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Your Beautiful Home Could Be Making You Sick with Whitney Walker · The iDesign Lab Podcast

• 0:00
  Voice Over: This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design.
• 0:06
  Voice Over: Curator of interiors, furnishings, and lifestyles.
• 0:09
  Voice Over: Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott.
• 0:17
  Voice Over: iDesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast, where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends.
• 0:34
  TIffany Woolley: Today we are joined by Whitney Walker.
• 0:38
  TIffany Woolley: What if luxury and sustainability could actually live under the same roof?
• 0:44
  TIffany Woolley: Well, today, Whitney, designer, entrepreneur, author, and a visionary who has spent decades transforming the way products and homes are designed and manufactured.
• 0:56
  TIffany Woolley: She's here to challenge the way we think about design, responsibility, and the future of home building.
• 1:03
  TIffany Woolley: Welcome, Whitney.
• 1:05
  TIffany Woolley: Hi, Tiffany.
• 1:07
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:08
  TIffany Woolley: Both of you.
• 1:09
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you.
• 1:10
  TIffany Woolley: So let's start at the beginning because what fascinated me in doing research for this podcast was your, you know, long history of building businesses in the design community.
• 1:21
  TIffany Woolley: And so you have that entrepreneurial spirit as well as that design philosophy.
• 1:26
  TIffany Woolley: I was blown away that you were the founder of Antique Drapery Rot because that was, you know, a go-to for me for so many years.
• 1:36
  TIffany Woolley: So I'm like just I feel like I'm meeting a like a celebrity in my world here, but you really have such a rich career.
• 1:44
  TIffany Woolley: So let's start at the beginning.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: And when you joined this industry, and well, I started college in 10th grade and I came, I started my first business at 17.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: I come from a family of entrepreneurs.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, my mother owned a well-known riding stable.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, my father's mother owned a cosmetic company, Barbara Walker Cosmetics.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: And then my mother's mother was involved with uh a group of women on the North Shore of Chicago who were uh all handled their own investments.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: They were sort of well known for their group.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I grew up always knowing that I would have a business.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's a a really key difference for a young woman, is to know that she has a future business as a young child.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: And um, my first business was called Green Smile.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I did interior landscaping.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_03: I was studying horticulture at the time, which is a passion of mine, as yours.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone loves gardening, of course.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: And this was uh, we did interior landscaping.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then after two years, I opened an architectural digest and I saw an editorial spread.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: Well, actually, an entire magazine had been dedicated to zero plants.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I read and grabbed all the other issues and realized it had been, it was, you know, fur bars, late 70s, plants everywhere.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I turned to a friend of mine, Judy Cunningham, who founded Mesa Designs, which is uh, I think they're in seven countries.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: They do like all the Saudi Arabian palaces.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I said, Judy, plants are gonna go out.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: She said, No, you're crazy.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so she bought my contracts.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so that was the first business that I sold.
• 3:23
  TIffany Woolley: That is so I love that you shared that you're from a long line of women entrepreneurs.
• 3:30
  TIffany Woolley: I feel like I am too.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you're you're you're sitting in Dallas today.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Where did all this where did all this start?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Was it in Dallas or uh in Dallas?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh my mother.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: Well, my family's British, technically.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Three of my grandparents were born in Great Britain, but my parents were born in the U.S.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: and um and so I was raised on a horse farm here in Texas, but I didn't have to commute schools in town.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um but uh but it's a great place to be from, and it's also a great place for women to do business.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's there's a lot going on here.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: Very resourceful area.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like Florida is the same way.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: Agreed.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: Very aligned for women to do business.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: And you you both have been involved in so many businesses for so long.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, um, so incredibly talented.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_03: I love your work, I love your website.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 4:22
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you so much.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: But after Green Smile, um, I went into interior design, and um I was really lucky in that um there's sort of three different ways to start as an interior designer.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: One is to graduate from school and you know, hand your cards out.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then another way um is the way that I did it is a lot of people liked my parents and my grandparents' taste.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and I would say, well, you know what, I can redo this room for you.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: And uh and so I started doing real interior design, and I had a gift, a very lucky gift from my family, in that they knew a lot of people with phenomenal properties.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I was uh I was able to have some really amazing clients um uh when I was young in my early 20s, and uh and I went off to New York and I studied at Parsons for a while.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: I dropped out.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: And then I uh had some great clients up there, and um and then I came back to Dallas and was great in interior design, and then I renovated restaurants and uh and then I started the anti-drape rod company, which was 1992.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm dating myself on that one.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: No, but it was.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: So how did you start that?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, did it fulfill a need that you saw?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh when I had been doing interiors, I had some really great clients because some phenomenal properties.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I was going to Rome to buy the hardware.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh especially because I was doing a lot of Mediterranean.
• 5:58
  TIffany Woolley: Correct, which was very heavy and influenced.
• 6:00
  TIffany Woolley: It was down here, so we're speaking the same time period too.
• 6:05
  TIffany Woolley: Yes.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: And it's still huge there.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: Very so I realized that it took forever to get it shipped in from Italy, and we could make it here in Texas.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: So for people who are watching and listening to this podcast, explain exactly what antique.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Decorative, yeah, you know, car company is.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: You can actually um I have an Amazon website page, uh, authors page, and it has where I started was in historic hardware, which I did some for a lot of museums, and uh uh we did some hardware for the cloisters and places like that.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: Beautiful.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: I've actually used hand forging.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: So what I go do, I dive deep.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: I dive very deep.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: I'm actually a certified bumper.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I uh I I really wanted to research how this hardware was made, the hardware that we were buying at antique auctions, things like that.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and so I hired in some welders, and uh first I was having it made it in on the border in Mexico with different welders, but then I got involved in casting, and then I got involved in you know the finishes and how toxic everything was.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: And when I would travel to other countries, I would see just as an example where metal goods were made, where the conditions were just absolutely horrifying.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and I didn't want my products to have, if if you can, if it's okay to say it sounds a little bit um woo-woo, but I didn't want my products to be made with that kind of energy.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: I felt like it was really important for true craftsmanship to begin with the craftsman and and the quality of materials and the quality of their working space and and how the craftsmen felt about their work.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: So when we started the antique drapery rod company, we made everything authentically.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I have a book, if you're interested in antique hardware or especially Mediterranean hardware, um, it's called The Art of the Antique Drapery Rod, and it has 2,400 years of famous paintings with window hardware or wall hardware.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: Amazing.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and that's really what my passion was for it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: And then we did casting and we got into plastic casting, which is where I really got sort of get more aggressively eco-finishes were always amazing.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, our finishes were all water-based, and that was a major two-year production to move into paints that were eco-responsible.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: And then later on, my father and I developed a patent paint made out of uh up to 96% food ingredients.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: But the hyper company was good.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's but but that alone must have taken up a tremendous amount of your time because that's a major, huge company with, I mean, hundreds and hundreds of SKUs.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we did have 48,000 SKUs in all colorways.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: Unbelievable.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: I had between 60 to 200 employees for 24 of the 25 years that I own the company.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: I started in 1992 and then I sold it in 2017, and it's still operating now.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's not a lot later.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it is.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, not quite the same, but they still make some quality products.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, when you sell a a business, as you know, um, serial entrepreneurs here, um you sort of have to walk away.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: Let it go.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Walk away, and just it's no longer your responsibility.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, and they, as I said, they still make some nice products.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: I also built Anastova, which is uh textiles.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: So we made make actually the world's finest quality certified organic linens in the world.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I had to visit heavens, 21 mills in northern Italy.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm sure that was such a problem.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: It was a tough job, really tough top.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, that would have been tough.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: Sort of ate my way through all exactly.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: And uh uh it was huge.
