Who's Driving
Who's Driving with Wesley Turner & Steven Merck is all about the entertaining stories we share and brainstorming topics we discuss as two best friends would on a long road trip. Come along for the ride as we check in with friends & offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media, and all things Home and Garden.
Who's Driving
Who's Driving - Atlanta Market Trends S3E2
Are you ready to ride along!? Remember you can now watch our podcast in our members only community at www.WhosDrivingPodcast.com. This episode dives into the exciting trends shaping Christmas 2025, focusing on the influence of traditional elements and the rise of elegant, jewel-toned themes, moving away from whimsical decor. Join us as we discuss the latest insights from market trends, the significance of bows, and our personal reflections on embracing unique festive styles.
• Insights on Christmas 2025 trends from recent markets
• Embracing Ralph Lauren aesthetics and vintage charm
• The growing appeal of bows in home decor
• Trends pointing towards refined over whimsical designs
• Surprising absence of gingerbread and nutcracker-themed items
• Jewel tones and rich color palettes leading in both decor and home design
• Importance of personal style in holiday decorations
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Girl, I'm here. It's time for another episode of who's Driving. Are you ready? I'm ready, starting the year off strong. I mean, it's February, but this is just episode two. We're back at it. It's time for another episode of who's Driving. Welcome to who's Driving. I'm Wesley Turner.
Speaker 2:And I'm Stephen Merck. We're two best friends and entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1:Who's Driving is an entertaining look into the behind the scenes of our lives, friendship and business.
Speaker 2:These are the stories we share and topics we discuss, as two best friends would on a long road trip.
Speaker 1:Along the way, we'll check in with friends and offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media and all things home and garden.
Speaker 2:Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Speaker 1:You never know who's driving or where we're headed. All we know is it's always a fun ride. So let me get settled in. I got to get used to this whole new setup. I think we're going to get there. Yeah, you ready. If you missed last week's episode, shame on you. But in case you missed last week's episode, you can now watch us. You can see us make faces at each other, maybe flip each other off. I don't know what happened. You know we did what 40 something episodes, I think 45 last year. So I'm sure there's probably some moments in there that. Yeah, I don't know what kind of moments will happen this year.
Speaker 1:But anyway if you missed it, you can now watch our episodes of who's Driving at whosedrivingpodcastcom. That's where you can go and join the members only community. So you sign up. It's $9.99 a month. We're not doing it for free, but it's an exclusive little community there.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, it's not like we're making bank on it.
Speaker 1:No, we're just trying to pay for the damn bank we're trying to break even. Because we don't. We need, you know, it took us a year and a half, well, really the whole two years. Peeps were asking us to do a video version and we never did. Because do a video version and we never did because you know it takes a lot to get it going and a lot of setup. So we're getting there, but we, you know, we don't make money off the podcast. It's a connection with our listeners.
Speaker 2:We're not. You know, we don't have commercials yet or sponsors, but if anyone wants to sponsor us, we will be happy to take that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, we're just happy to take that. Yes, so yeah, we're just trying to make the podcast pay for itself so that we're not spending more and more on it, but it's so much fun, we do enjoy it, we really enjoy it, so that's good. So that's that. I changed my name on Instagram Wesley Turner Living. That's me, hey, girl. And there's WesleyTurnerLivingcom where you can find out all the things about everything going on Our vacation rentals podcast is there Businesses? Businesses are there.
Speaker 2:Flower farm.
Speaker 1:Everything's there. So if you missed last week's, that's what you missed out on, but this week, probably one of the most requested things I've gotten recently is to talk about markets and the market trends and just so you know, when we do January markets, that is when we buy the bulk of all of our Christmas for the following Christmas season.
Speaker 2:So we finish Christmas and then we have to order Christmas, which is really good. I mean it is exhausting because you're like, oh my gosh, I just finished Christmas, but it's all fresh on the brain.
Speaker 1:I still get so excited when we go to do the Christmas. When I was at market I would get messages like oh my gosh, how do you do it? But I still get excited all over again.
Speaker 2:It's amazing, though, just like what a two or three week break does for your brain.
Speaker 1:It is true, and how you forget.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're like oh my gosh, you know you're getting excited already, Right, Because then you're like oh gosh, you know, you're getting excited already, right? Because then you're like oh things I'm going to do different then, or whatever. And and what you have to also remember is we and it's a good thing and it's a bad thing whereas you guys, typically for the, you know you have your christmas, but then the normal people that are not in retail, normal, you get to add to your Christmas.
Speaker 1:You're building.
Speaker 2:You're like, oh, this is looking rough, I'm going to retire this or donate this or pass this on to the kids, whereas we, because of what we do, we have to come up with everything new Every year, every year, for ourselves and our business. Yes, so it is a lot going on, yes, exactly, and I'm very excited. Just, I'm very excited about Christmas, I feel like about Christmas 2025.
Speaker 1:I feel like Christmas 2025 is really coming into your era. Oh, this is so. Let's start off. Okay, so we went to market. You were there. You watched on Instagram If you didn't, you should have but you're there now. So, okay, we went there. We'll go through the whole market. First, we started shopping for, like you're talking about holiday 2025. So what's the trends? What are you seeing?
