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Good news for fans of design star Galey Alix! While her HGTV show Home in a Heartbeat is not returning, shes not going anywhere. Along with the occasional appearance on other HGTV shows, like last summers 100 Day Hotel Challenge, and new projects on her social media, where fans first fell in love with her surprise home transformations, now shes helping you refresh your home on a budget. And shes starting with whats underfoot.In November, she launched her Galey Alix x Livabliss rug collection, available at Wayfair, Amazon, Home Depot, Lowes, and Bed Bath & Beyond. And in many way, she tells, Country Living, its an extension of what she did on her show and has been doing on social media for years. Theres something for everyones style.Galey Alix x Livabliss Myrtle Avenue Area Rug, 8'10" x 12'2"Now 43% Off$705 $402 at Wayfair If youve followed Galey for a while or watched her show, you know the process: She finds a deserving individual or family, someone who could really use a boost. Then she meets with them in their home to understand what they needand then she takes over: Still today, even with my celebrity clients, I dont go over any decisions with the client. I dont show you color palettes. We dont even necessarily talk about what rooms Im going to do. You just tell me your budget and that you trust me, and then you give me your credit card and you move out for a weekend, and I come in, and then I surprise you.So, shes gotten really good at understanding different peoples styles and, as she puts it, how to make something them more than maybe they even realize its them. Though she might not have the same style or design taste as the person whose home shes making over, she learned how to change her design style based on the client but still create something that she likes and can be proud of. As she was designing the rug collection, she applied that same mindset to every design and pattern. Some are modern, some are transitional, some are traditional, some are bold, some are demure. Some have a lot of colors. Some have very neutral tones. I just wanted to have things that would make sense for anybodythat everybody would think is pretty, even if its not your style, she says. She was thinking about your budget.Kristina EvansAnother aspect about Galey to understand: When she chooses someone to surprise, she never charges them for her services. She was working full time at a Wall Street firm and did not need the income when she started her home makeover side gig. Her reward has always been when the recipient, who might be a little down or maybe went through something difficult recently, gets to come home after her visit and find that their home feels like a warm hug. I wanted to make really big rugs that immediately refresh a space but not make them unaffordable.For the rug collection, she realized she could not be there to design every persons home, but she still wanted to help people transform their spaces with a quality piece without spending a lot of money.The problem, I realized, is that it is so hard to make your home beautiful without spending a lot of money. It is so expensive with inflation and the way the economy has gone kind of since the pandemic, when we had that huge surge of demand, materials, cost of goods, and then inflation on top of it, everything just went up. I wanted to be able to make really big rugs that can immediately refresh a space, but not make them unaffordable and unattainable, she says.Galey Alix x Livabliss RugsMyrtle Avenue V Rug, 7'10" x 10'2"Now 51% Off$455 $222 at WayfairMaria Elena III Rug, 7'10" x 10'2"Now 53% Off$585 $274 at WayfairFetscher V Rug, 7'10" x 10'2"Now 49% Off$585 $298 at WayfairDesign TipWant to make one change to refresh a room? Galey Alix says look to the big three: If you think about it from a designers perspective, theres three things that are going to take up the most space in any room. Its the wall color. Its the flooring. And then the third biggest thing that can change an entire room is the rug, because it takes up the most space. Other than the walls and the floor, the rug is the next biggest point of color or texture or quality. So if you put in a nice rug into a room, it immediately can elevate the whole room. For her, that meant finding a way to make 9'x12' rugs that look and feel like they cost $2,000 to $3,000, but are actually well below $1,000 and even under $500. That goal is what led her to a partnership with Livabliss. Because the brand owns its factories instead of outsourcing manufacturing, she says, she could make the same quality of rug at a much lower price point.The rugs are really amazing quality. I have them in my home.The beauty of my background in Wall Street and economics is that Im able to understand the natural flow of the manufacturing profit, where costs are going, the cost of goods, minimum order quantities, all of these things, so I could figure out who is the best place to go to get the best quality at the lowest price, she says.The rugs are really amazing quality. I have them in my home. With my design eye, looking at this rug, walking on it, feeling it, I would absolutely believe you if you told me it cost $2,500. But it cost $450. Galey AlixShe imbued her patterns with her everyday inspirations.Ever wonder what it means when an interior designer or decorator creates their own textile line? We asked.Galey explains that it was a process of finding individual things that she comes across every day for inspiration and then figuring out how to work aspects of those things into rug patterns. The beauty of working with Livabliss is that I have an amazing team there, and theyve got decades of experience working and creating rugs, she says, and they would take her ideas and implement them. The way that Ive come up with patterns is I might have an old vintage T shirt that has this design on it, and then I say, okay, I want to replicate this, but I want to make the edges more swirly. I want to create more gaps between the circles, and then I want to do a border with something really faded in the middle, and then we just kind of play with it, she says.It was a combination of me either drawing by hand a pattern on a piece of paper and then taking a photo of it and emailing it to them, or us sitting on Zoom and me saying, like, hey, you see the stonework behind me in my kitchen? I want to replicate that muddled feel, but I want to do it with white washing over the colorway so that it looks more vintage-y.Nate Bednarz She made rugs for livingdogs and all.Galey is a dog lover. Her late dog Charlye, a 13-year-old boxer, is the actual love of my life, she says. Now she has Patch, whos two years old, and a new puppy, Bair, both boxers, so designing rugs that fit in with people and their pets was a big priority. I know what its like to be constantly cleaning up accidents, and then all of a sudden you spend money on a rug, and then they ruin a corner of it. Theres only so many times you can turn that rug around. Galey Alix x Livabliss Luciana III Hand Tufted Rug, 5' x 7'6Now 49% Off$375 $193 at WayfairSo for me, it was really important that I do all low pile [with the exception of the patterns in the Architect line, which are a combination of high and low pile]. Its easier to clean because the thinner the pile, the less it can soak up any sort of discoloration from the stains.Another pet peeve she designed for? She hates when rugs show traffic patterns because you feel like you constantly need to vacuum it. So the majority of my rugs, I made them with this muddled, vintage/antique look across them that makes them look worn all over. Because of that worn look, you cant tell if its brand-new or 30 years old. In other words, in 10 years, that rug is still going to look good because the whole thing, even the new parts look worn. Its almost like a whitewash jeanyou cant tell if theyre brand-new or if theyve been washed 30 times. Whats next?Many more product launches are ahead for Galey, she says, including wallpaper, pillows and decorative objects, furniture, hardwired lighting, and flooring. Stay tuned! More Decor Collections from HGTV Stars Terri RobertsonTerri Robertson is the Senior Editor, Digital, at Country Living, where she shares her lifelong love of homes, gardens, down-home cooking, and antiques.
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