• 10:04
  TIffany Woolley: And no shortage of inspiration, I'm sure.
• 10:07
  TIffany Woolley: Oh, incredible.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the mill that I work with is a multi-generational mill, um, north of Torino, and they are um so, so fine a quality.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's just incredible.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I can't actually name the other companies that they produce for, but they're all of the highest uh quality, you know, textile companies in the world.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: They're really amazing.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um everyone, you know, that really, really wants qualities are gonna go to smart in Italy.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: There's a few places in France also, but but I had done sourcing in India and China, Peru, which actually has some fabulous colored iron cottons.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I was trying to build something that was really not just eco-responsible for the planet, but very responsible for my clients, uh, for me.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, something that was, if you understand the production and you go to visit a factory, let's just say China, India, Mexico, Peru, uh, even Italy, you'll see production for the US, which involves dioxin bleaches, I know, oxide sizing, toxic dyes, and then you see everything else for the EU, Japan, Australia, New Zealand.
• 11:21
  TIffany Woolley: So you're kind of ahead of your time, I feel like.
• 11:23
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, I feel that's on the forefront now, especially in the last five or six years, but I don't think that everybody was as in tune as obviously you were 20 years ago.
• 11:35
  TIffany Woolley: Where did that where did you start to realize like that aha moment that something has to change here?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_03: The the difference between a decorator and a designer and a manufacturer, as you know, are huge.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I consider myself a designer's designer.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's what someone else used to call me, you know.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and I'm the person who makes things in a factory for the designer to sell to their client.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: And when you're involved so closely with every single step from where the product source to what the materials are to the people who are making it, to how it's finished out, to how it's packaged, and what what your legacy is going to be 25 years from now is are you gonna make your client sick?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_03: Are you gonna put boots of paint that causes ADHD or cancer, or are you gonna make hardware that's that's coated with a finish uh that's made out of a high BOC uh clear coat that when it's put in a window and is exposed to a lot of sun, sunlight, it starts to off-gas.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, so you're you're you're building an environment for your clients, and it's either gonna be a healthy environment, you're gonna understand why, or it's gonna be an environment where you sleep in sheets with dogs and bleaches, which have, according to many people, a direct link to breast breast cancer.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: So um I'm I'm one of those people who really dives deep.
• 13:10
  TIffany Woolley: So I know, but I love and have such an appreciation for that.
• 13:14
  TIffany Woolley: And I feel like as we've been doing this podcast, that is something that really does come up a lot, is people we are in such a wellness-driven world right now, our modern society, that you know, wellness needs to start right in our home.
• 13:32
  TIffany Woolley: We're all, I mean, obviously your body is your temple, but your home is the next best thing.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_03: And according to EPA, indoor air is three times more toxic than outdoor air.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Was there like an aha moment in your life where you realized that you wanted to take that direction with everything that you're doing?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Or was it something that was instilled in you as a child?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Or yes, it was actually instilled in me with a child.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: My parents were a little bit the well-educated hippies.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I will share a uh we're horse people.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: And uh excuse me.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, one of the first experiences that I had with a toxic environment was um we had some beautiful horses in our stable, and one of them died, and he the vet said he was poisoned.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: And um we we knew where we bought all of our feed from.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I went with my mother and my little brother and our and our bar manager and I all went to this huge warehouse where the feed was made, and all around the edge of this mountain they used bulldozers to um move the feed before it went into the hopper to be bagged.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: And there was all this rat poison and uh and the rat poison was being mixed in with the horse feed.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what the horses, the horse died, several other horses were sick.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: From of course, my mother went through the roof.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: You really don't want to go yet.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, understood.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so that was an early experience.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: Also, another early experience was with food.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: We went to health food stores, and um, I really understood the difference at an early age between food that never goes stale.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: The chemical experiment.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_03: So um, so if it does a mold, it's probably bad for you.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: So um, so things like that.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: It we we sort of grew up in that environment.
• 15:31
  TIffany Woolley: So when did you realize that this was something that could be brought into the resin, you know, like interior design industry, this philosophy?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well, when I was painting murals, and I was really not a great mural painter, but I hired a lot of great mural painters, um a lot of people wanted to do historic preservation uh preservation.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so they wanted to do restoration with paints that were made the same way that the paints were originally.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: And you would think that would be more healthy, but it wasn't.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, uh they use lead, they use mercury.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we know how many famous uh musical composers uh suffered from lead poisoning because they were using lead pencils to write their music with.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so a lot of the older ingredients were really toxic.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm sort of someone who looks at the ingredients of everything.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: I walk into a room and I could tell polyester from, you know, literally 50 feet away.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: And you mentioned Paul Watson, Captain Watson and she shepherd earlier.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_03: Uh when you see what materials like polyesters, which are so huge in design now, I mean, I've actually met designers who don't really understand uh what the difference is between cotton and coton, C-O-T-R-N.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: So that's they don't understand that there's there's there's plastic materials and fabrics that never degrade.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: Never.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: They only turn into microplastics when they become smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, and then they wind up seeping through our landfill and also going into the ocean.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: But when they seep through the landfill, they wind up in our water because they hit our groundwater.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: And when they go into the ocean, they wind up as microfibers that you know cause all of our fish to have all sorts of plastics in them.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: So um, everything that we do eventually winds up somewhere else.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: And is if that's the legacy that we want to leave behind, then we need to think about the materials that we're using.