Speaker 2:If I could sum it all up, Christmas 2025, I would just say Ralph Lauren.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are correct. So for Christmas 2025, a lot of traditional and a lot of Ralph Lauren look, which you and I talked about. I thought there would be more of that Ralph Lauren look for 2024. And there was some. But in 2023, we were like, oh, next year is going to be, we were like a year ahead, and then this year it is definitely, it is on.
Speaker 2:And that is my, I love it, and it's that I wouldn't say retro. I would say more vintage, layered and red and plaids and heavy and gold yeah. Yeah, you know, if you look in a Ralph Lauren book, that's what it is Rich colors, yeah, and not everything is the Ralph Lauren look, but whatever is next to that.
Speaker 1:So, if you want to go more traditional reds and golds or if you want to do your jewel tones or jewel tones, yeah, belvets. And then the other biggest one that's really not in that look is a soft sage green mixed in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there there's lots of shades of greens that are popular. What is not? And I'm all for it, or the pinks and the whimsy and yeah no, the whimsical looks have really taken a sidestep now you know.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's the thing, let's back up before you're like I love whimsical. You do you in holidays specifically, more than anything, like in christmas. Nothing's ever really out of style.
Speaker 2:It's whatever makes your house, whatever makes you feel festive yeah and a lot of people do multiple trees Right, so you do you.
Speaker 1:Enjoy it If you want to have your gingerbread tree in your kitchen or maybe in your living room, whatever. Nothing's out of style when it comes to Christmas. It's just what are we talking about? Are the biggest shifts in trends? Trends, yes, and the biggest one shift away is from being more cutesy, whimsical Christmas and it's moved, more elegant, rich, rich tones, refined very nice.
Speaker 2:More from your bright colors to your jewel tones Right.
Speaker 1:More from your bright colors to your jewel tones Right, even the products like moving away from glitter. There's always going to be glitter, it's holiday, but from glitter to like metallics, like mixed metals and even metallic red, whatever color they be, or instead of glitter, you're going to see more jeweled. Right yeah, so it just takes on a more refined look and less whimsical.
Speaker 2:And I would say A little more.
Speaker 1:Zsa Zsa. Yeah, a little more rich, elegant layered. I love that, like just bougie.
Speaker 2:Curated look.
Speaker 1:Like that look that just feels like you should be at a ski lodge, not with we don't have, you know, moose heads or anything. We're talking brass, plaids, velvet and a fire going and rich, rich like he rich.
Speaker 2:I'm there for it. I love it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that is the biggest trends in Christmas with going into each one. So Stephen and I always have to come up with basically six to eight themes for our stores and sometimes we take a theme and remix it and remix it to be a thing you know whatever. But yeah, a lot of traditional. It's a lot more traditional. Reds and golds or like the Ralph Lauren look, where you might throw in a different color with it than reds and golds, would be the biggest trends and it did look really good and we got some really good Christmas stuff.
Speaker 2:I'm doing a lot for 2025. I'm doing a lot of the brassy, brass, red.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rich Greens. I mean, it's basically look at his meal, condo and put it into Christmas on a Christmas tree. That's it, it's just like taking everything from your house and hanging it on a tree. It's true, and that's the look, it works for you, it's true, and I love it too. I'm doing for mine. I'm sticking more traditional red and gold.
Speaker 2:We did not order our trees.
Speaker 1:We did not order our trees. We've got to order our trees. I made notes, though.
Speaker 2:I have a photo of our tree.
Speaker 1:We're getting new trees this year? No, we did order them. Oh, we changed our mind. We changed our mind, didn't we order them?
Speaker 2:Yes, we did, I just remembered.
Speaker 1:We changed our mind three times.
Speaker 2:Three times Three times, but we did settle on it and order those right. Yes, we did. Okay, we better have we did, and it's crazy how much they've gone up, just like in the past six years. Well, everything, everything has but trees especially they have. And it's funny, though, because talking about that, we, we even at this market because we both have the same trees that we got eight, nine, nine years ago nine years ago, um, and this year I said I have to have a new tree.
Speaker 1:This year one of my branches went out. It's just time one of mine did I mean they've just been.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've moved and moved and yeah, yeah so it's fine, it's time.
Speaker 1:We even tried to find a less expensive. That's why we changed our mind three times, because we were like, oh, this one, we love this one, but it was still expensive. Then we were like we love this one, oh, but it's still expensive. It's just the price of trees.
Speaker 2:The damn things are just a high for a nice. Nice they are and and see, I hurt. This is a personal thing for me. You know some people like the traditional triangle tree and that's fine. I like a natural, cut looking tree I think that's the other problem.
Speaker 1:We like the certain shape where it looks natural, there's branches sticking out, and that Not just your perfectly triangle cone shaped tree. So that's where the price comes in it is. To get that look it has to be a high quality or it looks dumb. We're like I can't do this, so anyway.
Speaker 2:And then they had one that we liked that looked like a natural cut tree as well, with more missing branches, and that's really what I thought I wanted. And then I was like we can't do that because it was too open. It was too open and with all of my windows it would have looked really naked. You'd have seen through it, seen through to it too much, yeah. So yeah, we just did the next generation of the ones we had.
