HGTV’s Married to Real Estate: 👑✨ In Egypt Sherrod We Trust ✨👑

This week on Designing Bitches, we’re recapping the Season 4 premiere of Married to Real Estate, where Egypt and Mike help a NYC family trade 800 square feet and subway sirens for 6,300 square feet and… fake ferns in Atlanta. 😬

Shari and Rhonda dive into:

• The million-dollar dream home (and its zebra countertops 🦓)
• Why open floor plans are not dead (fight us)
• Whether white oak cabinets are the new pickled pine 😱
• And how Egypt Sherrod is the only designer we’d trust with the keys to our house

We’re swooning over Egypt’s office, side-eyeing some scullery drama, and yes—we’re still talking about that mystery shade of Agreeable Gray. Bonus: Rhonda teaches Shari the sacred art of meat roses 🥩🌹

This was one of the first episodes we recorded and kept in the vault for a week when we didn’t have time to record. Please excuse all the background noise as we were learning our way with the microphones and room set up 🙂

🎧 Tune in for laughs, opinions, and the occasional apology to anyone who mounts their TV above a fireplace.

Love and Kisses,

Rhonda and Shari

Find us at https://designingbesties.buzzsprout.com, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).

Transcript

[00:00:01] Shari: Hi there, I'm Shari, and this is my BFF Rhonda.

[00:00:04] Rhonda: And welcome to Designing Bitches!

This podcast for women

[00:00:08] Shari: and brave men

[00:00:09] Rhonda: who eat, sleep, and breathe interior design and recognize their addiction to HGTV.

[00:00:14] Shari: Whether you're rearranging your living room for the 12th time or here to justify another HomeGoods spree. You're in the right place.

[00:00:21] Rhonda: Let's talk design, disasters, and all the beautiful chaos in between. 

Today we're dishing on Married to Real Estate Season 4 Premiere.

[00:00:29] Shari: On this episode called "Tiny Apartment to Million Dollar Dream," Whitney and Adam are moving from New York to Atlanta with their young daughter and need Egypt and Mike's help to find a house. And you know what, Rhonda? I had no idea Egypt and Mike met in New York.

[00:00:44] Rhonda: No, when she said she had lived in New York, I was really quite surprised. But I have to tell you, you know who else lived in New York that totally shocked me... Joanna. Joanna Gaines.

[00:00:54] Shari: Oh, maybe that's how we missed our calling. We never moved to New York.

[00:00:59] Rhonda: Yes. I don't know that living in an 800 square foot apartment for $5,000 a month appeals to me, but it might be fun.

[00:01:08] Rhonda: Anyway, I was just gonna say, I thought this episode felt like the McMansion episode, right? Like these three people are moving from this tiny place in New York to the biggest possible house they could afford 

[00:01:20] Shari: It was over 6,300 square feet,

and I just wanna process that. This may just be that I've gotten lazy as I've gotten older, but the thought of maintaining 6,300 square feet. I just can't imagine. 

[00:01:36] Rhonda: keeping it clean! It's three houses to me, a bottom house, a middle house, and a top house for three people. So I wonder if they're a little bit like if you're coming from New York where you have been so limited on space, that you kind of go crazy.

You kind of go the entire opposite end of the spectrum and want the biggest, like I said, the biggest possible house without really thinking about what that means as far as maintenance and furnishing it and taking care of it.

[00:02:02] Shari: I agree. I also think we've had the benefit of the experience of living in multiple homes and you get an idea of what you want and what you don't want and what works and doesn't work. Like I tried the two-story home and never again, I just don't want the two story home. But this is actually their first home.

night. You're It's just not for me. But I do, I'm happy for them. They're getting this first experience in that. And I do think that feels like a little McMansion.

It is a million dollar dream home.

[00:02:34] Rhonda: Agree. One of the things when the first house they looked at, and again, when we talk about know, was this staged or real, but I actually wrote down on my notes. You can have a kitchen that's too big. When things are spread out, so right. Like in, in your mind, you think there would never be a kitchen that's too big.

