April 15, 2025 • 34 mins
Ginger Curtis, Founder and CEO of Urbanology Designs, is the author of Beauty By Design (Harvest House Publishers) and a sought-after speaker and design & lifestyle authority/expert. Her work has been featured in prominent national magazines and books including Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Better Homes & Gardens, Raw Interiors, and Architecture Today.
Street Style Takeaways:
Beauty should not be a rare experience
Souls recognize beauty as power- supports healing, stress levels
Peace is the new prosperity
Beauty is found in restoration
History meets renewal
Power of 2nd chances
Home that’s peaceful is beauty- Think about how we are treating each other in the home. How do we talk to each other in these spaces?
Beauty in nature creates calming pattern
Connect with Ginger:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/urbanologydesigns/
Website: https://www.urbanologydesigns.com
Save 15% site wide at www.houseofblum.com with promo code beat15! Or you can use this link- https://houseofblum.com/discount/beat15!
Connect with the Hosts https://www.instagram.com/boulevardbeatpodcast/
Connect with Meghan Blum Interiors https://www.instagram.com/meghanbluminteriors/
Connect with House of Blum https://www.instagram.com/shophouseofblum/
Connect with Krissa Rossbund. https://www.instagram.com/krissa_rossbund/
Connect with Liz Lidgett https://www.instagram.com/lizlidgett/ Episode Website https://www.blvdbeat.com/about
Street Style Takeaways:
Beauty should not be a rare experience
Souls recognize beauty as power- supports healing, stress levels
Peace is the new prosperity
Beauty is found in restoration
History meets renewal
Power of 2nd chances
Home that’s peaceful is beauty- Think about how we are treating each other in the home. How do we talk to each other in these spaces?
Beauty in nature creates calming pattern
Connect with Ginger:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/urbanologydesigns/
Website: https://www.urbanologydesigns.com
Save 15% site wide at www.houseofblum.com with promo code beat15! Or you can use this link- https://houseofblum.com/discount/beat15!
Connect with the Hosts https://www.instagram.com/boulevardbeatpodcast/
Connect with Meghan Blum Interiors https://www.instagram.com/meghanbluminteriors/
Connect with House of Blum https://www.instagram.com/shophouseofblum/
Connect with Krissa Rossbund. https://www.instagram.com/krissa_rossbund/
Connect with Liz Lidgett https://www.instagram.com/lizlidgett/ Episode Website https://www.blvdbeat.com/about
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to boulevard Beat, a podcast where life and style intersect.
I'm designer Megan Bloom along with my co hosts, editor
Chris A. Rossbund and gallery owner Liz Legit. This podcast
focuses on the daily highlights instead of the hustle, interviews
with taste makers, and personal conversations on how to highlight
achievable style. You con stroll one street at a time,
Boulevard Beat proves the one.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You should take. Today.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We are welcomed by Ginger Curtis, founder and CEO of
Urbanology Designs. She is the author of Beauty by Design
and a sought after speaker in design.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
And lifestyle authority expert.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Her work has been featured in prominent national magazines and books.
In the episode, we talk about how peace is the
new prosperity and how beauty is found in restoration. Her
organic luxury and tears are designed forward and support the
weight you live.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Welcome Ginger, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I have to say I was very touched and moved
the first time I met you. You were a guest
on one of my panels and I was able to
hear a little bit about your story and then read
your book, which is fascinating and a different type of
design book. I sort of feel like for anybody who's listening,
you're going to maybe redefine what home means to them,
(01:25):
because you certainly did for me when I heard your story.
So let's get into it by having you tell us
about your circumstances of growing up in the street and
house that you grew up in.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I love that. I love that. That question is very unique.
I've never been asked like with the street that I
grew up on and kind of that, But it was.
It was called Little Ranch Road, and I was one
of seven kids, the second oldest, four girls and three
boys in that order, and I was very very close
to my siblings. I feel like they were I was
like a mother hen and they were my little ducklings,
(01:57):
and I was always looking after them, and I feel
like I had to because we grew up in a
lot of abuse in our home and a lot of
neglect and also poverty. It was actually a very very
sad place, unfortunately. And so that was sort of the
very youngest age where I remember my home environment and
my physical surroundings affecting me, and of course it was
(02:20):
everything from the abuse of the poverty, but also the
walls that were yellowish brown, and the brown floor and
the leaky, drippy faucets and the yellow stains and the
faucets and the fluorescent lighting. Like everything I can it's
like it was yesterday. I can see it so clearly,
and it all kind of, you know, weaves into the
picture of just a lot of the trauma that we
survived during those younger years of my life.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, I think that's so interesting because again, you are
really kind of redefining what the home looks like in
that space. And I felt a little guilty after hearing
your story because I think in this industry so often
we you know, especially at the high end level, talking
about making homes beautiful, and sometimes we don't think about
(03:05):
them other than a place to display those treasures that
we've collected and those pieces that define us. But really
not every house is necessarily a happy home. Yeah, And
so you came into creativity through some adversity, So what
led you to this field?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Really, it's so amazing how there's so many connections and
ties to my childhood and I feel like growing up
in sort of a house where there was a lot
of pain. There wasn't a lot of safety. There wasn't
a lot of refuge, you know, because a home, really
it must be more than a structure. It has to
serve you, has to nurture you, it has to protect you.
And mine didn't. And so my little childlike heart at
(03:46):
that time thought, well, I've got to find it. And so,
you know what, I created it. And it started by
building little forts and cardboard boxes that I would find
left out by the trash. And it was the winter time,
and I remember taking the cardboard boxes and setting them
up to the exterior dryer vent so that me and
my siblings could stay warm, and it was happier than
being in the house, even though we were still miserably cold.
(04:08):
And the cardboard walls would fall down from time to time,
that they would evolve over time. And I remember one
day when I found just down like a trail, a thicket,
a wooded area was like a hideaway, and the tangled
tree branches sort of made this rooftop canopy, and I
started to build a fort there. And so I was
always building little mini sanctuaries for myself and for my siblings.
(04:31):
It's at the youngest age, I realized somehow that my
environment was impacting me in these places, these forts make
me happy. And I think that was a little baby
designer ginger in there, right, just just connecting to my
nature and something that would bring a sense of peace
and a sense of calm. And so I really do
have to point back to those childhood days, realizing that
(04:54):
it was the refuges that I created for myself and
my brothers and sisters that really sort of plant something
deep inside me that I never grew out of. And
now I just build forts, but they're called homes and
they're for people. You know, I'm still building forts today, Yeah,
just a different kind of form, for sure. It's a
different kind of fort. Yeah, it's you know, when life
felt out of control, I found ways to build small
(05:17):
pockets of beauty that made me feel safe. And I
also just remember thinking how it would impact my siblings
to take them out of the house and from an
abusive father. And you know, we were always constantly hungry,
but you know, being in the woods and playing in
our little forts, and I remember I would still hand
me baby blankets that my grandmother had made for us.
It was the only real treasure that I had, but
(05:39):
I took it to my most treasured place and it
was I was really trying to create a sense of home.
And here I am, all these years later, doing that
now and having the privilege to really do it for
our clients as well. And you can see why. You know,
the store of my story is layered right. It starts here,
but then it goes into some other things, some adversity
that happened later on and light that would really kind
(06:01):
of launch my business.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Well and Ginger, you know, I think we all want
a sense of belonging and that's what our home does.
And you learned that at such an early age, and
you've worked on your own home. You renovated it during
a time that many would consider be an opportunitieson of life.
We all know renovations are difficult and tough and grueling.