Speaker 1:Right. So if you are interested in that, be watching in July and we'll do a live sale for that. So we actually went to two markets. We went to Dallas for a day and I'm surprised we you know now that it's we made it back and everything went well. I called Steven when I was Daniel and I were in Florida and I was like we really need to go see this vendor that we found at the Dallas market when we went last June, because they had some amazing great different stuff and I was like, but if we are going there, we kind of need to go to them first, so we know what we need when we go to Atlanta, because it's like, how, where do you start? You know you can't go to Atlanta and then go there and be like, oh, I wish I bought this because you know, so we got. Go to Atlanta and then go there and be like, oh, I wish I bought this because you know, so we got up, flew to Dallas.
Speaker 2:Got up at five in the morning and flew to Dallas.
Speaker 1:I think it was before five that I had to get up.
Speaker 2:I got up at five, did you? But here's the thing. Okay, guys, there's a few things you have to know. You need to know anyway. If you're traveling in the United States and just remember, always know, I said it you do not fly United because they will mess you up. You do not fly through Newark, new Jersey, because they will mess you up. And if you live this is specific, if you live in Greenville, south Carolina, you do not fly out of there on an evening flight from Dallas, because that is the most canceled flight there is.
Speaker 1:Well, and guess what?
Speaker 2:And there's no choice when you go to Dallas.
Speaker 1:When you go to Dallas, you got to fly through Dallas. But when I said that in like oh, hope we get back tonight, everyone was like I do everything, not everyone. But I got a lot of messages from you that said I do everything I can not to fly through Dallas, because I always get delayed, miss my flight or flight canceled and that's crazy.
Speaker 2:And they were having a snowstorm coming in the next day, so I had already. I was like, in order for me to not hyperventilate, I have to prepare.
Speaker 1:Got to have plan A plan B, plan C, D, E, F, G.
Speaker 2:H I. So I told Wesley. I said okay, okay if we miss our flight, we're not going through all this getting hotels and trying to fly out. The next morning there's a snowstorm. We are going to rent a car and we are driving 13 hours, he tells me this at the airport before we leave In Greenville.
Speaker 1:He said okay, I'm just warning you now so you can prepare. You don't have a meltdown, there's no arguing, I'm not getting on this plane unless you agree. This is what we're doing. If we get to Dallas and we get to the airport and our flight gets canceled. We are renting a car and we are driving back when we get out of the path of snow.
Speaker 2:We can spend the night somewhere.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. So all day long I was nervous as shit. I have to tell you I was like please don't let me have to ride 14 hours. Please don't let me. I didn't want to, but I knew you were serious Like I knew you were serious, like if the flight had been canceled, we were going to be in a car, but I knew you were serious, Like I knew you were serious. Like if the flight had been canceled, we were going to be in a car driving.
Speaker 2:And here was the thing we were caught between two snowstorms, so we had snow coming in Dallas where we were, and then this was like on a Wednesday.
Speaker 1:So Thursday morning it was going to be snow in Dallas.
Speaker 2:And we were going to have snow coming in Greenville on Friday. So we didn't have time. We did not have time to play around with American Airlines and Dallas.
Speaker 1:So and the funny thing is, I don't know if it's funny, but we've passed it now. So ha ha. And the funny thing is, I don't know if it's funny, but we've passed it now, so ha ha. I have done this similar thing to Steven a couple of times, where I call and I say, hey, we need to go see this vendor. Just for the day We'll be up there and back. It's one night, it's just one night, it's so simple.
Speaker 1:And we've gotten stuck One time, specifically Four days In New York City for five days, so simple. And we've gotten stuck One time, specifically Four days In New York City for five days. And I think we've talked about that in the past. So I could see it turning into one of those situations if we didn't get out of there and I knew he was serious. So all day we were at market. So we got up, went to the airport here in Greenville we were in Dallas by like 11 something, I think. I think Went to the airport here in greenville we were in dallas by like 11 something, I think. I think um went to the market, went to that vendor shop, that vendor, which was a huge vendor.
Speaker 1:That took us like three hours or so then almost four yeah actually, and then we got to see one or two other vendors one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we placed one other, one other order.
Speaker 1:One other order and then we had to get back in the Uber and go back to the airport, but we made it out. And shout out to our Uber driver, alice. That's her name, alice, if you're listening to Dallas, we love you.
Speaker 2:She was amazing, so I immediately realized I like her. She is a native of Dallas and she was like y'all have to get your asses out of here tonight. And she's like, if you miss your flight, you got to rent a car. And I'm like, girl, that's what I've already said I'm like, so we got her number, so that's our Dallas lady.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Alice was like when y'all are done, just call me no before we left. She's like so we got her number. So that's our Dallas lady. Yeah, so Alice was like when y'all are done, just call me no before we left. She's like I'll pick you up right here at this time.
Speaker 2:So she picked us up Nice, big four-wheel drive suburban Took us to the airport Dropped us off.
Speaker 1:So now we have our personal driver now in Dallas. It's important, that's important. Have our personal driver now in dallas. It's important, that's important. She's like next time y'all are coming, just call me, I'll pick you right up at the airport. It was amazing that worked out. Yeah, so we did shop that vendor and everything. And then, um, so we did that on a wednesday, so we got back wednesday night, then thursday, then it snowed on Friday. Then that cleared up. It was supposed to snow five inches, five to seven inches. It was obviously, as I said at the time on my stories, a man who predicted that, because it was a dusty dusting.