• 17:37
  TIffany Woolley: So do you think like this whole the eco chic, you know, do you think this term is kind of like uh the green philosophy or how to like is it dressed up, or do you really believe we're making these changes?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um I see two directions.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, greenwashing is very common right now.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure everyone's familiar with the term.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's where someone tries to pretend something is ego and um and people don't understand the difference.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the second direction that I see is younger people where they've never experienced what we've all, you know, I hate to say in our generation, has experienced where you go visit in person and you learn what a real wool is.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: By the way, there's a great book to read called The English to Understand Wool.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: Small book.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: But um uh where you really understand about real quality, what real silk is, you know, what is the difference between, you know, polyester or nylon and what nylon is made from trees and what nylon is made from uh oil products.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: And when you really start getting involved in that for your appliance, you actually find a much more authentic product.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: And a product that um that wears in a in a more beautiful way.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: And uh for me, having a couch made out of some fabulous polyester fake velvet blend that's gonna last for the next you know 50 years.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's gonna last longer than that.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna last a couple thousand years uh when it goes into landfill or wherever it goes.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's it's not ever gonna really be gone.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:20
  TIffany Woolley: So anyway, I always say too, like a lot on the podcast, that you know, it's our job to, you know, really bring this to the forefront, especially when it comes to design.
• 19:33
  TIffany Woolley: Because when I started in my career, you know, everything was custom made.
• 19:38
  TIffany Woolley: There was a lot of heirloom furniture.
• 19:40
  TIffany Woolley: It was visiting my warehouse.
• 19:42
  TIffany Woolley: Let's see what we can incorporate.
• 19:45
  TIffany Woolley: That was my mother's, my grandmother's, you know, repurpose, reuse.
• 19:49
  TIffany Woolley: There was such a passion of taking something that really meant something to your family.
• 19:55
  TIffany Woolley: And now we're in this, you know, fast forward new decade or even new millennia of like everything's just gotta be readily available.
• 20:04
  TIffany Woolley: Everything is just like, I want it now.
• 20:07
  TIffany Woolley: Everything is very much cookie-cutter, keeping up with the Joneses, like that specialness.
• 20:14
  TIffany Woolley: And in my opinion, kind of got, I don't know, high the industry kind of got hijacked a little bit.
• 20:20
  TIffany Woolley: So it's like trying to educate people that this is the beauty of interior design and good design is really collecting and bringing something old, new again.
• 20:32
  TIffany Woolley: And I love that juxtaposition.
• 20:34
  TIffany Woolley: And I know that's a big philosophy for you as well.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: It's huge.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I love that you use that in your work and you always have.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: And to me, recycling is what they call it now, and it's a huge movement with younger people, people in their 20s and 30s when they're acquiring furniture, they want to thrift store.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: They want, they want something that maybe has been in their family or something that's 1950s or 60s or 70s or 80s.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: And and they're they really want something that shows some wear, something that that shows some.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a big difference in the, and I have to be careful how I phrase this, but in the families that have been around a long time and have managed to keep everything they've acquired for generations, then you have fond memories.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: Just like your, you know, I had a dinner party Saturday night with my grandmother's China.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: China, I love that still, and uh chairs that are 200 years old.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, this chair's been in my family a long time.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there's just things that become memories that you're not so concerned with whether or not everything is going to look, excuse me, like restoration hardware.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: That whole matchy matchy thing is going way up now.
• 21:51
  TIffany Woolley: I know it's almost like a design buzzkill, really.
• 21:54
  TIffany Woolley: You know, it just takes the creativity right away.
• 22:00
  TIffany Woolley: Everything in your home should have a story.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: We absolutely agree with that.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you've written a few books.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: I have two very important ones coming out compared to the past ones, but I I wrote a book uh about 10 years ago, eight years ago, called Climate Change and Interior Design.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: So our interior designers responsible for climate change?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: Well, here's what's interesting.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um interior designers actually consume a huge market nationwide in the United States and in the world of physical goods that if they are temporary and disposable design, then they wind up in a landfill.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_03: And landfills are a huge part of climate change.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: Most people realize that.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: And things like polyesters, you know, and and polluting the ocean and polluting our waters, all of that rolls together.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: And if you bother to go on Kindle or, you know, Amazon and you see uh, you know, read the book and you learn about what actually happens uh with every single piece of furniture that you acquire, every single textile that you acquire, um, every single piece of plastic that you buy, um, you know, whether or not the wood is reharbested, whether or not the carpet is made from polyester or it's made from wool or cotton, which if obviously we prefer the latter.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, this you make a huge difference.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: It is a huge difference.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_03: It really is a cumulative effect.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: And the cumulative effect affects both the planet because you're buying all these new materials for new house, and those materials are cutting down trees, they're using um petrochemical products for the textiles or for the actual products themselves.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: And those products will not be around 30 years from now.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: Most people in the United States move uh what every three years?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's crazy.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: Every three years.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: So there's a lot of disposable design.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_03: And what I'm seeing now is people who are more environmentally aware, they don't ever buy new furniture.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_03: They only buy things they can have reupholstered.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that things like reupholstering is coming back now.
• 24:21
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, and it's such an art.
• 24:23
  TIffany Woolley: And I and I have such an appreciation of the artisan and the artistry of all of those little subcategories.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: But there are it's like a dying craft.
• 24:35
  TIffany Woolley: And it's a dying craft.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, here in South Florida, there's very few really good upholsterers who can do a beautiful job.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_03: I have seen some of your pieces that were re-upholstered.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: They're fabulous.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: Just fabulous.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: But as they say, with AI coming in and artificial intelligence taking a lot of people's jobs, they think that the manual labor jobs are coming back.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I think things like furniture making, uh, pottery making, there's going to be a return to human-centric goods.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: And um actually, that excites me.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's important.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that it's also a viable way to live.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_03: It will actually become uh a decent way to make a living in it.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_03: This artisan, human-centric, you know, everything from pottery to, you know, to, you know, art objects to furniture to everything in your home.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, hand woven carpets are are coming back in a big way.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's going to be a big shift over the next 10 years.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I love your work in particular.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and a lot of you involve a lot of hand work.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: You involve a lot of reupholstery, you involve a lot of detail.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: You have a great eye for detail.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: And that eye for detail was lost with people like restoration hardware and Hottery Bar.
