Interior Design with Kandrac and Kole

Happy 50th episode! WOW! That was a quick 50. To celebrate, we are responding to our listeners and answering your design dilemma questions again. This is always a popular episode. We reached out via various social media platforms and received great questions for Episode 50 so let’s get started.

As we continue our discussion about the design, marketing and unique qualities of vacation rental properties we are very excited to have Jeff Hylton here with us today to talk about his unique vacation rental.

Today is a great day because we get to chat with a guy whom we adore and revere as a close friend – Adam Japko. Adam is the CEO of Esteem Media. If you are a designer or design enthusiast, you might know of his publications Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles and New England Home Magazine. He is also the Founder of the Design Influencers Conference (formally the Design Bloggers Conference).

The 2nd episode of our podcast last year was on the 2018 Kitchen and Bath Trends from KBIS (The Kitchen and Bath Industry Show) that we attended last year in Orlando, Florida and coincidentally was the 2nd highest downloaded episode since we started this podcast!

As we continue our discussion about the design, marketing and unique assets of certain vacation rental properties we thought we’d bring to your attention a special area of the U.S. that we have both vacationed at and loved and that is Tybee Island, GA. However, if we are going to talk about Tybee Island, we absolutely must bring your attention to the adorable cottages to rent thru Mermaid Cottages. To help us tell you all about it is our Guest Speaker today, Diane Kauffman. Welcome Diane!

We started the conversation about VRBO, AirBNB and vacation rentals in our last Episode 44. We talked about what “big business” this has become and are very excited about how we are working towards having an impact for owners, managers and the general public.

Today we are talking about how the websites AirBnB and VRBO have completely revolutionized the travel industry and put hotels on notice that they need to step up to their competition.  We find this phenomenon fascinating not only because we travel a lot but more importantly because we are consistently appalled by the interiors of the spaces being rented.

Kelly and I have always been huge fans of Sherwin Williams so we are thrilled that Sue Wadden, the Director of Color Marketing is our guest today.

The landscape of the interior design business has been altered over the last few years. The days of buying home furnishings through a designer that were considered “trade only”, meaning items could only be purchased from a designer, have changed.

Two years ago, we realized that we were turning away qualified, legitimate clients because they didn’t fit into our model for an ideal client needing full service design – that was just foolish on our part. We had to find a way to help these potential clients. Thus, our designer for a day program was born.

Unfortunately Kelly and I were unable to attend the market in High Point this fall. In several years of attending markets, we have only missed one or two. This is our time to see what the latest and greatest items that will hit the retail market in 6-9 months. This is a great way for us to stay ahead of our industry and find great product to bring to our clients. It also gives us a chance to find new vendors, create and maintain relationships, attend parties, see design friends and be inspired!

I’m just back from a trip to the Mediterranean Coast where my family and I spent 2 weeks in Spain, France and Italy.  I am a professional shopper so of course I have an innate eye for certain things that I know I would love to commemorate my trip but I wanted to discuss ways to preserve memories if shopping does not come naturally to you.

We are happy to have Lauren Jordal of Surya Rugs as a guest today.  Lauren will tell us a little about herself and how she became the resident rug expert at Surya.

In our very first podcast named “Who We are and Why We are Producing a Podcast”, we gave you some background on how our podcast came to be. Had it not been for Traci Deforge of “Produce Your Podcast” randomly reaching out to us, we would not be here today.

We met Johnna in Arkansas when we were all participating in a Tobi Fairley Mastermind course. Johnna brought a unique perspective to our group because she wasn’t a designer. She is actually a lighting manufacturer but she wanted to insert herself into the designer world so she could learn how to gear her business towards working with the trade. I’ve always been incredibly impressed with Johnna’s crazy life both professionally and personally so we are going to talk about. Welcome Johnna!