Refresh + Renew Your Home and Closet

This podcast was transcribed using Descript. Please forgive any typos or errors.

Brittany: Hi friends. Welcome to Life with Loverly. I'm your host, Brittany Sjogren. I'm excited to share my heart with you beyond the 15 seconds we get on Instagram, grab an iced coffee and let's do life together. 

Hello. Hello. How are you guys? I am back from, what feels like 

Nichelle: Your sabbatical? 

Brittany: Yes. What is January? Every other year in the past? I feel like January is 90 days long. You remember those memes that are like, and today it's January 375. And it's like the 19th. 

Nichelle: It did. It feels like that. And actually, we just talked about that too. You were. I feel like we're not at the holidays anymore. And I'm like, it was just a couple weeks ago, but it feels like an eternity ago.

Brittany: It's crazy. And then I was gone for what felt like forever because we went to the national championship, which was so much fun, but then that was like an extra, like three days that I was intending to be back, for work. So I'm like, this month is like, not a real month for me. I'm like, we'll just pick back up 2022 starts in February.

Nichelle: We're going to shove a whole month's worth of work into the 10 days that you are here. 

Brittany: Literally that's what it is.

Nichelle: It was seven because the weekend and everything. 

Brittany: And MLK was this week too. So even thinking oh, we're going to have a normal week. Nope. Then we're going to Disney next week. So when you guys are listening to this, I will be in Disney with Collins for her third birthday.

A friend of ours took their son for his birthday to Disney, just the two parents and the son and Chris and I were like, wait, that's such a great idea to get one on one time with our oldest, she loves Mini Mouse. So we decided we would book a trip to Disney and. I also feel like I don't fully know what's happening because we use a travel agent.

Nichelle: Oh, you're going into the unknown. 

Brittany: No, literally I'm like cue all the Disney. And so Leah, from on the brink of adventure is her name. I'll put her Instagram handle. I've known Leah for a really long time. Anna who used to work for me, Leah is her sister. And so I've traveled with Leah before.

And then she like started this travel agency thing. And it's been so cool to see her thrive, but she loves Disney. And so I was like, I feel like I have no other option. 

Nichelle: We use one too. It's one of those things that there's so many options. It makes life so much easier just to have somebody bring them to you. Bring me the choices .You schedule it for me. And then you tell me where to go, but I totally get what you mean. Like you're going into this like unknown territory where it's okay, wait what are we doing today? What's the plan. What time do we have to be there?

Brittany: I know, and everything is in this Disney app. Chris has been like, mostly communicating with her to finalize everything. And so I feel like I'm just going to show up and be like, so what are we doing today? 

Nichelle: Along for the ride? No pun intended. 

Brittany: Literally. So we're leaving to go do that tomorrow and it'll be so much fun. But Collins every morning she like wakes up and she's like are we going to Disney World yet? I'm like, you're so cute. Just keep saying that. So that's coming up, but in the midst of all of this, weirdness, that is the month of January, we put our Christmas decorations away and then I feel like my house is empty. 

Nichelle: That is it's the curse of the after Christmas craziness.

Brittany: It's also wild how many Christmas decorations you can fit in your house in spaces that don't need a decoration, but it's like vintage Santa? Yes. Like "here comes the snow" sign. Yes. It's like why is that going there? 

Nichelle: And yet we still find new things every year to add to. I'm guilty too.

Brittany: So I figured it would be fun to talk about how to refresh your space and your closet. Because I feel like right now too is like a what to wear. You had all these holiday options and now it's cold. It's January. But so many of the messages I've been reading in my DMS have been like, I want like warm weather stuff, or people would just have like beach on their mind.

Nichelle: They do. Christmas is over, we're going to the beach.

Brittany: Exactly. So I feel like we need to talk about how to extend your current wardrobe and just wait it out to get to spring. 

Nichelle: Yeah. 

Brittany: So let's start with home. 

Nichelle: Yeah. It's all a life refresh. 

Brittany: Yeah. Do you want to eat better? Refresh your food. Do you want to work out? Refresh your body. 

Nichelle: Exactly. The home refresh though, that gets me excited. Home speaks to me.

Brittany: For those of you guys that don't know Nichelle worked for Pottery Barn

Nichelle: for seven and a half years.

Brittany: A long time. So she, brings a lot to the table, as far as her past home decor and design lifestyle. Which has been great for me because I'm like, how should we design this? How should we arrange this? And she's at Pottery Barn, I'm like, perfect. 

Nichelle: I know. We were sitting there looking at lamps yesterday for your front foyer. And you're like, do you love it? And I'm like do YOU love it? Like you have to love it. 