• 25:58
  TIffany Woolley: Totally.
• 25:58
  TIffany Woolley: I hope I don't get, you know.
• 26:00
  TIffany Woolley: No, and I I struggle with that too.
• 26:03
  TIffany Woolley: I do, because, you know, I even try to tell people when you go to like a um restoration hardware, for example, you're more impressed with the feeling and the atmosphere, the whole just vibe of it.
• 26:15
  TIffany Woolley: The furniture itself is nothing.
• 26:18
  TIffany Woolley: You can't go transport that into a blank box house, modern day, you know, you're not gonna end up with that same feeling.
• 26:26
  TIffany Woolley: It just doesn't, it doesn't evoke anything creative, really.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: No, it doesn't translate well at all.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_03: It becomes very boring and it has no story.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: So is there a one particular material or product that you'd love to see being used less by interior designers?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: Any form of polyester.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Any form of polyester.
• 26:49
  TIffany Woolley: I know, and I would have to agree with you on that because one thing that stuck in my mind after the devastating California fires was some podcast I was listening to said the reason that those fires went so fast house to house was because there is so much polyester and gas in all the closets, California closets, for example, all of it essentially gas materials.
• 27:14
  TIffany Woolley: There's nothing that didn't go up in flames.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: People don't realize that um when you put a a urethane coating on a piece of furniture like wood, it's it's it's a petrochemical product and it's going to catch on fire.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: They don't they don't understand, um, and they really should try to learn.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: Try to learn.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the thing that I'm doing now, which is a little bit different, is fast food design in a way.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: And is it okay if I transit to glass boxes?
• 27:47
  TIffany Woolley: No, that's what we were.
• 27:48
  TIffany Woolley: I was just gonna bring up there too.
• 27:50
  TIffany Woolley: So let's talk about glass boxes.
• 27:52
  TIffany Woolley: Okay.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's your new venture.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: Your new baby.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_03: New venture.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_03: We are building now.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: So um tell us all about it.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's well very interesting.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I appreciate that.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's fabulous because we are a nation that does want things quickly.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we want uh fast food.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think that the latest thing I've heard about lately is a drive-through uh um memorial service.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, lovely.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: Hello.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_03: Right um, but we really don't want a long timeline.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_03: And and if you want to be beacon, a site-built home wastes uh about 20% more materials than a home that's built in what we would call a manufacturing facility.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: But you have to be very careful because there's a food chain here, there's levels of building quality.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_03: And whenever people think, most people, not you, of course, you're better educated about all these things, but but they think of a house built in a factory as a mobile home.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_03: And this is, you know, a wonderful home for people in a certain price range, uh, and and a great way for them to acquire a house.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_03: But you can, in fact, build a phenomenal custom-built home inside a climate-controlled environment with employees that are there every day of every week for years and years, and they have you know wonderful quality control.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_03: They have uh a wonderful management of all the materials.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_03: They're able to use different programs um to utilize all of the materials so that they even the factory I'm working with right now.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: Little waste.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, zero waste.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: We're actually zero waste.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the factory for glassboxes.com will take a one-inch piece, a two-inch piece of two by four, and it goes in an opera to be turned into some form of insulation or something.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: So we also use very eco materials.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_03: So the glass boxes, of course, are are mostly glass.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: So um eco.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I'm inspired by Myes Benderow, Philip Johnson.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_03: And and people think, oh my gosh, well, that's not going to be very energy efficient, but it in fact is because now is a completely different material than it was 20 years ago.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_03: And the last unit I did we had uh Miami Dade hurricane glass, which is triple pane, thermally coated with uh, you know, these fabulous frames that will actually bounce a 175 mile an hour two by four off of it.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_03: So you live in Florida, you're familiar with Miami Dade windows, not many people are.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_03: But they're also incredibly energy efficient.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_03: They are.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: And they have coatings that shield you from all UV rays, you know, that you want to be shielded from.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_03: And uh and it's a great material.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_03: And if you put your insulation in correctly in the other places, you know, particularly the roof and the and the floor and and everywhere else in the house, and you use energy efficient HVOC, which I use all mini splits.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: So we don't have duct work, which is a heat sink, and we don't have attics, which are a heat sink.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_03: So it's very clean, modern lines.
• 31:08
  TIffany Woolley: But so what was your process to getting to the designs?
• 31:12
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, and where did you even come up with this idea?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's been a long time.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: So it has been.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's been incubating for a while.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: It has.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_03: So uh of course, you know, I I did interiors, I did interior landscaping, I did I've built the pant paint, I did the hardware, we did the silk curtains, we did the bedding, we've done, you know, I've done pretty much, I've designed, you know, all kinds of furniture, all kinds of products for the industry.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: So it won't even waste my time going there.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'm getting old.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_03: But um, but starting in the late 90s, I realized that I really wanted to design the whole house, but I didn't want it to be, I'd I'd worked on, I'd had a GC license, I'd worked on site-built homes.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: But the key is I wanted something that could be built in a factory in a controlled environment where you could really control the QC.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_03: Also, you control things like mold and mildew and whether the materials get wet while they're under construction.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: And then and I wanted modern architecture, which also were doing uh a Mediterranean.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_03: I saw that, yes.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: So that's fine, especially for Florida, because we do Florida and I love Florida.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_03: But um, but I actually went to all these factories and my dad and I uh worked together.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_03: He was just amazing.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_03: And um daddy was actually uh um he was an inventor with me, also.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_03: We were best inventors.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_03: But um, but to make a long story short, we visited all these factories where all we found with these great big, big bellied, you know, mate mobile homemakers who are like, lady, nobody's gonna buy a house made of bla of glass, you know.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: I need to be careful there.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_03: Uh sorry.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's an inappropriate cultural type reference.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_03: But but it it really was they were very, very um they didn't understand.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_03: No, and they were not open to change at all.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I actually bought an 84-foot or 83-foot-long, I can't remember, uh uh manufacturer's home.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and I had it put in our parking lot in our factory.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I had about 200 employees at that time, and I had 16 full-time welders who blew out their guys of uh who literally worked for me, I think an average of 20 years uh before I sold the company, and some of them are still there.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, guys, we're gonna gut this thing.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: Take it down to the We gutted it and we put in glass lighting doors on all four walls and new steel beams.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then I brought two of the factory managers out to say, look, you can do this.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_03: So this has been in the works for a while.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: That was 1998.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: So what are the sizes of the box, the boxes?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: What's the size?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: How big can you make a home?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_03: I've got on the website right now our 3,600 square foot grand view, has 10 foot eight ceilings throughout the house.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: It has 10 foot-high windows in every single room on all four sides.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_03: And uh that is a five-bedroom, four and a half bath.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_03: Unbelievable.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_03: When you walked in, the really great part of it, because I had to do some very creative engineering.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I come from five generations of engineers.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_03: So we have a saying which is everything is possible with great engineering, which is not mine, by the way.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_03: I hire these people.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_03: So that but but when you walk in, you have a great room that's roughly 48 feet wide and 26 feet deep, but you have 10 foot-high windows on three of your walls.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_03: So these are built for the view.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, they are built for the view.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: They're built for nature, they're very biophilic, and um and they're still very eco.
