In this episode, we sit down with Breegan Jane, an LA-based designer, entrepreneur, lifestyle blogger, TV personality, children’s book author, and mother. We talk with Breegan about using design as a way to keep some order and cleanliness in the house, tips that we can learn from a 23-bathroom house, and how to keep things fresh and new using what we already have while at home with our family.
What You’ll Hear on This Episode:
- How Breegan’s impressive and diverse resume has helped to shape her design style and visual expression.
- What exactly designing a 23-bathroom house entails.
- What kind of tips designers learn from their clients that they use for their own homes.
- How Breegan uses design to keep order and cleanliness with two young sons in the house.
- Why Breegan insists her 4 and 6-year-old share a bedroom (at least for now).
- How you can transition spaces, especially as we are at home more, without buying all new things.
- The opportunities and challenges Breegan has faced while working on HGTV’s Extreme Makeover and how she balances work and motherhood.
- Breegan talks about her go-to elements for glamour and what she calls “modern approachable luxury” including mixing textures.
- In our Decorating Dilemma, we dive deep into modernizing a space with color tones and having faith in the changes your designers suggest.
Decorating Dilemma:
Hello ladies!
Wow, I am so excited to FINALLY be emailing you! I have been a loyal listener since the start, and I feel like I know you all so well. Thank you for sharing little slices of your life with us. Your trials and triumphs are something I look forward to hearing every week!
I need help! We bought our house, an early 2000s ranch, three years ago, and since then we have cleansed it from its peachy-painted, faux-ivy-above-all-cabinets, brown-laminate-countertop funk. We still have some work to do though!
Our main living space consists of our living room, a dining area, and a kitchen. It’s quite open, so I feel like the entire space needs to be cohesive. We painted the walls Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore, which I quite like, and most of our furniture is gray or black. The only furniture piece with any color is our dining table, which we painted a deep blue. Painting the table was my attempt at bringing color into the space, but I think it reads as more of a neutral. Here are some pictures as well as a blueprint of the space:
Soon, the floors in all these spaces will be replaced by a luxury vinyl plank that looks like this:
Here are my questions for you all!
1. My main mission is to infuse color into this space. How should I do this? What color(s) should I try? I don’t want to replace any large furniture pieces, but I am not tied to the art or the textiles. Also, I will be purchasing a large area rug for the living area when we replace the floors. Could this be my chance to bring some color in?
2. We have oak trim and cabinets that my husband really likes. I don’t want to spend the time or money painting them white, which would be ideal, so those stay. I have been finding it tough to find flooring that isn’t too cool-toned and clashy. What do you think about my flooring choice?
3. We replaced our countertops a few months ago, but we are stuck on what to do about the backsplash. What would you choose?
Thank you for any and all help that you can provide! I look forward to hearing Karen’s description of my space 🙂 and all of your opinions on what to do!
Love from Wisconsin,
Meghan
P.S. If you are wondering what the blue rectangle is above the television, it is an antenna that needs to be relocated behind the TV.
Breegan thinks you know your biggest problem; you just have to be willing to fix it! The color tone in that wood is really dating the space. If you were to paint or stain over those cabinets in white, put two new pendants lights over the kitchen island and add a rug with some color in that space—you would be done! If you (or your husband) are not willing to part with the wood aesthetic, you could paint the kitchen white and try to ebonize the wood with a dark stain. Any color that gets you away from the yellow tone in the wood is really going to modernize it; you could do white, grey, brown or black. You already have a great, neutral style in your home and then you can accent it with any color you want; maybe even some fun bold-patterned drapery. There’s no getting around that dated tone, unfortunately, but you have a beautiful space with wonderful natural light! It may be labor-intensive, but you could do this yourself and it’s not very expensive. In terms of the backsplash? Leave it! You don’t need it and then you can put that money into the other things we recommended. Please report back, Megan!
To sort of play devil’s advocate, Caroline thinks you could start by painting the doors, trim and fireplace while leaving the kitchen alone. Breaking up the uniformity of the space will help it look less dated. If you start small, you can get your husband on board with bigger changes.
Mentioned In This Episode:
- Breegan Jane
- Breegan on Instagram
- Breegan on Facebook
- Breegan on Twitter
- HGTV
- Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Please send in your questions so we can answer them on our next episode! And of course, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. You can always check back here to see new episodes, but if you subscribe, it’ll automatically download to your phone.
Happy Decorating!
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