← The JOY Broadcast
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- [00:02]
A
Welcome to the Joy Broadcast. I'm Ali Mortimer, joy coach, mentor, and life confidant, and I'm here to tell you something that might surprise you. Joy is not fluffy. Joy isn't frivolous. Joy is not the reward you get after you've ticked all the boxes. Joy is the only strategy you will ever need. It's your competitive edge, your antidote, and your super attractor. It's the power that creates miracles and makes life feel like magic. In my life, joy is the acronym for just on you. Because you matter. Your joy matters, your life matters, and it's time to act like it. Whether you're in the dark with nothing or at the top with everything, and it's feeling so overwhelming, joy is always the answer. Joy is a strategy for every era of your life. And this podcast is the space for women in the boardroom, in business, and those women who are running the show at home. This is your reminder to choose Joy not as a reward, but the strategy that gives you your competitive edge, the energy that will expand to give you the capacity to hold everyone and everything. Now, before we begin today's broadcast, I have an invitation for you. If you would like to go deeper to prioritize your joy, come and join me in the Joy Rebellion. It's my membership where I invite you to align to Joy every single week and where I support you in clearing the path when it's hard. Or work with me in Brilliance, my mentorship for women who want to bring brilliance to the boardroom because they feel fabulous in the bedroom and in their body. But right now and every week on this podcast, I going to be bringing you the ideas, the stories and the strategies to make Joy your lifestyle, your strategy, your North Star. This is the Joy Broadcast. Let's go. Welcome back to the Joy Broadcast. And this Easter, we are continuing with a wonderful lineup of guests who I have the privilege of interviewing because I believe not only do they bring joy, they are joyful people, but also they have an incredibly inspirational story to share. And I have a wonderful guest today. She's a member of my Joy Rebellion, and she's been in the Joy Rebellion since, I think, the autumn of last year. She's also one of my VIPs, but she has brought so much joy and so much colour into our community that when she sent me an email and saying, do you think I could come on your podcast? My immediate response was, absolutely, yes. So I'm so thrilled to invite Becky Harrison onto the podcast to share her story. And, of course, we're going to be talking about the Joy of Color today. Becky, Wel to the joint broadcast.
- [02:30]
B
Thank you so much, Ali. It's a real pleasure to be here.
- [02:33]
A
I love it. So let's start with the story, because I think the reason why I wanted to have you on the podcast is because you have an interesting and inspirational story. So take us right the way back. Where did the Joy of Color all start from? And was it always about color or was there something before?
- [02:50]
B
So I think if we head back to university. So I studied psychology at university, and for me, that's where my love of an understanding for how spaces impact people and how people behave really began. Like many people, though, I then, after university, went down the corporate route and I worked for 16 years as a project manager, which was invaluable, actually, because that was where I really learned my. And found my love for working with buildings.
- [03:24]
A
The.
- [03:24]
B
The projects I loved most involved a building because the buildings we put people in really transform their lives. They impact how they behave, how they interact with other people. And that was where I really learned that. Actually, I wanted to move away from managing the projects to designing them. Color hasn't always been a focus for me, though. I will put my hands up and admit that my first kitchen was white and I had a gray floor
- [03:56]
A
void of all color. Which is so not you now, right?
- [03:59]
B
No. Because I think as we grow up, we do this weird thing as children. Everyone has a favorite color, don't they, that they embrace. If you asked a child what their favorite color is, they'd be able to tell you like that. And not only would they be able to tell you, they'd be able to talk passionately about it. They'd embrace that color. They'd have it in their room. They would wear that color. If they were doing coloring in, that would be the pen you'd grab for. But then as we get older, we do this weird thing where we start to judge people who have color in their lives. You know, we think they're too exuberant or self indulgent or childish or too boho. Yeah, definitely. And actually we really see this with Hannah Spencer at the moment, the new Green Party MP who is showing up to Parliament dressed in color, and she's getting a lot of criticism for dressing joyfully. And I think we do this weird thing as society. We judge people for being colorful, but actually think as you age, your confidence starts to return and you realize that this corporate gray, black world doesn't bring you joy. So actually, by starting to embrace color again, we can Start to improve our lives and bring that joy back.
