Designing Your Home for Peace: Trauma-Informed Design and the Nervous System

Is your home helping or harming your nervous system? Mandi sits down with trauma-informed interior designer and author, Sarah Trop, to explore how our environments impact emotional safety, regulation, and peace. How can small, thoughtful changes make a big difference? 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why earth tones and nature-inspired elements tend to feel more grounding and calming
  
  
  
• How light, texture, and color affect the nervous system
  
  
  
• Simple, low-risk ways to add color without overwhelm
  
  
  
• How to create nourishing spaces even if you’re renting or living somewhere temporarily
  
  
  
• What “dignified design” means and why it matters in therapy offices, nonprofits, and healing spaces
  
  
  
• Budget-friendly ways communities can come together to create safer, more welcoming environments
  
  
  
• How to design sacred personal spaces that support rest, regulation, and self-care
  
  
  
• Why clutter, organization, and shared routines can impact your ability to truly relax
  
  
  

This conversation is filled with practical ideas to help your home or workplace feel more supportive, comforting, and aligned with how you want to feel.

RESOURCES

Connect with Sarah Trop:

- Website: FunCycled.com (Book a virtual consultation or buy her book)
- Free Design Tips PDF: Funcycled.com/free
- Instagram: @FunCycled
- Facebook: @FunCycled
- Pinterest: @FunCycled

Connect with Mandi:

• Website: WomenAwareAndPrepared.com
• Take the Free Intuition Quiz WomenAwareAndPrepared.com/Quiz
• Instagram: @WomenAwareAndPrepared
• LinkedIn: Mandi Pratt

The primary purpose of the Women Aware and Prepared Podcast is to educate and inform. This podcast series does not constitute advice or services. Please use common sense for your own situation.

Transcript

 Hey, brave one.

Welcome to the Aware and Prepared Podcast. I'm your host, Mandy Pratt, trauma-informed resilience speaker, domestic violence victim advocate, and narcissistic abuse survivor. Here we keep it real with true crime stories and real world strategies to prevent emotional and physical harm. My guests and I share a mix of insight and survivor grit, all to help you feel safer, trust yourself more deeply.

And live with greater peace and power. Let's trade fear for freedom and step into the peace that you deserve.



All right, so welcome back to the Aware and Prepared podcast.

I'm so excited to have Sarah with us here today.



 Yeah, Mandy, thanks for having me on.

I'm really excited to be in this. Space and honored that you even thought of me. Um, my name is Sarah Trop. I'm from upstate New York and I own Fun Cycled, which is an interior design and repurposing firm. We do ca kitchen face lifts with cabinet painting and re repurposed furniture. But I think why I'm on here probably is the fact that I also have worked a lot in the last couple years with trauma-informed designs, dignified designs in spaces for.

The vulnerable kind of hurting masses. And uh, so I, by starting that, kind of did some work and studying into how design affects. The emotions and I wrote a book called Created to Create, which talks a little bit about that within it. And so I'm excited to be here and just talk through whatever questions you have.

Yeah, awesome. I love it. Okay, so we will for sure put the link into your book and your website. And I remember going to your website and seeing a space that you had designed. Was it for a domestic violence shelter? Is that right? 

We actually couldn't. We talked about it, but we can't share about the pictures because of the, 

of 

course, safety issues of the home.

Right? Sure. So I don't put any of those pictures online, but Uhhuh, I did talk about what we did within it. 

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah, so that really caught my eye and I have been dying to ask you. So what helps make a space feel safer for victims? 

So I think it depends a little bit based on the trauma, right?

And I'm not a psychologist, so I don't pretend to play one on tv. But what I try to do is create spaces that are calming to the nervous system that kind of create space for that mental load that you feel sometimes. And so how I do that generally in more spaces that are universal, it's a little different when I'm talking to.

A residential client. Right. That's been through trauma and 

Right. 

Is working through that because I can talk about their specific triggers, their specific concerns, and we walk 'em through it a little bit differently. 'cause I'll have something I've had where someone who's been in the military and certain sounds or certain smells or certain colors, oh, it reminds them of a naval shipyard and they don't want those color grays and it's just triggering every time they go in it or.

Oh. 

Um, sometimes someone has had a, a physical abuse and in those spaces it was a certain color when those happened. Mm-hmm. So sometimes it's, it's very different in residential. So we steer clear of certain things. We, and, and it's annoying of yourself that you have to start with. Like, what actually is my trigger?

Yeah. What reminds me of things that I don. I don't find joy in, there was one person recently that I actually heard of who, uh, she was triggered by the temperature of the space. Like there was something about a certain warmth, uh, that was very triggering for her. You know, who knows? Uh, there's so many different triggers, but when we're talking generally and in the more commercial spaces that I did for.

