Drawing the line between interior design, communication and romance.

At first glance, getting interviewed on the podcast “How to Talk to Girls” May seem absurdly unrelated to what we do here at Eco Method Interiors. However, listen to this podcast interview and you see the direct connection between interior design as a communication tool and confidence booster. We are long-time champions of the phycological impacts beautiful (or not so beautiful) spaces have on the people who occupy them. The host of this show, Tripp, helps people get into relationships with women, so in this episode we discuss how creating a killer bachelor pad is key in making a love interest feel comfortable and makes the host feel confident when bringing someone into their place.

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Listen on apple podcasts here or check out the transcription of our conversation below:

“Tripp: (00:01)
You are listening to the How to Talk to Girls Podcast with me, Tripp Kramer. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the How to Talk to Girls podcast. I'm your host, Tripp Kramer from trip advice.com. Welcome back to another episode. Today we have special guest Erica Riner. What are we talking about today? We're talking about your place, your bachelor pad. We're talking about interior design. We're talking about the rules, designing your place and making your bachelor pad, your apartment, your condo, your house, wherever you live. We're trying to make it awesome and we are giving you the rules on how to do it. Well, I'm not, but Erica is, and she is a interior decorator who is giving some of her rules. And we talk about feng shui and we talk about some of the things that you need to have and some things you don't want to have and how to make your place awesome because you're gonna have women over there.

Tripp: (00:53)
But this is even deeper than having women over there. You know? Yes, it's nice, she's gonna come over and she's gonna love it. But you know what's even more important that you love the place where you live so that you feel good and you're happy because environment is one of the biggest things that has the effect on your mood. And so then if your mood is good, you're gonna feel better, you're gonna feel more confident, and then you're just gonna be a more attractive person and you'll be able to live an awesome life. And then of course, attract more women. So you see how it's, it's all working together. It's all connected here. And you're gonna get a lot of good tips here to help you do that with Erica. […]

We're talking about your bachelor pad. Hey Erica, good to have you on the podcast. How you doing?

Erica: (04:20)
I am well, thank you for having me.

Tripp: (04:22)
Yeah, absolutely. Now, you were saying before off the record that this is a podcast that you don't normally go on, but you've been on podcasts before.

Erica: (04:31)
I have.

Tripp: (04:32)
So what are those podcasts that you've been on before?

Erica: (04:34)
I have been on a lot of like how to green or eco-friendly this thing or the other thing about your home and your interiors. I've also talked with a couple people about like the business side of things and how I got into doing this business and starting it and that kind of thing. So yeah, definitely a little bit of a detour, but I'm gonna make a case for why it's super related and relevant that I'm on your show.

Tripp: (05:00)
Okay. Why don't we do that right now. So tell us, well first tell us just like your background and everything about you. Sure.

Erica: (05:07)
Okay. So I'm here in sunny Los Angeles where I am recording from and I started, well if we go way back, I was always in the environmental industry, teaching and startups and all that kind of thing. And then I started a business in interior design and it took me a while, but I finally figured out how to merge those two things together. So now I have an interior design business that specializes in eco-friendly and sustainable products and materials, like that's the physical health side of things. There's also definitely a psychological component to interior design, which is really, really interesting and that's gonna be a little bit more about what we're talking about today. So yeah, then after Lilly slowly building my portfolio over years, I have gotten going here in LA and I do redesign two for people all over the country. And I just am really addicted to the feeling of the transformation and helping people create that sort of a before and after feeling. I just love, so

Tripp: (06:09)
Cool. I, I wanna tell something really quickly. So I was just recently at someone's house and they had some coffee table book about feng shui and I picked it up and it was not at all what I expected. So I started to read through it. It was just like a little book and it would just tell you all these things based on where you should put things in your house based on northeast, Southwest. Have you heard of this before?

Erica: (06:34)
I just interviewed. I have a podcast myself. It's more geared towards other designers and home pros who might wanna learn how to go green and do something similar to what I did. But I had a feng shui sort of master on, and she was teaching me a bit about the basics and she was less, you know, going on about north, south, east west, but more just kind of like the flow of things and energy of course, and how opening up the space decluttering, putting certain things that draw energy into certain areas. So that was like my 1 0 1 with her.

