The Ins & Outs - Honky-Tonk Bars & Ghost Stories

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Polly's back from her trip to Nashville and Jojo freaks us all out with her real life sighting of a ghost!Polly takes us inside the house of Elvis, honky-tonk bars and even behind the curtain of a Voodoo priestess.Then we answer some of your questions on bulbs, septic tanks, rugs and grout!InstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonProducer Andy - @andy_rowe_WebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this episode of the Inns and Outs with myself, Jojo Barr, and the ever so lovely Paulina Wilkinson. Today we're having a major catch up because Paul's back from Nashville. We're talking voodoo dolls and ghosts, sports day, bulbs, septic tanks, rugs and grout, and a little bit about hot rats and battered willies so let's just dive on in hello my darling hello mate i'm so excited to catch up with you this week we have got so much to talk about paul oh it's been a busy one catch me up what's been going on pal no mate we have to start with you you just got back from n Tennessee baby come on let's hear it I want to hear all about it

was it amazing oh my god it was the best US city I have ever been to it's been like goals forever it is such a party but it's such a party at like four in the afternoon so that i can still go to bed like a nana nice and early it's so fun is it just permanent like so okay just let me help me envisage it take me there okay so we actually landed really really late but had a little nap on the plane so quite energized went straight Went straight to Broadway, which is, I guess, kind of the Times Square or Leicester Square of Nashville. And it is called Honky Tonk Row. And it is just honky tonk after honky tonk after honky tonk. Honky tonk being a place where there's like live bands playing music.

But this starts at like 10 in the morning and goes till 2am live music constantly it is such a vibe and like if you love country music or even rock music because like so what's really interesting about broadway is loads of famous country and rock singers have a honky tonk they own them so like miranda lambert has one mor Morgan Wallen has one who's just got that new song with Post Malone yeah Kid Rock has one so they're all owned by sort of famous dons of the country or rock and roll era and it's band after band it's mostly cover songs but not always and I basically my blood is basically 90% Margarita now it's Nashville where you want to go or is it because there's Nashville

and then there's New Orleans isn't there is it there's one that's like you've got to go. Yeah so we went to both we did Nashville first so we learned we did line dancing learned how to line dance which was a highlight bought some cowboy boots bought a I had like a custom cowboy hat made for me where they like steam the top of it are you ever actually gonna wear them here for a festival or a costume party funny you say that but actually every year Brad and I have a party here it's called zig rock because our girls birthdays are two years and one day apart from actually on Monday and Tuesday this coming week so I'm sleep manic at the moment and we have a party every year called zig rock And we have decided the next Zigrock that we do is actually going to be a

Yellowstone themed. And I think it's because we are so in love with anything country vibes. Yeah. So you've got an opportunity to wear it. Next time we have Zigrock, you've you just come girl. Well, mate,

I'll wear it then. Yeah. Oh, mate. It's so good to have you back. I've just been so, so looking forward to seeing you and catching up and hearing all your news. I miss you and I really miss you when you're away.

I miss you and I don't speak to you for a whole week. Look, dude, I need to tell you something that happened in New Orleans. Tell me. I went to see a voodoo priestess. Holy shit. Can we just talk about what this means? Tell me what this means. I need more.

I need a lot more than this. I just. It's really interesting actually so I did um we did like a ghost tour of New Orleans because obviously it's got it's sort of reputed to be the most haunted city in America the hotel we were staying in actually when I said oh we're going to do a ghost tour she went oh well this hotel's haunted you're going to see a guy um every night he just walks across and there's a little girl on the stairs too and I was like casual cool casual which made going to the loo in the middle of the night a bit scary And every night he just walks across and there's a little girl on the stairs too. I was like, Cool.

Which made going to the loo in the middle of the night a bit scary. I'm kind of into it. I feel like I've, I've met, I've met ghosts before and I have, I'm like, I love it. Love that stuff.