Sex trafficking victims and for the homeless shelter. 

Mm-hmm. 

I tried to pick colors that were calming. 

Mm-hmm. 

Um, and those are more, well, uh, they're all different types of colors, but when I, I say general, if you wanna be safe, pick things, you're gonna see in nature in soft, muted tones of those. So a soft, a soft green, um, creams.

And then adding in more natural elements, so wood tones, real stone linen fabrics, fabrics that are more natural and less synthetic. We also like to PR if we can in a space, bring in light as much as possible. 

Yeah. 

So that's really soothing for. For people, um, plants when possible. I'd love to incorporate that.

It's a little harder in commercial spaces 'cause then you have to have people maintain those plants. Yes. 

Right. 

But sometimes you can still evoke the same feelings of having green in your space through artwork, through mm-hmm. Foam plants. If you really don't have the option of real, obviously reel's always my favorite, but 

mm-hmm.

We did a. A bathroom that I would say it was very biophilic, uh, in, in nature in the sense that it's has a lot of nature brought into it. And they had no windows. Mm. And no way to have actual plants. But we did a lot of artwork around it. Earth tones, wood tones. Even though it was tile, it looked like wood.

And so there's ways to kind of trick, trick the mind a little bit to have it be calming. And soothing. 

Mm-hmm. 

But not actually have all of those features. But that's generally how I try to incorporate a more calming environment for people. 

That's cool. That makes total sense to kind of emulate nature. And then I love too, how you said, so I don't know what the deal is, but I kill plants.

I can't, it's like a joke in my family. And so I love the idea of like putting a. Painting up of a plant if you are like me. Yeah. Or if you're in a commercial space and you can't upkeep the plant, that's a really good idea. I do know too, I can sense that like when I have more natural types of things in the environment, like wood.

So I have this little wood tray where I put like pine cones and stuff in the winter. Yeah. And like that feels so soothing and so much so that when I put away the Christmas stuff, which I was sad to do, I left that wood tray out and I'm like, I don't know what I'm gonna put in there next, but I'm gonna put something in there because that just feels good to have that out there because I am.

Such a nature lover, and when I go out and speak, I talk a lot about how I really leaned into nature to help me heal. So yeah, I'm just always like, okay, I. How can I bring into my space even more nature? Are there any other creative ways where people have brought in more types of nature? Feel like you mentioned having a tile that looks like wood.

That's super cool. 

Yeah, it looked just like wood plank flooring, but it was tile. Mm-hmm. And that helped. You know, one thing I see sometimes is, you know, if people have. Especially when there's trauma, uh, they wanna protect the windows, like have everything really heavily closed in and things like that.

Mm-hmm. 

Where there's ways around it where you can have like say bamboo blinds, so you can't see in through them, but it filters in some, some light even if they're closed. 

Yes. 

As some visual elements and warmth to the space. Even though it's not exactly it, it still provides privacy, but brings in natural.

Textures and wood and then put like a sheer curtain for even more eventually. Yeah. If you feel like you need a couple layers of privacy 

mm-hmm. 

Uh, but if you're in a space where privacy isn't really your first concern, you know, like my house is pretty well set back off the road, especially in the summer when the trees fill.

Mm. Nice. 

I don't even, most of my house does not have curtains. I only wanna 

know. Oh, nice. 

Yeah. 

That's so cool. I wish I lived in a place where I could do that. 'cause I love light. Like that's my, yeah. Oxygen.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm the same way. I have to have light and like even I'm in my kitchen right now and I, there's.

Four windows and then a door. Door and multiple windows behind there. I feel like I'm in a snow globe. It's snowing right now. My gosh. So just everywhere around me is light. Light in snow. Oh my. Yeah. And that sounds beautiful. I love that. It's so invigorating to me. And, um, I'm also an artist and in my art room, I sit right in front of a window because I'm like, I just need the sunlight to be on me as I'm painting.

It just 

inspires me. Definitely inspires 

me so much. 

Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. So that's cool that you do artwork too. So you're very, very creative and I, I love all of your ideas. What about things that we can add into the space that's not actually like flooring or pictures or whatever? Like I know for myself candles, so.

Especially right now at, at the time of this recording, it's January and the news cycle is insane and the world feels like it's falling apart. So lately I've been like, okay, how can I like make my space even more like comforting and nourishing? You know, I have maybe a candle that I'll light at night, but I'm like finding myself.

Bringing a candle to my desk and like lighting a candle at my desk. Does that make sense? 

Yeah. Yeah. Lighting plays a huge factor in our emotions. I, at least in mine, I can say, you know, even the type of color of your light bulbs Yes. Can evoke a lot of different feelings. They actually have light bulbs, and I don't wanna speak like an expert on this because I just actually am starting to learn about it, but there's light bulbs that change.

