Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kf I am six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp
the house Whisper on demand on the iHeart radio app.
What does it mean to be a house whisperer, by
the way, Well, I'm still trying to figure that out.
It was a nickname that was given to me, not
something that we went looking for as a brand name
for us. But at some point it made sense to
(00:22):
just say, you know what, it wouldn't be a good,
bad idea to kind of hold on to that as
a brand. But we didn't come up with it ourselves. Obviously.
It comes from a tradition of certain individuals who do
whispery kind of things, horse whisperers, dog whispers, that kind
of stuff. I can tell you this house whispering, it's
(00:44):
a lot like helping somebody become a healthier person. It
means when it comes to your home, finding a way
to see beyond its design shortcomings, the alteration traumas that
it has suffered at the hands of others, and somehow
find a way to connect it, sometimes for the first
time ever, by the way to the best version of
(01:06):
itself and to the land that it's built upon, and
to the best life. Most importantly the best life of
its occupants, and that is when a house becomes a home,
and home is what we're all about here. So there
you have it. Now today we're doing that in a
very very specific way. I've been talking about making great introductions,
(01:27):
these introductory spaces, and every home has at least four
or five of these spaces. Everybody has four of them.
You have five if you've got a second floor and
as a result, have a stairway, but it's the pathway
to the front door, the foyer, or the entryway, whatever
you want to call it. Hallways leading various places in
the house, a stairway if it leads you upstairs, and
(01:49):
pathways into the rear yard. The primary job of these
spaces are to make a great introduction four and to
set up what's to come. But if we don't realize
that that's their job, we don't take advantage of it.
That way, we treat them very much like neglected kind
of utilitarian spaces. And if we do that and we
(02:10):
don't realize how important they can be in the big picture,
then we won't hold them accountable for doing their job well.
And that's a shame, because when they do their job well,
it makes a huge, huge difference. Now we've talked about
the pathway to the front door, mostly that for most
of you want you to consider creating a pathway to
(02:32):
the front door that romantically winds through your lawn and
garden area and not up your driveway. Okay, not up
the servants' access, all right, and think of it in
those terms. Everybody chuckles when I say the driveway that's
the servants entry. That's yeah, that's for you as the homeowner.
And but do you think about, like, oh, I'm starting
(02:55):
my guest's journey to my home by forcing them to
walk across the park a lot. No, no, not if
you have other options. So if we're really maximizing what
your home can do, we're going to create a different
pathway up to the front door, and then we're really
going to think about what is happening along that pathway
all the way along. Now I wish, I mean, I
could take the entire show and talk about nothing but
(03:17):
that front entryway. But this is kind of you know,
we're skimming along the surface, and we're hitting all these
points so that you can start processing them. So I
want to move on. Now we've gotten to the front door,
and we're taking the first steps inside the house, and
that puts us in the foyer or the entryway. Now,
the entryway is a very very unique space. There's really
(03:38):
none other than the entryway that is exactly like it
in your home. It's kind of an emotional airlock between
outside and inside. And what I mean by that is
a it's a bit of punctuation. It's a place where
you step in and you pause, or you are a pause,
(04:01):
and you know that when you're there, Well, you've just
been invited into somebody's home. You're inside their home, but
you're not really in in their home because you haven't
been drawn into one of the rooms yet. You're just
standing in the entryway. And that's good for them and
it's good for you because it's this kind of intermediate space. Right,
(04:22):
it's not outside and it's not fully inside. Again, it's
a transitional space and it's an introduction, sort of an
emotional air lock between the two. And so the question becomes,
how do we set this up so that it has
the biggest impact. Well, there are some simple questions to
be asked there. Do we enter in the center of
the entryway, and I know I'm not going to get
(04:42):
on my whole thing about double doors. You've heard me
talk about double entry doors before. I have nothing against
a double entry door other than the fact that in
plan view they look great right because they're centered up
in the entryway or on the porch. But in reality
they offer an experience that is different than what they promise,
(05:04):
because nobody opens two doors at once to greet your guests.
Everybody comes through the left or the right side door.
You know this is the case. You know that other
door has not been opened since you're moved in, or
since the new refrigerator got delivered, and it probably won't
be opened again until you move out. So yeah, So
the only issue I have with double entry doors, especially
if you have a small entryway, is that you're already
(05:28):
making me do work because I get to I have
to enter from the side, okay, not the center. And
I'm sure in your entry way that the chandelier is
centered and everything is centered, but I am not centered
when I enter in, so I don't get that full benefit.
So uh, you know, please don't run out and just
replace your double entry door, because I told you that
(05:49):
it's been lying to you all these years. But I
will tell you this. If that's in the remodel scope
that you're thinking about, give it some serious thought about
out an oversized single entry door that lines your guests
up so that they walk in, especially in a small
entry so I'm not squeezed against one wall or the
(06:10):
other as I walk in. I get to just step
into the middle of the entryway where it's most emotionally
comfortable and spacious for me. That makes sense, I hope.
So so that's your first step along the way. The
second thing in there is the question of you know,
the lighting, Where is the lighting, how low is the lighting?
This is an you know, some entryways have exceptionally low ceilings,
(06:34):
and when that's the case, we don't want to put
anything hanging down there in addition to it. Okay, some
can be raised so that they have a higher ceiling.
But here's the thing. If you've got a more vaulted
or raised ceiling and you've got a chandelier hanging in
the entryway, don't hang that chandelier too low. I am
six foot three. When I stand flat footed, barefoot, my
(06:55):
fingertips can touch the top of an eight foot ceiling.
I use myself as a guide. This all the time.
I tell people, don't allow me to walk into your
home barefoot. And if I can reach up and touch
your chandelier, it is too low. It is too low.