Have you? I loved, I love, yeah, I have full on. You think you've seen a ghost? Tell me more. Oh no,

no, no, like a hundred percent. I lived in a, um, I lived in the old brewery in henley on thames and in a previous life and our apartment essentially on the ground floor backed onto henley graveyard um and uh which is where actually hold a dusty springfield is buried in henley on thames graveyard so dusty springfield people come in Henley-on-Thames graveyard. So Dusty Springfield. People come in coaches

to pay their respects to Dusty Springfield. Did you see the ghost of Dusty Springfield? No, I haven't seen her. Basically, I was home one day and as you know, I am quite wee-woo. I've always considered myself to be someone that believes in the other side and spirits and things. So maybe that means I'm slightly more open

to it. I don't know. But I was one day just standing there doing the ironing and the back doors were open we've got a courtyard and it goes and there's a wall like a sort of almost like a walled garden and then behind it is Henley brewery at Henley uh cemetery and it suddenly I suddenly was ironing and I got really I got chilly I got like a full-on chill going through me it was a summer's day and i looked up mid up mid iron and this woman was literally walking through the living room completely white walking through the living room and i just stopped and literally watched her go out the door and then just go across the courtyard and through the wall yeah and then a similar thing happened with us with a small so i told i told my

ex and i was like this thing happened and he was a small so i told i told my ex i was like this thing happened and he was like okay you're just nuts but he was quite cool like that so he was like okay anyway we had this care to this um the sort of the local caretaker that looked after the henley brewery it's got a lovely guy called tony and it was only about two weeks later that tom happened to bump into him was telling him that i'd seen this he's apparently i'd seen this ghost and he was like oh yeah no she's so she's seen the the mum because the mum and her daughter were both found hanging here hundreds of years ago and they haunt this this this whole like oh yeah so it's a mum and a daughter always dressed in white that would like float about this old brewery.

And ever since then, I'm such a firm believer in... I don't know why some you see and some you don't, though. But that's a complete digress from the fact that New Orleans is totally spooky. I don't either. So you didn't see any spirits then floating about in the hotel? No, I loved hearing it. So it didn't say anything, but I did... So there's loads of voodoo culture in um in new

orleans and we went to this sort of shop called omen loved it is it lots of like feathers and like burning incense is it very much like it's very sitting around what's it where you where in the ground in the ground you mark the ground with like a star and then you sit in the middle of it and that kind of thing very witchy it's very witchy yeah yeah it's like the middle of it and that kind of thing. Very witchy. It's very witchy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like the pentagram. It's very witchy. It's kind of witchy meets voodoo. And voodoo's actually a religion, so it's fascinating to learn about that.

Oh, I know what it's from, voodoo. Think James Bond. Think a really, really old James Bond. And they've got the voodoo doll. Do you remember the voodoo where they stick the pins in the voodoo doll? And it's the scene from that James Bond bond so really interestingly the tour we went on the tour we went on said that movies like james bond perpetuate a vision of voodoo is kind of

like all about black magic but actually voodoo is a religion i did not know it's a religion oh it's absolutely fascinating i can bore you for ages about it but we went to this voodoo shop and they've got like loads of voodoo dolls and actually most voodoo dolls are for good things not for bad interestingly fascinatingly i have to tell you this because it's so interesting voodoo dolls were originally for um priestesses of voodoo were healers so what they would do is make you a voodoo doll if you came into the shop with an ailment and then they would put a pin where your ailment was so you had a headache they'd make a little voodoo doll like you so maybe it would be yellow if you had yellow hair

and then they'd put the pin where the headache was and if they gave you a medicine so maybe they gave you ginger they would wrap a piece of ginger on it so that it's essentially an old filing system no so that they could then get when you came back they'd be like oh this is you isn't it with your headache we gave you ginger no way how cool is that that is have you got one have you got one i did buy one oh my god it's a positive one it's one for like prosperity it's basically sage you know like smudging a house with sage, wrapped sage. It's sage. And then it's wrapped in fabric. Wow.

