Creating Comfortable & Safe Living Spaces

Paula: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Chatting with the Experts TV show, where I, Paula Okonneh, the host, bring to you women from Africa, from the Caribbean, or in the diaspora, who share with you messages that bowl me over, and I know will bowl you over. The mission of this show is to inspire, to educate and empower women globally. And I always have women who are successful business owners or professionals to come walk this journey with me. The title of today’s show is Functional and Livable Homes. And my guests is Monique Holland, who is the CEO and principal designer of Holland Custom Designs. I’ll tell you a bit about her.
Monique left the corporate world and launched her own interior design firm after working [00:01:00] several years in various real estate investment trust companies. Her vision and design aesthetics coupled with her professional, I can’t speak today, professional and streamlined approach is what keeps clients coming back year after year.
She holds a degree in business administration from Strayer College and she is ASID certified in Biophilic Design and health and wellness in the home. And she’s also CAPS certified. I always have so many things to say about my guests because their bios are so impressive, but what I love doing is inviting them to talk a bit more about themselves. So with that, I want to welcome Monique Holland. Hi Monique.
Monique: Hi, how are you?
I’m awesome. I know I didn’t say enough about you because your bio is so impressive. So are there any gaps that you need to fill in [00:02:00] for you?
I mean, no, I mean, I would say that I had a successful corporate career. However I’ve always been an artist and ever since I was a little kid and creative at heart and that continued to gnaw at me throughout my career and during the latter part of my career, I continue to take continuing education courses and design to get to where I am now.
Paula: Awesome. Awesome. So I’ve known Monique for about five years. Yeah. Coming up five years and talk about being a phenomenal interior designer. She designed what you’re seeing behind me. So I’m not just talking because I like what she does but I’ve experienced her myself. So today we’re going to be talking about interior design, and this is going to include components of biophilic design and health and wellness in the home, as well as aging in place and what it really means. That sounds like a [00:03:00] mouthful, but I’m speaking with Monique off camera, she’s so passionate about this. So Monique, tell us more about this.
Monique: So, you know, we do full service interior design already, which is what we’ve been doing since I opened the company in 2018. In 2020, we included and incorporated into our regular design services offering the biophilic design and health and wellness in the home. That was just an additional service that we could provide to our clients on how to bring nature in to their homes with, you know, through lighting, natural elements to you know, create the kind of environment that they want. Because studies have shown that bringing nature into spaces you know, helps our overall well being and how we, you know, generally feel about ourselves.
So we’ve already been providing recommendations and suggestions to clients since 2020 on biophilic design and health and wellness in the home. And now we have [00:04:00] added in 2025 our CAPS certification. So what is CAPS? And I think this falls in line with, you know, my mission for just, I mean, interior design is about helping people, right? And so there’s multiple ways in which you can help people make their homes, the spaces that they want to, you know, be in. And so what CAPS is, is a certified agent in place. Now, when most people hear that, they think about elders. They think about, you know, ramps and and stair climbers and things for their home.
When actually CAPS is really about safety, accessibility, comfort, and convenience. And all of us are aging in place, whether you’re kids or adults. It could be sensory issues. Something affecting your eyes, your ears, your taste, smell. It could also be cognitive issues. It could be a ADHD. It could be [00:05:00] dementia. Those sorts of things. And it you know, there’s so many ways that you can make your home as we’re doing the design. You know, we take into account the issues that those clients may be having, and then we can recommend that they incorporate some of the items that help with their overall health and well being and safety in their environment.
So we’re just closing the circle, if you will of interior design, which is, of course, most clients say, I want a comfortable, relaxing, and cozy feel. So biophilic design allows us to bring that in, in terms of how you feel. And AS and CAPS allows us to make sure that your home is safe and accessible and comfortable for everyone in the family, including your extended family.
Paula: So, you know, I love that part. You know, you say your home is comfortable. CAPS incorporates comfort for everyone in the family, because initially I was thinking, you know, [00:06:00] this is for like aging in place for right over 30. Let’s put it that way. But you’re saying for everyone, so you’re saying the design puts into consideration like children who may be having some cognitive behavioral challenges?