So to do it when the circumstances aren't great, I'm
(06:23):
sure was a hard time as well. What sparked the
renovation and how did it help you?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, that's it's my favorite question, because this is really
what ended up launching the firm. But to answer that question,
we would go back in time a little bit, and
it was when my daughter who is now fourteen years old,
was diagnosed with leukemia, and we found ourselves across the
country at Saint Jude, and we were staying at a
Ronald McDonald house. And I get it like their number
one goal was to provide a place for these families
(06:50):
and to try to keep these children alive. Great goal,
like one hundred percent. But what was happening was this
environment was the most depressing, the saddest place I had
probably ever been. And again it was back to brown
walls and fluorescent lighting and brown, cold tile floors, and
it was just it was the least aesthetic place on
the planet. And I was already sad and fighting for
(07:11):
my daughter and from my own sanity. And I don't
necessarily know how conscious it was. Look ninety five percent
of our brain's awareness is tucked away into subconscious. So
you walk into a space and you're you're either releasing
dopamine or you're releasing cortisol. And I am convinced during
that season, my body was just flooded with cortisol. And
then one afternoon we got invited to a brand new ONN.
(07:32):
McDonald house that had just opened around the corner, and
it was a little luncheon and I walked in. I
had Avery in my arms, and I'll never forget, like
my eyes just immediately welled with tears, and this huge,
broad grin came across my face and I just stared
and looked around and I was like, wait, what, what
is this actual place? And how is this possible? And
it was just beautiful. It was colors and it was creativity.
(07:56):
I could see a library room in the distance with
Florida ceiling, bookshelves of all colors and color blocking and
color drenching like things I didn't even know back then,
but man, my eyes were just were just taking it
all in. And there was a piano library with a
chandelier made at a guitars, I mean, on another level
of beauty and creativity. And it was the first time
I felt myself smile and I can't even remember how long.
(08:18):
And so the reason why I bring that up is
that was kind of the first time where I really
started to understand the shift but in environments and how
that would affect us, and so Avery, you know, she's
a total miracle. Praise God. She survived her treatment. We
get back home and not long after I am diagnosed
(08:39):
with a very aggressive breast cancer that had spread. And
this is when I decide to gut renovate my house.
And I'll answer your question of why why did you
do this during this really difficult time, and it's because
in my pain and in my trauma and my suffering,
my instinct was to surround myself with beauty. And that's
(09:00):
exactly what I did. And I had a bald head
and a bandana and a clipboard and a pencil and
a cell phone, and you know, I was boss at
all those contractors around trying to figure everything out. And
I was just convinced that my home was going to
help nurture me, heal me, uplift me, and it was
also going to do the same for my family. I
wasn't the only ones suffering in the situation. My husband
(09:22):
was devastated, my kids needed their mom, and so in
this time, you know, I really created a sanctuary for
all of us. And it ended up really changing my
life because I started to have this awareness with Avery's
diagnosis of the time it got to me, it was
just overwhelming, and that's really what launched my design firm.
I was on the tail end of chemo when my
(09:43):
hair just started growing back. Because I had transitioned to
other kinds of treatments where my hair was growing, I
started to get my energy back, and I thought to myself, Wow, gosh,
you really actually shouldn't have to be fighting for your life.
For your home to heal you, to nurture you, to
inspire you. Your home should do that at every season
of your life. And I thought, I'm going to do this,
(10:06):
and I'm going to do it for other people, and like,
let's go.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I think it's interesting too that you did this while
you were going through all of this, only because sometimes
when we're going through adversity, you know, our friends, our family,
they want to keep us distracted and they're like, oh,
let's go out, or let's let me take you here,
and sometimes you're just not in the mood for it.
Sometimes you just want to be at home and stay home.
So to have that environment be comforting and beautiful around you,
(10:32):
I think is so important because sometimes that's really just
where you want to be.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
It's one hundred percent like I just instinctively knew my
environment would either drain me or it would sustain me.
And you know, I also have to say that there
was something to be said about having something to focus
on that put a little bit of wind in my cells.
And there was a lot of judgment we faced. I mean,
my husband was constantly having to protect from people who
were why would you let Ginger do this?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Why?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Like this is the worst time in your lives And
he said, because you know, you don't know her. What
what deflates one person's batteries puts wind in the sale
of someone else's. And I'm really grateful to my husband
because gosh, man, that was a tough sell right there. Hey, babe,
can we spend a whole bunch of money and totally
gut renovate our house? And I have no energy and
(11:16):
I'm fighting for my life, but this is a great idea.
And then it just start like the floodgates opened really
after that in so many ways well, and it's just
a true testament of what items you're surrounded with, both
the home decor and just how your spaces make you feel.
And I think when you learned that from the Ronald
McDonald's house, it was easy to know that this will
help me get better, and it gave you that motivation
(11:37):
to get to enjoy and love the space. I'm sure
as well, absolutely, Ginger, you have little ones at home,
I do as well. I'm sure you always get faced
with that question of how do you have such nice
things around there? How do your kids keep them clean
and safe? And it still looks so beautiful all the time.
It's important to keep in mind for the spaces so
their environments are safe and filled with comfort in addition
(11:59):
to being enchanting. I think a home that's peaceful is
safe and comfortable no matter what. And there's different ways
that we create peace. I think first of all, it's
how do we talk to each other in our homes right?
And what is the language? What is the mood? What
is the tone? Do kids come home and they're really
kind of sassy to mom and dad even when they're
in bad mood or you know? It kind of like
all of it, you know. And then of course this
set an environment, and there's things that I have learned
(12:22):
to do that visually create peace and comfort. And it's
so cool after all these years to raise little kids
and see my little kids turn to bigger kids. I
have five kids ranging now from eleven to twenty five
years old, so I've had a chance to sort of
start to see the impact of how they've been raised
in a kind of I would say, a very unique environment,
(12:42):
especially compared to a lot of their friends and things
and some cool stories that they have come back over
the years and told me. But I never believed or
believe in a pretentious home. A home has to be comfortable.
Like sometimes pillows would fly and sometimes children would fly
from a cat it was so, you know, to a
chair to a poof on the ground. Man, if there's
(13:04):
anything like a poof, okay, it's a gymnastic gymnasium situation,
one hundred percent, you know. And I just I just
made space for it. I would push the coffee table
over a little bit or whatever, and I just I
wanted my kids to live in the home. And you know,
not a whole lot of things broke, but but if
they did, I was like, okay. I had a very
lighthearted approach to all of it. And then I taught
(13:25):
them and trained them. Hey when you're when I taught
my little two year old to like kind to kick
off their little baby shoesies before they climbed on my
beautiful sofa. I didn't just let them like run around
on the sofa with their shoes on. And get it
all dirtied up, you know. And it was kind of
a rule too of like, hey, you cannot eat your
dinner and your spaghetti on the sofa. That's what the
dining table's for. And so we always had habits and
(13:47):
we still do to this day. We eat dinner together
around the dining table. And it's so crazy how it
almost feels so old fashioned in the world that we
live in because we're such a fast paced We're going
the sports, everything kind of dominates. But it's one of
the things kind of talking about the sort of banner
of peace in the home, and it's how we sort
of structured our lives and the things that we've really
(14:08):
had to fight for to protect, and then the ways
that I just had to offer grace to myself and
to my kids to say, this is a home and
it has to be comfortable and you should be able
to live in it.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
It's just teaching them respect early on, and they treat
their environments that way too.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Now, Ginger, your aesthetic leans a little bit more modern.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I know, as designers were always working for clients and
tailoring to what they want, but it's always good to
infuse a little of your style and design as well.
Your style is sculptural with clean silhouettes and an organic
light talent. What is it that has made you attracted.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
To this style? So I think it goes back to
being exposed to nature and beauty in nature as a child.
