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EP 112: Designing a Home You Love with Chandler Quarles
1.5k Plays6 days ago
This week on Mom Group Chat, we’re joined by Chandler Quarles—mom, designer, and co-founder of the wildly successful Peach & Pine Interiors. Chandler pulls back the curtain on what it’s really like to run a thriving interior design business while raising kids, and she shares her best advice for creating a home you actually love living in.
We cover it all—from cozy quick fixes to smart investments, and even the trends that make us laugh looking back. Chandler also talks about the dynamics of working with her husband as her business partner and how they’ve made it work (through both the highs and lows).
In this episode you’ll hear:
- How Chandler juggles motherhood with running a successful design firm
- Practical tips for creating a home you love (even with little ones running around)
- Easy ways to make your space feel instantly cozy
- What’s worth investing in vs. where to save when it comes to home design
- A candid conversation on past design trends and how to stay timeless
- The realities of working with your spouse in business
Whether you’re dreaming up your next big reno or just want to make your home feel a little more like you, this episode is full of ideas, laughs, and inspiration.
Follow Peach & Pine Interiors on IG: @peachandpineinteriors
Check out their website: https://peachandpineinteriors.com/
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Keep up with the Moms and join the conversation on our socials:
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**Questions/comments/need to vent? Email us at **momgroupchatpodacst@gmail.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Special Guest Chandler
00:00:07
Speaker
there's no right way to do it. Oh, we're gonna get into it. we're going to get into it What up, moms? My name's Whitney, and I'm here with my best friend, Candice, and a very special guest that I am so excited to have on, ah Chandler with Peach and Pine Interiors, who has a beautiful, I'm telling you, beautiful interior design business right here in the heart of Tennessee, but not limited to, not limited to, yeah and a mom of two of the cutest little boys, and
00:00:41
Speaker
one of the people that I've gotten to know over the past two years. So I wanted to say welcome. Hello. Thank you so much for having me This is really fun. We are so excited to have you. I know Whitney, I know Whitney like in the real world. So I kind of like tentatively ask you like, I could be on your podcast, but don't Like no pressure.
00:01:04
Speaker
And I was like, I like the pressure. i i would love to have you on. This is my favorite subject. And yeah, so it's actually, we dove right in, of course, like Candace had never met Chandler and they're just yapping away. And I'm like, okay, I forgot y'all haven't even met.
00:01:19
Speaker
so um But I have listened to some episodes of your podcast. Yeah. like Yeah. I will say when I first met Chandler, so she lives next door to one of my close friends, Lauren. And so when i first met Chandler, Lauren was like, oh, yeah, she does interior design. And you know, when people say that, you're like, okay, cool.
00:01:36
Speaker
Like, I love that. Like, we have something in common. And then when I looked her up on Instagram, i was like, oh, She does interior design. Like I'm obsessed. It is. i literally have stalked her page so many times. It is truly stunning work. And I like interior design is not my zone of genius.
00:01:59
Speaker
And I just look at your page and I'm like, wow, this is goals. Like it is so, so goals.
Chandler's Background and Career Transition
00:02:06
Speaker
But yes, um I would love for you to introduce yourself to everyone else listening and tell us a little more about your family inside your personal life. And then we can touch on your business and everything and then we'll get into it.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, great. um So yes, I'm Chandler with Peach and Pine Interiors and I am a mom to two. I my married to my husband, Jeremy. We actually run our company together. so um he does all the operations systems processes for Peach and Pine and I design. And then we actually have one other designer on the team also.
00:02:43
Speaker
And um then we have two little boys who are almost seven and almost four. They're or like a few weeks away from both of their births. They're amazing and fantastic. And I just adore them.
00:02:57
Speaker
And I started my business in 2017 and then had my first baby in 2018. feel like motherhood and business are extremely integrated to me. I know talk about that a lot today, but it's like ah inseparable because it's ah I feel like I've grown a business and grown a family at the same time. and um And then I run it with my husband. So our business and family. That's an interesting... I know. Because normally you hear that people like...
00:03:25
Speaker
find out that they are having a child and then they quit their whatever job and then switch to something else. But you, what did you do before? Well, I actually kind of switched. I kind of pursued interior design in some ways because I wanted to be a mom someday. And I felt like I could run creative business and have kids, at least I hoped I could. And I worked in, was in the music industry. I have a music industry background. My husband and I both We're in Nashville and in good company, lots of others. So I've, I was working at a record label at the time.
00:03:59
Speaker
I was a radio promoter actually. that's like and little Yeah. And I, uh, have that question is um, I studied, yeah. I mean, I don't know how much you want to get into like backstory, but I studied voice and like vocal performance in college and thought I would be an artist. Like I, I vocal performance and songwriting, like I,
00:04:23
Speaker
released a couple of EPs. I like thought that that was kind of the lane I wanted to go in. And then as soon as we, as soon, pretty much as soon as I graduated, which I got married pretty quickly after i graduated, I, my husband was touring in the music industry and he did for many years up until last year. That's kind of another part of the story. But, um, I, and I was working in the business end of the industry and I really saw a very close look at the way things were and was like, I don't think I want to be an artist. Like, I don't think I have,
00:04:51
Speaker
the drive to do whatever it takes to like do music for a living. And so then I was kind of in like a bit of an identity, you know, young twenties identity crisis of like, well, if I'm without this creative outlet and without music, which I was kind of my identity, like then who am I?
00:05:07
Speaker
And we bought our first house and started renovating. And I sort of started diy blogging. Like i and that was the heyday. This was like, we bought the house in 2015. So this was kind of the DIY blog.
