Best of 2023 Interior Design Tips with John

I think we could all use a little more John in our lives. So let’s bring in the new year with some design tips and ideas from the man himself. #cottagegarden #cottagestyle #gardendecor #gardendesign #gardening #gardentour #backyard #falldecor #falldecorating

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Well I have been looking forward to this for such a long time I’m here with my friend and Buddy John Turman recently you’ve been over at my house I have you have been great fun over there yes but now I am at your house house in your magnificent Garden that has changed

Pretty dramatically since last time I was here it probably feels that way to you it doesn’t so much to me in some ways but it’s been almost two years since you were here two years and and how many weather events um at Le well you were here right after a huge one

Right which we’ve been kind of working on trying to resolve and it’s taken a while to do that so then I think we had two smaller wins after that so and and then just events where where trees are gone and yeah more more sun and all that

In other words gardening in Oklahoma but that accounts for a lot of the changes that you made because as I recall it was pretty spectacular last time we were here and that is a reminder to you guys if you want to do something really fun go back and look at the

Initial we’ll put a link below of the the initial tour that we took over here at John’s garden and then you can kind of compare it to today’s video and see how things have changed I for one am extremely envious because you know I left my mature garden for a new garden

And it is this kind of lushness and maturity that I am just desperate to recap I’m glad you’re seeing that because I see at your garden all these new things that look so crisp and perfect and I look around here and see the holes and you know the places where

Things need still need to be fixed and all that well it could not look any better but you know what let’s walk around but one thing that definitely has not changed and that is I would describe you as a maximalist Gardener and and for those of you new to

This channel John is an interior designer so that he’s been over at my house helping but the other element that has not changed is your passion for blue and blue and white in your attire and in all of your indoor and outdoor appointments okay so so let’s start here and steuart I want

To give them a vantage point so we are just I love the way you have multiple seating areas so that now that we have gotten up this is a Charming little area where we were just sitting it’s got some yeah hold on hold on sart it’s got

A couple of metal chairs with cushions the lovely thing about this is it’s right outside one of your doors and it’s in the shade it is and it’s kind of gives this kind of an evergreen loia of feel to different areas of your garden because I would still call this kind of

A small garden oh it is very much a small garden I think but right here especially you get this La kind of effect which I think is really nice and what I was sitting here the other day in the chair over there and realized I’m not sure why we never put something

Right at the end of that as a focal point yeah on an AIS I see something new that needs to happen that needs to be done well that gives you something to play with so the other thing is is from this vantage point in the center I think

You can really clearly see those kinds of things but it also makes you very much feel as if you’re in a garden with different Garden rooms yeah and this is kind of like a hallway and as we talked before that’s my kind of My Philosophy is my interior comes outside and we try

To create a similar idea with rooms and with accessories and the nice thing isort stuff too John is you can move with the sun yes so like it’s pretty warm today we were talking about how warm and humid it is you just got back from the farmers market um it’s supposed

To get up in the 90s but under here it’s just really lovely is it yeah and there’s a there’s a nice little breeze okay so you’ve got so much of and so just be on the lookout for it all of you so much of your blue glazed pottery and

I’m going to have to get some seed from you of of your purple cine I so well I think I bought three plants two years ago and it come all up in here I had tons of it at my other house and I can’t remember if I if I’ve got seed it’s

Probably in a box still W to be unpacked and then you’ve got all sorts of tons of hostas none of which yet looks in any way b draggled or when you go out where the hail was you’re see let’s just focus that one that one that one was protected

Yes it’s absolutely beautiful this is a new bottle bouquet no has it just relocated was it there it was really there okay I guess it really was so Stuart dubbed that gave it the moniker bottle bouquets and there you have very much just a green and a blue bottle

Motif just which I’m still I I still like to collect bottles because I like to drink wine and vodka and all the things that come in those pretty bottles so yes I hear you I hear you my friend oh I see something familiar to me oh

What of my QVC Cobo baskets those are great I bought three and I keep one kind of near each Watering Place I know and this is what happens with them and they’re just perfect yeah they’re perfect for this cuz they’re waterproof water goes right through them weatherproof I find that I will pull

Things knowing I have a place to drop it right yeah and it’s lightweight yeah very light lightweight so okay this is just an explosion of blue I did dress appropriately you did to match my surroundings what do you call this area I I just call it the East

Porch the East porch okay um but and as we talked about rooms this really is a room I think it really has that feeling and and when you’re inside the house you feel like you’re looking out into another room so yes and so I think so

Many people asked you so we might as well share it again the color of this blue oh I don’t remember I’ll have to look we looked it up and now we don’t remember again it’s in the comments so that first video but I’ll do when when

You post this one I’ll post it again post it again but look at you know it just is such a brilliant segue from your interior to the outside with your throw pillows your coasters your Puffs um all of your for lack of a better word just regalia that you have

Up along this this wall now refresh my memory didn’t you have to do some restorative work to the Adobe and the not not this wall it was the front the front wall okay we had an issue with and had to um yes bury a lot of dollars as I

Call it and do some restoration work so yes very unun way way but I kind of like kind it turned out out there so we’ll see yeah no it looks great so describe kind of your Muse for this entire area and how it has changed since the last

Time and what dictated those changes well um the again we’re in one room here you have another room this direction which is to the South and I always call this the bamboo court because this bamboo that grows along the wall over here and there had been two very large

Um faenas in the position almost in the positions of where these holes are now that had been um limed up and they really were trees small trees so we lost both of those um two years ago and um when you were here last time we hadn’t

Replaced anything yet so the Hol came in was a great experience you would have loved this they had to they laid U rubber mats across the front yard and drove a great big forklift over over here to lift these over the wall because there was no way to get in um with them

So yeah it was really quite a quite a production um and my hope is that these grow um I want them to be more free form looking and create to create lots of shade of course we love that um and just kind of protect this Inner Room right U

From the outer one so and give you some privacy yes absolutely and it’s done some already but so I I’m going to guess our friend Roger probably helped you with John and Roger helped with this there’s no way I could have pulled that off and this is one of those places

Where we had to really um we had to buy something mature um again at my age I can’t start with a little plant and and I was just sick about losing what we had lost so it was worth doing that and of course not only were the plants something but then that whole

Installation process it was really it was really something it was very stressful but I think successful now and um oh there it is it’s noon in Oklahoma City all of my followers know this now it’s it’s our emergency alert system that if you live in Oklahoma we’ve got

Lots of emergencies yes we do okay steuart I’ve had enough of this oh my gosh that was long that was a long one I guess it’s the Confluence of a number of different you are the epicenter yes the center be safe yes be safe okay back to where we were talking

Let me just breathe for a moment uh so your courtyard is largely the result of weather events but it it just definitely putting in the mature Hol was the right thing to do and and of course we have a lot more sun now than we did so surprisingly the maple has done okay

That was totally under that under a fenia before and it really has done it fine and and and even in the hot summer it starts getting a little fried but you know it’s going to be okay I think um but then just up in here we get a lot

More sun so I’m trying some new things um this is I’m going to call it Rose of Sharon but I can’t remember what its real name is so that was something we’re going to try this year so we get some blooms and hopefully it’ll grow out a

Little bit create a little more shade I got a question on this uhuh the Sun causes the red yes that is I never noticed that the part that’s in the shade stays darker green and then when it gets the sun on it it turns red that beautiful they probably can’t hear me so

Somebody tell them what I asked okay yeah so Stuart just asked if it was the Sun that made it turn green and turn red rather and the green that’s in the shade is because yeah okay now this is a tip though this is a that probably if you had just designed

This and you wanted to grow a Japanese maple here you wouldn’t have been able to do it because it wasn’t already established the only reason it can really handle this exposure is because it was well established it was mature and it was older and wiser that’s

Probably 20 years old that’s one of the first things I stuck in under those other trees and one of the problems I have out here it’s really hard to plant things in the ground so partly because of this bambo which comes up everywhere constant on this side of the fence it’s

Really good though it only stays on this side but there’s so many roots and things in here and then of course those fenia roots are still in here so that dictated the placement of the Hol where they were able to dig so anyway it’s

Hard to do so that’s why I use a lot of these pots and just sort of sit them in the beds um another great tip if you if you really can’t dig in the dirt for whatever reason um then definitely container big box whatever there is in a

Big pot believe it or not and has been there for a long time yeah and it looks it looks great and he seems to be happy what variety is this golden Beauty over here looks so fabulous with your blue furn that would be the Lowe’s variety I don’t

Know when I bought the Lowe’s variety some kind of gold it is one of those it’s called Golden something I don’t remember golden J yeah we’ll call it golden junifer so and then later this ground cover is plumbago so we’ll get some purpley blue blooms going in here

Which look really nice against all these greens so the nice thing is though even though right now now it’s a little bit warm in the morning or when you’re just a little bit chilled and you’ve got that sun coming down perfect place to have coffee it is and then in question in the

Evening this is in the shade so it’s really nice out here in the evening we have dinner out here fairly often yeah it’s just Lely if it’s not too windy I have to ask this furniture is brilliant where’d you get it so that’s Amazon and

I uh the company was called what is this called flash furniture or something like that but I think the actual brand is Crosley Crosley did you get it very long ago um couple years ago I think they’re still available though I think okay so I will definitely try to put a link to

This because this would make a brilliant Mother’s Day gift like today I’m in the show I’m really sharing Mother’s Day gifts ideas so and that’s the chairs the table came with um those little French beasto chairs and they were Home Depot um like four or five years ago but the

Colors seem to be consistent I don’t have the same person made them all yes and and the pads did you get those separately at home or someplace you know all all barly inexpensive things yeah um I’ve learned that so many things outside don’t last forever and it doesn’t matter

How much you pay for it they still don’t last they still don’t last and you can’t really expect so you might as well be Thrifty at the beginning yeah but this this has aged very well in fact I’m not seeing there’s a little bit of fading

From it but not much so well and speaking of Thrifty this is if you could find something at a thrift store that was already pre-aged and modeling the metal would still be kind of cool it would be abely you you’ve got that kind of vintage thing going okay well this is absolutely spectacular

Now if steuart if you don’t mind kind of getting this Long View and of course you have all of your rose rocks and your crystals and you know you’ve kind of gotten me into I’m I’m I’m not quite to the extent you are but I am getting into

Blue and you know that I’ve tried to incorporate more you done more BL in my house I’m trying to mix it up as I as I get older but look at this beautiful Vista and this is the thing thing that judicious pruning can do for you and

That is just and by the way this effect I was told is called a lion’s tale really where you really prune out the interior and then the fluff is mostly on the ends and you let the lion tail get really long because it’s so wonderful this creates an overhead Shady passage

It really does well you taught me something I mean I I did that on purpose but I didn’t know that it was a thing um yeah well and so much of gardening is instinctive is it well and that’s especially me because I’m not and you know I don’t have a lot of designer

So you’ve got you know good composition skills and well let’s face it we’re both we’re both pretend Garden designers and designers because we’re self-taught well I still think you’re a different level than I am so well I I would include you in the interior category so this is just beautiful Flagstone

Um and describe just how this came to be I wish I had an answer for that obviously we had we needed to get paths in here going to this is the kitchen door so we needed to get that way um you needed to get back through here

Initially this brick wall that was a raised bed that was here when I bought the house and instead of tearing all that out when we created the addition to the house we left it and so it’s just sort of started doing these paths through it and it up and down things not

Sure how that’s going to work in 10 years you really have to be careful walking through here but there are lots of levels and lots of places to fall um so far I haven’t done that but um and then and then this at one point had a

Lot of shade and so as the um junipers are gone from the neighbors’s yard now so we get so much more sun in here in the morning so I’m not really sure how this is going to work this will be the first year I’m hoping that again the

Maples are established they’ve been here several years some of these other things I’ve changed some things to more boxwood and um the spia which can handle more sun and believe it or not my hydr Angels were not getting enough Sun so they’ve been doing better the last year or two

With a little more sun we’ll see take a little more than I love this is this is one of those little luxuries I think you guys that costs nothing and it is just such a treat to yourself things where you’ve just very carefully curated the stones that you have gathered to meet

This terracotta and cream colored color palette and then you’ve just assembled them here in this wonderful pot you know and I love things like that obviously that’s kind of my look but again I kind of wanted to put a plant there and I kept friend myself what it would be and

Finally it was just like nope I think this is a place for an object yes now someday that may move and a plant may go there but um one of the things that I’ve been doing is in Oklahoma our um uh Hawthorns you know just are not

Surviving and I had 24 at one point and so we’re down to about three yeah okay so by the way I’m often asked when I do public speaking okay what plants did we used to be able to just rely on as tried and true and the Quint but no longer and the quintessential

Example of that are Indian hawthorns not because of the heat but because of the cold so it’s something we continually have to kind of kind of watch so there were several in here and now they’re all gone replaced with basically box wood and and more hydrent you know what I

Love about this time of year about May is is not even so much the roses and the punies the geraniums the geraniums still aren’t so hot you know to quit blooming they haven’t gotten budworm yet I love the fragrance I just love their I like Jani too that’s one of those tried and-

True things I keep doing so and it works yes well and and even though they get hot in the summer they come back do I you know it might it may not be foot but I do love the topographical interest of this and it probably helps with drainage

Well I was going to say that was one of the reasons we kind of created a drain thing going down through here it worked for a while and now I probably planted to me things so it uh you know the water collects here but yes it’s okay and look

At just an example of your collection and do you shop any one place for things or you just shop everywhere well I will say that the most of the jars came from um Tuesday Morning in HomeGoods and places like that just because again they’re not that expensive so if one

Does get broken right it goes in the broken pottery garden and not you know I don’t I don’t feel like it’s so precious um the slag glass I think I got in Arkansas somewhere this is a new addition we Roger um found some planters

And we put one back here and one in the front um just again to try to create a little more height over here a little more privacy from the neighbor um okay great tip tips do what we need to put up the little tip thing because this is

Just a brilliant tip along with the boxwood that you had staged in there in a container this is a way you can get instant privacy instant height and interest interest textural interest and those aren’t really expensive plants you J is very inexpensive and I hope they

Grow and get big and you know will do well they’re obviously they’re not going to grow forever there because of the size of the pot but you know I can just see how fun would this be when you’re entertaining to put huge in the cool of the evening bouquet of

Sunflowers and eliminate little tea lights everywhere would just be just be charm in okay and as we come down the yellow brick road hore and you’ve got you know Virginia creepers is one of those things we have a LoveHate relationship with isn’t it I pretty much hate it but I

Can’t seem to control it so well so you might as well learn to love it and just deal with it yes and just deal with it so you like to mulch your pots interesting I I love the way you have Incorporated so many more junipers in pots and containers than I remember you

Doing that’s a for me so I hope that it’s not a mistake we’ll see I think they I think they’ll handle the heat um you know we have bag worms and so I’m G to have to stay on top of that but great winter interest and they’re cheap

They’re very expensive they really are um and they’ve got again year round interest so here’s here’s my question how do you decide where you’re I guess a lot of it is just the the where the shade is but how do you decide with all these Charming places well we tend to go

To the front we like that area up there so yeah this is really more for if we have a group we’ll come back here and and it’s it’s a great view from inside the house there’s a window over here that we see all this so we we enjoy this

More from the inside than we do the outside because we really live over there where we can now see I can see this as a great outdoor workspace and and we do lots of meetings at my house and I could definitely see this as being a wonderful outdoor I don’t have that

Opportunity I don’t I don’t meet my clients here so I can’t work outside well this this is where I primarily meet and it’s and it’s it’s so nice to be able to sit outside yeah and this had gotten just kind of devastated in here two years ago from all that ice we have

And it’s it’s it has a lush feel again there’s still some it’s recovered things that need to happen but uh but I want it to be very loose and woodsy looking and and it’s but it’s got a very nice balance of things being very trimmed but also very loose and

Billowy and again there’s more sun in here so the hydrangeas that were planted here last year bloomed really well and they look like they’re might this year too I see lots of buds on them yeah this looks like an Annabelle it is yes just and there’s this area more so

Than the other areas has lovely movement to it there’s a gentle breeze today and I just love the it it is fun to watch the things move in here yeah so and it’s not it’s a calmer space you’ve rained in your maximalist Tendencies here this would be a great place to meditate if

You it really could be outo if I did that sort of thing if you did that sort of thing um no it would be just and I finally I mean I’ve pretty much given up on on color out here other than green um I mean I get those hydrangea blooms you

Know which are white but it’s just not a great place to grow potted flowers or things like that but it contributes to the beautiful Serenity but I I really like it that it doesn’t have that so of this space great good source uh HomeGoods no at home at home at home

