mix. We can just see the door." Oh, for her food, too. She wanted her food exposed. All the uppers. All the uppers. Yeah. Yeah. No.
(34:09) No. And even you weren't doing the food. You better have matching sets of everything if you're going to be exposing it like that, right? You can't be having your mugs. It's just going to make it feel cluttered and chaotic. and know the season of life you're in. Right? So, when my kids were tiny, I didn't buy a $5,000, $10,000 couch.
(34:26) I bought a $500 Wayfair couch that I would not care if they ruined. So, those types of things affect our emotions a lot, too. Where am I going to be beside myself if this breaks? Well, then maybe that's not the right choice for right now in this season of life. So, what my daughter break? Yeah, such a good point.
(34:42) Oh my gosh, such a good point. True story. My daughter took a whole container of strawberry syrup and just poured it all over the couch. when she was little, like probably three or four, and I thought, "Good thing I don't spend a lot of money on couches right now, cuz otherwise I'd be not thrilled, you know." Oh my god.
(35:00) A parents of little ones. Take note. Exactly. Or get a repurposed couch, right? At a Exactly. Yeah. So, how do you balance creating gorgeous Instagram worthy spaces while prioritizing overall occupant wellness? How do we make them look like, you know, everybody wants that perfect looking house? Yeah.
(35:22) How do I balance it personally or for my clients? Let me go personally because I think that maybe rings is a little more true to me. I'm probably, and I'm not saying this like loosely, but I'm probably the busiest person I know. Like, I hustle hard and I play hard. Our other thing that we say in our family all the time is we work hard so we can play hard.
(35:41) Yeah, that's kind of our mantra as well. But with that, there's going to be spaces that are not as organized and not as clean, and I have to be okay with that, right? For me. And so, for instance, I you have to be aware enough of yourself of what spaces would you feel most anxious about not being clean, right? And for me, I have a living room and I always want it perfect. And because of that, I I'm a hospitable person.
(36:07) I want a friend to be able to stop by and I never want to have to be like, "Oh, don't come in. It's a mess." Oh my gosh. everything. So, I want at least one room to be like, "Welcome, let's have a coffee. Sit down." Right. You know, right? Yeah. To me, that's important. Secondly, really? Yes. Like, well, the main floor, the main like living areas, like the kitchen, cuz in ours, you can see the kitchen, the dining room, and the living room all in one space.
(36:33) So, that to me is my space that has to be super clean. My office, I don't care if it gets cluttery. The master bedroom, doesn't matter if no one goes in there. I mean, I want it clean, but I'm like you. It like normally I need the main area. It makes me feel calm. It makes me feel like Yeah. takes us.
(36:52) We must have similar energy because I feel like Are you a Virgo? Similar thoughts. I don't No. October. My birthday's next week. Um, what's that, Libra? That's um but I feel the same way about the kitchen because people always are attracted to the kitchen. So, even if I have someone over and I spend the most time here.
(37:08) I work at the my counter often. I have my Zoom meetings out here. So, I like the kitchen really clean. But my kids bedrooms, it's a disaster because I just feel like it's their space. They have to decide how they're going to manage it. I want them to learn to navigate their own space. I remember as a kid fighting all the time with my mom over my own space.
(37:27) And now I'm a very clean person, but it was like unnecessary fights. If you want your clothes on the floor till you figure out what you're wearing tomorrow, then you know that you do you, boo boo, you know. So, right. Just shut the door. We don't. Right. That's like unnecessary stress the parents put on themselves. Right. It's true.
(37:44) Like you'll figure it out because you'll get sick of your own mess and you at some point will just say, "I don't even want this." You know, regardless of my parent nagging me like I just don't feel good in this messy space, right? And so it might be like a once a week we tight to those spots and that's fine.
(38:01) But that's how I manage it in my own house. I love that. No, that's great. I think that's such a good tip for people. Just have those few rooms that you know like and a lot of times it's the room when you walk in the house, right? Cuz you don't want to walk in and feel clutter, messy, disorder, right? And obviously we like to hide.