00:05:20
Speaker
heyday. And I was and i like, I liked to write. I like interiors. And I started working on projects and sharing about them. And my husband was traveling a lot. So I had a lot of time to do these things after work, but I was working a very standard, like eight 30, five 30 zero flexibility kind of job. And it, I was like, this is somebody's dream job. It is not mine.
00:05:44
Speaker
And, but it took me, and, but it took me, and I thought someday I want to have kids. Yeah. I, I'm like, I don't care enough about this job to like make it work with kids. Like I don't, that doesn't sound appealing to me at all.
00:05:58
Speaker
Yeah. And so then it was several, i mean, this was a several years process of like internal, like, who am I? What do i want to do? um I love interiors kind of discovering like that I've loved it my whole life, but then what does it look like to make a career out of that? Because i didn't know what that looked like from, you know, a like business perspective, but I knew I wanted to run a business with excellence.
Learning and Adapting in Design Business
00:06:23
Speaker
And I started kind of picking up friends. All of our friends were buying their first houses and, Oh, Hey Chandler, can you help me we have paint colors? Or can you help me style my bookshelves? And it just sort of started a little bit by a little bit. And then I got a few larger projects and furnished some houses and just sort of snowballed until I eventually it was like, I'm quitting.
00:06:45
Speaker
this staple job to to try this for real. And that was 2017. It was eight and half years ago. It's so self-aware and amazing. Like, did you feel like, I feel like something that holds me back, not that like I'm on your level at all, but like, is the like CAD design, like, did you teach yourself or do you use that at all? We actually just hired our first full-time, we had it yeah some part-time employees, but we hired our first full-time, like,
00:07:13
Speaker
another designer on the team. And she has, she's like comes from the commercial architecture world. She has like the CAD stuff on lock. And so we, it's going to level up our game a lot, but we do, we do a lot of renderings. We do a lot of detailed drawings.
00:07:28
Speaker
We do a lot of it in SketchUp. and oh yeah And my husband taught himself SketchUp actually. so he took like a course and learned the rendering software.
00:07:38
Speaker
And um so, fuck but I love to hand sketch. So I, I mean, honestly, I don't know. i was, I just did it. Like I just started hand sketching ideas and then I could do basic, basic renderings.
00:07:53
Speaker
And then Jeremy was like, we can kind of level this up. I'm going learn SketchUp. So he learned SketchUp and he, and like, we really leveled up our, our construction documentation that way. And then now we have someone on the team who's going to take it to the next level.
00:08:07
Speaker
But and we've done a lot of really large scale projects with what we, what we can do with, you know, our current skills, but we just learned, you know, I just, I read a lot of books. I read a lot I listened to a lot of business of design podcasts and, and I, I don't know. I just fell in love with it. was like, I, I will do whatever it takes to do this.
00:08:29
Speaker
Like when you love what you do, it's like easy to bootstrap it because you're like yeah driven to do what you love. Like I know that. So well, yeah, you're still like that.
00:08:40
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I mean, I feel like you're similar. Yeah. I own my own business as well. So I know like I teach myself things all the time and I genuinely love doing that. Like I love learning new things. Like we started this podcast. I taught myself Adobe Audition to like edit this pod and ah Premiere Pro to like edit videos and stuff. So it's, so but when you, when it's like, when you're passionate about it, it's kind of easy. People are like, how did you do that? I'm like, I don't know. i just did it. I also love that you have been joined along the journey. Totally. That was awesome.
00:09:15
Speaker
Yes. I mean, huge. Like, I don't know if I would still be doing this. I mean, it just would have been a different trajectory. But because he joined kind of part-time in 2019, which was two years into the business.
00:09:30
Speaker
And he kind of took a look. I had a bookkeeper, but otherwise it was just me. And and i am i'm I'm very driven in Taipei and in some ways, but I'm also really creative. And when I'm in creative mode, like he kind of took a look at my business was like, this is, you're doing great. Like this is going well, but your systems and processes could be so much better. Like, cause he's just, he is so yeah systems oriented and, and process oriented. And he was like, let me just see if we can kind of level this up and I'll help. And he had kind of a ah break from touring just into our season.
00:10:07
Speaker
so like in his seasonal kind of touring break. He was like, let me see if I can, like, if we work together on this, like how could we take this to the next level? And we, that's when we started working with a business coach also. And, um, kind of just were like, let's take this from a you to a business.
00:10:24
Speaker
And, yeah and it was a game changer and we worked so well together. And I think I've always known we'd work to get well, like since we were dating, we started dating when we were 18 I had a feeling we would work together.
00:10:36
Speaker
And at the time I thought it was in the music industry, but, cause that's what we were both doing. I thought it would be in music world, but now we're never, I can see interior design was not my face, but definitely not for my husband. He's like, if you had told me that I was going to be running an interior design company, like never in a million years, but, um, we just work, we really work well together. So, and then in 2024,
00:11:02
Speaker
or So like last, early last year, he decided to really kind of retire, quote unquote, be like jokingly through him like a retirement party. And like went out to dinner. That's funny. I love that. With bunch of friends.
00:11:15
Speaker
And mean with Lauren and Chris, our mutual friend and some other friends, we went out to dinner and we're like, people are like, what do guys celebrating? We're like, his retirement. And they're like, they're yeah you're 35. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, ah, but we're like from,
00:11:32
Speaker
um to He still goes out sometimes on the road for fun. but and Is he like playing or is he is he like a tour musician? He's a tour manager and front of house engineer.
00:11:44
Speaker
so yeah Okay, cool. so He's on the but logistics side of touring. Anyway, I don't even know how I took a rabbit trail. No, that's fine. you block Your whole block, um like Lauren's husband, Chris, just recently quit his job and he's pursuing a different career. Real estate, yeah. Oh my gosh, you guys are all so inspirational over there in Brent Haven. Yeah.