Tripp: (07:08)
That was interesting because I was like, this doesn't seem very translatable to like, today's like the fun. I didn't know feng shui was about that. Like, about, you know, good luck and having things in different corners of the house. I always thought feng shui was about how you set up a room for it to flow in a certain way.

Erica: (07:28)
I think it's about, well she made it sound a lot like it was about learning how to mimic nature and natural processes and flows so that you would make sure your own life was unblocked and flowing and working as it is supposed to. And kind of that we don't turn away from the natural, you know, process or flow of things and we kind of incorporate that back in. That was my interpretation. I think you can, it's so old. I think you can like pull bits from like old texts and create a book that's weird or create one that makes sense, you know?

Tripp: (08:04)
Yeah, no, totally, totally. It's interesting. So, okay, let's just go and let's just get into what we can give guys as tips to make their place just as best as possible and everything that, you know of course , well not literally everything, but you know, maybe like the 80 20, like what are the 20% of your tips that you could give that have 80% of the most effect on a man's bachelor pad?

Erica: (08:31)
Yes. Okay. I am very excited about this and I really love working with your listenership, like the bachelor pad type clients and clientele because it's really fun. They're always fun kinds of projects. It's always like a super big transformation. And I usually get a lot of trust from my clients, which is my most favorite thing when they, I kind of have carte blanche and they're like, go for it. So I love this, I love this topic and I wanna make a case that this is important because I feel really strongly that your space and let's say interior design for a lack of other words, of the all encompassing, you know, interior aesthetic is actually a form of nonverbal communication that you are expressing to anyone who might come through your door. So whether it is ladies in our case or whether it's just your friends or your family or whoever, I think it's important to realize that it's actually an expression of who you are, what your identity is, what you're all about, and how you move through the world. So in our approach to you guys and coming on this show, which you might not have thought to bring an interior designer on before we, you know, kind of teased a little bit and is a, like, you know, we have seen one too many mattresses on the floor and dead plants in the window and this, that and the other thing to kind of, you know, surmise this archetype of of place that we've seen with this dude who has this kind of place, you know, the vertical blinds and one's missing, that whole thing.

Tripp: (10:07)
Oh man, I've had that before. Wait, hold on a second. You, I, I get the mattress on the floor is kind of, yeah, no go, but plants in the window. What's up with that one? Plants dead's a no no go too. Plants. Oh, you said dead plants. Did I,

Erica: (10:18)
I don't know. We'll see.

Tripp: (10:19)
I well you said, I thought you said plants in the window and I was like, wait, is that a bad thing? That's how I question that, but yes, dead plants.

Erica: (10:26)
Dead plants in the window. Yeah. And just kinda looking like maybe you never left the frat house or maybe you just that you have put no love time, attention, resources into it. And for me as a person, objective person as a lady. And then lastly as a designer, it certainly says some things to me. It says you don't really care about yourself. You don't really take care of yourself, you don't really have your life together. Maybe you were babied and you never really learned how to do some adult, you know, chores for yourself. It kind of says a lot of negative things and it's such a missed opportunity because say in the dating world, if you're bringing someone back to a hangout or see your place or like, maybe this is the next date, number two or something like that, where it's a little bit more intimate and they get to know who you are, not only is it a turnoff and like turn into the negative zone, but it's such a missed opportunity to be able to express all these actual like, real positive things about yourself.

Erica: (11:34)
Like, do you do a lot of traveling and, you know, could there be like really cool framed maps all over the walls, like, please know, on framed, torn posters with tax, but is, you know, like, is there a really interesting piece or family heirloom that's a conversation starter? Like there's just so much beyond the negative. I watched your YouTube video with your friend where you like how to make like the best bedroom or whatever for your date. And a lot of it was really spot on. Like a lot of it was like the basics, right? Like make sure the bathroom is super duper clean. And then there was like a little bit of staging too, like there was like, put this interesting book on your nightstand so she doesn't think you're a dummy. And then like there was some other like logistical basics, you know, put, put some water out, stuff like that.

Erica: (12:17)
That was all great. So it's kind of an extension of that where you are putting yourself into the other person's shoes, who's walking in, but also that huge opportunity to start conversations to maybe figure out if you have something in common by being able to have these pieces in your home that express who you are and what you've done and where you're going. And it just kind of shows that, like, I was also thinking about this today in preparation for this video. I feel like it's also like, okay, if the ladies are working just as hard as the dudes in 2021, the the dudes have to then turn inwards a little bit and work on their home life and their personal life a little bit more too, because we're just as busy as you guys, what we have, you know, figured out how to make it, you know, nice inside.

