Home at Last With Tan France: Landscaping & Exterior

Hello everyone.

My name is Tan France.

You might know me from the likes

of Next in Fashion, or Queer Eye,

but today I'm letting you in

on my most personal project yet,

the build of my dream home

right here in Salt Lake City.

I'm gonna take you through to the likes of my spice kitchen,

my cottage, my closet, the exterior, interior,

and pretty much everything in between.

You're gonna love it.

Join me, won't you?

[lively music]

[door clicks open]

My family were raised in a small town

in a working class community,

and we lived in a home that had three bedrooms

for all seven of us.

I shared a bedroom

with my brother, and my mom and dad,

until I was nine.

That existence, I thought was going to be my existence

for my entire life.

And that version of England

was really the only version of England

I actually understood.

I would see fancier homes, nicer homes,

typically white people's homes on TV,

and they had such a beautiful aesthetic.

I can't believe that we get to infuse

some of the England that I dreamt of

so, so much as a kid,

in our home.

[gentle sanguine music]

I am Tom Fox with the Fox Group,

And I'm Cara Fox.

Welcome to our office.

We are helping Tan and Rob build their dream home.

Yay. Welcome.

Hello, Cara, Hi.

Thank you for having us. Hi Dear.

Tan, specifically was wanting

an old English Tudor home

that looked like it had been around

for a really, really long time.

But also to include all like the modern luxuries

of today's living.

Correct.

Okay.

I'm dying to see what we got.

[lively music]

I want it to really feel

like an old worldy English Tudor home.

It's like we've inherited this home,

like it's been passed down.

One of the things that I love most about England

is the Tudor architecture.

And the thing that I love is that it's just so old

and it's been handed down.

It's got so much character,

it's just a part of the landscape.

Can we show them a version?

So this image here, the beams look old.

The white doesn't look like a perfect white.

We want it to feel like grandma's house.

Yeah. We're grandmas.

We love the grandma's house.

And we want it feel like we're home.

Perfect construction,

but not for it to look like it's perfect.

[Cara] Yes. Sure. Absolutely.

It's a tall order.

These are new made to look very old.

Yeah, that does look old.

I think I prefer the darker.

Oh, the darker too.

I think the imperfection of this is exactly what we want.

Is what we're going for. You like the more

tumbled brick.

Yeah. It looks like it's weathered.

Yeah it's aged. Yeah.

[Cara] We've designed a conservatory greenhouse.

[Tan] And the steel we're using,

because it weather's better than the aluminums

isn't gonna look too perfect?

Aluminum will always look perfect.

[Tan] Yeah, let's not go for that.

Steel will weather the way that they do anyway.

[Rob] Great. Okay. Love.

[Cara] The a hundred year old conservatories.

[upbeat music]

I think we have a great design.

I think there's some really,

We know that.

Well, I mean there's some unique quirky overhangs

and different things you wouldn't normally see

on more of a contemporary home.

But it's not the easiest thing to do,

to make those houses in the Cotswolds, and London.

That's why we came to you, Tom.

No, no. And we're gonna be able to do it.

It goes down to picking out the correct unit materials.

When you go through these homes in England,

it's like small ceilings, not a ton of light in the house,

but yet it's the most charming thing on the outside.

So it's like how do we give you

the convenience of modern living with light and,

Scale. scale,

but make this look so authentic and old on the exterior.

[lively music]

[lively music continues]

We broke ground last fall.

I got to see it dug, framing,

and it was the best feeling.

The fact that I get to infuse

some of the English culture

that I always so desperately wanted,

in my home, now at my age, middle age

feels incredible.

It feels like success to me.

[gentle cheerful music]

The outdoors of this property

are just as important as the indoors,

but they are not two separate spaces

because the house is so cottage-y,

we want it to feel very English outside.

We're gonna add a pool,

which is not very English at all,

but everything else about this

is going to feel like an old English estate,

even though we're in Salt Lake City.

And including the house,

we wanna make sure

that the exterior of the house

also feels very typically English.

Cara, Tom, should we talk about bricks?

Let's do it.

This one is more of a queen size tumbled brick.

Looks a little rough around the edges.

I think it's more authentic.

I want it to look

like it's been knocked about by the weather.

Yeah. For years.

Yeah.

We have a few reps that are looking around the country

trying to find old buildings

that have this that we can restore

and potentially put on your house so.

[Tan] Right.

[Tan] Which would be even, Yes.

the most authentic look you could possibly find.

Yes. And sustainable, which we always like.

[Tom] Correct.

And then the top of the house,

you know, we wanna stick with

the black and white English Tudor style.

[Tom] Correct.

[Cara] And drawing also from your inspiration,

[Tan] Liberty London. Yeah.

I think trying to make it look

as authentic to that as we can.