What’s the difference between HomeGoods and at home well at home used to be um something Pottery what was that called simmeron Pottery remember it’s a Texas oh boy that was yeah yeah so but that and I think it still belongs to that company so much larger Box Store lots of

Good stuff um and then I think HomeGoods is part of the TJ Maxx family isn’t it I don’t know yeah maybe it is I should know that kind of thing a little bit yeah I don’t know but I’m at home is a great place a great source for a lot of

Stuff for decorating especially when you are like sometimes I’ll do well I had a project at OU at a for a conference room there were all these shelves that had been built when they used to collect binders of medical research and all this stuff of course all that’s been dumped

In the trash so for not a whole lot of money I was able to go to at home and get the things you know to fill these shelves to make it a decent looking room again so any it’s a good sour and I bet you also you’re a thrifter too yes I

Don’t do a lot of yeah you’re more thrifting than you are these the the inexpensive store so yeah I love more thrifting or um but like this I wanted because I wanted something on this table but I wanted water to drain out of it I didn’t want to create a place for water

To collect well I think there’s that that tension you know the other thing for me is I’m is I and I hate it when people say oh I’m so busy but after you especially when you move I man I’m pretty busy yes you are we can tell yes

Um my loved ones can tell how I’m sure you just I bet you just fall into the bed at night and just pass out but the thing is is I I have to admit I do more online shopping now because I just I just don’t have the time to get out

Enough so I think it’s that nice I’m not an absolutist about anything really I I think it’s moderation and all from multiple different sources spread your love around but my but thrifting gets my heart first it does but when I seems like if I’m trying to Thrift for a

Project I’m not lucky you know you find things you’re not you think oh I need to find you books whatever they’re not there and then one of the things I like about these bigger box stores you know sometimes I’m just inspired by what I see I don’t know what

I’m looking for yeah and they change over quickly I mean it’s very much it’s fast interior fast Interiors like we talk about fast fashion and you know maybe not so great for the environment but it works for what we have to do like I say moderation in all okay in the dark

Of night Stuart would you help me move this over to my house when when John’s not looking because that is brilliant they still make them they just don’t look like that that one’s patin it yes that I B that I guess I’m giving I bet that’s almost been

Blind to me almost 40 years is that a sary world thing I think it might have been and it’s a very common when you see it yeah and it’s actually cracked but it leaks on the edge over here so I have to put water in almost every day um but

It’s got great color on it and then you you use really success yours comes back this has been really successful so the one you mentioned before which is that more miniature one I don’t think is quite as hearty here SI by the way this is muan beia or AKA wi

Vine wire Vine and i’ there are three sizes of it and I’ve only ever seen the big one on the west coast um but this size is very common here and and it really does come back you think it’s dead but it it really does come back and especially because yours is naturally

Mulched with leaves and things and and also I would say that it it’s pretty good about handling both sun and shade it seems to do okay here um and again it was planted when it was all shady but um and lots of textural components I love I may have to snap a a

Little segment of that do that because I love this blue green color palette through here and that’s you know that’s one of those things that just popped up there and I was like how perfect it knew it knew where to plant itself but it comes up all around and of course a lot

Of people think that’s invasive and something they don’t want but um I happy with it so very serendipitous and plus that would be something that’s easy to easy to control okay you we have more to see but I think for today we’re going to have to end on this note and here’s

Here’s another thing that I think is a signature touch you I’m So Into signature touch you know that about me look over here look what he’s done with just that beautiful broken and I used to have a rather large area what I call the broken pottery

Garden um it has gone away that some of it left um one of the things that I learned last year though which you can’t see but I thought this and someone told me I’m not going to say it was my idea but when I have all these empty pots in

The winter to do something in them so I now have a collection of broken pottery that like this one had seashells in it all winter one on the back porch had blue pieces of broken blue stuff in it U sometimes I’ll pick up my stones that

Are laying around and put those in a pot and it really made a difference I didn’t feel like I needed to do the whole pansy thing and and the cabbages which don’t work here anymore another thing doesn’t do well in Oklahoma our weather’s too extreme you know for that to work well

So um anyway I thought that was a great idea and then some of it I put back in the garage and some of I just dubbed out I have to tell you this little story um and a huge goal star to my followers that John you know from experience that

This channel has the best followers ever they are so kind they are so um they make brilliant suggestions without in any way you know being critical about it they’re just wonderful but I have to share this story with you so I found a piece of pottery in my

Garden and I and I discovered it and I put it up on the channel and one of our followers tracked it down and told me what it was and where it came from and and so was it just buried out in the yard somewhere yeah it was just it was

Just a little bit of garden archaeology and it’s unusual for that to happen in Oklahoma you know on the on the east coast of course that’s what happened to trash and so when you go back 300 years and digging you find all kinds of amazing we don’t find so much like that

Here but I think that’s fun that you did I remember your attic Treasures you found those were fun attic Treasures okay well let’s stop here but can you just end by isn’t this brilliant and then we’ll just say goodbye okay for this Sunday show so there’s some panies

Blooming which got a little rain tattered but still have some good color um that whole area along the fence over here when I moved here were was um um I always have trouble with this word what is the green thing that grows everywhere in Oklahoma you have them

Down the side of your yard uh yon Hol no the tall ones that are overgrown Hol no those aren’t Hollies Along The Back Fence oh the Juniper Juniper than I always have trouble with that one and I don’t know why as much as I love Jen you think I would rememberer Juniper

Remember but anyway these were junipers and so it was very shady they were too wide for the driveway so finally the neighbor and I said okay they’re going to come out and I was like I don’t know how this is going to look but it finally

Has a lush look now and it’s kind of a just a border garden um and all kinds of things happen you can see the Larks spur has um self seated because I didn’t pay attention and shake them where they should have um so they’re all on the

Edge but they’re going to be pretty um so and one of the few places um that I have seen ey look or sky pencil holly do very well it’s I think it’s can be hard to grow but you have done well effectively and they made it through that horrible winter lost every single

Leaf you know which they don’t normally do and I thought these are Gunners and we wired them all back they were bent every direction we wired them back together and they came back up so I think they might survive here in our when we go down to below 15 yeah we have

To sometimes we have to be rewarded for our so many things you know we’ll say zero or five but now in Oklahoma you’ve got to get 15 to 20 that additional 15 degrees thank you darling you’re welcome so good to see you I want to come for a

Tour of your garden sometimes say well I yeah I’m keeping up with you on TV and I drive by occasionally yeah well it’s it’s a work in progress and like I say people say oh it looks a little bit messy well Gardens that are’t established a little bit they they tend

To do that don’t they it takes a bit they tend to do that things have to grow together I love that when that happens good to see you good to see you to Stuart okay take care you guys have a wonderful Sunday evening well hello everyone and welcome back to the

Storybook Cottage AKA my new house and you can see that we are really in the midst of it there is chaos all around us for a while Stewart I was able to keep up with the influx of boxes in other words they would come in I’d empty them

Then more would come in well that ship has sailed and right now I am just I am surrounded by boxes that are hollering at me telling yeah yeah saying empty me and and help me find my rightful place which I shall do but today what I want

To focus on is not the chaos but some order that we’ve actually established primarily in the great room and I’ve invited my friend John Turman back because he’s going to help us address some of the questions that we had about setting up that room the placement of

The TV a number of those different kinds of questions we’re going to go through those one by one so let’s get Started so let’s go back to the great room and answer some of those questions but the number one uh I think decision point was where to place the TV and it really was kind of a collaboration the right answer seemed pretty obvious once I read through so

Many of your comments and I consulted with John and we’re going to discover where we ended up putting the TV in the rationale for it but first I want everyone to appreciate that my Island is clutter-free and it has remained pretty much clutter-free hasn’t it steuart

Since I moved in because I have put the fear of God in any anyone who dumps their stuff even Stuart when you walked in you said I’m going to put my camera case here but just momentarily yeah it only be yeah just momentarily okay so Stuart come on let’s go around the

Corner and this also helps people know how it kind of all fits together to the great room where my buddy John is w johnman hello sweetie so good to see you it’s good to see you sit in this beautiful room I know it’s it’s it’s kind of coming along but before we get

Started so many people have wanted to know about you John and if they want to take advantage of your services your designer Services how do they get in touch with you well the easiest thing to probably remember is that my uh email is johnj ter.com okay and that’s t r m a n

And thank you for saying that yes yeah yeah and the other thing is John does large scale projects and everything but he also thankfully for me does smaller scale projects like mine it’s more of a Consulting I do I and I always say I’ll hang a picture for somebody if that’s

All they want and um do a whole house and I travel to do my work and um it’s been amazing um how that’s worked out but there are lots of different ways to to engage me and U I’ve even done things just online so where I never went to the

House oh really so somebody sent you images or whatever client who was building a new house in um Texas and she needed help with her um finishes and her Plumbing selections and all that stuff and so she would shop and look online and I would do the same and then we

Would have a a video call and talk about all these things and anyway it worked out really well yes there’s so many different ways from very small granular scale to a very large scale so I just wanted to answer that question before we get into the long list of questions

Solutions that some of our followers had and how we worked through the decisionmaking process I think together because there’s no as you and I have often said there’s no wrong idea there is just the one or two that are right for you that’s absolutely correct and so

I give all of you guys out there in YouTube land credit and you John for helping me see the light okay so let’s get started and reveal the placement of the TV so if you guys remember when I was here before I kind of thought maybe the best solution for the television would be to move it so that everybody could see it from anywhere you sat in the room and it was this wall right over here and the bookcases were over here originally

Um and so we had this long discussion about all that and I think you were made be on board but not totally and uh so what was really cool about all the responses that you all gave was that um everybody had an opinion so we went

Through it and came up with um a list of things but overall this did kind of win out I think didn’t it and the important thing was just to try it so um and so I got a text the other night that Linda and Jamie had done this and I’m so

Excited to see it and we’re excited to show you I like I say I think sometimes we have the luxury of being able to try things and and to the extent you can try different things before before you commit then that’s a good idea I also

Shar with you that we’re not really huge TV people and this actually was in a study that my husband had upstairs I think it was used maybe a handful of times really okay so so it’s a I was surprised when we moved it in here how

Much bigger it was well it is big but I think it’s an appropriate size for the room and of course once you hang the art and around and all this and keep the you know get the table styled and all that the TV does just kind of disappear and

My whole point is that you shouldn’t have to move something to watch it it should just be there and you also don’t want to overpower the room and there’s enough other things going on in here that even though this is a large piece I think it will disappear when the wall is

Covered with art and and you don’t see it when you walk in the room so and when you do want to watch TV all you have to do is sit down and turn it on you’re not moving something or lowering something or raising something exactly I mean

There were I don’t know if there were a long list of ideas many of which were great and who knew and and you know and I love the fact that you guys really thought outside the box yes because I tend to be kind of formulaic and how I

Think of things and the fact that you guys really thought outside the box about not just this room but other rooms I think is just a wonderful thing it is it’s it’s just really a wonderful thing but you came up with because you trust me John I think read and there were a

Lot of them who knew people had such strong feelings about TVs but John went through every one of them and he came up with some different options that people shared and and how we went through each one of those options but before we start

That I want to I want to briefly talk a little bit about the inspiration for this room in general because you had asked me about that earlier well like I say before we get started you’d asked me what what my inspiration for this room was and I think it’s kind of twofold my

My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Tanzania oh how cool I love that yeah in a 3w week on a 3- week walking Safari in the Salo game reserve okay and it was one of those trips of a lifetime and I H I have to share I know that’s an amazing

Picture of isn’t isn’t that picture he looks just kind of like very Hemingway don’t don’t you think and then we even Stuart we may have to put up some of these images we’ve got us in front of our pup tent and in the savannah and we have some Wildlife pictures too so we

Love that that trip so much and also I think it’s kind of informed by the fact that you know my son Johnny lives in Singapore and I love that kind of kind of Eurasian African that whole thing um kind of inappropriately called British colonial but I I really love that and

It’s kind of the fusion of different cultures and then secondly I think because my husband has is just short of an an anthropologist degree from SMU and he loves archaeology and anthropology and Great Plains Indian culture and all of those kind of things so it’s kind of

A fusion of those two which is very successful it really that works to put that all together and and it’s gon to make a very comfortable room yeah I think I think so too and comfortable for us and then you know I love Serena Crawford you and I are both fans of of

Her work and it looks very Serena Crawford to me and it kind of just feels like a hunting lodge it’s really just going to look very Linda vder that’s what we want it to look a thank absolutely thank you that’s so nice Okay but enough about that enough about the

Aesthetics let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of the practicalities of TV placements okay so um a number of the ideas and and they’re all great ideas so I don’t want anyone to take offence on any of this they just weren’t right for Linda’s room or for Linda and Jamie um

But as you know we talked the first time about having a TV on the arm over in the corner over there and I think everybody pretty much agreed that would be the first thing you saw when you walked in the room it would look like a g or spa

Or something like that that was my suggestion so my definitely my bad and can you imagine this I know it would be horrible it would just be horrible and the furnit you would be your neck would be turned you would be turned the only place You’ be able to see that is right

Here and that just wouldn’t have been great so and then people mention you know using which has been done lots of times using carts for TVs that you roll in and roll out and um TVs on arms above the fireplace that you lower down well all of those things require work when

You get ready to watch TV you want to be able to come and plop in a chair and just hit the button and it’s all there for you you don’t want to have to move any cabinet doors or um you know lower something off the fireplace this new

It’s I think it’s sort of new this uh bracket that goes over the fireplace it actually pulls out and drops it down well I will say and I hope none of my clients are listening to this but the ones who have it never push it back up

And it just looks horrible you know it’s just not it just it yes it functions but doesn’t it doesn’t work talk a little bit if you would about why because instinctively you think TV over the fireplace there’s a there’s an outlet there it would just be so kind of

Convenient but talk a little bit about why that was not the solution for us well in here it would have been too high really um I think you would have been looking up all the time and the Really from my standpoint and I think yours too

It truly would have been the first thing you see when you walked in the room and that’s not what you want to see the fireplace is beautiful that’s really one of the things that Drew you to the room into the house so you want to have this

Competition with the TV um and so anyway and I just think that um you know people talked about using armoir and of course we did that quite some time ago that became a really big deal and I’ve always felt like I was sitting and looking in

An open closet when I was doing that however beautiful that might be again people don’t tend to close the doors um you know or the insides of the armar weren’t finished well or or styled or something like that it just never really quite works so the other thing that was

That really was very important important to me that really stuck home with me is that you said it was a great opportunity cost because yes I could have the TV up there but at at the cost of not being able to have that that fabulous Shapiro painting up there which should be the

Focal point of the room not a piece of electronics and so again no right or wrong answer but for me and because so many of you talked about next train that much so I don’t okay so lots of next TR next train but the the thing I am more aesthetically

Driven and so when you pointed out the opportunity cost of not having a piece of fabulous up there one of your Prime places for seasonal decorating and all the things you and if you had a TV there you just blew that so it just wouldn’t work exactly exactly okay so now go on

To some of the next things you guys brought we got all oh and one of the things too that we we and you and I both thought was interesting was that um the bookshelves themselves people talked about splitting them taking them apart building things in between them you know

What let’s go over to the Bookshelf let’s look so for people who haven’t seen them so for one thing in case I think there was question about this too the bookshelves are in fact in four pieces so so yes that would have worked to split them but one of the things that

Would have happened had we done something like that is we would have created a very similar situation to the way the fireplace wall works architecturally so let’s let’s rehash a little bit because some people had suggested that we divide two and two and we have them flanking each side of the

TV and excuse my furniture my furniture polish um a great focal point for any room um but had talk about that so now exp and then people talked about either building a table or a shelf or even another piece that looks something like this you know all those are great ideas

Um I will say too that always I think when people say they’re going to build something or have something recreated that becomes more of an issue than you would think I mean it seems simple very expensive generally and then getting the finishes to match and all that sort of

Thing but um I just feel like this would have been too large and too much like the fireplace wall had we left that over there and tried to do that and then the other thing is I think these are great bookshelves and I would hate it to have

Diluted that um you know so I think they do need to stay together I think they need to stay dark and as you and I hope we’ll show you as you come back into this room they don’t overwhelm the room at all and they do create a nice balance

They’re relatively shallow and there’s lots of room right here now behind the yeah and let me address a couple of of things from an aesthetic standpoint because some people said oh the all of this dark Furniture against the white that’s exactly what I want it’s the white with the contrast of the dark

Furniture that very much gives me the aesthetic that that I want and and also that I think is appropriate to the strong light of Oklahoma and and so I think it’s not only African Eurasian or whatever but I also think it’s very Oklahoman some people also commented on

The fact that these don’t sit perfectly you know straight well that’s something that can be rectified easily with a shim or or we something that we just haven’t gotten around to gotten around to yet but but in the meantime they just look like antique bookshelves so it doesn’t