But I remember my girlfriend Maria bought a McMansion and the journey from the sink to the stove was really quite, it was too far, honestly. Like it, you know, if you're carrying, I don't know, she had a pot filler, so it wouldn't be a pot full of water, but like vegetables, right? You cleaned your vegetables in the sink and turned around to put 'em into a pot.

You're walking across this giant room. Just really, I remember thinking, wow, this kitchen's too big. And when I saw that first house with the zebra countertops, 

[00:03:19] Shari: alright, 

[00:03:20] Rhonda: didn't mind by the

[00:03:21] Shari: I take a little exception because I don't mind it either because I'm pretty sure that is Nero Marquina marble.

[00:03:28] Rhonda: Mm.

[00:03:29] Shari: Or it's a really good fake of Nero Marquina marble and I have this beautiful 60-inch round dining table and it is Nero Marquina marble. And it is unbelievably gorgeous. Now, I have to say, in that kitchen it had the dark countertop, and then they used what looked like white carrera marble on the perimeter.

And that's not my favorite thing to do, even in a large kitchen. So I wasn't totally happy with it. But when the husband, Adam kept referring to it as the zebra.

[00:03:59] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:04:00] Shari: I just thought, no one has ever come into my house and said, oh my God, my table looks like a zebra.

[00:04:07] Rhonda: The Safari room.

[00:04:10] Shari: Yeah. There's nothing safari about it. And I felt a little ting of like, ooohhhh, I'm taking this personally. And it's so not personal. It's just what's good 

[00:04:18] Rhonda: No, everybody has. Yeah, exactly. Everybody has a different opinion. And one of the things that I thought, they were really cute couple, this is my reality tv issues coming out. I wondered, do they audition these people? Like how do they select these people and make sure you get that good chemistry? You get a couple that's kind of energetic and not just grunting as they walk around the house.

[00:04:39] Shari: I assume that producers interview for that. If you show up and you're just flat, like I think about some of my clients, they would never make it on this show because they are not interesting or fun to talk to. I just feel like that wouldn't really work. The most interesting thing I found about that house compared to the one they picked, and that house was already big at 5,700 square feet, they ended up picking a bigger one.

When she said their colors are black, white and gray

[00:05:05] Rhonda: I thought of you.

[00:05:05] Shari: Yes, not so much on the gray, but a little bit. And when she called it tuxedo chic or something like that.

[00:05:11] Rhonda: Yes. That 

[00:05:12] Shari: the design.

And what's interesting is that kitchen from the first house was that design

[00:05:18] Rhonda: Yeah. It was

[00:05:20] Shari: With no warmth. So in the kitchen that Egypt designed, which I think is one of the most beautiful kitchens I've ever seen. In that kitchen there was a warmth because of the white oak. But I thought it was interesting. I knew they were picking the second house when they pulled up and she says something to the effect of, this is what I think a southern home looks like.

[00:05:40] Rhonda: Ahhhh,, in her mind. That

[00:05:42] Shari: And in her mind, haven't we all been there? We've had this dream. We've obsessed over finding the right thing. This is what kind of in her head, her dream world was. And in my head, I thought, it doesn't matter what they see when they walk in the door, this is the house that they're getting. This is her dream from the outside. And the only thing that kind of like ding, like in my little head was why do they have those fake ferns on the porch?

[00:06:07] Rhonda: I know, it's 

Atlanta. 

[00:06:08] Shari: And why even at the very end, it is still those ugly off-color fake ferns. Whitney and Adam, I hope you're listening to us now, and if by any chance the fake ferns are still on your front porch, get rid of those.

I will literally buy and send you some new ferns that you can put on that porch and they're not very hard to take care of. I live in a very dry climate and I have some beautiful ferns like that mine aren't fake. That was my only kind of. Like, ugh. And then in the house it was a little choppy.

It doesn't look like 6,300 square feet when you see the inside of it.

[00:06:44] Rhonda: I thought that as soon as they walked in the entryway, that entryway was boxed in. Right. It, it didn't seem like the grand entrance that you would expect in your southern plantation home, I guess that she visualized she would be living in. I will also say I did like that they went to Egypt's office.

