Episode 39: Let's Get Designing, with Guest Brittney Luedecke Owner of Signature Styles by Brit

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We're Erika Radis and Marie Lifschultz, a San Antonio area realtor and lender, but most importantly, we're working moms.

The goal of this podcast is to provide support and a sense of community to San Antonio area working moms like us. So join us in trying to find a balance between career, family, and everything in between. Welcome to this week's episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. We're here with Brittany, an interior designer, and we're gonna have her talk about all of her work and her life and just turn it over to her.

Hi, my name is Brittany. I'm the owner of Signature Styles by Brit. I just started my design business back in December, but I've been designing long before that. I worked for Home Depot for 10 years as a designer for kitchen and bathrooms. And so, a mom, I had to put my career on pause. And then we recently decided to do renovations to our own house. And the contractor fell in love with my design and was like, you should get back into design. My husband was like, you should probably get back into design and you know, spend other people's money. So here I am back into design, and I'm building my network of contractors and my relationships with real estate agents and homeowners.

Yeah, that's great. So have you always loved design? I know you said you've been doing it for so many years, but is it something you even liked when you were younger, just sort of like the aesthetics of, you know, different aspects of life.

I found myself drawn to the design aspect of the Home Depot. The store manager actually kept catching me going over there and giving people input on their projects. And so he decided to promote me one day and sent me to the corporate office for some training. And then I was able to be a designer up in Washington State. So, yeah, I've always, I've always enjoyed helping people with their projects. I was able to design for the 1%ers up in Washington down to that wanted to do it themselves, and it was a lot of fun being able to help everybody in between in all budgets.

I think the, the redesign aspect of life has changed a lot since COVID like a lot of people trying to revamp their homes. Because of being home more often and enjoying your space. I know we did. We went through a huge renovation and actually sort of going through it still. Renovation's fun, but not when you're going through it yourself. But it made the space like, I'm like, hey, I have some money I want to spend. I want to invest in my home and I want to make it a space where we like to be, you know. So in kitchen and bath and stuff like that are a huge investment when it comes into your homes. So like, it's one thing that when you do something to your home and you modernize it, it does add some value, right? A lot of times people think that when you, you know, do some renovations, you get dollar for dollar in value, and it doesn't always end up that way, right? But kitchen and bath and done smart and correctly is very, very important when it comes to, you know, your homes.

Yeah, absolutely. I did notice a lot of people were investing in their spaces, but I don't blame in their home more. People are working from home more and wanna have that nice cozy warm feeling. So I understand.

Definitely, definitely. And Marie's right. I mean, whenever I'm talking to my clients and they wonder, you know, hey, where should you put your money? Kitchens and baths are where it's at. Then third, I feel like is maybe flooring, but you know, kitchens and baths are where you get your money back. It's what draws the buyers to the houses. I mean, it's the first thing they notice almost, I feel like. And so that's kind of cool that you, you know, are specializing in that. But do you, do you do other aspects of home design as well? Like kind of the whole deal?

I can do the softscapes. It's not my, it's not my favorite. I, I'm really drawn to kitchen and bathrooms, the hardscape and, and seeing something go from what it was before through the whole construction process. And then, you know, to when it's finalized, it's, it's kind of that stays on, or the, the piece that stays for a while. Like, your softscapes can change, but your, your kitchens, typically you're not going to change them for a few years. So that's the cool part, is like my art, my vision gets to stay in its little space for a while.

Brittany, do you have your clients ever ask about, like, I hear a lot like, hey, this is no longer in style, this is no longer, this changed. I know like the color of cabinets was a big thing for a little bit, right? I think color is great. I love color. But, you know, is there anything like for our, since our audience is working moms, things that you would like, hey, this is something that would help make life easier. This would make it, you know, be more pleasing to be in the kitchen or, and stuff like that. Like, you know, keeping it within, you know, I guess not trendy, but you know, that, that's, that's— what am I trying to say, Erika? Like, it's, it's— it lasts, not last a long time, but it's something that, hey, this is always going to be useful for InDesign.

