Judson Rothschild, Interior Design & Realtor

Today Gary interviews Judson Rothschild, Interior Design & Realtor

Episode Transcript

(00:22):
Hello. I'm Gary Quinn and welcometo another episode of Ready Set Live.
My guest today is Judson Rothschild,an interior designer and realtor. Judson Rothschild
is the epitome of a full serviceexpert who has a keen eye for design
and detail. His work has beenfeatured in various television media outlets such as

(00:44):
ABC, HGTV, and CNN,and he has also been featured in Architectural
Digest, El Decor, and Veranda. Judson's well rounded experience enables a deeper
insight into what gives a property potentialas well as what makes a property.
Don't go away, I'll be rightback with Judson Rothschild. Hello, Judson,

(01:11):
Welcome to the show. It's greatto be here, Gary. Yes,
you know. I always try tofeature extraordinary people who have talent that
is needed to sort of be knownto the world, and you're one of
those people. Tell me how didyou get into the design business? I

(01:33):
know you you grew up in Hollywoodin Los Angeles. Your mom was one
of the first, so you know, tell us about your mom. She
was one of the first actresses tobe signed to twentieth Century Fox. Well,
no, actually, she was acontract player at Warner Brothers. Okay,
oh, down the street, rightdown the street, and she was
loaned out, It's kind of afunny story to twenty century Fox at one

(01:57):
time to shoot this movie called FantasticVoyage, and she got married and had
to pull out of it, andthat made Raquel Welsh's career. But my
mom always had this incredible vision.So did my dad actually, and they
loved to buy houses and just fixthem up on the side. So I

(02:19):
grew up, you know, asa child scraping wallpaper. That's how I
got my allowance. And what wasamazing was you would scrape the wallpaper and
there would be you know, onelayer, and you would go, oh,
that's pretty ugly. Then you getto this second layer and you were
like, whoa, this is kindof incredible. And then you would get
to this third layer and suddenly thehouse became this living, breathing organism.

(02:40):
And I just love looking at thepotential of a house and seeing what it
can become or what it was andbringing it back to life. You know,
I know you have an eye fordetail. When you actually see a
new home that you need to renovate, is it a conscious energy that you

(03:04):
deal with the client, you sortof read their energy, or you basically
have an idea what you're going toformulate in the house or change or add
because I know you like a lotof light and you use a lot of
white in your in your designs.But what's what's the secret? How do
you how do you activate that?Well? I think it's actually a little
more organic. I mean, whenyou walk into a house, the house,

(03:29):
I mean, I hate to bekind of airy fairy about it,
but the house kind of speaks toyou. And you're correct. I do
like light, and I do likebright, and I do, like,
you know, to deal with whitein all my houses because I'm a firm
believer that we all need more lightin our lives. So I think when

(03:50):
it comes to clients and dealing witha piece of property, you know,
you already have sort of a feelof what they're looking for. They've already
seen my work, So we kindof walk organic through the project and I
just kind of tell them what Ifeel and how I feel, and we
all, you know, come toa meeting of minds. So I think
it's it's a partnership. It alwayshas to be a partnership because ultimately it's

(04:12):
not my house, it's their house. And I know that you're a stickler
when it comes to fabrics building.You know, you use the best,
which really does emanate a consciousness ofenergy, of really stability when you go

(04:33):
into a house that's built really well. I know when I go to certain
countries and I see homes or evenin Japan or Italy or Switzerland that has
really built well, you can feelit that it's not some cheap fabric or
some cheap curtains because you've been influencedby the French decor and what's French and

(04:58):
the Italian, the Italian in someof the English. You know, I
tend to you know, I tendto like more traditional, more transitional.
I do contemporary when it's not justa box. I think right now,
all we're kind of seen in contemporary, you know, in the contemporary view,
it's just these square boxes and they'reto me, they're hideous. But
every now and then an architect comesalong that has a great contemporary vision,

(05:24):
and then I'm really on board.I really love that. But the great
thing about a transitional traditional house isit has different layers, you know,
it has details which are really nice. And I know that you've branched into
the design from design to real estatean architect, because you really do ball

