Kathleen Martin: Hello, and welcome to Kathleen Can Do It, the DIY podcast celebrating the fun and fails of doing it yourself. I'm Kathleen Martin.

Kathleen Heaney: And I'm Kathleen Heaney.

Kathleen Martin: We're just two Kathleens inspiring others to really tap into their creativity in the new year.

Kathleen Heaney: In this episode, we are discussing our biggest DIY successes/DIY flops of 2022, our upcoming projects in 2023, and some of the trends that we're really excited to see in the new year.

Kathleen Martin: Yes, but first, Kathleen, why is your mouth so weird right now?

Kathleen Heaney: Okay. I feel like DIYers out there can relate to the calamity that I just put myself through. When you use a toothbrush, you use it up, the bristles are all bent out of shape and stuff. Do you save it for your DIY projects in case you need a toothbrush for whatever reason?

Kathleen Martin: It's good to have a cleaning toothbrush for jewelry, for whatever. Yeah, for sure.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah. When I'm cleaning a baseboard before I paint it, you know what? There's all those little nooks and crannies in baseboard, the trim on the floor where the wall touches the floor. I always go in with an old toothbrush and some Fantastic and clean in there that way.

Kathleen Martin: That's good.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah. So it's just good to have old toothbrushes around, but I made the mistake of ... Okay, all right. I have Invisalign and I keep my toothbrush, my regular toothpaste toothbrush near the kitchen sink because every time I eat, I have to make sure there's no crumbs left over in my Invisalign before I put my retainers back in.

Kathleen Martin: Right.

Kathleen Heaney: I mixed up my DIY toothbrush with my regular toothbrush-

Kathleen Martin: No.

Kathleen Heaney: ... and I was using yesterday my DIY toothbrush with some dish soap. So I accidentally put the dish soap toothbrush in my mouth and we have been postponing this recording today for an hour because I could not get the taste of Mrs. Meyer's soap out of my freaking mouth.

Kathleen Martin: There's so much gagging.

Kathleen Heaney: Oh, my God, it was the worst, maybe my biggest DYI flop of 2022.

Kathleen Martin: Oh, my God. That is a mistake you do not want to make. Keep your DIY toothbrush and regular toothbrush away from each other.

Kathleen Heaney: I feel like the concept of a DIY toothbrush is not something that people openly talk about, but I think we need to.

Kathleen Martin: You need to put a warning label on it like, "No, stop. Don't use."

Kathleen Heaney: I know. My dad used to label all of his stuff with red nail polish.

Kathleen Martin: Oh.

Kathleen Heaney: So maybe I just need to paint the handles on my DIY toothbrushes with nail polish before I retire them.

Kathleen Martin: Just put a big X on them.

Kathleen Heaney: That isn't my real 2022 flop, but Kathleen, let's start with yours.

Kathleen Martin: So my biggest flop of 2022 wasn't one project in particular. It wasn't necessarily one thing. It was that I did so much DIY so quickly that I burned out at 80% in my kitchen and I never went back to it.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah. Early on in the year, you put your feet to the fire and you went full force.

Kathleen Martin: It was every night and every weekend for eight weeks, because my husband and I entered this competition to do over a room in eight weeks, and we got so burned out by it, in the kitchen nothing was finished. The casings around the window are just primer. The shoe molding around the baseboard never got put back on, kick plate never got put back on, no handles on the cabinets. it's been six months and I'm just now, "I think I can maybe tackle that." So I think sometimes with DIY you get so gung ho, and you can do so much that you burn out and then you can't do anything. You just go back to being paralyzed. So for 2023, it's all about pacing myself and not doing too much.

Kathleen Heaney: I feel like too, when you're doing a big renovation and you have to make so many big decisions in a short amount of time, you need to choose tile, and you need to choose countertops, and you need to choose all of your new furniture and stuff, and you have to make all of these big decisions that you cannot change. You can't go back. It's also easy to get burned out in that way too.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah. Those are really hard, and I haven't actually done that yet because in the kitchen everything we did was paint, essentially. So those big choices, they're scary.

Kathleen Heaney: They are. Well, you know what? Your kitchen looks amazing on Instagram.

Kathleen Martin: Thank you.

Kathleen Heaney: It's like that, did you see there was a TikToker who bought a house from a DIY blogger and-

Kathleen Martin: Oh, it was really bad, though.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah. So she moved in and then I guess she was just browsing TikTok one day and realized that her house was on this other DIY TikToker's Instagram. All of the pictures that this TikToker had posted were photoshopped a little bit, or the stuff that she said she was doing, it was only half finished, kind of like your kitchen.