Entrepreneurial Spirit and Personal Growth
00:12:10
Speaker
I say all the time because I have you know i work with business owners like in my job. And I feel like if you have that like entrepreneurial like spirit or like brain that we love a pivot, we love an add-on project, like we love a side, like, oh, I have this side idea.
00:12:31
Speaker
And I can't tell you how many people and business owners I've worked with that are like, That message me and they're like, I have this idea and I want to do this, this, and this on the side. And, but I love that. I think it makes your like life like new. I don't know. Like adds a new like layer to your life that keeps things like exciting, you know? Yeah. um So.
00:12:54
Speaker
can be really intentional with your, you're designing for lack of a better word, our own like life, even with kids and with.
00:13:04
Speaker
Yeah. integrating it all. And it's chaos sometimes, but it's, it's unique to us, you know? Right. yeah I want to get into what your style is with design um and kind of the inspiration you have behind it.
00:13:23
Speaker
Great. So I say we're ah traditional, classic, historic, inspired interiors. So if they my art kind of tagline is,
00:13:33
Speaker
designed for the present, inspired by the past. um So we i like I love a new construction home that's built to feel like it's old. i love historic remodel.
00:13:44
Speaker
i do ah And honestly, we do a lot of even like traditional 90s, 2000s homes, but we want to make them feel like historic instead of builder basic. um So we do a lot of we do a lot of remodel, some new construction,
00:13:59
Speaker
um And usually there's furnishings involved in pretty much every project, mostly in Nashville area. But we have we always have a project or two out in other states. We have one in Montana right now. We just wrapped a lake house in Maryland. So cool.
00:14:15
Speaker
So. Yeah, we we it is like very classic, traditional, timeless, and lots of millwork and wallpaper and and. So good, guys.
00:14:29
Speaker
I know. Well, Whitney, when I first saw your daughter's nurseries, and like all I'm like, you have such an eye for it. really she totally i I tell her this all the time. I'm like, you should be doing this. like i She's so good at it.
00:14:45
Speaker
And you have really, really good taste, Whitney. like You have good a good eye. Thank you. For sure. That's so nice. That's so um But I love her style. You would like honestly thrive in New England like you guys. need ah way Both of my sisters live in Manhattan and um we have done a project in Scarsdale right outside of New York City. And we um have another project that we might might be doing soon that's in upstate New York also. But i cool um I love New England architecture and I love English architecture.
00:15:20
Speaker
Yeah. ah huh Yeah. Architecture as well. That's a huge inspiration for me. It's trending right now, but I, I like to believe that I loved it before it was trending. Cause I, I feel like my love for
Balancing Motherhood and Design Business
00:15:31
Speaker
design, honestly, i can kind of trace it back to my first, my family's first trip to England when I was 10.
00:15:37
Speaker
ten And was really like that trip was, we were there for like three or four weeks and whoa it was really impactful for me. And don't you go back every year?
00:15:49
Speaker
We go back really frequently. Yeah. yeah We were there in March and we'll be back again in January. i i just, I love, love English design. I love English literature. I love um English history. Like i I am nerdy about it. So it definitely impacts the work we do here. Although trying, I don't want to, we're in Tennessee. We're not in England. So there's, you know,
00:16:16
Speaker
I want houses to feel like they belong where they are, but it's definitely influenced It's so funny. Like my whole, my family was very inspired. Same. Like my house, my house I grew up in was very like English inspired. Like we have, um, like our names, like the hunter last name, like engraved in the walls. Like it was all just very inspired by like Scotland and England. So i feel like I resonate with that as well.
00:16:44
Speaker
Um, But as a mom with two boys... How are you designing these houses to like last, like with these little kids running around and where do you put all the toys? Cause I know our listeners ask us that all the time. Yeah. um Like, how are you, how does your house look so clean or yeah i think I'm hiding everything.
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah. That's a question I have is like, how do I make my home look beautiful and still like functional with little kids? struggling yeah I think that's actually like a big part of why clients hire us oftentimes because they'll follow us on Instagram and like, Oh, she's a mom. Oh, their life is really integrated with their kids.
00:17:27
Speaker
Like she gets it. And then, so I have these conversations with clients all the time where they're like, I know you understand. I'm like, really? I do. Like, I really do understand. Like i um, and I think, I think my business would be very different had I not had young kids when I started it, because I have learned so much about like what fabrics are going stand up to kids and what is worth investing in and what's not. And,
00:17:48
Speaker
um like how kind of a mindset around like a beautiful home but also a livable home and so just because I live it every day so I think about it a lot um I think I I love a I love a piece of furniture that's storage but also pretty like I I like like ah a beautiful old cabinet and then baskets with kids stuff inside of it yeah um built-ins that have really great storage on the bottom. like i I love things where you can close a door and yeah not see the clutter and put it away.
00:18:22
Speaker
i mean, personally, we purge a lot. like We get rid of a lot. I did it this morning. Yeah. And I just like, I'm like, they won't notice. and just like That's what I do. When they're gone, I'm like, this is going in the trash. Or I'm like, I'm just going to move this back.
00:18:37
Speaker
Totally. And I just move stuff to the attic and then it's like, they haven't asked about it for a few months. And I'm like, Oh, I guess it just, Oh, that's, that's really nice of you. Mine goes straight to the they donate. yeah i don't know the earth everything Yeah.
00:18:51
Speaker
Yes. Um, but I do think ah couple of things, one, every picture you see online is not real life. So like just because a house and a lot of my clients, like,
00:19:05
Speaker
We have these professional photo shoots done of their amazing houses, but they live in them with children. So if you walked in that house on a random Tuesday, it would still be beautiful, but it would also probably have like toys everywhere, you know, and, and, and dirt on the kitchen floor. And and so it, there is just a real life element, like houses are not perfect. They are meant to be lived in.