(05:47):
three. What was the catalyst thatgot you into that? I know,
I know you had a great housethat you redid in bel Air, and
that was that the catalyst that youwere able to sell it or got it
set you into the motion of it. Well, what happened was I forgot
how many years ago one of myclients was having a hard time selling their

(06:09):
house that I had worked on.So they knew I had my real estate
license, so they came to meand they said, would you, you
know, consider representing our house.I said, of course I would.
Who better could who better to sellyour house than the guy who redesigned it,
Because in that house we actually toreit down to the studs and we
rebuilt it. We rebuilt a brandnew nineteen thirty two house. It was

(06:34):
really spectacular. So of course Iagreed to sell it. And then it
just started snowballing. And I love, I love, I love trying to
solve a puzzle in design and inselling. It's the same kind of puzzle.
You know, you're trying to findyou know the right project for somebody

(06:55):
or the right house, and Ilove that part of the business. Yeah,
that's one of the things I loveabout designers is the creative essence that
they bring to a project. AndI've known you for years and I've seen
your work from beginning, middle toend, which I loved to see the
before and after. And I'll neverforget. I think I was working in

(07:18):
England and you had me bring abell back. I had a bell.
It was about fifty bell in mysuitcase. I smuggled a bell back into
the United States. I didn't smuggleit. I was just like I bought
it. It's so true. Isaw this. I saw at this auction
house. I saw this huge bellthat you would pull almost something like from

(07:41):
the Wizard of Oz, you know, as a as a front door bell.
And I told my clients, Isaid, I came up with this
great idea for your house and itwas a it was a tutor house.
And so they said, okay,great, and so poor Garrett had to
drag this poor thing through airports toget it back to me. I called
up and say, I need youto pick this up because I won the

(08:03):
bid. He was like, okay, and he had no I thought it
was just a little bell. Thisthis giant bell was you. I think
I had to get another suitcase becauseit didn't fit in mind and it weighed
about fifty pounds. Yeah, Idid have to get another suitcase. But
it was fun. I went toI think it was Carnaby Street. I
can't remember where it was, butall antiques and it was just really great

(08:28):
to be in that English vibe.So I mean that in itself is showing
that you just go to the detail. Well, I think all great designers
do that, you know. Imean details are what make our business,
and you know, we had theeye for detail. It's a blessing and
it's a curse because our eyes seeeverything. And I know that with the

(08:48):
real estate. Have you found thatto be a easy flow almost to go
into because you're able to do bothand you're you know, you're able to
connect with people. Has it beenan easy transition to be able to combine
both. Oh? Absolutely, becausemost of the time, you know,

(09:09):
clients, you know, are lookingat a house and they'll say, you
know, I really like this house, and I said, well, let
me point out a few things ofwhere you're going to spend a lot of
money, you know, and theseare kind of the issues that I foresee
in this house and that you know, that's the great part of our jobs.
We get to educate people, youknow, and say, you know,
this is what you're getting into.If you're willing to spend this money,

(09:31):
this is great, this is agreat opportunity. Or sometimes we walk
into a house and they're like,I don't think I'm going to stop.
This is a money maker. Thisis a great opportunity for you to make
money. If not, you know, a beautiful place for you to live
in this experience, because I believeour lives are all about experiencing situations,

(09:52):
individuals and people. What has beenthe most important lesson that you've learned learned
so far in this lifetime with lifepeople working with different individuals. I think
probably the most important lesson is toreally pay attention to their energy. And

(10:18):
there's certain people you really don't wantto work for, you know, because
you know you're spending a lot oftime and a lot of effort in this
house or this house I'm designing,or this house I'm selling. You know,
it becomes like family. And there'scertain people that are just very caustic
and you just don't want to workfor them. So I think the most

(10:39):
important lesson is to learn to sayno. Can you describe one of the
greatest challenges you've had to overcome inthis lifetime? I think survival. I
think, you know, I hadto survive a lot of things in my
life. I hope a lot ofpeople never have to experience, and somehow,