Kathleen Martin: If someone bought our house, they be like, "Wait a minute, if you touch this, this is going to fall off. This is taped on there."

Kathleen Heaney: I know.

Kathleen Martin: "It's all a lie," and I will happily admit that. On my Instagram, @CreateAColorfulLife, I am very open about that.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah.

Kathleen Martin: I'm like, "Don't turn around, because that's where the garbage is. Only look this way."

Kathleen Heaney: One of my favorite things to do on my Instagram stories is post what the rest of the room looks like-

Kathleen Martin: Oh, yeah.

Kathleen Heaney: ... after I post a really beautiful photo of something.

Kathleen Martin: And zoom out, I moved everything on my counter to the floor.

Kathleen Heaney: My best friend for the first time, she lives a little bit far away. So she finally came up to visit my apartment about two weeks ago, and today we're recording from my office. By the way, second recording of this podcast.

Kathleen Martin: First one wasn't very good.

Kathleen Heaney: No. The first one was a couple of days before Christmas. You and I were both grumpy. I listened back to it and I was like, "This is not anything that would be inspiring to anyone."

Kathleen Martin: Diddly, try again.

Kathleen Heaney: Diddly. My best friend finally came up to visit my new apartment and she walked into my office where we are today. She looked at my gallery wall, which I spent a lot of time working on, and I did a big post on my Instagram on it.

Kathleen Martin: Super cute.

Kathleen Heaney: Thank you. She goes, "Wow, the room's a lot smaller in person." I'm like, "Thank you. Thank you."

Kathleen Martin: "Thanks, it was a fish eye lens."

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah, exactly. Okay. So my biggest fail of 2022 actually turned into something positive. I am a tile novice, or I was a tile novice in the beginning of 2022. I was renovating my mom's house, and I think I did three bathrooms, so I was picking out tile for all of them.

Kathleen Martin: You've done so much. It looks so good.

Kathleen Heaney: Thank you. I was really gung ho about this tile from Floor & Decor that I spent a lot of time sealing 'cause it was a natural slate tile. My hands were bleeding when I was sealing it.

Kathleen Martin: Ugh, God.

Kathleen Heaney: I was just sealing it with my own hands trying to get this project done, and it couldn't be used because turns out I am the huge dumb-dumb.

Kathleen Martin: No.

Kathleen Heaney: The tile wasn't all the same height, and so we'd essentially just be breaking our toes in the bathroom walking around barefoot. It's so dumb, yes. Of course, the tile needs to all be the same height and we got a bunch of bad batches of this tile and I just didn't even think about it. Now I know. Now I'm sharing my knowledge with everybody listening to this. When you buy tile for a floor, make sure all the tiles on the mesh thing that they put those tiles on are the same freaking height.

Kathleen Martin: But I would just assume that would be the case. That's something I would absolutely do too because I would never think to check that.

Kathleen Heaney: I didn't even realize at the time that I was running my hands over uneven tiles. But anyway, Kathleen.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah.

Kathleen Heaney: I'm doing that. I'm in the depths of DIY despair. You know that moment when you're in a project and you just don't know what the outcome is going to be?

Kathleen Martin: Always. Yes, totally.

Kathleen Heaney: You're like, "Do I move forward or do I give up? I just don't know where to turn. There's a fork in the road.

Kathleen Martin: Now I have to sell the home because I can't live here anymore.

Kathleen Heaney: It was in that moment that I texted you and I said, "We need to start a DIY podcast."

Kathleen Martin: Oh, my goodness. Wow. From the depths of despair and tile.

Kathleen Heaney: So something good actually came out of my biggest DIY fail.

Kathleen Martin: From the fumes of the sealant, here we are.

Kathleen Heaney: From the foam of the sea of death, DIY death. What was your biggest DIY winning in 2022?

Kathleen Martin: Okay. The biggest win is actually the same room, it's the kitchen. So it's funny how that works.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah.

Kathleen Martin: My favorite project of 2022 is this is tying into our latest episode of Stenciling.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah.

Kathleen Martin: I took an old linoleum floor, Ian stenciled it to look like a black and white tile, game changer.

Kathleen Heaney: It looks so good, changed the whole feel of the room.