00:19:31
Speaker
But um I also think that you can be really creative with like beautiful pieces of of furniture that also serve as storage and um um like a really good mudroom setup is nice or just a place where you can drop a drop zone or you can make sure you're putting things when you come into the house.
00:19:47
Speaker
and And we don't even have, like we have, we live in a pretty old home. We don't have a big modern mudroom, but we've created like a closet that's as soon as they come in the door, they know where their stuff goes. And, and,
00:20:00
Speaker
It doesn't always have, they need a lot of reminding, but I was about to say, oh i cant I was like, if I taught Graydon to put his stuff in a closet, it'd be a great day. so i bet you It gets so much easier. Like we're, I feel like we're entering entering some golden years with our first grader. I'm like, oh you have like so much capability. It's yeah. I feel like Alice is starting to learn. We've been really driving home the like picking up after yourself ah thing.
00:20:29
Speaker
And we sing lots of pickup songs and it's starting to stick. You guys, it really is. Like she's starting to pick up her shoes and put them in the like sleeves behind her door and stuff. So she's, it's like starting to work.
00:20:44
Speaker
I feel like you feel like you repeat yourself so many times you feel like they're never going to get it. And then one day they just like, Oh my gosh. That is amazing.
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I encourage clients. This is kind of like a, <unk> know if this is a hot take, but I feel like people always say Oh, I have little kids. I'm going wait to do anything with, with my house and make it pretty until they're older.
00:21:08
Speaker
And just don't subscribe to that model. Like yeah say, I, yeah, good. We're on the same page. Um, but I, I have people say that a lot where they're like Oh, my kids are little. Like, I don't want to put any effort into my house till they're older. And One thing is like my clients with teenagers will say that teenagers are like harder on their houses than their children are. So I'm like, are they're like toddlers are because yeah cause they are like absent-minded and their brains haven't fully developed and they're really large.
00:21:39
Speaker
yeah Yeah. In your house at all times. They're like eating pizza and wipe their hand on the couch. are yeah happening And they bring like 10 friends home who like yeah eat chips and then step on the floor of all of, you know, like it's just, um,
00:21:55
Speaker
So but are you going to wait till you're an empty nester to have ah house you love? Like, no, you know, you're not. So i think you have to, you have to like accept that it's not going to be perfect, but I also think it's worth, it's worth investing in your home and making it a place you love, even when your children are little. And i also think, mean, some things are not, you have to weigh the pros and cons of like what to spend on and what to save on, but really cheap things like don't stand out.
00:22:24
Speaker
to wear and tear as well. um And sometimes it's all you can afford. And sometimes you just got to do what
Creating a Cozy and Personal Home Environment
00:22:30
Speaker
you got to do. But um when you can like invest in a quality piece of furniture or a really nice version of something, not the highest level, like not, you know, there's there's there's always different levels. I don't think you have to like spend a million dollars on every, on a couch, you know, like I just think yeah or there is, there's a balance. But I think when you buy really cheap, because your kids are little and you don't want to invest you're just going to end up throwing it away in five years and having to buy again because it doesn't stand up to your children jumping on the couch and um the fabric is gonna pill and look like know trash you know in a few months and um the rug is gonna start curling up on the edges and falling apart and so i just think there's there is a balance to it but i
00:23:20
Speaker
I encounter that mindset fairly often and I kind of push against it. Yeah. I think also when we, when I think about like my childhood and like going to my grand, grandparents' house for Christmas or even just the way like my house felt during Christmas time, it kind of starts with this like home you create and the environment that you create. I've talked about this on a past episode, but you know we just moved into this house in February. So I know we've been in for like six or seven months now, but it's a work in progress.
00:23:51
Speaker
And I'm on a mission to make my house cozy by Christmas. That's what I keep saying. which means I need to like add some character because we definitely moved into like a more builder grade home.
00:24:03
Speaker
So, and I'm lucky. I have a, have a husband who's in construction, who's very handy. So we're on a mission to make your house cozy by Christmas. And I feel like that kind of ties with what you're saying. It's like,
00:24:15
Speaker
that That feeling that you want your kids to have about your home, like it comes from you and like creating this cozy space that like they will directly correlate with their like most cherished childhood memories.
00:24:28
Speaker
So when I think about it like that, it like motivates me to create this house that like I want my child to remember when they remember Christmas when they were five or like, you know?
00:24:42
Speaker
I have two questions. It is also integrative. So you had mentioned earlier, like pieces to invest in versus things like doesn't matter as much. Like I would love your take on like what you think a good investment is versus like, oh, just buy the cheap version of this. Like it doesn't matter. And then like, what are some ways to make a home feel cozy quick? Because I get that question a lot. Or and and Candace even said it the other day. She was like, your home looks so cozy. And the only thing I always say is, oh, it's because I have art on the wall.
00:25:13
Speaker
Like it instantly adds like character to a home. So I'm like curious. My very blank wall. but I'm curious to hear like what your version of what makes something cozy.
00:25:24
Speaker
Yeah. um So as far as like invest versus not the things I feel like I start with, like if I'm building a budget for ah client's living room, for example,
00:25:37
Speaker
and And I know like this is what we have to work with. I'm going to start with the main upholstery pieces like the sofa and like armchairs um and wanting those to be really well made and like ah a performance fabric usually on a sofa for a family.
00:25:55
Speaker
if there's like kids or dogs or anything and everyone has something. and Then ah fabric that's like really durable and easy to clean.
00:26:05
Speaker
and this and something that's built and like constructed really well. um So sofa, i feel like is a really worthwhile investment. I mean, my parents were moving to a new house and I was helping them clean things out this weekend.