Matter if you see a little of this right and they are they’re not antique they’re reproductions we had them in my other home but again I didn’t want in any way to dilute the drama of how they all look together for me not for maybe for some

Of you but for me I I really like the impact of seeing them all together and the backdrop that they provide right I agree I I I think this is very successful so I’m really glad you did this and I don’t think you’re gonna move

It back so no I don’t think so either yeah what once we did it my husband was just going okay that was duh that was just like duh well and it it made the room um first of all all the furniture came in a little closer into the room

And it feels much Cozier and you’re not too far from anybody to talk or to watch the TV or it just feels better and then it created a lot of space back here which I think is going to be the opportunity for your med room um I

Really do I think um before we travel down and pull on that string a little bit let’s talk if I can even remember steuart do we have images of what it looked like before okay what because for some of you you may just now be joining us and you don’t necessarily know

Historically what we’re referencing but when we first moved in we had the bookshelves on the TV wall and over here we had that long groaning board table and I was thinking incorrectly that the TV would be over the fireplace or in the corner so then before I made any kind of

Big commitments like that I brought in John which is another reason to hire a decorator for making big mistakes again you can use people on a large scale I I have my strong opinions as John as John knows um but but we what we work and somebody also commented Oh Linda you

Know what you want why even refer to a decorator well because I’m not a designer I mean I’m not a decorator I I have I hope pretty good taste and I have an idea of what I like but in terms of scale and things like that I am not

Likewise you also are a good Gardener but you nevertheless when you do things and at your Spanish Bungalow you consult designers about the exterior of your home even though you’re a very good Gardener and I and I absolutely have opinions about it and we don’t always do

What they suggest right right but it’s but it’s very much a give and take and it’s like a mutual brainstorming I think that’s what I was going to say I think that’s important to to don’t just think of it as designer as someone who comes

In and tells you what to do or does it for you they really are are listening to your ideas and just talking you through it and making sure it’s really what you want to do and sometimes you know I or somebody else may have another spin on

It um or just some you know some icing on it that makes it better it’s just something you didn’t think about the other thing is and why it was so helpful for you guys to comment so much and please do comment and subscribe and hit the notification button um is because

What I like about it is is it’s mutual brainstorming so we talk about things and steuart when we before we got started filming we were talking about different things about the coffee table and you were saying this and this and then I said oh but this and this and you

Ultimately came around to team Lind on that one yeah and ultimately you said but it was through the the process of walking through the constraints the practicalities of it the navigation of the room that Solutions Optimal Solutions um very personal signature touch Solutions become obvious to you

Don’t you love friends who remind you of the brilliant things you’ve said in the past I do because I’m I’m so bad about not remembering things like that and then when you say it I’ll know but so tell me what it was well I think it is I

Have said it so many times in garden design and then you put it in the context of interior design and a lot of you were concerned and talked about the glare from the big picture window on the TV during the day well um the brilliant thing you said was you make design

Decisions based on the time of year or the time of day or the context in which you use that space absolutely so I this space during the day unless my family’s home or whatever probably won’t be used a a whole lot um since we’ve moved in

It’s only been used at night we light a fire it’s real ear maybe very early in the morning um neither of which time did we have the TV on but we do like to watch a movie or a documentary or something at night at which point glare

Is not an issue so while for many of you that might have been a constraint for us it wasn’t even a consideration and I didn’t want to make a longterm decision based on something that for me doesn’t exist or was a short or was a short-term consideration people being

Here during the day watching TV well and it still may be that as you’ve lived here a while you may want to do a screen shade on the window just you know there may be other reasons you want some of just for privacy sometimes um so but I I

I agree with you that and we often do and I think we said this before we make design decisions based on something we do once a year or maybe even not at all we just think we’re going to do it it’s really important to live with your space

And to see how it’s going to work and and I don’t even know do you even know what happens if you turn the TV on in the daytime no CU I’ve never turn TV on at the day time so it’s not but you know what I I still want to talk some more

About this room but that’s a nice segue to a lot of comments people had about another room so we’ll come back here but let’s go to that other room and address a lot of input we got okay that’ll be great Got Oh So another thing that was on the list was how you were going to use that front hall closet U well it’s not a hall closet the front closet by the door front closet and you of course thought and it would be a brilliant idea to make

It a mud type room and a lot of people talked about well that’s your front door is that really where you want that that or um and I had said you know with the window in it this is too good to be a closet so we’re going to set that one

Aside but we have but we did do need to talk about where a mudro can be so now that this the great room has kind of morphed into what it has there is space back here to create what you want to be a m room I think okay so what are your

What do you think about that you think that might work so first of all this is this is a great tip that if you don’t like I don’t have a dedicated mudroom no you do not but but you have dedicated gardening boots but I have lots of very

I’m very dedicated to them dedicated gardening boots and and and so but the tip is sometimes if you don’t have a space you make a space yes or you you partition off an area of an existing room to make a space and you press it into service for that reason and for me

It’s a mud room the other reason that that makes so much sense which you have point pointed out to me is this is the door we’ll ultimately be using more it will than the front door of the Parlor this is the one we’ll be using so and at

Any rate this is where I’ll be slipping in and out and it would be a long trip to take your wet Garden boots up there you do that it would okay so what tell me what so well Solutions you’ve come up with and I have a solution and some of

This came from viewer comments you know but um this area by the back door makes perfect sense and you’ve already started it you’ve got a coat right back here great place to put the winter let me because I want to ask you my husband just put this here and I thought oh is

This a wet in the way is it too bulky or whatever but in no way does it impede coming in or going out absolutely and it could go a little bit closer to the Bookshelf if you wanted to yeah I think so but it doesn’t and it looks cozy and

Just appropriate yeah and it’s the right scale right it is so so I think that’s the start of it but this based on the other side of the door I could see you building maybe a um almost like a long table maybe six or or 7 ft long and make

It kind of high the top of it so that underneath you could create do a a tray uh for all the gardening boots and that sort of thing um you could even have a narrow shelf under that if you wanted to place to stick stuff baskets or

Something so more more Ain to like a bench table kind of a bench but taller than a normal bench so that the boots look glender cuz some of them are tall aren’t they tallest you know what comes to me to mind to me are those ones that

You see that are a bench and they’ve got those Square cubicle things yeah and I don’t know if you want Square cubicles I think you want to be a little more interesting than that and I want it to be kind of rustic I think yeah and and

You know I don’t know whether it’s made out of some kind of reclaimed wood or maybe reclaimed wood and and use your your use your contact that who could work on the dining room table um to create some kind of a base to hold that yeah I love the idea of reclaimed wood

And having something look kind of rustic a little bit rustic a little bit Garden like garden furniture or something very English very English and then I still think keep the ch air here um so that you can sit down and put your shoes on take them off another place to sit your

Handbag or your tote or whatever because we talked about a landing and launch pad Absol so it still would be that and it’s not impeding on the table by the sofa it’s not impeding on the bookshelves we still have a dedicated bar which we probably should point out in a minute

Where that ended up um and then the top of that would be a great place to put Plants um I can see topiaries so emeris and all the things you did I wonder what have you that idea I don’t know um and and which brings up another thing we we

Talked about whether this should be Cas windows or French doors and all that and I think the decision’s already been made by you and Jamie that it should be casement windows and it really does make sense because it allows you to create this mro space um you get to use the

Space it’s not just a walkway and this door over here really does function the best for in and out of the house so and I think and I can’t remember if we told you that ultimately and and the other thing is expense is always a consideration so let’s not just talk

About oh we have Deep Pockets and anything we decide to do um we are we got one estimate on this and it was pretty high so we’re getting more estimates on it it may be something that does not happen immediately but to get it right even though I am all about

Instant gratification we you know we may have to wait but what I love is casement windows first of all there are casement windows in the front of the house yes there are so it would look as if it very much was appropriate to the Vintage of this house

The other thing is we have lived with French doors in multiple locations and they they’re beautiful but boy there’s a lot of cons to them they really are um practical cons in addition to having to clean all of those individual individual and just changing the window if you

Start changing the opening you get into the masonry on the outside and the costs just really add up and is it really worth it especially if you’re not going to walk through them um yeah yeah the other ones that we had that sat by the dad chair we seldom ever use those doors

And and for the reason we even want to do it is first of all this doesn’t this doesn’t in any way speak to the vernacular and and the Integrity of this house but also because for my husband it’s all about that that blending the inside from the outside and feeling the

Wind on his face so so that will give us that inside outside feel AB the other thing is is I just I I just find them very very Charming uh but then when we came up with the idea and I don’t know if we shared this with you of TR of of

Switching this out ultimately for a Dutch door I think it be great right which I think will then give us the IDE that same indoor outdoor very Cottage likee and that would be an easy like to open the top of that door and that air in so yeah it’ll be really functional

And and again we were talking about scale a while ago the scale of this will fit the room better than creating a great big wall of Windows yeah I you know Florida ceiling type thing so you just don’t need that in here makes it possible for but this really will be

Very useful to have a yeah to have a mro here we talked about maybe making a great big boot tray and putting it underneath but I think it can be very fabulous and then you just sit in this chair these chairs belong to my second

Mom so I love them and put you know you put on your boots you take off your boots or whatever and then um I need to get probably something in this area where my husband can kind of dump his you know his stuff his Keys is well I

Still think even on the top of that table you’ll have some baskets that’s true yeah that’s true I I don’t think you want it over here I think you want to keep this for okay when you’re here in the evening but you keep it all back

Here yes sir and you know I mean as silly as this might be you know you’ve got some room right here if you wanted to do some key something for keys to go on because you know we can never find our keys my husband in addition to being

Archaeology obsessed his brother was a naturalist and we have lots of beautiful um antlers and things like that that belong to his brother brother that a lot of which one of his best friends uh was a curator at the San Francisco Zoo so before we get lots of you know

Complaints about that kind of thing the animals would die naturally and and my brother-in-law inherited a lot of them but I can just so see some of these pieces hanging there with my straw hats with your hats on the right that’ll be great yeah yeah

I think that will be very fun and then speaking oh speaking of garden boots see and that’s why I think this well I guess they’re not as tall as I thought so probably could be bench height for the top of it but I feel like a little bit

Higher we get it up under the window where you can put plants on it better boots don’t you have taller Bo I have taller boots okay another another tip you measure things yes you do based on their application based on the height of your suitcase storage based on you know those

Different and my point is I don’t know that you want to sit on that table FL I think it should be appropriate for what needs to go in it and then use the chair for but I think the width is more where I’m coming up with the band okay so then

The the last thing and you you approved you gave me affirm on it cuz I had this piece in another location my drawer has sunk in um from the move but I had this in another location and I thought okay we can’t have the book bar over here

With people getting drinks and stuff in front of the TV or what so this secondary piece moved in here and you condoned my it’s great for a bar and it it that is a very long wall so you’ve now divided it into two if not three

Sections um and but the bigger one being around the TV and that’s where you’ll eventually do some stuff but this it’s a good great place it’s in the passage on the way out to the door it’s not going to totally block it if if you have 10

People over this would have really been a problem if 10 if I had originally had the book bar over here then constantly people yeah they really would have so anyway so I think this is brilliant I think it’s going to work well so a brilliant idea yes I and I do love it

And even though it’s dry January and everything I I love barware even if I didn’t drink I just love barware I love Crystal and things okay so let’s end let’s end on this I think okay because I’m getting a little overwhelmed um in my in my other home one of the

Things that hubs and I do when we travel the souvenir we typically bring back is a map of wherever it is we go it’s portable it’s lightweight it’s easy to bring back and it you know conjures up fond memories so we have a collection of maps that have been framed and in my

Other home I had kind of multiple map walls now something I I don’t ever think I really had an official version of and I have always wanted is a huge Gallery wall that would be great M so I can see tell me if you think I’m crazy I can see a montage of

Our maps of some of our old like parchment certificates um some of our black and white photographs I can see that really in the expanse of this wall I can too I think that would be really terrific um and it one of the things it provides

That was also brought up in the comments is that this house is all white inside and your furniture is warmer and uh even though there’s lot there are lots of neutrals it still has a more of a warm tone so covering a wall like that would

Almost provide the same idea as if you were painting it or putting up a wallpaper or something like that but it’s not changing it it’s just it’s just you know the the decoration instead and it and it grounds it it grounds it and then our my real Hope by you doing that

Is that that TV just disappears even more yes um you know so that it it just is that not really noticed and I think it looks what another okay this is brilliant thing you said number three um is I don’t want anything to really look contrived I want it to look organic like

And and the good thing about that is you can keep adding to it yes if it’s organic feeling so um it’ll it’ll go forward move forward and and and in the context of this this TV and if the TV ever goes away then I just put more maps

Put another one up or whatever in that in that spot so I think that’ll be fun and it will also with with the frames and everything will bring in these warm absolutely the bookshelfs won’t be the only dark piece of furniture in the room at that point I don’t think yeah and

Give and give this visual give this visual away plus I just love the way they I hope I get to help you with that I think that so Expendable well du because as we’ said you know how to do things so but John is it’s one of the things

You do okay so we we have well Stuart do you remember uh the English garden that we went to not long ago at susen see comments on Culbertson so many places it was in Lincoln ter it was with Roger and we went over and we saw that fabulous yeah yeah we saw

That fabulous English garden well she has an art gallery uh and you did the gallery walls well I got to do two of them I I don’t work there but I did get to it’s a new Gallery so I got to go and and she and enlisted me to do two of the

Walls it was great fun to do so um I’d love for you to to see those at some point we’ll have to go over yeah you said you could probably you have an end so we could get an invitation and then you probably remember at my house you

Know have I think I have three in in my house recently one of which I took down completely down the whole thing down uh laid it all on the floor or I didn’t lay it on the floor I laid it just all out and then um used my I’m not going to

Give my secret away yet but used something to put it back up there to see it before I hung them and they re hung it and I was able to get five more pieces of art up um and and I think the wall is more interesting because it is a

Little more organic looking and the spacing is not all the same between things I got a little obsessed about that when I was doing it and I never liked it cuz you know didn’t tried it did and this is so much better um I

Think so and I I bet in the video it shows the old one and then now you can see the new one we can we’ll have we’ll you know what we’ll just go back and see John’s house again because you’ve done you’ve done a lot well and you’ve done

Made a lot of changes to the Garden so we we will go back and see that again but I also I I love that it’ll it and I love the fact that I can I can inject a little bit of color you know I’m somebody that really likes kind of a

Monochromatic palette with pops of color that’s my how I like it in my garden and maybe seasonal pops of color uh but with with a palette that I can kind of change and one thing that I had wanted to do and I even put this in the community tab

Is I really really wanted to channel that Botanical green like the color of that of that candle and I I couldn’t make it work in the front but back here it’s very it’s I noticed it everywhere in Singapore it’s very Singapore because it’s that Botanical meets all of this

Kind of aesthetic and you have assured me that I can do that here absolutely and it again even though it’s I mean grains considered a cool color it will warm up the space you know to add the papa green and enen it and enl en liven

It and it’s a great contrast to the you know the African and Asian things that you’ve brought in so I I’m anxious to see you try that so and you know what it will be fun for us to do then is it will give me a reason to go thrift and just

Look at anything in that color I don’t care if it’s a skirt if it’s a drape if it’s a whatever if it’s something and and that would be a fun little day trip but another one would be to go to a big fabric showroom oh yeah because when

You’re just making pillows you can Splurge I mean you can find some really interesting fabrics and and just have these little and some people call them jewelry when you add pillows to a room you know and you’re all into your jewelry so this would be the way to do

The room um but that could be fun too just to to kind of just not pay attention to what things cost just pull samples you know well and and Remnants you can find expensive remnants that you can transform if not into 24 by 24 than into a lumbar pillow or something like

That is a much better way to do that than buying a sofa in in a green color that someday you may think this wasn’t the right thing to do so I love the idea of that though I agree completely okay so at some point I am going to show you the

Ingredients so that you can help me come up with a recipe I love that for my gallery wall and more importantly um the how-to of how of how you do it that would be great okay have we answered I think we well there are things but you know when we’re in other

Rooms hopefully we’ll talk more more of it is you guys I just love how you are taking such ownership in all of this and have given us such great ideas and brainstorming or whatever it was you guys said earlier and you’ve already adapted some of those

You know and made changes from what you originally thought when you walked in the house yeah and and I think that somebody says oh you already know what you’re going to do I no I don’t I mean I think I know what I’m going to do and I

Tell John I think I’m going to know partly because I want his affirmation I’m insecure that way but he can either say okay that’s a great idea or he puts it much more gently or what about this and then and it’s and and I