• 34:52
  TIffany Woolley: So, what is the process like for somebody interested in starting this endeavor?
• 34:58
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, you find the piece of property, what has to be done to the land to be built.
• 35:03
  TIffany Woolley: The foundation.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like very easy.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh, and this is a mistake that some other large companies, I won't mention their names, made.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_03: They started producing houses without realizing that you have to have site-built code.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_03: And um, I can mention one company, Boxable, lovely company, great, great marketing team, one of the world's best marketing teams.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: They sold tens of thousands of units, not realizing, and this is all public knowledge, you know, this is a publicly traded company now.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not dissing them because they've changed their format, but they sold all these units, and then then people realize they could not put it on their property.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_03: So the first step is is when you acquire your property, make sure you can build on it.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's not in a floodplain.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, those are the basic steps.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_03: But once you have your property, it's very easy from there.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we require a prof space underneath our buildings, so we recommend pyramid uh foundations.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: We don't recommend uh concrete because the concrete is a heat sink.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: And the other book that I'm writing is about um well, it's basically about how to build a home that's 25 degrees cooler if the ambient temperature is 100 degrees, and there's a road too it.
• 36:23
  TIffany Woolley: Which is so interesting that you say that, because like this summer we were in in London, uh like spring break actually, and visiting a friend of ours whose house was 520 years old.
• 36:34
  TIffany Woolley: And exactly and it has it's cool all year round.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, I can't do no heating, but it's all it's cool, like perfect temperature.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's huge stone walls, correct three feet.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: A thatched roof that's 520 years old, where they've just continually piled thatch over the years on it.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and we were, I was just blown away that.
• 36:57
  TIffany Woolley: It's kind of like you're getting back to some of the basics, really.
• 37:01
  TIffany Woolley: Exactly.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, our lot that we're coming out with next year, which is called Mediterranean Modular.com, uh, means that we build the house in the factory, but it's it's waterproof wrapped to where when it lands, it's prepared to add a stucco on the outside.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_03: And the roof is prepared to pop up and is and it's already pre-treated with uh the materials necessary to put a red tile roof or whatever color, you know, clay tile roof.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then I'm working with courtyard architecture, and and as I said, the book is called technically chilled courtyard homes, but it's about homes that actually involve a small amount of refrigeration in an enclosed courtyard patio, and then have very high ceilings, no heat sink in their concrete foundations or their attics or things like that.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_03: So you're able to use a small amount of air circulating air and literally have a home that energy engineers um say will be a minimum of 25 degrees cooler from an ambient of 100 degrees.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_03: That's next year's project.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: So what's the time frame that it takes to build one of these?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: Is it correct?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_03: Five to twelve weeks, depending on which factory I'm using.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's very hard to get into the factory stream.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um you have to have a lot of engineering, you have to get the modular cert, you have to get your res check energy cert, you have to get all of your structural, your mechanical, electrical funding.
• 38:31
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, so how does that work with the with the permitting process and everything like that?
• 38:35
  TIffany Woolley: So obviously your lead times are quick, but dealing with the city in which you're choosing and building that foundation, how does that coordinate?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, our lot lead times are quick because we've already done all the work.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, our units are already built to 175 mile per hour wind zone.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_03: Everything that's on my website, and several units that are pending to come on board.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, secondly, uh it may, if you're in a heavy rain or heavy snow area, it may need to be that we add a standing seam steel roof or another type of roof.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_03: I won't do asphalt for the obvious reasons.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: But um, but but depending on what you need for snow load or rain load, but we've already done all that engineering.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_03: People think, oh great, I want to design a house and and then I want to have it made by a factory to site building code.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_03: They don't understand there's like a year and a half to a two-year process there in order to get it through all the different levels of um of engineering and you know, energy checks and uh the modular cert itself, you know, which has to be counter-certified, all of those things.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_03: So what we do is when a client comes on board, is we have to have their address.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_03: And the difference in a modular home and what people think of as a manufactured or mobile home, is that a mobile home has a license on the back of it.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: So you can move it anyway.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: Move it or home.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: A modular home, which is a really terrible name for it, is really a site-built quality home.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_03: So it's IRC, International Residential Code 2021, built to that location.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: So it has to be, for example, if you're in Florida or with a client right now in Fort Myers, and um, and that their property was just devastated.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, actually, I actually bulldozed it.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_03: From a storm.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, from a storm.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_03: They're looking to put uh a model that's not on the website yet, but it's called the Panoramic View, and it has a four-foot patio on all four sides.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's fun.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_03: And so that we've already done all the basic engineering, but we will have to add a roof and it'll be on 12-foot piers, and then it'll have what are called hurricane tie-downs.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_03: So there are hurricane straps where you actually go into the main part of the roof bearings and you tie it down through the center, you know, of the of the corners or or the structure of the house, and uh, and then it goes all the way down through your piers and off to the side where where you have these huge screws that's actually screwed into the earth to keep the house there when the next hurricane hits.
• 41:16
  TIffany Woolley: So anyway, once you've got my new mommy date windows, you're set.