And so I talked a little bit about the abuse
and the chaos, but one of the things that I
feel like really saved me as a little girl was
getting to go to my grandparents' house every three months
out of the year for the entire summer, and they
my mom would take seven little ducklings on an Amtrak
(15:05):
train and it would take three days to get from
Texas to California, where they lived. And not only did
they live in the sunny hills of California, they lived
in Carmel. So I grew up spending my summers as
a child in the foothills of Carmel and Monterey and
camping and hiking in Big sur and playing on pebble
beach and in the sand. To say that it changed
(15:28):
me is really an understatement. And so I wouldn't know
until I became this grown up girl the words for
what I was experiencing. And it's really something called neurosthetics,
and it's this big scientific word, but really what it
is is the study of our brain. It's really how
beauty and design affect our brain, our emotions, and our
well being. And so as a little girl, I was
(15:49):
experiencing this and it's just it's like it imprinted on
my heart, it imprinted on my soul. And so when
I grew up and I and I was able to
start designing my own home and then build a brand,
it was always rooted out of this place, this imprint
that felt both organic and structured. And what's so cool
was like you can see that in my designs. You
(16:09):
can see it. It's you see the structure, you see
the form, you see the layout, but then you see
sort of free form, flowing organic and there's just this
mix of both, this this play of colors, this play
of breaking the rules sometimes and it's like that's exactly
what nature does. And so yeah, and neuroesthetics, like the
essence of it is both of those things structure paired
(16:31):
with organic. And it turns out that our brains are
hardwired too long for both of these things. And there's
something in nature called a fractal pattern, and it's a
pattern that's reoccurring at different scale, so a fire, the
flames of a fire, or fractal pattern, a tree icicle,
all these different things, and we can bring these patterns
(16:51):
into our home and it really it nurtures us, it
serves us. So scientific studies have shown that a fractal
pattern can reduce stress levels. Are you ready for this
can reduce stress levels by sixty percent. So when you
incorporate views of nature, when you bring in patterns from nature,
like the wood grain in your floor, that's a fractal pattern.
(17:12):
And so we're gravitating to these things on the subconscious level.
But now the science community and medical community have caught
up and over the last day, Kady've really really really
begun to study this. And so I always kind of
say that it's so it was always really cool to
me that my innate design style was just always kind
of rooted in neurosthetics and the principles of that and
(17:35):
then of course nature. That's so fascinating, and it's interesting
to hear that because now that I look at your work,
it all completely makes sense, and you've achieved that beautifully
and harmonically in your work very much. So you know,
we also.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Love to talk about little parts of your day that
make you spark. It sounds like your influence of nature
and different things, or that favorite cup of coffee or
tea to add that little boat to your day.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But we would like to know what are your little luxuries?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
How are they different during times of adversity than when
life is just going smoothly. Yeah, I do love this question,
and I think my answer might be interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What I consider a luxury? And so in the mornings,
I get up really early. The house is still quiet
before my kids are up. It's dark, and there's something
about the stillness and the quiet, and I sit down
and I have I spend time with the Lord. I
read the Word and I just I have, you know,
thirty minutes of just complete quiet. And it's like I
view that my relationship with God like a friendship. And
(18:35):
it's almost like I'm getting to sit down in the
morning and have a cup of coffee with a friend
and I that is that feels like a luxury to me.
And the only way I've been able to do that
is to make it a priority. The other thing that
I also feel like just is a way that I
nourish and take care of myself. I prioritize getting to
the gym every single day. I enjoy it. Now I've
(18:57):
created a habit of it, so I kind of like
it's almost I don't even have to think about it.
I just find myself putting on my running shoes because
I was like, well, I've obviously got to go to
the gym because this is a part of my daily routine.
And then other things like a sauna. We bought one
of those, like barrel saunas, and it is the coolest
thing in the whole back walls glass and it looks
out into like the woods where I live. And I
(19:18):
do the sauna every single week, and I am telling you,
I sleep like a baby. It's releasing toxins, it's great
for your skin, putting in your your body into like
a little slight state of dehydration and then hydrating after.
I mean, there's all these health benefits to it. And
so that is man talk about stress levels going from
death con five to you know, almost zero. For me,
(19:41):
the sauna is one of the things. And then lastly,
I am a nutcase about going to the foot spat
and I having my foot, my feet rubbed, having my
shoulders rubbed, have it, you know, and and just that
that physical touch. When I have a lot of tension
and a lot of stress, I carry it all in
my back and my shoulders, and sometimes when it gets bad,
I'll get kind of chronic headaches. And my husband's like,
(20:03):
go to the foot spall because he knows that they're
kind of rub my shoulders and get that stress out,
you know. And I used to feel guilty about that
for the longest time, and I was like, man, this
is literally a part of my healthcare system and routine
for my life. I will never not go to the footspall,
God willing, because it really actually it really helps me.
And so yeah, those are just a few of the
(20:23):
things that I do.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
That's so nice.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And I think sometimes we all have our things that
are more medicinal for us than regular medicine that we've
been told to take when something goes.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Awry on our body. So I'm all for that.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Ginger. It's important to have beauty inside the home, but
it's also important to have beauty when you escape to
a different environment. We want to know all about urbanology, cottage.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Oh gosh, this is a really really fun one. This
was an opportunity for me to invite other people into
a space. I can't invite the world into my client's home, right,
And so to create something that people could book and
they could get a little getaway and they could experience neurosthetics,
they could experience an environment that felt deeply enriching and
intentional and then think to themselves like, oh my gosh,
(21:09):
like should I really have to be going away to
get this feeling or should I be inspired to incorporate
this in my own home? And so the Urbanology Cottage
is a really unique airbnb tucked away in weather for
Texas and this very very very charming Texas town. It's
not far from like the historical downtown square and the
courthouse and all of those things. But the cottage itself
(21:30):
is layered and full of so many detailed moments. The
whole thing is meant to be an immersion, an experience.
And when I say an experience, I'm not talking about
the things that you expect, like the beautiful sofa and
the throw and the pillows and the gorgeous lighting. I'm
talking about like every nook and cranny, every cabinet you open.
If you go and open up underneath the sink and
(21:51):
you go to reach for a scrubber or a pod
for the dishwasher, It's going to be beautiful. The canisters
are glass with cork lids and just scrubbers are made
out of would and everything from a tactile to a
texture to a visual there's no hidden chaos or junk.
It's like the whole house literally is an experience. And
(22:12):
I just can't even begin to tell you what a
delight it was. I mean, it was probably one of
my most favorite things to do, is to create this space.
And then people write these comments in the guestbook and
they leave reviews, and you can tell they're lost for words.
They're trying to articulate the profound effect this space had
on them. And of course I know, especially with studying
(22:33):
neuroasthetics and all the things, I'm like, oh, I know
exactly what's going on, you know, and it's special and
very rewarding to be able to share that with other people.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Well, that sounds like a trip that I really want
to take. So you told us the town, what big
Texas city is it near?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Okay? This is perfect. It's thirty minutes outside of Fort Worth.
Everybody knows we're fort worth Is. It's called the Urbanology Cottage,
and it's you can book it directly, you can book
it on AIRBA be in all the different places, and
it's just it really is an immersive experience and a getaway.
It's fantastic for girls trip or a couple's getaway or
(23:10):
I mean, gosh, you name it. It's just it's a delightful
place to be wonderful.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
That's that's great that you created that and built that.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Ginger.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I found a lovely phrase on your website and it
read you are worthy of beauty, dream of it, plan
for it again. I said this sort of at the
early part of our discussion, but there can be a
certain level of guilt that comes with this industry sometimes
because you know, when we're picking out a pillow or wallpaper,
it can seem a bit frivolous. So my guess is
(23:41):
that you have different thoughts about that idea. Please elaborate
on your theory of everyone being worthy of beauty.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Oh boy, do I have thoughts. Beauty should not be
a rare experience and this is such an important topic.
