transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[01:11] Hey there, I'm Coulter. I'm Kayla.

Speaker 3:
[01:13] And I'm Lauren.

Speaker 2:
[01:14] And we host Relationship Advice, a show that is dedicated to helping you connect better with the people in your life, and why the starting point for that is probably not what you were told.

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Speaker 1:
[01:48] Hey, everybody, I'm Kelly Wilkness, here with Anita Joyce, and this is Decorating Tips and Tricks. This is another DTT Plus, where you get more of us. And today, we're discussing wood drenching, yay or nay.

Speaker 5:
[02:03] Mm, okay, so what is wood drenching? It is a design technique that goes beyond just putting a few wood pieces in a room. It involves wrapping the space in wood, as the name implies. So you have stained wood floors, ceilings, walls, and you could have stained wood furniture in the room as well. So I guess you could think of it as the evolution of those 1970s wood paneled rooms, but updated, a little more stylish, but that's what we're talking about today.

Speaker 1:
[02:37] Okay. Well, nay. Okay. What do you think?

Speaker 5:
[02:47] Well, in essence, I do agree nay, but you know, I did look at some of these when we were looking to buy something in the mountains.

Speaker 4:
[02:58] Oh yeah.

Speaker 5:
[03:00] There were some amazing cabins that had wood walls, wood ceilings, and usually it was a builder that had done it for himself. Actually, there's a particular house we almost bought. I mean, we were putting an offer in on it. We didn't end up buying it, and it was wood drenched. And now looking back on it, this was 10 years ago.

Speaker 1:
[03:22] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[03:23] I'm really glad we didn't buy it, because now it feels very dated to me when I look at it, and the wood feels kind of off and orangey, and it can be difficult to pull off. And I'm going to throw out another story. I know a builder near where I live now, who had an amazing property, beautiful home, wood drenched, and could not sell it. He sold it for a ridiculously low price. I guarantee you the people that bought it are going to paint the walls and sell it at some point for a lot more money. This is another one of those things that can really hurt your value because some people do not appreciate it. And to be honest, I think it's very hard to pull off from a decorating standpoint because things disappear into the wall, it kind of absorbs the light, and it can look kind of confusing because it's not a solid color, there's this wood grain. So even if you like the look, I think it's hard to make this work and to pull it off.

Speaker 1:
[04:34] I agree with everything you said, but I will try to temper my nay a little bit. There are definitely geographic pockets where this would work better. It's just not an aesthetic that I am drawn to. So even if I lived in a Swiss chalet type of town, I still wouldn't want this. Even if I lived in Cashers, North Carolina, where you could probably pull this off, I wouldn't want this. Wood on wood on wood on wood on wood is something that doesn't appeal to me. But I could see some geographic areas where it might work. I think you have to be very, very conscious of where your home is if you're considering pulling this off. It is certainly not a new idea. It has been around probably since the log cabin. Abraham Lincoln lived in a wood drenched home and didn't really consider the aesthetics of it. It's just what it was. And then obviously, sheetrock was developed, and you have different types of walls or lathe and plaster, and all these things that came after just having wood walls. And then of course, we lived through a period in the 70s where there was wood paneling everywhere. And now we're coming around to this whole thing. I mean, it was kind of obvious after paint drenching became so trendy that wood drenching was going to be something that people were talking about. It is really hard to pull off. The wood grains can make you dizzy if you have all wood grains going on all over the place. And certainly, mixing woods. How could I see this pulled off? Maybe in a light blonde Scandinavian where you've got a light blonde floor, but still not even also on the walls, but then maybe cabinetry is also the same blonde. But if you're doing that, the woods have to match exactly, and that's hard to do. Have the flooring exactly match some cabinetry. So I think you're going to have some different wood grains in there, and it's going to be really confusing. If anybody has looked at my house, either on my blog or Instagram, or particularly on my YouTube, when I showed the before, it was very woody. All different kinds of wood and not very high grade wood, because I understand that the Victorians, if they couldn't afford the mahogany or what have you, they just used whatever was in the lumberyard and mixed it in, because they were going to paint it anyway. But then the fellow that lived here from 50 years before us, really liked wood and he really liked orange stain. So that was a very bad combination. But people are very strong in their feelings about supporting wood, even if they don't know whether the wood was good or not. For example, I was told in a comment on one of my YouTube videos that showed how I use a lot of white paint in my house, that if I was there, I would punch you in the face for painting that wood. And I thought, wow, okay, maybe it's time to get off YouTube. Okay, yeah, wood crimes. I mean, people are a little, take it easy, buddy.

Speaker 5:
[08:03] Well, remember back in the blog days, that's when people would get attacked if they painted an antique. I mean, and some antiques, I agree it would be a crime to paint some of them, but some of them, you're like, even paint's not going to fix this. So, it really depends on the piece. And this is tough. I mean, and the homes out here, I'm out in the Texas countryside near Round Top. A lot of these original homes had shiplap, which was not painted. They would kind of nail, I don't know, some kind of fabric to the walls. I don't really understand what they were putting on it. But if you buy, like we had an old farmhouse on our other property that we had before this one, and it was an old building and it had this stuff. And as we pulled it off the walls and pulled all those thousands and thousands of nails out, it was just this rough wood with all these holes in it. And I was thinking, I'm not leaving it like this. I'm going to paint it. Well, somebody, you know, out in the country, people buy houses and then move them off your property and then move it on to there. So we sold the house, not the property. Somebody moved it on to another property and they redid it, kind of flipped part of the house around. But they kept those walls like that, didn't paint them, left them very plain, wood drenched, and sold it. So, you know, somebody's, it'd be very interesting to go back and see if those walls have been painted yet or not.