00:26:19
Speaker
And my mom has a sofa that she bought when I was a baby. That's like, they've recovered it a couple times, but it's still, think they're going to sell it because they don't have room in their next house. I'm like 35 years or whatever it's lasted. Yeah, that's crazy. That's great. That is great. You know, and, um,
00:26:36
Speaker
So i think a well-built, like those kind of big pieces, they can be expensive, but I think it's worth it. And you can like take care of them over time and um they can last for a long time.
00:26:49
Speaker
And then honestly, i I like a natural fiber rug, like something i like to spend a little bit more on rugs because I think they wear well over time and like a a wool rug or something is cleanable. Like you can have it professionally cleaned if it gets really bad, but it also...
00:27:04
Speaker
just stands up to high traffic and cheap rugs really like, there's a really big difference between yeah like nice rug and a cheap rug as far as durability goes, even though also there's a huge price difference, but, um but it really makes a difference, I think.
00:27:21
Speaker
So those are the main, the things I'm like, I really think we should invest in these things. And then i will save on like accent furniture, side tables, coffee tables,
00:27:33
Speaker
Lamps, like those little accents and things. i think you can, you can save there. I think, I think accessories and even things like art, um, you can make, I think that's i mean a major way to cozy up home, which is what you said, like things that are meaningful to you and, and, and.
00:27:50
Speaker
I love antique shopping for accessories and art and finding or flea markets or- We should go together. We should. And estate sales- That's like Whitney's love language.
00:28:01
Speaker
I could cry thinking about how much fun we would have. Do you go to estate sales? will. I have the app, so I know what's going on. I feel like I'd be a little nervous to go by myself. And I think that's what's holding me back.
00:28:17
Speaker
I don't want to take Chris because then we'd have to take the whole crew. So I like just never go by myself. I think I need to do it like one time and I'd get over it. But yeah, and know I'm like into it.
00:28:28
Speaker
And it does take intentionality, you know, it takes time like to hunt for things that really Can i come? I feel like. Come on. Come on. Let's do the state sale weekend.
00:28:39
Speaker
It's so like old lady of us. Like, I'm into it. It's my new login. I love it. Yeah. i but I think finding like meaningful, even the things you style your shelves with, like things that have meaning to you, not everything has to have meaning. You can go to Target for some of your accessories, but I, I think that makes a house feel like a home when you have things on the walls that mean something to you or that you like connect with and not just like a random thing.
00:29:09
Speaker
mass production of something and, um, and then like accessories and little things around your house that have meaning. I also think paint makes a humongous difference and it doesn't, you can pick any color and costs the
Current Design Trends and Inspirations
00:29:24
Speaker
same amount of money. So you can, so you can really have fun with paint and, um, you know, color drench room, make the entire, the trim and the walls, the same color.
00:29:34
Speaker
do, do, you know, an interesting like trim detail on the wall. Um, I think there's a lot of things you can do with your walls that doesn't really add a lot cost, but what do you see is like colors that are trending right now? Like what's the new trend?
00:29:51
Speaker
I mean, I definitely think we're, i think we're moving out of all white everything. There's tons of green, green is a lot like green right now. I love green. Um, I think we're moving away from like all white everything. I think we're moving away from all white everything. I think we are in an era of color again. And um i think people want like more fun in their houses than they did.
00:30:17
Speaker
I'm seeing more red again. Red pops of redder. It's back for sure. um Yeah. Even like butter yellows, like colors that I thought would never be. in again are in we do a lot of blues and greens personally we do a lot yeah yeah ah i feel like that's very like english yeah it's my favorite it feels like timeless like h i don't know i feel like people will i don't know there's something that it doesn't feel as like shocking as some yeah yeah totally like i like a pop i like a pop of something unexpected too but i think
00:30:54
Speaker
I just think color is back. I think people are wanting more interest in their houses and um more like personality or infusing personality. yeah I went to the fabric house with my mom the other day and I just was like having so much fun looking through all like the Liberty London fabrics. I was just like, this is so fun. Everything like there was this gorgeous, like yellow velvety, like,
00:31:20
Speaker
I don't even know toil fabric and I was just dying over. yeah But the lady was saying that yes, red is back, but it can also make your home look like old too. Like you just need yeah of it. So I was like, okay, that's interesting. Just cause I've seen a lot of people starting to paint their rooms red again. And and she was like, I wouldn't go that far.
00:31:40
Speaker
yeah It's very interesting to hear the, all the trends of what's. Yeah. And what can like instantly like gray all of a sudden makes your house look old. Oh yeah. Yeah. you know, millennial gray. Yeah. Gray. And gray was like all we did, you know, 10 years ago.
00:31:56
Speaker
think. It's like if you were moving into an apartment in 2020, like, or honestly, like 2012 to 2015, like, I feel like you bought a gray couch and a gray rug and a gray, like, throw blanket.
00:32:10
Speaker
1,000%. Everything I did when I was first designing was like gray and white. I mean, I wouldn't. Yeah. I wouldn't show, i would not show you those pictures. like Yeah, yeah. I'm proud of it.
00:32:20
Speaker
But yeah, those are deep, deep dive somewhere on like a hard drive somewhere. But I, um I, yeah, it was all gray and white and like farmhouse signs, you know? Yeah. I forgot about that. we thought we were being timeless then. We did.
00:32:35
Speaker
I know. It was Chip and Joanna. They pushed it on us. We did. you know, like, I don't, there, we really strive for timelessness. Like that is a buzzword in our,
00:32:47
Speaker
like company. like We really strive for timelessness in design, but also fully acknowledge that we all have like trend blinders on. like you just and I don't think there's such thing as a completely trend-free design. like They're going to be influenced.