Erica: (13:02)
That's my gospel that I'm here to spread and just kind of communicate that it really, really says a lot about you and you can definitely go beyond and it would behoove you to go beyond just like throwing together some stuff from Ikea or your hand-me-downs. Like forget all that. If you spend some time and resources and invest in this, I really think that you're gonna see a lot of benefits and return on investment come back to you. Whether it's through your dating life and just how you feel about yourself too. Like there's going to be a huge confidence and mood booster component that is often overlooked with interior design. So that is my case for why you should continue to listen to the rest of these tips.

Tripp: (13:47)
Okay, I like that. I'll just say this too. I've hired an interior decorator for my current condo that I have in Chicago. Hmm. And it was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. , tell

Erica: (13:59)
Me about that'll,

Tripp: (14:00)
I'll tell you this story and, and everyone else can hear. I'll tell you kind of how it came about. So how it came about was I moved into this condo. I had nothing because I was nomadic for a while. So I was ready to, you know, buy furniture and invest into a place and all that. But at this point in my life, I didn't have any belongings 'cause I just wanted to be, I wanted to live the minimalist lifestyle for a little bit. So I came into this condo with just two suitcases of clothes, some camera equipment, some you know, computer tech stuff for work. And I said, okay, now I got to decorate this place. And I think I have a pretty good style. I wouldn't say I'm, I'm great at decorating, but I think I know what looks good and what doesn't look good.

Tripp: (14:40)
You know, like I can walk into a place and be like, oh, this is, this is no good or this is, this is awesome. You know, depending on, you know, whatever, what it looks like With that knowledge, I thought, oh, I can totally do my own place. So I go through the process of, okay, well first things first, we gotta get a couch, right? So go to a couch store, spend about two to three hours there, picking out the sizes and there's different shapes and how you're gonna lay it out and is there a chase, no chase and how many seats and all this stuff. And then you go through a thousand different patterns and then you pick the right pattern, the color that you want and all this Mm-hmm . And I said, okay, you know, after three hours I did it, figured it out.

Tripp: (15:16)
What happens you know, a month later the the thing gets there and the chase is on the complete wrong side. Not, it's not, this is not their fault, this is my fault, right? It's like the chase is on the wrong side in terms of the feng shui. I was thinking it should have been closer to this one entrance, but it should have been against the window. It's kind of hard to explain. Let's just say it was not correct. Mm-Hmm. . So I had a chase on the wrong side. It was way too big for the place. It was a big couch, but it was like, it took up the entire living area. And on top of that, the color just did not go with the place. So I really was zero for three here and it completely failed. I go, wow, this is, this is insane.

Tripp: (15:53)
I I I spent all this time yeah. Trying to figure this out and it just did not work out. So then I, I talked to a friend of mine and he said, why don't you hire an interior decorator? And I, I don't even, I know nothing about that. I didn't really know what, what did that even meant? I was like, well, what does that, what do you mean? It's like, dude, they'll, they'll completely decorate your place. You give 'em a budget, they'll figure it out. These people went to school for this, they studied this. They're masters at this craft. They're, you know, this is why you, you pay them 'cause they know what they're doing and they'll do it all for you and they're gonna do a better job. And I said, you know what? You're right. They're definitely gonna do a better job and it's gonna take a lot of time off of my hands because I don't have time to sit here and pick every single little thing out and make all these decisions, especially to do this again and then get it wrong.

Tripp: (16:38)
Yeah. So I said, you know what, let's do it. So I, I talked to some friends, figured some things out, found an interior decorator. She was awesome. You know, price ranges, right? I mean, you can go, I don't know, probably anywhere from someone who's new for, you know, a thousand dollars all the way up to probably a hundred thousand dollars if you wanted the best of the best of the best. So I, I picked someone who worked within my budget. Like I said, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I love that because they came up with ideas I would've never thought of that are, are just awesome. So I had this one area of my condo where it's wallpaper and it's all these like colorful parrots and it's really loud. So you look, walk in and it's like, just hits you in the face with this very loud, bright, colorful wallpaper.