Think we’ll end on that note it is it is a mutual what about this absolutely and that’s what it should be which makes it fun yes and it can always be changed that’s right thank you my friend you’re very welcome good to see you today good to see You Merry Christmas well for those of you that are fans of my friend John Turman and his beautiful blue and white Spanish Bungalow right near the capital in Oklahoma City then this is for you because you have so kindly invited us into your home to show us your holiday decorations I’m so glad

You guys could come by today oh it’s just it’s it’s so fun and you and I were talking I I would say if there’s because I did a little preview first if there’s an overarching thematic to kind of your holiday decorations to me it’s wreaths yes lots of lovely things from your

Grandmother and vintage and mercury glass lots of shiny things lots of shiny things so and obviously if we’re going to start anywhere we have to start out with a tree so this is just this is just wonderful now you are a a proponent of of artificial trees because you guys

Have allergy issues and as a designer you know the value of something that is enduring yes and and it is one of those things you can start early with it it can stay up till Epiphany and you don’t have to worry about the drying and the

Watering and all that stuff and it’s an investment even a live tree is at least this carries from one year to the next so and live trees for a lot of people a a lot of people commented that they’re so expensive this year and yeah they’re not enduring and also if you’re going

Out of town then that could be an issue also from a fire hazard perspective but oh my gosh John this is just love well that’s 60 years of collecting so um before I could collect people collected for me we were given ornaments every year as kids you know to um just one of

Those things that eventually when we were became adults we would have at least a start of a Christmas tree collection and that’s exactly what happened so um and my grandmother about some pretty cool things uh trying to see well now when you say you refer to your grandmother is this your maternal

Grandmother your petal grandmother Grand her name was Unice terman so she’s a terman um and you know things I think she may have made the one you had your hand on um there were some great I grew up in Eastern Oklahoma and there were some great stores in Tulsa that had

Really beautiful decorations and she would often buy something there for us um and then there are things like like this little mouse over here that’s one of the first ones I remember ever having so I pretty sure it’s close to 60 years old um of course he always gets pride of

Place this Ginger man’s one of those um and you don’t see things made like especially The Ginger Man anymore okay now can we just FOC and those are from Tulsa from Miss Jackson’s you know oh Miss Jackson hey if if in the comments if you guys are from the Tulsa area or

Whatever and you remember Miss Jackson by all means let us know these are really special I think very very special and you know the in the 90s I started collecting some Radco things and some Old World Christmas and um these there’s a collection of these animals that are

From Virginia from a crafts spere that we collected over several years a lots you got obviously lots of blue and shades of blue to compliment your existing decorations and it really it fits in just seamlessly thank you it really I’ve never picked a theme for a tree because

I like to be able to buy pretty much anything I want and it’ll work and I don’t feel like it um I mean it’s just a nice traditional tree it’s not something that goes out of style um you know some yours it has more ornaments than others

But um now talk a little bit if you would because you talked about how you finally were able to find LED lights the twinkle lights and the C in warm tones so finally I’ve been looking for a couple years to buy a new tree but I wanted a pre-lit with LED and

For so long the LED was that bright blue white color it just doesn’t look good in a house it’s not warm so this year I finally found one that I really liked um and got this and then it came with the white lights and then I added the c7s uh

C9 I think they are actually smaller these are C9 these are even smaller c7s are a little bit bigger they’re the bigger one anyway but um and with the LED so um it’s nice now I don’t have to worry about I mean I actually put it on

A timer finally so it can come on and go off and I used to kind of worry about all the heat from especially the C9 lights they got hot U so so this is this is kind of a quirky question but the these are the C9 are the c7s the ones

That what we think of as the traditional Christmas bulb of the 50s was that the shap it’s well no it’s still the shape is just bigger yeah okay so well it’s just it is absolutely it’s it’s beautiful and then I want to point out very gingerly sart if you

Can because it leads to my question of the day I’m going to guess I know which Camp you fall into John but here’s my question of the day when you decorate your home do you remove what is their year round and then add your holiday uh decorations in their place or do you

Embellish what’s already there with Christmas bubles and Christmas decor so what do you do well I try to do the ladder I try to um just embellish what I have um in some cases like where Stuart is right now that um it’s a cheese Dome I guess anyway normally is filled with

Seashells so I did take out the seashells and put in the mercury glass but I don’t have a place to store the big piece so it works well just to leave it there and do something with it I really just like to layer in Christmas it makes it easy to do when you’re

Putting it in it makes it really easy when you’re putting it away way which I increasingly is is a concern I think to all of us but in so for my question of the day let me know if you incorporate Christmas decor into what’s already out or if you actually put what’s already

Out away way to make room for festive and a lot of people do that they have really large collections of Santas or whatever and they’ll empty all the bookshelves well can you imagine if I tried to empty my bookshelves so and and if you do this is a tip I learned from

My friend Elaine when she would like redo her mantle or I don’t know a dish rack or something like that she would take a picture of the way it was before she removed everything and put in her holiday Decor so when she had to go back and recreate that vignette she would remember

How she had it arranged and I do that especially with my clients when I I have a couple that I help decorate for Christmas and you know I don’t exactly remember where everything was so I do that I may not always put it back exactly like it was but at least it kind

Of reminds me and you know we it gives you a nice uh visual clue well and especially if something is form fit yes to a to a display and then steuart if you don’t mind showing there’s wreaths in every window and I love that we just saw some of these wreaths at Mocking

Bird Manor and this is exactly what I had in mind on how to use them how how many windows do you have and how many res do you have they’re probably I think I have about 20 res there are like three windows that I don’t put them in that

They don’t fit um but they’re really simple and and it’s just a a band of ribbon link you know Loop through the wreath and we are fortunate that our windows are double hung so I can literally just lower the top window and put the piece in and close it up u in

Most places there are a couple windows we open throughout the year so I put a thone tack in those you you know just to hold it but very simple very very simple I for my outdoor ones I put grommets at the top to just s and when I store these

I actually take I took uh the tube out of paper towels and cut it and so I just roll that ribbon around that so it keeps the ribbon smooth yeah so it’s reallyy you’re not redoing ribbon every year which is a nightmare yeah and dust free

Yeah but I I love the uniformity of that yeah that is a theme throughout the whole house so you’ll see re in all the windows and all the rooms and then you have I noticed just just little trinkets you have angels and things that some of which probably are out year round but

Some of them aren yeah now because you know obviously this is all about Garden inspired living this is about Garden inspired living look at this gorgeous bird’s nest Fern oh my word look at all that new growth this just makes me salivate With Envy it’s so so beautiful

You said this is really old I’ve had it for seven or eight years and it was fairly small when I got it actually it was in an arrang where somebody had done several live plants together you know in a basket and that’s the one I kept out

Of it so i’ I’ve kept it along and it stays inside most years it stays in all year occasionally I’ll put it on the porch and this is South Sun it doesn’t get too much sun for you here not in the winter even though it is South I think

It’s we keep our house school for wi too so they like that um it’s we don’t have a real warm home so I think that’s part of it but generally it’s a little bit where the Christmas tree is so it’s a little more protected it’s it’s really

Really just just beautiful I love a gardening touch in your house all the time of something live I think that’s so important I I agree well and you’ve got also Live Points set is around you’ve got lots of you said these were very would would you say these were 60s or

70s from your grandmother that my grandmother bought it but it was in the 70s and that’s a Christmas tree topper um and you’ll see another one in the dining room that’s actually on a Christmas tree um but they make great little you know just decorative yeah accessory things again I’m pretty sure

That’s from Miss Jackson as well well and what I love about them is they speak to different eras or at least those areas where we grew up experienced our child absolutely our that was on the top of our family tree for many years so um yeah well and look at these these are

Very very dear I found those at Mocking Bird Manor many years ago so don’t you love Mocking Bird Manor yeah it’s one of my favorite places to go just even be inspired so yes shop for ideas and then you always you always end up coming home with

Something AB we just recently did a little tour there oh did you okay of Mocking Bird Manor and they had just so fun things you said you thought these were Italian I think they’re Italian U just paper Press paper I think there’s a label on yeah made in Italy yeah and the

Fact that they can be so probably and they this is what’s cool talk about storing things flatten them out they go like that don’t you love the Brilliance of that I know and I’m sure these were designed for tourists because you know that would be so easy to slip in your

Suitcase when you’re in Venice well you know what if I were in Venice and I were a tourist would I look for I know I would slip several of those several of those in my suitcase and and then this is one of you’ve done one of my very

Favorite things to do which is working with your existing Decor just taking whatever re you can find whether you make them or sometimes these are Christmas ornaments you said you thought this was a napkin ring and you just slip it over I love the expression I love the

Expression on this face like whatever what happened to me yeah just put that wreath on me whatever and this is a great example of where I didn’t touch anything else on this chest I just added that wreath to it and you immediately saw it which you know it’s a little

Touch of Christmas so I think that those are important throughout the whole house and it speaks to your your signature touches your Christmas signature touches of of re okay now let’s go to the next area okay well as I have done many times this is where I come in your front door

Which is so so charming and behind you to greet me this is a really realistic faux wreath isn’t that great and that was kind of hard to find I’d found the small in Sp all the other windows but I couldn’t find the right one for the front door and finally this year on

Terrain which is a CHP terrain they had this and I tried it and I really again and you can’t see this on the outside but there’s one wreath outside on the chimney which a lot of the viewers who saw this before remember I had a very plain chimney so you see a wreath

Outside that’s the start and then you see one here and then you come in and you start singing with all the windows but finding this one was tough so it was a they were always too big or too thick and to get a one that fits on here and

Then to go behind the storm door was tricky well I think a a wreath that permanently is your focal point for when you come in it’s worth investing a little bit more a little bit more in that so here’s a here’s a question for you I I for me you know there are

Traditional just iconic forms of Christmas there’s the wreath form and the Christmas tree form and I definitely fall in Camp wreath I do too I I really do so there’s something about that conical shape that I just don’t love as much yeah and just the continuity the

Softness of right um and it you know reads can be used lots of times of the year they’re not just a Christmas item so I think that’s part of what I like it too yeah oh I could see this beautifully oh yeah you spring with sprib yes and then here’s another Angel

It is this obviously probably came from your grandmother it did and I I think she probably purchased that in the late 50s or the early 60s it look very 50s to me it does doesn’t it yeah she had a a living room that was blue and purple and

Then she at Christmas would use pink in there instead of red um so she had you must have gotten your flare for for design from your grandmother some innate um anyway but that was one of the pieces that I kept from her collection of things and and a

Whole pink Christmas thing has a bit overmatched I think at this point but in the 50s and 60s it was it it it was kind of the thing well what I love about the 50s ornaments is is for those of us of a certain age that is nostalgic Christmas

To us it was it was the Christmas of the ‘ 50s of of that iconic movie The Christmas Story and the Red Rider BB gun to me that was kind of what really signified the magical the magical um Aura of Christmas and then over here you’ve got uh We Three Kings right

That’s an estate sale find again I think from the 60s so some late mid-century Christmas so I’m G to have to up my game on estate sales I I I go to Lots I do lots of thrifting I don’t do lots of estate sales they are two different

Things you’re absolutely right so and I think you know I paid a dollar or two a piece for those I mean they were really inexpensive um but they’re they look handcrafted they’re just beautiful they in fact they kind of look Italian to me too the way the paper and the coloring and

Everything when I was in high school I worked in a gift shop I don’t know if you remember Nomi arkc in Edmund and I worked in that gift shop and we sold things like we sold things like that okay let’s go upstairs because you you’ve got a guest bedroom and another

Office upstairs so let let’s go up here well I am a huge fan of needle point at one time I really did a lot of it and I need to take it back up again because it’s so relaxing but that needle point pillow is exquisite isn’t that

Lovely a good friend of mine made that several years ago and then those are little um I guess China or Pottery ornaments sewn onto it so what a clever idea a really clever idea and if you don’t needle point sometimes that’s something that you can find at the

Antique stores and and thrift stores and I would H I would happily snuggle up as a guest in your in your holiday home with that green teddy bear I think it’s kind of important to give a little something to your guest um you know that’s holiday something in there

Because a lot of times especially this room they can come up and sit in the chair and and there’s just a little bit of festiveness going on so well it’s just a nod to the season and and plus I think sometimes it’s fun when you don’t discover everything all at once where it

Reveals itself over time and you appreciate the nuance and the humor of little touches uh and and like in a guest room it’s just simple even just to do find some red sheets and put those on the bed for Christmas you know and I I don’t use them any other time of the

Year they’re just for Christmas so it would it would be incredible to see your house decorated for Hanukkah with all of the blue and the white and the silver and everything it would however it might blend in so much well that’s true too yeah one of the nice things Red’s a good

Accent for the house being blue and white and creams you know so the red really does show up and there’s always some red in our house but um but of course a lot more comes out at Christmas so do these are these sheets out your I can’t remember no I never use them

Except for Christmas except for Christmas yeah no normally the bed’s done in blue and white so well it just is couldn’t be charming and then of course you’ve got your statement wreaths yes my w everywhere here and I was looking in this office over here and you have you have some of

The same needle point pillows I’ve got that little Merry Christmas pillow and repetition of the waths and then the bathroom windows don’t lend themselves to waths so much so those are some Santas I just stuck in there they fit perfectly just just barely that one Santa that one

Santa yeah steuart that’s the that’s the pillow that I have and then steuart’s giving me a look like you’re we’re moving ahead trying to I don’t know that those are going to show but look at the look at the cute little Santas there that are just they look like they were just made

For that kind they’re even the right color green for the bathroom with the greens on them um well it’s it’s something that older homes just have that is just so uniquely the personality of an older home and that’s the unique tiles and the unique colors and and

Things of that nature okay you want to go down and go to your kitchen now dining room and kitchen well probably the easiest way to festivizer bobles in a bowl it absolutely is so so that the that’s part of my collection of vintage balls that I again purchased at a estate sales and

Actually some thrift stores on those because for many years you could find those by the Box still you know not very in the boxes every bit as precious well and you know I used to put them all back in the Box finally one year I was

Putting all this stuff and I was like okay enough so now they go in giant Ziploc bags well I was looking for just some plain bobbles the other day I they were in short supply I could find and the old ones I mean like I used to pay

10 or 25 cents a piece for you know they’re like three and four and5 doll now for just the plain ones yeah so it’s really crazy so I’m glad I did it I’m glad I bought them when I bought them because I probably wouldn’t do it now

We’ve got little Santas and bow and you know again one bow makes I mean I didn’t touch anything on here again just added that bow to that and just that little po of red and it it draws your eye that real pop of red and then over here

You’ve got this wonderful and I love this idea talk about a a real hack and that’s using a quilt or a blanket or anything as a tablecloth so this is an old bed spread and fortunately it is finished all the way around with fringe and um I’m assuming it came that way I

Don’t know and again this was something my grandmother used every year um and we used to eat on it it’s it we don’t anymore cuz it’s it’s h kind of past its prime but it makes a great you know just an everyday cloth to be on there so yes

And I love just the I love the red and white which has kind of been my my color theme for for this year now this isn’t holiday but I have to comment on these marble aren’t those gorgeous yeah oh my word these are Exquisite so and that’s

One of those things that are always out um but at Christmas I like to pull some things around so you see them in a different way and they kind of look like sugared fruit that the texture on the kind of gives you that look and I just

Think they work well with that and then and in here especially I’ve pulled all my mercury glass out from various spots and um there you know things on the table there things over here these are usually in the front window in the living room um yeah for many many years

I I made huge displays on a teered stand of sugared fruit oh yeah with sugar gilded sugar it’s it’s gorgeous a lot of work but it’s a lot of work and it doesn’t last very long okay so there and I recognize something yes I do see that basket so I will say

That that was um I don’t normally put poinset is in here but this year I decided I want to do something different and I had them and I was like I need the right thing for these to go in and your baskets were sitting and I was like I’m

Going to try this and I wasn’t sure it would work but it really does no I love it so it’s it’s very huge on well it kind of is is it it’s very huge on so now I’m looking for a new home for my Christmas cards usually there’s a silver

Trade there with all the Christmas cards in it and I don’t know where that’s going to go yet so well forun we don’t have as many we don’t get as many Christmas cards as we used to um okay and you’ve got a wonderful right and so

This is kind of the tree that I’ve done with all the little ornaments on it just so you can see them better they get lost in a big tree uh but another one of those cool um tree toppers that my grandmother bought um again Miss Jackson

And Tulsa how long did it take you to put all of those on there that’s a while and you do it in phases you do it and then you kind of walk away from it for a day or two and then you come back and

Put some more in and um and you know I’m always tempted just to put a sheet over this or something and see if I can make it stay but I’m I’m still a little chcken with that so well I the other thing is is I think when you do it in