Monique: Yes, it can. It can incorporate things to help with that. And if you have eye issues and, you know, certain people have various diseases where with their eyes, maybe their colorblind or what have you. And so some of the things that I might recommend to people in their homes is the different color, you know, instead of having a floor and the cabinetry and everything kind of being monotone the same color. You want to kind of mix that up in the space. And for certain issues, having black countertops could potentially be an issue and you would want something a little lighter. So, there’s various you know, health issues or, you know, that can impact what kind of additional recommendations we [00:07:00] can make for people.
And, you know, when you are retrofitting your home, a lot of times people are tearing out the old and putting in the new, right? That is the time, which is why I think this is a great segue in addition to my business. Because this is a great time to, many of my clients are between 45 and 70. So, many of them, I would say the majority of them are empty nesters. Like myself, we’ve gone through having kids leave our homes. We have our own body parts wearing out in many respects. Many of us have parents who we unexpectedly got ill and needed to come or and come live with us. And so our homes are not ready and prepared for what it is that they need.
And some of us have long term things like eye issues. So, you know, as you get older, the way you see light changes and the way that is captured in your eye changes. And so, you know, just making sure one of the things we always talk about is the lighting in the home. And, you know, that [00:08:00] one simple thing can make a key difference in being able to read without having, you know, your readers everywhere. And so we’re always making those suggestions for people.
Paula: So, wow, that’s interesting, because I have readers all over the place, glasses all over the place, and you just mentioned…
Monique: me too.
Paula: So it’s both of us, right? So you said, the light thing so that you don’t have readers all over the place, I mean, without going into too many details, how do you do that?
Monique: Well, you know, certain spaces in my house have more dim lighting and it’s just a function of the areas that have more windows and natural light. And I find when I’m in the kitchen area, which is way brighter and I have the window line right there at the table, it’s easier for me to read print. But I find when I’m in my bedroom, where the light is in the middle of the ceiling and I have blackout draperies, right, even with the lamps, it’s a little harder to read. [00:09:00] So, I probably could use better task lighting as well. But even if you have better task lighting, you know, sometimes you find it still a little bit difficult to read smaller print.
So everything that you can do to make your life easier and more comfortable and to save your eyes, right. You know, as long as you can because clearly, you know, everything we do centers around seeing.
Paula: It does. It does. So I’m just curious again, talking about well, what are task lights? What are those?
Monique: Task lights would be like lamps floor lamps, table lamps. You may actually have a spotlight that just shines on a certain spot. You know, a lot of people have sconces on the walls that are adjustable that can move, you know, they could be over the nightstand, but when you actually need more lighting to read, you can pull them closer. And so, you know, part of our questionnaire is asking questions about, you know, how you see, are there any, you know, issues that we should be aware of. [00:10:00] Now, we’re not advocating that we’re a healthcare professional, but we do have sconces. We have A coordination with general contractors who specialize in retrofitting homes for you know, for caps, but we also have a health company, a national health company that has, you know, PTs and occupational therapists that we can recommend and refer you to if you need to make more global changes. So, you know, there’s in many times people who have issues, existing issues already have someone that they are, you know, health care professional that they’re speaking with. But you know some of the things that I ask people to share with me are there any allergies in the home that may affect the type of rugs that I bring into your home?
Do you have pets? Do you have little kids who are crawling around on the floor? How difficult is it for you to get up from the sofa? So, do you have any knee or hip issues that I need to be aware of? Do you find yourself, and I’m paying attention during those appointments, do [00:11:00] I find that when they stand, they’re using their arms to help lift them? And so, some people, quite frankly, start to have issues before they realize they have an issue, and they don’t even realize they have it in many cases until it becomes more severe. And so these are the types of things that we’re paying attention to. And, you know, sometimes I’ll say to a client, did you just notice that when you got up, you used your arms?
Like what? No, I didn’t. I said, Do you do that all the time? I didn’t realize I did that. And so the wife might chime and say, Yeah, you do that all the time. And so that’s an opportunity for me when I’m looking at seating. I make a note of that. Then I’m going to get them seating that sits higher up and that it has arms that allows them to get up better because the more modern seating what you see the younger people getting can be 16, 17 inches off the ground seat height, and we can get higher seating for older people. So you want to be more comfortable because that older, you know, if you’ve ever been to a home [00:12:00] where, you know, at our age and you go to sit down on a sofa and it’s hard to get back up. You understand exactly what I mean.
