How Sarah Trop Turns Old Homes and Heirlooms into Sustainable Beauty

What if the most powerful design choice isn’t “new,” but “true”? We sit with HGTV’s Flea Market Flip champion and Funcycled founder, Sarah Trop, to explore how story, sustainability, and craft can elevate everyday spaces without erasing their past. From turning a roll-top desk into a showstopping bar to flipping arched cabinet doors for a shaker look, Sarah shows why preserving good bones often beats a full gut—and how a smart “kitchen facelift” can save serious money while keeping character intact.

We unpack her journey from nap-time furniture repaints to a full-service studio and storefront, fueled by a faith-rooted, trauma-informed approach. Sarah reveals how she sells bold visions to clients who can’t “see” the final room yet, using AI tools like Midjourney alongside SketchUp and CAD to quickly communicate mood, proportion, and flow. We dig into the materials that matter—low VOC, water-based lacquers for durability without toxicity—and the sourcing strategies that transform heirlooms into modern anchors. Expect candid stories from HGTV’s pressure cooker, the art of selling with narrative, and the craftsmanship behind upcycling that feels intentional, not improvised.

We also get real about building a business and a life. Sarah shares lessons from Entrepreneurs’ Organization on scaling, cash, and leadership—and the life-wheel exercise that prompted a radical health reset. Travel threads it all together, from Budapest rooftops to Parisian doors, inspiring palettes, patterns, and finishes that translate into timeless rooms. If you care about historic preservation, sustainable design, and client-first storytelling, this conversation will give you practical tactics and fresh courage to keep the soul in your spaces.

If this resonates, follow and subscribe for more thoughtful design talks. Share with a friend who’s deciding between gut and keep-the-bones, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Sarah Trapp and Funcycled
• 2:17 Upcycling Roots to Full-Service Design
• 6:00 Craft, Story, and the Heirloom Bar
• 10:40 Scaling Up: From DIY to Team
• 13:50 Winning HGTV and Selling with Story
• 19:40 Designing for Visual Thinkers with AI
• 25:30 Sustainability Without Compromise
• 29:30 Kitchens: Facelifts vs Full Gut
• 34:30 Sourcing, Tools, and Tough Restorations
• 39:00 Family Business and Design Influences
• 44:00 Travel as Design Fuel
• 48:30 Process: From One-Hour Consults to Builds
• 53:30 Business Growth, EO, and Life Balance
• 59:00 Historic Codes, Preservation, and Tradeoffs

Transcript

Voice Over: 0:00

This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design. Curator of interiors, furnishings, and lifestyles. Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott. iDesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast, where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends. Today, on the iDesign Lab, we're joined by Sarah Trop, an award-winning interior designer, global travel blogger, and HGTV's flea market flip champion. She's the founder of Funcycled, known for transforming historic homes and upcycled pieces into soulful, sustainable designs. Featured in Country Living and House Beautiful, Sarah brings a faith-rooted, trauma-informed approach to design that helps people uncover beauty in the old, bring peace to their spaces, and live with greater purpose.

Tiffany Woolley: 1:05

What a fun name. How did you come up with your name? But before that, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Sarah Trop: 1:12

Well, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I was so excited to be here. Uh my name is Sarah Trop, yeah, of Fun Cycled. And when I was thinking about starting a business, I knew I would want it to be something that we had fun in as a family and that we upcycled because we cared a lot about recycling even before it was cool. Wow. Yeah, yeah. My husband was the guy who we'd go on family vacation and he would bring home a bag of recycled things that needed to be recycled in New York that wouldn't be recycled in other states. So we were that family. Um yeah, yeah. So that's why I went with Fun Cycled because it would be upcycling and having fun while we did it. But a lot of times people ask me if I redo bikes, and I'm like, no, it's not a bike job.

Speaker 3: 1:57

That's not what we do.

Tiffany Woolley: 2:00

Yeah. So, like, obviously, fun cycled has shifted or evolved into a design business, and a design has lots of design philosophies. So tell us what defines fun cycled.

Sarah Trop: 2:17

Yeah, so we started as a furniture repurposing company actually in 2012. And I would just redo old furniture and upcycle it and then teach people how to redo things themselves on our website, on our blog. And over the years it has evolved. We started doing kitchen cabinet painting and light feet slifts because we found you can repurpose so much and still give yourself a brand new kitchen at a fraction of the price. So it's upcycling and reuse, which was were it was important to our core values. And then as I was delivering furniture with my husband, uh, we would people would say, Oh, Sarah, can you help me design this space? And I would always say, No, I'm not really a designer. I design things that I paint and create, but I'm not really a designer. And fast forward, we went on uh flea market flip, and and when we were on that show, it it prompted us to get a storefront. And when we had still Yeah, because we use we we use the money from that show to get a storefront. So when we were at we had our own storefront, people kept coming in and saying, Oh, why won't you design my house? And I decided I'm just gonna stop saying no. I'm gonna start saying yes, even if I don't feel comfortable. Embrace it. And yes. And I went into the first design client ever, and I said, Ann, why did you pick me to design? Why are why couldn't you just hire any other designer? And she said, Because I know you and I know your heart and your brand, and I know that you'll take something old and make it better, not just replace it. And I thought, oh, that really is what sets me apart from other designers. I really love to take old homes. We have a lot of homes, old homes in upstate New York. Mine is 1802 and Wow. So, you know, kind of redoing and reuse without gutting everything is really important to us. And it's important to me in the sense of the history of the home, in the environment, and in the storytelling of our clients. So that's just what I did with her. I kept good bones in her house, and then I updated room by room, and now I've redone, I think I'm done with every single room. I think I just finished, you know, six years later, another room four. I think that's the last one. Yeah.

Scott Woolley: 4:32

So so you started with furniture, correct?

Sarah Trop: 4:35

I did, yeah.

Scott Woolley: 4:36

So refurbishing furniture. So did you actually physically do that work or did you have other craftsmans do that work?

Sarah Trop: 4:45

Oh no, I did it all. So I started in January of 2012 and I had two little kids, a two and a three-year-old, and I just worked every nap that they had. Um I worked every night, usually eight to twelve. I am one of those people that doesn't require a lot of sleep, so I could that's helpful. Yeah, I could put push through, and within four months, so by April of 2012, I was making the same as my job. And so I quit my job and did fun cycle repurposing full-time. About a year and a half after that, my husband John joined me, and that's when we could expand into custom built furniture, kitchen remodels, and uh, you know, what more custom built items.

Scott Woolley: 5:28

But so when you're taking a piece of furniture, you're refinishing the wood, you're reupholstering it?