Kathleen Martin: Because you can only do so much. I had already painted the cabinets, painted the backsplash, painted the countertop, everything was painted. But the floor takes up so much visual space. It's one of the largest surfaces in the room besides the walls, and actually, there was more floor than wall. It was an old, brown, disgusting linoleum where even when it was clean, it looked dirty, but it typically was dirty. On the rare occasion, it was clean, it was disgusting. In any Instagram photo, I'd always try to crop it out and just show the rug. When I painted that, it made the kitchen feel brighter, more updated and more fresh.

Kathleen Heaney: Yep.

Kathleen Martin: I used wall paint, already had it-

Kathleen Heaney: On the floor.

Kathleen Martin: I needed the TSB to clean, already had it. I used black primer I had already used for my front door, already had it.

Kathleen Heaney: Wow.

Kathleen Martin: The only thing I bought was the stencil. So that was, I don't know, I think it was, might have been $60 or so. It was such a budget-friendly upgrade that made so much impact.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah. Your kitchen is a very decent size. The floor space is pretty large. So even if you were to buy peel-and-stick tiles, it wouldn't have been budget-friendly.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah, that's the thing. It depends on how large the room is. Even something that's on the cheaper side, once you put it into a larger space, you're like, "Ah, crap. It's too expensive," and everyone's budget is different. But for us, even $500, $300, $200 [inaudible 00:10:29]

Kathleen Heaney: It was going to be too much.

Kathleen Martin: It was too much. I didn't want to spend that much money on something that was the in-between, right?

Kathleen Heaney: Mm-hmm.

Kathleen Martin: We talk a lot about the band-aid renovation. What's going to make you love your house now that's not the forever? So we were looking into real tile, didn't want to invest in that. Then we were looking in peel-and-stick, we're like, "Why are we going to spend $500 on a temporary thing that's so-so?" So the $50 solution that we had mostly in our basement, that looks awesome and people think is tile, such a win.

Kathleen Heaney: I love the idea of starting a project where you don't have to buy a ton of supplies.

Kathleen Martin: There's so many opportunities like that.

Kathleen Heaney: I keep thinking about doing, so there's a bathroom in my house that we use for the litter boxes and we lovingly call it the cat bath.

Kathleen Martin: It's awesome.

Kathleen Heaney: I often think about what I could do in that bathroom with things that I already own.

Kathleen Martin: Shop your house, that's a huge thing. I've been doing that lately. Shop your house, what materials you have that you haven't been utilizing?

Kathleen Heaney: Yep.

Kathleen Martin: What cans of paint do you have in the basement or the closet?

Kathleen Heaney: Because they don't last forever. Paint doesn't last forever. You could have the best seal on that dang paint can and two years from now you're going to open it up and it's going to be rock hard.

Kathleen Martin: DIY me is so mean to future me. I will not wipe the edge of that paint can, and I will just barely put the lid on. I'm like, "I cannot be bothered to spend three minutes wiping this." Future me is like, "The paint's ruined. How could it be?"

Kathleen Heaney: I know. You know what, Kathleen? That is a concept that we need to really tap into in 2023. Let DIY you be nice to future DIY you.

Kathleen Martin: I'm never, I have that paint roller in my fridge from two weeks ago.

Kathleen Heaney: There's nothing more heartbreaking than finally working up the courage to start a project only to realize that all of your paint containers that you pour your paint into are soaking in the sink and you need to clean them out before you can actually put new paint into them, which always happens to me.

Kathleen Martin: You've ruin into every material because you didn't want to clean up.

Kathleen Heaney: I know.

Kathleen Martin: That is the story of my life.

Kathleen Heaney: You know what the problem is? Is that living in a condo or an apartment where you don't have a garage or a basement and you don't have a slop sink.

Kathleen Martin: Right.

Kathleen Heaney: My goal in life, okay, I have two goals in life: one, to be able to go shop at Whole Foods and not have to look at the prices-

Kathleen Martin: Oh, bring me.

Kathleen Heaney: ... and two, to have a slop sink or an ergo where I can just be sloppy and toss it in a big sink that has really high pressure and you just blast all your paint pressure [inaudible 00:13:09]

Kathleen Martin: I accidentally put, well not accidentally, I did it, but I didn't realize the consequences. I was washing a oil-based paint in a white basement slop sink. I was like, "Ooh, you don't wash this with water. Now the sink is black."

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah. That's when you need mineral spirits. You got to soak those. Okay. My biggest DIY win of 2022 is not finished yet, but it will be finished this week because I'm on a deadline.