- [05:11]
A
Do you think it's about having almost like the kaleidoscope? I mean, the kaleidoscope effect. That's all I keep seeing in my mind. Remember when we were children, you'd look down those tubes and you. You change all the colors. And I think it's about. They would bring so much joy, wouldn't they? And we. I'm just looking out of my wind right now, and I can see the green of the trees and the blue of the sky, and I've got the pink of the hyacinth and the yellow of the daffodils. And you just look out there and you think, nature is full of color. So why would you live in a monochrome world? Although I have to ask you this question. Do you like monochrome? You know, black and white with pops of color or just like the. The sophistication of a Chanel kind of like dog tooth suit in black and white? You know, is it everything? Is it? Go on, talk to me a bit more about that.
- [05:56]
B
So there's a few points there, isn't there? Nature really is our best teacher, I think. And actually, when you start to think about color, all you need to do is go outside. If it's sunny, notice how you feel. When it's sunny, you feel uplifted, whereas when it's gray outside, you feel repressed, don't you? So I think there's. I think if you're stuck with color, that's a great place to start. That said, though, color isn't just bright colors. It can be any color. And I think there's real power in knowing your colors. For me, black and white are too stark. My palette isn't a winter palette. Both black and white would fall into a winter color palette. So for me, they're not colors I would use. But on the right place, the right person, the right house, they absolutely work. I think the key with a monochrome color palette, though, is pattern and texture. And that's why the Chanel outfits work, because there is pattern in that black and white. Just black and white on its own, it can be too harsh. So you have to bring in those.
- [06:55]
A
Those textures or softness of, you know, like a fluffy rug or. Or something like that. I love that because also black and white are colors, aren't they? They are our colors. It's just.
- [07:05]
B
Yeah.
- [07:06]
A
That is so interesting when you're saying that is bringing colors and textures.
- [07:10]
B
Yes. So I think it's really important to say there's no Shame in liking black or white. Just, I like really bright colors. For me, a spring color palette and a bold spring color PA the colors I'm always drawn to. But that's not to say that other colors aren't right. What the really important thing to do is, is to bring intentionality into your color choices. And that's why when I'm designing with a family or a client, we always start with feeling. And I think this is what a lot of us lose. We lose that connection with our gut to know and understand how colors make us feel, because so much of this happens in our subconscious. So we might walk into a room and feel off, but we don't know why. And that's really just the colour. There's usually other aspects that aren't quite right. But by tuning into our guts and really thinking about how colors make us feel, that's where we start to unleash the power that is colour.
- [08:09]
A
So when we think about the feelings of colours, do you already have associated feelings with color? Like, you know, like some people might say, oh, well, a daffodil is about sunshine and lightness, or maybe pink is for romance or red is for passion. Do you know, is there too much of a conformist in terms of feelings with colors? Or, you know, how would you guide someone when, if you, like, say, sat down with a family, what kind of questions would you ask around colors?
- [08:36]
B
Yeah, so I rarely start with talking about favorite colors, although I do love to ask people that question. I think the world would be a much better place if that was how we introduced ourselves to one another. Hi, I'm Becky. My favorite color is pink. Yeah, but I think what's really important with color and understanding it is understanding it's subjective. So actually, when people say to me, oh, I don't like red, I think that's not true because red does not exist as one color. There are many, many different hues, shades, tints of red. So there are some reds, you know, really deeply saturated reds that are really bright, you know, like a color of a fire engine, for example. We probably wouldn't use that in huge quantities in any room, but we might use tiny pops of it, or we might use a more low saturation color that is more cocooning. So that's where it goes to the feeling of what you're trying to create in the space before we go to color. And actually, one of the things I'm always saying is color is a finish. And you, you finish with the finishes, you don't start with the finishes.
- [09:45]
A
Oh, Go and go, go deeper in that one. You don't start with the finishes of the color. Go there. What do, what do you mean by that?