00:33:06
Speaker
I try to pull inspiration from places that are not just like the internet because the internet, the algorithm skews everything toward trends. But So I try to like read old design books and like pull things out from different decades and um like inspiration in nature and like things that are, that truly won't go out of style um to try to like be as neutral about trends as I can. But you just, you cannot like eliminate it from your home and you just have to kind of accept it and be like,
00:33:37
Speaker
okay, if if I hate red in five years, like I can beat this. Yeah, that's kind of how I am. It's how I feel about fashion and makeup and beauty stuff too. Like, it's like, okay, how fun that in four or five years, we're going to reinvent it and try something else that's new. Like, I feel like that's kind of my stance with trends. It's like, I kind of like sometimes leaning in because if you want to reinvent it in four years, great.
00:34:03
Speaker
Like, who cares? Who cares? And isn't it fun to look back on like pictures of our parents? Aren't we so glad they had 80s huge 80s? Oh my god. like True. i know. It's part of the nostalgia of our childhoods. It's the 90s things that were trending then that are not anymore.
00:34:22
Speaker
the same will be true for our kids. it's like They will grow up in the houses that we've built that are of this era. And that's not... I say this as someone who always talks about like being timeless. But I but i also think It's okay if it like yeah is of the era. My next door neighbor I grew up with, her house looked like a spaceship. like Sorry, Chelsea, if you're listening. It was very 80s. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. and
00:34:53
Speaker
They haven't changed it. like They still have the same couches that look like... um whats What was that show on Nickelodeon? i don't even know. Like, honestly, like Rocco's Modern Life. Like, it's very, very 80s, 90s. But, I mean, I don't know. it was definitely.
00:35:11
Speaker
I mean, I love laughing at some of the old trends, like the Tuscan kitchen, you know? i that's my house now, Chandler. That's why I need you to come here. When I win the lottery, you can redesign my kitchen.
00:35:25
Speaker
That's so great. Right. Um, well, my, my mom, i I can't even tell you how many, and and she'll probably listen to this. I loved our kitchen mom. But um how many how many roosters?
00:35:38
Speaker
My mom has roosters. Oh my gosh. My mom went through a rooster phase also. We had stencil painted roosters along. the kitchen. um Yes, in the kitchen. And we had these like vaulted ceilings. The ceilings in the kitchen are high, but there's like a ledge.
00:35:57
Speaker
And all along that ledge, there were painted roosters. The top of my mom's cabinets were like, You know, they didn't bring the cabinets to the ceiling. So then the top of the cabinets was all roosters. I mean, rooster dish towels, rooster aprons. It had all of it as well. And like also that the the trim wallpaper was a big thing. like Oh, yeah. I had that in my room as child. Me too. I designed... I was so proud of my... My parents built a house when I was in middle school. And i i felt like I helped design that house. I'm sure... I'm sure I didn't. I'm sure my mom was like, yeah, please for your help.
00:36:32
Speaker
um But I... My bedroom was New York loft themed. And so my bathroom, I paint, which why, I don't know why this feels like a New York, this felt like a New York loft to me.
00:36:44
Speaker
But my bathroom was bright red. The bathroom was red walls with a cheetah print order on that. oh That would have been how New Jersey of you. That would have been such an it girl thing, though. Like you would have been so cool. really cool.
00:36:57
Speaker
was really cool. i oh Oh, my gosh. That's so funny. I definitely also went through like a limited to catalog you know phase. Did you have bubble chair? Like one of those blow-up chairs? Yes. And my whole room was lime green and that like turquoise blue combo, you know? what was my younger room. Yeah. It was awesome.
00:37:18
Speaker
PBT was like the coolest thing ever. I would drool over the PBT magazine. used to flip through that and just like dream. I was like, oh my God. I want... my room to feel this cool. even if not a good that That brings me to a good question. like What do you flip through now?
00:37:37
Speaker
and or what And you kind of touched on this, but like oh yeah like where do you go for inspo? Because i kind of it's interesting for you to say that the algorithm feeds you what is trending. I'd never thought about that, but now I'm like, you're so right.
00:37:51
Speaker
um So where can I go for new inspo? Yeah. Um, I, I love like a coffee table design book. Like I love like printed, beautiful design books. i have so many of them.
00:38:06
Speaker
Um, and so I, I mean, obviously I spend a lot of time researching the design world. So I kind of know what designers I really gravitate toward. Um, but I will, so I, I have a lot of newer kind of coffee table style books that flipped through, but I also have some older things like I'll order,
00:38:25
Speaker
design books from 20, 30 years ago. And cool. It doesn't mean I'm copy pasting what they're doing, but I'm like pulling ideas and just seeing things that I wouldn't see on Pinterest now because Pinterest is, I love Pinterest, but and I love Instagram, but it is going to be very like trend trend forward.
00:38:46
Speaker
um I also love I do love magazines. i subscribed to like I've subscribed to Architectural Digest and um uh House and Garden which is an English magazine and there's a ah magazine called mil I don't even know how say Malou M-I-L-L-I-E-U okay I've never heard of it but it's kind of it's like very design niche a little bit there's I think there's four four four editions that's not the right word for a
00:39:21
Speaker
a year Yeah. Edition might be the right word. Is that the right word? um And anyway, it's quarterly. Yeah.
00:39:31
Speaker
So it, but it's beautiful. And, um oh, there's one more that I'm thinking of. That's like really large that I can't, I can see it in my head and I can't remember, but I, I'm a, I'm, I subscribe to magazines. So when they come out, I like sit and really thumbs up and really try to,
00:39:48
Speaker
Because then I'll see styles of houses that are not necessarily the style that i design or gravitate toward. But it helps me to see like what's trending in modern design or what's trending in like minimalist design or things that are kind of outside my bubble. But that helped me just because I can pull I'm still like, oh, that's a really cool idea. I could integrate that somewhere, even though it's not like in the exact lane that I typically am looking in.