Yeah. Well, I mean, the right colors in the right space is always going to be helpful too. And paint, easy fix for a lot of people. And most people don't realize this, but if you like your layout, you can always just replace the doors and paint them. So if your doors are a little dated, you can, you can paint them. If you don't like your backsplash, that's an easy fix. But if maybe it's not in the budget right now, there is paint that you can paint on your backsplash tile. Same with the flooring. There's typically like a cure time about 24 to 48 hours depending on the, on the material you select for paint. But you can definitely change a lot of things without having to tear tear out just by paint.

Yeah, that's, that's interesting. I didn't know paint like that existed for tile. And I guess when I think about it, I think like, would it just like come right off? But obviously with technology now, you know, they've got so many things that you can do differently than, than you could years back.

Now that you can redo your furniture with, so you can paint your leather furniture or your cloth furniture and change it. So some people can't afford to, you know, reinvest a couple thousand dollars into their furniture piece, but you can paint with a couple hundred dollars and make it brand new. So there's, there's all out there with paint now.

But you know, I was actually talking to someone about that, uh, recently. I can't think of who it was, but we were talking about like they'd rather have older pieces, whether it's cabinets, furniture, because it— they're made a little bit better. They're not particle board. Like they'd rather, you know, thrift in a sense or keep their older pieces and help, you know, revitalize it by either, you know, restaining or sanding it or whatever else you do to it, paint it now, but to make it more of a modern piece but keep the old because it's, you know, it's good. Like, I, I prefer older homes because I think the, the bones of a house is better when they made it back a little bit, you know, longer ago, you know. But versus the new home today, I like, I like older homes and the way they look. I— and you can always cosmetically change a lot of things in your home to make it more modern.

Yeah, absolutely. I think adding your older pieces in with newer pieces is cost-effective, but it looks really nice, and you get the, the down pieces. I have my great-great-grandfather's buffet table that I'm able to incorporate into my house. So I— if you can get a nice solid piece of furniture and, and, and make it work in your space, absolutely. You don't have to buy brand new. It's, it's all about figuring out what is in your budget and what you like aesthetically and working within those parameters.

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I'm so curious because trends change so much. What are you seeing right now in terms of like what are people asking for and what's trendy and popular more so now?

So I'm seeing that the gray tones are going out and it's more of the deep, rich jewel tones. So you'll see like in the, in the blue cabinets, under deep hunter green cabinets, or the softer green, like sage is coming in again. Yeah, grays are, are kind of fading out. Not, not that there's anything wrong with the gray. It's just a new color palette is coming in.

Yeah, those are my favorite. I love kind of the moody tones. My office is dark blue, obviously, and I just, I don't know why, I just like it. It makes me think of like old libraries and things. That's my favorite.

Yeah.

So, well, cool. That's great. I'm glad that stuff's coming back in. As being a realtor, I'm curious if we'll see it carry on into like people that— I feel like people that design for their own selves obviously do things that people that design to sell, like, we're told like, hey, you know, they're supposed to keep things real neutral and it's got to be, you know, kind of a blank color palette. And so I'm curious what we'll see roll into the sales side of things as a, you know, as opposed to this gray that we've been seeing for years and years.

Yeah, that is curious. I mean, I could see the reason why keeping it more of a neutral, neutral palette, because people are able to visualize themselves in spaces and it's hard to visualize in, you know, bright pinks and purple walls. So I can understand that.

Yeah, I like the jewel tones. I have a lot of blue at my house right now. That's what we moved in from. I remember as a young child, the colors that my— we grew up in when my parents finally bought a home, it was pink. There was pink everywhere. Our bedroom was pink, the kitchen was pink, everything was pink. Like, not like the bright deep pink, it was like Pepto-Bismol pink. So I'm glad we're not in that color palette. I hope we never get back to that color palette again.