Throughout the day with circadian rhythms. Yes. Like the colors and tones of them. Right. A friend of mine just got a, got that and I was at her house and it was so interesting 'cause it really did like help get the mood into like a calming presence right at the end of the day. So there's things like that that can be really helpful.

Adding a lot of lower lighting. I love things that are a little less shocking. So yes, sometimes I'll say it might be as easy as just put dimmer switches on. 

Yes, 

the 

lights, 

oh my gosh. I drive my husband crazy with those. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. Because he'll wake up and he is like, it's morning and he flips everything on.

I'm like, ah, my system can't take that. So like, I always dim it down and he is like, I can't see, 

actually, I, I'm a designer and you're giving me idea because that's always. A, a bone of contention in our house. My husband always, our bedroom one is not dimmable and he always flicks it right on in the morning, like, oh God, you hate me.

Like, that's how I start the morning. Like, I don't, it's too bright. Why? 

Yeah. 

And he pulls all the blinds up and I'm like, whoa, whoa. Oh, that's, I have to be slowly brought into the world of light once I get there. I love it. But 

yeah, totally. 

A little bit of, yeah, so that's, that's light definitely plays a role.

A lot of people find comfort in lower. Um, mood lighting versus overhead lighting. Uh, I know that's a big emotional, gives an emotional response as well, so. 

Mm-hmm. 

That might be worth considering. 

And by that you mean like a lamp versus like flipping on the overhead light? Right, 

exactly. Like a floor lamp or a table lamp, uhhuh.

And then there's also things like. I know it sounds little, but getting really soft throw blankets. 

Oh yes. Oh my gosh. I was gonna say that too. I am like a weirdo right now about soft blankets. Like I have one by my bed. I have one in the living room. I'm just like, really need that. 

Me too. And even, even to the point of I have cute throw blankets.

That are not cozy. And so I was like, I'm going out to getting cozy blankets. My husband's like, we need no more blankets. Right. And I was like, I do. And I smuggle 'em into 'em when I'm working a lot and I just need to be warm. So that to me, I think is really great. Even if you don't like the luck, get a couple that are cozy and, and tuck 'em away when you're not using it.

And, but you can find plenty. They're cute and soft, so. Oh, for 

sure. Yeah. Nowadays I feel like we can, 

yeah, exactly.

And now a quick add. Did you know through my company, women Aware and Prepared, I share keynotes and workshops focused on prevention and healing, helping people live safer with more peace. I've been invited to speak at universities, school counselor conferences, the Institute on Violence Abuse and Trauma Crisis Centers, social Work Conferences, junior High and High Schools, women's gatherings.

Employee resource groups and many more. My talks focus on following and acting on our intuition, setting healthy boundaries, and using self-defense as a tool for empowerment. Sharing also my complex PTSD survivor journey sharing how I healed from that, so helping victims and survivors gain their power back with actionable strategies and real resources.

If your organization is looking for a speaker who brings both inspiration and transformation, visit aware and prepared life or message me on Instagram or LinkedIn. You'll find the links in the show notes. Let's live safer with more peace for brighter futures. 

The other thing I recommend to people who are trying to create spaces that they are excited about or comforted to be in, and this is probably because I'm a storyteller.

But I recommend creating, uh, buying things or building things in your spaces that tell a story. And by that mean, I don't mean that it needs to be the most expensive thing necessarily, but what I do mean is that you create new memories around the things that fill your house up. So I don't care if it's, you know, I go out and pick flowers and dry them and have them in a vase, but I did it with a friend that I really like.

It was a beautiful exploration in the woods, or, 

yeah. 

I grabbed a dresser alongside the road that was. Free. 'cause I, I have this old one, but it reminds me of this really tough season of my life that I bought with X, Y, or Z, that I literally just left a design job today where she was so someone left her.

She has a lot of rough memories around that relationship in the house. So it's like I just need to get my mind clear of the things that we did together and create new things in my space that I enjoy. 

Mm-hmm. 

And so I think there's. A lot to be said about that from a, probably from a trauma, um, perspective as well.

If there are things that are surrounding you that spark those memories, why not start building as you have the means. 

Mm-hmm. 

And a lot of times it can be free. I mean, if you look for free things on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace or 

mm-hmm. 

The side of the road and then paint it yourself, there's pride in that.

You know, it's very fulfilling. Redoing something, even if it's not perfect, especially when it's free. It's a good place to, yeah. Just give that creativity a try. And if you hate it, you hate it, you know? True. But at least there'll be pride in I tried it, you know? 

Yes. 

And then I'm always about community. I mean, that's the key of a lot of the reasons why I do what I do.

