Jillian Harris talks Vintage Antique Décor, and Back to School

Jillian Harris talks to MyFixitUpLife about vintage antique décor and keeping organized for back to school.

Jillian is best-known as host of HGTV’s ‘Love It Or List It: Vancouver,’ as an ABC’s ‘Bachelorette’ 5th season contestant and popular ‘Bachelor’ commentator, and as a designer for ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. She now has a new vintage shop called Charlie Ford.

Here’s our interview with Jillian:

Theresa:           You are inside MyFixitUpLife with my husband, Mark.

Mark:              And my wife Theresa and we are dealing with back to school and working on small spaces and designing in little areas. We’ve got a friend on the phone, who I’m not sure knows anything about that because her designs have been gigantic.

Theresa:          Oh, I think she knows about small spaces too. She’s doing a lot with vintage right now, which is so exciting. Hi Jillian Harris, how are you?

Jillian:              I’m good. How are you? Thanks for having me.

Theresa:          We’re doing fantastic. It is a beautiful summer. I have been looking at all of your gorgeous post on Instagram, from Charlie Ford, all of the cool things that you’re doing with them and all the vintagey stuff that you’re doing.

Jillian:              I know, it has truly been my passion project. I’ve been working hard over the last few years at Extreme Makeover and Love It or List It, all kinds of fun projects but this one is really my baby. We have been putting in wise savings and elbow grease and late nights working on selling fabulous vintage decor online. We’re up and running and we’re doing well. We’re running all over the country side looking for cool antiques to put online for people and it’s been my new little passion project, it’s been fun.

Mark:              I was checking out some of the photos and some of your projects that you’ve been doing with this and beyond this at JillianHarris.com and the photography, let’s just say I want to get my car and go to wherever that is and live there.

Jillian:              I have to say, I use my iPhone for everything, almost everything. I’ve gotten really creative about photography because I’m always on the go and I’m always traveling from here to there. It’s hard to bring my big heavy camera with me and then if I do, then it’s like, well then you have to upload it and then you have to edit it. I’m just starting getting good on the iPhone and figuring out how to edit pictures and make them look fabulous. In any light, I’m pretty lucky to live in the part of the world that I do and we’re close to the lake and close to the ocean and close to the mountain. I’ve always got something pretty to take a picture of.

Theresa:          We’re talking about back to school on today’s show and all of the gorgeous pictures and all of the vintage finds that you have, you’re thinking about and talking with some of the girls that I know that are going back to school, dorm rooms and apartments and even our little Lexi who’s 12 and now she’s sort of in that age where she doesn’t want to have that little girl room anymore but wants to have that fantasy that you’re showing in all of your finds. Do you have any advice for all these girls, they’re going back to school and designing and trying to create that same feel that you’re able to create?

Jillian:              Yeah. Definitely, one of my biggest design mantras is not to spend more than you have. If you are going back to school, I’m going to take a wild guess that you’re likely taking that alone or you’re tight for cash. I think that your space is actually very, very important. I’m a huge believer that how your space works and feels is a reflection on how you’re going to feel for the rest of the day. We wake up and a great little bachelorette pad or a bachelor pad and you feel it screams your name and it’s got your personality and it’s clean and tidy and it’s designed right, you feel like you could just, oh, have a coffee and go take on the world.

I actually do believe that it’s very important as everybody goes off to school. They think about what the theme of their place is going to be. What it’s going to look like? What they’re going to do for storage solutions? I think parents think all of this isn’t a big deal. You just have to focus on your school but if you’re living for year in a tiny little cramped space and you haven’t given a huge thought as to, what’s that big horn is going to look like? You can wake up just feeling overwhelmed and have anxiety and feel like it’s a mess or its clutter, and so I think it is very important.

I think the first and foremost just to think about storage solutions. As you know, I love vintage and antique finds. Going to Swiss stores and going to antique stores and looking for old tickle trunks that you can store a linen and store old books and store things inside and they also act as a little coffee table or working space. I think will give that old dorm room or that cookie cutter apartment a bit of an old world instead of personal appeal.

First and foremost I would look for those storage solutions, pickled trunks and, sometimes you can get old apple boxes and apple crates, wooden apple boxes and apple crates that you can use to put your books in and your magazines and then your school supplies in and even your little unmentionables like your undies and your socks. You can really use that as a way to compartmentalize so that your room and your dorm room doesn’t feel like now I love Ikea but it doesn’t feel like an Ikea showroom.

My first recommendation would be to think how much space you have, start with the storage solution. Believe it or not, you can buy in a lot of those storage solutions at antique stores or on our website, little tins and little jars and ways to make your space feel a little bit more cozier and homier.

Theresa:          I love that.

Mark:              That’s great. I also love how you said you have a coffee. It’s just charming. There’s no reply necessary, I just think it’s totally charming.

Theresa:          Mark doesn’t have a coffee, he has all the coffee.

Mark:              Yeah, I have all the coffee.

Jillian:              I’m all coffee, yeah, I like one.

Mark:              What did Jillian Harris use to do to go back to school before she was Jillian Harris designer? In the pre-you years, what did you use to do?

Jillian:              Oh, God. I was spoiled and not financially. I worked really hard all summer because I wanted my own apartment. I didn’t want to live in the dorm. I had this little tiny apartment in Calgary, Alberta. My dad and I always have this sort of tradition that ever since I was a little girl, him and I would go to and above anybody down houses, heart of the West Edmonton Mall, but the West Edmonton Mall, I don’t know if it still is but used to be one of the biggest malls in Canada.

We would go back to school shopping, so when I was going into college, him and I did the same thing, we went out of shopping and we did these tables from Ikea, we got this so far and then I did, I brought my antiques to go trunk with all the stuff that I didn’t take me inside. Him and I went for a little shopping trip to go antique stores and value village and all the little vintage finds. He moved me in and I’ll never forget the day he left and he gave … couch haven’t been delivered yet, so I had nothing to sit on. He gave me a hug and said, “Okay kid, I’ll see you later,” and it was about eight hours away. He walked out of the door and about five minutes later, I heard a knock on the door. I opened up the door, it was my dad and he was crying and he said, “Can I just stay one more night?”

Anyway, we went to the movie and left for dinner. He had a hard time letting his little girl go, yeah.

Theresa:          I’m so sad that we have to go to break though.

Mark:              So am I, that was a beautiful story. He’s a great guy.

Theresa:          He is a great guy. You have to go to JillianHarris.com and you have to go to CharlieFord.com and shop, because … buy stuff, be inspired by Jillian Harris, all of the photos in her iPhone, gorgeous, love and we’ll be back in just a minute with more MyFixitUpLife.

Check out more interviews with Jillian Harris on MyFixitUpLife.