Yeah, I remember in our first house here in San Antonio, our carpet was like hunter green, like the whole house was green carpet. It looked like grass. When you're little, you think that, you know what I mean? I was like, what is this?

Yeah, it's fun, you know, the different trends and coming in and out, you know, with, with, with homes. I bet, and like being in real estate, you get to see all of them.

Oh yeah, we see some interesting stuff for sure. I mean, I like to say, you know, there's a buyer for every place, and there is, there really is. There's some people that either they, they still like that stuff or they can look past it, you know, and they'll fix it and that kind of thing. But you do see some interesting stuff, you know, carpeted bathrooms all the way up to like a, like a, a tub, you know, things like that. It's like, this can't have— no one can't have thought that this was like a good idea, you know. But I guess they did.

So when you're selling homes that are designed, that maybe are dated a little bit, is it harder to sell those homes for you, or are a lot of your clients able to look past those?

So, I mean, in an ideal world, people, you know, I'd walk into a place and be like, hey, these are the things that kind of matter. Or I would be able to hire somebody like you where it's like, hey, let's have somebody come in here and advise us about this kind of stuff. But not everybody has the budget for that. I think the most important thing is pricing the home correctly. If they're not going to fix it up, you've got to price it correctly. But in my opinion, dollar for dollar, if they will fix it up, they'll get more money back. Like, if they have the cash to do it, they will absolutely make that money back and get a hot— and then some. And so it's really in people's best interest if they're able to do it, to kind of do some updating. Because they typically will get a higher sales price and make back not only the money that they put in, but then even more so.

Absolutely.

Yeah. I, I think on my end, what I see people, I see a lot of first-time home buyers have kind of been tricked when they watch HGTV thinking homes in their price range are gonna look like that. So I have those conversations in the very beginning, especially young first-time home buyers. I'm like, you, your budget does not warrant granite countertops. You're not even quartz today, like, right? We, we were not in that budget. I said, but if you buy a home and you'll get with someone, you can kind of figure out the cost. There are loan products that will allow you to renovate your home when you purchase it. It just takes time. So a lot of times I, when I, when I bought my, our home currently, it was more about location. That was the most important thing to me. Location was because I can't change that part of the home. And I knew that we could, anything cosmetically, we could even, if I needed to move rooms around, I could. We could look at it and say, okay, hey, this is how we want it. But I mean, location was most important. So when I'm speaking with the buyer, I talk with them about what is the most important thing when it comes to a home. A lot of times people are like, oh, it doesn't matter where we end up, we just need, you know, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Okay. And then, you know, we really want a brand new kitchen. Well, something that's a brand new kitchen might, you know, add another $50,000 to $60,000 to your purchase price. So let's look at something a little bit less and see what it would cost for you to get some of those things renovated or redone once you buy the home and see what that looks like.

Yeah, absolutely. I can, you know, I would, I would have to agree with you. I think we bought our house because of the location and it met all our area. It took us about 7 years before we decided that we had, we could invest in, in our space again. So we lived with it and we, did a lot of it with paint. But I think for like my advice for new home buyers, if they're stuck on the cosmetic looks of their space, especially in like kitchens and bathrooms, if they wanted to hire me with a, like, for a consultation fee, we can discuss colors and paint options that would dramatically change the space just in paint, and sometimes even a couple light fixtures. You know, those are easy fixes that a lot of people can do themselves on a DIY budget, especially for like new homeowners. I remember I was there when I lived up in Washington. We had a $1,000 budget to do my primary suite bathroom and kitchen, and I had to stretch all between two spaces, and it turned out beautiful. And most of it was just paint and elbow grease.

Got it.

Yeah, that makes sense. Wow, that's, that's impressive. And so is that kind of what these initial consultations look like with you? You kind of meet with the person and then, you know, figure out what their budget is and, and then you give advice?