Paula: I know exactly what you mean, because I’m becoming a lot more conscious of that. I go to a place, even restaurants, and I look around like, okay, should I take the seats that, you know, when they have those tables at higher seats? Sometimes I’m like, I’ll opt for that because it’s easier to get. In and out that now one of those lounging chairs that I know I’ve got to be like my kids.
I would be okay. Come pull me up, right? Yeah it’s a lot more difficult. Well, you know, I know off camera we talked about, you know, we’re talking again about people between the ages 40 plus. Right? Or 35 plus, 40 plus. And you told, you said, you know, in the past some people would redesign their houses so that by giving the entrance to the house, they’ll put a ramp. But you said there are better ways of doing that [00:13:00] now.
Monique: Well, there’s better ramps. There are better ramps out there that instead of the just old, I mean, there you can still take the metal ramp. You know, that’s what you usually see, right? So you can take those kind of ramps and you can screen them with plantings and different things so that they’re not so obvious to the house. But now they have electronic ramps that go from flat to stairs. And so, you know, you can walk onto it and then it lifts you up for someone who needs a little bit more assistance getting into the house and walk straight into the house, but then it can go back and convert to stairs for those that, you know, do climb stairs.
So it can be multifunctional. They have all new. I mean, the products that they have out today are cutting edge and I expect that to continue going forward. And so my job will be to, you know, just educate people on what’s out there. We’ll, you know, start doing a series on Instagram and LinkedIn and the various social media platforms. To just kind of educate people about, you know, [00:14:00] here’s some simple things that you can do for example, for $1,000 it, you know, most people could change the light bulbs in their house to LED lighting, they could do lever handles. So instead of knobs, because, you know, maybe you get harder to turn them.
Paula: A single level faucet as well. And then you have those little toggle light switches. So those are just four things that while we’re designing, we can just make sure those things get done while the contractors are already there. And then you can slowly start implementing them. Another thing is people are not aware that there’s financing available for a lot of the retrofits. And so we can educate them on that and we can refer them to resources for which they can apply. There’s resources for, you know, everyday humans, but there’s also resources for veterans as well.
Okay. That’s awesome to know. Financing is possible, because some people, you know, know what they need to get done, but just thinking about [00:15:00] how they’re going to afford it is what keeps them back.
Monique: Right. And then there’s tax deductions for some of these things, too. Depends on, you know, are you a business owner that’s in your home? And, you know, working out of your home and you need these things not, you know, not only for yourself, but maybe for clients that might be coming in as well. Say if you have a tax business and you know, maybe the client chooses a side door or what have you. Is the door radius or the width wide enough? So, you know, these are all the things, you know, we’re always asking clients about, okay, who else lives in your home? Who else do we need to consider? How often do you have parties?
Are they mostly family? Are they younger people? Older people? So I kind of let people in advance know that the purpose of our questions is not really to pry and to violate any HIPAA laws. The purpose of our questionnaire is to make sure that we can help you with what we’re educated about to make sure that as we’re designing your home, we can recommend fitting in, you know even you know, we can start with some things that you know, [00:16:00] most of my clients don’t have any issues. So when I say, you know, we should think about ADA, many just are dismissive or they laugh and they say, I’m not old. I can still walk. I can still do everything I, you know, need to do. But that’s really not the point. The point is preparing.
Paula: Preparing. That’s the key. Preparing because yes, we may not be old today. Like some things that I know that didn’t bother me. Like I live in a house with stairs and two years ago, my niece started bothering me. And for the first time, I thought to myself, I didn’t listen. That probably should have had my bedroom on the first floor. So, you know, when I was, when the house was being built, that wasn’t a consideration because I’m not old. But when he started to bother me and I’m like, I didn’t think five years ahead, 10 years ahead, 15 years. So that’s very valid.