Brittany: I wanted your opinion because sometimes I find things and I'm like, I think I like this and maybe I just need another person to validate or to confirm that the lines on that are going to match with that spot. And so that's why I was like, let me get your opinion of it too. Also, why is finding lamp so hard? 

Nichelle: It's crazy, especially like a really good, I'm talking statement lamp. 

Brittany: Yeah. Like a big boy 

Nichelle: Yeah. There's like a certain height that we're looking for this space. If you guys have seen her foyer, which you know she has this beautiful console. And it's okay, we need this statement piece to go over here on the side. And it definitely needs to be a lamp. Where are they guys help us out? 

Brittany: It's crazy. And that mirror is so big. I think it's 48 inches.

Nichelle: And it goes into the corner of that tall wall where your stairs are. 

Brittany: For a visual, we need something a little bit higher on that side to keep our eye up. But I also don't want it to be too light colored. We need something that will match with the mirror, but the standard lamp size is too small.

Nichelle: It is, it's 22 to 27 inches. We need something bigger than that. 

Brittany: We really need 35 or higher. 

Nichelle: We hear you guys. The struggle can be real sometimes, but I think it also can be easy. Patience. 

Brittany: Also it's available for $700. 

Nichelle: Oh. Money can buy most things.

Brittany: Yeah. But then I'm like, okay, is this practical? Where are the alternative options? You can only set a lamp on so many books to give it height before it's okay, this is in a library. So we're working on that. But with taking Christmas down I also feel the urge to go to target or go to a place local here called Athens Interior Market. They've got some great, pieces of furniture. They have lots of interiors and I'm like, I just need to buy everything to change out my room. But that's super practical. 

Nichelle: I know. I think so many people do have that urge. They see these one, two or three cute things that they're like, oh, I want to put this in my space, but it's okay, maybe we should take a second and evaluate what we do have And are these one or two pieces going to work or are you going to end up in the same position that you were to begin with where it's okay, none of this really speaks to my heart because I've put several random pieces together. One of the things that Brittany and I were talking about was really decluttering your mind and your space so you can think clearly.

And the other day, tell them what you did here in the office. 

Brittany: Literally we're in the office and Nichelle and I are sitting across from each other in the dining room area, which is where a lot of time have team meetings and we just all sit there and work from there. And Nichelle was like, okay, so do you want to go into talking about this or do you want to go into talking about this? And we were sitting, having a brainstorming session. And I was just looking past her into the living room. And I was like, I cannot think about anything you're saying, because this room is driving me crazy with how much stuff was randomly put there. And so she was like, okay, then let's close our computers and just go fix that right now. It wasn't like, it was like messy. There was stuff that was maybe we moved before the holidays and then we put it back and then we didn't actually really like it or we wanted something different or it wasn't completing the feeling that we were going for the space, but it was what we had.

Yeah. So we went through and took everything down and did that in the kitchen and in one other. and laid everything that it was like, do we want to keep this? No. Do we want to donate this? Do we want to keep it for later and made some piles and that decluttering helped have a blank space.

 From there we're able to see, okay, what pieces do we really want? Where can we go to like finish decorating this space. Do we need new pillows? How do we want to refresh here? But then I felt like I could think again, because I wasn't staring at 

Nichelle: the things you were in love with.

Brittany: Yeah. I also just did this at my house. So in our living room, that whole room is completely different aside from the couches. Because when we finish the playroom, which is off of that room, we have been waiting for items to come in. Because shipping times are really fun right now. 

Nichelle: Oh, they're dandy.

Brittany: So we ordered a coffee table forever ago. It was like still getting back ordered and delayed and all the things. So we ordered another coffee table. It finally came in. We finally got art on the walls, photos up on the wall. I think I've been trying to finish this room since we moved in, but then we knew we would do the playroom expansion.

So it was just like, not worth it, but over there it's finally like getting complete, but we have this coffee table now and I am like, haven't had a coffee table in so long. What are we going to put on it? But also we have two small children. Hazel has started jumping on the coffee table and being like, hehe, look at me and I'm like my gosh, no, this is not a seat.

Nichelle: Yeah. And I think that there's such an easy way to still decorate and have little kids. And I know that you figured that out too. That's a statement piece. So you could add statement pieces on top of it too . They're probably going to be too heavy for a kid to pick up or move around, but, and stay stationary and be safe still for Hazel and Collins.

Brittany: Yeah. And the good thing is like all their toys are just right next door. So it's okay, redirect . But I ordered a few coffee table books to go on there that I want to layer. And I'm looking for a larger flat vase to go in the middle and then maybe something smaller for some greenery.