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 5:
[12:20] Well, I think I did too. I've seen a lot of houses in North Carolina this way, and I've seen some beautiful homes, but my personal feeling is that it's very specific to a particular style, and there's not a lot of furniture that's going to go with it. It's, I think it's very tough to work with, is what I would say. You can't just put any kind of wood stain in there as far as furniture. Now, I was thinking about what you said about maybe the light Scandinavian wood on the walls, on the ceiling, if you paired some painted furniture in there, that might kind of be a cool look.

Speaker 1:
[13:02] Oh yeah, one of those Gustavian clocks, right, right.

Speaker 5:
[13:06] I think, I think that could work. But again, you have to be very, very careful about what you put in there, and you have to know what you're doing. So I think, you know, it's a risk. It's a risk doing it. And I think it's a risk doing it, not only because it's hard to work with, but also because I think it's harder to sell. And this probably is going to cost more than just regular sheetrock. And are you going to get your money back? And I'm going to tell you right now, I don't think you are. So not to say don't do it, but just again, like we say with everything, make sure you really want it and understand the implications as far as resale and how difficult it is going to be to work with. So not to say don't do it, but just be mindful of all of the drawbacks if you do that.

Speaker 1:
[13:56] Yeah. If you're going to use the wood and it's to be stained, and you want that whole wood look, you have to use good hardwoods. You can't get away with paint-grade wood or cheap wood. It's not going to take the stain well, it's just going to look flat and either very dark or orangey or just not great. So, you're going to spend more money on the materials, and it does tend to the overwhelm where the room is just going to feel super heavy. I've been working with a client recently, and the contractor architect had in the plans a tongue-and-groove wooden ceiling. Now, this was not a cathedral ceiling and wood beams. Now, it's a Mediterranean style older home, but that was going to make this family room kind of feel like thud, is you're going to have this heavy ceiling. So I would just take that tongue and groove out and use some beams. So yeah, some beams, some accents of wood around, or if you want to do some wooden cabinetry, but not have your walls covered in wood and then a wood floor, and then wood cabinets and all of that. It's just way too much. I don't know why this is a thing right now, other than I think it's just stemming from the paint drenching, which I do really like and think it's a good idea.

Speaker 5:
[15:24] Well, you know how things come on Pinterest, Instagram, and we hear, oh, this is the latest thing, but how many people are actually doing it? That's what I want to know. And often something comes out, I hear it's the latest, greatest new thing, and I'll think, we'll see. And then there's no more talk about it. It's just all gone in a puff of smoke. And you think, how many people actually did that? Well, I don't know.

Speaker 1:
[15:50] I agree with you. So it's something to discuss. Hey, and if you have a wood drenched home or even room or maybe finished basement, if you kept it from the 1970s, let us know. Do you love it? Do you want to change it? How is it working for you? We would love to hear. And we would also love to hear how you feel about decorating tips and tricks. It is time for you to leave us a review. We would love to hear that you're enjoying the show, what you like about it. Leave us an Apple podcast review. It helps the show so much. Of course, it helps so much if you say nice things about the show and that you're loving it, which so many of you do, and we appreciate it so much. We cannot tell you the joy it brings when we get a lovely review.

Speaker 5:
[16:39] And if you're listening, please follow us in whatever app you're using. Hit that like or follow button. That way, we'll show up automatically in your app. And also, that does help us as far as people finding us. So please do that as well.

Speaker 1:
[16:56] At the very least, tell a friend. Tell somebody about Decorating Tips and Tricks, and let them know that they should be listening to the show too. That really helps. The more people we have listening, the longer we can keep going. We're kind of on a streak now, but we would like to keep going and providing you more free, fabulous Decorating Tips and Tricks. Thanks so much for everybody that has already left a review. And if you haven't, come on, step up to the plate and leave us a review.

Speaker 5:
[17:25] Well, Kelly, we didn't mention it, but can you believe we've been doing this for over nine years?

Speaker 1:
[17:31] No, I really can't. And it is true, that old saying is, time flies when you're having fun, because there's no way that it feels like it's been nine years. I mean, that's a long time. It is. I've loved doing this. Every episode, every syllable, every topic, every laugh we share together, I absolutely love it. And the fact that we can connect with all these people all over the world, it just blows my mind. So thank you, thank you, thank you, because, I mean, we could talk to each other just on the phone, but it's so much more fun knowing that you're all there with us, and all the consults that we've been able to give, and the information we've been able to share directly and individually with so many listeners over the years, that is really an honor that people would sign up for a consult and trust us with giving them great advice. And so far, so good. It's been going really well.

Speaker 5:
[18:29] That's right. And thank you so much for hanging out with us. And remember, we're here to inspire you to create a beautiful home. Until next time.

Speaker 1:
[18:38] Fabulous. Fun. Wow. Even better than I had hoped or expected. These are just a few of the words used to describe a DTT design consult. We've been doing consults for many years, and boy, are we good at it. And people are loving the results of the advice and suggestions that we make for them. It's so easy to schedule a consult with us. Just simply go to our website, decoratingtipsandtricks.com, and click Consult. There you'll be led through the very simple process. And sooner than later, you, I, and Anita will be discussing your home in detail. So sign up for a consult today. Let us help you design and decorate the home that you want and deserve. Looking forward to talking to you soon.