Hello and welcome to the first ever episode of Kathleen Can Do It, a DIY podcast celebrating the fun and fails of doing it yourself. I'm Kathleen Heaney.

And I'm Kathleen Martin.

And we're just two Kathleens who are DIY enthusiasts with an eye for design and color. And in this series, each episode, we're going to tackle a new design topic to help you create the home of your dreams at any budget.

Wait, what's a budget? This podcast is for you. If you love interior design, you love DIY, you're looking for some tips and tricks of how to refresh your home. And if you're like us, you're always scrolling Instagram looking for inspiration.

Or maybe if you're somebody who loves Pinterest. Is Pinterest your favorite social media platform? Because I am right there with you. And Kathleen and I are aficionados when it comes to this stuff.

It's a blessing and a curse.

Because we've both been doing DIY projects for years. Now it's just a part of our everyday life.

We have the same name, but we're different, I promise.

Yeah. It's really awkward when we're meeting people and it's like, "Hi, I'm Kathleen." "Hi, I'm also Kathleen."

And then they just look back and forth to us and we just shrug.

Can't help it. And when it comes to DIY, we are definitely different, too.

Yeah. I hate rules. Life's too long for rules.

Girl, you're crazy. For me, I like follow on the rules. I am a rule follower.

I am not. But that's what makes us perfect for each other. And in this podcast I hope you learn from our mistakes, but mostly our successes. Right?

We've definitely had some fails along the way.

Oh my god, so many fails.

Like that time you painted your refrigerator.

No, that wasn't a fail. It was like when we painted our bathroom door and then we didn't have it for four months.

Nothing says I'm killing it more at the DIY game than having to look your significant other in the eye when you're doing number two.

Oh my gosh. So much eye contact.

So, what can listeners expect from this podcast?

Thought about this a lot because we wanted to create the podcast that feels approachable. It's not too high faluting. It's not about the $30,000 media room.

Oh my God.

And all that stuff. I mean I would love it, but I'm not there yet. We want to celebrate the fun and the fails of doing it yourself and creating that home you love no matter what the budget is.

Budget, budget, budget. Budget. Speaking of budgets, in this past year, I have designed two bathrooms, a kitchen, a full exterior home makeover. Some of it I did myself, some of it I hired people to help.

It can be really hard to try to know when to do it yourself versus when to hire somebody.

And that's a part of what we want to help people navigate with this podcast.

In this past year I've done so much. Total kitchen renovation. So painting the cabinets, the floor, the back splash, countertop. Move the bathroom toilet. That one hired out.

Don't do that yourself.

Stenciled the walls, changed the flooring, painted the fireplace. Hung wallpaper.

Oh my God. You've been busy. A little bit of everything.

Just a little busy. So would you say that painting is probably your most valuable DIY skill?

Yeah, I would say so. I have a background in art and paint has always been that inexpensive tool for me. In fact, I actually have a motto. If it is ugly, paint it. If you cannot afford the real thing, paint it. You do not have to live in a house you hate because you can't afford the expensive renovation.

Oh definitely. And I think that that is what trips a lot of people up. They think that they have to spend so much money, but truly you don't, if you just get a little crafty.

I love the term bandaid renovation. It's like that in between stage.

And you still love the in between stage.

Yeah, yeah. What would you say your number one DIY skill is?

I've actually gotten so good at refinishing old wood, like wood that people would normally just rip out. Because right now I'm renovating my childhood home. It's 95 years old and the doors and the windows were all in really rough shape from things like sun rot and water damage and whatnot. So I've slowly been bringing back all of the wood furnishings in that house without having to replace any of it. Keep the original.

Here. Here.

Let's talk about our origin story, shall we?

Let's do it.

I know we have different versions of how we met, but the first time Kathleen, that I kind of knew about you was from a local Instagram account here in New Jersey. Because we're both from New Jersey.

Yes.

At Hoboken girl.

Hoboken girl. She's a really big deal. So to be featured by her was huge.

And I sent you a message that said something like, Hey Kathleen, cool apartment. Love, another Kathleen. Do you remember that happening?

I too am Kathleen. Like your stuff. Be friends. Question mark.

They shared a picture of your apartment. It was so beautiful. You had this amazing green couch.

It was the couch of my dreams.

Oh, it's still the couch of my dreams.

Green is my favorite color.

