July 27, 2025 • 29 mins
Dean dives into outdoor furnishings — from choosing the right pieces for your space to understanding what makes furniture truly great (both hard and fluffy!). Special guest Brian Gold from ALDIK HOME joins to share what’s trending, what’s practical, and how to elevate your outdoor setup. Plus, don’t miss the scoop on Aldik Home’s Christmas in July sale!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Your guide
to better understanding that place where you live. How you doing,
How is your Sunday morning going here in Southern California
or wherever you are listening to us from across this
(00:22):
great land of ours.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'll tell you what the weather's like here in Socao.
I'm gonna make everybody, everybody else very very jealous. It
is like mid seventies right now. It's headed up to
what maybe a high of eighty degrees, sunny, breezy. It
is the quintessential summer day in southern California. If you
sit back and close your eyes and imagine the perfect
(00:45):
summer day. And that's where we are right here on
what is today, July twenty seventh, July twenty seventh, and
it's not baking yet. It's amazing anyway. All right, Well,
good to talk to you. Thank you for being with
us on the show today. Today, on the show, on
this perfect quintessential summer day, we're going to be talking
(01:09):
about patio furnishings. Uh wait a second, No, it goes
way beyond, and we're gonna have a serious talk about
furniture and what to look for and how to buy
it and how to choose it. But it's not just that.
It's also figuring out your patio, figuring out your property.
It's relationship to the sun, figuring out shade and all
(01:33):
of the things that go along with it. I'll get
a little more into that in just a couple of minutes,
but first I gotta tell you it's a great, great
morning every time I have my very special in studio guest,
Brian Gold from Aldick Home. Brian's going to be here
to talk about all things patio furnishings. That's right here
(01:56):
for Brian, Brian, good morning, Good morning. I so you've
been on the show so many times now that today
you have to face the ultimate radio challenge, which is
I served you that gooey cinnamon roll, which you will
be eating, and you know I will be asking you
a question. I'll be watching for when you actually put
(02:17):
a bite in your mouth, and then I will ask
you the question.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I'll try not to get any all over the mic.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I'm on the radio. All Right, We're gonna do it.
You're gonna you're gonna take the sinnmon role challenge. More
on these cinnamon rolls too in a minute. Uh so
that's a thing. And of course, by the way, we'll
also be taking your calls the number to reach me.
The phone lines are open right now. We'll be going
to the phones in our middle hour today. H eight
three three two. Ask Dean eight three to three the
(02:46):
numeral two. Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean.
Give us a call anything. I'm talking patio furnishings. But
when it comes to calls, anything you want to talk
about can be construction related. D why design, architecture, inside, outside, landscape,
all the scapes, all of the scapes we cover here
(03:07):
on the program. Anything that's got you scratching your head
about your home. Okay, that's the rule. No rules, that's
the rule, no rules when it comes to your call.
So give us a call. Our call screener will tell
you everything you need to know. Pop you into the queue,
you listen to the show while you wait, and then
who knows, we could put our heads together on the
air and figure out what's going on with your home.
(03:28):
Standing next to me, not sitting across the table from me,
holding a dog, is my better half, my design partner,
the co owner co founder of House Whisper, my best
buddy in all the world. Tina is here here, welcome home.
There you go. What is that dog you have there?
(03:50):
That's Murphy. Now, Murphy has no comment. Murphy has no comment.
Murphy is a miniature poodle who looks he's very brown.
I like him when he gets cut and he looks
like a tiny bear cub. That's my or. You know,
I'm not sure I'm into the poodle cut, and I
think I think poodle cut. I don't know. Now I'm
(04:12):
gonna get people angry with me who love poodles. I
have nothing against poodles. I just think that the classic
poodle cut is humiliating. I'm almost embarrassed to look at them,
the pom poms. What is that. All I'm saying is
show me that cut in nature. That's all I'm saying.
(04:37):
It's an animal. No, No, that's fine. The new chickens,
they've got their dews, that's fine. This this thing here,
this is not a natural occurrence, that's all I'm saying.
All right, let's talk for a moment about outdoor furnishings.
Summertime is the time to be outside. That is, if
(04:59):
h outside is a comfortable, convenient, and relatively cool place
to be. Right, So, setting yourself up with great outdoor
furnishings trickier than it looks, because you know, it kind
of double down on all the advice I give when
it comes to just standard furniture buying. Plus you have
on top of that the issues of is the material
(05:21):
soft enough to be pleasant but durable enough to actually withstand,
you know, outside, And that's a whole another layer on
top of furniture that you don't have to contend with
when we're building furniture for inside the house. For as
much as we say we want to be outside, there's
also this issue there's a lot outside that you don't want,
(05:42):
all right. There's harsh sunlight, there's heat, there's wind, there's bugs,
there's all sorts of stuff. And the temptation, and I
know this for a fact, the temptation is to build
your way out of these problems. And what happens is,
I guess it's very very expensive. Here's the typical conversation
I've had with so many clients. They're like, day, Dean, listen,
(06:05):
you know what we really we We live in southern California.
We want to we want to get outside more. Let's
let's do something on very special on the patio. Okay,
all right, all right, I'm taking notes. Uh so some
really really comfortable furniture. Okay, got that. Oh we should
probably have a source of heat out there when it
gets cool. Maybe a fiber Okay, I got that, Got
that fiber. You know it gets kind of wendy here
(06:26):
out at the coast. Maybe could we put up some
glass panels or maybe a wall there? All right? Okay,
got a wall, And so we can be outside when
when the weather is kind of inclement, Should we just
extend the roof of the house. And I'm like, okay,
so now what you've just described is being inside. All right.