- [09:51]
B
Well, that's where so many people get color wrong. And there's so many people are scared of color. But by starting just with I want my room, this color, that's often where mistakes get made because there's been no thought given to which way the room faces. So if you have a north facing room like the one I'm in now, you're going to get really low levels of natural light. And the natural light you do get is going to have more of a blue tinge to it. So if you then put a very cold blue into a blue room, it's going to feel even colder. So understanding the orientation of your room is really important as is understanding what you want to use that room for. Because certain colors stimulate certain physiological responses in us.
- [10:39]
A
Oh, you're going back to your psychology?
- [10:41]
B
Yeah, absolutely. So red, for example, in both the natural and the man made world, red signifies danger, doesn't it? We have a really physical response to red, which is why we tend not to design with really see bright reds very often. Because you don't want to make people feel edgy. Red has also been known to stimulate hunger, which is why you see it in a lot of fast food brands.
- [11:04]
A
Oh, really interesting. Like McDonald's or KFC. Yeah, okay, got you.
- [11:09]
B
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It makes you want more. So actually you might not want to put that in your kitchen, for example, or if you do it, you want to think about the quantities that you're using it in. So this is where I'm saying we don't want to start with the finishes. And that is where often people get their rooms a little bit wrong because perhaps they've started with their sofa, which is blue, and then they've designed that whole room around that without thinking about all the other really important aspects of the room. So the aspect, how they'll use it, who's using it, what it's being used for, and also being really honest in yourself how you use that room. You know, if, if it is, if your lounge is a room for watching tv, own that and design that room around watching TV equally. If you're designing a kitchen but you don't really cook, then you don't need to spend loads of money on very expensive ovens. You can just put in a very good microwave, for example.
- [12:02]
A
Yeah, exactly. You said something a minute ago that I wanted to come back to. You said people are frightened of Colour. Why do you think people are frightened of color? Why do you think people go down the beige route or the black and white route or just the white route?
- [12:15]
B
Why do you think they're frightened? Because it feels safe. It feels safe to blend in and hide away. And we're scared of judgment. You know, like I was saying. Yeah, yeah. Like I was saying earlier, we are often more concerned about what other people will think of us, our homes, than we are what we really think about ourselves. And actually, you see this all the time. People say, oh, but I'm not going to choose that, because when I sell my house in the future, you know, so many people think design their home for this fictitious person in the future who they don't know. Chances are they're not going to like what you do anyway. We've forgotten to think about what we
- [12:53]
A
want and what we and what we like. Our house is incredibly colorful. And people always say to us, oh, you're so brave to have such a colorful house. But I love color. I've always loved colorful rooms. I've never really enjoyed kind of like the starkness or the clinical. And I find beige incredibly boring. I know many people can find it
- [13:11]
B
very relaxing, but that goes back to that feeling, doesn't it? If you find beige relaxing, then you use beige.
- [13:20]
A
Yeah, use beige.
- [13:21]
B
Or.
- [13:21]
A
Or let's not use the word beige, because that's such an awful word, isn't it? It's like, use the caramels and the coffees and the latte colors. And I think that's one of the. The wonderful things that I love about color, again, that you've just touched on, you know, by speaking about red. There are so many different hues and tones of red that, you know, you can have almost like the deeper reds, but yet you can almost have the paler reds. And I think, like, with pinks, I remember writing, I've got it in somewhere, like all of the very, very. All of the hundred different ways that you can describe pink. You know, you can have blossom pink, you can have fuchsia pink, you can have Pepto Bismol pink, you can have skin tone pink. You know, there are hundreds and hundreds, and each one of them will make you feel in a different way around it, I think. I mean, you're preaching to the converted of somebody who absolutely loves color. I want to ask you another question. You know, I know that you are designing your own home now, right? You've bought this beautiful property and you're going through a big conversion. And I know the pressure of that how, where are you starting? I know you're starting with your feelings, but which rooms do you start with and how do you start and how would you go around it? And if anybody else is listening, who is going through or considering a house renovation or buying or conversion, where would they start? What kind of tips would you guide them along? How would you hold their hand in making those choices?