It's from Ikea, by the way. It's called the Stockholm couch. It's out of stock on their site. But if you Google it and put in green velvet, you can find it secondhand. And it's currently in my basement collecting mold and it's very sad.

Are you kidding me?

It's heartbreaking. We don't have the room for it right now.

How dare you do that to that gem of a sofa.

I know, I know. So at the time it was a huge investment. I had just gone through this terrible breakup. It was a thousand dollars and I got-

... A thousand dollars from Ikea. That's the champagne of Ikea.

I know. It was the fancy Ikea. And I went through this breakup and I was like, "I'm going to refresh my apartment. I'm going to make it so fun." And I created healing in that place because I designed it so cheerfully and I made my home that place I love so much that it made me feel better.

That is the power of design. It can heal you, it can change you.

Honestly. It can change your life. I really think that the home you create for yourself can be that safe space.

If you're still listening to this, by the way. Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

This isn't my first venture into the world of podcasting. For anybody listening to this, you might know me from an Acquired Taste podcast that I do with my cohost, Bethany Watson. And it's just like podcasting is in my blood. And when I met Kathleen and we started falling into each other's dm's. That's what the kids say say these days.

I thought you were going to say into each other's arms, but dm's works,

Arms, dm's, same thing. And we just started sharing cool posts. We started tagging each other in DIY posts and the rest was kind of history.

We took it offline eventually. Yeah. I invited you to my sister's house, which was down the street from yours.

Yeah. It was kismet. Your sister was my neighbor. And we've been friends for about a year and a half now. And we are just bonded by our love of color. I don't know anybody else who goes so much out of their way like I do to just pick things that are colorful and wear things that are colorful and fill their house with color like I do.

Color makes us happy. And we're both renovating on a budget.

Oh, yeah, what's that thing that you say? Champagne taste, Costco budget?

Yeah. I say caviar, although I've never had caviar. So champagne makes more sense. I have the champagne taste on a Costco budget, but I honestly love Costco so much.

What's your favorite free sample?

All of them. And I go back multiple times. No shame.

Of course you do. So I think the biggest place where we're different and this is how I see us.

Okay.

You just fly by the seat of your pants and you don't follow any of the rules.

Okay. So I hate rules in life. My grandpa used to say, "Doesn't say absolutely." So if it's like no turn on left, doesn't say absolutely. And then turn left.

That's amazing.

And I still say it. I will always break the rules. I hate reading directions. I don't sand things before I paint them.

Oh My God. Bless me. You're giving me [inaudible 00:07:21] over now.

I know I do everything wrong. If I want to hang a picture frame, I measure with my arms and I make the hole. If it's wrong, I make the hole again and I say the holes behind the picture frame so who cares? Brian will take the level.

Oh my God.

I'll take the measuring tape and I'm like, "Oh, I could have done that in five minutes." But I appreciate that. So I think you are more follow the rules.

I am more of a rule follower and it holds me back sometimes in terms of really digging into some of the DIY projects that I want to tackle.

It's so relatable though. I think everybody, I think that barrier to entry and the fear of getting started stops a lot of projects.

And then people stop before they even get to start the best part, which is figuring out what their style is.

Ooh, yeah. Style.

I'm trying to think of how I would describe my design style. How would you describe yours, Kathleen?

So the question that I always ask myself is, "How can I create a home that I love that looks beautiful and so thoughtful while saving money? And that's my number one goal. Love filling my home with art, love shopping secondhand. It's cheaper, it's more unique and it's more sustainable. So tons of thrifted things and Facebook marketplace. Huge source of inspiration.

You are the queen of Facebook marketplace.

I have about 10 coffee tables in my basement because I kept rescuing them.

I think we need to check you into coffee table rehab.

They're so good though. They're so cheap.

Are any of them pink?

They're not. But amazing glass ones. Tesolated stone. But that's because basically everything else I buy is pink.

Pink to me is, depending on the shade of pink. Pink can be a neutral for sure. We're in my office right now. The walls are a shade of pink. This to me is a neutral.

Absolutely. And the cutest thing happened the other day. My nephew came over, he's 10 and he told his mom, he's like, "I love Aunt Kathleen's house because it's different and it doesn't look like everybody else's." Oh, it was like nicest compliment ever.

From a 10 year old boy. That is the nicest compliment ever.

Very thoughtful. Right? Yeah. So I love art. I was an art teacher for 10 years. I just quit. Hallelujah.

You're a retired art teacher.

