The first ever Makeover Takeover Summit hosted by Country Living and Good Housekeeping featured an amazing array of fireside chats, Q&A discussions, and home tours that focused on DIY home renovations and more. Speakers included Ellen Pompeo, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Tia Mowry, Shea McGee, Candace Cameron Bure, Nischelle Turner, The Property Brothers, Max Humpfrey, among others. Viewers were able to get insider access to the speakers’ homes and hear insights on their design processes and where they draw inspiration from.
Ellen Pompeo and Martyn Lawrence Bullard Fireside Chat
On how Cher brought Martyn and Ellen together at Paris Fashion Week:
M: “I was in Paris with Cher, in fact, who is another long time client of mine. And it was Fashion Week and Cher had invited me to go with her to attend a bunch of the shows… Cher decided in the middle of it [a show] that she actually wanted to go back to the hotel and change her hair (as you do when you’re Cher!)… I go in [to the next show alone] and am pointed to where our seats are , so I go and sit myself down and Ellen is there with her husband Chris who then looks over at me and goes ‘oh you’re not Cher!’”
E: “And by the way, I’m a huge Cher fan, so when I sat down and saw that she was next to me, I nearly, I could not contain my excitement. So it actually worked out very well because I would’ve made a complete fool of myself if Cher came and sat down.”
On how Martyn and Ellen reconnected in LA and learned that they were neighbors:
M: “So we see the show and that was that, then cut to, literally 4 weeks later, I am in LA and I’ve gone shopping in Barneys on a Saturday and I suddenly hear ‘Hey Martyn, how’s the front row treating you?’ and I look over and it’s this naughty one [Ellen]. Ellen calls me a couple days later for when we said we were going to have dinner and asks my address – and turns out we lived literally next door to each other – so there’s the fates – the decorating gods were looking down on us!”
E: “Which really came in handy! Because we had not been living in the house that long and I had been working so much and having Martyn literally 3 houses away was really convenient because I said ‘Oh you’re an interior designer and you live right down the street you need to come over and help me design my house because I’m in work all day so, and that’s how it all started!’”
Ellen on why you should trust your interior designer:
E: “I think it’s important to understand that they do this for a living all day long and that they definitely know it better than you and you can say you have your taste and your style and that’s fine and that’s important, but it’s also important to take a step back and realize that you’re asking for a professional’s help for a reason. They just have a wider scope of knowledge about it and it is always a good idea to listen. Even if I don’t necessarily love an idea that Martyn has at first, I trust him and I let him do it anyway.”
On the significance of setting a table and having dinner parties:
E: “One of the things I’ve learned from designers…they all know how to set a table and throw a beautiful dinner. And that’s something that Martyn does and all of these fantastic designers do – is they set a gorgeous table. That’s something that young people should take from people of a different generation. Set a gorgeous table, have gorgeous plates, have a very decadent meal and have fun talking to one another in person.”
M: “Or honestly, it doesn’t have to be a decadent meal – it literally could be take out. You know what I mean? Live your best life every day. I think it’s the thing that we’ve all learned in COVID is every day could be our last so let’s celebrate it. During COVID where I couldn’t really get out there and decorate, I was creating a beautiful dinner for the two of us at home because literally it was a way to express myself. But here’s the trick with that – its’ also an amazing way to learn how to put things together. How to put colors together, how to mix and match… and setting a table can actually help you understand a palette and a palette that you love.”
Ellen and Martyn on their love of vintage décor and the importance of sustainability:
M: “Vintage to me is the ultimate way of mixing and matching your decorative expression and honoring the past and recreating for the future. And I think it gives such character.”
E: “The other thing about the vintage thing, you know we’re all trying to be more conscious of what we buy, sustainability, how much trash were making, and I know that’s really a focus for me is ‘do I need that? Do I need to buy something new, or can I repurpose something I have?’.
M: “It’s good for the decorating! Because honestly there’s nothing like an eclectic room. Even if you have the most modern taste, to suddenly put in one or two vintage items, it just becomes an object that is a little different and adds a little character.”
Tia Mowry Fireside Chat
On where Tia’s passion for interior design began and how her children affected her design priorities: “It started when I moved in with my husband, when I got married. We had bought our first home together and we were talking about how are we going to design the house, how are we blend all of our ideas together, because he is very modern, I’m more farmhouse. Also having children – that’s when organization came into play! … they’re so tiny, these little tiny beings can make a room look like a tornado has gone through it! How can they make such a huge mess? [So] what’s really helped with the cleaning up was really getting organized and having things put in its [their] place and I’m training them while they’re young!”
On what Tia wanted to achieve with her home design: “Zen, a Zen feeling. You know, I am a psychology major and I studied psychology. I and understand what colors, and just feng shui does for your mind. I live a busy life, I work very long hours, I have a lot going on, so when I come home, I really need for it to feel very Zen and relaxed… to bring the different elements from outside into the house also creates and helps with that Zen environment.”