Installments yeah installment decorating is then you appreciate more each and every little Bobble and the story of each and every one and Christmas is one of those times when you really do think about where things came from and if it meant something to you or not and so

That is it’s kind of therapeutic if you like that sort of thing to put all this stuff back on individually you know taking it off is not quite as much fun but and I think I think increasingly now I you kind of give yourself permission I

Used to think every single thing had to be done every single year and now I don’t feel that way anymore it makes it more special when I don’t do some of the same things every year well and I will tell you this year for especially this

Year um I did far more than I had done the last two years so I had kind of gotten to where I just did the re in the window which believe it or not is enough to make you feel like it’s Christmas yes but then this year has been fun and I’ve

Had more time at home and and last year was Co a lot of us going to have people in at all last year so um and another thing I did this year too as I said I bought a new tree for the living room which is larger than the one I had I

Used to have three trees so I was able to consolidate down to two which that took a lot of time out of of the whole situation which is was nice so yeah yeah I’m going through all of my Christmas decorations and really curating them to

See what I want to keep and what I don’t I have I have two totes of need to go away ornaments but I can’t let go of them yet so well last you know increasingly I just use I do use most I have a live small but I have a live tree

And live Greenery and the the reason I like it is because once it’s done it just goes into the compost pile or it’s just discarded and I don’t really have to pack it and put it away I think all of us try whether we’re older younger or

Whatever we’re trying to in our own way simplify Christmas and it’s execution because it is it’s a lot of work to to make magic it is it is it really is so and and even though I mean I have simplified this over the years because I used to do a lot of greenery

And a lot of berries and garlands and a lot you know a lot more lights and all that sort of stuff and it that just takes so much time so and you know I used to like decorate the chandelier and I would do the staircase and then I’d be

Sitting there a week later thinking this is just too much it just it is I think picking and picking and choosing and is I think something that we all constantly kind of struggle what’s just the right what’s just the right tone but if I had

You know if if I didn’t have any time at all I would have just put the re up this year and it and that would have been plenty I think I think it would have especially if we get as much snow as we got last year just please not that hard

Freeze in February the angels that um Stuart’s looking at now are from a local artist here in Oklahoma City who made this several years ago Susan King did you say suzan king and she started she used to do them um with children and they would all make a funny happy face

On them well I like the Angels but I did not like the funny faces these were commissioned without faces so they just have a plain face so that they you know a little more serious Christmas ornament but I’m sure there are lots of kids in okom City who have these who who help

Make them and decorated them and all that so that could be special your kitchen always has so much color in it just naturally John I don’t know how much stuff you even have to really do in here I add that of course I get another little thing a little Bobble um did the

Re and of course our kitchen table’s always Christmas because it’s red so um didn’t have to do anything there but you got another beautiful poinsetta I I am poinsetta is one of those Christmas holiday plants that I run hot and cold on I just I think you know you can see

So many really sad ones that’s what I’m going to say you have to buy good ones you have to buy good can’t go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy the $2 ones because they just they don’t last and they don’t look good they’re not pretty

Yeah and I I but yours just they almost don’t look real because they’re just so gorgeous say when you buy them from a a good Nursery you know the color is usually really intense and they last I mean I I feel bad in the end of January

When I just finally throw them away because I’m I am sick of them by then but it’s such instant color it is and um we keep our house fairly cool anyway so they it’s a pretty good environment for them I think if in a really warm house

They don’t do real well either so you’re right there are lots of sad ones in the world but and then speaking of holiday plants now yours doesn’t necessarily look like it’s specific to the holidays but you’ve got a rosemary over here and that’s something I always encourage

People they’ll quite often ask where do I get my topiaries where do I get um whether it’s lemon Cyprus or it’s a rosemary topiary or in some cases even boxwood well Christmas time the holidays really an opportune time to search them out because a lot of times they will be

Available as a holiday plant and if you can keep them alive if you can keep them alive for me then they just make a beautiful topiary contribution of course mine’s not in any sort of form and that was just from outside you know that I used out for the summer but I always

Bring it in and it generally makes it to get back outside doesn’t look too good but generally does and then of course those are the little topiary starts that you brought me um next to it so those I did put them in clay pots yes no as as I

Suspected you would as I suspected you would so anyway but and again I think things from outside in the winter um add to the holiday spirit I mean it’s it doesn’t have to be just all Christmas stuff and of course in January I love these just as much as well when all the

Red’s gone so yeah and it it livens up the inside of your house this year well I don’t know about your little microcosm here but in my yard I still have not had a freeze and so I lots of my topers and things they’re still outside which I’m

While I’m nervous about the fact that it’s so warm it is nice that I don’t have to bring them in so their indoor sabatica will not be so long that they’ll until like the week before Thanksgiving and I finally brought the succulents in that I wanted to keep and

Um the Rosemary came in I think too there’s still I’m me I think I’m going to keep my uh plago I dug it out of the pot and put it in a plastic told me sitting out there and I wondered last night whether I may have gone one day

Too long we’ll see well there’s you know the thing is Even If it freezes there’s so much if plants aren’t elevated there’s so much residual heat on surfaces whether it’s and the other cool thing the geraniums over here in our E I know they’ve never been they are

Stunning in fact I think you can see from the window out here St when you go by and I almost want to bring it in CU there’s such you know beautiful red color for Christmas yeah but I won’t so yeah Stuart can you get a little glimpse

Of them I know and is December we should not have these at all so um it’s it’s you can definitely see them yep that speaking in pop of color no it really is and then in the master bedroom so again my same tricks change the sheets Fit For

A King all rightl yeah yeah Stuart can you see this very regle bowl of of handmade ornaments that you say maybe I think they were probably kits K okay um and again grandmother who did so many things did these in the 60s and um and

There some of them were kind of in 60s colors especially the the teal one and the pink one okay so pick your favorite John well I sort of am partial to this green one all stuff hanging off of it so you know you could you could really if you were

Creative you could really and you know something like that would be gorgeous it Easter on the table or it’s very Marie Marie an right it really is yeah Stuart which is your favorite this one the dark one y it’s more manly it’s more manly I kind of I I

I don’t know well the color on that one so intense oh and I didn’t see this green one over here oh my God was well the the textural contrast of the velvet and the you know the sparkly ribbon and the sequins is and I think you know someone who’s who’s

Far craftier than I could take costume jewelry and ribbon and things and make some really cool air type ornaments oh wouldn’t this be a wouldn’t this be a fun way to trick somebody for an engagement ring or something as to have it on here and say oh look that’s a

Specially sparkly so anyway I think they’re pretty laughing somebody an idea Stuart’s laughing at me but wouldn’t that be wouldn’t that be a fun idea and I wonder how common they were because I don’t I’ve seen a few over the years but never a lot so I’ve never seen any quite

This ornate and and I also don’t I don’t remember seeing them with a velvet The Velvet underneath but then you’ve got your traditional wreaths in these windows you’ve got more more mercury glass yeah more mercury glass bubles and it’s just and and then earlier you were

Talking about yes you do I don’t you just love the Primitive yes Vibe I do that’s a of these vintage Raff Laur and blanket but these Che pull out at Christmas and Stripes together and Stuart you were saying you had this where did you have this as a wallpaper my old

Bathroom did you just flash back to your old bathroom growing growing up what reminded me of my grandfather oh yeah memory actually yes yes very very fun I see another Italian Christmas tree yes so I I think it’s important to put things in rims where you are often in

Them you know so it’s a nice little thing in the morning when you’re getting dressed to have a little Christmas cheer so yeah yeah to kind of get your day started nothing major just a little something so and then I have to end up here because these are just wonderful

First of all I I Adore campaign Furniture great and this is an especially beautiful version of one and then your trademark blue glazed blue pots with those fabulous succulents in them really really beautiful and that table was another estate sale find and I didn’t really have a place for it so

It’s really been in the storage and just this fall I figured out I can use this for my winter plants um so I brought it in so I’m glad got it let’s see does that face North it is North will they get enough light there do you think well

I hope so we’ll see we’ll see we but um typically I have kept those in the storage place next to the garage which gets very low light and gets fairly cold now last year things did not survive that because it got too cold for too long uh but these were so beautiful this

Year I just really wanted to they’re just a beautiful a beautiful appointment well we’ll end on that on that last sweet little wreath hanging above the succul I can’t thank you enough my friend oh it’s so good to see you thank you for coming Merry Christmas and you

Too St Merry Christmas to you thank you well here is your fashion epilog for today my earrings I just got these yesterday at Target and I really really love them they’re lightweight and yet still make a statement I think my top is thrifted it’s Ralph Lauren I got it at

Goodwill and here is a tip about a really um if you’re ever struggling to find out what to put with or pair with a bottom whether it’s a skirt jeans slacks whatever always a crisp white shirt will do the trick and so I have a whole wardrobe of Crisp that’s hard to say

Crisp white shirts most of which i’ I have thrifted this one is thrifted it’s Ralph Lauren from Goodwill um as is this fabulous fabulous skirt this what you talk about a find I got this at Goodwill for maybe $4 and I want to show you because it still came

With the tag on it look you guys it was a $256 skirt never been worn uh from what’s the place called Art fashion art museum anyhow it even still had the car tag for it attached to it so this is really in the category of a

Great score I love this skirt it’s got It’s got that um that real Western vibe that I like my boot boots were a gift from hubs from last year my cowboy boots my necklace is homemade a friend of mine and I made a bunch of these kind of boho

Necklaces a while back and Stuart we have a request for you to start highlighting my bracelets and showing close-ups of my bracelets a little bit more this one I got at I don’t remember where I got it and I don’t remember where I got this one this one was a gift

From my sister it’s one of those Frost string bracelets and my ring came from Madewell so there you go there is my fashion epilog for today um okay so I love this I love this room you made the comment earlier that you do lots of high

Low yes and it’s hard for me sometimes to tell the difference between the high and the low which is a mark of Brilliance on your part so give give me a couple of high low examples in here okay well um a couple of the pieces of furniture like the black chest over here

Actually belonged to my parents and it was it’s a very nice piece of furniture from the late ‘ 60s um I have no idea what you know what they paid for it and but it’s a good brand and you know it was a nice piece which I kept um when my

Parents um dismantled their homes and then um this piece behind you the um okay can I I’m going to stop you there because talk speaking of seasonal and that’s a whole topic I want to talk about oh my gosh love that that is just incredible in symbolism in in just

Absolutely everything but who knows what right um and I don’t use it seasonally I that is an estate sale find and um it is it was done in the 70s when I took it apart there was newspaper that had been pading the back so I found a date it was

In the 70s I think it almost looks as it’s as if it’s excuse me for interrupting as if it’s material but it’s paint no it’s paint um and I’m assuming that it’s a Young Person’s artwork I don’t know and the funny part is I found it this estate sale and I

Really liked and it was very badly framed of course and um it was $10 and I thought no I’m going to pass it well then later that day I kept thinking about what a great piece of art that was so of course I was the first person in

Line at the half price on the next day to get my $5 piece of art so so this is definitely low but it is really a cool piece and I really you know I don’t know I see I see it for Thanksgiving you know Pilgrim oh yeah it’s one of the most um

Memorable things in your house thank you I think it’s pretty cool and then I love the this the the contrast with this Asian inspired chest you know but um anyway yeah I’m glad you noticed that that’s funny no that is just brilliant anyway but the really low thing in here

Which I think is pretty cool is we had had um some antique dining room chairs that had uh cane seats and of course you know those cane seats don’t last forever right and it’s so expensive to replace all that now so I was at Target one day

And on the endcap they had clearanced their Windsor chairs so I got well of course I can only get three at the Target I was in so I had to keep working on it but I ended up with eight of these chairs and they’re you know they’re

They’re just very um useful and sturdy and much more comfortable than our antique they real Shaker Quality they have a Shaker Quality but also a Danish quality they have you know they P the 70s back in the 60s um but they match brilliantly with your old primitive

Cabinet and I love the quilt on the table so it speak I’m sure you know our little store sucasa oh yes so I am a fanatic of the cont quilts that Lynn Imports so they’re everywhere in our house but and occasionally I’ll see one of her posts and there’ll be a quilt in

The background and I’m like I have to go get that one it’s so cool um anyway but that’s what this is so um and you know they’re reversible there’s always interesting things on the well that one’s not quite so reversible is it but um some of them are very different on

The opposite side they are and some of them are real vibrant in tone and some of themal look piece pieces on it well this is yeah it’s it’s funny and again they’re very inexpensive so it’s a great way to to do a tabletop and and for those of us who want to really

Deconstruct what you just said spell that for people so that they will know what to look for because there are various sources of them they’re from India are they from India yeah they’re from India and I I may be wrong so someone will catch me on this but I

Think it’s k a n t h and it’s pronounced K yeah I believe so too A lot of people will say Kaa but I think it’s k yeah one of my my I have few regrets but one of my regrets that I have is my son lived

In India oh for years and he you should have boatloads of them I should have boatloads of them um but but I don’t I have other wonderful things but I don’t have some of these but this interestingly this is one of the things that I want to infuse in my own Decor

When you come you because I can so see these with some of the as pillows she’s a great right um You can do pillows I actually they’re often not really large in size so they make good tabletop things but I found one in Dallas at a

Store that we all used to love with steria oh yeah that was large enough for our bed so um it really you know it’s a king size which was a real fine because they are hard to find I think that’s the mark of a good Decor writer first of all

You’re opportunistic you always have your eyes and ears open for something that has potential um I’m gonna I’m going to give a little shout out to Lynn because Lynn you’re probably going to be watching this love you girl uh she has a wonderful home in the Poo District which

Is a historic district here within spitting walking distance of my house that’s a Spanish architecture right from the same time period is this house this house just just wonderful and she’s got a needle point shop there with fun little gift items and everything if you’re if you’re coming in from out of

Town you definitely want to go to sucasa in the Poo District so I also you and I were commenting on the fact that you do not have a rug in here and I love that I don’t have a rug in my dining room either well for practical reasons you

Know it makes a lot of sense not to have one um in my house it also works because there’s so much around us that again having a simple quiet floor um is appropriate and I think it helps show off the other things in the room right

Um yeah in in gardening terms I call that negative space I need to have some negative space and I I have way too little of it right now I need to go home I don’t have a lot of it but yeah I have some so what are these interesting so

Those are called Magic Sticks and um a artist friend of mine made those many years ago uh but they’re she works with found objects that’s kind of how she does her sculpture and these are vertebra bones and then she carved these um sticks out of I think they’re Redwood

Or something and she used a band saw and then it’s all covered in rice paper and then she embellished some of them with little things so um talk about texture and oh my husband would just go crazy over because he’s a huge Anthropologist well and it’s just again in this house

Like what are those because there’s nothing like that you know it’s interesting I think different and but they don’t stand out right but they um and I kind of I think I probably liked them when I was really in my Santa Fe mode um you know and I thought they had

That Vibe but but that’s kind of passed and so they still work as an art piece though yeah there’s something everywhere you look now this this kind of crosses over from your sweet thing so this must be a sweet it’s my great grandmother I

Was going to say I bet it had I bet it had a story and it always sat up on something like a cat will do uh you know surveying the room so and I bet it just again jettison you back childhood to see it yeah I would

Not buy it I you know so so this is both we’re going to come into the kitchen and this both feels very much like it speaks the same language but it’s in a completely different refreshing uh liberating way so come in here because because it’s got a different spatial

Awareness well the scale changes in here scale changes so this is this is the transition point between the old and what we call the old and the new house um and the first part of this room really was the original kitchen um the back door was a window um the kitchen

Sink was kind of right in here where this countertop is there was a window here so it was a very narrow Galley kitchen um had some interesting architecture features I mean the ceiling is sloped kind of a shed roof on the outside um so then when we decided to

Make the addition this became our China room SL breakfast room and then a new kitchen which we all we needed and wanted so it’s got a a sensation of dining in a Butler’s Pantry it does have that feel it absolutely does so so and this is where you’ve got all of your fiesta

Wear um more of your blue and white I’m going to take a leap here and say you’ve got kind of an obsession with China Dish Dish wear look at the color on that yeah that’s Russell wri American modern uh from the 40s I believe maybe late 30s I

Love that sh do you and your husband entertain a lot we would like to say we do but I no we don’t so part of the reason for doing this room was we had amassed all these dishes and um we wanted to be able to see them

And um so we can at least do that enjoy them and then we really do just for the two of us we use this all the time I mean I realize it’s just two plates or something but we are enjoying it and and using special things and the other thing

Is is if if you need some kind of rationalization for having a kind of acquisitive personality that’s that’s not just functional it is also artistic so it’s it is every bit as beautiful as those things you’ve got hanging on your wall no I agree and I love it and you

Know they started the the shelves were neatly put together and you know kind of arranged and then as we got more and more and more it just has become it’s really it is storage but it’s still really beautiful I think to see it and those shelves and the cabinets contain