[Tan] Yeah. And also your current home.

[Cara] You love. Your current home.

[Tom] It has the black,

[Tan] it has that old I love.

[Cara] Beautiful. plaster attached

to those old black beams.

Yeah.

And wood. It really creates a charm to a home

that's really hard to find.

Thank you for that. I'm gonna go figure out

what we're doing with the landscaping.

[Cara] Yes.

Well let's go see Emily, shall we?

Rob and I, neither of us do any kind of gardening.

We are not landscapers at all.

But we need the landscaping to be equally beautiful

because that's the thing that finishes off the home.

It doesn't matter how gorgeous a house is from the outside,

if the landscaping isn't great,

it kind of negates what you've done.

And so working with Emily has been priceless.

Okay.

So we're doing English, English, English.

English, it is.

[Tan] We want this whole exterior

to feel very much traditional and very particular,

which is, are you calling it a tuxedo garden?

Tuxedo garden. We love a tuxedo garden.

All white, all green, nothing else.

We'll be using the boxwood hedge,

a laurel hedge,

and then we'll be using beech

and those all three of which are very English

and they should bring that feel into the garden.

Gorgeous. Is there anything native to Utah?

[Tan] Absolutely. Okay. Great.

I have a miscanthus grass

and a pennisetum grass.

And also I have the hydrangeas,

which they're drought tolerant.

Because as much as I want it to look

as English as possible,

I would love to incorporate

some of our surroundings.

And so to have some Utah native plants would be amazing.

We are gonna plan on using these stones.

So dark black limestone and the white limestone.

[Tan] Yeah.

[Emily] Together six inch diamonds.

So many London homes have this at the very entrance

and I think it's gorgeous.

And any way we can incorporate just kisses of England,

I will take it.

[Emily] We have also the dining garden.

We are literally gonna have an outdoor table

that we can dine at.

[Emily] The seating for 10. Great.

[Emily] And then you'll have the fountain

in the background.

You'll get to hear the water

to be relaxing and absolutely stunning.

This is a fixture from England.

[Tan] Yeah. And there's some planters

we'll actually incorporate as well

with the cricket yard below.

We're calling it the cricket yard.

Now I wanna make something [chuckles] very clear.

My kids might end up hating cricket.

However, I was raised on cricket.

I remember those moments

with my uncles and my brothers so distinctly.

It was so, such a beautiful memory

that I hope I can recreate.

And so I just wanna have it available

just in case I can convince them.

They're probably gonna wanna play

some American sport that I've never heard of,

but let's hope we can go for that.

I can't wait to get Sasha on this.

You've come up with the most beautiful plan.

I know, it's gonna be gorgeous.

Thank you so much.

You're so welcome. Thank you.

[lively music]

[lively music continues]

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One of my biggest issues with the house

is that we have to have retaining wall.

So we cut into a mountain.

Retaining walls were necessary, large retaining walls.

And I quite honestly hate a retaining wall.

I think that they just don't look nice

regardless of what material you use.

And so Emily was working on sourcing some trees

that would cover at least a top layer of the retaining wall.

And then at the bottom we are gonna come up

with possibly, ivy.

I just wanna make sure that you really can't see it

because as far as I'm concerned,

it's an eyesore.

We're here and it's the end of May,

so we're bringing in some plants

to cover the walls here at the France property.

Tan really wants to have a lush amount of green

in the property.

So we selected these because they're English,

and also because they are a little bit less maintenance.

We have a crane over here

and it's going to be craning in a whole bunch of mulch.

But we have dug holes all the way across

and we'll be bringing in 16 foot trees

and their emerald green Arborvitaes.

[crane humming softly]

[Lanscaper] First tree.

[Emily] How much is the weight?

[crane humming softly]

[Emily and landscapers chattering]

[crane humming softly]

There is only a couple of varieties of trees

I could actually put in

that would keep the integrity of the walls.

These retaining walls are 36 inches wide

and so I need to keep them narrow enough

that they wouldn't get so wide inside of that cavity

that they push the walls out,

but also actually find trees tall enough

to cover the retaining walls.

I just wanna make sure I get 'em in the ground

so they're healthy and that they're growing well.

I'm trying the spring

to get most of the retaining walls covered as best we can,

the last week of September, first week of October,

we'll start planting the garden.

[lively music]

Since I last came to the house,

they've added the beams,

the black beams to the house

that hopefully will be dark.

For it to look classically English, traditional,

I wanted it to feel weathered, aged,

not perfect wood.

And I also want it to feel jet black.

That is a massive concern.

I've been really anxious about it.

I'm most nervous about the wood

that he wanted to look like it was

Authentic.

a thousand years old on the exterior.

Yeah.

I think I'm most nervous about that

just because it's something that's brand new.

[Tom] Well if you remember, we have the special material

that looks like old material

that will actually last for a very long time.