Tripp: (17:22)
And it's so cool. And I never would've thought of it. It's not for everyone. It's my style. It's what I like. And she just came up with all these crazy ideas and, and just killed it and did such a good job. And you get so many comments Oh my all the time. And people come in and it's just like, wow. Yeah. You know, it's like everything is just like, you know, and, and that I, I don't care. I don't say it was me. I say, no, this was, I hired someone to do this. It was one of the, i I, I tell the story. I was like, this one of the best decisions I ever made. Now I'll give myself a little credit. I mean, I didn't give her full reign where I was like, pick whatever you want. She would come to me with options and say, what do you think about this, this, and this?

Tripp: (17:57)
And like I said, like I feel like if I have the right options, I can pick, oh, this is my style, or I think this looks good. But going from a, a blank canvas, I just didn't know what the hell I was doing. And I, I live here, I work here, I spend a lot of time here. So it was totally worth it to me. But even, even for the guys listening, I would even say to you, even if you work from an office, I'd still recommend it because your place is gonna be so nice to come home to. Right? You said something about confidence, like you're gonna feel good, right? It's

Erica: (18:24)
Hugely psychological. That's what I was saying, like, yes, I, I focus holistically, like your mind is, is part of your body. So, and you know, the planet is one thing, but a lot of people get into the green stuff for their health reasons. But your mind is a part of that . You know, there's no like dotted line at your neck. Like your brain isn't organ and you, our surroundings really, really impact brain functioning. Everything from like your mood, your stress levels, your productivity, your confidence. I cannot, that's what kind of got me into interior design is I could tell, like my mom was pretty good at it and did our house growing up, and I could just tell like how it made people feel and react when they would walk through the door compared to, you know, whomever else's house that I was in, which was like fine or average at best, I guess.

Erica: (19:14)
But it just wasn't like, you know, my mom did a great job and it's like, it just really like constantly get that positive reinforcement in every single place I've ever lived. My surroundings and my environment really had to be expressive of who I was and pulled together and, you know, nice to look at aesthetically because it just creates the feeling within you and your mental wellbeing and also, you know, in other people it just says so much. And I would feel every time I would move or do anything, I had to get it all like set up and looking good right away because it, I just wouldn't want anyone over if it, if it looked like a shrub, you know, it, it hugely impacts things like isolation and confidence and stuff like that.

Tripp: (19:58)
Yeah. Your environment is huge. It, it takes a toll on you. I mean, let's just put it this way, but let's use extreme examples of how your environment makes you feel. Let's say you were to, you know, let's, let's just say even working environment, right? Like simple as working environment, working in a cubicle with, with, you know, those fluorescent lights and you know, you're in this very small confined space. Yeah. Like gray. Now imagine instead there you, what'd you say,

Erica: (20:24)
The gray felt divider,

Tripp: (20:25)
The gray felt divider. That there exactly right. Versus you being on a beach and working from a beach, or let's just say in the living situation, you live on a place where it overlooks the ocean, or you live in a place where the view looks into just bricks because you're right next to a, a building, right? It's like there's a feeling there and that is huge. So anyway, let's chat about some of your tips.

Erica: (20:49)
Okay. Number one isn't a design tip, but it's the prep before you even start because, well, I'll just say it. So you have to really figure out how to declutter and keep it somewhat clean and organized, which you guys have already gone through. I saw it on your YouTube channel, that's like 1 0 1. So let's assume most of us are there, but just in case someone needs to hear it one more time, it's really, really important to declutter. Again, I could go into the woo woo stuff about just like how we're talking about feng shui and the energy and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I am in fact addicted to decluttering because of that like freeing feeling that I get from doing it. So I just wanna encourage everyone to try it, it, and basically no one will be able to see your awesome interior design or the cool things you picked out.

Erica: (21:39)
If it's all covered in crap , it's just so distracting and yuck. So number one, declutter everything and try and fill up a bag every like six months or so that you could donate and keep it on some sort of schedule. And then if you're into a certain charity, you can like make sure it goes there. It's like it can be a whole thing. So that's number one. And number two, like I have said, a lot of this is about expressing who you are and your best self. So this is like, you know, playtime. Think about what you wanna be saying about who you are, who you wanna be, and kind of how you wanna be perceived. It's like this huge opportunity to make that kind of impression. So when you're thinking about that, you know, find opportunities to incorporate those parts of yourself into your home.