- [14:40]
B
Yeah, so I think it's really important to not think of rooms individually. It can be really useful to set a whole home colour palette and that's not to say you have to use exactly the same colours in each room, but it's to understand what your core palette is going to be and then you can draw on that throughout your home. What that then does is it will mean that your home has a much more cohesive and considered feel. When we design rooms individually and they don't link, it means when we walk around them, the flow feels off and it doesn't quite feel a bit jerky.
- [15:17]
A
Jolted.
- [15:18]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And unless that's the kind of edginess you want in your home, Some people do. Some people do that so well. It really is going back to that feeling. If you want your home to feel calm and to have that flowing aspect, starting with a whole home color palette is really, really invaluable. And not just colors, but also materials having a cohesive material use. And that doesn't mean it has to be the same in every room. Again, you don't have to have silver everywhere and if you've got silver in the room already, you can mix metals you don't have. You know, there are rules in interior design, but that's the joy of rules, isn't it? Once you know them, you can break them.
- [15:58]
A
Yeah. I was going to say, I hope you're going to say we can break them because I'm sure I've broken all of them in our home.
- [16:03]
B
Absolutely. But I mean, especially when you're doing a big renovation, I know it's a bit boring, but you have to get the foundations right. You have to do the boring things where your money goes very quickly, but sets you up for that future. So it's the electrics, it's the plumbing, it's the layout. Layout is so important and that really is where we should be starting all the time. But also considering who else lives in your home and not just now. If you have a two year old, their need is going to be very different when they're six, when they're 10, when they're a teenager or if you have elderly relatives who are likely to have to come and live with you. You need to try and think further ahead to allow there to be space for your home to grow and adapt with you as well. So there's an awful lot to think about.
- [16:52]
A
I was just gonna say there's so much to think about. I mean, we've just had. We've been. We've just been going through our own renovation. It was a little bit of an enforced one. It was something that we. We thought we might do in the future to change our kitchen. But we came home this time last year back from a skiing holiday, and I walked down into our basement. We were on three floors. I went down to the basement, which we have not yet converted at all, and I walked into our laundry room and there was, like, water all over the floor. And I thought, oh, no, the washing machine has gone wrong. And I was like, but I've not been home for a week, so the washing machine can't have leaked. And then I went into one of the bathrooms, which was next door, and the bath was full of brown water. And I was like, oh, no. And basically what had happened, tree roots had grown through our old Victorian pipes, and all of we basically just had shit in the basement everywhere. And it was all over. And the only place that we could get access to, to our pipes was underneath our kitchen. So we had to knock down part of our kitchen in order to access the mankot. It was under 10 tons of rubble. It was like, oh, my goodness. So we had skips and skips to try and get at it. And eventually we got there, but it was really. How did we then want the flow of our kitchen to be? And what we've ended up doing is realizing we're not going to knock down that part of the house and restart again. We've actually created it with that future in mind. And the reason why I'm saying this is we've been rebuilding it now, and obviously our boys are 17 and 18. So we're thinking. I said to James, you know, we've got to think about this. Not for the boys probably aren't going to be here for the next 10 years. They're going to be away at uni. They're going to be away with their lives. The next thing we're going to be thinking about is when they bring their grandchildren, our grandchildren, home. So how do we build and create with that in mind, that it's probably going to be just the two of us, but with that space to say we don't want to have to redesign it all again in 10 years. Time is. It is a lot to think about, isn't it?
- [18:43]
B
It absolutely is. And that can be very difficult, especially when not everyone has that ability to see into the future or have that vision or that knowledge of what it will be like. And as a society, I think we're pretty bad at doing that generally about, you know, we will all age if we're lucky. So we really need to plan that into our homes as well, actually. And I think what's really important to remember is our homes are always evolving. The most supportive homes can evolve with you. And actually, your, your story with the, with the, with the burst sewage pipe is actually, you say, it's so much
- [19:23]
A
nicer than me, Becky. I was like, we got shit in the basement.