It needs to go up another foot or two at
the least. Okay, get that chandelier on up out of there.
(07:17):
Give me a reason to look up if you have.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
A higher ceiling. Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So the lighting should not be in my face. It
should not be down low where I feel like I
need to duck as I walk into your home. Okay.
And I want to enter from the center. And I
also want to make sure that I'm not having to
walk around something. Now what does that mean? Well, we'll
talk about that right on the other side of this break.
You are Home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
We're talking about introductory spaces today from a design perspective,
a little bit of a design show today. The designers
were walking him out. We're getting giving him some air,
letting him talk a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Today.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
The builder in me is standing by to trounce on
him when he makes any stupid comments that can't be
done but other than that, the designer gets a little
bit of free rein today because these are such such
critically important spaces. These introductory are transitional spaces. So we've
talked about the pathway up to the front door. We've
been talking about the entryway, the foyer possibly the most
(08:23):
important of these transitional spaces because their first impression kind
of things as we come in. Talked about whether or
not your front door pays off its promise of putting
you in the center of the entryway. How do you enter?
How is the lighting in there? Is it too low?
Is the chandelier hanging too low? If it's a higher ceiling.
If it's a low ceiling, you shouldn't have a chandelier
(08:44):
in there. You should maybe sconces on the wall. Maybe
if they're not feeling intrusive, like I got to walk
around them or they're glaring in my face. If you
have a higher ceiling, you have a chandelier, but that
chandelier needs to be up high, up high, so that
I don't walk in, And it did. It did kind
of uh counteracts your your vaulted ceiling by hanging a
(09:07):
chandelier at eight feet Okay, Uh, So wherever the lowest
hanging thing in a ceiling is typically that's how tall
the ceiling is. Psychologically for people, they just don't want
to look up higher than that, and they're going to
set their level there. So you can you can completely
deactivate the effect of a tall vaulted ceiling by having
a chandelier hanging too low in it. Right, So, anyway,
(09:29):
that's the thing. Right before the break, I said, do
I have to walk around something as I come in
your entway? In other words, am I already doing an
obstacle course? Because if I am, then I'm already You're
already giving me the impression that this house is small
and or cluttered and there isn't a lot of spaciousness
in room for me to just move. And what I
mean by that is the classic uh you know there,
(09:50):
you know, we've got a little table in the entryway,
a little mirror, maybe a little buffet table, a little
place to you know, to set shoes or whatever the
case may be. None of that is bad, It's all
well and good. I just want you to track, maybe
for the first time ever, the pathway from the door
in across the entryway. Do I have to sidestep or
(10:12):
take notice of this table or whatever is sitting in there,
and do I have to account for it or can
I just kind of relaxedly walk straight on through and
not worry about it. If I'm walking by it, fine,
if I'm walking around it, it shouldn't be there, okay,
just as a general design rule for that entryway, that
(10:32):
transition space, and lastly for this entryway. And there's so
many things we could talk about, but I'm just trying
to hit the high points here when I step in.
And by the way, this is the problem across the board,
from the lowliest and humblest of abodes all the way
up to the biggest and fanciest of estate homes. I
see this problem constantly as I stand in the front
(10:55):
door and I open the door and I step into
the entryway, and I make myself ask this question, and
you should as well. What am I being directed to
look at? What am I looking at? What exactly all
do I see?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I have some very dear friends who have a big,
beautiful home and a lovely wide entryway, and when I'm
standing in through it in the entryway, I can see
a couple of service doors, I can see a hallway,
I can see partly into a dining room and living room,
but I can also see partly into a kitchen. Really
in a really big, beautiful, spacious home. From the big
(11:34):
old entry door, I can see into your kitchen. Are
you sure about that? Talk about lowering the mood, right,
and maybe you're thrilled about that. Maybe you're like, hey,
I just want it all very relaxed.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
That's fine if you live in an open loft apartment, okay,
But for most of you, most of you would like
a little bit of tease, a little bit of pause,
a little bit of puncture. Would like to have somebody
have a moment when they're standing in the entryway. So
the question is what are we looking at and is
there a focal point? Is there one thing that we're
(12:11):
zeroing in on that kind of says hey, welcome and
sets up the introduction to our home and says, hey,
you're stepping into our home, and this is what we're about,
and this is the vibe and this is the feeling.
We were just in a home a couple of days
ago that did this brilliantly, a home down in the
Santa Ana, No not san justin entryway walked in the
(12:35):
front door, big glass windows out to the backyard and
a fountain sitting in the center. Just just stunning. Oh,
it just makes you feel so good, so good, And
not everybody can pull that off.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
But the idea is you've got to stand in your
entryway and ask the questions. Ask the questions of it,
make sure that it comes up with the right answers.
Otherwise you can make some shifts. Okay, enough on the entryway.
Let's walk down a hallway. The hallway is a grossly
missed opportunity in almost every home. On some level, hallways
(13:12):
are think about this. They're a pathway into the most
intimate part of your life and your home. What is
your hallway doing to set up that journey? Or is
it just darker and more uncomfortable as we go along?
And then finally we take the most uncomfortable step of
all across your bedroom door threshold. All right, we'll talk
(13:34):
about that on the other side, your Home with Dean Sharp,
the house Whisper.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
A little coughing fit there. All of a sudden, just
right before I had to get back on the air
a little leftover gift from COVID this last week. I
don't think it's so much. I'm not so bothered by
COVID when I'm right in the height of it, because
you know, you're sick, you're laying down, you're resting, you're
not doing anything, you're watching TV, you're trying to sleep whatever.
(14:05):
You know that it is what it is, right, it's
the dang long tail coming out of it just doesn't
let up. Just the days of fogginess and and tiredness.