Kathleen Martin: Without the deadline, nothing gets done.

Kathleen Heaney: Nothing gets done. Oh, deadlines or parties, throw a party.

Kathleen Martin: Or the holidays. If it's up to Kathleen, you just need a big holiday.

Kathleen Heaney: I'm having people over for New Year's Eve, so that's going to be a big push for me to get stuff done around here.

Kathleen Martin: Perfect.

Kathleen Heaney: My biggest DYI win for 2022 is the peel-and-stick wallpaper that I put in my bedroom. In full disclosure, I have just a small partnership with Tempaper.

Kathleen Martin: Oh, cool.

Kathleen Heaney: That's the company that makes the peel-and-stick wallpaper in my bedroom.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah.

Kathleen Heaney: I approached them and said, "Hey, I love your product. Let's work together," and in exchange, I'll give them some high-risk photos of my project.

Kathleen Martin: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Kathleen Heaney: So the name of my wallpaper is Forget-Me-Not. Tempaper, which is a female-founded company, by the way-

Kathleen Martin: Love to hear it.

Kathleen Heaney: ... partnered with Allison Olivia. Do you know that cool fashion brand?

Kathleen Martin: Yeah.

Kathleen Heaney: Their clothing is really avant-garde and colorful. They created this floral print with Tempaper and it's supposed to be, Forget-Me-Not flowers, but really, it looks more like an English rose to me.

Kathleen Martin: Okay.

Kathleen Heaney: At first glance, the print looks really traditional like roses in this really pretty cottage coastal blue color, but the scale of the print is very large. So it's both feminine and modern feeling at the same time.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah, I like that it takes a traditional floral, but updates it through the color and the size. That's cool.

Kathleen Heaney: Yes. It gives my bedroom such a beautiful, rich, layered look. Later this week after this episode goes out, I'm going to be posting the final photos, but it just is one of the things that I am proudest of in 2022. I really took that leap.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah. It looks so good. We are both very into wallpaper and it just creates such visual interest in the room.

Kathleen Heaney: Kathleen, in your living room, your wallpaper there is the regular, you used paste, right?

Kathleen Martin: Mm-hmm.

Kathleen Heaney: It's regular wallpaper.

Kathleen Martin: Right.

Kathleen Heaney: So putting up peel-and-stick is a labor of love.

Kathleen Martin: Yes.

Kathleen Heaney: It takes a while depending on the print, but I will say that not all peel-and-stick wallpaper is created equal. So if you're thinking about doing it in 2023, order samples and put them on your wall because some peel-and-stick wallpaper is so cheap that you can see through it and then it actually matters what the color of the wall is behind the paper. You want a thicker one so you don't have to paint that wall before you put it on your peel-and-stick wallpaper.

Kathleen Martin: This is actually something I never thought about. We're going to do episodes both on traditional wallpaper and peel-and-stick, and I think most people would assume traditional is harder, but actually, peel-and-stick is harder.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah. Peel-and-stick is way harder, and a lot of wallpaper experts will tell you that.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah. Absolutely.

Kathleen Heaney: But it's a great option if you're a renter or if you're not ready to commit to something permanent yet.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah, no, there's definite benefits of that 'cause you can put it up and if you ever change your mind, easily take it down.

Kathleen Heaney: What is your biggest project that you're forecasting to do for 2023?

Kathleen Martin: This is non-negotiable. This is something we have to finish.

Kathleen Heaney: Yes.

Kathleen Martin: Currently, we are gut renovating the whole upstairs of our small Cape Cod home. So it's not big, but it's going to make a huge impact because that whole upstairs was unused space. It was really run down, drop ceilings, water damage, things like that.

Kathleen Heaney: It looked like an old office.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah. It was really creepy.

Kathleen Heaney: You just ripped everything out, you and Brian.

Kathleen Martin: Ripped everything, yeah. So when I say we, my husband and I, he's a carpenter, which is great 'cause he has those skills, so-

Kathleen Heaney: You're so lucky [inaudible 00:17:19]

Kathleen Martin: It's honestly, a dream come true. He just switched into the career. Just like I made a big leap, he made a big leap. We're huge advocates of taking that jump and following your passions and dreams.

Kathleen Heaney: Since your kitchen is both your biggest win and your biggest flop of 2022, actually, maybe your biggest win of 2022 is that you quit your teaching job and jumped head first into a life of doing full-time DIY creation-

Kathleen Martin: Yeah.