It's not to have keep up with the Joneses, but it's to create spaces where people are like really proud to be there, really excited to invite someone into. Mm-hmm. And that could be very simple with artwork from around the. Town that they've collected because they love their little town. 

Mm-hmm. 

Or it could be bright, bold wallpapers and colors inspired by something they saw in Paris, you know?

Mm-hmm. It's just, you wanna have spaces that you are eager to have people in, because how do we get through the hardest seasons of life? And through rough moments? It's through community, right? Mm-hmm. And that's how we'll thrive. So I really try to encourage people to create a space. You wanna come home and say, Hey friends, stop by anytime.

Just stop by. 

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Love to have you. So, Hmm, 

that's interesting. Yeah. Thinking about color, maybe I'm not speaking for everybody, but I know that for myself, like it feels like white is calming or like light colors white. So like in my office right now, you can't see the whole thing, but everything's white.

And then I have some like light gray accents and the curtains are gray, but like at what point do you. Add color or like how do you, I guess, how do you incorporate color? When you feel like you have a lot on, like a lot of trauma in your past or you have like a lot of mental load, but you need color, like how, what's the safe way to start adding that in?

Because like, I know when I walk into like a wall that's color like bright red or like bright orange, it's like, ah, like it's a little bit too much, but like, so I'm not gonna go like paint the whole wall like bright red or something. But how do you. How do you test that out, I guess? 

Yeah, so there's a couple things to keep in mind.

Number one, uh, this is kind of why I step people through color a little bit. And again, at the design consult, even just today, it's just fresh on my mind. We had to talk about this. She has everything, very white, gray cream, just 

like me. Yeah. 

Yeah. And she said, someone came in my house and they told me it looks like I own a, I'm living in a, a doctor's office lobby.

Yeah. And I was like, okay, that's fair enough. And she said the same thing, like, how do I know what color? How do I know what to incorporate with color? So what I encouraged her to do, and I encourage you to do, is take some time knowing yourself and going, Hey, when I'm out and about at this art gallery, or this friend's home, or at this restaurant, what do I love about it?

So it might be you start with an inspirational art piece. And you work from there. Or it could be like, I love this rug. This rug is, and, and this is me. I just love a good rug. I can build a whole room off a rug, so that's 

awesome. 

Maybe just start with a rug that's a little outside of the box of what color you're typically used to using.

Especially if all your walls are white and gray. I mean, you probably have a good chance that you could pull in most colors. 

Mm-hmm. 

And so I, I enc, I encourage, find something that inspires you. That's. A statement piece in the room, not something too small, but a statement piece, and then build everything up from there.

Mm-hmm. Interesting. 

That tends to be the. Way that it comes together the best. And then where I see some of them, um, I don't wanna say mistakes 'cause it's everyone's houses. They can do what they want, but it doesn't flow as well when each room is disjointed in that color. So I would say if you find a large painting that has mostly.

Burnt coral and mustard, then your accents throughout all the other spaces. If you're gonna incorporate on the first floor a color, it has something with that in it. A little bit of mustard or a little burnt coral, right? 'cause that will make the first floor feel cohesive. Mm-hmm. And thought out versus just, I like this, but I don't know what I, my style really is, you know?

Mm-hmm. 

Mm-hmm. So, for instance, by first floor, my kitchen cabinets are dark teal, almost hunter green teal. 

Mm-hmm. 

But then my couch, my sectional, my mid-century modern couch. The next room over is dark teal. Hmm. And so dark teal Navy creams, um, and whites, they kind of go through all my spaces with brass accents.

Brass and wood accents. 

Mm-hmm. 

So it feels intentional even though they're all very different. I mean, I have a mid-century modern couch, but, and then I have an old 18 hundreds farmhouse, so, but I pull it together through the color. 

That's so cool. 

Yeah. 

So like what are some good examples of like a statement piece?

So like if my office is all white and gray, is it a rug? And where do you suggest, like what is the. What are some of your favorite places to find for people? To find their own rug? 

Yeah, if you like, like let's say you have pets. I really love, yes. Machine washable, 

yesable 

rugs, even on an Amazon. Amazon has a really good, a really good grouping of.

Machine and the, and the pricing's great. So if you feel like, oh, I brought it in and it was $150 and I don't like it. 

Mm. 

Um, it's no big deal. I mean, I'm a, I'm a designer and I, I could get a lot of different rugs and most of my house has Amazon machine washable, loyal. Polio rugs. And so it's because I have two, two dogs.

Three 

cats, 

yes. Yeah. 

And eight chickens. 

Oh gosh. 

Yeah. So you just never know what's gonna be on my rug. 

Right. 