You want a roof, you want walls to keep you
(06:49):
safe from the wind. You want heat and cool and
comfy furniture and all the shade that you can handle.
Just stay inside. Okay. That's the that's one of the
challenges when it comes to outdoor furnishings. And that's where
we're headed next. Sound good, more great stuff on the
way your Home with Dean sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
You're listening to Home with Dean sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
We're talking patio furnishings. It's a lazy, relaxing, beautiful sunny
day here in southern California, and so we're going to
talk about getting outside and how to do it with class,
how to do it smart, how to do it without
breaking the bank. And I already alluded to the fact
that there is a temptation among those of you who
(07:42):
have the means to do it of saying, you know,
I want to spend more time outside. And the next thing,
you know, your wish list for what you want out there,
it pretty much includes every deterrent of outside living possible.
All right, So the best advice that I can give
you straight out of the shoot is this, if you
(08:06):
think about spending time outside, embrace the idea that you'll
be spending time outside, meaning putting up with or you know,
on the positive side, embracing and enjoying what it is
that the weather brings. Now, of course, you know, Brian
and I were just talking. By by the way, Brian
(08:28):
Gold sitting in studio with me from Aldack home my
favorite well, my favorite store for like five different reasons.
But during the summer, my favorite patio furniture store on
the planet. But Brian and I were just talking during
the break. We were like, you know, mosquitos because I
was talking about Ecola's mosquito system, which is brilliant, by
(08:48):
the way. We'll talk more on that later. But mosquitos
and Shade pretty much the two big ones. Right. If
you can knock out mosquitos and shade, we can put
up with everything else. Right, It's just the way. I
gotta turn your mic on there. How's that?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
So?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Uh yeah, the idea of well, you know what I
think i'd like an outdoor I just see it evolve
all the time. Somebody wants a barbecue, Okay, barbecue turns
into a built in barbecue. Built in barbecue turns into
a bar and an outdoor kitchen, and then all of
a sudden, now the TV's outside, TV's outside, there's a
(09:25):
full kitchen outside, three refrigerators, an ice maker. I mean,
I'm not I'm not poo pooing you on this. I'm
just saying it can creep. Okay, the whole concept can creep.
And oh, next, full patio cover on one shade so
full full, We'll just do a roof extension Okay, Oh,
we'll put up some glass panels so that we can
(09:47):
knock down the wind. Okay, well, by the time you've
got a roof in full glass panels, guess what you're
inside again. So it's just something to think about, that's
all I'm saying. Okay, I am absolutely here to help
you build whatever kind of beautiful outdoor experience you want.
But today, for those of us with limited budgets who
(10:09):
want to spend more time outside, there's a way to
do it, and there's a way to do it right.
And yeah, we will talk about mosquitos. We're going to
talk about shade. Shade is a huge, huge issue for
me because as a designer, it'd be great for me
to just say, listen, I want to build you a
sexy gazebo or a pergola or a patio cover, all
(10:32):
of that. It's all great, it's all good. Here's the
problem with those Wherever you live on planet Earth, you
have a certain angular relationship to the sun. Now, during
the summer, the sun is at its highest peak in
the northern hemisphere. It's just a few degrees off direct overhead,
but it's still a few degrees off direct overhead plus
(10:55):
the sun rises. I don't know if you notice that,
and it keeps moving throughout the day, which means that
very expensive patio cover that you just thought, well, I'm
just gonna build it right here, directly over the patio, right,
that very expensive patio cover is not always throwing its shade.
In fact, I would wager to say that about seventy
(11:15):
five percent of the time the shade that that patio
cover is creating, even though it is directly over your furniture,
is offset considerably from the furniture. So now we've invested
in a very expensive structure that essentially, I mean, it
might look beautiful, but it's not getting its job done.
Its job was to grow shade on us all the time.
(11:38):
So what do you do? Well? My personal preference, I mean,
I've built it into my own home, my personal preference.
I know Brian has a leaning toward this because he
sells some of the most amazing umbrellas in the world.
But I love a good, especially offset cantilevered umbrella. Why
(11:58):
because they're big, they're gorgeous. When you want them to
go away, they just go away and they're not there
at all. Plus they can move, they can move they
can adjust, they can adjust the angle of shade, all
of those kinds of things. So you see, that's the
kind of approach that we're taking today. So more on
umbrellas also later in the show. So I just want
(12:21):
to cover all of this from the sexiest and most
practical perspective, because if you can't marry those two together,
guess what. You either have something uber practical that no
one wants to spend time under or look at and
that's no fun. Or you've got all the sexiness in
the world but it doesn't actually do its job, and
guess what, that's only good for a magazine spread somewhere,
(12:42):
not for your actual life. My goal as a custom
home designer is to satisfy our clients on both of
those levels. Make something just just that you just absolutely
love that, you tell your friends about that, you invite
them over and say you've got to spend time in
my backyard. You are going to love it because it
(13:02):
is awesome. That is what we're after today. Does that
make sense good? Okay, So I'll tell you what. We're
going to dive into a break in just a few
seconds here, and when we come back, Brian, I want
you to give us an update on what's going on
with Al Dick. Just just give us the state of
the store right now, what you guys got going on.
(13:24):
I think you're starting to move into that transition mode
because you're such a big holiday store.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Right you can tell from the beautiful summer weather that
we're almost getting ready to set up for Christy.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I know that, but I get it though, I get it.
So we'll talk about that, and then I want to
get into basically a really wise furniture buying guide. Okay,
we'll do all of that, so much more to come.
