Season Premiere | Hilton Carter
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Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast, Decorating by the Book, hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books with the authors who wrote them.
Hilton Carter: Hi, I'm Hilton Carter, and I'm the author of Wild at Home, Wild Interiors and Wild Creations.
Suzy Chase: Before diving into the premiere episode with Hilton Carter, I'd like to thank my new sponsor Bloomist. Bloomist creates and curates simple, sustainable products that inspire you to design a calm, natural refuge at home. I'm excited to announce, they've just introduced a new tabletop and kitchen collection that's truly stunning. Surround yourself with beautiful elements of nature when you're cooking, dining and entertaining and make nature home. Visit bloomist.com and use the code DECORATING20 to get 20% off your first purchase or click the link in the show notes. Now, on with the show.
Suzy Chase: You were once told if you follow your passion, regardless of what it is, you'll find happiness. For you, it's meant creating a home with your wife, Fiona, and now you have another member of the family, a baby girl. Congratulations on becoming a father.
Hilton Carter: Oh, thank you so much.
Suzy Chase: How's it going?
Hilton Carter: It's going as well as I could have imagined, even though I had zero idea what to really imagine. It's been a true blessing, honestly. Every moment that I get to watch this little individual do what she does, whether it's cry, whether it's sleep, whether it's just stare into the distance, I find myself on the edge of tears, every single time. I don't know what happened. She's completely broken me, but it's life-changing. I knew something would change, but I've turned into someone that I never had thought I would be and I'm so thankful for it. I'm so glad that I have stepped into this next chapter of my life called fatherhood. It's been a beautiful past two weeks. Today is her 14 day, I guess, birthday. I don't know what you say. She's only been on the planet for 14 days.
Suzy Chase: Wow.
Hilton Carter: It's pretty incredible.
Suzy Chase: You say it's the greenery that binds together everything in your home, whereas I think what binds my home together are my furnishings. You're the first person I've ever known to say your passion for greenery is uncontrollable. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Hilton Carter: Yeah, of course. I mean, I think the decor that you bring into the home says a lot about who you are as an individual, but at the same time, the life that you bring into your home isn't going to exist just in the hard material of a couch or a coffee table or chairs and things of that nature. I think once you bring out or bring in the outdoors to allow that natural instinct to be surrounded by nature and have that living thing amongst you, that is what fills the space with life.
Hilton Carter: For me, it's not a particular number of plants that can have that sort of impact, but it's the connection with a particular plant, that living work in progress as it grows and changes. That's the one thing that you will see shift and move, grow and develop in your home, unlike your furnishings that will stay the same, will age over time, but will never cause you stress or bring you the happiness that many of us who tend to plants really feel.
Suzy Chase: Your first book was Wild at Home. Tell me about creating the book Wild Interiors and how Wild at Home inspired that book, and then how did your third book, Wild Creations come about.
Hilton Carter: Wild Interiors came about while touring for Wild at Home. Wild at Home, I got to go out on my first book tour. I got to meet a lot of the people in the plant community around the US, some cities in Europe, Canada. It was interesting to hear all of these stories of individuals' journeys in greenery. I felt it was important to capture some of that in a book. While Wild at Home was a lot of my own, I would say, journey in greenery and my process when it comes to plant care and plant styling, I wanted something that really tied everyone together so they could see themselves, regardless if they were someone who had the maximalist, I guess, thought process when it comes to plants and filling our homes with as many plants as possible or someone who was a minimalist who just said, "Well, I have that one single plant, but I was very specific in the type of plant I brought into my home and felt it tied this together with that."
Hilton Carter: It was important to see all of the different spaces, but at the same time, I think the broad idea of Wild Interiors isn't just based on plants itself, it's based on the interior as well in general, whether it's the color, the textures, the furnishings, like you said, at the core, or if it was just how many plants they had to create this oasis, that's what Wild Interiors was about. It came from my tour during Wild at Home.