- [19:27]
B
Well, what I was going to share with you is, so I'm really into home organization as well, which sort of links a little to feng shui, which is a world I'm starting to dabble in. Is what's really important is to keep the energy in our home positive, so as the people in our home age and evolve and change is not holding on to things that no longer serve us. And actually, this is where the. The relevant to comes in. So there's a really useful tip technique that I teach my clients when we're trying to declutter is if it was covered in, would you keep it? Would you go to the. The effort of cleaning it? And if you wouldn't, perhaps you can let it go.
- [20:07]
A
I remember you sharing that in our. In. In the Joy Rebellion. You know, if a dog pooed all over your clothes, I think we talked about decluttering a wardrobe. If a dog pooed all over your clothes, would you actually wash it or would you just put it straight in the bin? How important and vital is that piece of furniture, content, clothing worth to you? I love that you've brought in the concept of, you know, feng shui. And, you know, there is so much to do with. You talked about layout and flow and energy. And if we bring the color piece in, something you said before is get the layout right first, not the color. And I think that's so true because color can change. The color is the evolution. When I'm thinking of our kitchen, we've got the layout right for now and the longevity. The color now suits us now. But I have a feeling that, you know, 10 years down, down the line will just repaint. But the basics and the fundamentals and the cost of painting is probably far less than the cost of knocking it all down and starting again.
- [21:02]
B
Absolutely. And I would say if you are scared of color and bringing it in, paint is the cheapest, relatively way of doing that. And it's the easiest way to correct if it is wrong.
- [21:16]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And if you were looking at a room and. And you used an example earlier, it's like you've bought the sofa furniture that's blue and then you paint everything around that. If that's the wrong way of doing it, how would you start? Yes, layout. Then. Then how would you layer it? If someone was looking at, say, redesigning their TV room, where would you get them to start? What's the thought process? Or how would you guide them down through that if they were doing that?
- [21:41]
B
Yeah. So I would encourage them to sit down and journal about their room. I would ask them to write how it makes them feel now and how they would like it to feel. Once they have understood that, we then move on to a conceptual exercise whereby I get them to look in magazines, or if they want to do it digitally, they can do it that way, but to find images that capture that feeling for them. So a bit like you might do at the start of a year with the mood board, once you've got that concept, that would then be where we start to move on to layout. Layout always has to be considered first before we talk about anything else, because layout will dictate the success of a room far more than what's in it will.
- [22:29]
A
When you talk about layout, can you do. Can you tell me what you mean when I'm thinking layout, am I thinking. So if we're talking about the. The snuggle, the TV room, are you talking about the layout of the furniture pieces or completely different kinds of.
- [22:40]
B
Yeah, layout simply is where your furniture goes. But also. But also you need to take into account how you're going to move around that. So most rooms have an anchor piece. So in a. In a snug, that's going to be the sofa. And unless your room's enormous, there's going to be a limit on how many spaces there actually are for your sofa to go. But. But this is why I was saying you need to be really honest in how you're going to use that room. So if it is a snug, where you mainly watch tv, you want your sofa pointing at the tv. It doesn't make sense to have it looking out the window and you sat with your neck cricked to the left. You need to be really honest how you're going to use that space and then those bits of information allow you to get the layout right. And then once you have got your layout, you need to check practicality. So can you move around that space? You don't want to be shuffling and you know, you want your body to be able to move freely, otherwise that space will feel really awkward.
- [23:42]
A
You're gonna get bruises all over your legs because you're hitting the table every time. Yeah.
- [23:46]
B
And that's going to annoy you every day.
- [23:48]
A
Every day.
- [23:50]
B
Good design should feel effortless and it should be obvious. So it should be obvious to anyone who's not been in your lounge where they sit, where the TV is, where the remote is. You know, those details matter and really do make or break a space.
- [24:07]
A
There were a couple of other things that you've mentioned before as well. It's like the light and the colour. So thinking. I mean, you talked about the north facing room. What kind of good colours would you put in? You know, like say a south face, southwest or south facing room. What are the good colours?