And I feel like we carve, we paint, we plant,
we build, Bill and it's not just for function. It's
because our souls recognize beauty as a form of order
in a very chaotic world. I mean, we know that
like anxiety and stress levels and mental health and all
(24:11):
the things that we're fighting, and we know through not
just neurosthetics, right, neurothetics and the study really proves it,
but even even past that, instinctually, I think that we
know that beauty has power and it does. It regulates
emotions at lower stress levels, and it even supports healing.
And I think that you know, when you talk about
(24:31):
beauty from that way, it shouldn't be this untangible, this
unreachable luxury that's only for a select few. It's really
for everybody, and it should be. And I think that
it's in our DNA. We are wired, I mean, we
are absolutely wired to long for it and it's essential.
And I think what happens over time is, look, we
gravitate towards what's familiar. And sadly, if I had stayed
(24:55):
a little girl who had never got to escape to
the foothills of Carmel and got to experience nature and
different things, I don't know that I would have known
what was out there. I might have just accepted, you know,
the cheap plastic blinds and the yellow, brownish walls and
the fluorescent lighting. And I might have stayed in environments
that always look like that because that was familiar. And
I think what happens, and what I even see today
(25:17):
is people live in darkness, they live with their blinds drawn,
they live and clutter, they live in, you know, in
some sense of chaos. And it always astonishes me is
that people are not always immediately aware that their environments
can be a little chaotic or dark or cluttered. And
what that is doing, It is having an impact. Right again,
(25:37):
we talked about this earlier, about ninety five percent per
cent of our brains awarenesses and subconscious That is affecting
your health, your emotions, your psyche, your mood, your level
of focus every single day. And if you think about
the compounding effect of walking into your home over a decade,
over two decades, and how that affects your health and
your well being, well that starts to become a really
powerful conversation. So when I say that your word of beauty,
(26:01):
I mean it is essential.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Well, it's something that humans obviously want. We've been making
things more beautiful since the beginning of time. And you know,
you think about who was the first person who went
outside and clipped some flowers because they thought, I want
to bring these indoors and enjoy them in here as well.
You know, we cut flowers as something that we don't
even think about today, but a way that is so
(26:23):
easy to add beauty into the day. And somebody thought
of that first hundreds of years, hundreds and hundreds of
years ago. So beauty is not new, and everybody is
deserving of that ginger that segues perfectly into this next question,
where again it's easy to get caught up with the
aesthetics of the individual design components, be it a pillow
(26:43):
or wallpaper or a beautiful silhouette. But you know, more
than anyone, how home stretches far deeper than that. So
in an industry that's really about art, it's about creativity,
and oftentimes definitions are blurred. What does home mean to you? You?
How do you define home.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
In its highest form? Home is a reflection of who
we are and who we are becoming. And I always
say that we elevate ourselves to the level of our environment,
and that's powerful. It's at home as a space that
holds our most sacred moments. It's where we lay down
our burdens, it's where we breathe deeply and beauty. It's
not just surface level indulgence. It's a tool for creating
(27:24):
peace and stability in a chaotic world. And so when
you think about that and your home being the place
that houses those things, then you start to look at
home very differently. And after everything that I've walked through,
I see home as a place of healing, grounding, and
literally transformation, So not just for myself but for those
who I designed for, and it's given me this just
profound perspective of how important it is to surround ourselves
(27:48):
with homes that are beautiful and intentional at every level,
at every demograph, at every like, wherever you're at, like,
there are things that you can do today that can
bring beauty in order into your home. It doesn't have
to be expensive.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I do run a love interior design firm. That's that's
the niche in the world that that I serve. But man,
these principles, these are for everybody, and everybody should know
and feel they have permission and understand at the deepest
level that they are worthy of beauty, and it should
be personal, it should be deeply personal. That's a whole,
a whole nother story. It's it's a pillar of neurosthetics,
you know, so neurosthetics, it's color, psychology, it's it's pattern,
(28:22):
it's scale and space planning. But then it's also personal
memories and belongings and what's meaningful to you because beauty is,
you know, the beholder as beauty, you know, is like
how is that relative to each person? And it's both right.
There are things that we know that are beautiful to everybody,
like we were talking about fractal patterns, and then there's
also things that like I might want to put my
(28:43):
grandfather's old, beat up red violin on the mantle because
every time I look at it, it brings me joy.
And those are the things that we cannot negate and forget.
To personalize our homes with things that are quirky and
weird and special and that painting that I don't know
if I love it or like it from Uncle so
and so, you know, and embrace these things that spark memories,
(29:06):
that spark joy, and not to feel like our homes
need to be plug and play. We want our homes
to feel personal and curated. We want them to truly
be a reflection of that, and I think sometimes people
don't always feel like they have permission to really deeply
personalize their homes. They're almost trying to check a box
and like get it to look like a picture or
a catalog or a Pinterest image, you know, And I'm like, oh, no, no, no,
(29:26):
no no, don't do it that way. You know, it
can be so much more meaningful than that.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Well, and I do think it is meaningful, and that's
what as designers we do. But it's the best compliment
when you walk into a space and it looks just
like the homeowner and the client, and you know it
has more layers of the story and the history of
who they are. Ginger, you talked about checking off boxes,
and you've done quite a few checks in your boxes
as well, a book author off the list, and you've
(29:53):
even created a destination where people can visit what's next
for you?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
WHOA what's next? Okay, So we just launched a lighting
collection with Blueprint Lighting, and that's really really exciting, and
I feel like there may be some more happenings to
come in the world of furnishings in decre and so
keep an eye out for that. And then we're working
on some things that have to do with the media
world that are pretty bananas that I and you know
(30:22):
touch base with me in just a minute or two
what I can share. But there's honestly all that to say, ladies,
there's just some really exciting things. And what's happening right now,
the things that we're working on is going to allow
us to take these pillars of neurosthetics and this passion
and the heart of the home really to more people
at every level. And that I'm deeply excited about. I
(30:44):
feel like I don't have a career. I feel like
this is a life's calling for me and I believe
in it so deeply. And I love our industry. I
love the people in this industry. I feel like we
worked so hard and we suffer together, we laugh and
cry together, we have successes to and it's just such
a beautiful and worthy community. We get to be in
a space where people come together and really understand why
(31:07):
we're obsessive about the things that we're obsessive about, because
it's so meaningful and we care so deeply. I love
hearing that, because then you can touch so many more
lives getting to share all your knowledge about science. How
that goes into inter your design as well too.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
And I'm especially excited because I love looking at your
lighting on your website. Your work is just beautiful. So
excited to see that collection as well.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Thank you, Ginger.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
We always like to ask the same questions at the
end of our episode, and the next one is what
is the beat that keeps you going?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I have to say, hands down, without even like a
second thought, no close second. God is the beat that
keeps me going. He's the rhythm beneath everything I do,
the steady pulse that reminds me of why I create,
why I serve, and why keep moving forward. And I
feel like that relationship is for me. It's the piece.
It's the piece that surpasses understanding and what I have
(31:59):
come to learn in my I feel like an old
lady at this point. I feel like I've lived so
many lifetimes, but but what I have learned is that
peace is the new prosperity.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Peace is the new prophet. That's the beat that keeps
me going. I love that. That's very endearing to hear.