I love her office. Ahhhhh! 

[00:07:03] Shari: I made a note about it too, 

the design of that space is so inspirational. I remember watching the episodes where they were just finding the space and then creating it. As much as I love some of these designers, I would never give them the keys to my home and say, have at it. The exception is Egypt Sherrod, I can't afford her, but I literally would say, here are the keys to my house. You do what you think is best, and I know I would love the result.

[00:07:30] Rhonda: She asks the right questions, right? Her advice tends to be spot on with a couple of exceptions that we can talk about later.

[00:07:37] Shari: Yep. I have a few little tweaks.

[00:07:39] Rhonda: But she did say to her, I think in the first house, she said, how much do you dislike this color of the floor? Right? 

And that reminded me of what we had talked about when you renovate before you move in, which again, it makes sense as far as you're not living in the house and you don't have to deal with a renovation while you're living there, but I thought those floors, that's something you could learn to love, right? That's something that with the right carpets and the right wall paint, you know, whatever. Right. That's something you could eventually adapt to, especially when it's $25,000 to change it. Right? 

[00:08:13] Shari: I agree.

It was actually the second house.

[00:08:16] Rhonda: Oh, was it?

[00:08:17] Shari: and their compromise ended up being that some of the rooms upstairs had carpet, so you didn't have to worry about them. So they did end up redoing the floors. I do get, so I'm with you on, there's a big part of doing a big renovation on a house you've never actually lived in, in a city you've never actually lived in. It's a big unknown.

[00:08:37] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:08:37] Shari: And I know for my clients, I would've clients move from California and they immediately wanted to tear everything out and start over. And I would always say, even though this cost me business, I would tell them there's something about living in a place for a year through all of the seasons.

We have all four seasons for you to really understand how the earth moves in relationship to the sun. And I only say it that way, or you will correct me, like how you get a sun in different windows at different times of the year, how you actually use the spaces. You'll go through a whole set of seasons where you've been through Christmas and Halloween, like how you use the space.

Now I do know that if you waited to do that, what a bigger pain in the ass that's gonna be to try to renovate while either you move out while you're renovating or you live through the renovation.

But I do think you might get something. And literally as the episode as I'm watching it, that's kind of what's going through my head 'cause it always does on these shows where they pick a house and then they do this big renovation. But when I saw the finished product I thought, oh, I would make it work. I wouldn't care. I loved the living space. And one of the interesting things I thought about when they give their little must haves is that they wanted an open living space so they could see through from the kitchen to the family room.

And I see all these articles on the internet about people who don't want open living spaces 

anymore. that's bullshit

cause I've never met those people. I don't see them on any of those episodes of my favorite design shows. And one of the first things you see, if you watch like a House Hunters, I'm looking for an open living space 

[00:10:15] Rhonda: open floor plan. Open floor plan. Yes.

[00:10:17] Shari: I do love that my office is separate. When I originally did it and it had double doors out into the living area, I thought, am I going to miss not having that access? 

[00:10:27] Rhonda: I swear to God, I read a lot of design magazines and I get a lot on my feed, when I'm doom scrolling and there are so many articles about what's out and it will say open living spaces, but I, again, do not know who these people are. I will say my husband's best friend, he was just looking at homes and he doesn't like the kitchen being visible to the rest of the house. You have a bunch of pots and pans, and then you sit down to dinner and you can see the kitchen from the dining room. He doesn't like that, but that's reasoning.,

[00:10:56] Shari: well, I don't know. When I sit at my dining table, which is in view of my kitchen, I don't like a kitchen that you can see when you walk in the front door,

[00:11:04] Rhonda: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:05] Shari: but you can definitely see my kitchen from the dining. When we sit down at the table, you can't actually see. Like, you'd have to be either, I don't know, six foot eight or have an extremely long torso to actually see.

And the other thing, I was actually thinking about this earlier today, advantage of the kitchen being a little more visible is that your guests feel obligated to help you 

clean it up after you entertain 

[00:11:29] Rhonda: true. 