You're Home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Hey, sometimes you might be thinking, Wow, what I really
need is Dean and Tina like here, actually here just
staring at the problem. Well, you know what, you can
do that too if you if your home needs some
personal house Whisper attention, you can book an in home
design consult with us. Just go to house Whisperer dot
design for more info house Whisper dot Design And just
(14:21):
as a reminder, coming up in just a bit in
our second hour, your calls the number to reach me
eight three three two. Ask Dean A three three the
numeral two. Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean.
That's the point. Anything you want to talk about regarding
your home? All right, sitting here with my special in
(14:42):
studio guests, Brian Gold from Aldick Home, we're gonna be
talking about patio furnishings, umbrellas, furniture. I want to dive
into it. But first, Brian, just how are things going
at aldc what's going on? What's the temp mature of
the store right now? I know you're transitioning. It takes you,
(15:04):
guys a long time to set up your winter wonderland,
so for you, you're kind of in transition.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Mode now we're just about to be in transition, okay,
So for us we start setting up Christmas August first.
So right now, this is kind of the last erah
of our summer sale season, so it is the summer
to save at Aldick Holm. Right now we have a
(15:29):
big store wide sale where it's thirty percent off everything
in the store. We also have all of our floor
sample patio furniture sets selling out forty percent off, and
then for the first time ever, we're having a Christmas
in July sale. So if you like to be outside
and you like pretty things, there's going to be something
on sale for you at Aldickholm.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
There you go, There you go, there's your Aldacolm spot
for the day. Right there. There are three reasons at
least that I'm always going to aldi Well. Number one
because year round, you guys are silk flower and floral
design experts and so as you know, we're in there
all the time putting stuff together for clients and it's
(16:11):
just extraordinary, just the best. That's how you originally built
your reputation in town. Just started out with silk flowers
and custom design trees for interior scapes, unbelievable stuff. I
have some here and every one of our clients I
think we end up doing something for So there's that.
Then when summer starts rolling around, it's the patio furniture,
(16:35):
because you guys went out searching for you wanted to
find the best patio furniture, and you found the best
patio furniture in North America. Summer Classics line right, Summer
Classics made here in the US. And where are they
at Summer Classics They are based in Pelham, Alabama. Okay,
All the cushions are all mates order in Pelham, Alabama.
(16:57):
One hundred and fifty different fab options to choose from,
so you can make it as custom as you as
you want. You can choose a different back cushion or
a different feat cushion. You can fild furniture. That's awesome.
So okay, So so let's segue into that. One of
the things that I mentioned, or I think I was
(17:19):
talking to Conway about this earlier this week, is soft
cushy furniture, hard hard surface furniture outside or inside anywhere.
Hard surface furniture like a wood chair or an Adirondack
chair or something like that. They're very honest. They're very
honest in that you sit down and you feel it instantly. Instantly,
(17:40):
you know whether this thing is cut to your body dimensions,
whether it's going to seat you comfortably or not. I
like to say hard surface furniture, very honest furniture, you
just get instant feedback on it. Soft puffy furniture not
so much. It's it's you know, you got furniture out
(18:01):
there that has big fluffy cushions on it. And I
always tell people when you are searching for furniture inside
or out, same rule applies. You got to take the
time to sit and just sit sit. Don't order something
online that you haven't actually sat in before, because you
(18:23):
you know, we all feel good when we sit down
on a soft cushion for the first few seconds. But
five minutes in, ten minutes in, you start feeling like, oh,
you know what I'm kind of squirming is this is
you know? And uh and the stuff that isn't designed well,
it starts speaking to you at that point. So you
got to take time. If you're out doing patio furniture,
(18:43):
soft cushion patio furniture shopping, plan on taking time. One
of the things I love that you guys do is
you've got so many floor samples out, so many of them,
so you can just kind of sit around. And when
I bring Roy Lee or account executive in, I always
lose him to that sample set that's right by the
front doors. He just sits down and I'm like, Roy,
where's roy Always over in the chair. He won't get
(19:06):
out of the chair. Chair, he's in his chair. We
call it the roy Lee chair because man, he loves
that chair, and rightly so, he loves it, So you
know what, I won't sit in that chair because I
will be taken over by the exact same problem. Okay,
So the point is this Summer Classics really shines in
(19:26):
that I have spent a lot of time sitting in
that furniture in your store, and the longer you sit,
the more you want to sit. And that's the difference.
So that's always the top thing on my list for
patio furniture buying because you know, and I want you
to speak to construction, okay, of the furniture itself, but
(19:47):
let's face it, who cares how it's made if if
you don't enjoy sitting in it. So the very first
thing is it's got to be comfortable, and then we
need to find out whether this comfortable thing is actually
worth the money because it's been made. Well, am I?
Is that fair to say?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Hey, I would put comfort first. That's the difference between
staying outside and watching your kids play or just being
that I'm going to go back on the couch inside
and wait for you guys back.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
That's right, right, And that's the whole point, right, The
point of being outside is to be comfortable outside, right,
So uh, all right, So Okay, we're up against the break.
So when we come back, let's uh, let's talk about
how we'll talk about how how Summer Classics is made,
but let's just use it as an example of how
(20:36):
patio furniture should be could be made so that people
really get the sense like, oh, you know, in fact,
Conway told me, he says, isn't it true, Dean, You're
going to spend an arm and a leg on patio furniture.
In four years from now you're going to throw it out.
And I'm like, you're you're shopping at the wrong place, buddy.
That's the thing. You're shopping at the wrong place. This
should be patio furniture that your kids inherit from you.