And finally, what does your perfect boulevard look like?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Oh, it's a street where because it's a boulevard, right,
So I'm thinking of a street, and it's it's where
history meets renewal, where the past. The past isn't a
race but transform. I love taking something that's old or forgotten,
or something that was overlooked and transforming it. And so
(32:37):
I believe that beauty is often found in restoration and
what people pass by, and they don't always, they don't
always see the value in it. Our firm was once
an old, abandoned fire station. It's sat vacant for years, dilapidated,
and to breathe new life into it and to create
something really special with so rewarding. And so my perfect
boulevard isn't just visually stunning. It's a story of redemption,
(33:00):
of revival and the power second chances. Because that's the
story of my life, is literally the power of second chances.
And so it's got to be it's got to be
the old and the new, and not bypassing something so
seemingly unimportant or unworthy, because there's just treasure everywhere. If
we'll just pause and take note.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Well, thank you, Ginger. That was so lovely and this
was a very special episode today hearing about the science
and your story has something that maybe had some tragedies
and some traumas really grew into something alife that's so
beautiful and lovely, and we are so grateful to you
for sharing your story with our audience.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I really appreciate the opportunities with fun Ladies.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Boulevard Beat.
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow along and leave
a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen
so you never miss an episode, And of course follow
your hosts on Instagram at Megan bloom Interiors, at Chris A. Rossbund,
and at Liz Legit. We'll be back next week as
we take a stroll down another boulevard
Welcome to boulevard Beat, a podcast where life and style intersect.
I'm designer Megan Bloom along with my co hosts, editor
Chris A. Rossbund and gallery owner Liz Legit. This podcast
focuses on the daily highlights instead of the hustle, interviews
with taste makers, and personal conversations on how to highlight
achievable style. You con stroll one street at a time,
Boulevard Beat proves the one.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You should take. Today.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We are welcomed by Ginger Curtis, founder and CEO of
Urbanology Designs. She is the author of Beauty by Design
and a sought after speaker in design.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
And lifestyle authority expert.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Her work has been featured in prominent national magazines and books.
In the episode, we talk about how peace is the
new prosperity and how beauty is found in restoration. Her
organic luxury and tears are designed forward and support the
weight you live.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Welcome Ginger, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I have to say I was very touched and moved
the first time I met you. You were a guest
on one of my panels and I was able to
hear a little bit about your story and then read
your book, which is fascinating and a different type of
design book. I sort of feel like for anybody who's listening,
you're going to maybe redefine what home means to them,
(01:25):
because you certainly did for me when I heard your story.
So let's get into it by having you tell us
about your circumstances of growing up in the street and
house that you grew up in.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I love that. I love that. That question is very unique.
I've never been asked like with the street that I
grew up on and kind of that, But it was.
It was called Little Ranch Road, and I was one
of seven kids, the second oldest, four girls and three
boys in that order, and I was very very close
to my siblings. I feel like they were I was
like a mother hen and they were my little ducklings,
(01:57):
and I was always looking after them, and I feel
like I had to because we grew up in a
lot of abuse in our home and a lot of
neglect and also poverty. It was actually a very very
sad place, unfortunately. And so that was sort of the
very youngest age where I remember my home environment and
my physical surroundings affecting me, and of course it was
(02:20):
everything from the abuse of the poverty, but also the
walls that were yellowish brown, and the brown floor and
the leaky, drippy faucets and the yellow stains and the
faucets and the fluorescent lighting. Like everything I can it's
like it was yesterday. I can see it so clearly,
and it all kind of, you know, weaves into the
picture of just a lot of the trauma that we
survived during those younger years of my life.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Well, I think that's so interesting because again, you are
really kind of redefining what the home looks like in
that space. And I felt a little guilty after hearing
your story because I think in this industry so often
we you know, especially at the high end level, talking
about making homes beautiful, and sometimes we don't think about
(03:05):
them other than a place to display those treasures that
we've collected and those pieces that define us. But really
not every house is necessarily a happy home. Yeah, And
so you came into creativity through some adversity, So what
led you to this field?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Really, it's so amazing how there's so many connections and
ties to my childhood and I feel like growing up
in sort of a house where there was a lot
of pain. There wasn't a lot of safety. There wasn't
a lot of refuge, you know, because a home, really
it must be more than a structure. It has to
serve you, has to nurture you, it has to protect you.
And mine didn't. And so my little childlike heart at
(03:46):
that time thought, well, I've got to find it. And so,
you know what, I created it. And it started by
building little forts and cardboard boxes that I would find
left out by the trash. And it was the winter time,
and I remember taking the cardboard boxes and setting them
up to the exterior dryer vent so that me and
my siblings could stay warm, and it was happier than
being in the house, even though we were still miserably cold.
(04:08):
And the cardboard walls would fall down from time to time,
that they would evolve over time. And I remember one
day when I found just down like a trail, a thicket,
a wooded area was like a hideaway, and the tangled
tree branches sort of made this rooftop canopy, and I
started to build a fort there. And so I was
always building little mini sanctuaries for myself and for my siblings.
(04:31):
It's at the youngest age, I realized somehow that my
environment was impacting me in these places, these forts make
me happy. And I think that was a little baby
designer ginger in there, right, just just connecting to my
nature and something that would bring a sense of peace
and a sense of calm. And so I really do
have to point back to those childhood days, realizing that
(04:54):
it was the refuges that I created for myself and
my brothers and sisters that really sort of plant something
deep inside me that I never grew out of. And
now I just build forts, but they're called homes and
they're for people. You know, I'm still building forts today, Yeah,
just a different kind of form, for sure. It's a
different kind of fort. Yeah, it's you know, when life
felt out of control, I found ways to build small
(05:17):
pockets of beauty that made me feel safe. And I
also just remember thinking how it would impact my siblings
to take them out of the house and from an
abusive father. And you know, we were always constantly hungry,
but you know, being in the woods and playing in
our little forts, and I remember I would still hand
me baby blankets that my grandmother had made for us.
It was the only real treasure that I had, but
(05:39):
I took it to my most treasured place and it
was I was really trying to create a sense of home.
And here I am, all these years later, doing that
now and having the privilege to really do it for
our clients as well. And you can see why. You know,
the store of my story is layered right. It starts here,
but then it goes into some other things, some adversity
that happened later on and light that would really kind
(06:01):
of launch my business.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Well and Ginger, you know, I think we all want
a sense of belonging and that's what our home does.
And you learned that at such an early age, and
you've worked on your own home. You renovated it during
a time that many would consider be an opportunitieson of life.
We all know renovations are difficult and tough and grueling.
So to do it when the circumstances aren't great, I'm
(06:23):
sure was a hard time as well. What sparked the
renovation and how did it help you?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, that's it's my favorite question, because this is really
what ended up launching the firm. But to answer that question,
we would go back in time a little bit, and
it was when my daughter who is now fourteen years old,
was diagnosed with leukemia, and we found ourselves across the
country at Saint Jude, and we were staying at a
Ronald McDonald house. And I get it like their number
one goal was to provide a place for these families
(06:50):
and to try to keep these children alive. Great goal,
like one hundred percent. But what was happening was this
environment was the most depressing, the saddest place I had
probably ever been. And again it was back to brown
walls and fluorescent lighting and brown, cold tile floors, and
it was just it was the least aesthetic place on
the planet. And I was already sad and fighting for
(07:11):
my daughter and from my own sanity. And I don't
necessarily know how conscious it was. Look ninety five percent
of our brain's awareness is tucked away into subconscious. So
you walk into a space and you're you're either releasing
dopamine or you're releasing cortisol. And I am convinced during
that season, my body was just flooded with cortisol. And
then one afternoon we got invited to a brand new ONN.
(07:32):
McDonald house that had just opened around the corner, and
it was a little luncheon and I walked in. I
had Avery in my arms, and I'll never forget, like
my eyes just immediately welled with tears, and this huge,
broad grin came across my face and I just stared
and looked around and I was like, wait, what, what
is this actual place? And how is this possible? And
it was just beautiful. It was colors and it was creativity.