Erica: (22:32)
So it could be, you know, nice grid of photos of you and all your travels above your sofa wall. Or if you're really into family and friends, you know, it could be that kind of thing on a photo wall, if you're really into travel and you get like some sort of cool wooden carving from everywhere you've gone, you could maybe put up a shelf with like all your little travel souvenirs. Like there are so many creative ways that you can incorporate the important things about what makes you you into your space. So think about who you are, what you love to do, and figure out how to surround yourself with things like that. And that could be so many different things for different people. I'm happy to give more examples, but that overall is my high level number one tip. Okay. Number two is going to be, I think let's get into color.

Erica: (23:27)
Go ahead and do your best to just pick a color palette. There are so many easy tools and apps and things that would take like two seconds on either paint, web store app, like websites where you can pick a color and then you see corresponding colors that look really good in a palette. Like there's a million technology versions of how to do this, but pick a color palette and stick to it. So let's say like two or three colors, maybe one or two of them are actual bright colors and or like, not even bright, but actual colors and the rest are neutrals. You don't wanna go all neutral, all grail black, all charcoal, all beige, whatever. You need to have a little bit of color in there. So just think about what you like and then start incorporating that into the entire space. It could be really small things to start with at first, like throw pillows for the sofa or coasters or like a little vase of flowers or whatever it's going to be.

Erica: (24:21)
But figure out what you want your color palette to be. 'cause That is a great boundary to work within. And sometimes when you approach design, it's so expansive and overwhelming and options. And it's kind of just like, especially if you're starting from a blank slate, you're like, I don't even remotely know where to start. And color is one of those boundaries you can give yourself that you're like, okay, you're not just gonna go to the store, buy a bunch of stuff and throw it together and it's gonna look like, you know, Ikea vomited in your living room. It gives you a boundary to work within. So you're like, okay, I'm not gonna get every color pillow. I'm gonna get the navy's and the charcoal colors and I'm gonna work with that. So color is my number two

Tripp: (25:00)
Tip. Okay, so I just did a little search real quick. Online for color palette examples. Mm-Hmm. . And if you go and you type that in color palette examples and you just hit images in Google, you'll get a bunch. Oh yeah. And then that can, that can take you to different websites and stuff. So that's, that's pretty easy too. Oh

Erica: (25:19)
Yeah, you're gonna fall down a Pinterest color palette hole right there. So yeah. So you say you start with your favorite, say your favorite's Navy, you would just say like Navy color palette examples, enter search images and there you're off. So the next one I want you to think about size and scale, which is exactly your example of what happened to you with the sofa thing. So if you're starting from scratch, that means, well really, if you're starting, depends on like how much you're gonna invest and what all you need to do in your place to spruce it up. But say you're starting from scratch, the first thing you're gonna do is just take some basic measurements that'll be so helpful for you down the line. I can't even tell you. The other thing to think about is like the scale and size of your place in relationship to any new furniture you're bringing in.

Erica: (26:10)
So sometimes in that frat house, we saw a lot of big leather, chunky black l-shaped sofas. That is not the only kind of sofa that exists. There are many. And if you have a smaller place, maybe you're in New York City, maybe you know, who knows where you're, but just say you're like apartment living, studio living, anything like that. And you want it to stay nice and open. You just did your decluttering. You don't want it to feel heavy and dark. Find pieces that are lighter, not just in color, but in weight and in their shape. So things with legs, let light underneath. And if you floor, it's just gonna feel bigger and more open than a big old heavy couch where it's not on legs, it just comes all the way down to the ground. Things like that. Maybe it is a glass top coffee table or glass top side table or something.