And you sort of ask it for stuff or whatever. But let me tell you about this priestess whose name was Keisha. Okay. So I paid my money and they were like, the priestess will be with you shortly. And she was sat behind a curtain on her iPhone. And I was like, again, this is ruining the magic. I was like, is she Googling me just beforehand so that when she sits down she's got something to say?

And does she go, gardens, I see gardens. I see flowers. I see bulb kits. She should have seen a bulb kit. She picked up loads of little bits. It was like a chicken bone and a possum bone and a moonstone and a little baby figurine and twigs and a load of with respect crap and picks it all up and then you sort of tell them your mother

and grandmother's name and then cast it to the table and then she basically reads the stuff. I can't imagine you being into this shit. Well, I mean, it was very off the mark. She did not get anything right okay but I enjoyed it as a kind of hey I'm never coming back to New Orleans again is Nashville just the best experience Nashville is the best fun ever and what's so lovely about it is you don't need to be beautiful young old cool it just, it's such a melting pot of people. And you go into all these bars

and none of them are very fancy. Like everyone's just in shorts and a t-shirt, most in cowboy boots, drinking a margarita or a beer, listening to live music. And it's all day. Have never enjoyed myself more on a city break than Nashville.

If you want to go and listen to some music and have some fun, I would either go with your girlfriends. There was a hell of a lot of hen parties. Or go as a couple. You're going to have the the best time and even if you're not like me I couldn't hack it staying out till 2am we were really jet lagged but it doesn't matter it doesn't matter what time you go it's it's huge fun so good we road tripped from New Orleans back to Nashville so we went to Graceland went and saw Elvis's house did you how was that it's really not that big

I mean Graceland is huge but his house is is very humble modest for Elvis because he's you know he was quite

a showboat wasn't he? he was kind of a big deal and we went to all the plantations as well wow what an experience which was really really sobering

so culturally different is how it feels, doesn't it? It feels like you're walking into a film set, probably. Yeah, I mean, it's wild. So Nashville is like pure country. I really couldn't have said anything more country in my life. New Orleans is this very sort of run down, but very beautiful architecture, these incredible buildings. And then we got in the car and we drove and did many of the plantations in Louisiana which was desperately heartbreaking because obviously learning all about slaves and

and their treatment and and how people used to live so that was absolutely fascinating and then drove up through Mississippi amazing yeah it really eye-opening now please stop talking about me and tell me what you've been up to tell me tell me tell me well i've got a really nasty sty which is two weeks it's been around and on top of that i then picked up the read i can't wear earphones because i've got um i've got an ear infection so i went to the doctor because this ear infection got really nasty and this looks like i've been punched in the face um i've attempted to sort of scrape something together of this but i i'm basically went to the doctor and she's like you are really run down to have a stomach and an ear infection at the same time i was like you're very run down i was like i am but i'm run down for good reason because our uh first off our charity

auction ended last night at 8 p.m we raised 70 000 pounds which actually makes it feel quite emotional and quite teary because it's such a huge deal I know I feel really proud and I'm Bella and Daisy Craig and Belle and I honestly feel quite like I'm welling up thinking about it but it ended last night and it was such a huge I don't know it just felt so, we put so much into it

and the amount of amazing people like yourself who donated their time and things to us and £70,000 feels like it's going to make such a difference to so many little children's lives. So I feel very, very, my heart feels really full today. I feel very grateful. But no rest for the wicked,

because this mum had to get up this morning after being woken up at quarter to six by my little one, because it's sports day. This morning was sports day. And I know, so so which is amazing our local our village school is incredible and they've got on this insane sports day for ziggy at for ziggy ziggy you know well her um her school and for ziggy it was such a big deal because last year was her first ever year at the school and she just didn't get involved with anything at all

like froze cried cried the whole way through. And this year, she's like a different kid. She was just beaming. The tooth fallout fell out, by the way. The Nanny McPhee tooth fell out this week as well. So that was kind of big news. So finally, now she's got that amazing little like double gap thing. You know, they look like little kind of, they look like little vampires.