(20:58):
Ideally it right, I have exactly and which is ultimately
the best value. All right, more on patio furniturings when
we come back your Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I'm talking about thoughtful, thought out, well planned out approaches
to your home. I'm still shocked to this day how
many people kind of rush the process. That is, Oh,
I just want some I want some patio furniture, Let's
just go to the patio furniture store and get it.
That is not the first step, my friend. It's not
the first step. Of course, you want a window shop.
(21:41):
That's great. Window shopping is free. Window shopping gets you
inspired about things. Sometimes you're out shopping and you'll see
something and you're like, oh, wouldn't that be great at
our place. Still not the first step. The first step
is to really think through where you're going to spend
time in yard and what the conditions are in that location.
(22:03):
And some of you're shrugging your shoulders around that thinking
what do you what do you mean where I'm gonna
spend it? I mean on my patios right there, right
out the back door there. Well, yeah, I get it.
That's where like ninety percent of patios are right connected
to the back door of the house. Also, in my opinion,
about seventy percent of the time, the least favorable place
(22:28):
to actually spend time just pushed up against the stucco
wall of your house, instead of thinking about the fact
that maybe out further into the yard as a destination
with a pathway leading from your house out to that place.
Maybe maybe under that big ash tree, maybe over in
(22:49):
the corner next to the ivy covered wall, maybe under
the natural shade of those hedges. Maybe that's the actual
place that you'd like to spend the most time. Maybe
that's where the patio should be. Maybe that's where the
patio furniture should be. And then the question is, all right,
then when is the sun hitting that place? When is
(23:13):
it shady? What do we have to think about? And
then you go and find yourself some really good patio furniture.
Speaking of Brian gold from ald Combe sitting across the
table from me, as he's done so many times before.
You know, Aldik sponsors every year are live audience holiday show.
It's always just so much fun. We decorate one of
(23:38):
their trees right during the show. I mean, it's a
great time. It's a fantastic time. But right now, Brian's
here to talk about quality made patio furniture. So Brian,
one of my next rules of patio furniture buying guides
is beware of most patio furniture buying guides, only because
(23:58):
I've just happened to notice that most patio furniture buying
guides are actually just advertisements for that brand of patio
furniture in disguise. Is that not true? That is true? Okay,
So let's just you and I be honest with everybody
right now and just talk about what are we looking
for in quality patio furniture.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
So we already talked about comfort. So you definitely have
to go somewhere and sit around and try a bunch
of sofas and chairs and lounge chairs. You also have
to talk to the people there and see what they
know about the furniture. You want to go somewhere where
you kind of want to tell the person to shut
(24:42):
up after a while. You want them to be able
to be so enthusiastic about how the furniture's made, how
it's constructed, how it will last, you take care of it.
That tell them like, okay, we got it. The first
half an hour was buying after that finished, okay.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So that's such an important point. A place where the
people who are selling it actually know all about it
and are excited to tell you about it is one
of the first It's that's like true of a restaurant,
right you sit down, you either sit down, you go
to a restaurant and you know the waitress comes over
and says, have you looked at the menu yet? What
(25:21):
do you guys want? Versus like, oh, let me tell
you our specials today. And then you see in the
server's eyes they are so thrilled about the food in
this place, right, they know every little nuance about it
and uh, and it gets you excited about it, and
you get the sense, you know, it's probably good food here.
It's probably good food if they're talking it up this much.
(25:42):
They're excited about it. They're excited about it. So the
fact that that you're in a place where somebody is like, okay,
let me tell you about what you don't see in
this patio furniture first sign of probably something quality. You're
about to hear about it. I know you guys can
go on and on. I've never shut up any of
your people about it, but you guys could go on
(26:04):
and on about about summer classics just because there's so
much to say about it. So what are some Let's
just use it as a as an example.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Okay, So when we have people come in and they're
looking for teak furniture, we explain to them the differences
in teak they may have had teak furniture in the
past that was the lower grade or furniture that was
constructed to a lower degree than the furniture that we're
showing them in front of their face. So we'll explain
(26:35):
how this is hand carved furniture. When you have a
curve in the piece, don't see the wood grain follow
the curve. You'll see it cut off by the curve.
Because okay, so let me explain it. So you've got
a curved arm. So there's two ways to achieve that
in woodworking. Either you're going to carve the curve into
a solid piece that hasn't been manipulated in any way,
(26:58):
or you're going to steam tree that wood, soften it up,
and bend the wood into that curve, which is a
actually a less expensive process to do. Okay, And now
the difference. The difference is by steam treating it, you're
using heat and moisture to manipulate shape, which is fine
(27:20):
for indoor furniture. It's maintained the same humidity, same temperature. Outdoors,
it's going to be hot, it's gonna be subjected to
heat and moisture, and it's gonna want to bend back.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
It's gonna want to go back.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
So that's how you get furniture that maybe it sits
right the first season, but every season after that it
wobbles or you got to put little feet under the
feet or something like that. It's not a piece that's
been designed to be long lasting just by virtue construction.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Okay, so that's a perfect example. What about aluminum furniture.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Aluminum furniture, it's a little trickier because a lot of
that is subsurface. So you can kind of tell just
by like knocking on the furniture, and you can kind
of get a sense of how viable that aluminum is,
how thick the walls are of the gauge.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
If you get a real tinny sound, I mean a
real high pitched tinny sound that's really thin gauge, I
mean thin wall aluminum. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
And our Summer Classics furniture, what we like about it
is on a dining armchair, you can sit on the arms.
They're designed for any occasion, somebody to come over and
sit on the arm while you're talking to them or
something like that. It's not an ornamentation of just having
a thin piece of metal go across to make an
(28:46):
arm it's a structural bnent.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
All right, okay, see perfect, all right, so so much
more to talk about. We're going to pick up this
conversation in just a bit. But guess what. When we
come back from the break, it's time for your calls.