And for me, if it gets anywhere near my lungs,
just a cough that just keeps incessant. It's actually not
in my lungs. Did not get in my lung hasn't.
(14:25):
Nothing's gotten in my lungs for a long long time,
which I'm very happy about. But the drip down the
throat that's trying to get in there, man, just sometimes
just yeah, you know, you know I'm preaching to the choir.
You guys know what I'm talking about. Anyway, Good morning,
Welcome to the program. I think I'm recovered now and
(14:47):
I'm ready to move on. We are talking about a
very important design issue today and bringing up something that
doesn't normally discussed, and that is transitional spaces in your home,
places that make great introductions. Pathway to the front door,
the foyer, the entryway. Now we're down the hallway. Hallway
is the third biggie. Okay, I'm not sure we've got
(15:07):
time today to get deep do a deep dive on stairs,
but we do a stairways show in the year anyway,
so we'll talk about that. The hallways. Hallways. Now, think
about this. A hallway is a utilitarian space to get
you from the main public areas down toward bedrooms and
(15:27):
other utility rooms or assessory rooms, those kinds of things.
But I want you to think about a hallway in
a different light. A hallway is leading you from the
more as I said, public spaces to the most intimate
arts of your home. And as a result, there's an
(15:48):
emotional burden on a hallway that it's either going to
do nothing to make you more comfortable about that journey,
or it's going to really make it Twice is uncomfortable
as it needs to be because it's dark and it's long,
and it's weirdly lit, or there's nothing in particular going
(16:10):
on in the hallway and you're just making this journey
to other people's spaces and other people's spaces, is you know,
something that we have to be really careful about entering
into and that we're always all of us a little
wary of emotionally, okay, or A hallway is doing everything
(16:31):
it can to take you on that journey and to
introduce you into that space so that you're as a
leaf uncomfortable as possible. And you know what I'm talking about.
You've all walked down a hallway and looked into somebody's bedroom,
even if the person you're looking for is in that room,
You've looked into their bedroom and you think about taking
a step into that room and you know, oh my gosh,
(16:52):
I'm entering this is so their space. I'm just h
you know, there's I mean, the most callous and emotionally
among us can recognize the fact that there's sometimes a
little bit of discomfort about stepping across a bedroom door
threshold into somebody's space.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Yeah, So the hallway, I've made my argument is an
important introduction and to that as we move down this
more intimate side of the home, what is the hallway
doing for you? What's it doing for me as your guest?
What's doing for anybody? Is it just bare walls? Is
just a random thing put up on the wall? Are
(17:32):
there pictures of the family up on the wall?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I hope?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
So it'd be a lovely place to do it. A
hallway is a perfect opportunity to become a gallery of sorts,
of more messaging and storytelling for you as a homeowner.
But also only if those stories are being well lit.
There's nothing as weird and uncomfortable as trying to focus
in on something that's on a wall in a dark, weird,
(17:56):
long hallway. So what do we do with hallways? Well,
we need that gallery effect. It's a perfect opportunity to
show things off. But in order to do that, we
need more natural light coming into a hallway. Okay, now
there's a trick, right natural light. How do we bring
more natural light into a hallway? Very few hallways come
(18:17):
built in with windows, right because they're in the middle
of the house. So typically if your hallway is in
the middle of the house and there are no windows,
maybe the most light that comes through it is from
the room you're leaving, which means your shadow is darkening
the hallway as you enter it, or the bathroom down
at the end of the hallway, and you hope that
(18:38):
bathroom door is open, because what little bit of light
is creeping through that bathroom is lighting the hallway. And
that's a little weird too. So what do we do
to get more natural light into the hallway itself? Well,
there are a couple of solutions. One of course, classically
the skylight. Okay, I love skylights. I'm not against skylights
at all. I'm not a huge fan of the poor
(19:00):
whole skylights, you know, you know the ones I'm talking about,
the little solo tube skylights. I have no problem with
the skylight itself and the tube coming down through the attic.
I just don't like the fact that it ends in
a giant, glaring kind of porthole thing. If we can
change the way that it makes its entry into the
hallway ceiling, fine, I have no issue with the solo
(19:23):
tube kind of thing, because they are an inexpensive and
pretty quickly effective way of bringing light into a space
like that. But let's juge up the final effect instead
of us the lens that they give us. Let's stop
it short. Let's create maybe a box, maybe a backlit
piece of glass up there that will transmit, or maybe
set it up higher up a shaft opening so that
(19:44):
we don't have to be looking straight up at that
glaring lens anyway. Putting that aside, skylights are a great
option for a hallway. Also, though, another great option if
you're thinking about changing out doors and windows in your home,
think about the idea of stealing natural light from all
(20:05):
those bedrooms that do have windows, bedrooms and baths on
both sides of the hallways that have windows to the outside.
If we use if we change out those hollow core
doors that I've been wanting you to get rid of,
and we change them out to single glazed glass, or
you could have divided light but glass paneled door, okay,
(20:26):
would frame around the outside and a glass panel door.
Now you're like, what about privacy, Well, the glass panel
door could be frosted glass. It could be privacy glass,
so that literally anything standing beyond an inch away from
this glass there is zero chance of seeing anything at all.
So total privacy when it comes to that. But guess
what you're doing with that privacy glass. You're letting all
(20:48):
the light from that bedroom and that bathroom into the
hallway and one door with glass on it from one
bedroom is not a whole lot to light up a hallway,
but four bedroom doors and a bathroom door all streaming
into the hallway. Now the hallway is this beautifully lit
with natural light during the day.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So the point is think about these options also at
night when it comes to that gallery effect. What are
those can lights doing in the hallway? I'll tell you
what they don't need to be doing. They don't need
to be right down the center of the hallway sticking
straight down to the floor. What they could be doing.
