Beyond White Walls: Exploring the Rich World of Coverings

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Have you ever stopped to consider the canvas upon which your interior design story unfolds? While furniture and décor often steal the spotlight, it's the backgrounds—the walls, floors, and surfaces—that truly set the stage for your home's character.

In this illuminating tidbit, Tiffany and Scott Woolley dive into the often-overlooked world of "coverings" against the backdrop of the prestigious Coverings show in Orlando. We reveal a startling statistic: 90% of American homes feature simple painted walls, predominantly white, despite the existence of countless innovative alternatives. From revolutionary terrazzo applications that blend historical charm with modern engineering to the vibrant spectrum of colors now available in kitchen appliances, today's design landscape offers unprecedented opportunities for personalization and expression.

We share the story of a design-savvy client who, despite her professional background with Ralph Lauren and innate style sensibility, had always hesitated to embrace bold colors and textures in her home's backdrop elements. This common hesitation highlights a crucial design principle: while furniture and accessories may come and go, coverings represent significant investments that remain with your property, continuously influencing its atmosphere and value. These background elements aren't merely practical necessities—they're powerful storytelling tools that communicate your home's unique character.

Whether you're renovating, building, or simply refreshing your space, don't settle for ordinary when extraordinary options abound. Connect with design professionals who can introduce you to materials beyond what typical showrooms display, and always ask about alternatives. Your home deserves more than white walls—it deserves a thoughtfully crafted backdrop that elevates every element within it. Ready to transform your space through the power of coverings? This is where your design journey truly begins.

Learn more at:
https://twinteriors.com/podcast/

https://scottwoolley.com

Episode Transcript

Voice Over (00:00):
This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and
curiosity meet style and design.
Curator of interiors,furnishings and lifestyles.
Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, aninterior designer and a style
enthusiast, along with herserial entrepreneur husband
Scott, idesign Lab is yourultimate design podcast where we
explore the rich and vibrantworld of design and its constant

(00:23):
evolution in style and trends.
Idesign Lab provides industryinsight, discussing the latest
trends, styles and everything inbetween to better help you
style your life, through advicefrom trendsetters, designers,
influencers, innovators,fabricators and manufacturers,
as well as personal stories thatinspire, motivate and excite.

(00:43):
And join us on this elevated,informative and lively journey
into the world of all thingsdesign.

Tiffany Woolley (00:50):
So for today's iDesignLab Tibbit, we are going
to discuss coverings in light ofthe coverings show that is
happening right now in Orlando,which is a great Wait, wait,
wait, time out, Time out.

Scott Woolley (01:03):
What do you mean coverings?
I thought you meant time out.
Wait, wait, time out, time out.
What do you mean coverings?
I thought, you meant time outlike time out, no time out.
So coverings?
Tell me what coverings are.

Tiffany Woolley (01:11):
Coverings mean covering.
It's covering your walls, it'scovering Wallpaper, your
flooring.
It's covering your backyard,it's covering your driveway the
multitude of materials that arereadily available to us in this

(01:32):
world.
We kind of mention frequentlyin our tidbits, but every day
that we just live in this worldwhere people are constantly
coming up with new innovationsof materials.
For example, we have a projectright now that is like a really
cool mid-century modern thatwe're bringing back to life and
we really wanted to stayauthentic, but it's also in
Florida, and there is thisamazing concrete material that's

(01:57):
using marbles to createterrazzo.
So the reality is is thatterrazzo is just a minute
material that has now a myriadof opportunity.

Scott Woolley (02:12):
Terrazzo is something that was really
popular in the 1940s and 50s,you know, for flooring and
commercial locations and soforth, and I think it still is
used all the time.

Tiffany Woolley (02:21):
But my point is to discuss coverings and
highlighting this beautiful show.

Scott Woolley (02:26):
We have a wood type of covering and then we
have a fabric covering, correct.

Tiffany Woolley (02:31):
And.

Scott Woolley (02:31):
I think part of what you're really talking about
is the fact that there are somany opportunities of choices.

Tiffany Woolley (02:36):
And I just don't want people to give up.

Scott Woolley (02:37):
People don't realize the amount of choices
that there are.

Tiffany Woolley (02:41):
that there are and they really should be used.
And your home should you know,whether it be a house in Florida
or a house in the mountains ora house you know, you know on a
golf course, what have you?
You really want the inside out.
I want people to really takeadvantage of all of this beauty
and, you know, really become in.

(03:03):
You know, in the know, andobviously designers are a great
wealth of information to be inthe know, but so are show rooms,
but they're going to limit youwhere a designer is going to
have their hands.
You know, really, in all facetsof what's available.

Scott Woolley (03:18):
I recently read somewhere that 90% of the homes
in America people just paint thewalls, so they put up a color
and the vast majority it's white.
So people don't even think andlook at the fact that you know
they just have white walls intheir house, when there's
literally millions of differentoptions and opportunities to

(03:39):
change those walls in so manydifferent textures.

Tiffany Woolley (03:43):
I know, it's interesting because obviously we
kind of made fun of a coloredtoilet, a colored sink for years
, like the Frigidaire, avocadogreen, like color people.
You know it was around a lot inthe 70s, 50s those times and
then everybody kind of shiftedto white and clean and

(04:04):
industrial and stainless steel.
And I feel like right nowwhat's available to everyone and
you know the industry of designis kind of a happy medium of a
cleaned up version of color, ifthat makes sense.
So even Kohler has this greatline now with all their you know

(04:27):
, very basic products, butthey're versions of white and
you really can't dive intoopportunity that is available to
you.
And I mean again bringing up thecovering show and the little
theme is the cover of thebackgrounds of your home are the

(04:48):
most important because that'sthe stuff that doesn't change
regularly.
Where the flooring, those areyour big investments.
When you sell the house or sellthe property, those things stay
.
Those are not your heirlooms,your keepsakes, but they are the
background that set the tonefor you know, the duration of

(05:10):
your time in that space.

Scott Woolley (05:12):
If you just think of a simple item like an oven
in the house, if you just thinkof a simple item like an oven in
the house ovens most people.
It's black or it's chrome.
Now it's red, yellow, green,blue.
There's so many differentcolors that you can pick.
You know, for that fixture thatyou have in your kitchen, that
you're centered around ineverything you're doing.

(05:32):
You know your stove and youroven.

Tiffany Woolley (05:35):
I mean, there's such variety and it's funny
because I've have a few recentnew projects that have started
where they visited a client ofours and it was a house that was
on a local parade of homes andone client in particular, just
like I, actually done this for aliving.
You know, I'm in the furnitureindustry, worked for Ralph

(05:57):
Lauren, actually in Manhattan,very well versed in high style
and has great style herself, butwas always afraid to cover her
homes with color, with wallpaper, with texture.
You know her emphasis wasalways on the furniture versus
the backgrounds, and thebackgrounds are really so

(06:20):
important in telling a designstory and you know, as we like
to promote and preach interiordesign work here in the iDesign
Lab tidbit series, we definitelywant people to reach out and be
in the know and definitely notsettle.

Scott Woolley (06:39):
Ask, ask if you're working with a designer
or wherever you might be buyingsomething.
What are the other options?

Voice Over (06:46):
Yeah, all right, there's our little tidbit for
today iDesign Labs Podcast is anSW Group production in
association with the Five Starand TW Interiors.
To learn more about iDesign Labor TW Interiors, please visit
twinteriorscom.