Erica: (26:58)
Again, up on legs, anything like that. Those little tips and tricks to make it feel lighter and bigger and more open if you are working with a size constraint. And while we're on that topic, the same thing for your walls. Okay. So hopefully you have realized that not having anything on your walls playing blank sad walls is not gonna, you know, do the trick. So you're thinking about what to put on there. I want you to think about the size and shape of the wall in respect to the art that you're gonna put up. So if you have a long, tall piece of wall, but it's narrow, it's skinny before, you know, an opening or whatever, don't put a wide squat piece of art on there. Like, just think about the scale and shape. I guess what the overarching theme is through all of these tips is it really just takes a little bit of forethought and time and resources and effort. So I guess my overall tip is to do that, to spend a little bit of time planning it out, prepping and making sure that you're not going to encounter some of those mistakes that you encountered trip with the, you know, wasting all that time when the size didn't fit and took up the whole living room and it just, the color didn't work. Spending that bit of time in prepping, measuring, considering doing a little bit of online shopping, image saving, whatever. It's just gonna be so, so helpful.

Tripp: (28:18)
A hundred percent. I I actually made a mistake with my TV too, so I got a TV for the wall and it, it wasn't big enough. Mm-Hmm. it was, it, it, according to how big the wall was, it seemed really small. It looked very awkward. So not that it was like a big problem, it was nice that I decided to get a bigger tv, but it wasn't that much more expensive to get the one step up. Like I just got one step size up. Mm-Hmm. . And it was maybe like a couple hundred bucks more. And it makes a big difference. It made it seem way more fitting to the wall.

Erica: (28:48)
And if you're feeling overwhelmed, you know, listening to the prep and the time and the resources and the blah blah blah, I guess that's where I get to plug myself because that is one of the benefits of hiring someone to do this for you. It's like, okay, you said it took you three hours to do, just to go to the, not, maybe not even including drive time to get to the store and do the whole thing. It's like time is money. If you think about like what your hourly rate is and you know how much that ended up being, it's like you are gonna, it'll, it'll even out both ways. So I guess I get to plug hiring a pro here for that exact reason is we're not just artisans and creatives, although we are certainly that, but we are really organized, nifty, handy, Dany project managers and we get to assure you through that process.

Tripp: (29:35)
Where you located?

Erica: (29:36)
I'm in Los Angeles.

Tripp: (29:38)
Okay, cool. Well, and so do you fly out to people? I

Erica: (29:41)
Fly out to people and I mentioned, but maybe this term isn't as ubiquitous as I thought. I do e-sign, which is kind of like a virtual or remote or insert. I see. Insert digital name here. So I work with people from all over this country.

Tripp: (29:55)
I see, okay. I think I just missed on that part, but yeah. Okay. So that's awesome. So yes, I would definitely recommend working with Erica here and, and getting your place in order if you feel like this is too much for you. I think some guys might say, Hey, this is fun, this is a good project. I can get created with it. I can have fun with it. Or you might be like me where I was so busy with work and business that I just didn't have the time. But also I never really considered myself an arts and crafts kind of guy. Like, I, I, I, I love design, I love art, but doing it and putting it all together myself, it just doesn't interest me. So that's why I decided to, to work with somebody such as myself.

Erica: (30:35)
Yeah. Even if, you know, it is interesting, it's definitely collaborative to a degree depending on the client and the designer to a large degree. So you still get to do all the fun part, really all the annoying, nitty gritty, daily grind stuff sticking out for you. So it's sort of the best of both worlds I would say. Like if you just need to soften things a little bit, maybe like get some throw pillows and a rug or whatever, like maybe you don't need to hire someone. But I kind of view it like bookkeeping. Like when I first started my business, I did my own bookkeeping and then I was trying to keep it going for as long as I could. 'cause I didn't wanna pay for someone else to do it. And I did it. I had no passion in it, but I certainly made a lot of mistakes , and it was a terrible, just like painstaking experience for me. And then when I handed that off I was like, ugh, best experience, best decision and investment I've ever made. I guess I could do it, but like why would I, I didn't train for it. I don't like, I'm definitely gonna make mistakes. It's sucking so much of my time. Like who caress delegate. So yeah, I I it's always like, you know, when people say like a lot of like short-term rental hosts are always like, I, I could do it. I'm like, you could, but it's not gonna be good. So just, you know, invest in

Tripp: (31:50)
Right. Exactly. , it's not gonna be good. It just won't. I mean, but I, I will say what you were saying before is the collaborative aspect was fun. I, I really enjoyed the meetings I would have with my designer when she would say, okay, so I got a bunch of options for chairs and most of the time I would have something that I liked that she picked. But then there were some times where I was like, you know what? Gotta be honest with you. I just don't, I don't like any of these. Like, this just doesn't work for me. She's like, okay, no problem. I'll go back to the drawing board. Mm-Hmm you know, tell me a little bit more about what you were thinking and then I could give her an answer based on what she picked. So yeah, again, it wasn't working from a, from a blank canvas there. And that part was fun. I feel like I just needed some options, you know, I needed some constraints.