(11:03):
you know, I went through thoseexperiences and I still see the glasses
half full. So I'm a believerthat I was put on this planet as
a beacon of light, and Iknew I was not going to let anybody
take that away, no matter,no matter what obstacles I ran into.
And I think you know, everybodyyou know as a soul in this lifetime,

(11:28):
we have challenges to overcome, butI think lessons to learn, and
I think every situation in every individualteaches us something and if we look at
that from what makes us who weare today, we really look at those
experiences as blessings and really enable tomove forward. And I know I had

(11:52):
a conversation the other day with someonewho's in the media, high profile,
and I said to them, unlessyou're really willing to forgive the past,
the people, the situations. Youcan't move forward. And I really believe
that any in any spiritual practice,of any spiritual master or energy worker,

(12:18):
that that is the key for anyoneto transform their life and to forgive,
forget, not to forget, butjust to let go of that whatever it
is that you were angry about,because I think that brings up like a
mirror. I'm angry because that parentor that situation wasn't right for me,

(12:41):
but maybe it was right for youbecause you had to learn survival. You
know. I think, you know, there's lessons. There's lessons in everything,
and I think one of the mostimportant things is and you've probably run
across it, and I've run acrossit with a lot of my friends,
is you know, they start blamingtheir parents for things, and they start
blaming all these other people, andI go, wait, stop, I

(13:03):
say, do you think your parentsactually set out to destroy your life?
And they kind of think about it, and they go, well, I
said, because if they did,never speak to them again, but they
were doing the best they possibly could. So we have knowledge at our age

(13:24):
that they did not have at theirage. You know, there was a
societal expectation in those days, youknow, you didn't tell your friends certain
things, you didn't tell people certainthings, and that you started harboring all
this stuff and it started building up. So, you know, my mom
had four kids by the time shewas twenty one. How could I blame
her for anything. I could barelytake care of my dog. Yeah,

(13:46):
exactly, you know, exactly.So you know, you got to get
over it. You know, ata certain point, I tell people,
you get two years in therapy andthen get over it. Okay, you
can blame your parents and everybody elsefor all your problems, and now it's
time for you to deal with whatare you doing for your life? Correct?
And I think sometimes the anger orthe aggressiveness in a person comes out

(14:11):
because they're working it out, andthey might attack you. But you know,
I always go back to, youknow, the four agreements. It's
like, you just do your best, take nothing personal, and you keep
going. And yes, you dohave to have faith and you do have
to believe. What do you thinkis one of the most common reasons why

(14:37):
people are unhappy? I think probablythe I think probably the catalyst is they
don't have a direction in their life. They don't know where they want to
go, and I think we allget to a place where we go what's
it all for? And that isa big panic and anxiety moment, and

(14:58):
everybo his life is why are wedoing what we're doing? And I think
I think that's pretty much the answer. What does love mean to you?
WHOA Well, that means a lot, honor, integrity, compassion, communication,

(15:24):
and an amazing friendship. Mm yeah, I think that's the recipe for
success. I think a lot ofpeople look for relationships to fix them,
and I think that's a big mistake. It's more of an opportunity to have

(15:45):
a mirror in front of you andlook at what you're both learning or communicating.
Even whether it's a client or it'sa you know, parent, sibling,
friend, We're all looking to learnhow to communicate and how to love
each other without taking a point ofview of anger, resentment, or are

(16:10):
fixing somebody. Yeah, you know, I don't know about you, but
one of my sayings that I cameup with is when I see humpty dumpty,
now, I just shove them overthe wall. Yeah I'm not.
I don't want to. I don'thave time to put you back together.
I mean enough of this. Yeah, you know, you've got to come.
You've got to come, you know, put together yourself. How can
one really truly learn to love themselves? Well, I think it's I think

(16:36):
it's an eternal I don't think youever stop learning how to love yourself.
To be perfectly honest, you're doingyour homework, hopefully, you're you're looking
at your past in a way thatyou forgive, as you were talking about,
and hopefully you're constantly figuring out betterways to better yourself. And you