Yeah, so my, my consultations, it's figuring out what you want in your space. And if you have a larger budget, like a $50,000 budget, you want to invest in your kitchen, we can discuss all the options from flooring, helping you find contractors. I have connections with a security company that runs background checks for— or safe in your home. Um, and then if you have a smaller budget and are wanting to do a lot of the work yourself, then we can come up with some ideas that or projects that you are able to handle to make a big impact on your space. So it's, it's just figuring out what your, your needs are and wants are out of the space and me figuring out your budget and working within those parameters.

Yeah, that makes sense. I, I can honestly say I don't know that I've ever used like an interior designer, but I, I mean, I like that you have these relationships with these contractors Because I mean, from personal experience, I've had people come in and bid and sometimes it seems like it's too little and I'm like, is this gonna be a good thing? Or sometimes it seems like insanity and I'm like, how can these bids be so radically different? And I, as a homeowner and as somebody that's not in construction, I don't know, I don't know really what's what. And sometimes I think it's almost like when your car, something goes wrong with your car, right? They know that I don't know. You know what to do and how much stuff costs. I have no idea. And so I feel like sometimes they just throw some numbers out there and like expect the consumer to just be like, yep, that sounds good. Like, here's the money. And so I think it's a really big benefit for someone like you that has these relationships where you've kind of already vetted these people because I know it can be confusing.

Well, it gets overwhelming and trying to figure out if somebody— most importantly, I do not work with anybody that's not licensed and insured. That's, that's a big deal because, you know, somebody hurts themselves on your property, that's a lot of money. So I make sure are licensed and insured, they've been vetted. I mean, I've worked— I've had some nightmare stories, like a contractor cleaning their paintbrush in my toilet, and you don't want that kind of lack of quality in your home, you know. So it's nice to have somebody there that can help with project management, lay out expectations with the contractors, make sure that, you know, the vision of the customer and my vision meets what's going on their space, finding quality people or helping find quality people that are safe to be in your home.

It's—

it can be overwhelming, especially if you're new to, you know, renovations, big renovation projects. So it's nice to have somebody in your corner to advocate for you.

Sure. Yeah, no, that makes sense. And so then part it, like part of it then, because I know some interior designers will just come in and be like, here's a board of like the things that we're going to do. And then it's like, okay, see you later. And so are you a part, like, do you manage the project then essentially?

Depends on how, what do you want to invest in? If you just want in the vision board and help, like have me create a shopping list and then you do all the things, then fine, I can do that. If you want somebody that's more hands-on or need somebody that's more hands-on to help project manage, yeah, I'm absolutely here for my customers. It's whatever their comfort level is. Sometimes people just need a little nudge in the right direction with a color palette and some shopping, and then they can do it on their own. And other people, they just need, you you know, somebody to hold their hand through the whole process, and I can do both.

Brittany, are you able to advise stuff like, for example, like there's stuff like in, in my home, I'm like, can I move this? I don't know, pantry, and I want to move it and open up the space, but I don't know if it's load-bearing. Is that someone you would hire in to come in, or is that something you can tell us that can be done?

So my advice is hiring an architect. Or an engineer to come to your space. That's what I did. I hired an engineer. This was actually a hallway down here, and then I had a wall here, and all the contractors came in and told me this wall right here was load-bearing and this wall right here was not. I hired an engineer and he came over and said, nope, this one's load-bearing and this one is not. So I highly recommend hiring a professional. It's not much money. It's a couple hundred bucks. And then you pay a little additional fee for their report, and then you hand that over to the, to your contractor, and then they will install according to what the engineer or architect advised. And then they say, okay, well, we can work within these parameters. It says like, this is load-bearing. You're gonna have a beam here, let's make it look like wood, you know. So that's what I do.

Awesome.

Yeah, that makes sense. And that's a little concerning. I know I've had contractors come in here and be like, oh yeah, no, it's— we can do that, it's totally fine. And then what if you can't? And like, what if— I mean, they're— the, the errors could be quite severe, you know.