• 41:21
  TIffany Woolley: That is just such an interesting concept.
• 41:24
  TIffany Woolley: And I've noticed like the walls, the closets, all of that is built in the factory.
• 41:30
  TIffany Woolley: Everything is built with the factory.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_03: So when it lands, you um put it together like a Lego, basically.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_03: The factory has a set crew, and some units are single, like the Serenity will be um in Chapel Hill, um, North Carolina.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_03: We'll have an open house there uh in the next couple of months.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: And uh that's a single unit.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_03: But the larger units are six units or eight units.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm designing an 8,000 square foot house right now, um, that are much, much larger for people who are entertaining a lot and have larger families.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_03: And they want to put it maybe on a remote property, a beach property or mount property where they're able to have large family gatherings or whatever.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_03: So, or heritage property.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_03: But it's a long process.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: And everything we do is built to that address.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_03: And when the house uh starts to get a smaller served, it has to be built for specifically that address.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_03: If you wanted to pick the house up later and move it somewhere, you're welcome to.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_03: But it technically is card property.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:40
  TIffany Woolley: Built for the site.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_03: Built for the site, site built only.
• 42:44
  TIffany Woolley: And then obviously, Florida, you have to take into the considerations of hurricane and you know the glass loads and all of that, and areas that have snow and what have you.
• 42:55
  TIffany Woolley: But besides that, are there other materials that are needed in other areas?
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I recommend um there's certain kinds of metal sidings that we use that um don't look like a mobile hub.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um we even have a Shoshugi Ban, black uh siding that has a scroll.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_03: So it's beautiful, yeah.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_03: It has a sexy flair to it, for sure.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_03: It has a little texture, a little edge.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, and then we use, for example, whenever possible, we use uh bamboo, extra white plank bamboo flooring, because bamboo is of course the fastest growing and renewable resource on the planet.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_03: But there's a lot of people who want wood flooring, but I actually have sources for um barn wood and recycled wood flooring that can be added.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_03: I'm still working with the factory about whether or not they'll add it like the factory, there was, you know.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_03: They're wonderful to work with.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, I've introduced so many new concepts, such as the 10 foot eight ceiling throughout the entire house that can't be done.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: Can't be done, can't be done, can't be done.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_03: So, anyway, sorry.
• 44:00
  TIffany Woolley: No, so and then when you have these ten foot ceilings and these vast windows and you bring drapery back into the world, is all of that thought of ahead of time?
• 44:10
  TIffany Woolley: Or I mean are there drapery pockets for privacy?
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like well, actually there's two ways to handle three ways to handle the windows.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: One is there is a window that you can flip on and off.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the electric.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_03: Number two is every one of our houses has electricity at the top corner of every window to add motorized blinds, which I think are the easiest thing to do.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_03: And the last unit I built actually was able to have all four walls of motorized blinds go down at once.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: It had a separate motor for it.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_03: Monster.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_03: And then all four walls of motorized blinds go up at one time or tilts at one time.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_03: It was really fabulous because you, if you've got a south-facing wall or west facing wall, then you just, you know, you've got a your phone and you can just adjust it and you can set it on a timer to where you want your bedroom windows to open up.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: So you have that wonderful um, you know, I'm gonna wake up at exactly this time and I want to get all the light I can.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_03: And and then you want, as soon as it starts to get really hot at 11 a.m.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_03: or so, depending on where you are, you're gonna want certain windows to shape to where you can adjust the the angle of the blind.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh, of course, we've got uh what I I used to call mini balance, like a hot hotel balance or hospital balance.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure you've used those mini topics.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_03: And what's great about that is it it can blend in with the architecture and almost look like a piece of molding on the edge.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_03: You really only need about three inches and it'll be color coordinated with the the wall.
• 45:46
  TIffany Woolley: And what about appliances and plumbing?
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: So when bigger question is when they arrive when when they are when this arrives at on site, does it arrive at the box or does it arrive as walls?
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's finished, it's a finished product.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_03: So there's two ways to go about that.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_03: I will say that.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um one is some people say, I want that house, but I don't want this wall or this wall.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the houses that are designed and engineers already for the load bearing.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_03: But if you want to put in your own countertop or your own range, then will we do the cabinet arrangement around, you know, if you want to bring in special stoves or special microwaves or special refrigerators?
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_03: That part's easy.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh, but it should arrive completely plumbed and with all the electrical in place to where you just draw the appliance in place.
• 46:46
  TIffany Woolley: And all that is done off-site in this factory.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_03: Lighting on-site is the property, and the factory builds the entire finished unit in sections, and then they travel and they all arrive together the same day, and they're wrapped in plastic, so they say, once again, you want them protected from the elements, and they will set the same day that they arrive.
• 47:10
  TIffany Woolley: So it's about 12 weeks in your factory, and then it arrives on site.
• 47:16
  TIffany Woolley: Then what is somebody looking at lead time to watch?
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, the set time, the set time is where they put the units together, is anywhere from one day to three to five days, depending on how large the unit is.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_03: So the serenity, uh, when it arrives at Chapel Hill, um, it has uh less than six hours.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_03: So during that time period, D7.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: How many square feet is that of the house?
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's uh well, it has a big patio on one end of it, but I think it's 347 square feet of HVAC with uh 10 foot high windows on all four sides.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_03: And then you have this large entertaining patio.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's not that large, it's like 13 by 16, but it's big enough to get, you know, some seating area and sit outside, which also has pen lights and electrical.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_03: So if you wanted to add mosquito screens that would drop down and things like that, you can you can have add that easily.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_03: But for that, it's a six-hour set.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_03: You're trying to you have a place where you plug in the plumbing and you plug in the electrical.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh we don't recommend gas.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_03: I don't recommend gas, but you can put in gas afterwards.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_03: We can build in a wood-burning fireplace, and then you'll plumb the gas for that separately afterwards because you really don't want gas lines moving when you made a strip line.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_01: What's the largest size house you've done so far?