Kathleen Heaney: ... and your husband quit his job and became a carpenter in 2022.

Kathleen Martin: That was the biggest win, not of 2022, of 20 years of being an adult. Honestly, I'm almost at a loss for words. Taking that risk has changed my life in ways that I can't even articulate. I could burst into tears with how meaningful this change has been for me and betting on yourself.

Kathleen Heaney: Yes.

Kathleen Martin: Believing in the skills you have, believing you're made for something more and taking the risk on what makes you happy.

Kathleen Heaney: Oh, Kathleen, you have tears in your eyes and now, I'm getting tears in my eyes too, and I'm a crier. I'm over emotional-

Kathleen Martin: Same.

Kathleen Heaney: But if you're listening to this and you're looking around your house and it's not bringing joy to your heart, you have the power within you to start small projects that will make going home, that will make being home a place you never want to leave, which is great because I'm an introvert and I never want to leave my house, ever.

Kathleen Martin: It's so true. It's all about starting small, building the knowledge, building your DIY skills, getting the tools. You don't even have to start by buying tools, borrow tools.

Kathleen Heaney: Yes.

Kathleen Martin: The more you do, the easier it gets. Piece-by-piece, you just create that home that you love.

Kathleen Heaney: Garage sales are an excellent place to get tools because I feel like people always lose what they have, "Oh, I can't find my wrench," and they go out and they buy a new one. Then before they know it, they have five wrenches and they're having a yard sale and you could go and buy one of their wrenches for a dollar or something.

Kathleen Martin: I got really big pipe clamps. That's super specific, but a pipe clamp is essentially a very long pipe with the clamping ability. So if you have to clamp something that's a very large size, like a piece of wood, it's really great for that, for, I don't know, $5 and those could be 40, $50 at the store. Check your family. There might be a family member that was into woodworking or tools when they were younger and they're just sitting in their basement. Ask a friend. I saw somewhere where they had lending libraries for tools, though, ways that you could rent tools. That is something you can do at Home Depot. You can rent large tools.

Kathleen Heaney: Cool.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah, don't let tools be the barrier to entry. If tools are scary to you, there are so many accounts on Instagram that Kathleen and I follow where they were beginners once too and now they are so talented with tools. It is absolutely possible.

Kathleen Heaney: 100%. If you're looking for inspiration for what to do around your house, Pinterest obviously is the one that I'm always going to say first. But one of the best ways that I find inspiration is using the save folders on Instagram. When you see something you like, save it into your folder that's like DIY Projects To Do, or Interiors I Love, or something like that so you can go back and revisit it.

Kathleen Martin: For 2023, my philosophy going forward is taking it a step further. "How can I take my design a step further?" I think a lot of times we see things that we like online on Pinterest or Instagram and we like it, right?

Kathleen Heaney: Mm-hmm.

Kathleen Martin: Maybe we'll like it or we'll save it, but we don't know why.

Kathleen Heaney: We don't know why we like it.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah. You don't know why you like it. What are you actually resonating with in the photo? Is it the color? Is it the furniture? Is it the overall feeling or vibe? So I personally am trying to really tap into, "What is it about that space that I'm loving?" We can't copy and paste somebody's home into ours; different style, different size, different budgets, so important.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah, different footprint.

Kathleen Martin: But how can you replicate something you're really liking in your own home, in your own way, at your own budget?

Kathleen Heaney: Looking at an image that you would normally just heart and move on and really studying it and saying, "What is it about this room that is tugging at my heartstrings?"

Kathleen Martin: Tickling your design fancy.

Kathleen Heaney: For me, it's often an unexpected mix of colors and patterns.

Kathleen Martin: Lately, I'm noticing that having the courage to take it one step further. I look around and I make bold choices, but the people that I'm like, "Wow," they take it to the next level.

Kathleen Heaney: They get a little bit wilder with their decisions, but in the end, the room looks more pulled together.

Kathleen Martin: They make unexpected choices look cohesive.

Kathleen Heaney: When someone pairs a bright green couch against a bright pink wall or something like that, and then they have art that doesn't necessarily match, but it just makes the room look eclectic and rich and interesting.

Kathleen Martin: So you actually described one of my favorite designers, Corey Damen Jenkins.

Kathleen Heaney: Oh, oh my God. Have you seen his masterclass?

