KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. I am Dean Sharp the House Whisper. I design custom homes, I build custom homes, and today I'm your guide to better understanding that place where you live. Today. On the show, part two of our series. This weekend, the final weekend of twenty twenty four, we are talking about trends and
predictions for twenty twenty five. And if you caught any part of yesterday's show, you know that I have a different kind of take on these things when it comes to home design and decor and trends and all of that kind of stuff. I am endeavoring to give you the most honest, straightforward and useful approach possible. Not a lot of design influencer kind of stuff that you just
online all the time. And so I'm picking a little bit of that apart not to be overly critical, and I'm not an overly critical guy, but I want to help and there's just a lot of there's a lot of bs out there, That's all I can say. So what we're doing today is we are separating the brilliant from the BS for you when it comes to what's coming and what to expect in the world of design for your home for the year to come. And if we get it all done the right way, you will
be the better off for it, I hope. And of course you know, as always going to be taking calls today. The number to reach me, I'll give it to you right now, eight three three two Ask Dean A three three The numeral to ask Dean eight three three two ask Dean. Producer Richie standing by right now. Phone lines are open. He is ready to take your call and he'll tell you everything you need to know. He'll pop you into the queue. And who knows you and I we can put our heads together. We can figure out
what's going on with your home. Of course I'm talking trends in prediction. But when it comes to calls, you set the agenda. Anything you want to talk about regarding your home, design, construction, DIY, questions, whatever the case may be, inside, outside, up, down, all around everything and anything regarding your home. All right, let me introduce you to our awesome team this morning. Once again Elmer is on the board. Good morning Elmer,
Good morning Dane. I thought I thought that a silver back Gorilla had somehow made it into I'm like, wait a second, what happened to Elmer? I don't even know. I just I just had some random thing that was deep. Bro. I like that. I like it sounds good. As I said, produce, Sir, Richie is with us this morning screening calls. He's busy doing that right now. We love him and can't live without him. Also, somebody I can't live without. Eileen Gonzalez
at the news desk. Good morning, Eileen, good morning. I felt like I needed to do something like haa hello, I see see Elmer's setting the bar. He's just setting the bar for us. You know, come after you could make you're gonna have to come up with your own animal sound. We're just gonna fill the studio with the sound of animal and elephant. Nope, no, who can, by the way. Uh but yeah, all right, So how's everything
going with you? Everything good? Going great? Looking forward to some time off coming up and celebrating the new year. That's good. You see, you get the time off because you've worked all the way through these other holidays. Good. I did Thanksgiving, I did Christmas, and now I'm going to get to play enabling our other hosts and newspeople to just sit around and not earn their keep. Basically, so it's good that that you get the time off. Now, somebody who does earn their keep, let me turn on
her microphone here. Oh, that's a strange dog you've got sitting next to you. That is not our normal beagle. Who is that? This is Murphy. That's Murphy. Murphy looks like a small teddy bear. He does, and he has a very cuttle haircut. Yeah, he's interesting. Sitting across the table from me, my better half, truly, my design partner, my partner in life, and my best friend on planet Earth. Tina is here. You made an elephant sound. I did Gorilla's Elephants. We got a whole zoo and it is
it's very it's very exotic. It's an exotic morning. It is the final show of Hours before the new year. This is the last show of twenty twenty four. We're gonna make it a good one. We're talking about trends and predictions. I do this every year, and you know, look a little bit of a look back. More importantly, I look forward. But this year, this year, you know what I just I've got. I did a little looking around, and I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have. Probably, oh maybe
I should have. I don't know. I did a little searching around this week on the interweb, that's the thing, right the interweb. I went looking for, you know, sites talking about design trends and predictions for twenty twenty five. And some of them were fine. Some of them were fine. Others though, and I have to say, like most of them really got under my skin, like just you know, I ended up with something stuck in my crawl as it were. Are what can I tell you about this?