Hilton Carter: Now, Wild Creations is also a bit of the experience of touring for a Wild at Home, because I didn't get to tour Wild Interiors because it came out right as the pandemic hit. Like most people, I guess like all of us, I was just at home trying to figure out what to do with my life at that time. I thought, "You know what? I'm going to write a book that has projects in it, DIY projects." In Wild at Home, I had a few DIY projects in there, how to create a plant hammock, how to create a terrarium lamp, things like that that really resonated well with some of the individuals who picked up that book. I heard so many people that loved the idea of trying to make this plant hammock, trying to make a terrarium lamp.
Hilton Carter: I talked to my publishers and said, "Hey, let's make a book that has a lot of DIY projects in it," but I need a lot of room in this book to get out my soap box so that I could do a little preaching about plant care and plant parenting, because during my tour of Wild at Home, I did get a sense that there was a movement for bringing in as many plants as possible, regardless of how many were dying in the process of bringing them in because no one really thought about the type of care that was needed, they just thought about a particular look that they wanted to go for. I would go on tour and I'd start asking questions like, "Raise your hands if you have over five plants," and maybe 90% of the room would raise them. "Raise your hands if you have over 25 plants," maybe 70%. "50," maybe 50%. "A hundred," maybe 25%. "Who has over 200 plants?" and you'd have a sprinkle of a few people who had over 200 plants.
Hilton Carter: You saw their hands go up with a sense of pride at that number and the people who didn't have that number, well, someone said, "I have 300, 400 plants," the other folks there would just go, "Oh man," they were excited about that number. I thought, "That's not good," because it's not about the numbers. It's about how much time and care you're putting into the plants that you have, whether you have one or if you have a thousand. I guess the person that has a thousand plants isn't any better than the person who just has one plant. If the person who has one plant has a really amazing, healthy, thriving plant, that person has the same type of green thumb as the one with a thousand plants. But is that person with a thousand plants killing 200 every two weeks and then buying 200 more plants to keep that number? Possibly, because I've seen so many individuals doing so.
Hilton Carter: While I'm on tour, some of the people were buying cuttings or nodes of plants that were rare so that they could feel like they were a bit better in some sort of way than others who didn't have it. It's always the haves and have-nots, right? Right now, there's this almost this black market when it comes to plants, where if you have something that is so rare that other people don't have and you can post about it, now you're someone who is above the rest and can gain some sort of attention because you have that particular plant. But the initial thought wasn't, "I want to bring in a plant that I can truly care for and love that I particularly feel is important to me and can really thrive in the light that I had in my home." It was, "How can I be a part of this particular movement? How can I be a part of this particular hashtag? Let me buy that plant that is tied into that hashtag."
Hilton Carter: In Wild Creations, that I called 'plantrents', that really allowed myself to just get a bit preachy, not yell at anyone and say that you're bad for making decisions like the ones I just mentioned, but you should consider, if you can just take a moment to consider all of these plants as living things, there's opportunities there to rein it in a bit, to not think about the number of plants that you have, but more of the care or the quality, I'll say, of the plants that you have in your home. That in itself was a rant, so I apologize.
Suzy Chase: Feel free to rant away. I just adore your lamp terrarium. Can you describe this? You just brought it up.
Hilton Carter: Oh, of course. Lamp terrarium is basically a lamp that I purchased at a store, people might know it, it's Target. I'm just throwing it out there because I did have a collection at Target not so long ago. But it was a fillable lamp. Now, when I went to target and I saw this lamp ... And you could put seashells in it, you could put stones in it, you could leave it empty if you want it. I thought, "Well, that would make a really awesome terrarium, so maybe I'll do that." I put a terrarium in this lamp. Anytime I posted about it, there were always these questions about, "How did you do that? Where can I get that lamp?" things of that nature, so I thought that would be really awesome to place that in the book.