I retired, yeah. Yesterday would've been the first day of school and I was just in my pajamas all day dancing. Pure joy. So as an art teacher, colors are for everyone. There's no such thing as boy colors and girl colors. I will tell my students that all the time because how sad is it if somebody wants to wear a color or use a color and you get shame for that.

Absolutely.

You can wear every color. You can use every color. And let's start liking pink more.

My husband looks so handsome in pink. His name is Neil, by the way. I've been married for 10 years. Kathleen, you're just about to get married.

26 days.

Kathleen and Brian. I have the invitation on my refrigerator.

So Brian and I have lived together for almost three years now. And we have a fun story. We met on Bumble, the new normal, but we moved in after five months because of COVID.

You're insane.

I know. And it's just funny how it works out like that. It went great and we spent a hundred days, the two of us. And so by month seven we were looking at homes and we closed on our home in the town I grew up in on the one year anniversary of our first date.

That to me, my mind is blown right now.

It's a movie. It's so weird.

And when you guys moved in together, what was it like melding your styles? Because like you said, you're colorful, you're thrifted, you're art focused. How did Brian, this man that you had only really known for a year at this point-

Barely known.

How did that work out with him?

My first handle was one house, two styles, but it should have been one house, one style.

Yeah, because you're the boss.

Very quickly it was clear it was only my style. Brian's style is he had a lamp filled with sand and it had no lampshade. Mismatched sheets.

You know what I sided with Brian on this one. My bedsheets never match.

No, no, no. I grew up like that. Now only matching.

Wait, do you have childhood trauma from not having matching sheets?

Okay. I'm the youngest of six. So many beds. The sheets never matched.

That's the way it's supposed to be. Just like whatever's clean in the linen closet you grab first.

We had a laundry chute.

Oh, that's so cool.

So everything just was piled in the laundry chute. So you didn't know where anything was.

So do you and Brian match your sheets every time now? I will never know that level of organization.

We have when you have multiple sets of whites and they kind of get mixed up. Yeah. So-so. But to Brian's credit, he's extremely neat. And I remember when we first started dating, I walked into his room and it wasn't disgusting. It was like winner. Flash forward a year, Brian and I bought a house, fixer upper, had no idea what we were getting into. We're like, oh my god, this is going to be so easy. It's not. And it takes forever and there's a lot of sweating and crying. We're all about budget, but we're also about spending the money when we can, when we want, when to invest. But now is not the time. When the credit card is too high, don't buy.

But that's when you want to DIY.

That's good, genius.

When you're trying to save a buck, it is truly amazing what you can do with a little bit of paint. But if my husband could hear me say that right now, he would roll his eyes so hard because I take forever making decisions about paint colors and what I'm going to paint the wall. I have to see the sunlight trickle in to see what tones come up out of what colors.

I completely agree. My sister and I swatched 100 paint colors for her new house.

Oh my God.

Undertones are important.

They are important. Especially when you're living in what you think is your forever home. We just bought our first place together. We've been living here for a year.

So exciting.

Have not finished painting yet.

It's funny because every single wall in my house is white.

That's strange. You love color, but you like white walls.

I know. I think if it kind of like a museum. So the white is the backdrop, but then it helps the colorful artwork to stand out.

It puts the focus on the art instead of the wall.

But you like a colorful wall.

Yeah, I'm a color on the wall kind of girl. We're getting ready to celebrate our ten year wedding.

That's legit.

Wedding anniversary. And I do have to say since we've been together forever, what's really nice is that Neil no longer has opinions about the colors that I put on the wall.

Goals.

It is goals, right? Yeah. I shaped those goals. In terms of furniture, we do have a handful of adult pieces.

Adult pieces. What?

This is PG. No, no, I'm not talking about that type of adult pieces. Listen, we're not doing swing sets on this podcast, okay. I'm talking about Restoration Hardware and West Elm.

Oh, solid furniture.

But we are now officially out of money and the rest of it, I cannot switch out any tile without DIYing it and stuff like that. So the rest of my renovations, I'm very light on the renovations, changes and updates are all going to be DIY.

I feel that deeply. So how would you describe your style now?

Like you, I'm colorful, right? But I'm also into multifunctional slash very functional pieces because I am a mess. I'm not good at keeping house. Kathleen, you've been to my house a handful of times now. It is a disaster zone every time you come. And in the beginning when we first met, I tried to pretend that-

Yeah, yeah.