But I also feel like sometimes I will go into target and go browse the home decor and I feel overwhelmed. Because I like this stuff. I don't see how it's going to work in my house, if that makes sense. But then I see people on Instagram or these like home decor accounts who take the pieces home and they perfectly style them.

But there's something about what they're doing that isn't going to work exactly for my space or the colors are a little off. And so it's like taking inspiration from that, but also not feeling obligated to go by everything. Just because it's like New Studio McGee at target. So I feel like that puts us in like a weird place right now because we want to refresh, we want to update, but should we just wait a little while? Or do we put back out some of the stuff that we've had before? Can you fall back in love with the decor that you've already loved at one point and then Christmas came along and you're like, off with that. And then maybe change out your pillows to get your fix and then wait until you find some pieces that you really like. 

I feel like for me personally, I spend so much time trying to see what decor is going to come but then when I do find something that I like, I don't change it out. I have some shelves in our living room, like bookcases that I've styled when we moved in and I have not rearranged that stuff in two years. I feel so at peace with what is up there. I like it so much. So if that's where you are, great. You don't have to change out decor every time a new home drop happens. 

Nichelle: Yeah. See, I wish I had that mindset. I love it so much. My brain automatically wants to change all the time. I'm like, okay, this piece is inspiring me to change this and this now. Constantly moving furniture. That's an easy refresh too. We were talking about easy refreshes, like paint the walls, give it a nice, good coat of paint. Maybe go a little lighter and brighter. Change out your curtains, but rearranging your furniture. I love it.

Brittany: We even have said a few times at the office, we're like, maybe we should move the couch over there and see what it looks like. 

Nichelle: And we will . 

Brittany: So as soon as this is over, right? My mom used to rearrange the furniture in my house every time my dad would go out of town.

Nichelle: Oh gosh. 

Brittany: And we had a funky shaped living room and this couch, it was a sectional, but you could break it apart. It was very like eclectic now that I think back on like my parents' taste in the nineties and huh, that's odd. But my mom, we had like dark purple, like eggplant colored walls and

Nichelle: hello 90's.

Brittany: Oh, my gosh. My dad went away one weekend for tennis and he came home and the walls were like a lavender. She painted them a very light lavender white, and it brightened it up so much. So my dad was always like, wonder what home decor project is going to happen, while we're gone this weekend.

But it's so easy. We just refreshed the bathroom. I always call it a half bath, but there is a shower in there. 

Nichelle: It's a full bath. 

Brittany: Yeah. It's like the main bathroom on the first floor of our house. It was like a bluish gray color. The color didn't match any other room in the house. 

Nichelle: It was totally different than anything else.

Brittany: I don't know why it was like that, but the owners who lived there previously, I don't even know if they painted it or not, but some of the things about the bathroom were just weird. Like the towel rack was like on the wrong side it was too close to the toilet, so you couldn't really hang towels. And then the light fixture was very outdated and, it just needed a refresh . So we painted and it took no time, like an hour to paint. And then, just refresh it a little bit. Now I find I like I'll walk by the bathroom and I'm like, Ooh, hi. I like this. Like, how are you? 

Nichelle: And that wasn't necessarily an expensive refresh. That was a very easy weekend. I know you said it took a day and a half for him to do all of that, but yeah, that's such an easy thing to do. And feel good about it. 

Brittany: I scratched the itch exactly there.

Nichelle: Exactly. 

Brittany: And so now I feel like I can hold back, going to target, not feeling I need a million terracotta pots. Where are those going to go? 

Nichelle: Exactly. 

Brittany: So I guess coming from Pottery Barn when you were just talking, I feel like one reason your brain is always Ooh, I want to you're constantly like, thinking about things like you want a regression do project or whatever.

Yeah. Probably because you were exposed to so many different like rooms and constantly like new product all the time. So I could imagine that would be a little hard to turn off and be happy with this one style for right now. 

Nichelle: Yes. That's exactly where I got it. The thing with pottery barn is they did a floor move every month. And before pottery barn, we had a basic tan sofa. We might have had a rug and a coffee table and some things here and there. I wasn't as invested in our home and didn't love it like I do now, but it's, I think that's what helped me appreciate it a little bit more is seeing what you could do with each room.

So if you've ever been to a Pottery Barn, they have different lifestyles. There's several different sofas throughout the area, but they treat it as one area. So you can visualize what it looks like in a space. Those are the sections we would change every month. And if new things came in, we had the creative space to be able to have fun with it for the most part.