Sarah Trop: 5:36

Yeah, so we mostly paint, repair, paint, and alter. So for instance, like we had this one project recently where you know those old roll top oak desks that are like orangey, yellow, pretty ugly. Yeah. So we had a design client who was working with them on interior design, but they had one of those, but it was in one one of their family, it was a family heirloom. It was his I believe it was the husband's grandmother's. And they did not want to use it because it was so ugly. And I said, Well, why don't we repurpose it? We found this nook that they had in a sitting room that was five feet wide and about three or four feet deep. We custom took we took the we took the desk and custom built it into that section where it became a bar. So we took the roll tarp section that normally slides down, and we made that the backsplash. We painted it black. We added a copper sink and rinse station and refrigerator. We built in a mini fridge, um, a cooling station for food, hanging wine racks from sections that were taken from the top. So we repurpose every part of the desk, and you wouldn't even know. I mean, it's just so beautiful. So they get to keep that family heirloom, but at the same time, it doesn't look like an old outdated piece of furniture.

Scott Woolley: 6:49

But that's not the we what you're talking about is a real craft.

Sarah Trop: 6:52

Yeah, that's right.

Scott Woolley: 6:53

I mean a real craftsmanship. And the I mean here in South and here in South Florida Trevor Burrus We're not known for craftsmanship. No, and it's difficult to find talented craftsmen that can do those kind of things. We're typically having to go to North Carolina or or California to some companies and people that we know. I mean, what's your background that that taught you or gave you those skills? Because that's quite interesting and skills to have.

Sarah Trop: 7:23

Yeah, so from an artistic standpoint, I was homeschooled from third grade till the end. And back then, you really couldn't be in a lot of things that public school kids could be in, like we couldn't join sports teams, uh at least in New York. I don't know if that's all over the nation, but in New York we couldn't. So my parents poured into whatever art well, no, they let us pick. So we all had different things that we loved. I loved music, so I'm I'm a pianist, but I also loved art. So I actually went to professional painting classes for years with an artist all through high school. And so that's how I learned color theory and how to do artistic finishes. And I could do that on furniture pieces and the repair work, I just Googled the heck out of it. Wow. Learned that as I went, but then my husband joining me helped a lot because he could really customize uh pieces in ways that I could dream it up because I think in pictures, but I don't know that I could do all the carpentry that he does. But he he went to school to be a chef at Johnson and Wales University. Uh-huh. But he paid his way through college working for a master uh craftsman.

Tiffany Woolley: 8:29

So he knows how to do the backgrounds just kind of collided and created such a unique brand. Yeah, I think.

Scott Woolley: 8:37

So you you ended up opening a storefront selling pieces that you were, you know, repairing and restoring?

Sarah Trop: 8:46

Yes. Yep. So it was primarily furniture, some artwork, but primarily furniture. And we would just repurpose and also do custom orders so people would bring in their furniture pieces too. But we had a lot that we would do artistic finishes on of our own, you know, design, and then we would resell it.

Tiffany Woolley: 9:04

So where would you do your sourcing? I mean, obviously upcycled, I know with your flea market flip and everything like that, there's there's I mean that group of sourcing. But do you go to shops? Do you travel? Where do you get the bulk of enough things to fill the shop and keep your inventory? So when I first started, I primarily bought on Craigslist.

Sarah Trop: 9:28

Do you remember Craigslist? Oh. Was that a thing? Uh-huh. Okay. And then after that, Facebook Market Flip. Okay. Yeah. And I did that primarily because I knew the type of items I could sell, and it wasn't, you know, sometimes when you go to a flea market, you kind of just hope you run across something.

Speaker 3: 9:48

Right.

Sarah Trop: 9:48

And not that I don't love a good flea market, but if I'm doing a store, I know I only have a wall this big to be able to fit a piece, so I have to have to be measurement specific. So a lot of that, that was in the beginning days, right? Now that I'm more well known in in the local market, people come to me a lot to ask me if they could donate their furniture, actually. And so then we just started taking donations as they came in, and we had a s uh storage space, and it was always full. We just always people care about the story a lot, so I would share the story of their piece as I redid it. And they didn't want to just throw out their grandmother's table, even if they didn't have space for it anymore. Right. They wanted to know it would go to somebody who could appreciate it. Exactly. And they could say, Yeah, we may make a hundred dollars on Facebook Marketplace with this, but if you take it and redo it, you we know it'll be loved for years to come and cherish by a new family, you know. So that's kind of how we get our pieces now.

Tiffany Woolley: 10:46

What a special philosophy. So are you still doing so much of the craftsmanship yourself with your husband, or do you now have a team that assists you? Yeah, we have a team.

Sarah Trop: 10:57

I I I would say there was a distinct moment I was delivering a hutch. We know the kind of hutches that don't come apart. Right. All one piece. Yeah. The old fashioned story out the exterior staircase that was metal in a in a freezing rain storm in Saratoga. And I was like, what am I doing? Like, I'm doing this business wrong if I am still lugging hutches up exterior stairs. You know. And I got in the car that day and I said to John, I'm done delivering. Like I have to set this off to give this off to someone else. And that became where we started building a team. John's very hands-on still as far as the build process goes. We do have a team with us as well. I'm more on the design side. Right. So I'll more I'll pick out what we want it to look like and how. And a lot of it now we incorporate within design. So I primarily repurpose furniture if they're working with me on design.

Tiffany Woolley: 11:58

So do you feel like now your main focus is design with in including these special heirloom pieces?

Sarah Trop: 12:07

Yes. I would say design is more my focus, even though we remodel about one kitchen a week and we do furniture in addition to that. My focus on this side is running the business and doing the leading the design. And I have two people that work under me as well that do different parts of the design or the marketing for me.

Tiffany Woolley: 12:26

So what a beautiful organic story of the American dream. I I mean, truly. So how did you land on the HGTV?

unknown: 12:41

Okay.

Scott Woolley: 12:41

Flea market flipping. And you were champion of the show?

Sarah Trop: 12:45

We were, yeah. Yeah, so tell us about it. Yeah, sure. The episode's called Happy Flipping Anniversary because the final day was on our actual anniversary. Um But it was it was funny because back in those days, remember how I said I really got no free time because you know, anytime my kids are asleep, I'm working. So I'd have these special like late night movie time or show times with my friend Marcy, who lived nearby. We would put our kids to bed. We would eat brownies and ice cream and watch flea market flip. And she said to me, You need to apply to be on the show. You are so talented. And I said, No, number one, you don't get on a TV show unless you know someone. And number two, if I lose nationally, this is my livelihood. Like you can't go on TV and lose for what I do for a living. Most of the people on that show just do it for fun, you know. And uh she's like, just try. You it's a no if you don't try. So it's another example of people kind of pushing me into a yes and me being so grateful for them, seeing a potential in me that I didn't see it myself. So I find and then I didn't hear anything. And then I six months later they selected me and we went on.

Tiffany Woolley: 13:58

So tell us more about that experience. So you get selected and what's that whole process look like?