And I don't wanna spend $2,000. I wanna change it out frequently and be inspired differently throughout different seasons. And as I've redone even furniture over the years, because I started out as a furniture repurposing company 14 years ago.

That's all I did. I didn't do design, I didn't do kitchen cabinet painting. I looked through those seasons of my life. In parallel to the colors I chose for the furniture. And you can kind of see why like when it was a more stressful, deep, like heavy season, I did a lot of the darker tones. And when I was like, oh, fresh new ideas, it was lighter, brighter, more bold color choices, chartreuse, bright teal, like, you know, just kind of interesting.

And I didn't even know it was happening at the moment, but that's how much color can really, for me at least, show out. Show show an art in an artistic way. But I think. It can reflect in our homes, and so I tend to be. Like more of a bubbly, joyful, like, I like colors, I like to be a little excited when I walk into a space.

Mm-hmm. 

Some of my favorite, um, restaurants have a mixture of like herringbone floors, dark deep teal velvet curtains, um, leather accents mixed with. Bright floral wallpaper. Now, that's not everybody's cup of tea, but 

no, 

if I could pull that off in my house, I would, but it's because I took time to to go, Hey, what do I actually like?

Yeah. 

What? How do I feel when I walk in here? And so I think that's an exercise that sometimes we skip over in life, but also in design, you know? 

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Taking time to know ourselves in the spaces. 

Yeah. That's cool. What colors would you say are more grounded and nourishing? 

I would say more of the earth tones.

Like if you were to go with more sage or that a deeper kind of almost country blue or like a moss color or a beige. Um, and I think we're coming probably out of, I think you're gonna see we're coming out of gray a bit more, which is. I like gray too. I actually lean a little more towards gray than beige.

But the way that beige is being incorporated into spaces, um, I think you're gonna see it more and more. And right now, grandma Chic is what I'm seeing come back, which I know sounds crazy, but 

what's that 

like? It's what you kind of picture your grandma's house like wallpaper with kind of like sometimes it has patterned fabrics.

It's a lot of pattern on pattern uhhuh. It's a little roughly here or there. It's eclectic and style where it's, you know, people want their personalities to show, they don't want it to feel like a, a doctor's office lobby. Yeah. So I think that's what you're gonna see trending more and more. A friend of mine just came back from a.

Big market that you retailers go to to order like a year in advance. And she's like, grandma Chic everywhere. I'm like, yeah, yeah. I had a feeling that was coming. So I think you'll see that, uh, probably more burgundies. Um. Hunter greens, deeper tones, all of those things you'll, you'll see and, and I feel have a ground pretty grounding effect.

But again, everybody's different in the sense of, like, some people find it very grounding and peaceful to just have mostly white with some wood tones. Mm-hmm. Uh, a lot, a big portion of my clients, that's what they would say. 

Mm-hmm. 

And then there's others who, like, I went to a house that I thought was beautiful last week.

She has a good eye. She really, it's not like she has a bad design style, but she. Felt like everything was too light and that wasn't soothing for her. So now she's deepening all the colors, burgundy wallpaper, making the room feel smaller to make it feel like she's cozy and snuggled in, versus this big abyss of white with some accents.

So I think she knew her personality and knew how it made her feel, and that that's, she kept going, I'm so sorry. I'm opinionated. And I said, don't be sorry. This is like the best I, I need to know how you help. It's probably helpful 

for you. 

Exactly. It is. It is. It's so helpful for me to know how certain things make people feel, so, 

mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I love all those, all those ideas. So I'm gonna be a little more bold and try to bring some color into my office. That was my goal. Um, I might do a little test in the bathroom first. I have some really cool art pieces in the bathroom, and they have some like blue and some gold, so I was like, okay, I'm gonna test it out and try to bring that in.

Yep. Bring like a blue rug. Maybe some gold, yeah. Accents. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

But the other thing that is more and more trendy that I think you're gonna find is that you could do peel and stick wallpaper. Mm-hmm. And the risk is so little. If you don't like it, you just peel it back off in two years. Mm-hmm. 

But 

you could easily add a pop of design or color and then pull from there with that.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Interesting. So if you, maybe you don't have an art piece that you like, you could pick out some wallpaper like that and go from there. Yeah. Yeah. 

Spoonflower has quite a few really nice patterned wallpaper that you could check out. 

Cool. That's really cool. What if you are staying in a space that you know you're not gonna be in?

So could you bring in your own, like what is, I guess what I'm asking is what is um, temporary? Like, obviously if you're gonna be living in somebody's house, you can't like, redo the floor in your space or whatever. 

Well peel and stick wallpaper, that's temporary and that's why so many apartment dwellers love it.

Right. Is they can create a very unique look and style of their own without feeling like they are damaging anything. Um, if it's a bedroom, I say start from the comforter and work out. I mean, I find comforters to be really hard to find ones that I really like and have natural fibers and the right tones and colors, so.