(38:20) Have it somewhere where you could close the door so that if you are feeling stressed, you don't have to like be bothered by that. I think that's so important. Yeah. I didn't know we were going to get into clutter today, but it's such a Right. It is. It's like the root. But it's like the foundation when we got to build off a good foundation.
(38:39) And then our audience often wonders how to make their homes resilient over time. Can you talk about sustainable design strategies from material choices to multi-purpose layouts that are good for the environment as they are for long-term health and happiness? Yeah, I mean it can vary and everything from I like to tour old homes a lot. That's like I said, my birthday's next week. We're going to be touring old homes for my birthday. Like I just love it.
(39:06) And with doing your husband does too, right? Cuz he's your business, correct? Okay, good. Yeah, he does. That's we have a lot in common in that. And so I like to look at things that are timeless designs that are also you can see what stands the test of time. You know, subway tile.
(39:24) People say, "Oh, was that going to be trendy?" There are 1700s, 1800s, you know, old homes with subway tile. And we still walk in and say, "Wow, that's beautiful." We still look at their cookware that's copper and say, "Oh, that's cute. Gorgeous. I just bought the most gorgeous copper kettle over the weekend at a vintage market." So, I like to create things behind you.
(39:41) Are those copper hanging? These are all uh brass and cast iron. They're all cooking. Nice. Vintage cooking. I love it. Yeah. And so when I'm selecting, I'm thinking about those things. I I mean, my house because it's old is all hard wood. And I really like that. I like that it's actually wood.
(40:03) I like that it can be refinished versus one and done synthetic materials. That's not every every client doesn't want that. And I I can't say that's the go-to for everyone, but I can say for me I that I really value that a lot. When we remodeled our kitchen, we bought old cabinets on Facebook Marketplace and repurposed them and painted them.
(40:20) Did you really? Your whole kitchen really. So they it was easy to fit everything that way. Totally. Yeah. Wow. It was great. We just sized it up and it's easy. And even if you say, "Oh, the doors mismatch." Well, you can order doors of solid wood doors. You know, you can order those online, you know, I don't know if you've heard about like the tariffs, but kitchen cabinets, as of the last I heard, kitchen cabinets and furniture will go up 50% in starting today. Starting today.
(40:43) Oh, really? Yeah. October 1st is what I heard. Could be wrong, but that's what I was reading. And with that, we have to think creatively. So, was how do we repurpose what's already sitting at a Habitat for Humanity Restore or a salvage shop? And so, for me, those are sustainable, timeless pieces. And the same goes for like hardware.
(41:06) When you walk into an old home that has the brass hardware, it still looks beautiful. You know, it's not worn. It even if it's worn, it looks beautiful. And then countertop, same type of idea. So, that's what I usually recommend. What do you see in a lot of the older home? What kind of countertops is pretty common? Obviously, not for lamp.
(41:25) I mean, you see a lot of marble, but marble's tricky for people, you know, if you're actually going to use your kitchen. I was just doing a home tour and I said, "Ooh, marble." And the tour guide, cuz she doesn't know what I do. She goes, "Oh, in these homes, no one cooks. Don't worry, it won't get used.
(41:43) " I'm like, "Okay, I guess if you could have a home nice enough where you don't use it, that's great, right? I know it's available, but you can get quartz right to quarts. Yeah. But I would say the older homes and you probably have to older homes too. Soap stone. That's one that is timeless and holds up really well. And even that you can repair it really easily.
(42:03) Just use a little 220 grit sandpaper if you a scratch and then reil it. Okay. I have soap stone in my house on all the exterior. And you can take something right out of the oven and put it right on a soap stone versus you can't do that. I know. So it goes back to that the mantra in because I was an interior designer the mantra in design is form follows function.
(42:23) So that means the space should function first then you decide the form the color the design aspect of it and it's crazy how many times that is not followed right. Yeah. like you just said, why would you put a counter top material that you really can't put hot things on or you're worried about red wine staining or you can't cut on it or whatever? And you know this too, but especially in kitchen designs, the thing I see go wrong the most that I end up coming in and trying to work with is the symmetry where people don't consider the symmetry of the space and that it'll be like the island stops at a weird point or there's
(42:59) not the same amount of cabinets on one side or the other of a stove or and people will say, "I can't pinpoint what it is, but this looks wonky." And I'll say, "Well, there's no symmetry." Like there's no rhyme or reason to where things start or stop. And that affects our emotions because it feels disjointed, right? It feels like this. We want nature is very orderly.