(07:56):
I could see a library room in the distance with
Florida ceiling, bookshelves of all colors and color blocking and
color drenching like things I didn't even know back then,
but man, my eyes were just were just taking it
all in. And there was a piano library with a
chandelier made at a guitars, I mean, on another level
of beauty and creativity. And it was the first time
I felt myself smile and I can't even remember how long.
(08:18):
And so the reason why I bring that up is
that was kind of the first time where I really
started to understand the shift but in environments and how
that would affect us, and so Avery, you know, she's
a total miracle. Praise God. She survived her treatment. We
get back home and not long after I am diagnosed
(08:39):
with a very aggressive breast cancer that had spread. And
this is when I decide to gut renovate my house.
And I'll answer your question of why why did you
do this during this really difficult time, and it's because
in my pain and in my trauma and my suffering,
my instinct was to surround myself with beauty. And that's
(09:00):
exactly what I did. And I had a bald head
and a bandana and a clipboard and a pencil and
a cell phone, and you know, I was boss at
all those contractors around trying to figure everything out. And
I was just convinced that my home was going to
help nurture me, heal me, uplift me, and it was
also going to do the same for my family. I
wasn't the only ones suffering in the situation. My husband
(09:22):
was devastated, my kids needed their mom, and so in
this time, you know, I really created a sanctuary for
all of us. And it ended up really changing my
life because I started to have this awareness with Avery's
diagnosis of the time it got to me, it was
just overwhelming, and that's really what launched my design firm.
I was on the tail end of chemo when my
(09:43):
hair just started growing back. Because I had transitioned to
other kinds of treatments where my hair was growing, I
started to get my energy back, and I thought to myself, Wow, gosh,
you really actually shouldn't have to be fighting for your life.
For your home to heal you, to nurture you, to
inspire you. Your home should do that at every season
of your life. And I thought, I'm going to do this,
(10:06):
and I'm going to do it for other people, and like,
let's go.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I think it's interesting too that you did this while
you were going through all of this, only because sometimes
when we're going through adversity, you know, our friends, our family,
they want to keep us distracted and they're like, oh,
let's go out, or let's let me take you here,
and sometimes you're just not in the mood for it.
Sometimes you just want to be at home and stay home.
So to have that environment be comforting and beautiful around you,
(10:32):
I think is so important because sometimes that's really just
where you want to be.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
It's one hundred percent like I just instinctively knew my
environment would either drain me or it would sustain me.
And you know, I also have to say that there
was something to be said about having something to focus
on that put a little bit of wind in my cells.
And there was a lot of judgment we faced. I mean,
my husband was constantly having to protect from people who
were why would you let Ginger do this?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Why?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Like this is the worst time in your lives And
he said, because you know, you don't know her. What
what deflates one person's batteries puts wind in the sale
of someone else's. And I'm really grateful to my husband
because gosh, man, that was a tough sell right there. Hey, babe,
can we spend a whole bunch of money and totally
gut renovate our house? And I have no energy and
(11:16):
I'm fighting for my life, but this is a great idea.
And then it just start like the floodgates opened really
after that in so many ways well, and it's just
a true testament of what items you're surrounded with, both
the home decor and just how your spaces make you feel.
And I think when you learned that from the Ronald
McDonald's house, it was easy to know that this will
help me get better, and it gave you that motivation
(11:37):
to get to enjoy and love the space. I'm sure
as well, absolutely, Ginger, you have little ones at home,
I do as well. I'm sure you always get faced
with that question of how do you have such nice
things around there? How do your kids keep them clean
and safe? And it still looks so beautiful all the time.
It's important to keep in mind for the spaces so
their environments are safe and filled with comfort in addition
(11:59):
to being enchanting. I think a home that's peaceful is
safe and comfortable no matter what. And there's different ways
that we create peace. I think first of all, it's
how do we talk to each other in our homes right?
And what is the language? What is the mood? What
is the tone? Do kids come home and they're really
kind of sassy to mom and dad even when they're
in bad mood or you know? It kind of like
all of it, you know. And then of course this
set an environment, and there's things that I have learned
(12:22):
to do that visually create peace and comfort. And it's
so cool after all these years to raise little kids
and see my little kids turn to bigger kids. I
have five kids ranging now from eleven to twenty five
years old, so I've had a chance to sort of
start to see the impact of how they've been raised
in a kind of I would say, a very unique environment,
(12:42):
especially compared to a lot of their friends and things
and some cool stories that they have come back over
the years and told me. But I never believed or
believe in a pretentious home. A home has to be comfortable.
Like sometimes pillows would fly and sometimes children would fly
from a cat it was so, you know, to a
chair to a poof on the ground. Man, if there's
(13:04):
anything like a poof, okay, it's a gymnastic gymnasium situation,
one hundred percent, you know. And I just I just
made space for it. I would push the coffee table
over a little bit or whatever, and I just I
wanted my kids to live in the home. And you know,
not a whole lot of things broke, but but if
they did, I was like, okay. I had a very
lighthearted approach to all of it. And then I taught
(13:25):
them and trained them. Hey when you're when I taught
my little two year old to like kind to kick
off their little baby shoesies before they climbed on my
beautiful sofa. I didn't just let them like run around
on the sofa with their shoes on. And get it
all dirtied up, you know. And it was kind of
a rule too of like, hey, you cannot eat your
dinner and your spaghetti on the sofa. That's what the
dining table's for. And so we always had habits and
(13:47):
we still do to this day. We eat dinner together
around the dining table. And it's so crazy how it
almost feels so old fashioned in the world that we
live in because we're such a fast paced We're going
the sports, everything kind of dominates. But it's one of
the things kind of talking about the sort of banner
of peace in the home, and it's how we sort
of structured our lives and the things that we've really
(14:08):
had to fight for to protect, and then the ways
that I just had to offer grace to myself and
to my kids to say, this is a home and
it has to be comfortable and you should be able
to live in it.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
It's just teaching them respect early on, and they treat
their environments that way too.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Now, Ginger, your aesthetic leans a little bit more modern.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I know, as designers were always working for clients and
tailoring to what they want, but it's always good to
infuse a little of your style and design as well.
Your style is sculptural with clean silhouettes and an organic
light talent. What is it that has made you attracted.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
To this style? So I think it goes back to
being exposed to nature and beauty in nature as a child.
And so I talked a little bit about the abuse
and the chaos, but one of the things that I
feel like really saved me as a little girl was
getting to go to my grandparents' house every three months
out of the year for the entire summer, and they
my mom would take seven little ducklings on an Amtrak
(15:05):
train and it would take three days to get from
Texas to California, where they lived. And not only did
they live in the sunny hills of California, they lived
in Carmel. So I grew up spending my summers as
a child in the foothills of Carmel and Monterey and
camping and hiking in Big sur and playing on pebble
beach and in the sand. To say that it changed
(15:28):
me is really an understatement. And so I wouldn't know
until I became this grown up girl the words for
what I was experiencing. And it's really something called neurosthetics,
and it's this big scientific word, but really what it
is is the study of our brain. It's really how
beauty and design affect our brain, our emotions, and our
well being. And so as a little girl, I was
(15:49):
experiencing this and it's just it's like it imprinted on
my heart, it imprinted on my soul. And so when
I grew up and I and I was able to
start designing my own home and then build a brand,
it was always rooted out of this place, this imprint
that felt both organic and structured. And what's so cool
was like you can see that in my designs. You
(16:09):
can see it. It's you see the structure, you see
the form, you see the layout, but then you see
sort of free form, flowing organic and there's just this
mix of both, this this play of colors, this play
of breaking the rules sometimes and it's like that's exactly
what nature does. And so yeah, and neuroesthetics, like the
essence of it is both of those things structure paired
(16:31):
with organic. And it turns out that our brains are
hardwired too long for both of these things. And there's
something in nature called a fractal pattern, and it's a
pattern that's reoccurring at different scale, so a fire, the
flames of a fire, or fractal pattern, a tree icicle,
all these different things, and we can bring these patterns
(16:51):
into our home and it really it nurtures us, it
serves us. So scientific studies have shown that a fractal
pattern can reduce stress levels. Are you ready for this
can reduce stress levels by sixty percent. So when you
incorporate views of nature, when you bring in patterns from nature,
like the wood grain in your floor, that's a fractal pattern.