Usually, a lot of times I'll start with the most difficult thing in a space and then design backwards from there. Um, so often it's the, in a bedroom, it's the comforter or the rug. So those things can go with you wherever you are. Mm-hmm. I mean, I don't recommend spending a lot on a rug If you're an apartment, if you think the, an apartment isn't gonna be your long-term.

Mm-hmm. 

Stay. 

Mm-hmm. 

But yeah, rugs and, and carpets and or rugs and comforters and even window treatments. All those things can, 

that's cool. And at what point do you know that you, if you wanted to try a change, like if you've had, you've lived in the same space for so long and you wanna like do something completely different, which room might you start in and what would be like the easiest way to begin Without spending too much?

If you are a person who has people over a lot, I would start with your kitchen. 'cause that tends to be where people congregate the most. I, I know, and I'm not trying to say it even to be salesy for myself, but it's often very helpful just even if you do a one hour consult with a designer, even if it's virtual like me, or if it's someone local that you have that near you.

Mm-hmm. 

That's fine too. But. They'll often have a lot of ideas that you'll never have thought of. Yeah. That can be really cost effective. Yeah. And can brighten up the space. 

Yeah. 

Even today she was like, oh, I would've never thought of that. Oh, I would've never, you know, and, and a lot of it was like, let's move this rug from one room to the other.

It wasn't even like I was telling her to spend a lot of money. It was just, this is too big for this room. Your rug in here is too small for that one. So we, we switched it up. But if you're, if you're talking about in a kitchen, if you. Aren't gonna be there long term. Like I always say, if you're a homeowner, paint the cabinets because it'll really change the look of it.

Um, 

so they're not just white or whatever. 

Yeah. Brown. Yeah. Have it have texture or have it be a color that you really enjoy. Um, and then there's, even now they have this new product where instead of adhesive and grout, you can, it's like a tape that goes over your current tile and you could stick new tile on top of it, which it's just a good.

Temporary fix if you're not gonna be somewhere long. 

Yeah. 

And you have really ugly backsplash or some people wallpaper it just for a little bit. Like it's not, it's not a great long-term solution, but it will hide an ugly backsplash in a heartbeat. 

Mm-hmm. 

Um, so steps like that can change it up. Um, new hardware where you, you can go on Amazon and get.

New knobs that are pretty inexpensive. Save the old ones that go back on when your landlord wants to take it back. Yeah. But, 

right. 

Add some character, add some color. 

Uhhuh, 

every time you grab that, you're gonna feel like, oh, this feels, this feels nice, this feels different. 

Right. 

And then figure out something that would be the focal point of, of the community bringing people, the gathering of bringing people together.

So for, in my, for instance, in my kitchen, I have a latte machine. 

Fun. 

Everybody loves it, you know, and so when I have a party, we're, we're gathering around that and making lattes and having a good conversation. So that's, that's how I would start in a kitchen. 

Yeah. Oh, that's a good idea. Thank you. I feel like I could talk to you for forever.

I'm asking you all these questions. So you do offer virtual consultations? 

Yeah, I do virtual design consults on our website, which is fun cycle.com if people need that. Cool. 

How does that work? Like do you just get on a Zoom call and then you, I'm like showing you around and all of that stuff? 

Yeah, it can work a couple different ways.

Sometimes people like to send me like their drawings of the space, pictures of the space ahead of time. And then they want more like product selection, but more times than not. I'm literally on a Zoom call like this. 

Yeah. 

And or a FaceTime call and they're walking me around the space and saying, does this work over here?

I was thinking about these three wall colors. Which one do you like better? Uhhuh. And I'm like looking at the swatches on, on my side, going, uh, I think based on your lighting we should go this. Let's move this over here. Mm-hmm. Um. And some product selection, selection, while I'm there Will, so I can just say, Hey, measure this one spot.

Let's think about this size rug. And 

yeah, 

it's the same, it's very similar to if I'm in person, except for they're, they're doing the measuring 

Yeah. 

Necessary and then ordering for themselves mm-hmm. Instead of me ordering for them, but 

mm-hmm. 

Um, outside of that, yeah. It's, it's very, very similar to me sitting at, oh.

At a table with you having coffee and chatting about it. 

How fun. That's cool. 

Yeah, 

I'll definitely drop that into the show notes for people who are interested. And are there any last thoughts that you wanna share with us about trauma informed spaces? Like for instance, how can a therapist even make their room more?

Feeling safe and comfy for the people who are coming in. 

Yeah, I think, uh, all of those things that I talked about as far as like biophilic, there's something I talk about a lot with non-for-profits, in particular in the, and it's more of this thing called a dignified design. And by dignified design I just mean when someone who's hurting walks into a space.

