From Halloween costumes to her Christmas red Chevy Camaro, Amy Earnhardt and I covered a lot of ground, in a quick and light hearted, interview about her passion for her family and interior design in North Carolina.
As a fellow Texan, Amy and I connected over the Southern obsession of Buc-ee’s travel centers and our shared love of ice cold beer. Sitting down to visit with Amy was a true honor and I immediately felt like I was talking to a close friend because of her calming nature and of course warm welcome to North Carolina. Amy and I started our visit with topics of the holidays and then quickly switched gears to talk about her passion for interior design and her career actually led her to meeting her husband, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I shared with Amy that I am a recent newlywed and kindly asked for any advise she was willing to give when it came to combining our design styles and what to expect when we started our own family. Amy was quick to give me a few newlywed design pointers and she even helped me to devise a plan for “possibly breaking” a few of my husbands home décor items that I’m not so excited about having around the house… all in good fun of course.
Read our interview below or watch it on IGTV!
[Jennifer] I want to talk about you career in interior design. I’m curious, so growing up did you always know that you wanted to be in the design industry?
[Amy] No, not actually. So when I went to College, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I was really good at math and science in school, so I thought maybe I’ll be an engineer, so I started out in the Civil Engineering program. And then quickly realized maybe not for me, and then switched to architecture and then ended up in interior design. So it took me a little while to figure out what I want to do, but it’s a lot of fun, I love doing it. And the job I had right out of school is how I met Dale.
[Jennifer] My husband Mike and I are newlyweds and so I really would like some advice on newlyweds combining their styles, right,that can kind of be a…
[Amy] Yeah, hot topic.
(Amy and Jennifer Laughter)
[Jennifer] Right, I know. It is in our house, so I would love some advice from you on just combining styles, so how do you kind of find your combined styles?
[Amy] That’s tough because your styles evolve anyway over time, and I think you kind of figure out what you’re willing to give and take on, and where you just give up.
[Jennifer] Yeah yeah. the shoe closet has to stay.
[Amy] She also has to say what’s funny. Dale has more shoes than I do, so the closet is full of shoes.
[Jennifer] Did he really?
[Amy] It’s pretty funny. When moving in with Dale, he has a very specific style and he’s you know, pretty manly. The house is more masculine and so I was kind of having to push the orange things out of the room here and there and make it more neutral, putting plants in, so we didn’t have so much trouble with the furniture because I got to pick all that out ironically. It’s more of the like the little things the knick knacks and the trophies…well we love the trophies.
[Jennifer] Of course, yeah.
[Amy] Sometimes we don’t want to look at them (trophies) all day long. So I’m with you, I have no real good advice.
[Jennifer] You need to find a balance, right?
[Amy] You just kind of dip your toe in. Trying to suggest maybe we push it here. I’m just gonna push it around a little bit then and then he kind of forget about it. Maybe try that?
[Jennifer] Let’s just put this in the closet and then. Yeah, maybe try that. OK, I’m going to take that advice. Yeah, there’s this lamp that Mike really wants to put out….
[Amy] Oops, I don’t know what happened the. The dog chewed the wire .
[Jennifer] Yeah, we can blame it on the dog, that’s a good tip, ok.
[Jennifer] In your design world, what are some of the the biggest design mistakes you see people making in their homes?
[Amy] Just putting too much too much.
[Jennifer] I’m guilty of that.
[Amy] Too many things sitting around. I feel like it’s good if it’s a holiday and your decorating and then you kind of put out all of your garb out. I love a tacky, overdone Christmas, but other than that I feel like I just need a clean, more minimalistic, room. It makes me feel less anxious.
[Jennifer] Right, I I think that’s what we’re trying to accomplish, but sometimes you see things kind of just pile up.
[Amy] That happens and just wait until you have kids, it’s gonna get even worse.
[Amy] So yeah, the more knick knack things you have around too, they’re going to pull off the table… it’s fun.
[Jennifer] Yeah, OK, I’m making notes here.
[Jennifer] What design trends are you seeing for 2022? What should we look for, are there specific colors that are coming out?
[Amy] It seems like everyone is doing the neutral black and white and a lot of bohemian influence. Rattan and like giant light fixtures.
[Amy] You know there’s certain designers that love color and kind of like pour it in, but I don’t know, I feel like the farmhouse or just kind of the rustic neutral thing is going to stay around for a while.
[Jennifer] That’s good because our house is… well we are toning down the “farmhouse.” So Mike likes more things that look modern and clean and I was very farmhouse.
[Amy] Well, you can kind of mix the two.
[Jennifer] Yes, Modern Farmhouse is what we are going for!
We wrapped up our interview by talking about the Texan tradition of Friday Night Lights, recipes that we can make with the leftovers in our fridge all the way to the the adoption of our dog Bailey. And of course Amy’s sweet dog Junebug made a special guest appearance to wrap up the interview!