(17:12):
And so we're gravitating to these things on the subconscious level.
But now the science community and medical community have caught
up and over the last day, Kady've really really really
begun to study this. And so I always kind of
say that it's so it was always really cool to
me that my innate design style was just always kind
of rooted in neurosthetics and the principles of that and
(17:35):
then of course nature. That's so fascinating, and it's interesting
to hear that because now that I look at your work,
it all completely makes sense, and you've achieved that beautifully
and harmonically in your work very much. So you know,
we also.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Love to talk about little parts of your day that
make you spark. It sounds like your influence of nature
and different things, or that favorite cup of coffee or
tea to add that little boat to your day.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But we would like to know what are your little luxuries?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
How are they different during times of adversity than when
life is just going smoothly. Yeah, I do love this question,
and I think my answer might be interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What I consider a luxury? And so in the mornings,
I get up really early. The house is still quiet
before my kids are up. It's dark, and there's something
about the stillness and the quiet, and I sit down
and I have I spend time with the Lord. I
read the Word and I just I have, you know,
thirty minutes of just complete quiet. And it's like I
view that my relationship with God like a friendship. And
(18:35):
it's almost like I'm getting to sit down in the
morning and have a cup of coffee with a friend
and I that is that feels like a luxury to me.
And the only way I've been able to do that
is to make it a priority. The other thing that
I also feel like just is a way that I
nourish and take care of myself. I prioritize getting to
the gym every single day. I enjoy it. Now I've
(18:57):
created a habit of it, so I kind of like
it's almost I don't even have to think about it.
I just find myself putting on my running shoes because
I was like, well, I've obviously got to go to
the gym because this is a part of my daily routine.
And then other things like a sauna. We bought one
of those, like barrel saunas, and it is the coolest
thing in the whole back walls glass and it looks
out into like the woods where I live. And I
(19:18):
do the sauna every single week, and I am telling you,
I sleep like a baby. It's releasing toxins, it's great
for your skin, putting in your your body into like
a little slight state of dehydration and then hydrating after.
I mean, there's all these health benefits to it. And
so that is man talk about stress levels going from
death con five to you know, almost zero. For me,
(19:41):
the sauna is one of the things. And then lastly,
I am a nutcase about going to the foot spat
and I having my foot, my feet rubbed, having my
shoulders rubbed, have it, you know, and and just that
that physical touch. When I have a lot of tension
and a lot of stress, I carry it all in
my back and my shoulders, and sometimes when it gets bad,
I'll get kind of chronic headaches. And my husband's like,
(20:03):
go to the foot spall because he knows that they're
kind of rub my shoulders and get that stress out,
you know. And I used to feel guilty about that
for the longest time, and I was like, man, this
is literally a part of my healthcare system and routine
for my life. I will never not go to the footspall,
God willing, because it really actually it really helps me.
And so yeah, those are just a few of the
(20:23):
things that I do.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
That's so nice.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And I think sometimes we all have our things that
are more medicinal for us than regular medicine that we've
been told to take when something goes.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Awry on our body. So I'm all for that.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Ginger. It's important to have beauty inside the home, but
it's also important to have beauty when you escape to
a different environment. We want to know all about urbanology, cottage.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Oh gosh, this is a really really fun one. This
was an opportunity for me to invite other people into
a space. I can't invite the world into my client's home, right,
And so to create something that people could book and
they could get a little getaway and they could experience neurosthetics,
they could experience an environment that felt deeply enriching and
intentional and then think to themselves like, oh my gosh,
(21:09):
like should I really have to be going away to
get this feeling or should I be inspired to incorporate
this in my own home? And so the Urbanology Cottage
is a really unique airbnb tucked away in weather for
Texas and this very very very charming Texas town. It's
not far from like the historical downtown square and the
courthouse and all of those things. But the cottage itself
(21:30):
is layered and full of so many detailed moments. The
whole thing is meant to be an immersion, an experience.
And when I say an experience, I'm not talking about
the things that you expect, like the beautiful sofa and
the throw and the pillows and the gorgeous lighting. I'm
talking about like every nook and cranny, every cabinet you open.
If you go and open up underneath the sink and
(21:51):
you go to reach for a scrubber or a pod
for the dishwasher, It's going to be beautiful. The canisters
are glass with cork lids and just scrubbers are made
out of would and everything from a tactile to a
texture to a visual there's no hidden chaos or junk.
It's like the whole house literally is an experience. And
(22:12):
I just can't even begin to tell you what a
delight it was. I mean, it was probably one of
my most favorite things to do, is to create this space.
And then people write these comments in the guestbook and
they leave reviews, and you can tell they're lost for words.
They're trying to articulate the profound effect this space had
on them. And of course I know, especially with studying
(22:33):
neuroasthetics and all the things, I'm like, oh, I know
exactly what's going on, you know, and it's special and
very rewarding to be able to share that with other people.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Well, that sounds like a trip that I really want
to take. So you told us the town, what big
Texas city is it near?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Okay? This is perfect. It's thirty minutes outside of Fort Worth.
Everybody knows we're fort worth Is. It's called the Urbanology Cottage,
and it's you can book it directly, you can book
it on AIRBA be in all the different places, and
it's just it really is an immersive experience and a getaway.
It's fantastic for girls trip or a couple's getaway or
(23:10):
I mean, gosh, you name it. It's just it's a delightful
place to be wonderful.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
That's that's great that you created that and built that.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Ginger.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I found a lovely phrase on your website and it
read you are worthy of beauty, dream of it, plan
for it again. I said this sort of at the
early part of our discussion, but there can be a
certain level of guilt that comes with this industry sometimes
because you know, when we're picking out a pillow or wallpaper,
it can seem a bit frivolous. So my guess is
(23:41):
that you have different thoughts about that idea. Please elaborate
on your theory of everyone being worthy of beauty.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Oh boy, do I have thoughts. Beauty should not be
a rare experience and this is such an important topic.
And I feel like we carve, we paint, we plant,
we build, Bill and it's not just for function. It's
because our souls recognize beauty as a form of order
in a very chaotic world. I mean, we know that
like anxiety and stress levels and mental health and all
(24:11):
the things that we're fighting, and we know through not
just neurosthetics, right, neurothetics and the study really proves it,
but even even past that, instinctually, I think that we
know that beauty has power and it does. It regulates
emotions at lower stress levels, and it even supports healing.
And I think that you know, when you talk about
(24:31):
beauty from that way, it shouldn't be this untangible, this
unreachable luxury that's only for a select few. It's really
for everybody, and it should be. And I think that
it's in our DNA. We are wired, I mean, we
are absolutely wired to long for it and it's essential.
