Yahoo Lifestyle 4 Lessons I Learned as an HGTV Designer
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Do you have a side gig or hobby that you’ve pondered taking to the next level? You could learn a thing or two from Galey Alix, a Wall Street executive who parlayed her weekend home makeover hobby into an HGTV show, Home in a Heartbeat, in 2023. (She also appeared as a guest designer on 100 Day Hotel Challenge last summer!)
Though Home in a Heartbeat is not returning for season 2, Galey learned a lot along the way and is now on to new adventures. Her Galey Alix x Livabliss rug collection launched late last year and her collections of wallpaper, pillows and decorative objects, furniture, hardwired lighting, and flooring are also in the works.
When Country Living recently chatted with Galey about her rug collection, we had to ask, what did she learn as an HGTV designer?
Her answer covered topics like building in more time in a schedule, putting mental health and well-being first, realizing that new ventures aren’t always be what you expect they’ll be, and the value of trying new things. In other words, she shared wisdom that can be applied to all sorts of endeavors beyond a TV show. Read on for her insights.
One normal work day = Three days of TV filming time
Though Galey gained her massive social media following by posting videos of her three-day renovation projects, she learned the hard way that filming for television is totally different.
“We’ve done these three-day makeovers for two years, and it was never a problem, but then when we went to film a TV show, I was forgetting that it’s not just a three-day makeover—I’m also having to stop every 20 minutes and film a 30-minute scene multiple times,” she says. “It slowed us down so much. In the productivity we would normally have in a day, it would take us three days to have that same amount of productivity while filming. And so we were just literally doing the impossible every single episode.”
So pad your schedule, because…
You and your team’s well-being come first
“I learned that my mental health and the mental health and the well-being of my team is more important than rushing an installation to hit a deadline for a surprise reveal for a TV show,” Galey says. “The recovery was so hard after each install, and it wasn’t sustainable. And, you know, that’s my fault.”
If she were to do it over again, she says, she’d stretch that three-day schedule for each makeover to two weeks to be safe.
It’s hard to be as authentic as you want on TV
Originally, Galey had envisioned a docuseries-style show where the cameras would simply follow her and her team as they did what they were already doing: finding a person or family in need of a boost and then transforming their home over a weekend, culminating in a surprise reveal. But it didn’t work out that way.
“There are so many points that you have to hit, like you have to sit and explain the family’s history and how you met them and all these things. And then it ends up, you can’t really just follow me doing my thing, because you would have had to be there following me every day for months to see the whole process.” (In real life, she begins planning, designing, and ordering long before she begins the three-day makeover.)
“And so you have to you have to story-tell and explain things to camera and things like that. I didn’t enjoy that part as much because I really just wanted to work, and I wanted to surprise the family. So I realized that filming is not as fun or as easy as I think many people might assume.”
Keep trying new things
It won’t always be easy. After all, Galey learned that making a TV show is a lot of work:
“I was an executive producer on my show, as well, so I wasn’t just the host or the designer or the day laborer. I was also editing and producing. What was really fascinating to me is just how much work goes into making a show. There’s so many people involved. There’s so many edits. There’s so many eyeballs on it. There’s so many decisions and points you have to hit. It was fascinating. I’ve only known finance my whole life, and I know the inside of that world very, very well. So it was kind of eye opening and I felt very embryonic in it,” Galey says. “It was so new to me, but it was also fascinating and eye opening.”
That experience led to a lesson that extends far beyond her show.
“No matter how old you are, don’t be afraid to just completely change your life and try new things, because it breathes new life and energy into you, learning something new for the first time, whether you’re 25, 35, 45, 55, 65—doesn’t matter. There’s something so useful about living something for the first time. I really enjoyed that part of the process. I know my whole team did. My takeaway is that I just want to keep trying new things.”
She’s off to a good start. Galey, who has now officially quit her day job in finance, has moved on to pursue a host of new endeavors.
“I started a podcast [Wholeheartedly with Kendall and Galey] now, and I’m learning all about that world. I’m launching all these lines, and I’m learning about that world. And I’m also writing a book, which will come out in 2026. There are just so many cool things, different types of work, to get inside of and see all the bells and whistles and what’s under the hood.”
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