The premise of Honest Renovations, hosted by Jessica Alba and fellow entrepreneur Lizzie Mathis, is more layered than your typical home make over show. Alba’s baby-friendly sensibilities, informed by her ownership of The Honest Company, results in a brand-packed show filled with low-VOC paints, floors that are already off-gassed and enough carefully-curated closet space to accommodate lotions, potions, diapers and that all-important me-time for a parent.
“We can unlock something for [our guests] and for their quality of life,” explained Alba, the founder of the Honest Company. Alba was in conversation with co-host Mathis and YMCA of Chicago CEO Dorri McWhorter at a launch event held in the downtown digs of the Chicago branch of Chief, which is a network for executive women. Mathis is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Cool Mom Co., a company founded during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and intended to support mothers.
Members of Chief Chicago gathered for a special viewing of one episode of the six-part series, airing now on The Roku Channel. It was the sort of event that effortlessly blended that sometimes difficult-to-mix aspect of being a woman in a high performing workplace who also needs her home to be high performing as well.
What Mathis and Alba do well on the show – and also in person – is to welcome and incorporate tough business decisions with tough family decisions. For them, there is no separation. Honest Renovations is not just about moving a wall or adding some razzle dazzle to a space. It’s about making a space truly work for people who might not yet know – as one couple didn’t – that if at all possible, mom’s home office should not be a shared space with the newborn’s room and the guest room.
If mom is a remote worker, how is she to get any work done as the child matures? As many working parents know, toddlers in the room during Zoom meetings just don’t work. And, if the space is available, babies should have a dedicated, peaceful room that isn’t filled with printers, filing cabinets, paperwork and bills. Granted, such a room set up is a privilege, for sure. But what sets Honest Renovations apart is that the hosts actually discuss these issues, and blend in their recommendations for the new spaces with their own experience as moms.
The show also is inviting even more viewers and breaking barriers because Alba and Mathis make a diverse team.
“For Jess to be Latina and for me to be African-American in the renovation space? It’s important to us,” says Mathis, adding that Roku stood behind them on this project.
The diversity in family choice is intentional as well, and refreshing. The Chief audience – which was majority white – viewed an episode that showcased a black family living in Los Angeles. They wanted a reno because they had a newborn, a house with oddly-shaped interiors and a main bathroom only big enough to store their dog’s food. This family walked down the hallway to use another bath with a slightly bigger footprint. And, they had a gargantuan bedroom set that took up most of the bedroom, leaving little room for walking.
Judging from the positive and engaging audience input into the viewing, this particular episode touched on common ground for many homeowners: closet space, weirdly-shaped rooms, inefficient use of space. Plus, Alba saw right through the high end sizing.
“Bigger is not better!” she said, explaining that many people buy the largest furniture they can find but those pieces aren’t always the most flattering furniture for the room. For the show, that giant bedroom furniture was swapped out for something less formidable. The room looked greatly improved with that swap alone, plus a new paint job and of course, a bigger bathroom with a bathtub designed in such a way that there was space for the portable crib or sit-me-up to rest safely on the floor.
The two friends banter in person much how they banter on the show. They don’t claim to be renovation experts in the manner of architectural engineers, but they are renovation-experienced. And, they do have a crew that comes in and builds (or rebuilds), though Mathis does pick up a tile or two and help out on camera.
They met at their children’s school, years ago, and became friends soon after. Now? they are in business together. Separately, Alba has recently welcomed a new CEO, Carla Vernon, a woman she is proud to describe as Afro Latina and the first Afro Latina to become CEO of a publicly-traded U.S. company. And Mathis is soon to welcome a new podcast. They went with the Roku Channel as distributor for their show due to the channel’s reach, and willingness to try a different sort of makeover series.
Honest Renovations airs on The Roku Channel.
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sensitibility – of parents who want a reno with low VOC paints, for example – paired with the practicality of what it really takes to make a house work with an infant or a toddler or a couple of teens.
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