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_03: Well, um, the largest size house that I've designed so far that's on the website is 3,600 square feet.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_03: I have one that, as I mentioned earlier, with this 8,000 square feet, is in process.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I've seen some units that are in Isle of Palms that were built uh by one of our factories that um was uh 11,000 square feet.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_03: So everything's possible.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_03: You just sort of think of it as Legos.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: But you have to think, and and that's it's interesting.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_03: I I know a lot of really famous, amazing, so blessed to have architects that I show my work to and I get their advice from.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_03: And and uh there was one that I really wanted advice from.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_03: I just does the most incredible Mediterranean architecture you've ever seen.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_03: Very old school.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_03: All of his renders were hand watercolored, beautiful, beautiful work.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: And um and uh he said it's not possible for you to build the house I just built in Baudelaire, and that's the 8,000 square foot house that I'm designing now.
• 49:43
  TIffany Woolley: Wow.
• 49:43
  TIffany Woolley: So you were exactly his house.
• 49:47
  TIffany Woolley: Why do you think that people are not quick to embrace this way of construction?
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_03: Well, there's a lot of uh preconceived notions about branding that a house made in a factory is a mobile hub, when in fact we've actually been building houses and factories since the 1880s and uh in England, speaking of England, and uh and here in the US we've been building them, I think, since the 1920s.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_03: If not, there's more before that there were the Sears houses uh that were literally set out on the prairie like like the 1850s.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_03: So those were what we call flat pack houses.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_03: So those are houses where all the barbs come and you can put it together and it's it's a flat package.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_03: But um I think that they don't everyone wants to think that site-built is always custom built and it's always better quality than something's made in a factory.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_03: But you can build, you're just building every single component the exact same way that it would be as a site-built house.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_03: Because it is made not just a site-built code, but you're adding all in all the site-built materials and you can add a lot of customization.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm only doing a certain amount of custom product products because the amount of time that they take.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_03: I would prefer that people find units that are already for sale because of the time bark.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's much more efficient.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: And then there's ways to add additional patios and you know, wonderful open areas and and modify the unit once it's on site.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_03: But what you've done is the bulk of the work.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_03: You've you've got all of your, you know, your flooring, your roofing, your mechanical electrical plumbing, and you've got everything there that lands.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then if you want to go to town after that and add another 3,000 square feet of patios, which is a client I'm talking to now, uh, because they want these big open-air patios um with uh, for example, uh an a patio fireplace.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_03: I love what they're putting in, a fireplace where 12 people can sit around um and have a real chimney in the middle, be though very much.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: So from a cost perspective, uh you know, building a standard house in one of your uh the glass box houses, is it cost more?
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_01: Is it the the same thing?
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well less it doesn't it doesn't always cost less.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so that's not a selling tool.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's not a selling tool if you sell quality.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_03: Now I will say this our units run on average uh uh 250 to 350 per square foot.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_03: All right, that's it.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_03: Which is very reasonable because the average site built runs, I know in Texas and North Carolina runs around 500 a square foot.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, minimum.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_03: What do you say?
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_03: I would say midway, like 700 now.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_03: So it depends also on the materials that you use.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_03: So if I use the um recycled barn flooring, which actually, when it's finished out, stand it down, is incredible.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_03: 16-inch, 18-inch, 20-inch hunt that are just gorgeous.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_03: They staying beautifully.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_03: That, of course, is gonna change your price radically.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_03: So if you add in a lot of, you know, Carrera marble and other materials, you're gonna have um, you know, a higher cost.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and those things can be added on site.
• 53:15
  TIffany Woolley: So do you technically work with a client almost like building a car per se?
• 53:21
  TIffany Woolley: Like you're gonna go in in the showroom, see materials finished, and you actually walk through.
• 53:28
  TIffany Woolley: Okay, I'm buying this model, these are your options for this.
• 53:32
  TIffany Woolley: Is it a similar yes?
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_03: My inspiration for this was the Tesla website.
• 53:36
  TIffany Woolley: Oh, that's what I just thought about was Tesla, building the Tesla.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I actually bought a Tesla online.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I ordered it, and then they gave you a place to make the bank wire.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_03: We're not quite that easy.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_03: We're not quite that easy.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_03: But yes, there's a place that says shop now, and you go in and you choose all your materials.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_03: You cannot pay for the unit.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_03: You can put a deposit down, which is called a reservation.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, unfortunately, I had some people try to buy units very quickly and wire in large amounts of money.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_03: And they weren't in areas that I was producing site-built yet.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so you I I have we have to, we're not like everyone else.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_03: There's gonna be a lot of people who will sell modular hubs, which are actually site-built quality homes built in a factory, that are not going to be as picky as I am, as you know, just face it, okay.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_03: We we can find a nice way to say that, right?
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 54:33
  TIffany Woolley: Well, the wealth of knowledge of your design history and your, you know, background speaks for itself.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as a and then as a But you can stop.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh go ahead, I'm sorry.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_01: No, go ahead.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_01: What were you gonna say?
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_01: No, I want to hear you first.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_01: So you're you yourself, you're a serial entrepreneur.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, just looking and hearing of all the different businesses that you've been in and very successful.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: Where was the moment in life that you said, I'm going to build this new style type of home?
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's a you think about that, that is an endeavor to jump into that's extraordinary in terms of visionary.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_03: Well, especially since it was something that the industry had not been building yet.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I started, as I said, 98.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm 70 as of yesterday.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_03: Happy birthday! Thank you.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I feel like I'm 29.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_03: So um, and I intend to live several hundred years, so I'm going for it.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um in the meantime, I I started on this in '98, and um, I tried to find the right factories.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_03: And that was a huge issue because if you really are someone like me, where you know, if I've literally gone to St.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_03: Bart's and visited a cosmetic factory there.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_03: So much into like you've got to be.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_03: And you obviously know what you're looking for to be.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I know exactly what I'm looking for.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_03: So to find the right factory that's going to build the quality that we want and understand the architecture and the engineering, our roofs are um uh not what other people would expect.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_03: We put a huge amount of strength in our roof um, because that's where a lot of the stability of the house comes from.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I had multiple factors tell me I won't build a roof like this because it's not my standard, you know, pitched roof that looks exactly like this.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, they had they are only going to run what they want to run.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_03: So um it's something that they've already trained their employees in, something that they're already familiar with.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so the key part is number one, to find uh factories that'll work with new styles of architecture.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm blessed to have the factories that I have right now.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I have uh a great one that's in seven age states right now, and I have um two in New York pending that will handle eight states up there, and I have one in Utah pending.
• 56:52
  TIffany Woolley: And they're all made in the United States, correct?