The number to reach me eight three three two Ask
Dean eight three three to ask Dean your calls up
next your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
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.
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Your guide
to better understanding that place where you live. How you doing,
How is your Sunday morning going here in Southern California
or wherever you are listening to us from across this
(00:22):
great land of ours.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'll tell you what the weather's like here in Socao.
I'm gonna make everybody, everybody else very very jealous. It
is like mid seventies right now. It's headed up to
what maybe a high of eighty degrees, sunny, breezy. It
is the quintessential summer day in southern California. If you
sit back and close your eyes and imagine the perfect
(00:45):
summer day. And that's where we are right here on
what is today, July twenty seventh, July twenty seventh, and
it's not baking yet. It's amazing anyway. All right, Well,
good to talk to you. Thank you for being with
us on the show today. Today, on the show, on
this perfect quintessential summer day, we're going to be talking
(01:09):
about patio furnishings. Uh wait a second, No, it goes
way beyond, and we're gonna have a serious talk about
furniture and what to look for and how to buy
it and how to choose it. But it's not just that.
It's also figuring out your patio, figuring out your property.
It's relationship to the sun, figuring out shade and all
(01:33):
of the things that go along with it. I'll get
a little more into that in just a couple of minutes,
but first I gotta tell you it's a great, great
morning every time I have my very special in studio guest,
Brian Gold from Aldick Home. Brian's going to be here
to talk about all things patio furnishings. That's right here
(01:56):
for Brian, Brian, good morning, Good morning. I so you've
been on the show so many times now that today
you have to face the ultimate radio challenge, which is
I served you that gooey cinnamon roll, which you will
be eating, and you know I will be asking you
a question. I'll be watching for when you actually put
(02:17):
a bite in your mouth, and then I will ask
you the question.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I'll try not to get any all over the mic.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I'm on the radio. All Right, We're gonna do it.
You're gonna you're gonna take the sinnmon role challenge. More
on these cinnamon rolls too in a minute. Uh so
that's a thing. And of course, by the way, we'll
also be taking your calls the number to reach me.
The phone lines are open right now. We'll be going
to the phones in our middle hour today. H eight
three three two. Ask Dean eight three to three the
(02:46):
numeral two. Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean.
Give us a call anything. I'm talking patio furnishings. But
when it comes to calls, anything you want to talk
about can be construction related. D why design, architecture, inside, outside, landscape,
all the scapes, all of the scapes we cover here
(03:07):
on the program. Anything that's got you scratching your head
about your home. Okay, that's the rule. No rules, that's
the rule, no rules when it comes to your call.
So give us a call. Our call screener will tell
you everything you need to know. Pop you into the queue,
you listen to the show while you wait, and then
who knows, we could put our heads together on the
air and figure out what's going on with your home.
(03:28):
Standing next to me, not sitting across the table from me,
holding a dog, is my better half, my design partner,
the co owner co founder of House Whisper, my best
buddy in all the world. Tina is here here, welcome home.
There you go. What is that dog you have there?
(03:50):
That's Murphy. Now, Murphy has no comment. Murphy has no comment.
Murphy is a miniature poodle who looks he's very brown.
I like him when he gets cut and he looks
like a tiny bear cub. That's my or. You know,
I'm not sure I'm into the poodle cut, and I
think I think poodle cut. I don't know. Now I'm
(04:12):
gonna get people angry with me who love poodles. I
have nothing against poodles. I just think that the classic
poodle cut is humiliating. I'm almost embarrassed to look at them,
the pom poms. What is that. All I'm saying is
show me that cut in nature. That's all I'm saying.
(04:37):
It's an animal. No, No, that's fine. The new chickens,
they've got their dews, that's fine. This this thing here,
this is not a natural occurrence, that's all I'm saying.
All right, let's talk for a moment about outdoor furnishings.
Summertime is the time to be outside. That is, if
(04:59):
h outside is a comfortable, convenient, and relatively cool place
to be. Right, So, setting yourself up with great outdoor
furnishings trickier than it looks, because you know, it kind
of double down on all the advice I give when
it comes to just standard furniture buying. Plus you have
on top of that the issues of is the material
(05:21):
soft enough to be pleasant but durable enough to actually withstand,
you know, outside, And that's a whole another layer on
top of furniture that you don't have to contend with
when we're building furniture for inside the house. For as
much as we say we want to be outside, there's
also this issue there's a lot outside that you don't want,
(05:42):
all right. There's harsh sunlight, there's heat, there's wind, there's bugs,
there's all sorts of stuff. And the temptation, and I
know this for a fact, the temptation is to build
your way out of these problems. And what happens is,
I guess it's very very expensive. Here's the typical conversation
I've had with so many clients. They're like, day, Dean, listen,
(06:05):
you know what we really we We live in southern California.
We want to we want to get outside more. Let's
let's do something on very special on the patio. Okay,
all right, all right, I'm taking notes. Uh so some
really really comfortable furniture. Okay, got that. Oh we should
probably have a source of heat out there when it
gets cool. Maybe a fiber Okay, I got that, Got
that fiber. You know it gets kind of wendy here
(06:26):
out at the coast. Maybe could we put up some
glass panels or maybe a wall there? All right? Okay,
got a wall, And so we can be outside when
when the weather is kind of inclement, Should we just
extend the roof of the house. And I'm like, okay,
so now what you've just described is being inside. All right.
You want a roof, you want walls to keep you
(06:49):
safe from the wind. You want heat and cool and
comfy furniture and all the shade that you can handle.