Don't they? It's so freaking cute. And she just was beaming. And she was oh i was i feel such a proud mom but i had i took rocky with me as well this morning and i got involved of course i did of course i got involved in the mom's race of course there was how'd you do wipe the floor i have to say it's really funny because me and my friend lucy who is an avid ins and outs listener by the way she's an outie yes lucy uh me and my mate lucy we were there she whipped her shoes off and she threw them to the side and she's like i you know i'm kind of menstrual and i'm not really into this and i you know we're just going

to take it easy and i was like yeah no me neither as i'm literally like like literally stretching out my car no no me neither so the parent we got mom's got split into two because there's so many of us split into two there's lucy and i side, split into two. And there was Lucy and I side by side being, oh, we'll just take it easy. And as soon as he went go, we just were like, you know, the competitive, oh my God. My competitive side came out so hard. I was like.

Anyway, I came fourth in the first, so I got pulled into the final, the mums. And of course then I ran out of steam and was really crap in the final. But it was really good fun it's actually really fun for your kids to see you kind of partaking in it they're like mommy go mommy so it's really yeah it was really really fun i'm so exhausted at the moment to any any working mums out there juggling kids and trying to run businesses or work it is so fucking full-on like so just pats off to any mums because and actually dads as well given because i'm going

to do that brad he's incredible but it is so full-on isn't it being a working parent because your work doesn't ever stop it is non-stop so you work your day comes to an end and you are so exhausted and you just would love nothing more than to just go and collapse you know in a pub or on the sofa and instead you're second are you looking after yourself though you're taking some vitamins i'm taking all my i am taking i'm getting better at sort of taking all my greens and my bits in the morning but i think there's nothing beats i have to tell you my aura ring is telling me that i'm extremely stressed at the moment but it's all good stress though I can't complain because it's just so much good stuff going on we've got so many all of our jobs like coming to fruition and these incredible offers and working with incredible people I feel genuinely I feel like the stars are

aligning I'm very lucky for everything I have and I cannot complain everything going on in the world what a fucking shit show the world is at the moment i feel so lucky to have everything i do so um in summary and obviously you've also got like this amazing amazing dazzling client oh yes he's no he's a really he's a really nice guy that guy yeah i know the way you mean yeah he's great oh you mean oh you mean no oh you mean you yeah oh she's all right the old girl outdoors you are you actually do you know what you have been a dream and katie and lizzie are like she's great actually she's like so far listening i am worried about your kitchen tile though it's very scratchy underfoot then we need to have a look at that i'm gonna go and stand on it okay we'll go have a look we'll go have a look can you go and do the

rub test do the do the foot actually even you say take your feet off and stand on something get go and give it a rub i did it felt nice the kids stood on it too they liked it too so yeah i'm still pretty confident about it i'm just staring at them drilling holes in my i can hear it it's very very drilly the noise is very drilly so they're working today of course it's friday guess what i'm doing after this come on oh my god of course i know what you're doing oh my god i know where you're going oh my god i know where you're going oh my god you're going i'm going i hate you i actually hate you this is why by the way we're recording we're recording at two o'clock on a fucking friday afternoon because poll is not just

returned from nashville tennessee she's off to see, my God. I'm so excited. If a little nervous about when I shall pee. Come on. Are you wearing your new cowboy boots and your hat? You've got to, surely. No, because, you know, it's three hours. Well, plus there's Paramore, plus there's Griff and Benson Boots. You go on your feet for like five hours.

I can't be wearing brand new shoes. No, no. Comfy trainers. Have you learned all the words to her new album? As if I didn't do that the day it came out. Yeah. I wonder how many people are going to be serious keynotes, just like really giving it some.

Everyone. Every single person in that room is going to be a serious keynote. Do you know how hard it was to get tickets? Come on. Oh my God. Well, I do because I didn't get them. Yes. I remember when you got them, I was like,

Polly, take me. And you're like, no, sorry, I'm going to the pal. I was like, fine. You enjoy that um it's going to be amazing i've had so many good things she's incredible and i actually really like her because i feel like she's a role model she is a bit of a role model for young girls legend what an icon she's an icon so tell me favorite taylor swift song i know i think we might have had this before but tell me favorite song come on no i stop making me choose these things. There is no favourite song. They're all favourites.