(43:18) I mean, it isn't order like in a like an OCD, like you don't have sharp angles, but it is very orderly when you get to know it. It's has so much order. It's interesting in an organic way, right? Like in an organic order. So, yeah, that's actually very true. My husband's kind of like that. And he'll say, "I don't know why I like this, but I like it." And I'll tell him, "Oh, I know why you like it.
(43:37) Dot do that." Or, "I don't like this." Right. Exactly. Yeah. So, yeah. men sometimes they have a harder time. They'll know. They'll just know, oh, I like this, you know, I like this design. I like this hotel. I don't know why, but so I think that's interesting. Yeah.
(43:54) So, tell us a little bit about your experience winning the HGTV flea market flip. What did you flip? We flipped a lot of different things. Have you seen the show before? No, I have not. I want to I want to watch episode. I want to link it. Can we link it? season 4 and it's happy flipping anniversary cuz it was on our anniversary. Yeah.
(44:16) So, we took things so I would say our strength was the fact that we were flickers already. Like we knew how to redo things pretty quickly and we understood the market. So, buy at one flea market, you redo the items and then you sell it at a flea market in New York City and you go against another team and whichever team makes the most money after the resell wins.
(44:36) Well, and they give different challenges like modern Americana. So, it has to be a vintage Americanmade something turned a little bit more modern. So, we took a old vintage ironing board for instance. This is one of them. Tractor gear. We welded the tractor gear to stand up on its own, right? And then we inserted the ironing board and then added mid-century legs on the other side. So, it was like the gear was holding it on this side, the mid-century was holding on this.
(45:01) And it became this piece of art that is also a coffee table. So we knew it could be both for people. And then we took a mixed textures and we had to do we took this, you know, the cable spools where they would put cable around these wooden spools. There was a small version. It was probably about, you know, three three and a half ft wide.
(45:23) We attached that on top of a electric train line post and then we drilled holes all the way around it. We inserted wine bottles and then wine glasses between all the wine bottles and it was like a standing bar. So we knew in New York City you could have it be a bar. You could pull up a bar stool and it could be a little workspace. Oh wow. And last.
(45:41) And then the last thing was we took a old trunk and we flipped it on its side so that it acted almost like a secretary where the top flipped down and we built legs in a base but then it also could hook unhook from it and become a coffee table. So, it was a multi-use piece. Very nice. Yeah. And because we kept them all petite, I think that was like the key to creating something that people haven't seen before. Told a really good story and was small enough for a New York City apartment. We Yeah. We won very quickly.
(46:10) So, you had to you had to sell all three and then whoever made the most money was the winner. But our competitors did like a sliding glider couch, which in New York City, no one has room to glide. No one has room. Oh my god. It's an outdoor couch. Yeah. stuff like that.
(46:28) So, I think the average the average square feet of an apartment in New York City, I think, is 400, right? It's very tiny. Yeah, I think it's about that. Yeah. Yeah. Might even be smaller. Yeah. I just did designs in this area for a new apartment complex coming in at 500 square feet each room each apartment. I'm like, this is different for this area. It's very small. We're going to go up. Exactly. Start vertical.
(46:49) Oh, that's so cool. Well, congratulations on your win. That's really neat. I was so nervous on the cell day because my brother's I was on my way down to New York City and I asked I called my brother. He's like one of my biggest cheerleaders, Jesse. And I said, "Jesse, I can't lose on national television. It's what I do for a living.
(47:06) It's different if it's just like this is a fun little hobby. This is my livelihood." He goes, "Well, you're going to tell the story of every piece. That's what you do. You're a storyteller. And when you tell the story, it will sell itself. So, you just be yourself and you will do well." And that's what I did.