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_03: I've only been made in the USA.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_03: I did import from uh China one unit uh that was steel and glass that was beautiful.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's a miniature version of Philip Johnson's glass house.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_03: Florida stealing glass.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_03: I have some images of that out there, and it was beautiful, but I've been importing from uh China and the India since 1996, and something is always off.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry to say that.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_03: Something is when you translate from metric to our system, they're about 80% right in that other 20% will kill you.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 57:30
  TIffany Woolley: Isn't that the truth?
• 57:32
  TIffany Woolley: And I and I think that's what's such a cool, you know, component is that they are made in the United States.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_03: Does it with the met and our labor force is not just a local factory, but they're consistent.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_03: They're people who are number one, they're not driving to 20 different job sites in a week.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_03: They are driving to the same place every day, their home can be nearby, the working conditions are consistent, they have retirement plans, they have medical.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_03: They and when you have a good working environment for your employees, you build a better product.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_03: Without a doubt.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's really key.
• 58:11
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, it's who your target client.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, um, my target client is somebody who's open-minded, uh someone who is not going to come to the table thinking, oh, I'm only gonna buy site built because you know, I think that's a better quality product.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_03: Someone who's gonna understand that it can be built in a factory and be equal or better.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then also someone who probably has the majority of our products uh are for what might call vacation properties.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_03: So it's just thinking.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_03: Beach beach properties are we get a lot, I probably probably 60% of our requests are beach or black.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_03: And then the other 40% seem to be balanced.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_03: I I live in Dallas and I live in a place called Highland Park, which is uh uh a very they're a stickler code-wise, and say, and they've already approved uh two of my models.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'm also doing a couple of multifamily units uh that are duplexes and fourplexes built in modular.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_03: But once again, they have the 10-foot-high windows of 10 foot eight ceilings and really high quality materials.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_03: And those have been approved by uh City of Dallas to go anywhere in Dallas County, um, and even Highland Park to to be in Highland Park.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_03: So most people don't realize that they actually can be used in a city in cosmopolitan.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, has it been tough getting the building departments to understand?
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_03: No, they love it.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_03: Because here's the beauty of it almost every city is experiencing budget issues.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_03: And what happens is that when you have a house that's already been pre-certified, that means it takes all the pressure off the building department.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_03: They don't have to use their structural engineer, they don't have to use their mechanical, electrical, plumbing, they don't have to use their energy engineer.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_03: They don't, they it's already been certified by the state.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_03: So that's been stamped.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_03: And and as a matter of fact, in most locations, I know here in the city of Dallas, I've I know the building department well because I had a general contracting license when I was 20, which I think there were dinosaurs around back then.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_03: But but anyway, I'm laughing.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_03: But but the key is what they love is that all of that work has been certified by the state.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_03: All they have to do is make sure that you've got your setbacks, you know, that your utilities will be connected correctly.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it reduces the workload for them, but they charge the same amount for the permit.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_03: So you know.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_03: So um yeah, it works very well for them.
• 1:00:55
  TIffany Woolley: It does.
• 1:00:56
  TIffany Woolley: Do the factories involve 3D printing of any kind?
• 1:01:00
  TIffany Woolley: No, none of mine do.
• 1:01:02
  TIffany Woolley: When I when we were like doing our research, it kind of brought me to like I remember watching a segment on a show that was showing how this 3D printing of homes, you know, where everything's basically there's a lot of um a lot of issues.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_01: What is number one, what is the material they're using to that's a question I have is is what is the interior material?
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is it drywall walls in the inside?
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_03: No, I have to be very careful here because um I spoke on a radio show just two weeks ago and I got a nasty call.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um so uh uh what you want to do is there there is a type of 3D printing done with concrete, uh which actually does off-gas a little bit.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_03: And um and I think that's fairly fairly very responsible way um to build a house.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_03: And it's also rock solid, so to speak, uh tongue in cheek.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_03: But but you have to look at the materials used in what are called flat pan printing, where you basically the way that the way they made glass a couple hundred years ago is they would have a pan and pour the glass into the pan.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_03: And that's why they could only make glass or mirrors that were of certain size.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_03: So uh when you're making a 3D printed house, what are they using to print it with?
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_03: Because the off gassing can be uh very questionable on certain items.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I have to be, you know.
• 1:02:43
  TIffany Woolley: Next question drywall, like you said, is there drywall used in the interiors?
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_03: In ours, yes, we use all sheet rock.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_03: Unless you want to do a wall of marble or something like that.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_03: But we use all sheet rock.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_03: We only at this time offer an off-white paint finish.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_03: So if you want painted finishes or wallpaper, that's added on site.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_03: But I may be able to work with them on that, you know, some of the factories about that later.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we use, you know, the bamboo, the wood flooring, we use tiles, we use ceramics, we use marbles, we use uh horses, you know.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_03: And if you go on the shop now, you can see some of the materials included in the price.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then if you decide that you want something else, then you just write it in in notes and say, well, I'd like to add this, this, and this to the kitchen.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then there's probably a small uh engineering fee to make sure that um that is to your site.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_03: For example, all of my units are to a certain amount of states, but uh I we may need to do additional um code compliance to modular for that.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_01: So for anyone who's watching or listening, where is the best place for an individual to learn more and see more about this?
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, glassboxes.com.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_03: Uh uh, glass boxes prefabricated homes.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it's so easy to shop and learn about what we do there.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_03: And there's lots of great videos um in uh 3D render.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_03: So uh, but glassboxes.com prefabricated homes uh is uh and then next year we'll have MediterraneanModular.com with the Talbers.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's really Mediterranean is one of my favorite forms of architecture.
• 1:04:23
  TIffany Woolley: So I'm gonna have a yes, what a beautiful story.
• 1:04:27
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 1:04:31
  TIffany Woolley: So much information in such a short time.
• 1:04:34
  TIffany Woolley: I I feel like it's really impressive to watch this come about.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we adore what you two do.
• 1:04:42
  TIffany Woolley: So thank you again for having us.
• 1:04:44
  TIffany Woolley: What a pleasure.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate you being with us today.
• 1:04:46
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you.
• 1:04:47
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you so much, Whitney.
• 1:04:50
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you for listening to the iDesign Lab podcast.
• 1:04:56
  Voice Over: iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW group production in association with the five star and TW Interiors.
• 1:05:03
  Voice Over: To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit TWinteriors.com.