And I think what happens over time is, look, we
gravitate towards what's familiar. And sadly, if I had stayed
(24:55):
a little girl who had never got to escape to
the foothills of Carmel and got to experience nature and
different things, I don't know that I would have known
what was out there. I might have just accepted, you know,
the cheap plastic blinds and the yellow, brownish walls and
the fluorescent lighting. And I might have stayed in environments
that always look like that because that was familiar. And
I think what happens, and what I even see today
(25:17):
is people live in darkness, they live with their blinds drawn,
they live and clutter, they live in, you know, in
some sense of chaos. And it always astonishes me is
that people are not always immediately aware that their environments
can be a little chaotic or dark or cluttered. And
what that is doing, It is having an impact. Right again,
(25:37):
we talked about this earlier, about ninety five percent per
cent of our brains awarenesses and subconscious That is affecting
your health, your emotions, your psyche, your mood, your level
of focus every single day. And if you think about
the compounding effect of walking into your home over a decade,
over two decades, and how that affects your health and
your well being, well that starts to become a really
powerful conversation. So when I say that your word of beauty,
(26:01):
I mean it is essential.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Well, it's something that humans obviously want. We've been making
things more beautiful since the beginning of time. And you know,
you think about who was the first person who went
outside and clipped some flowers because they thought, I want
to bring these indoors and enjoy them in here as well.
You know, we cut flowers as something that we don't
even think about today, but a way that is so
(26:23):
easy to add beauty into the day. And somebody thought
of that first hundreds of years, hundreds and hundreds of
years ago. So beauty is not new, and everybody is
deserving of that ginger that segues perfectly into this next question,
where again it's easy to get caught up with the
aesthetics of the individual design components, be it a pillow
(26:43):
or wallpaper or a beautiful silhouette. But you know, more
than anyone, how home stretches far deeper than that. So
in an industry that's really about art, it's about creativity,
and oftentimes definitions are blurred. What does home mean to you? You?
How do you define home.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
In its highest form? Home is a reflection of who
we are and who we are becoming. And I always
say that we elevate ourselves to the level of our environment,
and that's powerful. It's at home as a space that
holds our most sacred moments. It's where we lay down
our burdens, it's where we breathe deeply and beauty. It's
not just surface level indulgence. It's a tool for creating
(27:24):
peace and stability in a chaotic world. And so when
you think about that and your home being the place
that houses those things, then you start to look at
home very differently. And after everything that I've walked through,
I see home as a place of healing, grounding, and
literally transformation, So not just for myself but for those
who I designed for, and it's given me this just
profound perspective of how important it is to surround ourselves
(27:48):
with homes that are beautiful and intentional at every level,
at every demograph, at every like, wherever you're at, like,
there are things that you can do today that can
bring beauty in order into your home. It doesn't have
to be expensive.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I do run a love interior design firm. That's that's
the niche in the world that that I serve. But man,
these principles, these are for everybody, and everybody should know
and feel they have permission and understand at the deepest
level that they are worthy of beauty, and it should
be personal, it should be deeply personal. That's a whole,
a whole nother story. It's it's a pillar of neurosthetics,
you know, so neurosthetics, it's color, psychology, it's it's pattern,
(28:22):
it's scale and space planning. But then it's also personal
memories and belongings and what's meaningful to you because beauty is,
you know, the beholder as beauty, you know, is like
how is that relative to each person? And it's both right.
There are things that we know that are beautiful to everybody,
like we were talking about fractal patterns, and then there's
also things that like I might want to put my
(28:43):
grandfather's old, beat up red violin on the mantle because
every time I look at it, it brings me joy.
And those are the things that we cannot negate and forget.
To personalize our homes with things that are quirky and
weird and special and that painting that I don't know
if I love it or like it from Uncle so
and so, you know, and embrace these things that spark memories,
(29:06):
that spark joy, and not to feel like our homes
need to be plug and play. We want our homes
to feel personal and curated. We want them to truly
be a reflection of that, and I think sometimes people
don't always feel like they have permission to really deeply
personalize their homes. They're almost trying to check a box
and like get it to look like a picture or
a catalog or a Pinterest image, you know, And I'm like, oh, no, no, no,
(29:26):
no no, don't do it that way. You know, it
can be so much more meaningful than that.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Well, and I do think it is meaningful, and that's
what as designers we do. But it's the best compliment
when you walk into a space and it looks just
like the homeowner and the client, and you know it
has more layers of the story and the history of
who they are. Ginger, you talked about checking off boxes,
and you've done quite a few checks in your boxes
as well, a book author off the list, and you've
(29:53):
even created a destination where people can visit what's next
for you?
Speaker 2 (29:58):
WHOA what's next? Okay, So we just launched a lighting
collection with Blueprint Lighting, and that's really really exciting, and
I feel like there may be some more happenings to
come in the world of furnishings in decre and so
keep an eye out for that. And then we're working
on some things that have to do with the media
world that are pretty bananas that I and you know
(30:22):
touch base with me in just a minute or two
what I can share. But there's honestly all that to say, ladies,
there's just some really exciting things. And what's happening right now,
the things that we're working on is going to allow
us to take these pillars of neurosthetics and this passion
and the heart of the home really to more people
at every level. And that I'm deeply excited about. I
(30:44):
feel like I don't have a career. I feel like
this is a life's calling for me and I believe
in it so deeply. And I love our industry. I
love the people in this industry. I feel like we
worked so hard and we suffer together, we laugh and
cry together, we have successes to and it's just such
a beautiful and worthy community. We get to be in
a space where people come together and really understand why
(31:07):
we're obsessive about the things that we're obsessive about, because
it's so meaningful and we care so deeply. I love
hearing that, because then you can touch so many more
lives getting to share all your knowledge about science. How
that goes into inter your design as well too.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
And I'm especially excited because I love looking at your
lighting on your website. Your work is just beautiful. So
excited to see that collection as well.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Thank you, Ginger.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
We always like to ask the same questions at the
end of our episode, and the next one is what
is the beat that keeps you going?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I have to say, hands down, without even like a
second thought, no close second. God is the beat that
keeps me going. He's the rhythm beneath everything I do,
the steady pulse that reminds me of why I create,
why I serve, and why keep moving forward. And I
feel like that relationship is for me. It's the piece.
It's the piece that surpasses understanding and what I have
(31:59):
come to learn in my I feel like an old
lady at this point. I feel like I've lived so
many lifetimes, but but what I have learned is that
peace is the new prosperity.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Peace is the new prophet. That's the beat that keeps
me going. I love that. That's very endearing to hear.
And finally, what does your perfect boulevard look like?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Oh, it's a street where because it's a boulevard, right,
So I'm thinking of a street, and it's it's where
history meets renewal, where the past. The past isn't a
race but transform. I love taking something that's old or forgotten,
or something that was overlooked and transforming it. And so
(32:37):
I believe that beauty is often found in restoration and
what people pass by, and they don't always, they don't
always see the value in it. Our firm was once
an old, abandoned fire station. It's sat vacant for years, dilapidated,
and to breathe new life into it and to create
something really special with so rewarding. And so my perfect
boulevard isn't just visually stunning. It's a story of redemption,
(33:00):
of revival and the power second chances. Because that's the
story of my life, is literally the power of second chances.
And so it's got to be it's got to be
the old and the new, and not bypassing something so
seemingly unimportant or unworthy, because there's just treasure everywhere. If
we'll just pause and take note.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Well, thank you, Ginger. That was so lovely and this
was a very special episode today hearing about the science
and your story has something that maybe had some tragedies
and some traumas really grew into something alife that's so
beautiful and lovely, and we are so grateful to you
for sharing your story with our audience.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I really appreciate the opportunities with fun Ladies.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Boulevard Beat.
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow along and leave
a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen
so you never miss an episode, And of course follow
your hosts on Instagram at Megan bloom Interiors, at Chris A. Rossbund,
and at Liz Legit. We'll be back next week as
we take a stroll down another boulevard
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