(47:23) I just told everybody the stories as they came by and it sold very quickly and we really that's amazing. It's all about the story, right? Like everything we connect. That's how we connect. Like you think of like American Idol and a lot of these shows, it's their stories that pull you in and really root for somebody.
(47:44) Even though it is about talent and it ultimately should be talent, but the truth is the reality is we all get sucked to those stories and we will feel like we know that person. we connect, right? And in a day and age where people are more disconnected with all the tech, you know, it's so important to have that and and I love what you're doing.
(48:02) It's so important work what you're doing to bring this connection back into our homes and like make our homes not just healthy, which I love, of course, that you're doing that, but that they are like places that heal and that calm and that make us feel connected. Yeah. Because we I think we're losing that and we need it's needed more and more. Yeah.
(48:20) In the age of like information overload, we need places for human connection, nature connection, and silence and and really inner peace. Silence. Going back to that, put your phone down, sit in that space, and silence. When you were on your retreat, could you not talk at all or were it just like hour? Really? How long was it? Well, I mean, they allowed us basically one break where we could discuss what had come to us during that time and that was probably 20 minutes. But outside of that, yeah, you don't talk.
(48:45) You have a sound bath. You have breath work, outdoor nature hike with someone you don't know and you can talk to them. You can't talk. How long your retreat? It was training one night and then the next day. So, it was like four or five hours the next day where we did the silent part and so it was Yeah, it was really interesting.
(49:02) I would love to do it longer actually. Yeah, I remember Oprah way back and when she had her show did one of those and she had a farmhouse in I think Indiana and they were there and they're all sitting around the table like eating, not talking. Oh god, that'd be hard for me.
(49:19) Well, then of course we're on this group like hike down to the animals and as we're walking down two of my friends who didn't know I was going to be there like Sarah and I'm like who are you with? How do we not know these people? They weren't in the retreat. That's so funny. I was like oh whoops whoopsie. That's really cool. What a good reminder because I'm really big in taking digital detoxes. Maybe it's a weekend.
(49:40) Maybe it's just one day. Maybe it's just your Sunday. Very, very hard to do. Try not to be on your phone. And you'll see how much more energized you feel going into the week. Even if you just reduce your time, really. I mean, I get it. It's hard to do that. But, um, it restores you, right? It fills you back up. It's like we're batteries.
(49:59) We're batteries and we need to be recharged. Well, this was great. Is there anything else you want to leave listeners with before we wrap up here? Well, if they go to funfree, I've got some design tips on there, a PDF with some links that they can check out. So, feel free to check that out.
(50:16) And you they can follow us on Instagram or Facebook or Pinterest at Funcycled. So, Oh, I bet you have a good Pinterest page. And what color are your kitchen cabinets? What color did you end up painting them? It's called Benjamin Moore Dark Harbor, and it's a dark dark teal peacock kind of color. Oh, pretty. Nice. I love it. I love a painted kitchen cabinet.
(50:36) I just think it it's so cool and adds a lot of character. And we did an interview a while ago with Beyond Paint. Are you familiar with them? They sell a cabinet paint. Yeah, they have a really good cabinet paint that doesn't chip. I'm guessing you you don't have chips and that's not an issue with whatever paint you use. Probably sand yours.
(50:54) People who don't want to sand, like the non-DIYers, there is paint that you can use or you don't. It requires no sanding. So, it's kind of amazing. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being with us today, Sarah. This was fun. Thank you for having me. This was a blast. Like hang out with a friend. I appreciate it. Wish you live closer. Same. Same. Friends, to learn more about Sarah's services at funcycled, head to funcycled.com.
(51:18) And you can also find them on Instagram at funcycled. As always, you can find the links in the show notes at healthyhomehacks.com. We appreciate you guys. Be sure to leave a review or rating. Five stars are always appreciated. And if you're not already subscribed, now is a great time. Thanks everybody. Thank you Sarah.
(51:38) Thank you. This episode of the Healthy Home Hacks podcast has ended, but be sure to subscribe for more healthy living strategies and tactics to help you create the healthy home you've always dreamed of. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best content. See you on the next episode.
(52:03) [Music]