Sarah Trop: 14:04

Yeah, so I knew it was a 30-minute show. I didn't know a lot about how it was gonna happen or be recorded, but it ended up being three full days of recording for a 30-minute show. The first day you go in and you buy at a flea market, and the hard part about that is they're recording multiple couples, spirit you partners for the competition. I don't know if you've ever seen the show, but I think there were six of us today, we six different partners, and we were all recording the same day because that makes sense. They want to get it all the recording done at once. Yeah, yeah. But when we did that, we were chosen to be the first team to be recorded. And I had no TV experience other than the Rachel Ray show, which was you know just a quick blurb, but um being on an actual TV show, I was like, what am I doing? And you have to make decisions, you know, you have what the one hour to shop, and it's a literal hour hour. And if you're in recording for a TV show show, you know how much is cut, and so it feels like 10 minutes of shopping because you have to be like, hi, thank you, I'll buy it. Hi, thank you, I'll buy it from different angles, and it's just a really weird experience. And all the other teams, so within that six, the first hour, the team team two is has an hour to shop and figure out what they want before they start recording, but we've had no time to pre-look at anything. So what was your piece? Uh it was three. We did Modern Americana, um, which we took an old um ironing board and a tractor gear, and we welded the gear to stand up on its own and had the ironing board go out with mid-century modern legs to make a coffee table.

Tiffany Woolley: 15:49

Like a statistic coffee table.

Sarah Trop: 15:52

Yeah.

Tiffany Woolley: 15:53

And you had all this vision like on the fly like that.

Sarah Trop: 15:56

It's amazing. I had to just do it on a fly. I didn't have it pre you don't you can't pre-planned because you don't know what you're gonna find, right? I just knew our market was New York City, so it had to be small enough to fit a small apartment, and it had to be multi-functioning as much as it could be. So one of the challenges was a multi-function piece. And so everybody takes a trunk and makes it a coffee table, but we we did a a trunk where it was flipped on its side and it was a coffee table, but then we also had a base for it and it turned into a secretary's desk. So it could either be a coffee table if you have company, or you pop it up and then the front flips down and you can write with on it so it could be two things in one in a small New York City apartment, you know. And then what was the last one? Uh oh, we took uh an old um electric telephone pole base for the subway system, and we added, have you ever seen the small cable spools, vintage cable spools? Yes, where they would wrap cable inside it. We attached that to the top of it, drilled holes all the way around, and had like wine bottles that went in by the neck and hung wine glasses between it. And so it was a stand-up wine bar slash place for people to eat at a, you know, if they had a party or whatever. And so I was so nervous. Like redoing it, I we we were in our wheelhouse. We actually told the c our competition that they could have some of our guys during it because we could tell they were kind of like in over their heads on some of it. And we're like, this is we got this, we got this. So we were felt good about that. But then Cell Day, I was panicking. I'm like, I can't lose on national television. Like, this is so embarrassing. And I called my brother, who's been one of my biggest fans, and uh, I said, Jesse, like, we can't lose on national TV. And he goes, Sarah, you are a storyteller, and every single piece that you bought tells a story. You're gonna go on and you're gonna tell all the buyers the stories, and the story will sell what you're doing. I'm like, You're right, you're right, it is what I am, yeah. And yeah, and then we sold, uh sold out and won by a landslide, so it was really fun. What a fun memory and a fun process. Yeah, it really was. It felt like once in a lifetime until we were on another one. It was great.

Tiffany Woolley: 18:19

So you went on another one of the same the flip show? No, we were on BYU survivalist. So you definitely are hands-on and have that DIY effect. Yes. Which is probably pretty helpful in the mus in the movie business, you know, the magic of television, right? They're kind of like your two vibes emerging together. So you mentioned about being the storyteller, and I know like as we were doing our research on you for today, that that's something that you try to, you know, define. Are you an interior designer or a storyteller? But you're both. So tell us where that came into play.

Sarah Trop: 19:04

So, you know, in the land of a lot of knowledge that we've live in and it's getting even more and more with AI, right? Knowledge is great. I'm really grateful for it, but understanding the heartbeat of something and the story behind it to me makes it matter. Um and so every dresser I bought that had a story, uh, whether it was a family heirloom or like I found it, there's this one where everything was decayed out the back. It should have been burned, right? But we brought it really should have been but we brought it completely back to life. You wouldn't even know it was the same thing. You you wouldn't even imagine. And to me, there's something soul self, there's soul filling when you can see something so broken and made so beautiful, you know? And so yeah, whether it's a piece of furniture or it's a home or it's just a corner of your home that you can tell a story about. And the reason why that's important is because knowing yourself and sharing enough about the things around you that it has a story, to me, that's what life's about.

Tiffany Woolley: 20:10

I couldn't agree more. I mean, as an interior designer myself, you know, I definitely also like the whole process of curating and, you know, having a story to tell with everything, not a cookie-cutter mentality at all. So I definitely appreciate that. I wish I had more of the the DIY type of training myself because sometimes I feel like I can't get my words out to explain exactly what I'm envisioning. Does that ever happen to you? It's like it's in my head, but all the time. Because I don't know, do you think in pictures? I feel like I do. I heard you say it like that, and I've I do think of life sometime as a catalog of snippets of pictures, and I realize I do. I I am very visual. Yeah.

Sarah Trop: 21:00

So same with me. If I walk into a space, I can picture how it's gonna look at the end. So the biggest challenge that I come into with clients is trying to get them to trust that I can see it and it'll be good. Right. When when they don't think in pictures. Uh, I mean AI has helped that because it's a little easier to be able to give them a quick rendering that's a little bit more similar to what I'm picturing, even though it's never exact, right? Right. But um that has helped over the years versus trying to pull Pinterest pictures that are similar but they're not quite. Right. Or trying to just look up other designs and say, hey, that's kind of like this, but not quite. You can actually just take a picture of their room and add a certain style that you're envisioning. And it won't it won't be exact, but it'll give them a good like I had um a client recently that wanted all bamboo cabinets with wood floors and like tones that there's it's too much of the same thing, you know? And when I thought about it, I'm like, oh, it's just gonna look so bad. But you don't you don't want to say that. Oh, she's not listening. Um but instead I said, Would you mind if I pull up a rendering with what you're picturing versus what I think would look better? And she's like, Yeah, that's great. So I did two, I did it. And the once she could see what I was saying about adding different tones and not wood on wood, um, she was like, Oh my gosh, yes, I have to go that way. So I think when you don't think when you do think in pictures and your clients don't, utilizing tools like that could be really helpful.

Scott Woolley: 22:26

So are you drawing it or are you using SketchUp or are you using AI to create those those images?

Sarah Trop: 22:34

Yeah, I just use AI.

Scott Woolley: 22:36

Really?