Monique: And we never think it’s going to happen to us. And you know, I remember, you [00:17:00] know, me and my husband were enjoying life and we were just waiting to graduate the last kid from high school. And then my dad got ill and got dementia and had to move in with us. And so, we weren’t prepared for that adjustment. You know, it’s not just preparing for us. Like I said, it’s the extended family. So, you know, as a people, we typically take care of our parents, right? We’ll take care of a sister as we need.
So it’s just not necessarily preparing for the unknown with you, it’s other people as well. So I try to like communicate that to people now people aren’t always receptive to it But many of our clients call us back later and say I remember you said something about this, you know, we’re at a point now where someone has an allergy? We might need to change out the rug or something of that nature. We need something that’s because we have a parent now here and you know, there’s accidents. Can we get a more man made rug that’s cleanable? So, people start thinking about it, but you know, boy, if we had thought about some of these things [00:18:00] ahead of time, I’m not advocating that we prepare for doomsday. I’m just saying, the more you’re educated about this stuff, and that’s part of helping, right? The more you educated about this stuff you can think about it as you decide when you’re retrofitting your house and your bathroom and your flooring, you can start to think about these sorts of things.
Paula: Yeah. So you know we talked about, you know, as a people we take care of our elderly, but we also love our younger ones like grandchildren.
Monique: Oh my god.
Paula: There we go. I knew that was going to touch you. So how do you talk to, you know, people who are, you know, expecting grandchildren, already have grandchildren about, you know, putting that into consideration with the design, redesign of their homes?
Monique: So I mentioned it. I, you know, especially I’m always asking how many children they have and what their ages are. You know, if they’re [00:19:00] young children, 9, 10, I mean, I’m not really talking about that. Just trying to find out so much if the current children have any issues that I should be concerned about, or I should be aware of. But if they are about to be empty nesters, then say, oh, eventually you’re going to have grandchildren and so I won’t… I’m not trying to sell that from day one. What I’m saying is when I do the presentation, I may have options of those cleanable rugs, more cleanable man made rugs that take into account the unknown.
And so I’ll do a mix and say, hey, this is, you know, you know, wool rug. You know, this is a natural fiber versus this is more of a man made fiber and just educate them. I mean, that’s the beauty of an interior designer. We’re educated about the products that we sell. And so we can talk about the benefits of a wall rug versus a viscose rug, you know, a rug that’s partially polyester and viscose where that doesn’t respond well to water. And getting wet and can [00:20:00] discolor very easily. So that’s our job to educate, and we’re doing that already. But now we just have more stuff to educate them about now.
Paula: Gotcha, gotcha. I want to talk about something that is standard, beds.
Monique: Beds.
Paula: Yes, all of us sleep. You know, I used to love sleeping on couches until I realized, okay, I may love it, but my back doesn’t. So, , what advice can you give to, you know, those of us who are realizing again that our bodies are aging. I mean, we, in our minds, we still think we are 16 at least I still think I’m 30. I’m not. . And my son reminded me, mom, you know you’re not 30. I’m like, yeah, I know that. Thank you.
Monique: I mean the advice I would give to people about beds is just to take we don’t sell beds. I mean we can sell beds and mattresses, but that’s such a personal choice that I opt not to sell that I want people to go out sleep on [00:21:00] mattresses. There are people who do nothing but sell those you know, do you have issues? Where maybe you might need a lift bed. And so they can educate you more on the various types of beds, but also those showrooms allow you to lay on beds, right?
You can just lay on them. You can read all the literature on them. They’re very educated about them because that’s all they sell. And so I think beds is a very personal choice as well as pillows. We’ll buy pillows for people, but, you know, I’ll say, hey, do you know what type of pillow you prefer? And if they don’t, I’m saying, okay, this is what we’re getting you. In case you want to take a look but, you know, we will buy those, but I prefer not to even buy pillows because that’s also a personal thing. It depends on, you know, if you have a spinal issue or a slight curvature in your spine, there are certain pillows that you shouldn’t be sleeping.
You know, there are some that are hypoallergenic that So you want to be careful you know, I try to be careful about selling those things just because I think those two things are very personal choice [00:22:00] and you need to get the investment in a mattress today, a quality mattress is thousands of dollars. You could spend three thousand or you could spend 12, 000 on a mattress. So that’s just not something, you know, i’m going to stay in the lane of what i’m an expert in.