Hilton Carter: But the great thing about it was when you're dealing with enclosed terrariums, where they are then creating their own ecosystem and the humidity inside is then building condensation and then it's going up against the glass and then dripping back down to the soil and basically watering itself over and over again, a lot of the plants that you're going to put in that situation would be plants that like a more moist soil, some of the ferns, calathea, things of that nature. Kind of famous things in nature. At the same time, while a lot of them tolerate lower, I would say, light settings, can tolerate lower light settings, medium light, I was able to also decide, if I didn't have them close enough to a window, because it's a terrarium lamp, I could then a grow light, or let's say a daylight bulb in that lamp to provide the actual exposure that those plants need it. I have one now going that I haven't watered or touched in over probably 18 months. I mean, I can hardly see in anymore, it's just full of just green.
Hilton Carter: I definitely wanted something in that book, and also in other books, where if you were someone who didn't have or consider yourself having a green thumb, this could help you out while you could still see consistent growth without thinking too much about when do I have to water this plant and how do I care for it, things of that nature. I really love the idea of it.
Suzy Chase: I've learned so many things from your books, but most notably that you have a plant journey that began in 2014. I'd love to hear about that.
Hilton Carter: The journey started, and I can honestly say that the journey started in 2011.
Suzy Chase: Oh.
Hilton Carter: 2011. It started, well, you're right, in 2014, and I'm going to touch on what you're talking about there. You know that aha moment that most people have in their lives? It happens all throughout your life. There was an aha moment when I walked into a plant shop in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. This plant shop was unlike any plant shop I had ever seen. It was well curated. They had found ways to connect their indoor shop to the plant so there was a lot of greenery that was growing on walls, just nice textures and colors and light, full of light. Then they had this greenhouse cafe that just had greeneries every angle, dripping from every little spot, and these tables sitting underneath of these weird tropical plants that I had never seen before. I just thought, "I want to dine like this. I want to live like this. Why can't I have all of this? Because I feel so alive right now. I feel like I'm on vacation in this weird town in Pennsylvania, I feel like I'm on this tropical vacation. I want to make my life like that all the time."
Hilton Carter: At point, in 2011, I was living in Los Angeles in a really small house that I was sharing with friends, and I didn't have enough room or enough light to bring any plants. I told myself at that moment, "When I do have a space that has a lot of lights, I'm going to start bringing plants in." It wasn't until 2014, when I relocated from Los Angeles to New Orleans, where I had these floor-to-ceiling windows that allowed for a lot of light to come in and I thought, "Here's my moment. Let's start this plant ..." I didn't think of it as a plant journey, I just thought, "Let's bring a plant in and start from there."
Hilton Carter: I went to a plant shop there called Harold's and saw plant that I found out was a fiddle leaf fig. I just looked at the foliage and thought that is really beautiful foliage. It was a tree-like plant, so it had this nice trunk and then foliage sticking out. I was like, "That would be really cool. Having a tree in your home, it's really cool. If I can properly care for this, maybe over time it'll grow into this really big tree and I'll have a natural tree in my home and that will be amazing." It started there.
Hilton Carter: I saw the changes that happened in that plant through lost leaves, browning, yellowing happening here and there. Something hit where I was like, "Oh my goodness. I need to figure this out. I need to start taking notes on what is happening. I need to start doing research. I need to go back to that plant shop and talk to them about the plant I just purchased. Actually, what type of plant do I actually have? I should know the name of this plant. Maybe I should be more invested, maybe I should treat this like a living thing," like the pet that I had at the time, "Maybe I should name this plant." I named it Frank, to put more pressure on myself to care for it. It's hard to throw out a plant once you given it a name. It's hard to abandon a pet once you've taken it in and cleaned it as family.
Hilton Carter: I was like, "You know what? If I can zone in on how to properly care for this plant, then it's going to make me better off for any other types of plants I bring in." It started there with that first fiddle leaf fig named Frank in spring of '14, I left New Orleans in late May of '15 to move back to Baltimore and I left there with 60 plus plants in a U-Haul, driving back to Baltimore. I had collected a bit. I went from zero to 60 in a year.
Hilton Carter: I came with this attitude where I was like, "I need to find a place that has enough light that will allow my plants to thrive." That's when I knew something was up. I was like, "I've changed. What has happened to me? I'm looking for places with light versus what has the best appliances or what's closest to my job or things of that nature." That's where I would say my plant journey began in 2011, but the initial start of purchasing plants began in 2014.