It just seems to me like so many weak ideas being rehashed and rehashed. And the problem I have with it is not that, hey, if you just want to be out there just just spreading weak ideas around, find you know, who am I to stop somebody from wasting their time? But the problem is there are people that I care about, our listeners, you who, you know, I don't want you being frustrated, shamed, led astray by this kind of so called advice. And so I'm trying to
draw some hard lines. So yeah, I'm getting a little critical here at the end of the year about what it is supposedly that is coming that you need to know about. I want to distinguish between the two. And we're gonna do it. Gosh, we're gonna do it, and we're gonna do it right, and we'll do it right after.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Hey, we've got open callboard right now. The number to reach me eight three three two Ask Dean eight three three the numeral to ask Dean. I was told that also I should open up the calls just for people who want to talk about how much you loved or hated the show this year. So I'm gonna do that as well. You can call me with a question about your house. You can also just call me with your commentary. Just keep it clean. That's all I'm asking about your year with us here at home. Feel free to do it.
Eight three three two ask Dean. A three three the numeral two ask Dean. All right, yes, quick review, I said, you know, as always, there's a lot of great stuff happening in the world of home design, and as always, there's a lot of bogus advice out there. What's hot, what's not so on. I want you to trust my list. Why well, because I'm here to help you and I got nothing to sell you, right, so we want to separate brilliant from BS when it comes to this stuff.
I'm going to repeat one thing I said yesterday specifically just to get us started out on my hot and not list. What is hot for you this year design advice that helps you tell your story. Okay, what is not hot this year is influencers who last year encouraged you to buy into twenty twenty four trends, but are now telling you that it is so yesterday. I am just so done with this cycle and I got a I'll tell you most of the professional designers I know are equally fed up with it. And I want to
draw a distinction for you. While you're online looking at whatever is you're looking at Instagram, TikTok, pinterest boards, whatever the case may be, I want you to be very careful to kind of dig a little deeper and find out whether you're getting this information from actual professional designers, architects, decorators, and so on, or whether you're just reading the board, looking at the board of a what we've now come to call design influencers, which are just folks out there
saying what they want to say about stuff whose main job it is to get you caught up in a loop of sticking with them because what they say this year, they're going to change up next year. And the problem that I have with that is the shaming that happens and the lack of reality. Okay, there are some areas in which design is not unlike the fashion world. I mean, it's artistics. It has to find the balance between form
and function and so on and so forth. But there are huge differences when you've just laid down tens of thousands of dollars to remodel a bathroom or a kitchen, or you know, just even a few thousand dollars redecorating. The fact of the matter is this is not just like an old blouse from a couple of years ago
that you've decided to donate to goodwill. So for somebody to come along and first tell you, oh, these colors and this cabinet tone is great, and then you know, eighteen months later to be pronouncing that that was so yesterday and it's so not where things are going, and to make you feel bad that you've got whatever it is that you've built that ain't cool. It's not cool at all. Right, So this is what I'm going to tell you is in. What is in is your story.
Your story is in. Your story will always be in for as long as it is your story. So if you find the way that you live in your home, you discover your preferences, you discover your likes and your dislikes, and you conscientiously build that into the home of the house that you call home, then you know what it's in. It's in. It's hot, it's right and h and let nobody tell you that it's past due or passed over.
It's just not true. It's not true. Every facet every style of architectural design on the planet that isn't literally today's cutting edge contemporary effort is by definition past old and out. Okay, if it's like, oh I just love Art Deco, that's out, man, that's like a hundred years old. So does that mean it's no good? Absolutely not. It is absolutely gorgeous enough that's what you want to pursue, then pursue it. You get what I'm feeling, So there you go. Okay, let's move on to my list. I
took some stabs at maximalism. Maximal maximalism yesterday. Listen to yesterday's show. You find it on the podcast, and you know you can catch up with that. I'm gonna talk to you about something that truly is Should we call it a trend? I don't, I don't really care. It's actually just a facet of furnishings, something that Tina and I are both impressed with, something that's hot right now and growing hotter, and that I expect we will see more and more of in the world of sofas. Okay,
low profile sofas with adjustable headrests. Tina, jump in here with me on this right, low profile sofas with adjustable headrest Now what am I talking about here? Well, here's the thing. As designers, we know that when it comes to setting up a really you know, sexy living room and spent and this is by the way, even more appropriate if you have a smaller space with lower ceilings.