Kathleen Martin: Yes. Yes. I was just watching it. Ian, he has that exact formula, a green emerald couch, with a light pink wall. It's in this really famous room that he designed. It's called the Ladies Library.

Kathleen Heaney: Do dreamy.

Kathleen Martin: He is so good at mixing traditional with very vibrant colors, pops of modern, wallpapered ceilings. Like you said, he'll put the artwork on the bookshelves. He's someone that inspires me to just take it a step further.

Kathleen Heaney: I envision my 2023 about really getting into more of the nitty gritty of making my home feel eclectic, 'cause when I moved in here, I really thought I wanted to move in a more modern direction and it just doesn't speak to my heart.

Kathleen Martin: Right.

Kathleen Heaney: I like old frames and artifacts and little decrepit tchotchke things.

Kathleen Martin: Decrepit, great.

Kathleen Heaney: I don't know, but you know what I'm saying.

Kathleen Martin: Your card catalog-

Kathleen Heaney: Yes.

Kathleen Martin: ... that's the perfect example.

Kathleen Heaney: I drove to Pennsylvania this year to buy a card catalog. But by the way, let me tell you, got a deal on that. I found it on Facebook Marketplace. I bought it for $600, but I found it on Chairish for $2,000.

Kathleen Martin: Oh, my gosh. Amazing.

Kathleen Heaney: I'm never going to sell it, so the value is just in my heart.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah, no, but it makes you feel great.

Kathleen Heaney: Trends that I want to see more of in 2023 is I want to see Cottagecore lite, like Cottagecore, L-I-T-E.

Kathleen Martin: Tell me more.

Kathleen Heaney: Because I'm not into cottage-y coastal looks-

Kathleen Martin: Right.

Kathleen Heaney: ... I say it's not for me, but then I'll be flipping through a magazine and then fall in love with it. I'll be like, "Oh, I need everything Cottagecore in my life."

Kathleen Martin: It's perfect.

Kathleen Heaney: I'm very into Grandmillennial.

Kathleen Martin: Describe that. What does that mean?

Kathleen Heaney: Oh, Grandmillennial is like you're into grandma style, but you're also a millennial.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah.

Kathleen Heaney: Look it up on Facebook. There's a lot of groups where people share their Grandmillennial tips on Facebook. I like Grandmillennial sprinkled into eclectic design, but what I really love is traditional looks done in a non-traditional way.

Kathleen Martin: Right.

Kathleen Heaney: For instance, a traditional Oriental or Turkish rug, but in non-traditional colors like bright pink and chartreuse and orange, and I love antelope rugs.

Kathleen Martin: What's that?

Kathleen Heaney: It's leopard print, but it's with an antelope print instead. If leopard print was diluted a little bit-

Kathleen Martin: What in the world is antelope print?

Kathleen Heaney: It's an antelope print. Listen, look up antelope runners.

Kathleen Martin: Google antelope.

Kathleen Heaney: Antelope runners on Pinterest, I'm telling you, you'll be there forever. A lot of people do them in a light blue. I love antelope in light blue, so something traditional in a non-traditional color.

Kathleen Martin: Oh, I've seen that. But I would never be like, "Obviously that's an antelope."

Kathleen Heaney: I've been obsessed with antelope rugs for 10 years now and I don't know why?

Kathleen Martin: Wow.

Kathleen Heaney: Okay. Something else I want to see more of in the upcoming year is people being really bold with painting their crown molding and their baseboard trim in bright contrasting colors.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah. That's something I've been thinking of, but I'm afraid. But then I'm like, "I can always paint it again if I don't like it."

Kathleen Heaney: Paint is paint. You can redo paint.

Kathleen Martin: Something I'm looking forward to or I want to see more of in 2023, and this is super cliché, okay? All right.

Kathleen Heaney: It's okay.

Kathleen Martin: Let's roll our eyes together.

Kathleen Heaney: I'm not going to judge you. This is a no-judgment zone.

Kathleen Martin: I want to see more people doing what they want and not just copying what everyone else is doing and also, making choices for their home for themselves, not for the next owner or, well, even if you're a renter, I don't care. Paint the walls.

Kathleen Heaney: It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.

Kathleen Martin: Always, always, always. But yeah, like I said earlier, it's like see what you like. Don't just copy and paste it. Figuring out your style and doing what makes you happy and not just all doing the same stuff.

Kathleen Heaney: And also buying secondhand.

Kathleen Martin: Oh, my God, yes.