Sarah Trop: 22:37

Like Chat GPT or Oh, so you can do a couple different things because AI is getting so much better. Gemini or ChatGPT. Well, actually, Gemini, I think, just stopped their photo rendering. They for a while you could say, like, here's a picture of a room, here's a picture of the design board that I created for the room, as far as just products. Right. And then you could say, hey, ChatGPT, merge those two onto the onto the room, and then it would apply those items to it. So that's one way. But I also use um Mid Journey. Are you familiar with Midjourney? No. It's a stronger visual tool than ChatGPT. And it does have a monthly subscription. It does take like I had to take a training on how to do it. It's not as user-friendly as like ChatGPT would be. But it prompts well. So like if I if I want to search for if I want to create it with certain renderings, like I want a 9x12 kitchen that's farmhouse with navy cabinets, wood butcher block founders, white walls, and subway tile, it'll give you pretty close to that. And there are some wonky moments, but you can or wonky renderings, but you can render it. Um do slight render changes and advanced render changes as well.

Tiffany Woolley: 23:54

That is so interesting because you know, in a lot of what I listen to and do research, especially for i design and even my own business, you know, this is one of the industries where they're saying, you know, I uh AI won't attack, you know, won't hinder so much because it is still so hands-on. It is still so in the field that you still need these tools to, you know, bring a full vision to life. So we tried using a little bit of AI here and there in the office, but we still kind of rely on SketchUp.

Scott Woolley: 24:35

Sketchup and CA and CAD, you know, the tools that everyone's been using for years.

Sarah Trop: 24:41

Yeah, and those are gonna be more technical and realistic expressions of you know whatever your design is, and that's great, right? That's what you want is the polished finished product. But it's and people get scared of AI, right? But what I say is we would have just Googled the pictures before. Yeah. It's no different. It's just a more advanced Google. So it's not gonna it's not gonna source the products for you, although one day it might, honestly. I think AI will get there one day. But for for now, at least, it's not gonna do that. But when if I can say, give me a living room with a white shiplop wall and or a color-drenched room with crown molding that's this color uh or this this height with this color room, a leather sofa, blah, blah, blah, and type it all in like that. If I can show a client that, instead of having to look at five or six images on Google and say, imagine all these things together while we're sitting and meeting. Well, why wouldn't we want those tools to help them visualize? I I agree.

Tiffany Woolley: 25:37

I think it's a wonderful explanation of it being a tool, not a replacement.

Scott Woolley: 25:43

Absolutely. You mentioned earlier about your husband and recycling, and I know that sustainability is uh kind of a big focus and core to your business. Tell us a little about that aspect of your business with the system. Yeah, so sustainability.

Sarah Trop: 25:59

Right. From the beginning, we've tried to use products that are as green-friendly while mixing quality. You know, so that's a little tricky in the paint world because some people say, oh, everything should be lacquer, but we're like, oh, it's oil-based, it's so toxic. We're not gonna go oil. Um, and then you'll have some people say, well, it should all just be mud paint or chalk paint. We we can do that. You know, we have some clients who really want that, but the durability we we don't find to be as good as some of the other products, you know. But when we're redoing furniture, we use a uh, or at least kitchen cabinets, we use a low VOC lacquer that's water-based. And so it's like the in our opinion, the best of both worlds. So that's what I kind of say. I I have a very balanced approach, both in design and in life. Like I try not to go to too extreme, but I really want sustainability to be important. Why would we buy something new that's not made as well in the furniture or any other thing when we could buy something old that can be given a second life, have a unique character, and save things from going into the landfill. To me, that is really important, you know?

Tiffany Woolley: 27:03

Agreed. Yeah, and I feel like so many things were made so much better years ago. We're just paying more for less in this, you know, consumption economy. I think it's really, really special your approach. So when you tackle design projects, do you start with the piece sometimes? Or do you start with the whole vision?

Sarah Trop: 27:28

I think it depends on the customer and what they have. So some clients don't have any pieces that they care about, and so then I can really source in something old or s or say, let's find this one piece in your house, and how about we salvage it into this? You know, sometimes it's that. Um, and then other times we work around like, hey, the you don't need to gut all of this just because everybody thinks let everything has to be new in a remodel. I was just listening to, and maybe you'd have some in insight on this as well, but I was just listening to some real estate specialists saying that they're finding that clients actually don't like when houses are gutted of their original character and put all new. They're finding buyers want things that have history. Yeah. So I think that is something that sometimes we have shop in and we actually devalue the homes because we don't appreciate the history and keep that, you know? I agree. We had one client reach out and say, Hey, we want you to buy our parents' home. They started redoing it. It's an old, old brick colonial is beautiful. I mean, I wanted it so badly. If I could have money come from the sky, I would have bought this. It was and I should have at the time. Yeah, I should have. It was uh they said, We'll give it to you for $175,000. It's over 3,000 square feet on almost three acres of small house. We've salvaged, I know, they had these pocket doors and and fireplaces that they salvaged all the mantles and the thick um trim work and mouldings. And I tried with all I had, but I didn't have enough money to buy it for cash and have cash to also do the work. Yeah. Yeah. So I asked friends, like, hey, can I just borrow this from you? I'll get it back. Like we we'll do this house justice. And that's what the people said. We know if you buy it, you'll do this house justice. And we don't want it just to go to anyone. So we tried, but we couldn't get the cash, someone else bought it. Well, they put all new tile and didn't put the old molding back in. And made it like shipwop over the fireplace versus like the beautiful fireplace. I know. Why? And it went back on the market for $900,000 a year later. Um, and I just thought the character's gone. Like, yeah, you you might make some money, but that's not how I would have done it.

Tiffany Woolley: 29:46

Right. I know. I I couldn't agree more.

Scott Woolley: 29:49

Like, so you you mentioned also that you're doing a fair amount of kitchens and the kitchens that you're doing, you know, from our standpoint in Del Rey and in South Florida, even homes that we're Doing outside of Florida. Most people are redoing a kitchen. They want to gut everything. Let's put a whole brand new kitchen. We're actually redoing our kitchen right now in our own home. And Tiffany didn't want to do that. She wanted to keep what was there, and she's kind of like what you do. She's refurbishing, changing, but we're keeping the aesthetics, but bringing it kind of up to date. In the kitchens that you're doing, how are you tackling tackling those?