- [24:23]
B
South rooms are easy because they get light all day. Yeah. So you can basically put any color that you want in a south facing room. North facing rooms are trickier because you get very little natural light. And the light you do get is going to be quite. It's going to have a blue undertone. So if you don't want that room to feel cold, you need to go for colors with a warm base to them. So with a red as their undertone. And then east facing rooms, I always have to do the little D. The sun rain rise in the east. Yeah. So east get light in the mornings and then the light they get towards the end of the day is going to be bluer. So you depend. This is where you need to then think about how you're using that room. Because an east facing room that you're using at the end of the day is going to get no natural light. But if it's the TV room, that doesn't matter. It can be dark. And then obviously west is the opposite. If you're in the only if you're in the northern hemisphere, if you're in the southern, then obviously it's the other way around.
- [25:24]
A
It's reversed. I was just thinking then when you were talking about it, it's just like the. The east is probably. I mean, I'm sat in what is on the original plans as the morning room. It's like the morning parlor because that's where the sun was and where they would come and have their coffee. It's now my office. This. Now I have another question for you. So we have a very traditional box shaped house as a very square. It's got the tea rooms at the front, the two rooms at the back, and a big hallway in the middle. This is an interesting story. Again, so we've had in the basement and then we've also had the old hornblower drive his car through the front of the house. So this was really interesting.
- [25:59]
B
Okay.
- [25:59]
A
Just as we. Just as we had exchanged on the property, which had taken us six months of negotiation to get this beautiful, beautiful old house that we really wanted to live in. And we literally just walked away and said like, we're not. This is ridiculous.
- [26:10]
B
This is.
- [26:11]
A
We're gonna have to walk away. It's too complicated. Anyway, long story. He ended up saying yes right at the last minute. But as we'd exchanged, an old friend of him, his came to see him. And the gentleman who used to live in this property was the mayor of Ripon and his friend was the hornblower. So I don't know if you know about the history of Ripon, but every. Every night at 9 o' clock, there's a horn that blows in the town square. They still do it. And the hornblower was obviously the hornblower at the time of the mayor. And he came to see this guy, but he was in a rental car and he was from America and he hit the wrong pedal and he shot through the front room of our house in the south corner. Do you know what? That room has never been the same. We've never really used it. I don't like it. James painted it gray. I didn't want a gray room. He painted it gray because we were in a rush to get it redone and we never use it. It's a beautiful room. It's like the south corner. So it's always. It's got double aspect, loads of light in it. But there's a funny energy in that room that none of us want to use it. And we've all got conflicting ideas. So if. If I was to ask you to come in and help us decide what we were doing with that room, every single person in the house would say they would want it for something different. So how would you help us like work through the conflict of what that room should be? How would we get. How do we go about it? Where do we start?
- [27:33]
B
Yeah. So do you know what? If I was able to. So often when, when you're designing homes, you don't just have one client. It's rare that only one person lives in a home. Usually they're shared with other people and other people are annoying because they often have different views to us.
- [27:53]
A
It's really annoying.
- [27:55]
B
Absolutely. So actually, this is where I would go back to the feeling and. Because when you. This happens quite often, you know, I. I get involved with designing a room, one of the partners will be saying, I want it blue, the other one will be saying, I want it green. It's really hard to resolve a binary argument like that because only one of you can really win that. And then it becomes a competition, or you end up with, you know, secret option C that no one wants, so no one's happy with it. So, you know, you get a grey room that no one uses.
- [28:28]
A
I bet the doors shut all the time in here.
- [28:30]
B
Absolutely. So, first of all, I'd start by cleansing that room physically with Sage or Palo Santo, just to get rid of any of that negative energy. But then I would get each member to sit down and do that feelings exercise. And then when I'm working with a client, we do a really comprehensive review of how they use their home. And we would work out based on that, what's missing and what that space could be used for. Because there is no should, there is no right and wrong. And this is, I think, where people get unstuck. Because whilst there are rules and there are guides, there are. It's really subjective. And what people like in their homes varies so much. So, so much of my work is that psychology. It's understanding how a home is used and what's missing from it. Often people come to me with one problem, and actually it's not that at all. It's something very different. And, you know, a really good example of that is people come to me saying, I need more storage. And then we look at what they're storing and actually it's not they need more storage, it's that they need to get rid of it.