Kathleen Heaney: Right?

Kathleen Martin: Okay, I retract that. No, I keep that. But Kathleen and I were talking off mic, if I, when I, that's important. They say for manifesting, you have to say not if, but when. Oh, when I have a bigger budget, that doesn't mean I'm running two big brand stores. It's putting that bigger budget into those amazing pieces that you find on Facebook Marketplace that are $1,000, or when you find the couch, you're like, if only I can reupholster it. But then that costs a lot of money. So when I do have the money to find that interesting couch shape and get it reupholstered, that's how you create a super, super unique home. Makes me excited.

Kathleen Heaney: This is where you and I differ 'cause I would be like, "Oh, I'll just buy the cheap-y couch for 250 or whatever on Facebook Marketplace. Then I'll buy a book about upholster, and then I'll buy a sewing machine, and then I'll buy all the supplies and I'll do it myself," and then it never gets done.

Kathleen Martin: Then it will sit in your mom's garage for the next four years and the mice will get it.

Kathleen Heaney: Oh, I put my kitchen cabinets in my mom's garage 'cause I was sanding them in her backyard. When I finally pulled them out to do the final sanding so I could paint them, a mouse had nibbled on one of my MDF cabinets, fail. That's my biggest project of 2023. I got to get my kitchen done. I got to paint my cabinets. I have to. I have to or I'm going to get divorced.

Kathleen Martin: But your kitchen has been naked with outdoors for a while now.

Kathleen Heaney: For a year-and-a-half. I know. The look of genuine surprise on your face just now.

Kathleen Martin: I didn't know it was that long.

Kathleen Heaney: It was a year-and-a-half, yeah.

Kathleen Martin: Oh.

Kathleen Heaney: Yeah, they look naked.

Kathleen Martin: We have big dreams, but it's hard to fulfill. It's hard to follow through. So on our Instagram and in our Facebook group, we just did a post. It said, "What is a project that you want to do in 2023? Let's hold each other accountable," because there is something on your to-do list for the last five years-

Kathleen Heaney: Yes.

Kathleen Martin: Let's do it.

Kathleen Heaney: Maybe you've already purchased everything you need for it and it's just been sitting around.

Kathleen Martin: Yeah. I can relate to that.

Kathleen Heaney: Oh, so gentle listeners, thank you for joining the launch of this pod in 2022. We are looking forward to a fruitful, a colorful, and a productive 2023. Kathleen, why are you laughing? Stop laughing.

Kathleen Martin: Fruitful, it sounds creepy. I don't know.

Kathleen Heaney: Oh, fruitful. Fruits come in wonderful, exotic, unique-

Kathleen Martin: Fruit of your loom-

Kathleen Heaney: ... colors.

Kathleen Martin: I don't know, it just sounded like reproductive.

Kathleen Heaney: It did. I don't know why I used that word. Anyway-

Kathleen Martin: No, we're looking forward to sharing more DIY successes, telling you how to avoid our fails and sharing together all the amazing things we're doing in our homes to make them the homes that we love.

Kathleen Heaney: So wherever you listened to this podcast, please rate, review and subscribe. Five stars is the best. It helps us move up in the ranks. We recently got a review that was like, "Love this podcast. It's great." Then they accidentally gave us one star.

Kathleen Martin: No.

Kathleen Heaney: So RBBJen, if you are out there, give us five stars. We love you and you can follow me. Kathleen Heaney, at Kathleen Loves Color.

Kathleen Martin: You can follow me, Kathleen Martin at Create a Colorful Life.

Kathleen Heaney: Leave us a voicemail or send us a text message. Our phone number is 201-378-3378.

Kathleen Martin: You can also send us an email Hello@KathleenCanDoIt.com.

Kathleen Heaney: Check us out on Facebook and join our Facebook group, facebook.com/KathleenCanDoItPodcast. You can link over to our DIY and design group from there. There have been so many fun and cool projects that people have been posting lately, and I just cannot even wait to see what the new year brings to that group.

Kathleen Martin: All right. We are signing off for 2022. We will see you next year in 2023. Don't forget, if Kathleen can do it, you can do it too.

Kathleen Heaney: If Kathleen can do it, you can do it too.

Kathleen Martin: A year-and-a-half, that's a long time for those cabinets.

Kathleen Heaney: I know. I really got to get them painted.

Kathleen Martin: You can do this. I believe in you.

Kathleen Heaney: Thank you.