Speaker 1:It was a little guy, if you know what I mean. Hey, little guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah it was hey little guy. So it was a dusting here. After it screwed up the whole week of everybody like, oh, it's going to snow, but that was. So we went there on Wednesday, snowed here on Friday, and then Sunday we went to the Atlanta market and then we stayed there nine or 10 days, whatever it was, and did all of our shopping. So we started with holiday 2025, which we've talked about. We're very excited. The other thing that is the biggest trend at market on everything doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Doesn't matter, the season doesn't matter, what I mean, it is on everything. And I think it's funny because it kind of goes back to what Stephen was, you know, complaining about previously. But bows, bows are on everything.
Speaker 2:Bows are on tumblers, they're on sweaters, clothes, everything, even cast in like metal candelabras.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bows.
Speaker 2:You name it.
Speaker 1:Flower pots, bows were embossed in them. I guess that's kind of what you or cast, like you said, ceramic pots, and okay, I think I did, I think I did a little. I might might still have it a little clip of just a bunch of things that I saw with bows. I never completed it so I didn't post it to instagram. It might only have like four or five things, but just to show you the range, like it was from everything, and I'm not a bow person bows and pearls pearls are big pearls are big big on jewelry, on ornaments, on you name it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anything, pearl, pearl and bow now I like pearls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're cute and the bows are cute in the right place, like we ordered some actual. You know how people were trying to make the pillow bows at christmas. We ordered you some that are correct, that you can buy in 2025.
Speaker 2:That are in scale and look nice.
Speaker 1:Look like a bow. Nice tails in scale. We have them from big to small. But it reminded me I meant to tell you this and I think we kind of talked about it one time before you know my stepmom back in the day how I'd talk she'd get those dollar store red bows that come off the pack and put all of her tree.
Speaker 2:My aunt did that Tacky Tacky.
Speaker 1:Well now, I saw trees like that at market, but they used a more refined dainty bow. I don't know how to explain the bow, that and it. It looked better, but it kind of gave me that. I was like, oh my gosh, we're going back to this. It was just a tree covered in bows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my aunt did that and she, like my mother's sister, has the creativity of a doorknob and she would do the cheap red, the kind you got at like CVS.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the dollar store in the pack on the sheet of paper and it had the gold little twist tie, Even as a kid.
Speaker 2:I can remember looking at it going. That is so ugly and wrong.
Speaker 1:My stepmom would do that and I thought the same thing I should have known.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, it's just they would line the lights in a perfect line around the tree and all the bows were perfectly spaced.
Speaker 1:It just looked, I mean as basic and boring, as you could get. Yeah, fluff it up a little, but mine would do just the simple plain back in the day glass. You know, know, balls that came 12 in a pack or whatever. What probably red, the mat or maybe in gold, and then red bows. I specifically remember the red bows in the pack and the bows had like it. It was almost like sandwich type bread, type twist type, yeah, and it wasn't even a real bow.
Speaker 1:Like it was just, it was the shape of a bow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, little velvet. Yes, and you got like 12 per pack. Yes, and they bought like 20 packs. I mean it was.
Speaker 1:It was strong, and then mine would hang candy canes on the tree. Yeah, they did that sometimes, but then you couldn't get the candy cane. As a kid, don't touch the candy canes. You couldn't get the candy cane off the tree.
Speaker 2:I can remember, like in the 80s, maybe 70s, saying to my mom that tree doesn't look right, because my mother was like I know that's how mine was Like I would be at my mom's house and the tree would be beautiful, that's how my mom's was.
Speaker 1:It was right, it was. My mom always did fun trees too when we were younger.
Speaker 2:Pretty.
Speaker 1:And they would be colorful and bright and all kids and right and right and fun. And then I would go over to my dad's house and my stepmom's tree would just be that and their tree. They always got a real tree and it was always like five feet tall. It was short and it was as big around as a kitchen table. It was fat but short.
Speaker 2:It was wrong from head to toe and I knew then. I knew it was wrong then and this is even worse. So what my mom's sister did several years and this just screams basic. They would get the one with the root ball, which looks so stupid.
Speaker 1:That we're going to plant out in the yard.
Speaker 2:It looks so stupid.
Speaker 1:None of mine did that, because I'm surprised, but none of them did that. I'm like Because I'm surprised, but none of them did that. I'm like I feel like that's something. If you want to do that, to decorate one on your porch or something and then plant it in the yard, I don't know, and it looks stupid for years because it looked like a Christmas tree. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean till it grew out, you know.
Speaker 1:Someone's looking out their door right now going off. Yeah, you know, someone's looking out their door right now going off, yeah, but the funny thing is, I feel like this was back in the day before Frazier firs were the tree. Yeah, they used to be a pine and they trimmed them and you couldn't hang anything on them. No, those needles falling off it was a mess. Now they're all Frazier fir for the most part.
Speaker 2:Which do look better.
Speaker 1:And those look like a natural tree. But same girl, same I even knew then I was like this no, I want to go home to my pretty tree and you know it's the people and listen.