- [29:37]
A
They need to get rid of it. Is that where the poo analogy comes in?
- [29:42]
B
Yeah.
- [29:42]
A
If I threw a whole load of pill all over this, what would you actually keep?
- [29:45]
B
Exactly. And that. And that is so interesting, I think, why we hold onto things, that. There are so many reasons why we hold onto things. Memories, costs, sentimentality. And actually that. That can be really hard to get people to confront that actually why they are holding onto items. But ultimately, when we're designing, Joy wants to be at the focus, I think.
- [30:08]
A
Of course it does.
- [30:09]
B
So if there's four of you and you've got a Room that's surplus. What could we to you that would serve all of you? Perhaps a games room that you could all use. You know, something that would bring.
- [30:20]
A
See, that's how I want it to be.
- [30:21]
B
Yeah, absolutely. And then that has longevity as well, because when your children leave, you can still use it with friends. Yeah. And I think when you're designing from a feeling, you might not all want exactly the same feeling, but it's much harder to have arguments over a feeling because it's so much more in depth.
- [30:40]
A
You know, I think it opens up the conversation as well, isn't it? What do we want that room to be? Is it a fun room? Is it a relaxing room? Do we want to feel peaceful? Do we want to feel alive in there? And then that can then say, well, if that's how we want to feel, what do we need to put in this room to make us feel that way?
- [30:55]
B
Absolutely, yeah. And restraint is key as well. So when there are four people, what I would try to avoid doing is design a room that has four purposes because they are unlikely to be able to sit alongside each other cohesively. Obviously, that depends what the purposes are. But often in our homes, we put too much in, and it's very much like our bodies. We need to make space in them. There needs to be space for room to grow. If we fill all the space with beautiful items, they stop being beautiful because you can't see them. There's not room for them to shine. So actually, restraint is really key when we're designing a room. We add in. We add in, and then we take away. Yeah.
- [31:41]
A
I always remember it's like dressing yourself. I always remember my mum saying to me, get. Put yourself. Put everything on Ali. And then look at yourself in the mirror and take one thing off.
- [31:48]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [31:49]
A
Always like, what if it's one piece of jewelry or a necklace or an earring? She said, always don't look overdressed. Just take one thing off and then you. Then you've hit the spot. Becky, I love this conversation. Now, you are so talented, and I know that there are going to be lots of people who are coming out. Kind of like, in terms of the spring clean, this is going out over Easter, and it's the perfect time, isn't it? As the light starts coming into our house in the northern hemisphere here, or if you're listening and you're in the southern hemisphere, it's always that, okay, now we're going to the Cosy Vibes. It's like, where can people come and find you, where can they follow you, Whether that's in person, online. Tell us a little bit about your services and what you do and how they can find you.
- [32:24]
B
So I am on Instagram as Becky Harrison Designs. I have a website with the same name. I'm very active on Instagram and I love to connect with people on there. I love talking all things interiors and colors. So, yeah, ask me a question, I will answer you. I work across the southwest of England mainly, but for the right project, I will absolutely travel. Travel, yes. I do love to work with people who want to embrace colour. That is absolutely my favourite type of client. We don't need to be scared of colour. I will help you make those decisions.
- [33:01]
A
Colours, textures, vibrancy, all of that, you are a joy to speak to. Thank you for sharing your wonderful wisdom. I have one final question now. You joined the Joy Rebellion. What would you say to anybody who is considering looking at the Joy Rebellion as their option to bring more joy? What's your journey been like through the Joy Rebellion when you joined since last year?
- [33:21]
B
So I. As you mentioned earlier, we moved into a renovation project in December 2024. At Christmas, I would wholeheartedly warn anyone against moving at Christmas. It's not a good time house, especially when you're moving into a house that was empty for four years previously. Oh, wow. Gosh, yeah.