[00:11:30] Shari: for them to look at that whole sink full of dishes and things everywhere and just be like, bye Shari.

I feel like no, they feel a little obligated. 

[00:11:40] Rhonda: That is a very good point. And remember when we were watching Rock the Block in Colorado, and they had the second kitchens, remember they, a bunch of them put the back kitchen or whatever it 

[00:11:50] Shari: Yeah. So this particular house that Egypt does on this show has the prep kitchen.

[00:11:56] Rhonda: Yeah, the scullery, I had to actually look what that word means. 

[00:11:59] Shari: At one point I was calling it a scullery and I thought, where did I get that from? So she must have said it if we're 

both 

[00:12:05] Rhonda: She used it several times, and I had to say, what the hell is a scullery? I don't even know means. 

[00:12:09] Shari: I I looked online because I felt like this was an area where I was gonna have a hot take and America was gonna tell me what an idiot I was. And I just looked online to see what people were saying and everyone loved it. I'll tell you what I want that tile, I literally found the tile for the floor. It's at Floor & Decor. So anyone listening if you were wondering where you can buy that tile 'cause HGTV doesn't always make it easy.

[00:12:32] Rhonda: Okay.

[00:12:33] Shari: What I was thinking offhand is I don't want a scullery kitchen.

[00:12:37] Rhonda: I like the idea for parties and like Christmas when you're having a bunch of like, you know, how I am with my famous charcuterie trays. I like the idea that I could assemble all that in another room and then bring it out, ta-da, fully formed as opposed to now where I'm standing at my gigantic island and the person across from me can see me taking slabs of meat out of the deli bag and folding it up into a rose and putting it on a tray. There's a cute meme about charcuterie where it's like, hey, would you like a piece of meat? People are like, no. How about if I roll it up into a rose and put it on a piece of wood? I would love that. It's so funny when you think about it, if you pulled it outta the refrigerator and said, Hey, would you like a piece of meat? People would be like, absolutely not. But you put it on a tray and yeah, absolutely. Put it with some nuts and fruit. Absolutely.

[00:13:26] Shari: Speaking of that, you've, never taught me how to make the little roses outta my slabs of meats. And I feel left out.

[00:13:32] Rhonda: You know, that's what the internet's for Shari, that's what you can go on YouTube and that's learn like I did. 

[00:13:38] Shari: So friend, you're on own with this. 

Speaking of kitchens and slabs, I was surprised when Egypt said the porcelain countertop for the kitchen would be less expensive than other options. They did turn out amazing, and the heat resistance is a plus, but if you include the cost of fabrication, which is significantly more here for porcelain slabs and the repair issues, if you get a chip, I'm not convinced it's always the best option, but I do see a lot of it used on HGTV shows, and I love the look.

Okay. So I loved the look of this particular porcelain slab on the vent hood. Now, I presume you can't use real stone as it would literally be too heavy, but this one just looked so pretty and the finish was so shiny and clean. I just immediately thought, I would love that in my kitchen.

So despite the problems with porcelain, I think that's clearly something we could put in our own homes. But what I really wanted to talk to you about, I wonder what you think about this. Do you think white oak cabinets will become the pickled pine cabinet in 20 years? 

I just read an article the other day that talked about white oak is here to stay for quite a while. I'm thinking it might be more like the white cabinets in the kitchen, 

which seem to be here forever.

[00:14:55] Rhonda: Yeah. People still want ' em.

[00:14:56] Shari: The way it all came together in that kitchen. Again, I cannot say enough nice things about that kitchen. 

[00:15:01] Rhonda: Loved it with the black. I think that contrast

[00:15:04] Shari: Oh my gosh. 

[00:15:04] Rhonda: Is so beautiful. But again, it just feels like every show I watch anymore, you know, remember Alison Victoria, everything is these white oak cabinets. Remember how everybody had pickled pine for a long time, or that honey ... 

[00:15:17] Shari: 30 years down the 

road, you're gonna be able to place these homes in a timeframe. I think 

[00:15:22] Rhonda: Yeah. Yeah. I wondered how do the best kitchens age, you know, like, what would we have to see? I don't know.