Oh I'm sorry. This one time that you're busy with me.

Never like this.

It's never like this, but it is like this all the time. So part of my design goal is to really make furniture and design that's very functional, easy for me to keep a clean, neat home. And then also, I guess I would describe myself as eclectic, preppy slash eclectic, traditional.

I was thinking like I am unfunctional. Like I bought that blue chair that is my pride and joy.

Oh, the blue chair in your living room.

It feels terrible to sit in and I give no craps because I'm like, I don't care.

Yeah.

I'm here for the looks.

And you know what? I've heard the saying, "If it don't hurt, it don't look good." You know?

My grandma used to tell me, "You have to suffer to be beautiful." So messed up.

So I'm the opposite of you when it comes to that. Things have to be comfortable. They have to be functional. Something that I did in my living room that a lot of people kind of go, huh? They raised their eyebrows at, is that underneath my TV instead of a traditional media console, I have a nine drawer dresser.

I also have a dresser in my living room.

Yes. Everybody should have dressers in their living room. Why aren't more people talking about that?

It's because it's like, it could be the same footprint as just a console, but you can store all my shit in there.

So much more functional.

Yeah. Brian's boxers are in the living room.

If I ever get to do a kitchen from scratch, wait, hang on. Your fiance's boxers are in the dresser in the living room?

Yes. So right now we have our bedroom on the first floor, but it's super small and we squeezed a king in there. So it only fits one dresser. So his choice was he has a dresser in the basement. So he goes there and then we put a second dresser in the living room, just like you. This beautiful six drawer dresser. So Brian thought, "Yay, my clothes will be on the first floor." I said, "Honey, no, it's makeup. It's hair products. What's the third one? Also hair products." And I don't do my hair, so that's weird. And then it's junk, junk, Brian's stuff.

Stop it. He got one drawer? You keep your makeup and your hair products in the dresser in your living room?

Yes. Because our bathroom's so small.

That's brilliant. Brian is an angel of a human.

He's a saint. But that's what this podcast is about.

Oh for sure.

Sharing those funny home stories that we all have, but also really inspiring each other to tackle that next project that's been on your list for ages.

Oh, that's my list.

DIY can be really intimidating, but when it goes right, you can transform your home and just create that sanctuary.

Yes. To me, there's no greater joy in life than creating something with your hands. Something that you had patience for. Something you worked really hard at. And when it comes to DIY, that is what feels so special to me about it.

Yeah, absolutely.

And the problem that I have that I think others can relate to. Before I start any project, I feel like I need to know everything that there is to know about something. And it's really holding me back in many aspects of renovating my home. And you have gotten so much accomplished in the time that you've lived in your house. And I think that's because you're a rule breaker. You're just like, "What the hell, I'm just going to do it. I'm going to see if it works out along the way."

That has helped propel projects forward. But it can get you in trouble if the paint peels or you don't follow the steps. I end up wasting a lot of time and a lot of tears to get it right.

That's the beauty of what we want to share with people on this podcast. That we've done it and we've learned the ways in which you shouldn't. And here are the ways that worked for us. And every week we're going to talk about a new project or a new subject like stenciling or peel and stick tiles. Or the best way to go about quickly refinishing a wood piece of furniture or meticulously refinishing a wood piece of furniture because there are two ways. There are absolutely two ways.

You know which way I am. This is terrible. Let's put more paint on it.

And I'm like the one that takes weeks to do it. And honestly, Kathleen, sometimes it's like the same result. And of course we'll talk about all of the things that we do big and small on this podcast along the way.

Each week we're going to be shouting out our favorite DIY Instagram accounts, what they're working on. And we're going to be featuring some listener accounts, too.

So leave us a voicemail. Let us know what project is holding you up or maybe what project that you did that turned out amazing. We are here to help and to celebrate with you and to answer your questions,

Our phone number is (201) 378-3378.

Or send us an email at hello@kathleencandoit.com.

Better yet, send us lots of emails. We want to see your cool DIYs, what you find on Pinterest or that Instagram that you want us to check out. We're here for all of it.

And you can follow us on our socials. Me, Kathleen Heaney at Kathleen Loves Color

And me, Kathleen Martin at Create A Colorful Life.

And don't forget if Kathleen can do it, you can do it too.

We did it. That's a wrap. Is that so dorky?

No, I think it's fine. We're dorky. It's fine. Right?