00:40:18
Speaker
And then, i mean, travel is a huge source of inspiration for me, going new places and my husband and I love to travel. and And so i feel like I pull a lot of inspiration from places I've been and try to do that for clients too. Like that's kind of part of my onboarding process is like, where do you like to go? Like, where do you like to spend time? That's such a great question.
00:40:41
Speaker
Yeah. it's It's not like, and I know like, for like then You love the Northeast, Whitney. So it's like, yeah what is you know what are like places that you've been or hotels you've stayed at? You would nail it immediately.
00:40:52
Speaker
yeah yeah I feel like, got it. Got it. It would be more confusing. like Lake Tahoe. I like Tahoe, but also love Mexico. And we're not necessarily going to... soco and yeah and you know we're not necessarily going to do like an exact copy of a hotel. you Right. Right. Right. Like a place that's made you feel really at home or like really comfortable and kind of like finding inspiration from like what did I love about that hotel lobby? Like what did love about that place?
00:41:25
Speaker
So fun. Well, it was funny when I was getting ready this morning for this podcast. One of the questions I was going to ask you was like, do you have a hotel or a restaurant or like somewhere you've been where you love the interior?
00:41:38
Speaker
Is there one that comes to mind? think if there's like one specific. I have one. i want to know yours. want know yours, Whitney. It's the Graydon House in Nantucket. It like changed my perspective on how I wanted my house to look. It was wow the pattern mixing. I loved the like really bold colors.
00:42:01
Speaker
big art like I had always kind of like done the standard art size and I was like oh like a big scale piece is really cool in like a small space it makes it feel so grand and it just was like an interesting take and they had a lot of old stuff but then the mix with the new and I was like I want my house to be like this I loved all the love that the beadwork on the walls. I was just like, I'm into this. Like, I want this to be my house. So, and that's why why I named my child that because I got, I was so inspired by my trip there. love that. You know that. i I know. It's still sweet to hear though, even though i I've heard that story.
00:42:42
Speaker
I love that. And that's like so cool to me as a designer too, that whoever designed that house, like whoever designs the Graydon house, like some They're a group in New York. like having It has an impact on the people who visit there. like but The work that they've been designing that impacted your life. actually matters.
00:43:04
Speaker
um I feel like we should clip that and send it to the people who designed It's the design for a Roman and Williams project. it's the design for a roman and williams Look, she knows.
00:43:15
Speaker
she love She knows. Yeah. um I knew it it had Williams in because was like, okay. But um yeah, they were fabulous. And they've done other things too, but um they're so good. I just was like, I studied it to death. I was like, where did they buy their linens? Where did they buy? Like, where did they source everything? I just like went nuts over it. Yeah.
00:43:38
Speaker
I love that. don't know if have one... place like i england in general like so there's a lot of places we've stayed in the uk that i've been inspired by there's some like places in charleston we've been they've been really inspired by i love but i also love like the mountains i love i love like the mountains of north carolina my family and cashers and um they're like community they live in and um
00:44:09
Speaker
So I like, I'm very inspired by nature and then homes that are built like into the nature. And if you haven't been to Lake Tahoe, you have to go.
00:44:20
Speaker
so gorgeous. i We just got back. so I'm like obsessed right now. And we've been before, but oh my gosh, like I, we left that trip, like looking at houses on Zillow. We're like, okay, how do we get a house in Lake Tahoe? That's amazing. so i would It's on my list.
00:44:37
Speaker
on your list, but yeah there's fun and so many, so many places that I love. Yeah. I want to go back a little bit to working with your husband um and talk about that a little bit.
00:44:50
Speaker
So like I said, I own my own business and my husband right now works for a large like home builder, but is in construction.
Working with a Spouse in Business
00:44:57
Speaker
And ah like, I feel like the trajectory of his career will eventually lead to him like starting his own home builder business.
00:45:07
Speaker
It's something we talk about often. And we've also talked about me kind of handling the like back end client relations, whatever. But i I'm not even going to lie. I like have a fear of working together but because there are times just him in my orbit, I'm like, you're annoying.
00:45:26
Speaker
So I'm scared. Oh, So tell give me the scoop. like What's it like? do you guys ever fight? like We've never fought. And I'm just kidding. I was whoa.
00:45:42
Speaker
We've been great 13 years. We definitely – We have had our share of fights. We, um but we, um yeah, I mean, i love it. I don't know that it's for everybody. i don't know that everyone should work with their spouse, but I, you, you probably would be great. But I, I personally, like for us, we love it.
00:46:02
Speaker
um We do just balance each other out really well. We have really complementary skill sets. And so we can kind of like operate within our own orbits in the business. Yeah. Like stay your lane.
00:46:15
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We're not both designing. Yeah. i mean i'll ask I'll ask him like, hey, what do you think about this? Or sometimes I'll sometimes. But generally we're not like we're not trying to run in the same lane. So we we can complement each other. and and balance each other out in the business. And I just am so grateful for his perspective on things because he does think really differently than me. And he, he really has made our business so much better. And so I just, I see the benefits of it, but it does take a lot of intentionality just in like making sure that not our whole life, our whole life is not about our business.
00:46:52
Speaker
And, um, and that has taken some years of figuring out like rhythms that work for us and making sure we shut it down at night. And, Um, like we're really intentional. One thing about us is we're really intentional about taking Saturdays like super solid off.
00:47:08
Speaker
Um, not, i mean, everyone takes the weekend off, but we, we call it our family Sabbath. Like our faith really important us and it's, we go to church on Sunday, but our Saturday's our Sabbath day. And so from like Friday night, like the kids know, like Friday night, ah we order pizza every Friday night and light candles and have like a candlelit pizza dinner.
