The Big Picture

Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis aim to make family homes functional and fabulous, offering insight into staying organized.
Families struggle with redecorating due to lack of vision or going for safe options. Alba and Mathis encourage families to be bold and creative.
Alba merges motherhood with career, making it a central part of her brand. Having kids on her journey has been rewarding.

Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis are back for another season of Honest Renovations. The real-life friends are helping well-deserved parents take control of their family homes. The working moms understand that parenting is tough in itself, and it becomes even more challenging when their home isn’t working for their family’s needs. Throughout the season, Alba and Mathis are surprising parents with renovations to take their homes from cluttered and chaotic to functional and fabulous, as they like to say! It’s not your average renovation show. This duo share their own stories about the growing pains and pressure points of parenting.

In an exclusive interview with Collider, Alba and Mathis spoke about what all audiences can expect in Season 2, and why they enjoy tackling these homes together. Alba also gives insight into why there doesn’t have to be blurred lines in motherhood and career.

Honest Renovations Parenting is tough, and it’s even more challenging when a family’s home doesn’t meet people’s needs. That’s where best friends Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis come in. They’re surprising parents with renovations that take their homes from cluttered and chaotic to functional and fabulous. However, this isn’t the average home renovation show. This duo gets honest about the pain points of parenting and the pressure points of a family home, with heartwarming moments and plenty of laughter along the way.Genre Home Renovation Number of Seasons 2 Debut Date August 18, 2023 Studio Roku

Season 2 of ‘Honest Renovations’ Is All About Staying Organized
Alba and Mathis go into every home and family with one goal: to make their lives easier. Anyone with a family home and kids running around understands how quickly things can become chaotic and messy. That’s where Alba and Mathis’ expertise comes in. As mothers, wives, and businesswomen, they know first-hand how physical clutter can add to an already cluttered mind.

“Make sure you have a place for everything. That’s the easiest thing to do if you are on a budget, and you can’t go through and add cabinetry and add this and add that to a space. So making sure everything is organized helps,” Mathis suggests. “You can do that through baskets or containers or making sure that everything is labeled for that place, especially with children, it’s important to make sure they have their own area.”

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And as kids grow, their interests change. A lot of parents find themselves frustrated with having to re-decorate their kids’ spaces as they age. But Alba says the trick is to make the space easy to transition to each stage. “Furniture pieces play a big role in kid spaces. Buying furniture pieces that have storage and don’t stick to a theme that they will grow out of quickly is something we tell our families,” Alba says. “Being able to leverage your furniture that you would have in your home and being able to hide the kid’s stuff, whether it’s behind the cabinet or in drawers, is key to really having one solution that can last through many stages of your kid’s life.”

Jessica Alba Says Families Have One Common Issue When Redecorating

Every family is different, but many of them have the same complaints when it comes to remodeling a home or re-decorating. Initially, Alba says they’re so overwhelmed by the thought that they don’t even know where to start. “It’s really hard for them to reimagine their space to look any different. So just having fresh eyes on a space is super helpful,” she explains. Alba says getting creative, and not being afraid to take risks can help in the process. While everyone can’t afford to hire an interior decorator or designer, she encourages families to work together using Pinterest as a starting point.

“I say allow yourself to think outside the box and go bold. I think that a lot of people kind of stay in a safe zone. They want dark brown tones and heavy furniture, and they want the walls just to be kind of white or a little off-white. They’re afraid of wallpaper, they’re afraid of color. They’re afraid of furniture pieces that even fit the space appropriately,” she says. Another mistake families make is buying in bulk. “Even if something is on a discount, if it’s the biggest thing, then it doesn’t make it the best thing for the room. Measure your space. Big doesn’t mean better.”

It’s the Best of Both Worlds for Alba and Mathis

Alba and Mathis have been friends for years. They mesh well together in life and in business, and feed off each other’s strengths, which makes Honest Renovations a joy to watch. Aside from helping their families on the show, working with Alba is what Mathis loves most.

“I think being able to work on this project with your best friend, it’s the ultimate payoff. It’s a dream job,” Mathis gushes. “When you can go to work and be excited about not only what you’re doing and what we’re doing, we’re really genuinely helping families and creating solutions for them that they never would have thought of. But then you get to do it with someone who you don’t mind bickering with, you don’t mind laughing with, you don’t mind the ups and downs. And it’s fun. It’s a good time. And I think that if you can work and play at the same time, then you’re winning. And that’s what this show feels like.”

Jessica Alba’s Brand Is Motherhood and Family
Image by Walt Disney Pictures

While Alba’s career hasn’t slowed down since becoming a mother, she’s seamlessly infused motherhood into her career, making it a central part of her brand. The Honest Company founder named her businesses, including the show, after her eldest daughter, Honor. She made motherhood as an in-demand actress cool and relatable at a time when Hollywood starlets felt like starting a family would put their careers on an indefinite pause. She says it was natural for her.

“Talking openly about my motherhood experience and creating companies centered on family is a very authentic expression of who I am. I was not ashamed of it or trying to hide it,” she remembers about those early days. “It was something that I didn’t see a lot out there in the world. And so being able to kind of, ‘Hey, bath time is great when it goes great, but most nights, I can’t wait to have that glass of wine. I remember my early days of early motherhood. I really looked forward to wine. It would just got me through that like witching hour. That was real talk.”

As her kids have grown, she says having them on the journey with her has been rewarding. And she has been able to build a community by speaking openly and thus creating businesses true to her experiences. “Not everything is not so overwhelming because my kids are different ages, and it’s not as stressful. But I worried a lot in those early years,” she reflects. “And I think that also just takes a lot of your mental with just constantly worrying about whether this little person is okay and if they’re thriving, fed, and sleeping good.”

Honest Renovations can be streamed on the Roku Channel.

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