Speaker 2:If we're offending y'all, we're sorry, but you know somebody needed to tell you, it's the people that have zero creativity that do stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And that's fine. But copy somebody but see they didn't have like Pinterest back then or Instagram or anything you know. I mean, unless you bought Southern Living, but like mom, she probably never looked at a Southern Living.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:You had to.
Speaker 2:She needed to. I know it's true. Oh my gosh. And y'all are like y'all are talking about. Yeah, we are. We are and we don't care if they're listening. No, hopefully you are your tree looked like shit, like the rest of your house. Yes, I said it.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, you are bad. Well, I forget, they're watching and listening.
Speaker 2:Now it could be truth is the truth truth okay back to market.
Speaker 1:Let's, let's, reel it back in yeah how do we get back so bows, bows on everything we did.
Speaker 2:Order you some appropriate bows we ordered some things that were cute or pretty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, picked it out. You know what we did not see in the Christmas. I would just like to point out Mushrooms. No, there wasn't a mushroom to be found.
Speaker 2:They didn't sell that shit. And they said we're not. We're getting rid of the holiday mushrooms.
Speaker 1:The holiday mushrooms that we talked about last year were not around at all.
Speaker 2:And you know I like some of the gardening, like at our garden store. There were some pretty ones, yes, but I'm talking about the ones that took it to a whole new. I think I may have ordered a few mushrooms that were really cute for the garden store this year, yeah, but they're not it was just different.
Speaker 1:It was different than what they were trying to make.
Speaker 2:Oh, they were trying to make them like candy cane, mushroom stuff like that.
Speaker 1:It was not around this year for sure, and that was funny.
Speaker 2:And then we shopped lots of gifts we won't us. I don't really want to get into.
Speaker 1:we can want to get into talking about gifts because people be listening, but you know what wasn't around. Also, that was very hard and I feel like this is a staple in Christmas decor in general and, like we said, things come and go in popularity, like sometimes they're trending and sometimes they're really trending. You know what I'm saying? It's like Leopard Leopard is always trending, but then sometimes it's really trending, so don't worry about if your Christmas decor doesn't match what we're talking about yeah, you gotta do you, you gotta do what you like.
Speaker 1:But what I did want some of and we might have gotten a couple of pieces but was surprisingly missing from the Christmas section at Market this time was gingerbread things. There was very, very little gingerbread things and nutcrackers. And nutcrackers.
Speaker 2:Nutcrackers had their year the past two years were huge.
Speaker 1:But see, we had to move on from that because you know Walmart had them lined up and. Target. So they tried, you know, to stay ahead and that sort of thing. But yeah, nutcrackers were a lot less and gingerbread Gingerbread was a lot less. Gingerbread and candy yeah, and the candy look less. Gingerbread and candy yeah, and the candy look um, but I feel like those are staples that you always see no matter what they are, people like to have that in their kitchen.
Speaker 1:I feel like yeah, it never goes away, but it was very much missing.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's really hot on trend right and then now it's kind of more on the back, like.
Speaker 1:Like, for example, it's different from the pink and bright colors, whereas that will eventually go away. You won't see it because it's just a trend. Yeah, gingerbread is a part of Christmas, so to see it so little this time, that's kind of different.
Speaker 2:And jewel tones are really popular and jewel tones are really popular. What amazes me what I did see a lot of is they're really trying to make like blue, like navy blue and purple happen In Christmas and I like the colors and maybe you could mix some of the balls in, but I just I mean pretty colors, but I just don't think anybody's going to do really a.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing I feel like that is such a specific few people that are going to do those colors we always look at Christmas. I mean, pink was a specific but everyone really jumped on that and liked it. We did pinks for years Because if you have kids or like a girl or you just wanted bright colors, but these very specific colors, they're hard to mix in with other colors. You know, you can say when you're being very traditional with like red and gold, and then the next year you can go oh, I'm going to do red and white and maybe some red birds or something you can like adjust your look just by sidestepping, like one time. But when you get into having Navy and purple, it's like you kind of have to start over completely as a consumer, you know. So those are kind of a hard, hard sell. Very specific, very, yeah, very much so.
Speaker 2:And I kind of see, you know, with home decor, I kind of see the trends are. You know they're very similar. You know, going into home decor You're getting more color, more patterns and you're richer your jewel tones and your printed fabrics, even printed sofas, and your chintz flowers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's continued. It's definitely continued down the path of what we've seen in home decor over the last three years More and more color, bolder color, deep, deep, earthy 70s still goes back to Ralph Lauren, the whole Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren, the rich, rich colors are coming in all over again. Do you remember back in the day when was it Home Depot or Lowe's came out with the Ralph Lauren paint and you could?
Speaker 2:you could make it look like leather. I bought it, yes, in my old house in the hallway that was Ralph Lauren leather paint.
Speaker 1:We had that in our bathroom at my mom's house I mean, we did it it did look good it was a good it was you could do the drag through, look, or, but it was a whole ralph warren, you would do.