You can take the existing recess can lights that you
have and go and change out the trim to a
(21:32):
directional trim so that you can bend that light and
wash the walls with it. Light up the gallery images
and the photos and the artwork and the things, the
stories that you want to tell on those hallway walls.
Light them up with the down lights in the hallway,
and I promise you that light will hit those walls
(21:52):
and also bounce onto the floor so people will be
able to see the floor. I promise you they'll see
the floor. But you don't have to shove the light
straight down to the floor and ignore the walls along
the way. Brighten, Lighten, tell stories down the hallway. You
will change the way the entire house feels every time
(22:13):
you journey from a bedroom into the main house, and
every time somebody goes from the main house into a
more intimate space. All right, more on the other side
your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Here to remind you when it comes to transforming your home,
pump the brakes for a second.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
From calling the contractors.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Design matters most And yes, I am a designer, and
so a designer of custom home. So am I just
feathering my own bed by saying that, No, I am
also a builder of custom homes. I'm a general contractor,
have been for ever since before time, it seems at
this point. But I will tell you this. All I'm
(22:57):
saying is that is the design of the project produces
and funnels the materials and the workmanship and everything into
the right messages so that what you're doing to your
home really communicates. And without the design, you can have
great craftsmanship. You can have great workmanship, You can have
expensive beautiful materials, and all you end up with in
(23:20):
the end is a very expensive, beautifully built, poorly designed thing,
and is you can tell that's a flat tire. That
is a flat tire on a beautiful luxury car. It's
going nowhere and it's a shame and it shouldn't be
the case. So one of the things that I'm here
(23:41):
to do, I feel like, is to kind of democratize
this idea of design for everyone from the humblest of
abodes to yeah, the big est states behind the big
gates up on the hill and everyone in between. Every
home deserves great design and it matters the most. We've
(24:02):
been talking about that today by way of these transitional
introductory spaces. Just one thing left, and we've already actually
covered all of this material in previous hits on previous items,
but really quickly. Stairways, I said, I wasn't going to
spend a lot of time on them. They're like a
hallway in that what are we passing along the way?
Are there things along the wall? Are there things that
(24:24):
our view is being channeled to, So they're like a
hallway in that sense. They're like a hallway in the
sense that they must be well lit, and they're also
like an entryway. When it comes to how low is
that dang chandelier over the staircase, it probably should be higher.
It probably should be higher. Okay, that staircase is in
a nutshell, and you know there are times during the
(24:46):
year where I'll spend the whole show on staircases and
we'll dive deeper in that. But just so you understand,
and the last space that I promised I would talk
about very quickly is the pathways into the rear yard.
And this is just the same as the pathway from
the sidewalk to the front door. Don't dump me out
onto the concrete patio right next to the house. Not
(25:08):
if you want a magical yard, take me on a
journey to the best places in your yard, the places
where it where if you just walk the yard emotionally
during the brightness of the day and say this is
actually the spot, don't think about what's around you, or
whether there's infrastructure there or hard escape there, or pathways
(25:29):
there or anything there. Just take yourself around and say, hmm,
if I could, this is where I would spend most
of my time in my yard. Well, then make that
the case. Maybe that's where the dining room table should go,
the patio table, and the chairs or the fire pit
or the whatever. Make that the case. And you think, well,
that's so far away from where my house is. Do
you see what I just did? You see what you
(25:51):
just said. You just made your yard bigger than you
could ever imagine it being. You just said it's so
far away. Yeah, set destinations and take me on a
journey to get there. That's all I'm saying. All Right,
that's about all I've got for today, and that because
I wanted to save just a couple of seconds and
share with you something very important, very near and dear
(26:12):
to my heart. As I said at the top of
the show. Last week, last Sunday was our twenty ninth
wedding anniversary, Tina and I, and we didn't get to
celebrate it because we were both down with COVID. But
we're taking a couple of days here. We have a
little consult to do and tomorrow, but we're taking a
couple of days and wrapping around a little bit of
(26:33):
work and a little bit of play, and we're celebrating it.
And this is something that I had written for her
that I wanted to share last week, but now I'm
going to share it now because I'm here. And it
goes like this every week. In the opening segment of
every show, I have the privilege of saying these words
(26:53):
sitting across the table from me, my design partner, my
better half, my best friend in all the world. Tina
is here. Well, last week was our anniversary, and by
the way, I want to take a moment to tell
my best friend in all the world, how every day,
for twenty nine years now, when nothing else was constant,
(27:15):
when nothing else held true, when no one else held on,
I've always had enough because I've always had those three words.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Tina is here. I am here.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And this is no sappy, romanticized exaggeration when I say this.
I am here because Tina is here. I am the
best version of myself. Because Tina is here. I am
doing the best work of my life. Because Tina is here.
I'm living my best life because Tina is here, day in,
day out. For twenty nine years, I have had a
(27:53):
best friend. We work together, we play together, we laugh together.
We endured unspeakable hardship together, and through it all, Tina
is here.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
What do you do with a gift like that.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
How do you even begin to repay someone not for
sacrificing their life for you, but for giving their entire
life to you. I don't think you can repay that.
You honor it, you celebrate it, you love on it,
you never take it for granted, and you hope for
twenty nine more. And if one day somebody happens to
(28:34):
hand you a microphone, then every time you sit down
behind it, you make damn sure that the world knows
the truth. I am Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer, here
to help you transform your ordinary house into an extraordinary home.
And sitting across the table from me, my design partner,
my better half, my best friend in all the world, Tina,
(28:57):
is here. And then you take your best friend by
the hand and you get busy building yourself a beautiful life. Guys,
I hope you enjoy the rest of this weekend tomorrow
first day of autumn.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And we will see you right back here next weekend.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper.