[00:15:32] Shari: My own experience with redoing kitchens is that most people keep them for far longer than even 10 years.

[00:15:38] Rhonda: Well. It's just so expensive. 

So speaking of that, what did you think of that whole blue, gray paint discussion?

[00:15:44] Shari: On film, when they walk in that house, it actually looks a little more purpleish, more lavender ish,

[00:15:51] Rhonda: Yes, I thought the same thing.

[00:15:53] Shari: And Mike calls it agreeable gray, But Agreeable Gray is a really well known Sherwin Williams color. You could almost call it like a warm taupe. And I know that it doesn't blue or lavender on my interior doors that are in those two rooms that face north

[00:16:11] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:16:12] Shari: and in the one room that faces south.

You know, I would die if I had anything that turned a blue color in my house ever. Thanks mom for making me grow up with all those blues. When they're walking in for the final reveal, 

that 

lavender color still shows up in the entryway. 

[00:16:32] Rhonda: I thought the same thing. I 

[00:16:34] Shari: I just thought 

did they not paint at all or is that truly an effect of the light?

[00:16:39] Rhonda: My walls of my great room, which get northern and southern light is something called gray screen. Sherwin Williams Gray screen. And if I brought a hundred people through here and said, what color are my walls? A hundred people would say, blue. Like an ice blue.

So there's definitely something to the grays pulling blue or the grays pulling, you know, whatever, whatever they pull as far as that base color and how the light hits it.

And I thought the same thing. The camera was looking back towards the front door in that room back there, that entry. It had that periwinkle kind of look 

to it right now. again, I don't know about camera lighting. It's probably big, bright white lights or yellow lights or whatever the heck it is, and how that might affect it.

But yeah, I thought it was a good discussion because most people go to the store, select a color, and then put it on the walls and go, huh? Right. Like, very rarely do people put a color on the wall and say, that's exactly what I thought it was gonna look like. And hopefully you like it, right?

Hopefully it's what, what you wanted, but, or you learn to love it because the thought of painting again, is just so exhausting.

[00:17:41] Shari: I was glad they had the conversation because I'm not sure people always realize, and grays are one of the most finicky colors for just not staying true to their actual color, depending on the lighting conditions. And unless you shut everything up or like I said, just go in the room at certain times of the day, you can't control it.

[00:17:57] Rhonda: My only bitchiness about the entire design is, again, where does the TV go? And I, 

[00:18:04] Shari: Well, they had it. 

[00:18:05] Rhonda: put it over the fireplace?

[00:18:07] Shari: I thought they had set it up basically to be over the extra cabinets that Egypt bought that were in White Oak.

[00:18:13] Rhonda: Okay. So you think it's gonna go where they had that picture?

[00:18:16] Shari: Yes.

[00:18:17] Rhonda: Yeah. Okay. All right.

[00:18:19] Shari: Now, I did say in my head, because again, I'm lazy, so I like to lounge on my couch and watch tv, but even sitting on my couch and the couch that they bought is low. The TV seems like if you're sitting at the couch watching it, you're gonna be tilting your head up.

[00:18:34] Rhonda: I know. I don't like it at all.

[00:18:35] Shari: Unless I'm six foot or maybe six foot two, I'm gonna be tilting my head up to watch it. It would be the perfect height probably if I'm standing at the kitchen sink and watching tv, which is why I like that kind of design a lot because I like when the range and the sink and the island and the TV across the room all line up.

[00:18:57] Rhonda: too. I do too.

[00:18:58] Shari: I like to watch TV when I'm washing my dishes, but 

[00:19:02] Rhonda: Or cooking. Or cooking?

[00:19:03] Shari: I felt like if I'm sitting on the couch or especially I'm laying on the couch , like I'm tilting my head up. It felt like it 

[00:19:09] Rhonda: was a little high 

[00:19:09] Shari: Mm-hmm. 

to me.