00:47:27
Speaker
small That's cute. And then we they know it's like the start of Sabbath. And then on Saturday morning, we always have like a family movie morning. And make pancakes and just try to, and there are things happening Saturdays, but we don't, we do not work. We do not check work emails. We intentionally like do not talk about work with each other.
00:47:47
Speaker
Like just that one day a week bleeds into the rest of the week where we've like, you like get a taste of what it's like not to be obsessed with your job. yeah Then it informs the way you interact the rest of the week.
00:48:00
Speaker
And we really started doing that intentionally in, in 2020, kind of around the same time as COVID. And yeah it was a game changer for us because I have workaholic tendencies and like starting the business.
00:48:14
Speaker
Yeah. Especially in the early days of business ownership, like I felt like any moment my, like the baby was sleeping or doing like, it didn't need me. Like I was thinking about, I was working, I was constantly and work mode and constantly like toggling back and forth in my brain. And so I think, especially because we work together, we just have to be really intentional to make sure we have times that we're not in work mode and we're, in we're actually like married best friends instead of business partners, because it can be very, it can bleed into each other too much. and
00:48:47
Speaker
But we also love being business partners. And I like, we get to go on trips together a lot that are work trips. And, but like we are traveling together. We had like two installs out of state this summer and they turned into like vacations for the two of us and sometimes get to bring the kids along for stuff like that. And we,
00:49:06
Speaker
go to England and we like, we have all these really fun life experiences as a couple and it's, it's business work, but it's like also really like bonding for us. So I don't know. i I love the integration of it all and just being intentional together and being like, this is the culture we want to have. And this is how we want our, our business to interact with our family. And we, our family is first always like we one like I want to make sure my family is healthy emotionally and, you know, like yeah yeah more than I want my business to succeed. And so sometimes that means being slower in the way that we've grown our business and not running at full speed all the time so that we can have a healthy life.
00:49:53
Speaker
But we get to, like, figure that out together. Yeah. I think it would just for us, if if I think about, like, possibly doing that, it's like almost having a really intentional and, like, um like a conversation. And Vinny and I are actually pretty good communicators. We...
00:50:11
Speaker
like communicate really well together and but for us it's mostly just about like getting ahead of some of those things that we foresee being a problem so I will be calling you on that day when we're like okay we might make this happen yeah and your husband can coach us we've actually talked about how fun it would be like this is a pipe dream someday but to do like retreats for like couples who work together because it's not a common thing, but it's not an uncommon thing. Like there are couples that are in business together and it is a really unique life thing. Like it's just, even just the way we have to toggle with childcare. Like we are very, yeah like things are very split with us. And, um and that's true for a lot of
00:51:00
Speaker
yeah parents families whose parents both work. Like you do have to be a team because there's just a lot of logistics that you are yeah managing. that But it's really, it's it's worth the, mean, sometimes it's hard.
00:51:14
Speaker
And sometimes it's hard because if there's a difficult situation with work, it's stressing both of us out. Like we're both in it. yeah but We're both stressed about it because we're ah equally invested in the outcome.
00:51:28
Speaker
um But also, it's nice because i don't have to like explain to him what's going on. He knows what's going on. So, yeah, so true. that's So true. Yeah. I think you can make it work candy. I think that's great advice. Oh yeah. Thanks.
00:51:43
Speaker
I think it's, I think it's work. I think if you want to make it work, it's like the reward is so awesome. Yeah, totally. But it's not, it's not easy all the time. And yes, we fight for sure.
00:51:55
Speaker
We love each other. We just have to work things up, you know. I mean, y'all do a great job together.
Closing and Connect with Chandler
00:52:02
Speaker
i guess to to wrap things up, where can our followers find you on Instagram?
00:52:10
Speaker
are you Do you have a website? Like where can everybody find you? you know Yeah. So peachandpineinteriors.com and peachandpineinteriors on Instagram.
00:52:22
Speaker
Those the two main places. Yeah. Yeah. Instagram and our website. he saying Are you accepting like new clients right now? Yes, we are.
00:52:32
Speaker
um have a couple kind of slots to add new clients in before the end of the year. um And if you want, if you're interested in working with us, I would say filling out the form, the contact form on our website is the best place to start because that will kind of kick off our onboarding process.
00:52:50
Speaker
We'll send you an email, get a ah discovery call scheduled and learn more about your project and you are and all that. And we do, we are fully capable of doing projects outside of Nashville too. We love, we love a long distance project actually.
00:53:03
Speaker
Amazing. So yeah. Well, this has been so fun. I feel like I have so many questions for you about my house. I feel like we could have just kept talking for a lot, much longer. was like, no, I'm like, well, I feel bad. I'm like,
00:53:17
Speaker
It goes by so quick. And I was like, wow, I feel like we barely talked about like you as a mom So know. I like oh i didn love my children. yeah yeah So sorry. I like took the interior design and ran. no i yeah that's like and yeah We talk about mom things every episode on this podcast. So it's kind of nice to be like, oh, let's talk about something different. So it's a good, a good ah distraction, i think. And yeah,
00:53:44
Speaker
You know, maybe we'll have you on again to talk about like mom, mom life things. But this has been so fun and amazing. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank And everyone go follow Peach and Pine Interiors.
00:53:59
Speaker
Yes, and I hope so. All right. Bye guys. hi Thank you so much for being a part of our mom group chat. New episodes drop every Tuesday and don't forget the group chat is blowing up on our Instagram page. So make sure you're following along over there.
00:54:14
Speaker
All right. Gotta go. My toddler just put something in her mouth.