One of the things that we prefer is to keep furnishings as gorgeous as they are as low profile in the room as possible, so that they're not climbing halfway up the walls and kind of chunking up a space and so you've got more room on the wall for art and just the whole you know, space feels area. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. Okay. However, it's also equally to me that when you sit down
on the sofa, your love and your life. Okay. And for the longest time there has been this tension between the artistic effect of a low profile sofa or chair and the fact that nobody wants to sit in them because they come up so short that they're just dang uncomfortable. Okay. But in recent years something has been developing in the furnishings world that I want you to be aware of. And this is not even though I'm saying that this is a contemporary idea, this is not limited in any way,
shape or form to contemporary style furniture. This is an adaptation that I absolutely love, and that is a low profile sofa with a cushion built into the top back of the sofa that lays flat but is either on well some of them are, you know, the fancier ones are like on a little electric servo that you control
with the button. They're simply like on a ratcheted gear mechanism, and what you can do is it can be down when no one's using the room, and therefore you get that low profile with lots of wall space, makes the ceiling feel higher, all of that. But when you sit down, all you do is reach back, you flip up this headrest, and now you've got the comfort of what otherwise would be a really big, tall piece of furniture. It is
literally the best of both worlds. So if you want to know a real trend that's happening right now that's going to only be growing. And if you're even thinking about possible new furnishings or furniture for a special room, then get on the interweb right now and just do a search for low profile sofa with adjustable headrests. You'll see exactly what I'm talking about, and you know what, it might be the perfect for you. That's something really cool that we're going to see more of in twenty
twenty five. All right, I got more for you. I did one that's hot. Let's talk about one that's not. Right after.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Live streaming everywhere on the iHeartRadio app Dean Sharp the house whisper here at your beckon call. Hey, we're gonna be going to the phones top of the hour in just a bit. So here's the number to reach me. Eight three three two ask Dean. Eight three three the numeral to ask Dean. All right, let's dive back in to trends and predictions Dean's special Trends and Predictions list for twenty twenty five. All right, so we talked about something that's very hot right now, low profile sofas with
adjustable headrests. Right before the break. Now, let me give a cautionary half thumbs out aft thumbs down to something that I've seen on a lot of lists this week. Feature ceilings feature ceilings. What is a feature ceiling. A feature ceiling is simply a ceiling that has more going on than just flat drywall up there, okay. In other words, a feature ceiling is any ceiling in which some added
feature or a feature has been added to it. Whether it's you know, something as crazy and intense as a full coffered ceiling in a beautiful library setting, or whether it's applicate moldings, or whether you know, whatever the case may be medallions, there could be all sorts of things on a feature ceiling. Feature ceilings are on a lot of lists right now out there that say this is a hot trend for twenty twenty five. So how do I feel about feet your ceilings? Well, here's the thing.