Suzy Chase: You talk a lot about statement plants. Do you think Frank is your statement plant?
Hilton Carter: Frank is my statement plant in now my sunroom. In my overarching story, Frank is the statement plant of that story, of course. But I think in every room, there's the room, the space, to have a statement plant, something that truly sets off the look and the feel of that particular room. In my home right now, I can't say Frank is the statement piece of the entire house, but for the sunroom, he is the one where you walk in and you feel his presence right away.
Suzy Chase: Frank's the star in the sunroom.
Hilton Carter: There he is, there he is, and this star in my heart. Yeah, everything I know about caring for plants, I learned through that plant.
Suzy Chase: Your green loving community is huge. When you first started getting into plants, did you assume you were just a community of one, and did you see your community grow in the lockdown?
Hilton Carter: Well, when I started, I was probably the, I don't know if I can say this, but I was the butt of all the jokes of my friends. All of my friends were like, "What is wrong with you? Why do you have so many plants? What happened? You need a friend, maybe you should get a girlfriend." It just wasn't cool, honestly. My mom even said to me, "I think you have too many plants in here. I don't know, it just doesn't feel right," my mom said that to me. I did feel like I was in my own circle, one of one, but when I searched around social media and Instagram mainly, there were a few folks who were there. That's when I started connecting with individuals who were like-minded when it comes to plants. Over time, I did see that community thrive and develop into what it is today.
Hilton Carter: When the pandemic hit, a lot of people found themselves in a situation where they had to look at their beige walls, hard corners. A lot of individuals started to bring plants in and started to reach out for help in how to care for our plants, or for inspiration on how to possibly style their plants or inspirational types of new plants that they should be more aware of. The plant loving community is probably grown exponentially in the last two years, for sure, because of the pandemic, but at the same time, there have been many, many lovers of greenery already there, talking, posting and writing books about plants for at least the last 10 years that I know of.
Hilton Carter: I'd definitely say that it's been special to now be a part of a community. I will say, all of those friends that thought that I was losing my mind, even my mother, have all jumped on the bandwagon and they are all plant lovers hitting me up about care tips and, "I have this new plant, when should I re-pot it," blah, blah, blah, and laugh. I tried to tell them, tried to tell them.
Suzy Chase: You have a list of the next it plants. On that list, you have a Fan Palm, which you believe will be the most sought after plant in years to come. I'd love for you to talk about that.
Hilton Carter: I believe that plants that can transport you to a space that you're not particularly, I guess, connected to, or you don't have the reach for, like in Baltimore, I can't walk outside and see a fan. When I was in Tulum, Mexico, I could walk outside and see a Fan Palm everywhere. I could be hit in the face every single moment by a Fan Palm, so maybe not in Mexico, maybe that won't be the it plant there, but in the US, I think it's something that you can bring into any home and it sets the vibe. It says this is a tropical space. The texture of the foliage itself, the size of the foliage demands your attention. There's just a lot that can be said about someone who decides to bring in a fan palm versus bringing in a majestic palm. It's the same, I would say, respect as someone deciding on a particular type of attire versus something else. I like to wear jorts and it says something about me.
Suzy Chase: You like to wear jorts?
Hilton Carter: Yeah. Are you judging me? The way you just said that was very judgmental.
Suzy Chase: Wow.
Hilton Carter: I'm not sure if you're judging, but guess what, but guess what? I don't bend to the judgment. I am comfortable in my jorts and I will say it again, yes, I wear jorts.
Suzy Chase: That's hilarious. Oh my God.
Hilton Carter: Let me take it up one more notch. I wear jorts sometimes with sandals and socks. For all of individuals who don't-
Suzy Chase: Hey, you're ready for dad life right there.