(17:00):
know, spiritually meditation, you know, I you know, through the pandemic.
You know, I came down withCOVID twice and I ended up with
long hauler, you know, portionsof COVID, and I found a really
great relief in meditation. And Ithink in order to better yourself, you
have to be able to look atyour faults, you know, and you

(17:22):
have to be able to accept them, and you have to have compassion with
not only others, but mostly yourself, and forgiveness for yourself. You know,
that's where we all tend to getinto a lot of trouble. Who
has influenced your life and whose workdo you admire? Hmm? I mean,

(17:47):
I know it sounds cliche, butI think the most influential person in
my life was my mother. Imean, she had impeccable taste. She
came from absolutely nothing on a dirtfarm in Wichita Falls, Texas, you
know, and she still had Shecould look at a dress in a window
and she could go home and sewit. And she had an impeccable eye.
Also as a designer, we werewe were our eyes were very different.

(18:11):
But she definitely would be the personI would say, you know,
empowered me the most. Who wouldyou love to work with as a designer
As a designer, hmm, that'skind of a tricky question. It could

(18:36):
be another architect, it could bea you know, someone who you admire
them their work musically, you know, it could be a well, I
mean, Barbara Streisen, But she'sgot her own she's got her own eye.
There's no doubt about that. TheObama's I would love to I would
love to work with. Didn't youtell me you had a experience with Barbara?

(19:00):
No, I just grew up.I grew up loving, loving her,
you know, because I think withthe amount of pain that I went
through in my life, you know, early on, I think what a
lot of people you know hear andidentify with her singing is she sings with
a lot of pain And I havenot you know, I have not worked

(19:22):
with her, but I think she'sa terrific I think she's a terrific woman.
If you could go back in timeand ask one question from history of
someone, what would be the questionand who would you ask? Well,

(19:47):
it depends on what religion you believein, the Buddha or Jesus. I
think I would ask, you know, what's it all for? And and
I think that you know. Onon that note, what does what does
heaven mean to you? Heaven meansserenity, bliss and just an overall feeling

(20:18):
of floating. What does God mean? God is everywhere we are all,
we are all God. Do youhave a certain ritual that you do every
day that exercise? I know youdo meditation? What what what do you

(20:41):
do daily or weekly that is partof your ritual? Well, now I
just got a puppy, so mydaily routine has change tremendously. But normally
I meditate. Wake up in themorning and I meditate. Then I may
myself a great breakfast. I willgo to work, and at some point

(21:03):
during the day, I will workout and I will spend at least thirty
minutes with my dog, loving her, kissing her, playing with her,
because she's like a child. AndI always make sure that I make a
really nice dinner and take a nicehot shower, and then I go to

(21:25):
bed, try to go to bedearly. What is your bucket list for
the next five years. What doyou want to accomplish or what do you
want to see travel, go toWhat's what's the ultimate Judson mission? Well,
to keep creating beautiful houses and tokeep buying and selling beautiful houses,

(21:49):
but traveling. I mean, there'sno place like Paris as far as I'm
concerned. Japan, I love.I would love at some point to get
to Australia and New Zealand. Imean, there's so many countries I would
love to see, you know,the Pyramids, but obviously it's not a
great time to go there right now. But I'd like to see the Seven

(22:11):
Wonders of the world. I mean, so that's what they're all all there
for for us to witness. Imean, that's probably part of God excellent.
Well, I want to thank youfor coming in studio and really sharing
this time and much success with thedesign and the real estate and the new

(22:37):
puppy. Well, thank you andthank you for having me. Yes,
it was a pleasure to see you. And you can reach Judson on Instagram
at where can they reach you atJudson Rothschild is my Instagram okay, great,
And you can see some of hisgreat designs on the website. You're
going to see a lot of stuffon that, to see a lot of

(23:00):
my opinions. Yes, all right, Thank you so much, Judson,
Thank you Gary for having me.I'm Gary Quinn. Join me for another
episode of Ready Set Live. Untilnext time, be well,