It yes so again you you’re not um seeing total chaos U when you just look at the room well it’s got a very much of an organic vibe to it and also is indicative of the fact that you actually are using your pieces we really did and

You’ve got silver that I bet also gets used and we’re getting and I I would probably also guess that it’s going to be used more because we’re getting ready into one of the nice things about Oklahoma is if the wind isn’t blowing and it’s not very very hot we do have a

Pretty long season of outdoor dining when we can live outdoors and so you’ve got so many great outdoor spaces and we use all these things outdoors too we don’t just use them in the dining room so yeah we’re not we try not to be too precious with all that stuff yeah so is

This pink Spode that is actually uh what is Johnson Brothers British castles which is a really popular pattern that comes in the pink and it also comes in blue that a lot of people collect and then and then there’s some in the stacks there are some SPO pieces and things

That I’ve collected at one time I had a really dark um red bedroom and um a lot of this China was on the walls which you know was a really pretty and attractive thing yeah so that would be more probably how my dining room looks now so

This goes out into to your secondary kind of a courtyard back door back entrance you bring in your groceries that kind of thing thank you for having some beautiful flowers we did entertain this weekend and that’s my centerpiece for the dining room that’s that’s wonderful and and you always like tips

So this is one of mine um when I designed the kitchen I’d always wanted a place to have flowers in the house that you know that I would enjoy every day and the dining room table is really not the place I mean you pass by there but

You really don’t and the entry hall doesn’t work so much so when I I intentionally did this and said I’m going to always have something on the counter whether it’s um a flower Arrangement you know from the weekend or something I just got out of the yard or

Um you know when pumpkins are going to be out here soon there’ll be a big pumpkin up here just something to enjoy and this is the one place we are a million times a day is standing right here so we get to enjoy it and I think

It takes a tip kind of from restaurants and bars and things that they always have a place one central place where they always have fresh and usually it’s kind of extravagant and this is this is just this is just beautiful and so the the other thing is I I

Noticed on on a practical level that even though you like layering in things that you have lots of functioning workable space so so you’re you like to cook don’t we AB yeah you cook a lot so so this is just a brilliant kitchen and so another um high low thing these two

Pieces of granite were in our old kitchen and when we did the new kitchen I was like I hate to throw that that away so um we created this storage rack out of um you know Metro shelving restaurant shelving great place to put the the the nice cast iron so you can

See it and you of course that’s so heavy it’s hard to get in out of the cabinet anyway so it’s out but anyway these tops became U very useful for the kitchen too and provides a little contrast to the to the black so well and is is just a nice

Take on an island on a kitchen island without with it being looking a little bit more old and and if a little less yeah a little less maybe Suburbia and and you’ve got the beautiful windows and the shades and it just it everything just works together

Beautifully um so it is it is just so gorgeously curated and and and and again intimate it feels very cozy now what one of my favorite things that I I’m anxious to show you about my house that you’re going to I’m I’m going to guess you’re going to

Really be jealous of okay I have a wood burning fireplace in my kitchen in your kitchen in my K oh how wonderful see and that’s such a useful place to have it in there oh and you know the the the ridiculous thing is is we’ve got these houses and of course compared to

Contemporary houses my English tutor isn’t that big right but nevertheless where do we live we live in this tiny little area in my tiny kitchen and breakfast area where the fireplace where we yeah we we we live our entire life there which is a real I think consideration for people if you’re

Building a house or whatever where do you really live I agree it’s it’s those kind ofes spaces so again Brilliance in design for not only how it functions but also how you age in place the fact that your master bedroom is right near the kitchen let’s go there that was one of

The things we wanted to do um with an addition was to to try to be able to age in place so the master bedroom getting on the first floor the getting the laundry out of the basement um those sorts of things having a shower that you can walk or roll

Very important design considerations and and you’ve got pieces that just transition beautifully from kitchen so you’ve got an assortment of both kitchen items but also pretty items with additional storage that you’ve got that leads you into this so where you’re walking through Linda now was the back

Door oh really that was for the back door so this is how you pop out into what is now the master bedroom and sitting room so where was the kitchen so it was along there the where the China and all that that was the kitchen the G

Kit and then you expanded it out we came but that hallway that you just came through was here um and we where the door is now was the window and where the door into the bedroom was the back door so to the house and you’ve managed to

Make it even though it’s a passage while you’ve still managed to make it functional space because there’s storage AB in this little but it also provides a transition from the kitchen to the bedroom which is a little tricky when you’re adding on to one of our old

Houses to get the transition right so that you don’t really feel like you’re moving from the kitchen to the bedroom but you are but you are and it’s okay but it’s also it’s also handy at night though when you go to get ice cream so it’s also handy at night when you

Come in you’re absolutely exhausted you just come in that back door and you just fall into bed so oh my gosh this has I love one of the things that I’m passionate about I love a British colonial look and this room has a real British colonial Vibe I like the fact

That you made no apology or whatever for putting the TV here in your bookshelves that’s just I think that’s what we do and so you just have to do it yeah um I find that when I go in homes where it has been hidden it’s usually some

Cabinet and the doors are gaping open and it just really draws more attention yes to the fact that you tried to do something then to let it just kind of disappear into this so yes and and but this also has a modern sensibility so it does not look necessarily out of place

Right and it looks when we designed this I of course Lov the living room ceiling and I wanted to Echo that in some way back here but I didn’t want it to be so heavy um I mean I think sleeping under all that every night would be you know

Not a great feeling so um we did the wood again and did the beams but then we decided to just paint it all um and of course the beams are not nearly as massive as the ones in the living room but I think and very much an indoor

Outdoor Vibe because they’ve got you almost expect these to be French doors that would go that would go we talked about that sort of thing but they get in the way you know when you’re in the can so and and we really have enough ways to

Get in and out so um I felt like the window’s probably maybe from a security standpoint security standpoint we actually do open our Windows when we can yeah and um so we like that aspect of it and I don’t cross nice cross Breeze I don’t love sleeping with just a door

Standing open I feel a little safer with just a window open yeah absolutely well and you’re right near the back door so this is but every every place what I love about all of your living areas is every place I feel like I could plop down and be very comfortable with a book

And a cold drink or a cup of tea or a glass of wine or or um a bracing glass of whiskey and ice uh yeah anywhere and just feel so at just so at home well thank you for saying that that is I think that’s a goal is you want even if

You are a minimalist you still want to be able to do those things I mean we’re all drawn to that um and there are different um Aesthetics on how that works and what you want but you still want a comfortable place and you should have lots of them yeah and even if

You’re a minimalist there I I think minimalism and warmth are not mutually exclusive they are not exclusive at all so and as you come out here to you we see the Furnishing start getting a little more mixed there’s some 70s things some uh reproduction things you

Know from the 20s and 30s um the sofa is a copy of a famous designer from the 30s I believe um but then mixed with as you said you know this British colonial type bed um the black chest to the right of it was a piece in my grandmother’s

Breakfast My Favorite Things oh and when you’re not looking I’m going to snag that lamp over there wonderful oh that is wonderful so um when I was in college I guess and didn’t have funds to buy things there used to this wonderful store in Oklahoma City um at 50 pen

Place and it was an Asian shop and now I’m going to remember not remember the last name you might not have even lived here then anyway um I always was fascinated by these and her tonsu chest that she had so um in the dining room I

Got a tonsu chest that was going to be dumped out at the retail store I worked in I paid nothing for that but anyway this woman passed away and I was at her estate sale and this was one of the lamps that I don’t remember it

Specifically but it was in her home so clearly something she bought when uh you know she had this store the name will come to me later any was a lovely Wonder touch points but again and and even though I didn’t really know her she lived near this house and you know

There’s just a connection she was someone in our city who had a her own business and it was just you know kind of a neat thing Oklahoma City has a really deep enrich we may be a young state but it’s a very deep andrich history and we’re going to show an

Example of that here momentarily but speaking of connections it’s you know this is a you may have a lot of stuff this is an easy house to live in and and here is an example of that can we talk first a little bit about your floors well we

Decided to just do stained concrete um partly for practicality reasons in the bathroom and you’re going to see the laundry in a minute um but we kind of you know we felt like wood wasn’t just great for that we also had acquired this big rug and I didn’t really want to put

Wood down and then cover it up with a rug right so it just made more sense just to go ahead and stain the concrete and get the dark brown color like the wood floor yeah um but but it’s great and I the heat Ducks run under it and

Actually stays warm in the winter so you would think it would be really cold that we did not know that was going to happen but but it happy cir a happy circumstance so and then in the summer of course it is cool and we like that so

Yeah yeah very much so so this then comes into the master bath where you still I love using these kind of rugs in you’re standing on my very favorite rug in my whole collection I just absolutely love that for some reason it’s simple but the colors are wonderful

And and you’ve got large baskets for utilitarian purposes I love I love that um but even in even in this area and I’m so glad that you said we could come into your bathrooms because here’s so many good little ideas when you don’t have room for a regular door you’ve got one

Of these sliding pocket doors here and you’ve got both practical and goodlook storage in here and I like the fact that these these shelves are fixed yes they are they’re here and they’re a little bit thicker and they’re they’re fixed and you’ve got more Pottery in here

And it’s it’s a walk in or roll in eventually up but yes yeah I mean let’s face it we’re we’re at that transition point in time so it’s just it’s really lovely let me get out of the way so Stuart can kind of show that um these are deer aren’t those great

She’s a Seattle or not Seattle but Washington are they clay I think they’re clay and I have a flower pot outside sitting on that table in the sitting area that she did but um I love those but I don’t think she’s working anymore better show these Stewart or

People are going to ask what we’re talking about these little clay flowers and things here I have some of these baskets too aren’t those great they are great they’re very fun they’re made like this was I don’t know if these are made out of gum wrappers or I don’t know

Something like that but they’re woven that or comic books or I don’t know but something like that yeah something colorful right something colorful and then this is this is just incredible I love the E again the Brilliance and ease of living so all your bedding and everything storage is right near your

Bedroom and then come back around here Stuart and so smart you have no excuse for being caught up in your laundry John ever ever because this is where your laundry room is it is and it really is convenient so this is where the closet is yeah yeah Stuart you you you

MC this one talk about the closet well you have artwork even I have artwork I have some U family things that I didn’t quite know what to do with so that model was something my dad had made and you know we couldn’t let go of it so

But I also didn’t want it in my out in the living room so it was a great thing for the closet and then the artwork to the left of that is a friend who does some things that I kind of like and now this is a this might be a strange

Question is this um is this tornado can it is not it is not we have a basement in the house so we didn’t really need to do okay any other um because tornado stuff but in Oklahoma and actually all parts of the country now really need to

Think about a safe place where you can go for absolutely shelter from tornadoes and things it also I think it’s just a perfect example in here of how you look at everything through an artist eye ohir steuart did you get steuart is not allowed to be if anybody sees Stuart

We have to kill them because he is he is very much mysterious Stuart yeah about 20,000 of them so but you you look at everything through an artist’s lens that functional things are also of form of beauty and I mean this just when I saw this this made

Me so happy because I’m a big hat person yes I know you are so my my retail background shows up in the closet don’t you think that yeah things are folding I think your retail self is showing a little bit yeah I think so too so that’s

Just beautiful and then I want to end on on this historical note because you live in such a historical neighborhood I live in historical home it’s near and dear to our hearts and man this is the essence of the history of Oklahoma I don’t know

If you guys are going to be able to see this very well but describe to us what this is John well it’s the state capital on the left where Stuart just started and then it’s you can see it’s surrounded by o dcks which is what this

Whole area was built on um and then as he keeps going to the right you’ll see into the neighborhood and that’s actually 21st Street right in here and the house we’re touring is right there um so we feel like this picture was taken probably in the early 30s

Somewhere in there you can totally see it yeah that’s so cool wow and it this so speaks now for those of us those of you from out of state who may Wonder no we don’t have these oil dercks I think there’s I think there’s one on the none of the actual D

Towers yeah there’s the pumps but but not the towers anymore which it looks cool here but really is kind slightly it would have been horrible and it must have smelled just just terrific yeah and this is this is very much we’re thinking the Vintage of like the 1930s which is also when my

House was built thing that I don’t know the history on apparently there was a street car there was a street car yeah and I bet it connected with the street car that ran up and down Classen which is very much near my house yeah so it it

Gives us a window into the past which gives us a touch point to how we’re we’re kind of um we’re we’re a nice little reservoirs of the past in these older homes and it’s I think why we’re so crazy about and it’s such an honor to be

A car Aker of something like this and to keep it going and and you know our house is um I guess 93 years old now and you know it’s amazing how much of it is still intact uh because it has been cared for most of the time and of course

There’s always something new to take care of but um but anyway I feel very fortunate to be able to and our um uh financial adviser said that um I’m trying to think how he said this but anyway um owning an older home a historic home is a is truly a Cho a

Lifestyle choice you pick to do that and to invest your money in it and to take care of it and and if you aren’t willing to do that it’s probably not for you cuz it’s a lot of work it’s about being a good a good Steward abut about being a

Good Steward but the other thing is is is all of us who have experienced real major swings in the real estate market up and down and up and down and up and down as someone told me again it was a financial person but they’re not making

Any more old homes no they are not so they’re not making any more hundredy old homes and so there will always be um an appetite for that those vestages of of History to really reside in history and I always like to think you know like who knocked on these doors

And and what news was conveyed through these doors through the world wars and all of those kind of things so it really does make you feel a responsibility to be a good a good Steward and nobody’s a better Steward than you are thank you my and thank you thank you thank you thanks

Guys I hope you enjoyed this real treat and thank you to John who gave us a good chunk of his time thank you my pleasure to show it all well on behalf of Stuart Leah and of course myself the whole Lind of otter team we want to wish you a very merry

Christmas or a happy Hanukkah or a happy K Quanza whatever holiday you’re celebrating right now I hope that you’re celebrating it with loved ones and with your family and I I want to really give you a special shout out for becoming part of my family for really becoming

Part of my Friendship Circle it means the world to me um that we have this community here it’s been an amazing year I am almost at the first year anniversary of when we we purchased the cottage and it like I say it’s been a wild ride

And now I just kind of want to to bask in the completion of it I’m going to spend some time with my family over the holidays so this will be the last video that you see um before Christmas and then next weekend we’re going to take

The holiday off we’re going to take a weekend off and like I say just enjoy some hopefully what we feel as welld deserved time I hope you do the same we’ll probably put something up some flashbacks or something something like that for you to enjoy but again I just

Want to really express to you the warmth and the appreciation and the gratitude that we have for your being a part of this entire little Enterprise we have going here on the garden Life hello in this house John good morning hi good morning how are you I’m good how are you Merry Christmas friend yes now we ran into you recently you did that was fun yeah that was fun yeah at Goodwill yeah some of our I’m in Envy of

Those dishes you bought are you going to keep those are those incredible those are incredible yeah yeah they’re Johnson Brothers so oh they are Johnson Brothers I didn’t know yeah I think they are they’re stord CH and when when you come over maybe you should come over and we

Can play you set a table be fun CU those are really pretty well they kind of go with what you’re going to see at the house today that I used for the table setting so I love this yeah so we’ll see we’ll see if they can be combined cuz

You get dinner plates or are they all small plates uh mostly they’re they’re two sizes they’re two sizes of small and then some sweet little bowls but I love the fact because they read both China but also kind of a bone I don’t know see that’s what you’re you’re going to love

This okay wait okay so um I don’t think I need to introduce you but uh why don’t you introduce yourself to our new viewers well I’m John Turman so interior designer here in Oklahoma City and one of Linda’s friends lucky me right yes yes and as a little tease over the

Holidays I think we’re going to put up a John Turman playlist of both inside and outside his house so if you like what you see and then also when you came over and helped me with some things at the cottage so anyhow I thought it would be fun this

Time and again if you if you are really interested in doing a deep dive then look back at some of our previous videos but I thought it would be fun if we started out in the kitchen this that’s great time so you told me that you’ve

Made some changes a few I mean Christmas is traditional here so I keep doing the same things over and over but I move things around so but even your basic Decor basic some additions yeah you’ll see some things especially in the living room but if you’ve seen the videos

Before you’ll see some different things in there now so it’ll be fun to point those out okay so in in keeping with our tone on tone which is my color of the month is tone on tone it’s not a color look here look at how how is that Fiesta

We no that’s um American modern which is Russell Wright from the 40s oh so he came in like five or six colors this brown is his and then that’s the chartreuse and of course just the fact that it’s called chartreuse I loved it I know well and it matches your sweat it

Does much better I almost did the table with that but it’s a little more modern than I wanted for Christmas so it would be fun somebody else’s house I think to do a Christmas table with it it would be fun to do something with black could be