Listen to all the guys that gave me bids, my second floor would have sagged through. So it's very important to get to having the right people do the, do the, each of their little steps that need to be done in, in order to make sure it's done safely. But homeowners and a lot of new homeowners aren't gonna know the, the channels you go through to making sure that your space is safe and that you're not, you know, later down the road when you want to sell, it passes home inspections, you know.

Yeah, definitely. No, that's a concern. I mean, there's nothing worse than going through those inspection reports and seeing something crazy that has happened. Like, you know, they've done something. I mean, honestly, but then at the same time, and this isn't me like dogging on inspectors, but at the same time, they only, they only can see a certain scope, you know what I mean? And so they don't really always know what's happening in there. My house is a perfect example of that. We have a, we have a house from 1983, and it was basically like Frankensteined together by the previous owner. And so, you know, we just never know what we're gonna find when we open up these walls, it seems.

Oh yeah, we had a— we, we had— we did some renovations in our bathroom and we opened up a wall and we like, this is supposed to be a supporting beam and it doesn't go all the way to the floor. Like, what happened here?

I, I can understand. They opened up my ceiling and saw that the, the previous contractors had channeled through some support beams So, you know, fix everything in my ceiling and then bring it back up to code. But part of that is finding the right contractors to make sure that your best interest and your safety is like their primary focus. And that's important with working with industry professionals, not just finding somebody, you know, on the corner or somebody's cousin that can do some work. It's really investing your dollars in the right people.

Well, and I think hiring you, Brittany, it's a big thing because you actually, you not only give you, give great designs, but you're going to educate your, your, your consumers, right? About, hey, this is the right way to do it. If these are things that you want to do and it's major, let's say construction, we need to get these steps in place in order to do the design that we want to create together. So having someone in your corner to help advocate for you to say, hey, you know what, we really should get an engineer out here to check to make sure we don't move this wall or add this wall or whatever the case is. And it causes you problems like later down the road.

Yes, absolutely.

Are these kind of hard conversations that you end up having to have like with people that maybe they do open up a wall and like, you know, things have to be fixed? Is that something that happens frequently in your industry, would you say, or less frequently? You know, because obviously that if a person has a certain amount of money for a budget, Some of it's gonna have to go to repairing things properly, and that's not the fun part of spending the money, you know?

Oh, it's not. It's— when I first meet with people and I understand the scope of the project that they want, it's laying out the expectations and them understanding that timelines may run a little slower because some things have to be built, or you open up a few walls and notice that there's some major damage and those are now your priority. And thankfully, if they hire me, I'm, I love creative challenges and I come up with a few ideas on the spot and we can kind of work around that to keep it within budget, but still keep the vision similar. So yes, it does suck having to spend some of your dollars to fix things that you're never gonna see.

Right.

But it's a do it right because you don't want, you second floor coming down and, you know, plumbing to leak. And then all the work that you invested is now being torn up again, and now you're spending double. Or, you know, trying to figure out a proper layout yourself and then having to redo things again because some— like the flow isn't working, or you may have installed something too close to your range and now it's a fire hazard. So it's It's a conversation I have to lay out expectations at the beginning, just so that everybody's on the same page.

Yeah, that makes sense. That's a good policy, I think, in many industries, right? If we can set expectations, I think we have less headaches.

Well, you know, we've seen some weird pictures. I see, I've always envisioned like, oh, if I design something, I come up and I want to do a DIY, and it's where you have the cabinets that you can't open both of them because they're hitting each other because you didn't think think that through, or where you have a door that opens and you can't open your— now you can't open your stove, or something where it doesn't work out because you didn't have someone help you design it.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that happens all the time. A lot of the places, the spaces that I redesign or reconfigure their space, is because they did, or somebody did, an oh, and now it's— they're wasting a, you know, corner space, or something is not usable now. So it's, and a lot of people, they, they see what was there and that's what they're gonna put back in there. Like it's the same floor plan, different cabinets versus taking out the old cabinets and, and reevaluating your space and reconfiguring things to make it work better for you. And that's what I visualize your space and make it more efficient for you and your needs if you wanna do a full renovation.