There is no question as your designer that I take the ceiling into account in every space that where we are asked to do work in Take the seat you got. You can't ignore the ceiling. The ceiling is critical. The ceiling is essentially the fifth wall in any room, all right, And a lot of people who can and maybe should do something with their ceilings miss that opportunity by just
never even thinking about it. So I'm going to give it a qualified thumbs up as far as I'm kind of glad that, you know, if it's true that more people are thinking about things to do on the ceiling. But what and believe me, it's a big butt. Okay, what you do with the ceiling has a lot to do with what size room you're in and how high that ceiling is. In this designer's opinion, Okay, here's what
I don't want to have happen. I don't want you to just take it the idea of, you know, you should really take the ceiling into account, which is always true. But I don't want you to take that as license or somehow a mandate that you have to do something on the ceiling. And here's why. If you're working with what is, you know, kind of old tracked standard, that's what we have to say nowadays, old tracked standard ceiling high,
which is eight feet. That is, it's an adequate ceiling, but it's not a high ceiling, right, And we say old track standard because new tracked standard ceilings are nine and that makes actually a pretty big difference. Actually, that extra twelve inches makes a significant difference in the feel of a room. But a lot of people, most people
still living in eight foot ceilings. In your case, we've got to be really, really careful how much attention we draw it to the ceiling, simply because I don't want the ceiling coming down at you. I don't mean falling down. I mean that the more color, the more stuff, the more moldings, the more trims that we put up on that ceiling, the more it is going to draw its attention. Okay, your attention to it, I should say. And therefore, the more keenly aware you're going to be that it's just
right there, right up at eight feet, not very far away. Okay. So I have a design theory that in order to make a room as voluminous as possible, as airy as possible, I love the idea of doing moldings and all sorts of details on walls, get as hot and heavy as you want. But I tend to leave ceilings alone if they are lower, because I tend to want them to kind of not draw attention to themselves. Now that's a lower ceiling. If we are above nine feet, even at
nine feet, we can do some things. But if we're above nine feet, okay, then I want to do just the opposite. When we get above nine feet ten eleven, some people have, you know, vaulted ceilings, fourteen foot ceilings, big seat, then I want to draw attention to the fact that we've got volume in the room, and I'm like, hey, this sky's the limit, man, Let's let's let's get crazy with what we want to do up there. So it's one of those things where, you know, I'm sorry to say,
it's just true. You know, if you have a taller ceiling, then you get to have more, and if you don't, then you probably should stay away for putting too much. Now, there are always exceptions to that rule. Okay. One of the exceptions to that rule is in a bedroom scenario. Okay, we could take our little cottage as a perfect example. I live in a little cottage house, right, and I've got a couple of areas in my home where I've got vaulted ceilings in the main entertainment areas, but in
the bedrooms, you know, we're down at eight feet. However, when Tina and I are laying in bed staring up at the ceiling, the height of the ceiling is not really relevant. Okay, It's not like you're walking in and you're not worried about it. You're actually your head is now lower in relationship to that ceiling than if you walked in and the ceiling was twelve feet tall, just about. Okay.
So because of that, we've got a beautiful ceiling applica on our master bedroom ceiling, on the primary bedroom ceiling up there, and it's beautiful and it gets a lot of attention from us because we're the ones in bed staring up at it. So stuff like that in a qualified sense, got no problem with an eight foot ceiling, But otherwise I generally generally okay, and these are not laws, they're just guidelines. I generally encourage people. Let's let's avoid
putting too much heavy stuff. And you've heard me say this before if you listen to the show that you know I'm not. I want to do all sorts of moldings in the room, big moldings at the bottom of an eight foot ceiling, room, wainscots, anything you want to do, but I actually try to avoid like heavy crown moldings up at an eight foot ceiling cut for the exact reason that they draw attention to the fact that the
ceiling is just right there, right there. Now, you feel free to differ from that opinion, but I'm right about it. So let's just you know, I'm sorry, Just get over it. It's just advice. It's advice. Okay. So the idea of feature ceilings, I'm staring at a photo on one list right now where this designer had herringbone wood floor. They took herringbone wood up one wall and they ran herringbone across the ceiling in this room. And you know what, man,
that is like a cave. It makes for an interesting photo, but in the real world, I know exactly what that room feels like. Weird, just weird. So a qualified thumbs up for feature ceilings. Absolutely, always consider the ceiling in any space. It is a big part of the space, but not necessarily licensed to go up and do it. Especially the lower the ceiling, the more cautious you have to be. All right, when we come back, I got more, I got more. Let's talk about sustainable design.
M you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM sixty.
I'm just glad that you are with us today. We're talking about trends and predictions for twenty twenty five. Yes, I have a somewhat skewed view of it. I think I have a fairly accurate view from where I'm sitting of all of these trends and prediction lists. But you know you're free to disagree. I'm just sharing you my opinions and my advice as we go, as I always do. By the way, right after this next break, coming up, we are going to the phones. The number again eight
three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two. Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask dean producer Richie standing by ready to take your call. He'll tell you everything you need to know. Pop you into the queue. Anything you want to talk about regarding your home or our show this year, feel free to give me a call and we'll get at it all right. Here's one I wish there weren't so many of these on the list that I felt kind of dubious about. But sustainable design.