And we painted it and made sure it looked perfect

just before we installed it.

And that beam work against the brick

needs to be the right balance.

It needs to not be too dark of a brick.

It needs to be not too light of a brick.

Finding the right brick.

We wanted him to be tumbled,

to look old and to be worn.

Tan likes a particular red.

And then after sourcing the right brick,

have to source the right mortar to accompany the brick.

Finally we found the perfect brick, the perfect mortar,

and we're able to put those together with the house.

So I don't know.

Hopefully, hopefully, [chuckles]

we'll see, we'll see [Cara chuckles]

if it pans out.

[lively music]

I am obsessed.

The beams, perfect.

The brick pattern is bananas.

I was worried about the color of the brick,

but it's exactly right.

I was even worried about the color of the cement.

Like the concrete in between thinking it might be too light,

it might be too dark.

[Tom] The grout. Yeah. Yeah.

The mortar. The mortar.

It's beautiful.

And even down to the texture of the beams,

and this like the texture on that, the color of it,

it all feel...

You could have told me, You know what, Tan,

we actually just brought a house from England

and just plunked it here, and be like,

Yeah, no, I can see it.

Even the cracks, it gives it so much character.

If this was just perfect,

I'd be like, You've got it all wrong.

It's not at all what we're looking for.

[Cara] Yeah. It's perfect.

Just like you said,

you wanted a Tudor home

that looked like it had been round a little bit of time.

So it's all those details. Right?

So the way the masonry's done, this is called a common bond,

which if you look closely,

you'll have the small buttons of the brick

followed by five layers.

[Tan] The detail's insane. Yeah.

And then the common bond just starts again.

Even this, the herringbone brickwork,

it's just such a nice detail to break it up.

It's just those small little details

that you'll appreciate.

Same thing with the Tudor tempering.

The size of it is done by design.

[Tan] The small curvature, The curve part.

[Tom] done by design.

[Tan] It's perfect. The curve

was hand templated from a ladder.

From from up top it. Thirty feet high.

Oh, somebody risked their life for my house.

Somebody risked their life for this.

I feel so honored.

His name is Max. Wow.

He's a very unique individual.

He's incredible.

I've got a feeling the house is worth it.

The big thing we have right now

in the exterior of your home is the...

Let me guess.

This isn't quite right.

This is wasn't what I was looking for.

You wanted authentic.

I think it's gonna get a little bit

cleaner than this. Cobblestone.

So we just have a lot of landscaping.

We had a lot of details.

Yeah.

'Cause the house is gorgeous,

but landscaping will take it to the next level.

As you know, we had the heaviest wettest winter on record.

I know.

And it was hard to just even access your home

for months on end.

It causes so many delays in a project,

especially up here in the mountains.

And so...

Project that was already, I know, ambitious.

Totally understand.

I'm really ambitious, I know.

So it's kind of nice that it's cleared out

and we get to finally finish the landscaping,

and head towards that finish line.

Just picture it.

I could bring out a platter of food on a table.

Family sat here, friends sat there.

And that.

[Cara] That view.

It's priceless, actually priceless.

I mean that literally.

[lively music]

[lively music continues]

For the past several weeks

we've been trying to get all these retaining walls in

in the right spots,

[power tools whirring]

covered by the right material

from the brick and from different stone,

all the right caps layered in perfectly

so that the landscaping can go in seamlessly.

As we've worked through,

we are able to see this landscape take form.

Right here, you'll see that we use these Arborvitaes

to cover those big tall retaining walls in the back,

and then the Espaliers that create more of a European feel

for the front of the garden,

layering it down with some boxwoods,

all of which are not huge amount of maintenance.

We started the garden in September,

and we have over a thousand plants in this garden.

To be able to get in, in such a short period of time

when we had snow just two weeks ago.

And so we've had our challenges,

but we think it's taken its place beautifully.

[Tom] In the backyard,

several things have changed in the last couple of weeks.

We've had to finish off the swimming pool

as well as all of the manicured landscaping,

and even more tiling, and furnishings.

Also, we've put in the artificial turf around the pool.

So we've put in all this really beautiful limestone.

It's a spotted limestone throughout.

It's really pretty, it's really unique,

it's really symmetrical,

and it's really balanced and even integrated

with the turf.

We chose turf

because in the last few years,

here in Salt Lake County,

they've given them restrictions on water.

You can only water two days a week.

Also, Tan and Rob won't have to have somebody

come out and mow their backyard every week.

We've also installed the beautiful glass atrium space,

which will be a stunning outdoor area for Tan and Rob.

This amazing glass structure was built offsite by hand

and then installed by our craftsmen.

It's on an elevated platform,

so he'll be able to see entire views of the city.