The space itself says, we thought of you. You are worthy of being here. You're worthy of love. You're worthy of things that you probably don't think you are worthy of, and we care. And typically non-for-profits, what I see is they're so good at what they're passionate about. There's a reason why they started what they started, right.

And so I watched that and they're so good at their services, but then you walk into a space and you're like, ah, like I talked to this one where it was, um, for women with cancer and they would help them with wigs and prosthetics and, uh, but. When I talk to the not-for-profit, they're like, oh, it's just basically a, a closet that we meet them in.

There's like, no, oh, 

gosh, 

artwork, or, and I'm like, Ooh. So that's the thing. We've gotta, you want the people who walk in those spaces to feel like you, you care. They've been thought of, they're valued. It's important to them. And so the question that typically comes back in those spaces and, and often pro probably people who are in traumatic environments that have just left, is, well, we don't have the budget, you know.

With the non-for-profits. I, I say, and I'm really passionate about this, I've been talking about it a lot on podcasts this year, is there's got to be a way, and I believe, I know the way to make it happen is, yes, you may pay an interior designer. So for instance, uh, well I did, I did both projects actually pro bono for the.

Yeah. Um, the homeless shelter and for the sex trafficking, so I didn't even charge, but let's say a designer said I have to charge, which I totally understand. Pay, uh, budgeting in for a designer to create design boards, which is what we did. Then you can help the donors see why you need something in a space.

Say, Hey, look, this, this room needs to be welcoming when the homeless victim, right? Or when, when the homeless people come into it, 

right? 

And then they say, Hey, here's this design board. Would you be willing to either give us X amount of money towards it? It's gonna cost this much. 'cause now we know the design, we know how much it's gonna cost.

Or you can link it to Amazon. Shopping lists. Oh, right. And have it shipped right to the non-for-profit. So like I know if maybe I don't have 500 thou $500 to donate, but I can say, oh, I can get the soap dispensers, that's 20 bucks. Lemme have it shipped to you. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it automatically goes to them.

So that's a way where the community's coming together. And then a lot of times if a designer has created a space that's half the battle for a contractor, and you could say to a contractor. Would you be willing, if we got all the product donated, would you be willing to donate two days of your time to make this happen?

And it's a write off, you know? Mm-hmm. So it's things like that where we have to think creatively if we wanna help in our communities, and if we wanna help the, the herding in, in a way that is affected by design. Mm-hmm. Because it tends to be the thing that gets a little overlooked in my, in my experience at least.

Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. Thanks for giving actionable tips on that. I know too, when, just thinking about walking into a therapist's office, so I've been in a couple and I know that having a lamp makes a big difference versus overhead light. Um, having a blanket. Having Kleenex handy. And you're actually, what you were saying about having a latte maker in your kitchen, how, what a good idea would that be like in a therapist's room, you know?

Oh my gosh, yeah. Like even in their lobby or actually in the vet office I was just in for my cat. Um, they had. A little, um, like Keurig machine or whatever, and I was like, oh my gosh. Like, that's such a good idea. It's comforting. Like it feels more like home or something. 

Or even like a little mini fridge with water bottles, like mini water bottles.

Yeah. Or you know, the car dealerships do it. Can't we do it in therapy? Yeah, I 

know, right. 

And honestly, I've been, I go to therapy, you know, I have for years. I'm a huge therapy proponent. But 

yeah, 

both of them ugly. The, the rooms are the worst. Like it cr I cringe. And, but one of my favorite things is one of them used to bring their dog in and I Such a comfort.

Yes. 

I just love seeing her every single time. Yes. I was like, come here, you let me love on you. Right. 

Totally. 

It's so great. So for me, an but for me, animals are very comforting. Me. Like people, people who aren't comforted by an animals, I don't understand, you know? Yeah. So I just, I love that. So, 

totally.

Wouldn't that be cool if there was a therapist that was known for like, I'm a crazy dog lady. Like, when you come here, my dog's gonna be here. There's like pillows with dogs on them and there's like, you could even niche yourself into that. 

There's gotta be someone who does that. There's just, 

I'm sure there is.

I'm sure there is. 

But my business group, there's a business, uh, leader coach who she does all her coaching with horses. 

Yeah. 

So I'm like, if they do with with horses, they probably do it with dogs somewhere. 

Totally, totally. Yeah. And I mean the equine, equine therapy is definitely a thing. Like I have a friend who goes to therapy and they work with the horse and talk through the therapy.

So yeah, everybody should have, I mean, I guess some people would be allergic to. Dogs. But I guess maybe that wouldn't be the therapist for them. I dunno. There's lots of options. I 

like your, I like your thought process. I agree with you. But I dunno, I dunno. 