[00:19:10] Rhonda: Yeah. And they have it where you can pull the TV out and all that, but I don't know that I want that in that beautiful house. I love those cabinets along that wall.

[00:19:17] Shari: I loved it too. 

[00:19:18] Rhonda: Yeah, typical Egypt design. It's hard to be bitchy about Egypt because she really is a perfect designer and her show feels very genuine. Her and Mike have a really cute chemistry. I mean, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors, right?,

[00:19:35] Shari: Well, we know a little bit. We know all about Egypt marking the stuff in blue tape. I can totally relate to the tension, like me and my ex. He was one of those where he would be happy if everything stayed the way it was all the time, and I feel like every room is always in some state of design improvement

[00:19:57] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:19:58] Shari: and I have no problem rehanging a picture 12 times to get it at its perfect height.

And the more I made holes in the wall, he was literally losing hair, getting gray hairs over it. I really needed to marry a contractor because then all of my stuff that I wanted to do, like I'd have someone there all the time, you could just do whatever I wanted to improve. Hey, I need this wood hung on my ceiling.

 Mike just really smashed that dream when he talks about ... 

[00:20:25] Rhonda: Yes, 

[00:20:25] Shari: a dentist doesn't wanna look at teeth when he gets home

[00:20:27] Rhonda: I'm tired. That's right. I don't wanna paint when I get home. 

But I loved that Egypt's baseboards are just primer, right? She's like, we never did the wood 

filler 

[00:20:37] Shari: Yes, Uh-huh Uh-huh. relate 

[00:20:38] Rhonda: Like 

[00:20:38] Shari: I can 

relate. Really? 

[00:20:39] Rhonda: as wonderful as Egypt has baseboards with just primer on 'em with no wood fill, you know? And I just thought, okay, well good.

I'm glad she's willing to show that little bit of weakness or whatever. Reality. Yeah. There you go. In how a designer has to deal with her house. Yeah. I think most men are like your ex. My husband would be fine as long as it still works, right?

Like, it could be something from 1990. Yeah. These cabinets are fine. They still open and close. Right. I would be looking at 'em like they're hideous. They're honey oak or something that I can't stand looking at every day or look at how dirty these are where the handles are or whatever.

And he would be, it still works.

 (OUTRO BEGINS) 

[00:21:17] Shari: Thank you for dishing with us. This new season of Married to Real Estate is off to a great start. If it wasn't obvious, we're obsessed with Egypt Sherrod and her designs and her outfits and her office. We just can't wait for the rest of the season. As usual, we did have a few things that made us go, huh?

[00:21:35] Rhonda: So you can call us lazy, but we are pretty sure we wouldn't want an extra kitchen to clean even if we could brag to our friends about having a scullery in our home. And we definitely don't want a 6,300 square foot home to maintain and keep clean. We also are not fans of fake plants outside especially, and when you live in Atlanta, I'm pretty sure anything would grow. 

[00:21:59] Shari: If you like our vibe and are obsessed with HGTV like we are, please like, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to our podcast. You can also let us know on Facebook, Instagram, and at designingbitches.com, what HGTV shows you are watching and what you think would love to hear from you.

We've also done a special posting for this episode on both Facebook and Instagram. I posted pictures of my dining room. Do you think it looks like a zebra? Does the room give off a safari vibe? I don't think so. But we wanna hear from you. 

Give us your comments and they could earn you a spot in our Designing Bitches Hall of Fame.

[00:22:30] Rhonda: The sticky that I put on my computer, is that what you mean?

[00:22:33] Shari: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:34] Rhonda: Okay,

[00:22:36] Shari: Oh so. never have a sticky in my office.

[00:22:39] Rhonda: Yes, there would never be a sticky note in Shari's office for sure. But seriously, smash that like button harder than you smashed your New Year's resolutions.

I'd like to apologize to anyone who enjoys having their television over their fireplace.

[00:22:52] Shari: I'd also like to apologize to all of the husbands, ex-husbands and partners who put up with us constantly moving and redecorating and to anyone who hates open living spaces.

 Bye.

[00:23:04] Rhonda: Bye bye.