 When we started changing all of those lifestyles, I'd come home and be like, okay, I really liked how that looked on the coffee table. I'm going to switch all of that around. Yeah. But then also that was where I really had a really hard time saying no to new product that came in. I was like, I need this one piece.

Next thing, I had a hundred extra one pieces and I don't even know where these were going. 

Brittany: But it seemed like a good idea.

Nichelle: It was a good idea at the time.

Brittany: I feel like I get that way in the target clearance section for home stuff. I'm like, Ooh, this will be really good there. And then I get at home and I'm like, what was I thinking? This doesn't make sense here. 

So resist the urge, 

Nichelle: but also it was the heat of the March. why am I in a singing mood today? 

Brittany: I'm rubbing off on you. Sing songy. It's Friday. 

Going into refreshing your closet or feeling the same way about your clothes right now, too.

 If you are buying a lot of like sequins or like red and green, it's you might not want to wear some of those colors right now. I think reds do carry over beacause of Valentine's Day. One thing that I feel like I do every year in the month of January is bring back out my white jeans.

Nichelle: Yes. 

Brittany: And that makes me feel refreshed because I'm pulling something out that I hadn't worn in a little while and then pairing some of my neutral and cream sweaters. So I'm still warm for winter, but it's brighter. If that makes sense, I'm acknowledging we're not in Christmas and holiday, but we're getting into spring 

Nichelle: And yes guys, Brittany's going to tell you're allowed to wear white jeans. 

Brittany: Yes. You're allowed to do whatever you want. 

Nichelle: I still hear people go, wait, you can wear white. Yes. You can do whatever you want. 

Brittany: Yes. I feel like that rule is so outdated and maybe that there are some things that are more like a summary linen that I wouldn't necessarily wear right now.

Maybe if I was going to the beach. Yes. I think there's some pant options that you could interchange. Some textures aren't going to work for right now, just because of the weather temperatures. But it's totally fine to where white all year round. I think will help your mind, accept getting ready for spring.

Nichelle: Yeah. Who was it? Stacy and Clinton from whatnot to where? Is that what it was called? 

Brittany: Yeah,

Nichelle: I think they said that over a decade ago. And they made a great point. Who made that rule? There are no rules when it comes to fashion, have fun with it, feel good in it. 

Brittany: Sometimes I feel like I look around and we live in a college town, so sometimes I like drive down the street and I'm like, what are they wearing?

Yeah. That person probably looked in the mirror and was like, I feel good in this and I'm going to wear this out today. But that's the thing about fashion now is I feel like everybody can find somebody that they relate to and the trends or the style is not all just one thing.

Nichelle: Yeah.

Brittany: Doesn't have to just be this way or the highway . So I think that's what's cool about this is because if you feel confident to wear something and try something. Then by all means. I feel like when I first started this, I was mostly sharing work wear.

I was sharing like I have this leopard print skirt, but I don't want to just wear a plain shirt with it. What are some other options here? Ooh, let me throw on a chambray blouse. Or can I do a soft stripe? Like mixing patterns? And so many people were always like, oh my gosh I can't believe you're mixing patterns or you're so brave to try that.

And I'm like, why don't you just try that? What do you have to lose if you try it on? And you're like, I don't like this. Okay. Change and put a solid shirt on, but you might gain a confidence or just like this feeling of okay, I actually do like this, that you might not have had before.

 And to me, that's worth a shot.

Nichelle: Oh, absolutely. Why do I feel like the podcast we listened to the other day is so valid in this? 

Brittany: Yeah. Be a leader. 

Nichelle: And also why hold your body hostage?

Brittany: She said that and I was woah.

Nichelle: Why hold your body hostage to what other people think or say, or do. Your style, what you have on expresses how you not only look, but how you feel.

So rock it and feel confident in it. 

Brittany: Exactly. And give it a shot. I think that's why I try on such a variety. Yes, there are some things that I feel like I constantly go back to that I love this style or whatever, but there's so many different ideas out there, and body types out there that something could work for you, if you just give it a shot. 

In regards to refreshing your wardrobe and getting out of the funk of "I don't have anything to wear". Stores are starting to put out spring stuff and it's not quite warm enough to wear some of that spring stuff. Go through and declutter your closet.

Nichelle: Oh yeah. 

Brittany: Do a clean out. And I really suggest doing this four times a year when the seasons are changing, just because it will help you visualize and see okay, here are 10 pieces that I want to rewear. Or rework, or I can wear this cami with my blazer for a zoom meeting, but then I can wear it with this fun leather jacket or cardigan or whatnot.