On how you can design thoughtfully with children in mind using simple hacks like choosing water-resistant fabric: “I specifically thought about my kids, I had them in mind when I chose the fabric… so my point is, for all of you parents out there or moms out there that have kids, you can find incredible, nice furniture that is practical for kids as well. You don’t have to sacrifice your style to make your home ‘kid-friendly.’”
How Tia began working with her interior designer: “Jake Arnold is our designer and what’s so crazy is he’s become this huge designer for the stars and when I met him, he was not like that much in demand so I’m almost like this is really cool I got him before everybody else. How I found him was I literally just went on Instagram and I was like ‘Hey I’m a big fan of your work I just moved into this house I would love for you to possibly help us with designing our home’ but you know what I love about Jake? He’s a great listener, he’s a great communicator. Because a lot of times designers could come in and yes they have their aesthetic, and yes they are good at what they do, but he was able to help blend our styles together… he was really able to execute that in such an incredible way.”
Candace Cameron Bure Fireside Chat
On how her faith has influenced her collaborations and the products she designs:
“With the DaySpring line, if anyone knows who I am, I’m a Christian women and my faith means everything to me, and it’s a part of my everyday life. And so the products that I’ve developed with DaySpring – we really call them a ‘mind-style’ brand because I really believe in developing ourselves from the inside out and making sure that your spirit and your mind are just as healthy and beautiful as all the outside things that we do. So the DaySpring décor line – we kind of have everything from blankets to pillows to an entire Christmas collection – [are] things that look beautiful in your home but give you inspirational messages.”
On how Candace has appreciated her home during COVID:
“We’ve been in this home – we took it down to the studs actually and then redesigned it – but we’ve been in here for about 5 years now so it’s very much what I wanted it to be, which is wonderful and that certainly helped with the pandemic because I like the space that I’m in, I visually like looking at it. The colors, the design, the décor, the photos, they all make me feel good… most of all I’m just so happy with what we’ve been able to do with our space, where the pandemic really felt like ‘wow I did a good job, we did a good job,’ because that’s ultimately what you want – to feel is comfortable in your own home, you want it to be a place you want to live in.”
On how the family blessed their home before renovating it:
“When we redesigned this home, we took it down to the studs. We came in before the floors were put down, and my husband and all three of my kids, we prayed over the house, but then I wrote scripture on the floors and then we all signed our names, and we dated it, and some of the kids wrote their favorite scripture verses as well, and although you can’t see that, knowing that’s its underneath my floors and in my home, I feel like it’s just been blessed in that way… that was something really, really special to us when we moved in that we did with our family.”
The Property Brothers – Drew and Jonathan Scott Fireside Chat
On how they have continued to renovate houses for over 25 years:
Jonathan: “When you’re having this much fun, it is not like working – it’s cliched to say that but it’s true – we literally have so much fun and our crew are like family and we laugh all day and it’s not like work. Our shows have been going for over 10 years now, we’ve down almost 470 renovations just for the shows, and it feels like we just started.”
On how they got their start in real estate:
Drew: “It actually all started – we grew up on a ranch – and so for us we were little go-getters, we were just always trying to start some sort of business. We just wanted to do big things ever since we were kids. Our parents were really encouraging of that as well. So we started building in construction on the ranch, budling the barns, the fences, we built our family home.”
J: “The big thing for us, is we were little entrepreneurs. We were always trying to think what’s the next big thing, how can we have some scheme that we’ll get rich quick. And it wasn’t until we were coming out of high school where we realized there could be something in real estate. So we started reading every book we possibly could, and sure enough we bought our very first home at 18 years old, fixed it up, renovated it, sold it a year later for a $50,000 profit.”
On mediating design differences with clients on projects:
D: “Working with couples and working with families, we almost feel like we’re therapists [laughs]…. But it is a hard thing a lot of people have what they want individually and things they want together and sometimes they can butt heads… the thing is to bring in a professional that knows the space, we are sort of that mediator whenever we come in to design for people. You need someone who is not biased by emotion… there are so many ways to blend different styles and still make it look purposeful and work for everyone.”
J: “It’s a lot easier to change your mind than it is to change your spouse [laughs] so think about what is it that is really important. One thing I like to say is – say the husband is the person who really loves to cook and is all about the cooking experience, well maybe we let that spouse have a little more say when it come to the kitchen, maybe the main bedroom suite is more important to one of the spouses – maybe they get the final say there. So we try to think is there a way to divide it up so that we really allow everyone to have say in the areas that are most important to them.”
On their most rewarding project:
D: “I would say for me, one of my favorites was in New Orleans. We did a renovation, it was a house that had been devastated by a hurricane down there. And there was wind damage, water damage, mold, the family couldn’t live in it. A contractor came in and they gave every penny they had to the contractor… the contractor came in, took all their money, shelled the place, ripped out the kitchen, the toilets, everything, and then he took off with their money and never finished it. So for 11 years they had to live in low income housing and they had no money to their name…. so we came in and did a full [renovation] – we reconfigured it to make it more functional layout for both families, we flipped the layout and then gave them all the furniture and everything and just handed over the keys.”
A full video of the two-day summit is available on Good Housekeeping linked here.