Ep. 163: designer Breegan Jane

In this episode, we sit down with the multi-talented Breegan Jane. She is an LA-based designer, entrepreneur, lifestyle blogger, TV personality, children’s book author, and mother. She’s been featured on HGTV, the Hallmark Channel, and more. We talk with Breegan about using design as a way to keep some order and cleanliness in the house, tips that we can learn from a 23-bathroom house, and how to keep things fresh and new using what we already have while at home with our family. What You’ll Hear on This Episode: How Breegan’s impressive and diverse resume has helped to shape her design style and visual expression. What exactly designing a 23-bathroom house entails. What kind of tips designers learn from their clients that they use for their own homes. How Breegan uses design to keep order and cleanliness with two young sons in the house. Why Breegan insists her 4 and 6-year-old share a bedroom (at least for now). How you can transition spaces, especially as we are at home more, without buying all new things. The opportunities and challenges Breegan has faced while working on HGTV’s Extreme Makeover and how she balances work and motherhood. Breegan talks about her go-to elements for glamour and what she calls “modern approachable luxury” including mixing textures. In our Decorating Dilemma, we dive deep into modernizing a space with color tones and having faith in the changes your designers suggest. Mentioned In This Episode: Breegan Jane Breegan on Instagram Breegan on Facebook Breegan on Twitter HGTV Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Decorating Dilemma Breegan thinks you know your biggest problem; you just have to be willing to fix it! The color tone in that wood is really dating the space. If you were to paint or stain over those cabinets in white, put two new pendants lights over the kitchen island and add a rug with some color in that space—you would be done! If you (or your husband) are not willing to part with the wood aesthetic, you could paint the kitchen white and try to ebonize the wood with a dark stain. Any color that gets you away from the yellow tone in the wood is really going to modernize it; you could do white, grey, brown or black. You already have a great, neutral style in your home and then you can accent it with any color you want; maybe even some fun bold-patterned drapery. There’s no getting around that dated tone, unfortunately, but you have a beautiful space with wonderful natural light! It may be labor-intensive, but you could do this yourself and it’s not very expensive. In terms of the backsplash? Leave it! You don’t need it and then you can put that money into the other things we recommended. Please report back, Megan! __________________________________________________________________________ To sort of play devil’s advocate, Caroline thinks you could start by painting the doors, trim and fireplace while leaving the kitchen alone. Breaking up the uniformity of the space will help it look less dated. If you start small, you can get your husband on board with bigger changes.