Sarah Trop: 30:29

Yeah, we we specialize in repurposing kitchen cabinets, so we almost always keep the majority of cabinets. Sometimes we have to add a few extra in if it doesn't, yeah, if the sizing doesn't work. But uh people are always shocked. They always say to me, Oh no, it won't look good if I keep the old. And I'm like, just wait till we're done. You will say, Why did I why did I do why did I want to gut this out? Right. And we I don't think we've anyone who've been who've been regretful of that decision. Um so for instance, I do design of new kitchens where it's not repurposed, right? Like I I can't exclusively say no, I won't repurpose for you. But I'm doing a kitchen remodel right now, and it's gonna be anywhere from 250 to 300,000 for this moderate-sized kitchen. Um all new. Now, granted, we want some funky features like arched cabinetry and things like that. Lighting. Right. But our kitchens, when we repurpose, we call it a kitchen facelift. And so when we facelift a kitchen, we keep the cabinets and we just do tile and new counters, it ends up being around 20,000. And so it's just such a good money saver, and it's good for the con it's good for the environment. So to us it's a win-win, but I know it's not a fit for every client, you know. Right.

Scott Woolley: 31:48

And I'm one of those people that said to Tiffany, you want it what? We want it what? No, why don't we just put all new in?

Tiffany Woolley: 31:54

And she Well the the other thing is I find I still like so much and and appreciate, as do you, so much of the old style and the character. And I feel so strongly that that all of that should tie to the architecture of the house, just like that story you mentioned about the, you know, beautiful home that you wish you had. Like people just go in and try to put the latest, greatest, newest that they think is gonna, you know, appeal to everyone under the sun, versus really cherishing and it, you know, elevating what's there.

Sarah Trop: 32:31

Absolutely. And you know, there's some ways too, for instance, uh on our Facebook page, the very top video we had is a kitchen that we remodeled where the front had those outdated arch doors. You know what I mean when I say that? Yeah, like the typical. But if you flip them inside out, the backsides were shaker. So our I said, we can save money if you are fine with the arch being on the inside, you never see it, right? Unless the doors get left open. And she's like, game, let's repurpose, let's do it. And you would never guess it's even the same kitchen. And we just flip the doors inside out.

Tiffany Woolley: 33:06

It's really crazy, the options. Yeah. And that's another thing. I feel like you know, we do this every day, and it is we do it with passion. You you are so much more aware of the opportunities that most people just really don't think of. And I feel like, you know, when you get those wins in client meetings, like, oh, like, you know, I I see it, you know. It's very gratifying. I couldn't agree with that more. So during your journey, what is the most exciting piece that like you can't like that you repurpose? Like, what would be the most memorable spectacular couple?

Sarah Trop: 33:46

I really like the secretary's desk that we turned into a wine bar because it was so different. You know, it's just like when you have we had soak stone on top for cutting topper sink and uh a rinse section for cups and the a retro mini fridge inside between where you would sit. Uh so for me that one was like something I've never seen done. I'd never, you know, I don't think anyone would think, uh, and I really enjoyed working on that project. So that one probably takes the cake of my favorite.

Scott Woolley: 34:18

Are there any projects that stand out that were extremely challenging when you first came about or came upon it?

Sarah Trop: 34:25

Uh the the broken down buffet where the back legs were totally rotted out, and it was for a customer who said, like, this is our families. And I'm thinking, then why didn't you leave it outside? Um But they're like, we want to keep it in the family, but it's been outside for 10 years. So uh the whole top was the veneer was all buckled, the drawers didn't even open. Um it was just I was literally like, how are we gonna do this? That one probably was the hardest that we've done as from uh there's been hard ones from a custom built perspective, but when you repurpose something old, you just don't know what you're gonna have to do until you're in it.

Tiffany Woolley: 35:02

You know, it's kind of like actually home remodeling. I always say to clients, you never know what you're gonna open up. I guess furniture remodeling is the same thing. Like you really get into it, what it's what it all entails. So do you have to rely on, you know, different sources too for different hardware and you know, just certain tools for crafting and saving and adding or preserving these pieces?

Sarah Trop: 35:31

Yeah, so there is antique hardware companies if we want to keep it period appropriate. I would say a lot of ours are not like people don't want us to have antique hardware put back on. They want something more modern and updated. So it could be something as simple as going to a hobby lobby and getting some funky knobs all the way to like restoration hardware where they want it to be more high feel more high-end.

Tiffany Woolley: 35:54

Right. Okay.

Sarah Trop: 35:55

That's an interesting thought. Yeah. And there's even things like scrapers that you wouldn't think that they're they're called um carpenter sanders, but they're these metal scrapers, and that's how you distress furniture. But you can only get them online. There's not you can't you can't even find those locally, but it's a weird tool that we have to use, we use a lot, but you would never even know it was a tool.

Scott Woolley: 36:17

Do you do you handle any like wicker furniture? Because I know here, wicker furniture, it's very specialized. You know, in South Florida, there's one per place that handles that.

Sarah Trop: 36:29

Yeah, we don't do wicker. There is one person that we know locally that does wicker. We'll add wicker to the front of pieces. So for instance, we had an entertainment center where they wanted every single door to be shaker and custom built with wicker on the front. So we can custom build that, but we don't typically replace wicker on vintage. Right. There's a whole different art.

Tiffany Woolley: 36:49

So you also mentioned in the beginning that your husband and you, you know, do this together. Are your kids involved now? But yeah, they are actually.

Sarah Trop: 36:59

They're both on payroll. They both uh Josh, he's our 17-year-old. He will he worked yesterday, or he worked Tuesday because school hadn't started yet, but he goes along and he'll when he's not at school, he'll do cabinet door installation or paint with my husband or delivery of the furniture with him. And so yeah, he's he's a big help as he has time. And then my daughter, she does um, she's actually has a really good design eye.

Tiffany Woolley: 37:27

Right.

Sarah Trop: 37:27

I was wondering if one of them would follow in your footsteps. She doesn't want to follow yet. But um, I read years ago that to help get your kids involved in whatever you do, a fun exercise is like we'll get the newest magazine in and I'll sit down and say, Hey, let's go page by page. You tell me the best part of the design and what you would change. I love that. Every single time, yeah, it's so fun. And every single time she picks exactly what I would say.

Tiffany Woolley: 37:58

Aw, so she's a trained eye. Crazy. Yeah. Without even realizing it.

Scott Woolley: 38:03

Is there any person in the past or now that inspires you that you, you know, follow or really impressed by?

Sarah Trop: 38:10

Or yeah, I really like Jean Stoffer. Do you know who she is? No.

Scott Woolley: 38:14

No.

Tiffany Woolley: 38:15

But it does sound familiar though, because sometimes because I'm so visual, I'll know people's work before I really realize their name and put two and two together.