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and
every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time or
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Kf I am six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp
the house Whisper on demand on the iHeart radio app.
What does it mean to be a house whisperer, by
the way, Well, I'm still trying to figure that out.
It was a nickname that was given to me, not
something that we went looking for as a brand name
for us. But at some point it made sense to
(00:22):
just say, you know what, it wouldn't be a good,
bad idea to kind of hold on to that as
a brand. But we didn't come up with it ourselves. Obviously.
It comes from a tradition of certain individuals who do
whispery kind of things, horse whisperers, dog whispers, that kind
of stuff. I can tell you this house whispering, it's
(00:44):
a lot like helping somebody become a healthier person. It
means when it comes to your home, finding a way
to see beyond its design shortcomings, the alteration traumas that
it has suffered at the hands of others, and somehow
find a way to connect it, sometimes for the first
time ever, by the way to the best version of
(01:06):
itself and to the land that it's built upon, and
to the best life. Most importantly the best life of
its occupants, and that is when a house becomes a home,
and home is what we're all about here. So there
you have it. Now today we're doing that in a
very very specific way. I've been talking about making great introductions,
(01:27):
these introductory spaces, and every home has at least four
or five of these spaces. Everybody has four of them.
You have five if you've got a second floor and
as a result, have a stairway, but it's the pathway
to the front door, the foyer, or the entryway, whatever
you want to call it. Hallways leading various places in
the house, a stairway if it leads you upstairs, and
(01:49):
pathways into the rear yard. The primary job of these
spaces are to make a great introduction four and to
set up what's to come. But if we don't realize
that that's their job, we don't take advantage of it.
That way, we treat them very much like neglected kind
of utilitarian spaces. And if we do that and we
(02:10):
don't realize how important they can be in the big picture,
then we won't hold them accountable for doing their job well.
And that's a shame, because when they do their job well,
it makes a huge, huge difference. Now we've talked about
the pathway to the front door, mostly that for most
of you want you to consider creating a pathway to
(02:32):
the front door that romantically winds through your lawn and
garden area and not up your driveway. Okay, not up
the servants' access, all right, and think of it in
those terms. Everybody chuckles when I say the driveway that's
the servants entry. That's yeah, that's for you as the homeowner.
And but do you think about, like, oh, I'm starting
(02:55):
my guest's journey to my home by forcing them to
walk across the park a lot. No, no, not if
you have other options. So if we're really maximizing what
your home can do, we're going to create a different
pathway up to the front door, and then we're really
going to think about what is happening along that pathway
all the way along. Now I wish, I mean, I
could take the entire show and talk about nothing but
(03:17):
that front entryway. But this is kind of you know,
we're skimming along the surface, and we're hitting all these
points so that you can start processing them. So I
want to move on. Now we've gotten to the front door,
and we're taking the first steps inside the house, and
that puts us in the foyer or the entryway. Now,
the entryway is a very very unique space. There's really
(03:38):
none other than the entryway that is exactly like it
in your home. It's kind of an emotional airlock between
outside and inside. And what I mean by that is
a it's a bit of punctuation. It's a place where
you step in and you pause, or you are a pause,
(04:01):
and you know that when you're there, Well, you've just
been invited into somebody's home. You're inside their home, but
you're not really in in their home because you haven't
been drawn into one of the rooms yet. You're just
standing in the entryway. And that's good for them and
it's good for you because it's this kind of intermediate space. Right,
(04:22):
it's not outside and it's not fully inside. Again, it's
a transitional space and it's an introduction, sort of an
emotional air lock between the two. And so the question becomes,
how do we set this up so that it has
the biggest impact. Well, there are some simple questions to
be asked there. Do we enter in the center of
the entryway, and I know I'm not going to get
(04:42):
on my whole thing about double doors. You've heard me
talk about double entry doors before. I have nothing against
a double entry door other than the fact that in
plan view they look great right because they're centered up
in the entryway or on the porch. But in reality
they offer an experience that is different than what they promise,
(05:04):
because nobody opens two doors at once to greet your guests.
Everybody comes through the left or the right side door.
You know this is the case. You know that other
door has not been opened since you're moved in, or
since the new refrigerator got delivered, and it probably won't
be opened again until you move out. So yeah, So
the only issue I have with double entry doors, especially
if you have a small entryway, is that you're already
(05:28):
making me do work because I get to I have
to enter from the side, okay, not the center. And
I'm sure in your entry way that the chandelier is
centered and everything is centered, but I am not centered
when I enter in, so I don't get that full benefit.
So uh, you know, please don't run out and just
replace your double entry door, because I told you that
(05:49):
it's been lying to you all these years. But I
will tell you this. If that's in the remodel scope
that you're thinking about, give it some serious thought about
out an oversized single entry door that lines your guests
up so that they walk in, especially in a small
entry so I'm not squeezed against one wall or the
(06:10):
other as I walk in. I get to just step
into the middle of the entryway where it's most emotionally
comfortable and spacious for me. That makes sense, I hope.
So so that's your first step along the way. The
second thing in there is the question of you know,
the lighting, Where is the lighting, how low is the lighting?
This is an you know, some entryways have exceptionally low ceilings,
(06:34):
and when that's the case, we don't want to put
anything hanging down there in addition to it. Okay, some
can be raised so that they have a higher ceiling.
But here's the thing. If you've got a more vaulted
or raised ceiling and you've got a chandelier hanging in
the entryway, don't hang that chandelier too low. I am
six foot three. When I stand flat footed, barefoot, my
(06:55):
fingertips can touch the top of an eight foot ceiling.
I use myself as a guide. This all the time.
I tell people, don't allow me to walk into your
home barefoot. And if I can reach up and touch
your chandelier, it is too low. It is too low.