Really incredible okay so um so Stuart was commenting that everywhere he goes in Lind of otter land there seem to be pedestals with chocolate now yours however don’t look Disturbed at all mine are constantly oh yeah there’s fingerprints all over the duns cuz there’s so many people well the

Ones were eating over there on the on the counter in the red plastic containers okay okay so we’ll eat these later yes well I think it’s one of these things where practical Meats pretty it does yes it I couldn’t get them all in there as much as I tried to stack high

They kept falling so I I needed some help okay now I have to ask do you use do you did you make these I did yeah do you use Spanish peanuts Spanish roasted peanuts or do you do dry roasted peanuts I did I think they were dry roasted with

Sea salt yeah so what whatever Sam’s had is what I did well I used to use Spanish peanuts with the Redskins they’re hard to find oh yeah I didn’t see them anymore you’re right so I don’t think that you could do that I mean I’m sure you can find somewhere well I think

We’re going to make some easiest thing in the world the world and I was not when I saw somebody do this and they said what it was I was like I’m not gonna like that and I love it oh I know it’s because it’s and the hit the trick

Is the sea salt so we’re going to make some over at the cottage and and I’ll kind of share okay so I know maybe there’s not a lot of things that have changed here but I want to just point out before we move on to another room I

Just just love the sweet little reads we talked about those last time and your blinds look like mine they’re very similar yes they are they are yes yes I’ve had my lunger so they’re not from the same place same place but but very similar and the wre thing is something I

Do all over the house that’s my my a signat continuity signature thing that goes throughout so how are they hooked they believe it or not those ribbons are just like tucked they’re folded and tucked over that and they just caught okay so I didn’t even have to use a nail

Or a thumbtack or anything and on the windows our Windows dropped from the top and I was able just to drop them down and stick them in there and push the window back up so U so again no Nails okay that’s a and an amazing thing that

You can actually open your windows well we got new windows yeah yeah that makes it a little HP thing but H we won’t go there we we won’t go there will we but I I always I love this room first of all I just love how as much as I love the

Cottage my triangle is very tight yes it is and it’s a little bit difficult so we have to accommodate that when we when we cook and I love the fact that yours is is a little bit more spacious um and I of course steuart if you can turn around

Slowly without giving everyone Whiplash I just I I love that road runner it’s I immediately my eyes go to it um if you heard this before but um I grew up in a home that was built in 1962 that was a midcentury modern type thing and that

House that red rner hung in our house so it was very much part of the the vibe of the mid-century home so um one of the few things that I kept from that so well it’s the color is perfect and I think it’s great in the kitchen I just think

It works so well the kitchen and it fits that space so so beautifully uh one last question I guess from a practical standpoint is your undercounter lighting is it um hardwired in it is okay and unfortunately not LED so it gets hot still but really yeah I’m I’m that

Wasn’t wasn’t popular I guess when we did this quite yet yeah so um I hate that I wish it cooler but well but it is hardwired yes yes okay so if if you haven’t already observed John is a maximalist think he he he is an Unapologetic maximalist and yes and so

It’s fun though I have seen you some of your interiors that are not maximal right that doesn’t mean I have to do that you you can swing both ways it is really in fact I’m reluctant to let people see this when I first start working with someone cuz I don’t want to

Intimidate them by the fact that that they think I can only work with all this stuff that’s not true right right so um so I think that’s important I think that’s important to point out but it is nevertheless the brilliant layering of everything you do that ends lends the

Intrig the complexity and the just the storytelling everywhere you look it’s a it’s a color story or it’s a personal story or it’s a a story of your personal style it is no it it really is and that’s I mean that’s why I enjoy all

This in our house it’s just it’s my life yeah and I get to look at it and experience it and and Spanish Bungalow how old is this again it was built in 1928 so we’re coming I think is at 95 years now something like that um so

Getting close to 100 I think I think you need to have a 100 Year oh absolutely party for your house for your house I I will too a couple years after that so I think it’s really wonderful John like myself in mea Park we are subject to Historic preservation guidelines and so

When we do things we have to we have to pay have to be approved we have toay yes present it be reverential yes we do present it and we were really fortunate when we did the windows that there was a window that would work um that they

Would approve so well that was great yeah so thankfully yes and and because it is it’s about retaining the historical Integrity it is of the house let’s take a break here and let’s move on to the breakfast room or the dining room dining room dining room yeah breakfast room here dining room

There okay okay well every time I enter a new room I say to myself this is my favorite room in the house and then I go into another room and I’m conflicted but oh my gosh well before we talk about the table let’s just do a 360 Stewart of just the

Sheer gorgeousness of this room so tell us a little bit about the artwork in here and your inspirational Muse well I I mean you know the whole maximal thing just makes you cover the walls with artwork and I love that so I try to collect art from artists in Oklahoma so

A number of these people are local or at least from the state um there are a few couple of new things that came though from my cousin’s house in Nashville um um this piece behind the tree which I love you can’t see the tree and then that piece on the right aren’t those

Wonderful those would look brilliant in my they really would those are your colors now now this above here I have to that looks like Barber stri well but it also kind of looks like my mom and it was in an estate sale in Nicholls Hills

And so I picked it up one day when I was there I was you it just it has this lick about her um and and I have no idea who did it or if it was a real person or not but um so anyway just a collection of

Things that’s one of Denise stang’s prints down there you know is one of our local people that we love um and that’s DJ lefon oh I’m not pointing I can’t see what I’m pointing and I just hit the M we can take and then B Hoban who I love She’s

An Edmund wonderful artist and then these prints this one and the marals over there and there’s some in the living room it’s a guy from Mogi who was a print maker he was a florist is that the birds uh the birds he was a florist

But he was a print maker and he’s his name is uh Mars bab I think is how you say that and he’s deceased now of course but anyway he was really nice prce uh there’s even a book of his stuff so I have been lucky found Again Estate Sales

And a couple of Galleries and got some pieces so so this this image this portrait that looks like your mom you know I have a painting that’s one of my most prized possessions that Jamie gave me in your bedroom yes in my bedro I’ve told you that story I know like I need

To tell you it’s okay but I love it but I love that because it looks like my first mom and and it’s it’s interesting to me how how you can feel such affection for someone that’s not well that you don’t know but is you know it

Was so weird this last week I got a text you remember my cousin that I brought to your house who was from Chicago black glasses really yeah very cool looking person she was in a restaurant and she kept looking at this guy at the bar and

She kept thinking he looked like me so she finally got up and went over to him and said you look just like my cousin in Oklahoma so she took his picture sent it to me and then when they got ready to pay their bill he had paid their dinner

Bill oh wow but again she saw someone that reminded her of someone she loves and it was just a cool little story and and the fact that she had the guts to go do that a random act of dinner yes anyway she got dinner out of it I think

That’s lovely I love those kind of pay forward stories we often just see other people with with people we around so I think it’s fun so so you have no I I don’t know how you decide what China you’re going to use on a daily basis on a special basis

Because however I find this interesting and you have no shortage of blue flow of of Blue Fiesta Weare blue everything um and yet you went a little bit inspired by by what I saw from you this week I and I show those again but

Yes I love the warmth of this I think it makes a great Christmas table so and I’m not a huge fan of Christmas China um I just think that’s and I don’t mean I don’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings it’s we just did a whole thing on SPO

And do people have it not and I could have had it and I said no I don’t want it so I did not take that when I was it was offered you would not have room I wouldn’t for one thing and there was a

Ton of it so but I just didn’t do it but anyway this was um I think my grandmother’s first set of china that she bought in the 40s when they built a new house um and it’s an americanmade pattern um called Rose Point um by a company called pop goser which was in

Ohio U but it reminded me very much of what you just purchased and and the in doing a little research on it the the man who um want or Mr goser was from Staffordshire so he you know was creating an English in the United States

And it was made from the 30s to the 50s um but I I’m pretty sure that it’s what she bought in the early 40s when they moved into a new house so and I love the bone color of it of course it is now how

Many years old so some of that may be aged and we didn’t use it a lot because it wouldn’t go in the dishwasher cuz it crazes and you often find it in the thrift stores and it’s just a total mess of which is pretty but really probably

Shouldn’t eat on anymore so I use it occasionally but I do like to use it for Christmas so tell me about these these wooden Chargers I am lusting after are you really I’ve had those for 40 years I think was one of the first things I

Bought um really yeah back in the 80s okay I’m putting that on my hunt you know I think they’re I think I see those occasionally too in thrift stores I love the sales so I have the Rattan ones yes well I have some cool retan ones that I

Only have four of and I’ve lost one of them so I now only have three of them well if you ever need to Bor if you ever need to set a table and borrow now before I noticed I’m I’m starting to ask this before we go any further I noticed

You still have your shoes on we’ve got our shoes on do you want us to take our shoes off no no no well and you know for some people that’s a real thing and I say that cuz so many of you comment on

It um so now I get it but it’s just not something we do in our house so right right um yeah we were in did a home tour yesterday and they said oh my goodness no we’ve two rambunctious boys if that ship has sailed right that ship has sail

Well and with hardwood floors it’s so easy to keep them clean okay so look here also tone on tone I know I love my shre I think that’s such a great accent color for this house and I don’t know have we mentioned how cool the sweater

Is yet yes have we because it seems to be a muse a lot of different things is this um that’s one of the con quilts from um sucasa you remember our friend L yes and I’m surprised you were able to find one in a single color well I’m

Going to tell you I was I was there shopping for a client one day and I was going through all of them and I opened that one up and I was like oh my gosh this is red and white I’m buying this and it’s actually red and white on both

Sides which is unusual yes so but I was like this will be perfect for Christmas so um I didn’t go to look for it it just it appeared okay so let’s let’s do a little explanatory thing here you want to spell that for people k a n t h a

Okay it it’s pronounced K my understanding so I hear lots of pronunciations on it but I think that’s correct and they’re Indian they’re made Made in India and they’re um often made out of scraps of fabric and sewn together so a lot of mine have patches

In them and various things and and I love and in fact whoever is creating them really I don’t know if they do it on purpose or not but sometimes they’re very the colors clash and the patterns clash and all that and it’s really interesting so I think that’s kind of

Fun but it is as you pointed out sometimes when you WI a particular color or something it’s a little tricky to find but they are not they are not expensive they’re very inexpensive and Lynn has sold thousands of them by now I think yes yes and and that is from a a

Store if you come to Oklahoma City you want to see um especially those of you who do needle work a great it’s called sucasa it’s in the Poo district and she has all sorts of needle point things like that but also interesting gift items but I I do love these and I also

Like the scale of them so I’m making a mental note that for my table at my home the scale of these guys actually would work in the dining room table very well I think so yeah and you might notice on here I layered another one underneath

Just to give it a little more yeah draping on it well and because I like the silencer effects of it gives makes it a little more cushiony okay now I recognize your marble fruit yes the video before we had a just a big bowl of

That on there and um I wanted to do something different and we had gotten a gift of um of a wreath and so I went outside and embellished that I did my whole crop of Nandina berries because the birds were getting them so I cut the rest of miss my Nandina berries from

Other house and then I added some little gy Magnolia um and then I Dro that marble fruit in there and hopefully it won’t roll out but U we’ll see no it it it looks the perfect uh the perfect oh level degree of Decay yeah I think it’s great yes I

Absolutely love it now here’s here’s another qu practical question for you um that my followers always ask about so how with a centerpiece like this where do you put stuff on the table now you don’t you well for me I keep it there because I enjoy my table in advance and

Then when it’s time to dine I remove it REM yeah I remove it when it’s time to D so that we can have our bottles of wine and we’ve gotten to where we only usually have two people over for a dinner party so they’re usually just the

Four of us and we serve the plates from the kitchen um and then if they’re eight or 10 which happens occasionally we’ll just put all that in the kitchen and then let people bring it to table because I really like to enjoy the centerpiece and you and you I think

Specialize in in really small intimate dinner parties whereas mine I’m usually it’s a bigger craft we used to do those bigger ones so much work so we we have found we enjoy it more it just have two sometimes four but um you know keep it smaller and and it’s more manageable

Well it’s easier to do on a on a spontaneous B basis right it that is I think okay what what other things I love this basket those are just ornaments that I’ve collected over the years at different places they’re big yeah they’re big some of those the point ones

Are all tree toppers actually which I got for 99 cents a piece when year at an after Christmas sale don’t you love it right so I bought them all knowing they would never be on a tree uh but but they they are resplendant in this high low

Kind of tension between the sparkly and The Rustic well I love sparkly things for Christmas so that’s when I added the mercury glass to the table and and silver where I can I try to use that so um yeah you can get your sparkle on love

These mind if I pick one up touch this is beautiful I can’t they’re made in Santa Fe um at Jackalope you know that big place there’s a glass love that place I know and they’re not doing them anymore and I only ended up with two

Green ones so I wish I had some some more but it’s just another thing we need to be on the watch I am on the watch some green handmade glasses when when we go through and they have to be that sh Tre green I don’t want I don’t want

Bottle green so yes and it’s and it’s I just yes I agree I absolutely love it okay let’s take a break here you guys might need to take a potty break go get yourself another cup of coffee uh some hot chocolate or a glass of wine

Depending on what time of the day it is that you’re watching this before we move on to the next room okay so I love places I call them landing and launch pads and it’s one thing I really miss about the cottage is I don’t have um an entryway a foyer a

Vestibule whatever you want to call it as kind of a landing and a Launchpad and I love yours because it the light in here is great you can keep your your door open you can see your beautiful neighborhood and your magnificent door and it’s just beautiful so thank you I

Think it it it’s a successful floor plan in that that we walk through here all the time obviously it’s the hallway really right um it’s not just the entry so it’s not one those places it’s just at the front of your house um that you

Don’t go in so it is a great place and before we had the back door that you came in this is how we entered and exited the house we always went through here but when we finally got a proper back door we we changed that plan but

But anyway we walk through a million times a day I love the arch here and this what’s the is this just an adobe treatment what it’s plaster it’s just plaster and it’s I’m assuming it’s hand put on you know and it just has that look but um but yeah it’s on La plaster

On La yeah well it’s it’s really beautiful and then when you come in and what I love is that you’ve got enough width here that it’s like a room um and like if you’re waiting for a guest you could sit here to see them come down

The PA it’s a great like you said it’s a great launching pad yes yes and wonderful obviously another wonderful canvas for all of your artwork and then but when you come in you can look to the left with this fabulous Spanish staircase isn’t that a great staircase it’s really it’s magnificent what is

Behind the co it now it used to go into the kitchen oh wow and so it was like a little hallway um but it Al and it also served as a coat closet it had shelves and hooks in it so you kind of walk through this closet and you could come

Out into the kitchen when we did the addition we we took that out and and we needed a coat closet so that’s what it is now right but those and I don’t know how long those doors have been there I don’t know if those are original to the

House or not but the opening is obviously orig and the opening mimics the opening goes this one into the dining room it’s a secret passage it’s a secret passage way and and it was for a long time so and and then okay let’s hold off on the Magnificent room and and

Go in here which this is not staged but I am so happy it is really not see it is not staged but I am so happy to see a copy you well I’m yes honored to have one yes it’s so interesting because I’ve done a couple of radio interviews about

This you bet your garden and and another one in in Ohio and they said what were you think thinking that it’s in a light color and I said it is intended to get dirty to have patina you take it out you get that good old Oklahoma red clay or

Georgia Clay or whatever kind of soil you have and then it’s it’s the patino where you are yeah yeah and I and I love that okay enough of a product pitch there okay so this this is where you you work on your magic this is where I work

Originally this would have been the master bedroom to this house um on the first floor which is great because there’s a bathroom and a closet here um but ites but it’s tiny not tiny but it’s B than the two upstairs so you know is it really yeah yeah and I think

It feels smaller because of the way the windows and the doors and all that are um but it is the primary bedroom of the house originally U no longer and and so the primary bedroom had a door that went to the outside to that Charming little porch okay that’s brilliant it really is

Good but it’s and when I first met here this was kind of the TV room um and then when I started working from home it became my office so but I also think I don’t I really don’t know that anyone ever used it as a bedroom because this

Wall of shelves appears to be kind of original to the house or at least from from an earlier period so um I guess she could have had a bed coming off you could have a bed there and if you didn’t have those shelves you would have had

Walls for dressers and chest and that sort of thing so um well it’s I think it’s one of the fun things about living in an older home is you can imagine what was it like exactly yeah what would the first furnishings have been were they were they maximalists or minimalists I’m

Guessing they were minimalists don’t you think I’m guessing they were probably minimalist I don’t know in the 30s and the 40s people seem to be more minimal than yes than we are now so good reason TOA yes and I just love all of the textures that you always have framed