- [33:44]
A
Bit cold.
- [33:44]
B
Yes, very cold and very. It didn't smell good. Did not smell good. And actually that was hard, much harder than we had anticipated because funds disappeared very quickly, as did energy and motivation. Our house is listed and in a conservation area, so we have those added pressures and costs, rules that we have to follow and it got so heavy and instead we. We just kept pushing on and on and on. So we'd work all week, we'd renovate at the weekend and we stopped having fun and therefore life stopped being fun. And I recognized that and I'd seen you on Instagram, we'd met at Manifest the year before and it made me realize, actually I. I need to rediscover joy in my life. And actually you asked earlier and I didn't answer was which room are we starting with? We're starting with our bedroom, which I've got two young children, but we're still starting with our bedroom because we as adults need to be supported, we need to have joy and fun. Not necessarily just in the bedroom, but in life.
- [34:57]
A
Such sanctuaries, aren't they?
- [34:59]
B
Yeah, they really are. So joining Joyful Rebellion for me has been a reset. It's reminded me what the Purpose of life is. And it is to be joyful.
- [35:09]
A
I love that. And you have been a joy. And it was quite a rapid shift for you as well, wasn't it?
- [35:13]
B
Really fast.
- [35:13]
A
Really within, like, the first couple of months. Just claiming that joy just was just like, oh, yeah, peace back here is here.
- [35:21]
B
Yeah. It's such a simple shift. And for me, in our homes, embracing color is that same shift. When you make that leap, it feels huge, but actually, it's really not. It's really simple. And the. The rewards it brings are huge.
- [35:37]
A
I love that. Just. I mean, I've felt it just the last few weeks. We were talking about the grayness of the weather through, you know, the. The last few months been really difficult, but the daffodils have started coming up. And the daffodils just remind me of joy, don't they? And I think even if you just use those pops of color to bring the daffodils inside or just put a. A yellow vase or. Or some kind of ornament or throw. Yellow throw. And I've got an orange one behind me just. That can just automatically lift the color in a room, lift the energy in a room. And then therefore, if you're lifting the energy in that room, you're also creating an environment where that can also lift your mood.
- [36:14]
B
Absolutely. And actually, if you want a quick fix, that's a really good thing to do. So I like to encourage people to create a joy corner and also to have happy views. So joy corner.
- [36:25]
A
Tell me more about the joy corner. How did you not not talk about that already?
- [36:31]
B
So a joy corner is literally that. It's a little area. It can be wherever you want in your house. So mine is my spot on the sofa, and I have a table next to it. And in my joy corner are my sage sprays, my candles, my crystals, my sudoku books, my magazines. And by having a joy corner set up, it enables me to access joy quickly. I don't have to spend ages looking for the things because they're all there in that spot. Then the other thing you can do is happy views, I call them. When you're sat at your desk or your spot at the table, it's just to have little vignettes or things you can look at that make you feel happy. A piece of artwork or, like you say, some flowers on your desk so that when you're working, you just get those little uplifts. They're like little shots of dopamine.
- [37:23]
A
Becky, I love this.
- [37:28]
B
Thank you.
- [37:29]
A
That's just been truly joyful What a joyful experience. Thank you for bringing your joy. I hope everyone goes away and creates that joyful space, a joyful corner, a joyful view, a joyful outlook on life and if they can put some color in and I hope they can and follow you, find you and just feel your joy. Thank you. Thank you for being part of the joy broadcast.
- [37:49]
B
You're so welcome. Thank you for having me.
- [37:51]
A
My mission is to spread love, joy, peace and abundance to as much of the world as I possibly can so that every person knows that they don't have to walk alone in their darkness. So if you've enjoyed today's podcast and this episode, I'll be so honored and happy if you would to support my mission and share this with your network, your friends and your family. Please feel free to leave me an honest review on Apple or Spotify. And until next time, remember the ripple of joy starts with you.