It needs to go up another foot or two at
the least. Okay, get that chandelier on up out of there.
(07:17):
Give me a reason to look up if you have.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
A higher ceiling. Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So the lighting should not be in my face. It
should not be down low where I feel like I
need to duck as I walk into your home. Okay.
And I want to enter from the center. And I
also want to make sure that I'm not having to
walk around something. Now what does that mean? Well, we'll
talk about that right on the other side of this break.
You are Home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
We're talking about introductory spaces today from a design perspective,
a little bit of a design show today. The designers
were walking him out. We're getting giving him some air,
letting him talk a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Today.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
The builder in me is standing by to trounce on
him when he makes any stupid comments that can't be
done but other than that, the designer gets a little
bit of free rein today because these are such such
critically important spaces. These introductory are transitional spaces. So we've
talked about the pathway up to the front door. We've
been talking about the entryway, the foyer possibly the most
(08:23):
important of these transitional spaces because their first impression kind
of things as we come in. Talked about whether or
not your front door pays off its promise of putting
you in the center of the entryway. How do you enter?
How is the lighting in there? Is it too low?
Is the chandelier hanging too low? If it's a higher ceiling.
If it's a low ceiling, you shouldn't have a chandelier
(08:44):
in there. You should maybe sconces on the wall. Maybe
if they're not feeling intrusive, like I got to walk
around them or they're glaring in my face. If you
have a higher ceiling, you have a chandelier, but that
chandelier needs to be up high, up high, so that
I don't walk in, And it did. It did kind
of uh counteracts your your vaulted ceiling by hanging a
(09:07):
chandelier at eight feet Okay, Uh, So wherever the lowest
hanging thing in a ceiling is typically that's how tall
the ceiling is. Psychologically for people, they just don't want
to look up higher than that, and they're going to
set their level there. So you can you can completely
deactivate the effect of a tall vaulted ceiling by having
a chandelier hanging too low in it. Right, So, anyway,
(09:29):
that's the thing. Right before the break, I said, do
I have to walk around something as I come in
your entway? In other words, am I already doing an
obstacle course? Because if I am, then I'm already You're
already giving me the impression that this house is small
and or cluttered and there isn't a lot of spaciousness
in room for me to just move. And what I
mean by that is the classic uh you know there,
(09:50):
you know, we've got a little table in the entryway,
a little mirror, maybe a little buffet table, a little
place to you know, to set shoes or whatever the
case may be. None of that is bad, It's all
well and good. I just want you to track, maybe
for the first time ever, the pathway from the door
in across the entryway. Do I have to sidestep or
(10:12):
take notice of this table or whatever is sitting in there,
and do I have to account for it or can
I just kind of relaxedly walk straight on through and
not worry about it. If I'm walking by it, fine,
if I'm walking around it, it shouldn't be there, okay,
just as a general design rule for that entryway, that
(10:32):
transition space, and lastly for this entryway. And there's so
many things we could talk about, but I'm just trying
to hit the high points here when I step in.
And by the way, this is the problem across the board,
from the lowliest and humblest of abodes all the way
up to the biggest and fanciest of estate homes. I
see this problem constantly as I stand in the front
(10:55):
door and I open the door and I step into
the entryway, and I make myself ask this question, and
you should as well. What am I being directed to
look at? What am I looking at? What exactly all
do I see?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I have some very dear friends who have a big,
beautiful home and a lovely wide entryway, and when I'm
standing in through it in the entryway, I can see
a couple of service doors, I can see a hallway,
I can see partly into a dining room and living room,
but I can also see partly into a kitchen. Really
in a really big, beautiful, spacious home. From the big
(11:34):
old entry door, I can see into your kitchen. Are
you sure about that? Talk about lowering the mood, right,
and maybe you're thrilled about that. Maybe you're like, hey,
I just want it all very relaxed.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
That's fine if you live in an open loft apartment, okay,
But for most of you, most of you would like
a little bit of tease, a little bit of pause,
a little bit of puncture. Would like to have somebody
have a moment when they're standing in the entryway. So
the question is what are we looking at and is
there a focal point? Is there one thing that we're
(12:11):
zeroing in on that kind of says hey, welcome and
sets up the introduction to our home and says, hey,
you're stepping into our home, and this is what we're about,
and this is the vibe and this is the feeling.
We were just in a home a couple of days
ago that did this brilliantly, a home down in the
Santa Ana, No not san justin entryway walked in the
(12:35):
front door, big glass windows out to the backyard and
a fountain sitting in the center. Just just stunning. Oh,
it just makes you feel so good, so good, And
not everybody can pull that off.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
But the idea is you've got to stand in your
entryway and ask the questions. Ask the questions of it,
make sure that it comes up with the right answers.
Otherwise you can make some shifts. Okay, enough on the entryway.
Let's walk down a hallway. The hallway is a grossly
missed opportunity in almost every home. On some level, hallways
(13:12):
are think about this. They're a pathway into the most
intimate part of your life and your home. What is
your hallway doing to set up that journey? Or is
it just darker and more uncomfortable as we go along?
And then finally we take the most uncomfortable step of
all across your bedroom door threshold. All right, we'll talk
(13:34):
about that on the other side, your Home with Dean Sharp,
the house Whisper.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
A little coughing fit there. All of a sudden, just
right before I had to get back on the air
a little leftover gift from COVID this last week. I
don't think it's so much. I'm not so bothered by
COVID when I'm right in the height of it, because
you know, you're sick, you're laying down, you're resting, you're
not doing anything, you're watching TV, you're trying to sleep whatever.
(14:05):
You know that it is what it is, right, it's
the dang long tail coming out of it just doesn't
let up. Just the days of fogginess and and tiredness.