Layered on your on your upholstered furniture um you know the basketry the weaving all of that those are neat the six in pain yeah those are from a calendar that cut up and frame part of yeah inexpensive tip it’s a Well you say that but then you go Fram

Name yeah yeah the calendar cost $30 well lately I lately I have just started going to just retailers and finding a frame that I like and then use that work for one when you’re can you find multiples usually sometimes well if it’s like this if it’s all the same size then

You can I haven’t thought of doing that that’s a good tip I like that I should remember that I’ve done that for a couple of different different things and also when I couldn’t I just couldn’t find the kind of frame that I wanted um

And I I do have and I don’t see one in here um Pottery Barn at different times it’s had some wonderful photograph frames that and fact there was one made out of this bamboo looking thing and I bought a whole bunch of those and I’ve used those and you know put artwork in

Them so some of my favorite frames that I’ve gotten that I I did that with were actually from Bed Bath and Beyond and they were the really deep recessed frames that almost look like shadow boxes um so you’d have to be creative with it otherwise you but you don’t have to

Spend a lot of money to have good to have good style okay well I didn’t follow that tip for that I spent money well I don’t always follow it either especially on those those images that did you see my gallery wall that Deborah did your gallery wall so did she select

Them or did you the images well she took all of them she took them all and then we went through herass send me pictures of something that she was thinking for you and that’s not where you went at all and I love where you went with it you do it was I

Was conflicted you know you made it strong and powerful yeah I decided in your face and I just love that yes I think so too and it and it it went with a rug and it went with the kind of well I’m anxious to see it in person but the

Feds are just incredible so the so so I don’t really like using the the expression British colonial anymore so what’s Anglo Asia well no I mean or Ang or or or whatever but that’s really the the vibe that I wanted in there especially after going to Bali so but

Enough about anyway enough about my house okay and you have a bathroom here where of course you also have artwork of course I do so that’s my collection of renderings interior renderings some of which are from family members couple of them um one of my teachers in school had

Kept them um from projects that she had done they had been given to her and then she passed away and she gave them to me before she died so that was really cool too so a lot of your artwork and then some of them I just found but um you

Know there’s it’s fun to have things that meant something to somebody else too absolutely and then of course they mean a lot to me but well and that they thought of you yes yeah and for the longest time I I didn’t have them all together and finally one day I was like

Okay I just need to get them together and this is a good place to do it and you know in a bathroom this is another tip think about this so many old house bathrooms have this wne cating of tile well if you use a command hook you can

Hang on it so I just kind of ignored the fact that that was there and then just covered the wall in pictures so um it’s sometimes you do have to outside the box you have to think outside think hang structure that kind of artwork on bathroom and since we don’t I mean it’s

Used really as the powder room but from a practical standpoint too you might have to hang a towel or you might have to hang you know a bath rope or something like that but you know that’s my you know that have you ever looked at

My bathtub you go look in here you can’t show it but you go look I can’t show it only I only you just her reaction you’ve never invited me to look at your back before Oh My Gosh okay then so we will imagine there was yes just

Leave it to your imagination there was there was not a naked person in there no there was there’s not a naked person in there anyway so it has another use besides so do you ever worry about artwork and well that’s say see there’s no I don’t have to it’s really just used

As the powder room so there is no steam I wouldn’t probably put those pieces in a real bathroom in a real bathroom they paper we’ll Glimpse behind here and then I think we need to take another Break um so we can cleanse our visual palette before we move on to to the next

Room I love that bunny Williams love affair with the house I’m going to try another little fun story when I retired from retail and decided to do this fulltime and of course I wanted to tax deduct this room um the accountant said make sure that what’s in here is what

You do so all of my design books have been in the living room so I had to put all the books out on the floor from this room which was all had been literature and all that stuff and the living room was full of design books so I had to put

All those out on the floor and go back through them so that I can make this a proper Design Studio well but it was with this many books you can imagine with many well that’s why all of my gardening books yes are all in my office gardening and design so these are really

Like interior design books and then my architecture books are still in the living room CU they wouldn’t fit in here but and the literature had to go to the bedroom so yes but it’s it’s just beautiful my friend I just I I love it thank you okay let’s move on

Well now through this Archway you come in from the front door and this is this is the shock and all room because it’s Absol in a good way in a good way because it’s absolutely magnificent from top to bottom from stem to stern it is absolutely magnificent and steuart and I the moment

We came in our eyes went to something new yes my new painting um wow so as I explained to you earlier I I inherited some things last year and this was something that I first saw in the early 80s and was mesmorized by it and I was

Probably you know 22 or something never dreamed it would be mine but anyway eventually it was given to me so and I had I must have always known because that wallet only had something on it that was what I called a placeholder and it had been there for 20-some years so

So I didn’t have to move anything around really except take that one piece down which went outside because it was metal yes so that worked out well well it anyway this is an artist named James harell who is deceased and um from Greece no he’s not from Greece but this

Painting painting was from Greece so his Greek Series so yeah it’s incredible and this belonged to a 92-year-old cousin of yours who gave it to you before he passed yes he did so and among other things but this was the the piece that’s just fabulous it was the top of it but U

Yeah you and I were talking I think it’s just it’s a special thing I think to to gift things before you go so that you know that the the recipient really truly loves it creates any Discord down the line and um and and he lived in Tennessee and had not been in Oklahoma

In a long time and had not been to my house but he got to see the videos that you did so he appreciated and he obviously knew where it was going you know so so he felt really good about having seen that and and um and I think

He you know kind of wanted him to be here so yes and he could see it thank you for that because otherwise I would have been able to show him oh that’s wonderful well it seems like every I have one Gallery well I have two Gallery

Walls I guess but I lot you have lots of gallery walls and this one’s been reden since you were here and they’re eclectic uh there may be a certain color you know well like this is all on paper like I didn’t mix any oil or acrylic into it so

There may be acrylic on paper but they still they’re all on paper uh and again it’s more the Oklahoma people different ones and and a couple things that came from my cousin and um my oldest sister Beth is an artist and lives in South Korea and and I love her work and she’s

Got a several pieces that would just be brilliant in this Montage um I really like that guy the which one the one on right is that a shaman yeah I I think so um that artist is a good friend of mine and she was an art teacher in Oklahoma um and now

Retired and and I got to rehang her she called me for color advice and of course it developed into took all her art down and I got to rehang it all so it was really fun and she enjoyed seeing it a different way in fact we we kind of

Changed functions of rooms and so that led us to moving thing anyway but it all came down it all went back up and and it was really fun so so I said to her I would really like to have one of your pieces because she just has stuff stuck

Everywhere and so that was the one she gave me but um I’m glad to have it so well if if on the playlist if you want to kind of see a gallery wall and how it’s composed we recorded that as I recall at the cottage so I’m not did we

Well we recorded some of you hanging it and your taping thing I think we did maybe any I I remember seeing the end result anyhow yes we’ve slept since then we have slept since then but uh but go back yeah well yeah but go back and check it out if if possible because

There is and in case you missed that blue tape is my secret yes you you plot it all out and and put the tape up on the wall in the shapes and then you can just see how it fits together so I rarely have to move a nail I mean it it

U you get it right when you do that eventually and if you know give yourself have a nailover as I’ve covered the I mean as I’ve redone this I cover the nail hole when you know with picture it works out when you have this much you can do it so

Uh well and you know you have to be brave and this started out literally with this piece has been here forever that was was one of my favorite pieces so that piece was there there was a piece here and there was a piece down there not those two so it started with

Three pieces and it has grown and gr and gr to and there’s a little bit of room for another one or two but not much but I kind of like that quiet space too I don’t really want to f well because yeah your eye does need to

Rest now a lot of comments we get for maximalist kind of spaces I get it about my great room and you get about here how do you dust I don’t you don’t dust no I do occasionally and we have help a little bit and she Believe It or Not

Uses a swifter swifter thing and she goes around this she picks up a thing or two but really doesn’t do much um and and gets it clean and then sometimes you know I have to go through yeah every once some of the deep stuff well I call

It like dusting like a cat yeah exactly you know you just kind of go like this without disturbing things and you get and I keep and I will say like I keep the tabletops cleaner than I might the bookshelves you know and that those happen right less often but as far as

Dusting but it’s really not an issue um and I think that you have to live in a way that’s comfortable from you is this a piece of Rogers that’s one of Rogers pieces yes oh wow isn’t that lovely it is lovely and you know he just recently had another

Thing and then somehow I missed did you miss it too I I’ve been busy okay um a spin sorry so Roger rangi our favorite landscap one of our favorite landscap designers our buddy um is a Potter by um trade originally and um in the last year

Or so he’s been working again and has made these he calls them silly little silly little pots pots yes and they all have a garden inspired situation on them um and of course the leaves are made from real I mean they’re molded from real leaves um and he uses decals for

The flowers and and he just had a he had a popup he did have but show last Saturday but they always sell out well they did and and yeah did although I think yesterday there were still a couple available from that show well and

I um I’m just going to have to have him make something for me exclusively because I can’t I made it to his last show but they were already you know they were already sold out and and with my family here yeah it’s hard to do and I

Had to tell myself that I wasn’t going to get one at that last show I just like I’m not going to do going to do I’m not going to do but then I got one and I was so excited so yeah yeah yeah well I love

It I remember these very fondly I know and I love those and I have searched and searched and searched to figure out the origin and I can’t they don’t reverse Google they don’t just describing him doesn’t do it um they’re they’re Italian I know that um and but I’m assuming that

Someone um you know brought them I did that and it doesn’t pull those up um it pulls up other things so um and I don’t know if you the video before they come apart and they go flat so they’re perfect souvenir to buy somewhere because you could fold them put them in

Your suitcase and I’ve noticed what’s really popular this year are the paper ones well and that’s what comes up when you start looking right and those are also made in Italy apparently some of them and they’re beautiful and they’re gorgeous but I still these are my

Favorit so um but I wish I could find more I would like to know more about them well I I you know I love the look of trees like this I just don’t know in in my real life and I this is what I used to do for my kids when they were

Small and I still have all of their their prized pieces but I don’t know that I would have the patience anymore to do a really large packed tree like this well I say that every year and then it’s just hard to stop when you start

Doing and I don’t and you know this I don’t do it every year so sometimes the tree does not go up yeah this one um but but when you do it I just go for it so it might be a meditative quality to put stuff on yeah probably there is and and

I will tell you this when you collect ornaments like you’re talking about every ornament has some kind of meeting so you do spend you I mean I might probably spent three or four hours putting this together but my mind is thinking about where this came from did

I buy it did someone give it to me how many hundreds of years ago was that you know all that sort of thing so it is a meditative sort of thing um but you and you which the oh the corn well I the other thing I think I I just I remember

With some degree of bitterness putting up the big trees and to me it was going to be this family Enterprise where everybody was going to be involved and the kids were going to help me and dad was going to help me put on the lights and then it ended up just

Every year I was doing the whole thing you need to go with the meditation thing yeah and it I went with the the frustration SL family yeah and and my you know hub’s idea of helping was just sitting on the couch with a glass of

Wine while I well and and mine loves it when it’s finished but you know but then you’ve also seen these videos where these compulsive people try to help and and then the person stands back and like how did you possibly put those two ornaments yeah so that would probably be

Me so it’s probably better to do this yes well this year but I you know increasingly as I get older I love the look the Scandinavian look of just a be tree with lights and obvious oh I love that and then of course you have one

Tree with a few things on it and I always and I have the things to do it but I just can’t stop you so well and I think I think it’s just one of those you do you and you do you in that particular year because every year it might change based

On um whether you’re traveling time Health kids are no kids um and so I think it there’s it’s like anything there’s no you know this about Decor I’ve said it a million times there’s no one right way there is your way but there’s many forms of beauty and that’s

True that’s true for the holidays too um now I don’t know that you could fit one more thing and I say that you know so like a pile of books will appear and finally I’m like okay they got to go in the shelf and somehow I get them in

There so I keep forcing them in I really like these wooden lamps at the top up there thank you those are a 25y old Target purchase they look Japanese and that paper was white when I bought it and it has the an incandescent bul you from the heat has yellowed it which I

Think is a great which I and I yes I like that and that painting what whatever it is not a painting probably is a thrift store $10 um probably came out of a restaurant because it was covered in grease totally covered in grease I mean you should have seen it

When I Windex it to get all the way off um I guess that’s and you didn’t even have to reframe it did you I did not isn’t that a great frame on it so I one I don’t think we showed this at our most recent thrifting Adventure but I found a

Great thrifted watercolor oh no you didn’t show there and I don’t know I don’t think I did I don’t think you did um but I but I will show it cuz I just ordered a friend for it so when I reframe it cuz it will look brilliant in

It will look brilliant in The Parlor um but everything is is just spectacular you know what I need to do sometime is I just need to come over here with a bottle of wine and consume the entire bottle myself and just and and and and just take Section by section over the

Course of a day or two and and and really appreciate each individual item because each individual item is precious thank you for saying that they are they really are um so my do you see all the parrots yeah so that I I um I guess I was about a

Year ago bought a Chinese parrot which is over here the turquoise one on the table and I was like oh I want to collect these well first of all I don’t need to collect anything else right and it was at a price point that was like I really don’t need to collect these

Collect so then I was in Ardmore and going through some of their little shops and found all these other little parrots and they were five1 $15 so I bought the American version of of the parrot and what I wanted them for was use them on the dining room table for you know when

I’m doing a table setting but anyway I they’re great and I like birds so it’s it’s kind of a fun thing so that’s been added to this um have you seen this I digress but have you seen the spe I think it was on Netflix the otan special

No about was this James ottoman what was his first time James what is his name anyhow it was about and it was lovely yeah it was really lovely there’s an book there lamp yeah there think Linda where did you come up with that but no it’s wonderful if

You’re wanting something to watch I don’t know what the a stands for I think it’s James a but it’s it’s really really wonderful and well they have the vibe to it I mean the Chinese ones are feel similar far better um well and I see yes I see your gardening

Library that’s my gard Library there most of it the other thing that I I’m not sure how to do it so I I was talking to my daughter in Adelphia from Singapore and she likes a real Serena and Lily look and and anyhow we were talking about blue and white and I love

Blue and white and then she said but a lot of times they will add over there they’ll add punches of red and and I find it hard to do that without it coming off as just patriotic you know red white and blue and which is more

What do you think here because I’ve done that too I don’t it doesn’t read that way to me and and it’s not that I have anything against that it’s just that to me that’s a more summary look or but I don’t think it well certainly Chistmas

It doesn’t read that way here at all maybe it’s because it’s a toned down red a brick this is actually a very pink red and my rag the red in it it’s very pink um you know it’s not it’s not fire engine red um maybe because it’s on and

And I used to I very much was just blue and white and then I introduced the Amari stuff which got that rust color and that yeah maybe that had to grow on me a little bit and of course that’s a fun thing to collect and I find that at

Estate sales and places so I’ve enjoyed that and I don’t have as much red at Christmas but if someone ask me what the color palette is in my house I have to say of course you usually start with red but red white and blue but it’s really

Blue cream and a and some version of a red or with a pop of R po or or pop of chartreuse which is really chuse because but but I you know it really is if you think it’s like it’s red white and blue well it’s not but it doesn’t read that

Way I don’t think it does either but I often qu stop and question that do do you get what I mean well just like the red lights on the tree I used to do that in all the bigger ones the c7s or c9s I used to do those in white and you can’t

Buy them anymore because they’re LED and they’re that horrible horrible color so I the only thing left was red and I don’t exactly love that I thought it was better with white but I can’t find the bulbs so um you know just sometimes you have to just make do with what’s going

On but well if you hadn’t told me I wouldn’t have thought it it had diverged from perfect in any way okay well to me I wish they well then the little white lights are LED and that color is kind of okay yeah but you can’t buy C9 why why

Is it as designers whether it’s your garden designer whether you’re self-taught like us or you’re professionally whatever that we we cannot help but point point out what’s wrong of course we’re never happy because we’re never happy so instead of just appreciating oh the beautiful totality of something we have to you

Know we have to point out every blemish that’s not perfect or you’re absolutely right I don’t know you can’t be as good at doing it if you’re not always thinking about I supp well that’s yeah that’s true because it is and it it is a pilgrimage it is not a destination that

Is true and it change it certainly evolves and and you know and you have to go with that so you absolutely well I well I go with this big time you are such a doll thank you and I I know I know you have made some changes outside

So of course I will be we got to make some more because you saw the tree that’s gone right front door so yeah so we will um we will be back in the spring and I’m I’m already looking forward to it okay good so so thank you darling you’re welcome okay Merry

Christmas and everybody make sure to look for the John Turman playlist both at the cottage and here at his Spanish Bungalow see You