But I feel like taking a moment to go to your closet and pay it some attention to put some outfits together will give you confidence too. In the morning when you're like, I'm running late. I don't have anything to wear, but I still want to look cute. You already have one of those ideas, in your mind, so that's something that I feel like could be really helpful.

Nichelle: Yeah. One of the other things that I learned was, why have things in your closet that you're not in love with? I know a lot of people hang on to things because they're like, oh, maybe one day I'll fit in that. Or, hey, maybe one day that'll come back in style and it's been taking up space, but it also takes space up in your mind.

 It creates this little bit of anxiety. When you get into your closet and you're like, oh, I don't know what to wear. I really want to wear that, but it just takes up this unnecessary space. So why not remove that unnecessary block or anxiety that you have when you walk in the closet and only have things in there that you love.

Style's change so frequently, too. There's really no reason to hang on to stuff at a certain point. That's one another, the reasons I think it's so smart to go through it four times a year, because something I wore last spring is probably not something I will wear this spring. Give it to somebody else, donate it, give it to somebody else that wanted the opportunity to have it like you do with your closet.

Brittany: Yeah, I think there's a way to try new styles without breaking the bank. I'm sure some people are like that's fast fashion and but stores like H&M who are maybe a little bit more trendy, but their prices are really good. And a lot of their products are made really well.

But you're not breaking the bank by trying them out. And then if you realize, okay, I actually really like this a lot. I want to invest in the more expensive version of this. It's going to work for you. It also gives you the opportunity to try more things. If that's something that you're into. So you don't have to break the bank every time you want a new outfit or want to try a new style, or maybe you want to try a flowy skirt with a graphic tee

You're not trying to drop $200 on a flowy skirt. There are so many options elsewhere that also look really expensive, we'll get to on Instagram and in some future tryons that we have coming up and putting some outfits together so you guys can see it doesn't have to be a hundred million dollars to be a great, cute outfit.

 That's another thing I love doing is finding pieces from Target, Old Navy and then mixing them with some of my staples from like Nordstrom or like a designer bag. I get so much use out of all of those pieces because I'm wearing a designer bag every day, but it's cost per wear, makes sense to me.

 Instead of just buying a new bag every season, but it like falls apart. I feel like we could go on for hours talking about this type of thing. 

Nichelle: Absolutely.

Brittany: Which, technically if you look back over the last six years, that's what I've been doing. So crazy. This January is six years that Loverly Grey started six years ago. 

Nichelle: Does it feel like it was yesterday though? 

Brittany: In some ways it does. And then in other ways it feels like year two to five or two to four, I'm like what happened there? Oh yeah. Some major big things happened.

Nichelle: It's the fast pace of it.

Brittany: Yeah. it is so wild to think. 

All right. So wrapping up today's episode, if you have clothes, or pieces in your home that you're just like, not sure of try decluttering. That really helped me this week. Just get back into okay, what am I wanting to do here?

Or gave me a vision for, what am I looking for if I really want to restyle this side table. And now I know all of the junk that was there is cluttering my mind to visualize what is going to go here next, now that all that's gone, I can go to a store with a clear vision of I'm specifically looking for this and then I don't get lost by being like, and now I need this and this. So give that a shot. If you're struggling in that area.

As far as clothing goes, we do have some fun things coming on Loverly Grey. I'm going to be doing. Big roundup of work wear outfits. I would definitely consider going through and like seeing what pieces for work you are needing to invest in.

And maybe if you're doing a job interview or you're still on zoom calls, figuring out what pieces am I missing from my closet? Because this big roundup is going to hit a lot of different categories. So that's going to be coming at the beginning of February. We had hoped to do that in January, but shipping delays and then some things weren't in stock yet that I really wanted to be able to use.

So that is going to be coming too, but there's always fun ideas over on loverlygrey.com and then on our, Like to Know It. So excited for that coming in the future. And then over the next few weeks, we have a few more guests signed up to come on the podcast. So I can't wait. We're bringing back our wedding coordinator who was here last time and then Kalin from Ashford Aesthetics. She's coming back to talk about skincare, which I can't wait.

Nichelle: So excited about both of those.

Brittany: I started a new skincare routine, which we won't get into this at ton and then Nichelle actually started a new one as well. So I can't wait. 

Nichelle: We'll dive into that later.

Brittany: Yes. So that's coming in the month of February as well. So anyway, thank you so much for listening and we will talk next time. 

Thanks for listening to today's episode. I can't wait to continue these conversations with you over on Instagram at Life with Loverly until next time. 

Nichelle: That was perfect.