Just stay inside. Okay. That's the that's one of the
challenges when it comes to outdoor furnishings. And that's where
we're headed next. Sound good, more great stuff on the
way your Home with Dean sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
You're listening to Home with Dean sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
We're talking patio furnishings. It's a lazy, relaxing, beautiful sunny
day here in southern California, and so we're going to
talk about getting outside and how to do it with class,
how to do it smart, how to do it without
breaking the bank. And I already alluded to the fact
that there is a temptation among those of you who
(07:42):
have the means to do it of saying, you know,
I want to spend more time outside. And the next thing,
you know, your wish list for what you want out there,
it pretty much includes every deterrent of outside living possible.
All right, So the best advice that I can give
you straight out of the shoot is this, if you
(08:06):
think about spending time outside, embrace the idea that you'll
be spending time outside, meaning putting up with or you know,
on the positive side, embracing and enjoying what it is
that the weather brings. Now, of course, you know, Brian
and I were just talking. By by the way, Brian
(08:28):
Gold sitting in studio with me from Aldack home my
favorite well, my favorite store for like five different reasons.
But during the summer, my favorite patio furniture store on
the planet. But Brian and I were just talking during
the break. We were like, you know, mosquitos because I
was talking about Ecola's mosquito system, which is brilliant, by
(08:48):
the way. We'll talk more on that later. But mosquitos
and Shade pretty much the two big ones. Right. If
you can knock out mosquitos and shade, we can put
up with everything else. Right, It's just the way. I
gotta turn your mic on there. How's that?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
So?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Uh yeah, the idea of well, you know what I
think i'd like an outdoor I just see it evolve
all the time. Somebody wants a barbecue, Okay, barbecue turns
into a built in barbecue. Built in barbecue turns into
a bar and an outdoor kitchen, and then all of
a sudden, now the TV's outside, TV's outside, there's a
(09:25):
full kitchen outside, three refrigerators, an ice maker. I mean,
I'm not I'm not poo pooing you on this. I'm
just saying it can creep. Okay, the whole concept can creep.
And oh, next, full patio cover on one shade so
full full, We'll just do a roof extension Okay, Oh,
we'll put up some glass panels so that we can
(09:47):
knock down the wind. Okay, well, by the time you've
got a roof in full glass panels, guess what you're
inside again. So it's just something to think about, that's
all I'm saying. Okay, I am absolutely here to help
you build whatever kind of beautiful outdoor experience you want.
But today, for those of us with limited budgets who
(10:09):
want to spend more time outside, there's a way to
do it, and there's a way to do it right.
And yeah, we will talk about mosquitos. We're going to
talk about shade. Shade is a huge, huge issue for
me because as a designer, it'd be great for me
to just say, listen, I want to build you a
sexy gazebo or a pergola or a patio cover, all
(10:32):
of that. It's all great, it's all good. Here's the
problem with those Wherever you live on planet Earth, you
have a certain angular relationship to the sun. Now, during
the summer, the sun is at its highest peak in
the northern hemisphere. It's just a few degrees off direct overhead,
but it's still a few degrees off direct overhead plus
(10:55):
the sun rises. I don't know if you notice that,
and it keeps moving throughout the day, which means that
very expensive patio cover that you just thought, well, I'm
just gonna build it right here, directly over the patio, right,
that very expensive patio cover is not always throwing its shade.
In fact, I would wager to say that about seventy
(11:15):
five percent of the time the shade that that patio
cover is creating, even though it is directly over your furniture,
is offset considerably from the furniture. So now we've invested
in a very expensive structure that essentially, I mean, it
might look beautiful, but it's not getting its job done.
Its job was to grow shade on us all the time.
(11:38):
So what do you do? Well? My personal preference, I mean,
I've built it into my own home, my personal preference.
I know Brian has a leaning toward this because he
sells some of the most amazing umbrellas in the world.
But I love a good, especially offset cantilevered umbrella. Why
(11:58):
because they're big, they're gorgeous. When you want them to
go away, they just go away and they're not there
at all. Plus they can move, they can move they
can adjust, they can adjust the angle of shade, all
of those kinds of things. So you see, that's the
kind of approach that we're taking today. So more on
umbrellas also later in the show. So I just want
(12:21):
to cover all of this from the sexiest and most
practical perspective, because if you can't marry those two together,
guess what. You either have something uber practical that no
one wants to spend time under or look at and
that's no fun. Or you've got all the sexiness in
the world but it doesn't actually do its job, and
guess what, that's only good for a magazine spread somewhere,
(12:42):
not for your actual life. My goal as a custom
home designer is to satisfy our clients on both of
those levels. Make something just just that you just absolutely
love that, you tell your friends about that, you invite
them over and say you've got to spend time in
my backyard. You are going to love it because it
(13:02):
is awesome. That is what we're after today. Does that
make sense good? Okay, So I'll tell you what. We're
going to dive into a break in just a few
seconds here, and when we come back, Brian, I want
you to give us an update on what's going on
with Al Dick. Just just give us the state of
the store right now, what you guys got going on.
(13:24):
I think you're starting to move into that transition mode
because you're such a big holiday store.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Right you can tell from the beautiful summer weather that
we're almost getting ready to set up for Christy.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I know that, but I get it though, I get it.
So we'll talk about that, and then I want to
get into basically a really wise furniture buying guide. Okay,
we'll do all of that, so much more to come.
You're Home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Hey, sometimes you might be thinking, Wow, what I really
need is Dean and Tina like here, actually here just
staring at the problem. Well, you know what, you can
do that too if you if your home needs some
personal house Whisper attention, you can book an in home
design consult with us. Just go to house Whisperer dot
design for more info house Whisper dot Design And just
(14:21):
as a reminder, coming up in just a bit in
our second hour, your calls the number to reach me
eight three three two. Ask Dean A three three the
numeral two. Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean.