Erica: (32:34)
Yeah, that's what I was talking about. The like working within a boundary is easier than working with, you know, no constraints whatsoever. 'cause You don't even know where to start. And then I will give you one more tip here. I feel like some of the pieces in a house or a room that can get neglected in a bachelor pad could be the window treatments and rugs. So I wanna encourage everyone to take a look at those things. Look around your space right now, even if you are renting, there are ways to spruce up your place, especially with window treatments that can, you know, not ruin the walls and still accommodate, you know, the windows with whatever the landlord put in. So I have seen all kinds of like little tips and tricks, but it's pretty easy to put some curtains up over some ugly looking blinds.

Erica: (33:24)
There's different ways to do it. And if you don't wanna block out too much light, just get some nice soft sheer curtains in a nice neutral color that's gonna go with everything and we'll hugely soften the space. Even the sound, things like that and rugs, this can be really, really tricky for people with the size and the placement again, instead of, you know, just listening to me say it, you know, just take a little bit of time before you buy something and do a Google search of like, you know, what size rug should I get for this size room? Or maybe like, for under this size bed and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So under the bed or two thirds under the bed is a great place. Make sure you have a rug, obviously the living room and make sure it spans the whole width of your, or length, I should say, of your sofa.

Erica: (34:09)
And all of your furniture should at least be like partially on it. You don't wanna do like that rug island thing where like the rug's in the middle and nothing's touching it and everything's around it. That's the, that's the wrong size. And then I'm even a fan of depending on like, you know, how you're living of putting tightly woven, easy to clean rugs under the dining space. Often with these like big open, you know, floor plans we see now or just kind of lofty spaces, anything like that. It's a really good way to designate and anchor a space with the rug. So I throw them under the dining set too. Just make it really easy to like vacuum or whatever and have, you know, a bit of a pattern to hide any mistakes. So yeah, doing things like that curtains, rugs throw pillows. It really, these, these details, you know, they're not the big things like the dining table and the sofa and the bed frame, but attention to detail is gonna make it pull together really nicely.

Tripp: (35:04)
So. Okay. I know you kind of answered this question, but just to kind of wrap things up here. A guy is listening to all this and says, okay, this is overwhelming, but I cannot hire someone to help me. What's the first place where he starts?

Erica: (35:18)
Okay. Hmm. I think probably the easiest place. Okay. It's gonna be one or one of two places depending on the guy. You can choose Instagram or YouTube, pick your app. Either of those places are gonna be full of resources more than you could ever want or imagine through hashtags or through accounts or whatever you could possibly find. There are people teaching these things and just showing examples. And sometimes just seeing enough images of how, you know, the pros lay out a room over and over again, no matter the style, no matter the budget, there are some key design principles that we talked about, light, color and balance and scale. And another one is symmetry. I'm a huge symmetry person. Just seeing how it's laid out over and over and over again. And then incorporating your flare into it, like I talked about with your own personality and what makes you you, once you start down that image rabbit hole. Yeah. It'll grip you, it'll get you, so there's nothing better like a, a visual to, what is that expression? Better than a thousand words or something like that.

Tripp: (36:29)
A picture is worth a thousand words.

Erica: (36:31)
Yeah. There you go.

Tripp: (36:31)
Well, Erica, thank you for giving us some of these tips today. Where can they find you if they decide they do wanna work with you?

Erica: (36:37)
Absolutely. It's at eco method interiors.com.

Tripp: (36:41)
Cool. We will put that on the show notes. Thanks for being here and, and giving us some of your tips. I don't, I don't think I've ever done any episodes interior design or bachelor pad. I mean, if anything, maybe one. It was a long time ago. So thanks for coming on and giving us some of your tips. Really appreciate it.

Erica: (36:56)
So happy and excited to be here. Like I said, I love working with your listenership and it's always just such the best time and such a big transformation for people in their lives. So it was a pleasure for me to be able to get this opportunity to chat to you and spread the design gospel.

Tripp: (37:13)
I love it. Thank you so much. “