I get frustrated with wasted space. I hate wasted space. Like, cabinets that I cannot reach the back of drive me absolutely bananas. Like, I have to because I can't use the back, and if I put stuff back there, I can't reach them, or I forget that they're there, and then whatever it is, I just— I never use it. So that drives me bananas.

Yeah, but there's cool aftermarket parts too, like Rev-A-Shelf. They can, you know, pull out of your corner cabinets or pull down. So there's, there's other pieces that you can help improve the wasted space. But if you want to do a full renovation, we can minimize any wasted space.

Yeah, that's great. Well, so sometimes we do ask people on here what's their favorite thing, and your job seems so fun. I'm curious what your favorite thing is about what you're doing now.

My favorite thing about it is making people happy and feel comfortable in their space. It's, it's always nice when, you know, you get invited over and you get to see how they're living in their new kitchen, or if they're able to enjoy like their spa bathroom, and just being able to be that person that brings peace and joy in that little, you know, little area of their home. Because designers do affect people's mood. You know, we, we pick the color that make people happy. And it's, it's really neat that I can be that person that you walk in and bring a smile when you see your kitchen or your bathroom.

Yeah, that's so true. I love that. That's great.

And that, I mean, that would just feel so rewarding to me, I think, you know, well, I don't know about you guys, but I know like a bulk of like when we have family gatherings, so I have a, I have a large kind of a grand room. But everybody's in my kitchen, always in the kitchen. It drives me bananas. I have this little small space where I have like a little like where 4 people can sit and all 20 people are trying to fit in that space because the kitchen's where a lot of families, you live. This is where you, you know, you, you enjoy your, your Christmases and Thanksgivings and stuff like that. So having a space that's enjoyable and that fits everybody would be awesome, but having that space that, you know, that you've designed to help people enjoy family time because, I mean, it's a big part of your home, I can tell you that.

Yeah, absolutely. It's the heart of your house. Yeah. So I, I understand that. I, I love being in my new, my new kitchen.

Yeah, definitely. Well, usually at this point we kind of turn it over to you to let all of our listeners know how they can get a hold of you for your design services.

Oh, okay. You can, you can email me at britt@ signaturestylesbybritt.com, or you can find me on my Facebook page and just shoot me a little message, and then we can chat about your design needs.

Perfect, perfect. And we'll add that into the show notes as well so that people can click and get a hold of you. I just love this. I mean, I didn't— we've had you on here once before, which if people are listening, you know, they can go back to that episode when you were, you know, Talking about protective services and different things like that, but I had no idea that you had all these years of design experience behind you. And so I love this. I think this is so great.

It's been fun doing it on my own and, and getting the encouragement to go do it on my own. I'm a mom. You kind of lose a little bit of your previous life and have to adapt into your, your new life. And that, that was me. I had to put my career on pause. I didn't have to. I chose to. It was a privilege to put it on pause. But now my son is bigger and doesn't need me as much and is in school. So this is perfect for me to kind of piece back my passions.

Definitely. That's awesome. I love that. I love that for you.

Yeah.

Well, I just want to thank you for being on and sharing all of this insight.

I think this will be a fun one for our listeners to listen to.

And so thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for inviting me back. I appreciate it.

And then now I'll just also thank our listeners for tuning into this week's episode, and we will catch you guys next week.

See you guys next week.

Thanks so much for tuning in to the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. Be sure to follow us on social media at our respective Instagram accounts or join our Working Moms of San Antonio Facebook group. Those links can be found in our episode description. If you have an episode topic suggestion or question, please email us at office@radisagent.com and be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. See you next week.