That's the point. Anything you want to talk about regarding
your home? All right, sitting here with my special in
(14:42):
studio guests, Brian Gold from Aldick Home, we're gonna be
talking about patio furnishings, umbrellas, furniture. I want to dive
into it. But first, Brian, just how are things going
at aldc what's going on? What's the temp mature of
the store right now? I know you're transitioning. It takes you,
(15:04):
guys a long time to set up your winter wonderland,
so for you, you're kind of in transition.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Mode now we're just about to be in transition, okay,
So for us we start setting up Christmas August first.
So right now, this is kind of the last erah
of our summer sale season, so it is the summer
to save at Aldick Holm. Right now we have a
(15:29):
big store wide sale where it's thirty percent off everything
in the store. We also have all of our floor
sample patio furniture sets selling out forty percent off, and
then for the first time ever, we're having a Christmas
in July sale. So if you like to be outside
and you like pretty things, there's going to be something
on sale for you at Aldickholm.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
There you go, There you go, there's your Aldacolm spot
for the day. Right there. There are three reasons at
least that I'm always going to aldi Well. Number one
because year round, you guys are silk flower and floral
design experts and so as you know, we're in there
all the time putting stuff together for clients and it's
(16:11):
just extraordinary, just the best. That's how you originally built
your reputation in town. Just started out with silk flowers
and custom design trees for interior scapes, unbelievable stuff. I
have some here and every one of our clients I
think we end up doing something for So there's that.
Then when summer starts rolling around, it's the patio furniture,
(16:35):
because you guys went out searching for you wanted to
find the best patio furniture, and you found the best
patio furniture in North America. Summer Classics line right, Summer
Classics made here in the US. And where are they
at Summer Classics They are based in Pelham, Alabama. Okay,
All the cushions are all mates order in Pelham, Alabama.
(16:57):
One hundred and fifty different fab options to choose from,
so you can make it as custom as you as
you want. You can choose a different back cushion or
a different feat cushion. You can fild furniture. That's awesome.
So okay, So so let's segue into that. One of
the things that I mentioned, or I think I was
(17:19):
talking to Conway about this earlier this week, is soft
cushy furniture, hard hard surface furniture outside or inside anywhere.
Hard surface furniture like a wood chair or an Adirondack
chair or something like that. They're very honest. They're very
honest in that you sit down and you feel it instantly. Instantly,
(17:40):
you know whether this thing is cut to your body dimensions,
whether it's going to seat you comfortably or not. I
like to say hard surface furniture, very honest furniture, you
just get instant feedback on it. Soft puffy furniture not
so much. It's it's you know, you got furniture out
(18:01):
there that has big fluffy cushions on it. And I
always tell people when you are searching for furniture inside
or out, same rule applies. You got to take the
time to sit and just sit sit. Don't order something
online that you haven't actually sat in before, because you
(18:23):
you know, we all feel good when we sit down
on a soft cushion for the first few seconds. But
five minutes in, ten minutes in, you start feeling like, oh,
you know what I'm kind of squirming is this is
you know? And uh and the stuff that isn't designed well,
it starts speaking to you at that point. So you
got to take time. If you're out doing patio furniture,
(18:43):
soft cushion patio furniture shopping, plan on taking time. One
of the things I love that you guys do is
you've got so many floor samples out, so many of them,
so you can just kind of sit around. And when
I bring Roy Lee or account executive in, I always
lose him to that sample set that's right by the
front doors. He just sits down and I'm like, Roy,
where's roy Always over in the chair. He won't get
(19:06):
out of the chair. Chair, he's in his chair. We
call it the roy Lee chair because man, he loves
that chair, and rightly so, he loves it, So you
know what, I won't sit in that chair because I
will be taken over by the exact same problem. Okay,
So the point is this Summer Classics really shines in
(19:26):
that I have spent a lot of time sitting in
that furniture in your store, and the longer you sit,
the more you want to sit. And that's the difference.
So that's always the top thing on my list for
patio furniture buying because you know, and I want you
to speak to construction, okay, of the furniture itself, but
(19:47):
let's face it, who cares how it's made if if
you don't enjoy sitting in it. So the very first
thing is it's got to be comfortable, and then we
need to find out whether this comfortable thing is actually
worth the money because it's been made. Well, am I?
Is that fair to say?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Hey, I would put comfort first. That's the difference between
staying outside and watching your kids play or just being
that I'm going to go back on the couch inside
and wait for you guys back.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
That's right, right, And that's the whole point, right, The
point of being outside is to be comfortable outside, right,
So uh, all right, So Okay, we're up against the break.
So when we come back, let's uh, let's talk about
how we'll talk about how how Summer Classics is made,
but let's just use it as an example of how
(20:36):
patio furniture should be could be made so that people
really get the sense like, oh, you know, in fact,
Conway told me, he says, isn't it true, Dean, You're
going to spend an arm and a leg on patio furniture.
In four years from now you're going to throw it out.
And I'm like, you're you're shopping at the wrong place, buddy.
That's the thing. You're shopping at the wrong place. This
should be patio furniture that your kids inherit from you.
(20:58):
Ideally it right, I have exactly and which is ultimately
the best value. All right, more on patio furniturings when
we come back your Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisperer.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I'm talking about thoughtful, thought out, well planned out approaches
to your home. I'm still shocked to this day how
many people kind of rush the process. That is, Oh,
I just want some I want some patio furniture, Let's
just go to the patio furniture store and get it.