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dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not, just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton.

Find your push, find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca Actually, you know what we didn't do? You know what we didn't do? We didn't do your granny's game. What was the best thing you ate? In Nashville.

Jojo, I am so glad you asked the question. Yes. I would like a drop of these. Fried pickles. Fried pickles. Fried pickles? pickles oh yeah pickles don't we call those something here deep fried slices of pickle with ranch i think we do them here don't we do them here do you like a fried sausage here that you get from a fish and chip shop like a deep fried sausage or never had one it's called something like a wet isn't it called like

a wet willy do you mean a wally oh is it called a wally not a willy oh then that's got me thinking about what a green willy oh pickle willy oh my god let's not go this don't don't deep fry that oh god they were amazing they comes with like a bit of ranch dressing battered a battered willy a battered willy nothing nicer than a battered willy it was very good i'm glad we played that game battered willies yes yes i didn't take yes he came with me he came to america with me yes he's brilliant we just had the best time do you know it's so lovely we went away and we just had the best time i mean the fact that this man agreed to go line dancing with me i think tells you everything you need to know about this guy oh he's a really good egg he's a great egg and a massive foodie too so

we basically just ate our way around uh america which was great and uh essentially just had an iv drip of margarita for the entire week so i need some time we actually danced we did we danced oh did you dance okay can i i've got a big i've got a question actually for all our innings and outies can you tell me where there is somewhere that like people over the age of sort of 30 basically anyone that's sort of born in the 80s where we can go now to actually go and dance i'd love to know the answer to this one like really dance like i want to be like i want to go and get down and sweaty in a club without feeling like i'm really old like i just want to get down i want to get i want to have some garage music just want to get down I want to get I want

to have some garage music I want to get some I don't want some garage real 90s I love garage music an old school garage old school garage I think I I think I missed that by about five years pal I think our age difference is showing here oh I love it okay and so anyway anyway old school garage for me bit of 90s R&b yeah i want the 90s r&b please mate we need to talk about something really important and that is the rise of the hot rodent men have you heard about the hot rodent men no tell me it's a thing you know like i was educating you about the sock situation about the millennial socks i need to look soft as you're speaking so the hot rodent men is basically that they're saying that

the hot men in movies etc at the moment all look like rats now and now which brings me to a theory I have oh my god it's so true so an example would be timothy chalamet he kind of looks like a rat oh my god I'm looking at pictures and then there's um the guy that played charles what's his name josh o'connell this is fascinating i'm now guys i'm now looking at pictures i cannot get over the rats give me give me more rat men examples because then i'm going to tell you my theory jeremy allen white yeah like from the bear josh o'connor josh o'connor that's it total rat matt healy's very ratty the king rat as far as i could be ratty mr big's a, as far as I can see. Incredibly ratty. Mr. Big's a rat. Here's the theory, though, right?

Rise of the Rat Men. But my theory has been, and my friends and I have a long-standing theory about this, is that everyone in the world can be categorised as either a pig or a rat. Okay. Literally everyone. So, looking at us, I am obviously a pig. Is there such a thing? And you are so obviously a rat.

Am I? Am I I though? you are the rat to my pig you're my pig you're my little pig you're my little pig hold on then, is there such a thing as the hot pig man? there might be but there's not a rise of them this summer

give it a time right now it's all about the rats some really funky shit's come up on my google search now I think I need to turn safe search on I don't think I can unsee that what i've just seen jojo play the game with me tell me some famous people and then we'll they'll decide if they're a pig or a rat or what about it does it apply so it does apply to men and women yes no this is not this is not discriminatory against anyone everyone can either be a pig or a rat ryan