Um, anyway, so, yeah. Well I feel like we've had a, a great conversation and there's lots of really helpful things for the audience listening.

So. Thank you so much. Is there anything else that you wanna add? And of course, let us know where we can find you. Like are you on social media? 

Yeah, I would just say, you know, create beautiful spaces that you're proud to have a community in. And, uh, the redemptive beauty of taking something broken and making it beautiful, like every furniture piece, every room, every soul.

It's just very soul filling. Um 

mm-hmm. 

And so that's why I love doing what I do. 

Awesome. And for those who are homebodies who don't really have a lot of people over, just I guess making sure that you feel comfy in your space and maybe like you make your bedroom extra comfy. 'cause nobody's really going in there, so knock yourself out.

Like if you have a a cozy blanket, that's Spider-Man or something, who cares? Nobody will see it. Right? I don't know. If you're a mom, you might have that. 

That's something we didn't, I didn't really touch on too much, was just like creating sacred spaces for yourself. 'cause I think every home should have that, even spaces that no one will be in, where you can have your quiet cup of tea in the morning or pray or meditate and just read and relax and not have it be cluttered or, um, chaotic in any way.

Uh, yeah, and that is really peaceful and good for the mind. Mm. 

Mm-hmm. Definitely. 

So if you are more of an introvert and the idea of having people over, see, I'm speaking as an extrovert, so you know, I'm like another party. But, um, if you're more of an introvert Yeah. Create those sacred spaces that bring you peace at home and you're excited to come home to the peace versus like, oh, it's a mess.

Ugh, I hate how it looks. Ugh. You should want it to look and feel good to you. 

Mm-hmm. 

Just from a peace in your own heart and mind perspective. 

And another thing real quick too, is some people like lots of little tchotchkes and stuff and then some people are like minimalists, like, ah. And so it's important to make sure that when you're in the same space, you're living in the same space that you, you know, make sure to.

You know, everybody's shared what they like and don't like and like I know for myself, for example, both of us, we live in a very small space, so we downsized and we are in the condo right now and the main area is very open. And so, um, we try to keep it picked up, you know, and it really bothers both of us when it's not, I think it's important, I think it's important for everybody to have some type of organized space, like especially on your desk and like some people are not organized, but at.

They know where their unorganized mess is or something. 

Yeah. Well, if that's your personality. Well, and even if it's not your personality you pro, I bet you it would bring more comfort and peace, even though you don't think you need it. So, for instance, if my first floor is messy, I, I really struggle to relax.

Like I cannot unplug. So my first floor pla stays pretty, I'm not sure it's deep clean, but it's cluttered free. Uh, but my bedroom, I don't care at all. I don't care at all if my bedroom's messy. Um, I know some people would be like, the bed has to be made every day. I am like, let it air. That's me. 

That's me.

Yeah. I don't care. I don't care if my bed's made. That's funny. 

Yeah. 

But don't leave stuff downstairs or, so help me, like I'm gonna pick it all up before we leave the house. So. Um, just knowing what, what triggers, what re response in you and why, and so yeah. And, and working together. 

Yeah. And maybe building that into a routine, like mm-hmm.

Um, you know, when we're done with dinner, just everybody pick up your own stuff and put it away or something. Right. 

And for a while, like even I have kids and I would say like, Hey, you're home from school. Our new rhythm is gonna be for now every 20 minutes after school, we're gonna race and see who can clean one spot completely.

Like purge what you don't need, organize what you do. And within a couple weeks of doing that, you'll have your whole house organized. I mean, it doesn't take long. It really doesn't take long to organize. Yeah. Once you just get it done, somebody said, you'll, you'll take as long as you give yourself to do anything.

So that's true. If you're gonna write a book and you say, I'm gonna write a book in three years, it's gonna take you three years. Right. But if you say, I'm gonna write a book in three months, you can do it. You can write a book in three months. 

Right. 

So I find that the same in in anything in life, especially.

Decluttering and organizing. It's like, just give yourself a time limit. Hustle hard. We work hard so we can play hard. That's our motto in our house. So whatever we're gonna do, we're gonna work hard so then we can enjoy life and play hard,

Cool. Awesome. Well thank you so much for being here and for your expertise. 

Uh, thanks for having me. 

Are you on social media? 

Yes, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, those and Pinterest on Fun Cycled. 

Okay, awesome.

Any of those. And then fun cycle.com. We have a blog you can sign up for, um, or fun cycled slash free. I did some A PDF of some free of like my favorite design tips that, uh, bring nice things into the space for you so people could check that out too. 

Sweet. I will definitely check that out when we get off.

Thank you so much Sarah. 

Thanks for having me, Mandy. 

Sure.

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