Speaker 2:You would do a um. In my hallway I did a base coat, yep, and then you did a glaze. I did a glaze and then you buffed it and it ended up looking like leather. It was muddle, it was pretty yeah. But I don't know how that was, and I did that, like I remember doing the hallway and it wasn't a big hallway, but it was. I remember just one Saturday evening said, oh, I'm going to do the hallway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean now, you would never.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't just say, oh, I'm just gonna do this tonight real quick. I mean, I remember like having the tv on peeking around the corner and doing that whole hallway it was a fun time, um, but yeah, those colors in home.
Speaker 1:You're seeing lots of bold, lots of green steel.
Speaker 2:Lots of plaids in home decor. Plaids are really hot Pillows.
Speaker 1:Velvet steel and, like you said, print printed fabric, laurel prints. I even feel like botanicals are, which never go away, but seeing a lot more botanical, everything fabric in your, your cool gray, your, your cool gray, and I'm not talking about your bronze grays, I'm talking your cool grays, your blue gray yeah, your blue, grays and whites gone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and of course certain whites are always great, like alabaster, I think is always the start the start yes, I know, which makes me I feel like my dining room kitchen area has that kind of starky blue it really does, so I think I'm gonna have to redo. I don't think I don't, but I gotta get this first room redone that you're gonna have have to help me paint.
Speaker 2:Yes, I said I would the guest room.
Speaker 1:You know I've been going to redo it for well. We've been here eight years, almost nine years, but really going to redo it for four. And then last year, when we were at the beach, I thought I was going to get someone to paint. And then they were I mean, it's not even that massive of a room and they wanted what was it like? $7,000?. This is ridiculous. I'm not paying that. It will sit there until I get tired enough to paint. See, the problem is I hate painting. Daniel even said he would paint.
Speaker 1:He's like just go get the paint, so we're just going to do it. I offered Group thing yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean I enjoy it.
Speaker 1:I know I find that shocking that you like painting because it's so tedious.
Speaker 2:But you like hanging wallpaper, I hate it. That's true. I mean, we're all different. Like you like hanging wallpaper, I hate it. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. It's true, it's a different kind of tedious.
Speaker 1:But I don't know. Yeah, everyone's different. Yeah, I mean wallpaper.
Speaker 2:just, it may be because you know my OCD and maybe that would take me to a whole new level and I feel like painting is a lot easier for me to control yeah. Maybe, so, Because you know I can paint, for whatever reason. I can paint a solid straight line, I can cut in. I just get the feel yeah. But you know, I bought my first house I was young, I was 22. And broke is a joke and the painter for the whole house, inside and out, was me.
Speaker 2:That's how you do things when you're young and I hated it and I went through all the different little things you know. I bought the sprayers, rented the sprayers and what I really ended up knowing is I just like a good brush and a roller.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know that's the best way to paint in a house.
Speaker 1:It is Because you know you might as well just do it, roll it and brush it Roll it. I think Daniel, he's like oh, I bought a sprayer and I'm like we can't be spraying up in the house.
Speaker 2:Well, and you spend so much time taping up and trying to fix it and then you miss that Like you tape over and you can see a line. No, it's easier, just to paint.
Speaker 1:It's true. It's true. What other trends?
Speaker 2:do? We see A lot more antiques?
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, which I'm all about. It's a very layered and curated look.
Speaker 1:For a couple of years now, lots more antiques being worked on.
Speaker 2:I personally have never gotten away from that because I've always liked mixing antiques.
Speaker 1:Well, that's another one of those things. Antiques are always their own trend, or they're really, really, really on trend.
Speaker 2:And now they're really, really, really and taxidermy and mounts and anything like that. Oh, you know, there's some of those people don't like that.
Speaker 1:I don't like that you killed it.
Speaker 2:I have certain friends I won't call them out, because I do like them and I respect them oh, you do. Well, I mean I want to slap them over the ass, but they'll come in and go. I can't look and do this number. I'm like Covering their face. Those deer died so many years ago. Chill out.
Speaker 1:They're the ones eating them and killing them.
Speaker 2:Well, these friends are talking.
Speaker 1:Whatever, whatever.
Speaker 2:They look good on my wall. They do look good on your wall and warm walls and you know, and that's kind of just warm walls. So and I would say, if you're like, well, I like gray, well, use gray, there are warm grays. There are grays with green or brown or bronze undertones Right, those are great. They're warm, they're cozy 're cozy, right? You know, I'm looking at your file cabinets over there. That is a great gray or like um the.
Speaker 1:You know we use urbane bronze a lot which is a great moody dark color. But the one that's on there, the felted wool, is the lighter version, much lighter, but it's a warm, gray muddy muddy colors yes, muddy, you went out and got some dirt mixed it in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the cool colors that are not as, yeah, you're icy gray.
Speaker 1:You're stark. White, yeah, but gray still. You'll hear people saying oh's out. It's not, gray is out, it's the blue, cold gray that is out. So make sure you have a warm gray and shiplap is out.
Speaker 2:Everything you read, everything you'll see. Having said that, it also depends on how you use it. It also depends on how you use it. I think a lot of people have in their mind all shiplap has to be like farmhouse. Look, we have one wall in our beach cottage. That's shiplap. To me it doesn't even look shiplap it looks, coastal it looks very coastal.