gosling is definitely a rat yes but his wife is a pig she's a pig she is a pig i think brad's a rat brad's a rat so you're both rats so i think it's quite interesting because usually couples are one pig one rat i would say that's slightly more piggy brad's definitely a rat i could tell you're a rat mate you're a rat am i yeah but you can play it with your friends it's a fun game to tell each other who's a pig who's a rat and you can play it on the street as well so you can sit if you're having a coffee people watching you can be like pig don't go and tell them though because that might be quite offensive like don't don't maybe go and say oh my god mate you're a rat don't do that or i once did

that at a dinner party with someone i didn't know and she didn't like being called a rat but i was like would you have rather pig well i wouldn't actually call a pig actually should we should we try and squeeze in a couple of questions here massive catch-up look look we haven't chatted for a week have we actually even got time sorry guys that's a really long that was such a long catch-up right jojo i have a question here from jenny i'm going slightly insane looking at the millions of options online does jojo have any tips on choosing the right living room rug rules on size, material. I've got a south and east facing room and I want a neutral green or calm scheme.

So rugs are a little bit like artwork. So either you want to look at it and be drawn to it and it stand out or you want to use it as a bit more of a sort of base to sort of almost feel furniture to sit on and you almost don't see it so a bit like a bit like yeah I'm going to refer back to artwork again but if you put a picture on a wall and it's very busy and it's got lots of color your eye is going to go immediately to it the rug is going to do the same thing it's going to serve the same purpose so if you go with a sort of a more colorful pattern rug, it's going to make the room feel more busy. So if you want a calm, natural, neutral scheme,

then I'd say you're better going with something like a large sizal or especially it's going to help make the room feel bigger. Something like a sizal or even a wool or even a burbo would look lovely. Also, anything light is going to make the room feel bigger. Size-wise, your standard rug tends to be about two by three. That's sort of the most common rug size. It can fit just about under any furniture. Even if it's just sort of fits under,

if it's a big room, you want to get a bit bigger, ideally. Size or rugs will always come bigger and they're quite cost-effective. So you can get those pretty much anywhere um but i would say keep it quite calm and neutral and not too busy if you want to go with that kind of calm scheme that would be my my advice i'm not anyone knows i love myself an antique persian that's a very washed out look because I feel like it's a really nice way to pull colour through.

So a rug can actually help connect colours in your room. If you do just put down a size of rug, it's obviously just a large sort of, it's just creating a little bit of softness. Whereas anything with a bit of pattern and colour is going to help pull your cushions and your sofa colours and your artwork and everything through as well so you'd be amazed the impact a rug can actually have in a room um yeah i hope that's helpful i tend to go as big as possible i'd say an area rug

i always go as big as possible with a with a rug under under a living area i feel like i like they're called i call them area rugs yeah no one wants a mean rug, do they? No one wants it. It's nothing worse than you see your sofas and your chairs, and then you've got a rug that sort of just sits under your coffee table. You want your rug to go underneath the legs of your sofa and your coffee table, and even just, you know, the front legs of the chair, if need be. But as big as you can possibly go, I always say. Okay, this one's from sarah i have a septic tank in the middle of my back garden which i would like to hide because obviously it looks awful it is visible from two bedrooms and a living room i'm thinking maybe an acer tree in a large pot sitting in top with some

kind of a rockery and plants like campanula growing in and around it a question mark so she's wondering what to do about it well that's tricky yes septic tanks are or any sort of big covers or things um in the middle of my back garden you know i presumably have a i have a septic tank under my it does she mean a septic tank like it's sitting on the on the lawn i'm not because i think that would be a very interesting way for her to put a pot on top of it so i'm going to assume it's sunken but that there's some sort of either manhole or big a drain cover yeah we've got the exact same thing yeah but it might be that something that protrudes higher they often do they'll often be like almost they look they look a bit like a

hot tub cover sort of above they can sit proud you've got a drain cover in one area and then we've got the poop we call it the poo pipe the poo pipe then sticks up a bit further away from it which we had to move because can you imagine the smell not nice septic tanks are not a vibe so i feel you sarah i feel you i'm actually interested so yeah a number of options here we have in the past moved septic tanks but obviously that's a really big job but it's very annoying when a septic tank is right in the middle of the garden like that because it is an eyesore the one mistake I see quite frequently is almost what you're suggesting which is putting a tree in a pot because what essentially you're doing then is going look over here look look over here there's something to look