And for me, if it gets anywhere near my lungs,
just a cough that just keeps incessant. It's actually not
in my lungs. Did not get in my lung hasn't.
(14:25):
Nothing's gotten in my lungs for a long long time,
which I'm very happy about. But the drip down the
throat that's trying to get in there, man, just sometimes
just yeah, you know, you know I'm preaching to the choir.
You guys know what I'm talking about. Anyway, Good morning,
Welcome to the program. I think I'm recovered now and
(14:47):
I'm ready to move on. We are talking about a
very important design issue today and bringing up something that
doesn't normally discussed, and that is transitional spaces in your home,
places that make great introductions. Pathway to the front door,
the foyer, the entryway. Now we're down the hallway. Hallway
is the third biggie. Okay, I'm not sure we've got
(15:07):
time today to get deep do a deep dive on stairs,
but we do a stairways show in the year anyway,
so we'll talk about that. The hallways. Hallways. Now, think
about this. A hallway is a utilitarian space to get
you from the main public areas down toward bedrooms and
(15:27):
other utility rooms or assessory rooms, those kinds of things.
But I want you to think about a hallway in
a different light. A hallway is leading you from the
more as I said, public spaces to the most intimate
arts of your home. And as a result, there's an
(15:48):
emotional burden on a hallway that it's either going to
do nothing to make you more comfortable about that journey,
or it's going to really make it Twice is uncomfortable
as it needs to be because it's dark and it's long,
and it's weirdly lit, or there's nothing in particular going
(16:10):
on in the hallway and you're just making this journey
to other people's spaces and other people's spaces, is you know,
something that we have to be really careful about entering
into and that we're always all of us a little
wary of emotionally, okay, or A hallway is doing everything
(16:31):
it can to take you on that journey and to
introduce you into that space so that you're as a
leaf uncomfortable as possible. And you know what I'm talking about.
You've all walked down a hallway and looked into somebody's bedroom,
even if the person you're looking for is in that room,
You've looked into their bedroom and you think about taking
a step into that room and you know, oh my gosh,
(16:52):
I'm entering this is so their space. I'm just h
you know, there's I mean, the most callous and emotionally
among us can recognize the fact that there's sometimes a
little bit of discomfort about stepping across a bedroom door
threshold into somebody's space.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Yeah, So the hallway, I've made my argument is an
important introduction and to that as we move down this
more intimate side of the home, what is the hallway
doing for you? What's it doing for me as your guest?
What's doing for anybody? Is it just bare walls? Is
just a random thing put up on the wall? Are
(17:32):
there pictures of the family up on the wall?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I hope?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
So it'd be a lovely place to do it. A
hallway is a perfect opportunity to become a gallery of sorts,
of more messaging and storytelling for you as a homeowner.
But also only if those stories are being well lit.
There's nothing as weird and uncomfortable as trying to focus
in on something that's on a wall in a dark, weird,
(17:56):
long hallway. So what do we do with hallways? Well,
we need that gallery effect. It's a perfect opportunity to
show things off. But in order to do that, we
need more natural light coming into a hallway. Okay, now
there's a trick, right natural light. How do we bring
more natural light into a hallway? Very few hallways come
(18:17):
built in with windows, right because they're in the middle
of the house. So typically if your hallway is in
the middle of the house and there are no windows,
maybe the most light that comes through it is from
the room you're leaving, which means your shadow is darkening
the hallway as you enter it, or the bathroom down
at the end of the hallway, and you hope that
(18:38):
bathroom door is open, because what little bit of light
is creeping through that bathroom is lighting the hallway. And
that's a little weird too. So what do we do
to get more natural light into the hallway itself? Well,
there are a couple of solutions. One of course, classically
the skylight. Okay, I love skylights. I'm not against skylights
at all. I'm not a huge fan of the poor
(19:00):
whole skylights, you know, you know the ones I'm talking about,
the little solo tube skylights. I have no problem with
the skylight itself and the tube coming down through the attic.
I just don't like the fact that it ends in
a giant, glaring kind of porthole thing. If we can
change the way that it makes its entry into the
hallway ceiling, fine, I have no issue with the solo
(19:23):
tube kind of thing, because they are an inexpensive and
pretty quickly effective way of bringing light into a space
like that. But let's juge up the final effect instead
of us the lens that they give us. Let's stop
it short. Let's create maybe a box, maybe a backlit
piece of glass up there that will transmit, or maybe
set it up higher up a shaft opening so that
(19:44):
we don't have to be looking straight up at that
glaring lens anyway. Putting that aside, skylights are a great
option for a hallway. Also, though, another great option if
you're thinking about changing out doors and windows in your home,
think about the idea of stealing natural light from all
(20:05):
those bedrooms that do have windows, bedrooms and baths on
both sides of the hallways that have windows to the outside.
If we use if we change out those hollow core
doors that I've been wanting you to get rid of,
and we change them out to single glazed glass, or
you could have divided light but glass paneled door, okay,
(20:26):
would frame around the outside and a glass panel door.
Now you're like, what about privacy, Well, the glass panel
door could be frosted glass. It could be privacy glass,
so that literally anything standing beyond an inch away from
this glass there is zero chance of seeing anything at all.
So total privacy when it comes to that. But guess
what you're doing with that privacy glass. You're letting all
(20:48):
the light from that bedroom and that bathroom into the
hallway and one door with glass on it from one
bedroom is not a whole lot to light up a hallway,
but four bedroom doors and a bathroom door all streaming
into the hallway. Now the hallway is this beautifully lit
with natural light during the day.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So the point is think about these options also at
night when it comes to that gallery effect. What are
those can lights doing in the hallway? I'll tell you
what they don't need to be doing. They don't need
to be right down the center of the hallway sticking
straight down to the floor. What they could be doing.