Paula: Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Hey, you know, we’ve been speaking for almost 30 minutes now. So what’s…
Monique: Really?
Paula: Yeah.
Monique: It seems like, you know, it’s easy to talk to you, Paula. It really is. I just thought we were just done for about 10 minutes.
Paula: Not at all. But it’s because the conversation is so gripping and so I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying every bit of it. All right. So, before we round up. What’s one thing that you really want to share with everyone?
Monique: I think that the one thing that I would like to share with everyone is to take time to go to our website and, or social media and take a look at us. And, [00:23:00] you know, one of the things that I recommend to my clients, I do want everybody that I talk to hire me. Right. But at the end of the day. Hiring a designer should be a good fit. And so you should look at when you interview designers or when you call a designer, you may want to call more than one and have something to compare to because, you know, as with many of my clients, I start every year with repeat clients because we’ve established that rapport and it started from the very first time we met each other. We connected. We felt it was the right relationship, right? And so I think that’s critically important. Is that you make sure you take time to research the, you know, the company that you’re hiring and make the best choice for you.
I mean, you know, you kind of know when it feels right, right? And you kind of know when you’re checking all the boxes of whether this person is professional, whether they’re on time, you know, whether they appear to be someone who [00:24:00] would keep their promise in terms of what they told you that they could deliver. So, you know, this is not just like buying a car. It’s not a process to be taken lightly. Designers can offer wonderful benefit to clients that hire them. But, you know, you definitely want to make sure that you take time to, you know, find the person for you, whether it be looking through social media or getting a referral from one of your friends or family.
Paula: That’s so true. I mean, this is a personal thing. This person’s gonna be coming into your home.
Monique: Yes.
Paula: This is your safe space. This is the space you come home to. This is where you want to feel happy and comfortable. It’s important, I think, to have a good relationship with whoever that person is.
Monique: Yeah. So treat that, you know, like an interview. And I’m sure that, you know, many of my colleagues in the interior design world would say that I won’t do that. That’s not really a good thing. But I do. It’s important to me that the people that work with me [00:25:00] are a good fit. And so, you know, if people say I’ve looked at you and you know, everything that I’ve seen is what I want.
So please come, you know, we’ll do that. But if someone says they’re interviewing other people, I say that’s great. I encourage that and I’ll look forward to hearing back from you because I think they’re going to call me back. So, you know, I’m pretty confident in what we do and the service we provide to our clients.
Paula: Absolutely. It’s like when I told you I was doing a podcast, you said, I’m going to get you a room that will just be just right for you and your podcast.
Monique: Yes.
Paula: Here we are. So I know you mentioned that people should go to your website, but are there any other places they can find you? Are you on Instagram? Because some people I realize that. They just favor one spot. Some may be okay, linkedIn. Some may be like, they go to your website.
Monique: Well, Instagram and Facebook are typically the social media platforms that my clients are visiting on a day to day [00:26:00] basis. We will start adding more content on LinkedIn. That’s really not where we’ve been putting a lot of content. We do intend to do that. As we, you know, educate people about the whole ADA accessibility piece that can be incorporated into design, but you can find me on Instagram, you know, hollandcustomdesigns or Facebook as well. We have a business page on both.
Paula: Awesome. And so, hasn’t she been amazing, everyone? She is the best. As far as I’m concerned.
Monique: Thank you, Paula.
Paula: I may be biased, but I believe she did the best. And so for those of you who would like to be a guest just like Monique has been, I ask for you to reach out to me on my website, which is chattingwiththeexperts.com. I’m also on LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn. So I’m always there. I’m on Instagram. My handle there is at chat_experts_podcast. And I’m also on Facebook [00:27:00] and you know, we always encourage you if you have watched this show to reach out to our guests because they’re amazing. But for those of you who have joined us today, please stay back so that you can have a one on one chat with Monique and learn more about. Some of the things that she probably forgot to mention or didn’t think of mentioning while we were speaking now. And of course, I have to end by saying Monique, you are the best and thank you.
Monique: Thank you, Paula. Thank you for having me.
Paula: Absolutely.