at and it can often not make sense so if you're going to do a planting island to hide it I would suggest you do more than one planting island because one on its own looks like you're trying to hide something it's almost like look look look and then it's like why have you done that whereas if you can actually do a design where you've repeated some planting islands and maybe obviously I appreciate why you need to put a tree in a pot there but if you can do planting sort of around it and then repeat then it looks like an intentional decision rather than you're trying to screen something i would normally say screen it with hedging but if it's right in the center of your garden that's going to look absolutely bonkers um without knowing the size of your garden it's also quite difficult because there

can be ways that you can introduce hedging to sort of divide up the space. If you've got enough that you can, that you can turn it into rooms and then obviously you can introduce the hedging and you can be quite clever about where you position it so that it looks like a natural ending of the space and then beyond it is the next room. But obviously it totally depends on the size of your garden there. So if you have a big garden, consider zoning it off.

And if you don't, planting islands. Brilliant. Nice one. Thanks, Paul. Okay, I've got one from Mackenzie. Hi there. We're remodeling our powder room and struggling with the grout colour. I chose a dark green tile backsplash and a beige grey tile floor. Do you recommend finding a grout that goes well with both or choosing two different grouts?

Thank you for creating such a lovely podcast. It brings joy in my morning commute. Ah. Oh, thank you so much. It's a powder room. Is that the loo? Downstairs loo? It's a loo.

It's a really nice way of saying cloakroom. Yeah. That's adorable. Lovely way of saying cloakroom. You want to always try and match your grout colour to your tile as best you can. It needs to be intentional. So there's nothing worse when you have a gray tile and you

put like a white grout or indeed the other way around gray tile white grout just looks terrible it's quite old-fashioned it's sort of it's just not it's not a great look so you want to try and match as best you can um to the color of the tile if you have a um a tile that's got many colors try and go with the most neutral of the color so for instance if it's a closest to a beige for example go with it go the closest because it's essentially the it's the color that's going to help the tiles connect and blend so you want the tiles to blend you don't really want unless you intentionally want your tiles to look like they're each standing out individually. But by doing that, you're going to make the wreath feel very busy.

So we want to kind of try and use them. So if you've got two very different coloured tiles, then I would say go choose different grout colours. So what did she say, Paul, on the floor? I think she said a beige grey tile on the floor. So go with something with a beige. She said dark green tile backsplash so she's got dark green as a backsplash so presumably she wants a dark green grout and then she's got a beige gray tile floor so she wants a beige gray grout well it's i have to be

honest it's a bit of a tricky one mackenzie because it depends so on the on the beige gray go with more of a sort of beige you want to get just get as close as you can you can get these brilliant grout charts where you can literally have little samples of the actual grout, what it looks like, as opposed to just a colour, a bit of paper, and lay it next to the tile. And you can see really subtle changes

between different colours of white, different shades of white, different shades of grey. And you'll see which is the closest to the tile. I would always say try and lean more towards the beige and the gray personally because i think it helps soften as you know i'm not actually fine with that great um so it'll counter counter out the gray and warm it up a bit the green it's so dependent on the green tile whether you want it to stand out or kind of blend green grout is going to be a really hard thing to come by because i don't think it's going to be an obvious thing to

find so um then you're better off going probably something like a sort of maybe more like a beige i hate the word beige like an oatmeal sort of color you're probably better off going down that route to be honest and it also depends also what you've got going around the walls so have you got painted is the rest of the bathroom painted or is it wallpapered um so you want to almost connect that color as well so if your walls are painted a sort of soft putty color pull that color through in your grout you know what i mean so you don't want to wrap i wouldn't great green is gonna be really hard to color to find i think you probably wouldn't do that anyway so i'd go with more of a

sort of oatmeal beige color on your on the greens yeah But don't feel like you've got to match them in short. Okay. Um, Paul, I've got one here from Jana. Dear Polly and Jojo, I'm obsessed with the pod and listen to every episode, sometimes twice to take notes. That's amazing. Thank you. It's incredibly helpful. So thank you for all your great knowledge that you share. I have an outie question. Can you do a bulb lasagna in the lawn or only in pots i know it's not autumn yet but i can't stop ruminating about possible early and late flowering bulbs and how best to arrange them thank you so much that's such a cool question actually love that yeah really cool i'm never not ruminating about bulbs myself um well i mean the point of a bulb lasagna is because pots have a finite amount of space.