Those are two words that are difficult to quantify. Sustainable design, nevertheless, is on just about every trend list this year. In fact, it's made it onto maybe the last few years of trends lists, but a lot this year. Sustainable design. Everywhere I turned, sustainable design. We want to be conscious of our designs. Here's the thing. I get it. I am all for it. I truly am. I A mean, I truly,
truly am. We always want to be looking at the resources that we're consuming, how we're consuming them, and in what form we translate them into and the impact that has on the world around us. I am a nature boy. I am okay, so I get it, and I'm there
with you. I'm also a builder and have been a builder for a long time, and I know the nuts and bolts of how literally the nuts and bolts go together, of how houses are built, of the effort that it takes, of all the trips back and forth, everything from materials being manufactured at plants to being transitioned into vehicles for transport and delivered to job sites, and what it takes to put them all together. I've got to see it firsthand for decades, the entire process, from beginning to end.
And I will tell you this. That's as a builder talking to you. That now I'll put on my designer hat. I'm not convinced most designers really know what sustainable design really means when it comes to building a home. And so I'm not going to get into a big soap box lecture about it here either. I just want you to be away where of you're going to see it a lot and you're going to hear a lot of
talk about sustainable design focused on what something is made from. Okay, that's really what sustainable design comes down to for most people who raise the issue what is this thing made out of? And it's a completely viable conversation to have. Okay, However, I want to simplify this for you. Number One regardless of what something is made from. Do not think for
a second that that's the end of the story. Because where it gets transported, how it gets transported, the energy that is fueling the factory that makes the product that's made out of the sustainable thing, and so on and
so forth. And it's also, you know, there's somewhat a kind of the pot calling the kettle black situation when we're all sitting around, let's say, in you know, petroleum based clothing, concerned about the amount of petroleum or fossil fuels that go into the manufacture of a particular product. It's just it's a sticky wicket that we are involved in.
So I have one message for you for today on the category of sustainable design, which is something you're going to see in a lot of lists for this year's trending design. It's this, I am no longer as well, I'm not gonna put it that way. I am nowadays equally concerned of how something is made, what something is made of, versus how well it's made. Okay, So I'll just put it this way. In my opinion, craftsmanship is the ultimate sustainable design. Why because craftsmanship means quality and
quality last. Do you want to save the planet with your decor and your furnishings, then I will tell you this by furnishings that last, by furnishings that last. I was just at another antique mal yesterday walking around looking at some things, and you know, I am just always in awe and so pleased to see a piece of furniture that is one hundred and thirty years old, that has been taken care of and can still do its job today. Now I'm not saying that we all need
to buy antiques. That's not my point. My point is that I hope what we're doing as a culture is moving out of the disposable, fast furnishings trend that has been a thing for a couple of decades now especially, and that we're moving towards listen, save longer, go without just a little bit more. And then when you buy a piece of furniture, buy something that's going to last.
It doesn't mean you have to keep it forever, but the idea that you're supporting quality furniture that when you're getting tired of it, you know down the road, someone else will purchase it from you and its life will continue and on and on. I don't care how many times it changes hands. That's not the point. And it's not burdening with you with something that you have to keep for a hundred years. But a quality piece of furniture, a quality piece of furniture that doesn't have to be
remade again. That is sustainable. And no amount of sustainable materials or manufacturing processes can compete with a piece of furniture that is still doing its job one hundred years later. That's my point. Craftsmanship is the ultimate sustainable design by furnishings. That last nineteen sixty Americans threw away two point two
million tons of furniture. That was crazy wasteful until you compare it to today's numbers, which is right now twelve million tons of furniture a year being thrown away because disposable, low craftsmanship furniture. That's what we need to change in my opinion. All right, when we come back, your calls your home Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer on KFI. This
has been home with Dean Sharp, the House whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI Am six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.