That is not the first step, my friend. It's not
the first step. Of course, you want a window shop.
(21:41):
That's great. Window shopping is free. Window shopping gets you
inspired about things. Sometimes you're out shopping and you'll see
something and you're like, oh, wouldn't that be great at
our place. Still not the first step. The first step
is to really think through where you're going to spend
time in yard and what the conditions are in that location.
(22:03):
And some of you're shrugging your shoulders around that thinking
what do you what do you mean where I'm gonna
spend it? I mean on my patios right there, right
out the back door there. Well, yeah, I get it.
That's where like ninety percent of patios are right connected
to the back door of the house. Also, in my opinion,
about seventy percent of the time, the least favorable place
(22:28):
to actually spend time just pushed up against the stucco
wall of your house, instead of thinking about the fact
that maybe out further into the yard as a destination
with a pathway leading from your house out to that place.
Maybe maybe under that big ash tree, maybe over in
(22:49):
the corner next to the ivy covered wall, maybe under
the natural shade of those hedges. Maybe that's the actual
place that you'd like to spend the most time. Maybe
that's where the patio should be. Maybe that's where the
patio furniture should be. And then the question is, all right,
then when is the sun hitting that place? When is
(23:13):
it shady? What do we have to think about? And
then you go and find yourself some really good patio furniture.
Speaking of Brian gold from ald Combe sitting across the
table from me, as he's done so many times before.
You know, Aldik sponsors every year are live audience holiday show.
It's always just so much fun. We decorate one of
(23:38):
their trees right during the show. I mean, it's a
great time. It's a fantastic time. But right now, Brian's
here to talk about quality made patio furniture. So Brian,
one of my next rules of patio furniture buying guides
is beware of most patio furniture buying guides, only because
(23:58):
I've just happened to notice that most patio furniture buying
guides are actually just advertisements for that brand of patio
furniture in disguise. Is that not true? That is true? Okay,
So let's just you and I be honest with everybody
right now and just talk about what are we looking
for in quality patio furniture.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
So we already talked about comfort. So you definitely have
to go somewhere and sit around and try a bunch
of sofas and chairs and lounge chairs. You also have
to talk to the people there and see what they
know about the furniture. You want to go somewhere where
you kind of want to tell the person to shut
(24:42):
up after a while. You want them to be able
to be so enthusiastic about how the furniture's made, how
it's constructed, how it will last, you take care of it.
That tell them like, okay, we got it. The first
half an hour was buying after that finished, okay.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So that's such an important point. A place where the
people who are selling it actually know all about it
and are excited to tell you about it is one
of the first It's that's like true of a restaurant,
right you sit down, you either sit down, you go
to a restaurant and you know the waitress comes over
and says, have you looked at the menu yet? What
(25:21):
do you guys want? Versus like, oh, let me tell
you our specials today. And then you see in the
server's eyes they are so thrilled about the food in
this place, right, they know every little nuance about it
and uh, and it gets you excited about it, and
you get the sense, you know, it's probably good food here.
It's probably good food if they're talking it up this much.
(25:42):
They're excited about it. They're excited about it. So the
fact that that you're in a place where somebody is like, okay,
let me tell you about what you don't see in
this patio furniture first sign of probably something quality. You're
about to hear about it. I know you guys can
go on and on. I've never shut up any of
your people about it, but you guys could go on
(26:04):
and on about about summer classics just because there's so
much to say about it. So what are some Let's
just use it as a as an example.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Okay, So when we have people come in and they're
looking for teak furniture, we explain to them the differences
in teak they may have had teak furniture in the
past that was the lower grade or furniture that was
constructed to a lower degree than the furniture that we're
showing them in front of their face. So we'll explain
(26:35):
how this is hand carved furniture. When you have a
curve in the piece, don't see the wood grain follow
the curve. You'll see it cut off by the curve.
Because okay, so let me explain it. So you've got
a curved arm. So there's two ways to achieve that
in woodworking. Either you're going to carve the curve into
a solid piece that hasn't been manipulated in any way,
(26:58):
or you're going to steam tree that wood, soften it up,
and bend the wood into that curve, which is a
actually a less expensive process to do. Okay, And now
the difference. The difference is by steam treating it, you're
using heat and moisture to manipulate shape, which is fine
(27:20):
for indoor furniture. It's maintained the same humidity, same temperature. Outdoors,
it's going to be hot, it's gonna be subjected to
heat and moisture, and it's gonna want to bend back.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
It's gonna want to go back.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
So that's how you get furniture that maybe it sits
right the first season, but every season after that it
wobbles or you got to put little feet under the
feet or something like that. It's not a piece that's
been designed to be long lasting just by virtue construction.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Okay, so that's a perfect example. What about aluminum furniture.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Aluminum furniture, it's a little trickier because a lot of
that is subsurface. So you can kind of tell just
by like knocking on the furniture, and you can kind
of get a sense of how viable that aluminum is,
how thick the walls are of the gauge.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
If you get a real tinny sound, I mean a
real high pitched tinny sound that's really thin gauge, I
mean thin wall aluminum. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
And our Summer Classics furniture, what we like about it
is on a dining armchair, you can sit on the arms.
They're designed for any occasion, somebody to come over and
sit on the arm while you're talking to them or
something like that. It's not an ornamentation of just having
a thin piece of metal go across to make an
(28:46):
arm it's a structural bnent.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
All right, okay, see perfect, all right, so so much
more to talk about. We're going to pick up this
conversation in just a bit. But guess what. When we
come back from the break, it's time for your calls.
The number to reach me eight three three two Ask
Dean eight three three to ask Dean your calls up
next your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
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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