Sarah Trop: 38:24

Yeah, she's a designer that is um on the show The Established Home on the Magnolia Network. Okay. And she's based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And I just really like her, she's written a book called The Established Home. I like her home value. Like she works with her family and she prioritizes family time. And she actually didn't become famous until she was older. And she talks about why that was okay with her. Like different seasons of life allowed for scaling up and down, and now she's her kids are all grown and she's ready to pour into it, like she didn't want to do when they were younger. Right. And her daughter, Grace, she works with her as well. And so I've been to Grand Rapids, I've met them, I've been to their home tours. I'm gonna actually be going out uh in two weeks again for their final mansion tour of a house that they ri have redone. And I just I like a lot her style. She has a kind of European flair mixed with traditional, and but she thinks outside of the boxes. Like I don't know if you've seen from a design side where they take in a countertop and they'll split it and then put like a gold piece, a brass piece. That's basically I've I saw it from her first. Oh, wow. And I thought that's thinking outside of the box, same thing. Like I just love when she thinks outside of the box and she brings in traditional, you know, classic design, but with a little bit of a flair, you know. Right.

Tiffany Woolley: 39:51

And that's what keeps it timeless, too. I feel like I see that story so often. Like the last thing you want to do is be like, oh, that was done in you know, 2000, or no, this was done in 1990. You know, you want something that can evolve and collect and you know, transform and continue through time.

Sarah Trop: 40:12

Exactly. And when you go to her home tours, all her family's there, like her sons, her daughter, like it just feels like they love to be together. And I was and I've gotten to know her daughter, Grace, a little bit. And my daughter has met Grace, and she really looks up to her. And so I think over the years we've we've really kind of respected and admired how they work together and how their faith is integrated into their work and how they've grown their business as well. It's just been a real inspiration for me.

Tiffany Woolley: 40:41

That's a beautiful. I'm actually I'm from Grand Rapids, so I'm gonna check them out. I definitely am gonna check her out. So you would say that she's like a big design influence for you.

Sarah Trop: 40:54

Yeah, I would say, I mean, originally uh before I ever knew about her, Joanna Gaines, of course, because I know, what a story, right? Right, and we have a lot of similarities. Like we were we were got into design sort of similar timing. We were married the same time, we honeymooned in the same space at the same time. Um like Mr. Visionary, who will just say, Oh, we're just we're gonna do this without thinking about how we're gonna do this. Right. And I feel like that's her as well. And so for years I've said, if I could ever meet Joanna Gaines, I feel like we'd be best friends. I feel like we have a lot in common. And uh so I would say her too. She probably would have more of an influence in the beginning years because I thought, oh, she doesn't have a design, and look at what she's done, you know, a design degree and look at what she's done.

Tiffany Woolley: 41:40

Well, I often say you can't teach this. You can't I could not agree with you more. Yeah, I'm like I've hired interior design helpers through the years and everything like that, and some of them can be the most hardworking, great people and great additions to the team, but not necessarily who I could turn design trust over to. It's really something you know you're born with.

Scott Woolley: 42:05

So what do you do to stay creatively fresh? Are you on Instagram? Are you going to shows, reading? What's what's the Go to Go to?

Sarah Trop: 42:16

Yeah, so I do a couple things. I actually travel a lot. I blog about our travels, but I try to go places that inspire me from a design perspective. So last this year we went to Budapest, Vienna, Prague, I can't imagine.

Scott Woolley: 42:33

So you're so you're going there looking probably at antiques and architecture.

Sarah Trop: 42:41

I mean the way that they decorate even the exterior of buildings can translate to how a furniture design piece is painted or the finish that we use. We did a whole uh the year two years before that I went to Paris and London and I did a whole furniture um I did furniture pieces based on doors that I photographed in Paris. So I would say, like, here's the door and here's how it translates on furniture, and then we would do a custom painting of the door that came with it. And yeah, to me that that's what inspires me the most is travel and seeing new spaces. Um but I do like uh one thing I like is say I have to work at night or something. Sometimes I'll have a design show on in the back because you don't really have to watch it. Right. Because it's there, and then at the final review, or if I hear some doing something I've never done before, I'll look up and be like, oh, that's interesting. Um so I try to stay relevant by like always listening, always reading, always watching, but I don't have a lot of time to watch TV. I don't have a lot of time to read. And I don't want to. Like I my life is full with people and and creating spaces that I love, so it's okay with me.

Tiffany Woolley: 43:50

But so where does your process begin when you bring on when a new design client comes into play? I mean, do you start with I know we mentioned briefly like the room, it depends, or if it's the piece of furniture, but I tend to like have to immediately start with like furniture layouts. Like I want to see how space is used. What's your go-to to begin your process?

Sarah Trop: 44:16

Yeah, we scale up and down. That's something that's a little different for with us versus some of at least our local competitors. Sometimes people just hire me for a one-hour design consult, and it could be virtual or it could be in person, where I literally say, Are you a DIYer? Like I had a design client just this this week, and they wanted to DIY everything themselves. They're very hands-on. They and I said, That's fine. Then this design consult looks different. I'm just gonna tell you layout. I'm gonna tell you. And she had all these historic pieces from her family, like literally a Queen Anne's dresser that came over on a boat from England that was her great-grandmother's.

Tiffany Woolley: 44:55

Wow.

Sarah Trop: 44:55

And so she doesn't want to touch any of those, but we have to make it feel updated in the space. So it's more, yes, like you said, layout, it's color, it's how does color work with vintage to make it feel updated. Um, and so I created a design board for her from that one hour. And it wasn't really like order this piece of furniture, it was hey, custom build this in here, and here's why and how, and close up this wall, and then put these vintage pieces here. So everyone's a little bit different, but I would say I always start with a one hour and just see, do we need to scale up or are you a DIYer? And it's just you need some tips. And I'm happy to do either. It doesn't, you know, it I'm happy because I I was a DIYer most of my life. So I don't want to close the door for DIYers and say, like, oh, you don't your budget's not 20,000, so I won't work with you, you know.

Tiffany Woolley: 45:44

Right, right, right. So where do you, when you're not necessarily sourcing, you know, heirloom pieces or repurposed pieces, where do you go to mix in the, you know, upholstery pieces or lighting or what what are some of your favorite places that you source from?

Sarah Trop: 46:03

I mean, I don't it's not the what I find is I do a lot of different styles. So there's not a one go-to that I always pick, you know. I love mid-century modern, so I love joy bird couches, I love uh Westel furniture. I have a lot of customers who really only want me to use pottery barns, so I go with that, you know. So it just kind of depends on the client. I don't know that I have a one-go-to-I like Ballard design. Like one of the clients this week wanted Ballard Design for some of their hutches and and things like that. So, but I don't there's not really one that I selectively use.

Tiffany Woolley: 46:41

Do you ever go to the trade shows like High Point or anything like that? I have, yeah. I've been to High Point um one time only. I need to, I want to go back.

Sarah Trop: 46:51

It's just I haven't had time. I know.

Tiffany Woolley: 46:53

Time is like so crazy. I was like, when you said you're blogging, I'm like, where do you find the time for that? I've been wanting to do that for many years, Scott, and I've you know talked about doing it. How do you find the time to even do that?