And that's why we do that. So you're trying to cram a lot of colour into a small space. So therefore, you don't really need to in a normal border, because usually there's enough space that you can kind of do rows or you can scatter such, you know, because you've got obviously a far more infinite space. That's not to say, obviously, you could, because if it works in a pot, it will work in the border. It's just usually you have enough that you can sort of put them all side by side rather than needing to the answer short answer is yes um it's actually not too early to start thinking about

bulbs can you believe that's come around again but we're going to be releasing our new bulb collection so our color collections in a month or two and it's coming up to the time to start buying your bulbs because the good ones sell out and they certainly sell out by the time everyone else cares about them in autumn so um just a little plug our bulb guides are still online but new colour schemes are also going to be coming out in a month or two as well so you're not too early you're well done good stuff and i think that brings us to the end my friend i need to get on a train to taylor swift that was a super quick question time guys we'll try and give you a bumper edition next time i appreciate we've had loads to catch up on and obviously our poll's got

to get off to see her gal taylor swift so that leads us to one one question what is in and what is out this week i think in has to be Hot Rat Men. Rat Men. Hot Rodent Men. I'm a rat man. I'm a rat man. Okay, so in is Hot Rat Men. So what is out? Your paint collection.

Yes. Thank you, Paul. Do you know what? Let's do that. Our new green paint collection with coats. If you haven haven't if you haven't got your samples yet then why for goodness sake why i don't have any samples yet no you haven't have you you need to order them actually this unacceptable this coming week when this episode comes out there'll be lots more content going up about the greens and how we use them where to use them why why we didn't really brought the

greens out i mean i'm so excited about them really buzzing about these greens they are so beautiful i cannot tell you how much i love coats to work with they're such cool cool cool they're a cool cool company and i love them and i feel very lucky to be working with them so the greens are quite frankly sexual if anyone that's actually ordered it when please send me pictures of what it looks like on your furniture or wall or wherever you're going to use it i'm so excited so excited dude well done proud of you okay right on that note go and get out of here i need to go change into my to my outfit into my costume i'll live video you when i'm there it'll feel like you're there with me can you please do

so good to catch up sweet cheeks have the best time I love you so much bye innies and outies we adore you so much and also please go and vote for us in the podcast awards because that would be awesome and quite surreal and very pinch me and we love you you're the best

oh and I forgot to say if you love us then like subscribe follow share with friends oh share with your fellow swifties this week and i would also like you to share with any hot rodent men you should be taking some ins and out cards or some pamphlets and just throwing them around the mosh pit at the taylor swift concert oh talk about a captive audience of our people can you imagine our pe I mean, honestly, you should actually, we should have printed you some leaflets and you just scatter them around like confetti.

Just that Taylor's... Tell you what, I'll pop on the stage quickly. Taylor won't mind. I'd be amazed if Taylor didn't listen to us, actually. I'm sure she's, I'm sure Taylor would love to know tips on bulbs and curtain headings. I bet she, and what not to put on your windowsills. Taylor's a rat. 100% she's a rat. All right. I bet she... And what not to put on your windowsills. Taylor's a rat.

100% she's a rat. All right. I love you, team. All right, then. Bye-bye. Off you go. Off you go, you little piglet. Green, the color of true elation. Hey, it's Mitch from SideNote Podcast, and I'm here to tell you about the new Google Pixel 9, powered by Gemini. Anyone who knows me knows the Pixel has always been my favorite out of

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