You can take the existing recess can lights that you
have and go and change out the trim to a
(21:32):
directional trim so that you can bend that light and
wash the walls with it. Light up the gallery images
and the photos and the artwork and the things, the
stories that you want to tell on those hallway walls.
Light them up with the down lights in the hallway,
and I promise you that light will hit those walls
(21:52):
and also bounce onto the floor so people will be
able to see the floor. I promise you they'll see
the floor. But you don't have to shove the light
straight down to the floor and ignore the walls along
the way. Brighten, Lighten, tell stories down the hallway. You
will change the way the entire house feels every time
(22:13):
you journey from a bedroom into the main house, and
every time somebody goes from the main house into a
more intimate space. All right, more on the other side
your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Here to remind you when it comes to transforming your home,
pump the brakes for a second.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
From calling the contractors.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Design matters most And yes, I am a designer, and
so a designer of custom home. So am I just
feathering my own bed by saying that, No, I am
also a builder of custom homes. I'm a general contractor,
have been for ever since before time, it seems at
this point. But I will tell you this. All I'm
(22:57):
saying is that is the design of the project produces
and funnels the materials and the workmanship and everything into
the right messages so that what you're doing to your
home really communicates. And without the design, you can have
great craftsmanship. You can have great workmanship, You can have
expensive beautiful materials, and all you end up with in
(23:20):
the end is a very expensive, beautifully built, poorly designed thing,
and is you can tell that's a flat tire. That
is a flat tire on a beautiful luxury car. It's
going nowhere and it's a shame and it shouldn't be
the case. So one of the things that I'm here
(23:41):
to do, I feel like, is to kind of democratize
this idea of design for everyone from the humblest of
abodes to yeah, the big est states behind the big
gates up on the hill and everyone in between. Every
home deserves great design and it matters the most. We've
(24:02):
been talking about that today by way of these transitional
introductory spaces. Just one thing left, and we've already actually
covered all of this material in previous hits on previous items,
but really quickly. Stairways, I said, I wasn't going to
spend a lot of time on them. They're like a
hallway in that what are we passing along the way?
Are there things along the wall? Are there things that
(24:24):
our view is being channeled to, So they're like a
hallway in that sense. They're like a hallway in the
sense that they must be well lit, and they're also
like an entryway. When it comes to how low is
that dang chandelier over the staircase, it probably should be higher.
It probably should be higher. Okay, that staircase is in
a nutshell, and you know there are times during the
(24:46):
year where I'll spend the whole show on staircases and
we'll dive deeper in that. But just so you understand,
and the last space that I promised I would talk
about very quickly is the pathways into the rear yard.
And this is just the same as the pathway from
the sidewalk to the front door. Don't dump me out
onto the concrete patio right next to the house. Not
(25:08):
if you want a magical yard, take me on a
journey to the best places in your yard, the places
where it where if you just walk the yard emotionally
during the brightness of the day and say this is
actually the spot, don't think about what's around you, or
whether there's infrastructure there or hard escape there, or pathways
(25:29):
there or anything there. Just take yourself around and say, hmm,
if I could, this is where I would spend most
of my time in my yard. Well, then make that
the case. Maybe that's where the dining room table should go,
the patio table, and the chairs or the fire pit
or the whatever. Make that the case. And you think, well,
that's so far away from where my house is. Do
you see what I just did? You see what you
(25:51):
just said. You just made your yard bigger than you
could ever imagine it being. You just said it's so
far away. Yeah, set destinations and take me on a
journey to get there. That's all I'm saying. All Right,
that's about all I've got for today, and that because
I wanted to save just a couple of seconds and
share with you something very important, very near and dear
(26:12):
to my heart. As I said at the top of
the show. Last week, last Sunday was our twenty ninth
wedding anniversary, Tina and I, and we didn't get to
celebrate it because we were both down with COVID. But
we're taking a couple of days here. We have a
little consult to do and tomorrow, but we're taking a
couple of days and wrapping around a little bit of
(26:33):
work and a little bit of play, and we're celebrating it.
And this is something that I had written for her
that I wanted to share last week, but now I'm
going to share it now because I'm here. And it
goes like this every week. In the opening segment of
every show, I have the privilege of saying these words
(26:53):
sitting across the table from me, my design partner, my
better half, my best friend in all the world. Tina
is here. Well, last week was our anniversary, and by
the way, I want to take a moment to tell
my best friend in all the world, how every day,
for twenty nine years now, when nothing else was constant,
(27:15):
when nothing else held true, when no one else held on,
I've always had enough because I've always had those three words.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Tina is here. I am here.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And this is no sappy, romanticized exaggeration when I say this.
I am here because Tina is here. I am the
best version of myself. Because Tina is here. I am
doing the best work of my life. Because Tina is here.
I'm living my best life because Tina is here, day in,
day out. For twenty nine years, I have had a
(27:53):
best friend. We work together, we play together, we laugh together.
We endured unspeakable hardship together, and through it all, Tina
is here.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
What do you do with a gift like that.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
How do you even begin to repay someone not for
sacrificing their life for you, but for giving their entire
life to you. I don't think you can repay that.
You honor it, you celebrate it, you love on it,
you never take it for granted, and you hope for
twenty nine more. And if one day somebody happens to
(28:34):
hand you a microphone, then every time you sit down
behind it, you make damn sure that the world knows
the truth. I am Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer, here
to help you transform your ordinary house into an extraordinary home.
And sitting across the table from me, my design partner,
my better half, my best friend in all the world, Tina,
(28:57):
is here. And then you take your best friend by
the hand and you get busy building yourself a beautiful life. Guys,
I hope you enjoy the rest of this weekend tomorrow
first day of autumn.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And we will see you right back here next weekend.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper.
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and
every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time or
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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