Sarah Trop: 47:08

Yeah, so I just heard a quote from Elon Musk that said, you have enough time to you give yourself enough time to do I'm quoting him wrong.

Tiffany Woolley: 47:17

Nobody saw the same quote. I know where you're going with it.

Sarah Trop: 47:20

Yeah, like whatever time you give to yourself, that's how long it's gonna take you. So for instance, like I do a fall festival at our home where we do open house tours and we have vendors that sell things. I don't sell things really typically at that at that event, but I decided I felt called to paint again. I don't know why, but I just did I could see how you could miss that. Yeah. And I haven't picked up a brush much. I mean I've done it here and there, but not much. And um and so I started and I did a gallery of I said I'm gonna have a gallery debut with 10 paintings that that month, and I started last month and I'm almost done. I have two left. And if but if I had said I'm gonna do a gallery of paintings over the next two years, it would have taken me two years.

Tiffany Woolley: 48:06

Year round.

Sarah Trop: 48:07

Because that's just how we work, right? Right. So yeah. I'm a big time management person, and then I've also learned a lot about business this year and what you can hand off and how you should be handing off as much as you possibly can. So I have an assistant who now writes most of my blogs, and then I just proof and tweak because yeah, you've learned how to delegate.

Tiffany Woolley: 48:29

Who do you rely on for the business resource, like you know, advice? Is there certain podcasts or books you've read that you've integrated? How does that inspire?

Sarah Trop: 48:39

Yeah, so the most helpful thing that I've done with um business so far is I joined this group called EO, it's entrepreneurial organization, and they have chapters that are global. And basically they have quarterly training and it's all about different things cash management, um understanding your core values, things like that. And then they bring in global speakers that talk about everything, and it can be from AI to breath work. I mean, it really covers so much, but I've gotten to be on a Zoom call and ask Martha Stewart questions. I've gotten to you know connect with global leaders that I would never have even been able to get a response from. Um is it a virtual kind of course or so no most of it's in person, and there are virtual courses you can do as well, but almost everything I've done is in person. Um I met the owner of Uggs boots. Um and he was fascinating. I don't know if you've ever heard him, but it's an Australian action, and his story is like phenomenal, selling boots out of the back of his car in California trying to become successful. And I also didn't know Bug Uggs boots were made for surfers. Did you know that?

Tiffany Woolley: 49:49

Yeah, I did because they got popular in Malibu is when I first heard of them in 2003. I two it was you know, and they were saying it was like the popular because it's cold there in the morning. So when they come out of the I know, but I've everybody has such great stories, so I can imagine where the inspiration came with him.

Sarah Trop: 50:14

Yeah, he was really inspiring. And even this guy, his name is Jack Daly, he had does hyper-sales growth training and also another book about how you manage your life, and that was kind of life-changing for me uh because he talked about they they had these charts that look like a pie, right? Okay. And every sliver is a portion of your life. So it could be everything from romance to time with your kids to spirituality to time in your health. And then zero is the center of the circle, ten is the edge, and you put how much like where where how much time you spend on each of those slices, right? All the way around. And then you connect the dots, and then you can see like what in your life is not balanced because everything's gonna be a little more, a little less, right? But when there's one that's getting no time at all, you you know, as a leader, this is where I need to work on. And my sliver that was a zero compared to everything else, which was pretty balanced, was my health. And Jack Delhi spoke and said, How dare you not care enough about your children to take care of your health for them one day? And uh that hit me like a rock in the face. Um and I started working out, eating healthier. I've lost 92 pounds and it hasn't even been a year. Yeah. Gotcha. And it was just thanks. It was such a game changer in my life. And so EO really has been so helpful from uh learning how to scale to answering questions, like having people answer questions because you're in a room of people who are very successful, so you usually can get your questions answered because to be in it, they have three programs. One you grow from they're teaching how to go from a hundred thousand. You have to make a I think it's a hundred thousand in sales. The other category is two fifty, and they'll scale you to a million, and then there's one if you make a million or more on gross. So it's teaching a lot of.

Scott Woolley: 52:05

What's the name of the organization? Executive.

Sarah Trop: 52:07

Um, it's called EO, so entrepreneurial organization. And they have different chapters. I think they have many in Florida, but I'm in the Albany chapter in New York.

Scott Woolley: 52:17

Hmm. Sounds very interesting.

Sarah Trop: 52:19

Yeah, it is. It's really neat. It's really neat.

Scott Woolley: 52:22

So let me ask let me ask a question. If there was a dream project, home client space, what would it be in the come in the future? What would you love?

Sarah Trop: 52:33

So I would love I would love to probably uh well I can tell you because No, I can't tell that yet. Um Yeah. I I have a dream for like I would love to take spaces where you have This is gonna sound crazy, I haven't told anyone this. But little like a motel where it has a lot of different little motel spaces, and you have the cost effective enough that local people could rent it at a reasonable rate but still make enough money to cover it, and have like a miniature village of shops that are all locally sourced, like not just little niche things that you can order wholesale. I get the place of those, but more repurposing and reuse and creative and artsy and um I would love something like that. I mean that's like a dream project. Uh, but I also would love to get another historic home and salvage it because if for instance a couple of years ago we bought an 1895 electric trolley station that was so bad. Yeah, my husband fell through the kitchen floor um the day we closed it. And everybody said, you know, you should burn it and just build a module or you'll never make money. Um but we really wanted to keep the history of that space, and so yeah, we flipped it over a year and sold it. And uh I love taking historic spaces that most people would say, What are you doing? Why would you fix that? We were driving around and it's so cute. My daughter uh recently was we saw a broken down house. She's like, Mom, that should be yours. This is what we do. We make the community better by fixing old houses. I was like, Yeah, I everyone I see broken down, I want. Right? Ring them all.

Tiffany Woolley: 54:18

Those are kind of my dream jobs, yeah. So do you so you do some of your own projects as well?

Sarah Trop: 54:24

Oh, tons. We bought a 1802 farmhouse uh six years ago. We had a five-year goal to redo the whole thing, and uh we have every single room, every single space. And our we call it the repurposed idea house on our blog because we tried to repurpose and reuse as much as we can throughout the spaces as we redid. And we show tutorials about how to redo them. And um and that's what we do in our fall festival. We do historic tours of that repurposed idea house. Um so I have to make sure I clean my house that week, you know.

Scott Woolley: 54:56

So So being in Albany, New York, how is it deal dealing with the like here in Delray and in South Florida, we're dealing with you know historic societies, you know, controlled by the this each of the different cities, which you're going through the building department, but then you're also going through the historic department that's basically in many cases dictating how and what we can do or can't do. How's that been with you?