Speaker 2:It's all how you use it. You know, some people might say your walls in your living room are shiplap. They're really not. They're actually concrete hardy plank but they're textured, yeah, so it's not the same. Look Right and don't get caught up in that Like. If you have a shiplap wall, don't be like oh my God, I'm out of stock. No, just you know change.
Speaker 1:The color, the color.
Speaker 2:Make it warmer, yeah, or do something different, or, you know, caulk the cracks, make it less obvious yeah, you know there's ways to work around all of it, right, I don't ever get too caught up on trends anyway. Yeah, I kind of do.
Speaker 1:I mean it has to be pretty extreme, like a trend, like shiplap there's so many houses with shiplap in there.
Speaker 2:It ain't going away.
Speaker 1:That is not going away and you don't have to go rip your shiplap in there. It ain't going away, that is not going away and you don't have to go rip your shiplap out. But it's like our house, like our dining room, looks most, I would say, like shiplap, I guess kind of. I mean, it's just slacks. But our house was built in the 90s and they built it that way, yeah, and when we moved in, it was a you know a dark color, which?
Speaker 2:looks great. It's really not shiplap. Yeah, this is not, honestly, a lot of it was just reclaimed wood Right, it was using old to build new.
Speaker 1:And I'm glad they did that. Yeah, it's not cookie cutter at all, so you don't have to go oh my gosh, it's how you style, it's the overall style. It's the overall style.
Speaker 2:It's not the paneling of 1978.
Speaker 1:Right, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and even with paneling like we have. Our condos at Hilton Head were built in 1981. We have paneling Mm-hmm and you know you can caulk and paint paneling and it's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some of mine has like a smear over it. It gives it texture and then some rooms has it. You work around it, you just do it.
Speaker 2:You work around it.
Speaker 1:I really hate. That's one thing I hate with social media, I mean and we're sitting here talking about trends too, but I hate when people get on there and they're so adamant Like shiplap is gone and get it out, and I'm like no, let's not, you got to work, you got to be, you got to be realistic.
Speaker 2:And you know everybody can't afford to do that.
Speaker 1:So what can you do to work around the need to do that? What are you going to do next month? Something else is out.
Speaker 2:But if you're like, oh, I don't want to see the you know the spaces that you caulk it. Yeah, oh, I don't want white because I don't want to draw attention to it, paint it a warmer color, right, like it's not an end, all be all. And you can always caulk it in wallpaper too.
Speaker 1:Right and it's still very, very on trend.
Speaker 2:We talked about like modern cottage look, I would say that's definitely where it did continue, and wallpaper is continuing just to be booming.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of surprised about wallpaper. Me too, I love wallpaper.
Speaker 2:But the good kind. The reason, I think, the reason it has stuck around longer is because the quality has changed.
Speaker 1:Because when we opened the home store back in 2013, wallpaper was just starting to come back. I mean, we've been selling wallpaper since then and it has grown in popularity, but I thought it would be a quicker turnaround trend, but it is getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 2:It's because of the quality of the paper. You can actually get it off the wall without tearing your house down. Yeah, I haven't tried to get any of mine down yet, but you know that 70s and 80s paper it was like super glued.
Speaker 1:Well, it was also the material that it was. It became part of the wall. That's what I mean, it was just the glue, just it was there, yeah, and so it is easier to get off now.
Speaker 2:So people had that hatred of that paper and it was legit. Yeah, I can remember a little piece coming off. Now you can take it off. I think it's just technology, right.
Speaker 1:And see it took a whole like couple of generations of people to forget about how hard it was to get off, because if you're an older listener you're probably like I'm not wallpaper and shit you still have PTSD.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I had a little bit of it because you know my dad's a contractor, so it was drilled into my head for many years no paper, no paper no paper. Yeah, and I didn't have paper in my other homes but in this one I decided to paper. Two bathrooms, yeah, which is good. Yeah, they're small and I'm like they're. You know, doesn't break the bank to change it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so that's like here I have this wall behind this paper, which is just one wall, and then I have our, your hallway, our hallway, and then the powder room. That's it. Yeah, you know what I did in the powder room, though, because it's small and well, it was all. It wasn't paneling, it was beadboard, and then it had a, I think had a center.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's still there, it has a, you know a chair rail, a chair rail, and it was beadboard and beadboard on the top. So I painted the bottom half is black and then I wallpapered the top half. But I went and got the really, really thin. It's like board, it's in the, it's comes in sheet like a four by eight, but it's almost like it's one step from cardboard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's like a reed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so thin yeah, and I've covered the walls in that, because I was like, if I want this wallpaper down, I can just rip this board off and it'll be gone. Oh, that's what I did in the bathroom. And I like that, but I needed to do any way to cover up because I couldn't put the wallpaper on the beadboard.
Speaker 2:I like that paper down there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just like one day I might want the beadboard back or something you might. You might want something different, so that's what I did there. Oh, you thirsty over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have to drink my water.
Speaker 1:Oh, you gotta stay hydrated, that's right. Gotta stay hydrated with my bottle that blinks when I drink water, which I turned you on to that bottle. I need to get back on that as well, because it does help you drink more. He has this bottle.
Speaker 2:I'm so addicted to them. Dylan's mom bought me a spare because you know I break them every couple years. You know you drop it one too many times.