Hilton Carter: Yes, I guess so. I've been ready for dad life. But what I'm saying is I think it's definitely something that people will see, or if they haven't already seen in books, shout out to the books that I've had, but in other people's homes, on social media or in magazines or TV shows, they'll feel that connection. For me, it was when I went Tulum and all of what Tulum meant to me. I eloped there, my wife and I had this amazing time there. To bring that into your home, to recall those moments of positivity, of excitement, that's something that people should try to do.
Suzy Chase: I'm particularly drawn to dried botanicals. I have a bunch of really tall dried plume reeds from Bloomist in my kitchen window. What are some interesting ways we should be using dried foliage and leaves in our home?
Hilton Carter: They can last forever. They can add that sort of grit, texture, and color to your home. I like putting large and again, fan palms, placing them in the corner of the wall or hanging them on the wall. I saw not so long ago, I believe it was early this week, one of my favorite interior designers, Kelly Wearstler, she used Fan Palms as sconces. Basically, she took these Fan Palms and then mounted them to the wall, but put a light fixture behind the fam palm to hit the wall to have this bit of glow. That was amazing. I mean, just beautiful, just amazing.
Hilton Carter: I think the ability to not see every single dying bit of foliage or dying flower as something that should go into the wastebasket, but as something that has a now second chance to show off its next chapter in life. I put dried florals in vases all throughout my home. I like the idea of utilizing dried florals in areas that you wouldn't have the ability to put a living plant. It still gives that idea of life, but it's mainly about color and texture and it can really have an amazing impact in that particular spot in your home.
Suzy Chase: Before I wrap up, I have to ask you about hotdogs.
Hilton Carter: What?=
Suzy Chase: On one of the most recent Alison Roman's Home Movies on YouTube, you popped up at her hotdog birthday party as a surprise guest, and you said, I quote, "I like street dogs and they normally have bacon on them." What? Who eats bacon on their hotdog?
Hilton Carter: This is the how question, I love it. Who doesn't eat bacon on a hotdog?
Suzy Chase: Who does?
Hilton Carter: Where are you from?
Suzy Chase: Well, I'm from Kansas, but that's a whole other thing.
Hilton Carter: Well I spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. When I was younger and we would leave a bar, or if we were out dancing in a club, there would be street vendors who would sell bacon-wrapped hot dogs on the corner. There's a spot there, a hotdog spot in LA called Pink's, I believe, that you can get anything you could imagine, but the hot dog with bacon on it, it's just like a staple, that's a normal thing. I got kind of into that sort of, I would say, would you call it a garnish? Would you call it a topping? What would you call the bacon on a hotdog? I don't know.
Suzy Chase: I'd call it bacon on bacon, basically.
Hilton Carter: Hey, to each their own.
Suzy Chase: Even Alison was like, "What? What are you talking about?"
Hilton Carter: Alison knows what's ... That girl, I love Alison. That was a fun thing to be a part of. I just happened to be in New York that weekend. She was like, "Come through and have a hot dog with me," and I said, "Sure, I'll be there." That's hilarious, that is hilarious. But I needed some chili, I needed some bacon, but I went with the ... What did I go with? I think the relish and mustard situation.
Suzy Chase: And sauerkraut, I think.
Hilton Carter: Oh, sauerkraut. You know what, I don't know if I mentioned this in it, but she had, which I'm in trying to find, I think I have to order it online, but turmeric sauerkraut, which I was just like, "Oh, that doesn't seem like it would work." Oh, it was so good, so delicious. If you are someone who loves sauerkraut, turmeric sauerkraut is probably one of my go-tos right now. Shout out to Alison Roman for making me open my eyes to different toppings for hotdogs.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Hilton Carter: You can find me on Instagram or Twitter, mainly on Instagram, @HiltonCarter. My website is thingsbyhc.com, where I sell all the books and propagation vessels and aprons and products, things of that nature. But yeah, you can find me mainly on Instagram talking about my life in plants and my life in love.
Suzy Chase: To purchase all of Hilton's books and support the podcast, head on over to DecoratingbytheBook.com. Thank you, Hilton, for helping us make every room feel like the first day of spring and thanks for coming on Decorating by the Book podcast.
Hilton Carter: I really appreciate it, thank you so much.
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