Sarah Trop: 55:24

Yeah, in New York it's it's it's okay, so it depends. So we've looked at projects in the past where if you want to get historic funds for it, there's much more stipulations in what you can do. But if you do it yourself, unless it's on the national registry, I believe is a stipulation, doesn't matter if it's old, because we have a lot of old buildings here. So we can even the trolley house um that we flipped, we they wanted us to gut and remove almost everything. So basically the rule is if it's 50% or more of renovations, they want everything to new code. Well, in a historic home, it's basically impossible to get everything to up to new code. And that house was more than 50% of a remodel. So even things as simple as we had a two-foot-wide staircase that went up to a little loft, right? So crazy. Yeah. Yeah. To me, that was my favorite part about the house. You walk in the front door, and straight ahead are these adorable little stairs. There's a kitchen, there's a mud room, and then straight ahead are these tiny little stairs, right? And so I was so bummed because code came back saying, like, nope, you have to rip those out, and you have GLS. And I went back and said, I well, actually, I said, Oh shoot, how are we gonna do this? And then I was talking to a friend who worked in code for a different county, and he said, You have to push back and say, This is a historic home. Yeah, we're keeping an electric trolley station preserved. It was falling apart. Like literally, animals were living inside. There weren't windows on half of it. Like, what do we do with this? Like, you know, and so there were some things they wouldn't give on. For instance, like I wanted to keep the large windows where there was windows, which was not that many, but they were beautiful. And they said absolutely not because you have to have, I think it's 18 inches from the floor um to have new code for window height, at least in this in this space. And so I had to make the window smaller, which kind of killed me as a designer a little bit. Like huge, beautiful open windows. But um, but in other spaces they did end up working with us and saying, okay, yeah, we see like this porch has been here for uh over a hundred years. It's fine that we don't have it be trek stacking or you know, something new that doesn't work with the history and the property.

Scott Woolley: 57:42

That's some of the some of it here is very tough because there's been a number of projects Tiffany goes in front of the board or and goes to City Council and fights for that particular issue that it gets it stays or remains, and she's been very successful with that. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Tiffany Woolley: 57:57

Well, because I think my go back is kind of like what you said. I mean, we're trying to preserve it and make it beautiful. We're not changing it. We're just you know updating it. So work with us.

Sarah Trop: 58:10

And that definitely happens. So for instance, I'm working on a historic home in Saratoga. I don't know if you know Saratoga, but it's a beautiful area. Yeah. It's beautiful. Well, one part of the house, one side of the house, lands in the historic district. The side of the house, that road is not. So when my client bought the house, he thought, okay, we're gonna turn it into a two apartments from a single family. We're gonna extend out the back um and make it two apartments. Well, the historic society, uh historic district did not like that. And he fought for over two years to get them to approve a design that he could move ahead with, and the not the interior design, but like the architectural design. And um that is a huge budget law. I mean, you're paying on a house for two years that you can't do any remodels for. You know, I feel like there's got to be a way we can expedite that a bit. And they finally came to a compromise, but there are so many stipulations like the window style, the window sizing, housing are built, you know. Um so yeah, we do run into it, and certain counties are more sticklers. I I live in a county that's not as as much, but there are counties that are definitely very, very complicated to deal with.

Scott Woolley: 59:26

Yeah. So if you could raid any flea market or vintage store, where would it be in the world? Oh.

Sarah Trop: 59:35

That is a topic.

Scott Woolley: 59:37

And you've seen sort of travel to a lot of very unique places from what you've said, that architecture and design and you know, is that the same thing.

Sarah Trop: 59:46

So if it's a flea market, I've never been to the elephant's trunk, isn't that in Texas?

Speaker 3: 59:51

I think so.

Sarah Trop: 59:52

Scott, I know. And um I think from a flea market perspective, I'd love to go there. It's one of those things that is so far from me that I'm like, uh How would I get anything back? It would just be a little bit more. Back home. I know.

Tiffany Woolley: 1:00:02

That's what we end up doing things like that too.

Sarah Trop: 1:00:06

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. If I'm talking about my favorite, you know, structure that I've seen that I'd love to like tour and soak up pieces. Um, there's a m I think it's Matthias Church in Budapest in the um in in the in the castle district area. It is so beautiful. Even the roof has so many different styles, styles. It's not just one style of tiling. It has a hundred, I think it's 149,000 tiles on the roof. And they're all different colors, and they're my favorite types of colors, like a dark teal and a mustard, and a like all those autumn-y beautiful colors. Beautiful. Yeah. So I think that's my favorite from a design inspiration. I if you walk in that church, there's there are patterns all throughout the church interior that are all completely different. And yet somehow they all work together. Like every wall you look at, you're like, oh, that's herringbone. Oh no, and now they mixed it with a floral. Now, you know, this is exact pattern. And I go, how do they match all of these things? And it still look amazing. Uh it will take your breath away. That's probably one. But if I were to pick somewhere local, I know I'm giving you lots of answers, but I love design. No, I love them. If I pick somewhere local, there's this mansion called Olana in Hudson, New York. Okay. And there's a famous painter, Frederick Church, who was in the 1800s, and he did mostly landscapes with gilded gold frames. And it's probably my favorite type of artwork. Like that's the kind of artwork I love to do, is like landscaping with gold gilded frames. And um he bought this mansion so that he could paint things all around the I think it was over 200 acres he bought with it. And the thing I love about it is he is well traveled. So he, the interior, when you go tour it, he has like design from all different countries. Like part of it you go, oh, this feels like Prague, part of it feels like London, part of it feels like Budapest. Yeah, he blends all of those styles so beautifully. Beautifully together. Yeah. It's just phenomenal. So that's my favorite local spot to go look at.

Tiffany Woolley: 1:02:16

Well, I love the way you blend in all of your conversation today. You know, blend all this different beauty and timelessness together. And we thank you so much for joining us on the iDesign Lab podcast.

Scott Woolley: 1:02:30

But before we jump off, for everyone, anyone listening and watching, and they want to learn more about you, where should they go? Which your website or Instagram that's would be. And your blog. Yes.

Sarah Trop: 1:02:40

Yeah. So I my website's funcycled.com. So it's f-n-c-y-c-l-e-d.com. And my blog is on there. And there's tutorials on the blog. There's all I also created a custom web page for the this podcast. It's funcycled.com forward slash free, where I do tips on design features that can be easily changed out and update your home. So that they can go there if they want. But Instagram and Facebook and Pinterest that you can find me at Funcycled.

Scott Woolley: 1:03:11

So great.

Tiffany Woolley: 1:03:13

Well, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, thank you. And we love you follow along on your FunCycled journey. And if you're in South Florida, please pop over. Okay, I would love to. I'll take you up on that. I would love that. Have a great day.

Voice Over: 1:03:28

You too. Thanks.

Tiffany Woolley: 1:03:29

Bye bye. Thank you.

Voice Over: 1:03:32

iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW group production in association with the five star and TW Interiors. To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit TWInteriors.com.