Speaker 1:So, tina, at Tamumi's House we Go is the one who originally where I found out about these? Is it a hydro? What's it called Hydrate Spark, hydrate Spark? And so I got one and then you got them and you've stuck with yours. I broke mine, but it is cool. If you're maybe, in 2025, wanting to drink more water as your goal, this bottle water bottle. You fill it up and it has an app that connects to your phone and it tracks how much you drink through the day. It really, really helps.
Speaker 2:Because I was never a water drinker.
Speaker 1:Right, and if you get an OCD type person like Steven, it becomes a game, because it flashes like, oh, you need to drink more. Or when you drink enough, it flashes like you did it. Mm hmm.
Speaker 2:And I would if I do not have my bottle. I do not drink, I know, and so that's what. So for, and I would if I do not have my bottle. I do not drink the water, and so that's what.
Speaker 1:So for a while I carried mine around with nothing. It didn't work because I dropped it or whatever too many times and I would still drink, but I've gotten really bad.
Speaker 2:Highly highly recommended. It's called Hydrate Spark, it's H-I-D-R-A-T-E Spark Hydrate Spark and they have two different types of bottles in two different sizes.
Speaker 1:I'll put a picture of it. In our new members-only community with a link to it, we don't get anything from it.
Speaker 2:We should see if we can.
Speaker 1:We should Do they have an affiliate link we should, I'll have to look, but no, we'll put it in the notes if you want to see it.
Speaker 2:I link. We should. I'll have to look. But no, we'll put it in the notes. But it's I'm on my fourth or fifth one in five years, so I go through one, about one a year and they're like 69 bucks.
Speaker 1:Well worth the money right it is, I need to get a new one. So when I publish this and put the link in there, I'm going to order me a new one because Because it does give you the challenge of like oh, I got to drink more water. It does. Honestly, if you are like we talked about I don't know if it was this episode or the one before this it's time for me to lose weight. I've gained 20 pounds. Water helps you lose weight so much quicker. Yeah, you're not eating.
Speaker 1:But, something about it, just flushes you out too it does, so I got to get me one more of those. Well, I feel like this is maybe a little bit quicker of an episode, I don't know, but we got to wrap it up because we got to pull this baby over. I feel like now that they can watch, us we should just sit in our car and film this.
Speaker 2:You know like there's a steering wheel. I wish it worked. I wish it was.
Speaker 1:It's time to pull this baby over because we have to go. It's Sunday night.
Speaker 2:We have to go to our second shift job.
Speaker 1:We got to go do a live sale, so you know what that means. You got to join us inside the Nested Fig app. We're typically live for the New Year Sunday, tuesdays and Thursdays, although when this episode comes out, I'll be at the beach and you'll be doing a live, so I don't know what the schedule will be.
Speaker 2:We're doing a couple of lives, so when you're gone you're leaving. On Sunday, we're going to do a live Tuesday night. That's Valentine's week. You're going to do a live Thursday night because I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in flowers.
Speaker 1:And then don't you like how I've set up, that I go out of town on Valentine's?
Speaker 2:now, you know it doesn't matter to me because I enjoy, like I love working at the garden store on Valentine's and Mother's Day. It's just I really do like it, so it doesn't matter to me. Yeah, I mean it doesn't make a difference.
Speaker 1:And they honestly don't need.
Speaker 2:They don't need two cooks in the kitchen.
Speaker 1:They don't, because we get bossy and bitchy. Yeah, I mean, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, they like for us to leave them alone. I don't blame them.
Speaker 2:And then I'm going to do one another Dylan and I will do one Sunday night and then we're going to Atlanta Monday and we're going to do a couple of lives from Atlanta with Amanda.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be fun while I'm gone. And I'll do live, like you said, from. I'll take samples and do lives from the beach house. That's always fun. I like doing that too. Keeps it mixed mixing it up. Mix and match. So we got to sign off so that we can go do our job, go do a live sale. Second shift.
Speaker 1:I mean, we have so many good new things at the Nested Fig. If you haven't shopped with us this year yet, we've talked about it on the live sales At the end of last year we tried to sell off as much of our warehouse as we could.
Speaker 2:We get bored.
Speaker 1:We want fresh, because we were like we want fresh and we did it Like I mean we had like the shelves were like Vire, empty, empty. So I would say about 90% of our inventory is brand new inventory. So we have amazing new things and I love it. That's what I was going to say. So I love it. I get so excited because we're going to go do a box opening and I'm like I can't wait to open the new things and we're getting Easter in and spring.
Speaker 1:It's just so much fun. So go check out the nested fig as well, Remember? Maybe you started listening halfway through the episode or whatnot? Go to our website for the podcast, which is whosedrivingpodcastcom. You can join the members only community where you can watch us. If you don't want to watch this, you can still join to support us and be part of the community where you can take additional polls, you can comment. It's going to be a whole little fun community over there, so go check that out Also if you're like well.
Speaker 1:I don't want to pay and I don't want to watch you, but I do want to listen, and you don't know where to. This will be a little promo, in case it goes out. Um, you can go to the website as well, just uh, whosedrivingpodcastcom, and you can listen to us there and find wherever you can listen to us. But remember to share us with your friends. Give us a rating wherever you're listening to our podcast yes, that, yeah, that's, it, thanks, guys.