A unique feature about the lot

is that it sits up really high,

and when you have a high lot,

particularly here in Utah's climate,

it's cold.

And so what we wanted to do

is have a radiant heated driveway.

[machinery humming]

By adding the heated driveway in this climate,

it just makes it so easy for Rob and Tan,

to go to and from, to the street.

And then as you get to the top of the driveway,

we just hand laid all this cobble.

[gentle gavel knocking]

[lively music]

[lively music continues]

[trimmer whirs]

[frantic upbeat music]

[Cara] It's been two years

that we have been planning, working, designing this home.

It's amazing that we're here.

In the garden,

we chose to add some drought tolerant plants

that will do really well with the native landscape

that we are working with.

And right here we have junipers.

They do really, really well in drought

with drought tolerancy.

Here we have a hydrangea tree form,

this one's called Limelight,

as well as this Karley Rose grass,

and this beautiful white blossoming Yarrow.

Something will always be blooming throughout the year.

There should always be something that should catch your eye

as you walk through the garden.

[serene music]

[cymbals whooshing]

[cymbals whooshing]

[serene music continues]

[gentle footsteps]

[serene music continues]

[Tan] There was so much that we were stressed about.

Is it going to just look like a silly modern home

that we've tried to make look old?

Is the brick gonna look the right color

with the black and white?

Is the landscaping gonna be too much or too little?

This looks like we ripped this out of England,

plunked it here, and it's just been.

And that is so hard to achieve.

Like it really does look like it's always been here.

And I think the landscaping

is the perfect compliment to this house.

Emily's done the most incredible job.

Hi love. Hi.

[Emily] It looks so good. Thank you.

I love it so much.

Should we talk about how you brought it all to life?

Absolutely.

Okay.

So talk to me about

how stressful it was creating that drive,

'cause I know it wasn't easy.

[Emily] Oh, they did such a good job.

Our team has been amazing

at helping to create the contours at the driveway,

to create this special space with the cobbles,

and the heated driveway as well.

I'd love to take a look at the backyard.

It's magnificent.

[Emily] Oh.

[Tan] I love this garden.

You flanked the cottage with trees, hydrangea trees.

I love the black and white tile

that mirror the black and white tile at the front.

[Emily] Absolutely. Every detail

has been so important in creating a moment,

like that's a moment on its own.

This is a moment on its own.

These square shaped trees I'm obsessed with.

They are lime trees made with bamboo

to create a screen to hide the retaining walls.

But also they are pleached,

which is something that they do all over in Europe.

By pleaching these trees,

you create a layered effect

that triples down from the top all the way to the bottom,

layering it with different textures, colors, and shapes.

And I know it initially we were meant to have some big,

we had talked about big terracotta pots.

I'm so glad we didn't go with that. It doesn't need it.

Isn't it amazing how things take shape as they move?

Yeah.

And you're like, wow, this doesn't fit there.

This actually fits better.

Yeah, exactly. So as I mentioned,

there are so many pockets of beauty.

I would love to get up to that greenhouse, glass house

and talk about that beauty.

Let's do it.

Can we? Okay. Absolutely.

Hey guys.

Hey.

Hi.

[Tom] Look at it all. Can you believe it?

[Tan] Belstone knocked it out of the park with this.

That is gorgeous.

[Tom] They did a great job.

[Tan] The thought of having little dinners out here

is so exciting, I can't tell you.

My friends and family, they're gonna love this part,

'cause that view is dynamite.

[Tom] I mean the reason why you bought the lot

[Tan] is for this. The view.

I thought that it was fun watching the two of you

combine the architecture and the landscape architecture.

It's a lot more complicated than I think people know.

It starts with a good plan and a good vision,

and a great design by Emily.

There's so many things that have to go together.

You have the hardscapes of the landscaping,

you have all the walls,

and you have all these fixed structures

and then you have to bring in the art, right?

All the planting and whatnot.

This is just kind of the cherry on top

of this incredible house.

It had to feel like an English garden

because you created an English home.

If either of you are off,

[Tom] you failed. Right.

Emily is from Utah. She studied England.

She understands, you understand English garden

better than most people in this town.

If it wasn't for you,

this would not have worked

because no one else could have created

an English garden like this.

I'm so glad we can make it for you. [chuckles]

Me too. You deserve

this beautiful garden.

I don't know if I deserve it,

but I sure do appreciate it.

Well. Sure do appreciate it.

We're grateful to create it.

[lively music]

Are you happy? Like proud of it?

I just think it fits you guys

and balances you guys so well,

the architecture resembles the owners.

Gosh. You must think we're stunning.

[Cara chuckles]

I mean, I know you do love symmetry.

[Tom] I do.

[Tan] But I think that's a really strong case

for why symmetry isn't always the best option. [chuckles]

[Tom] A hundred percent. You have all the small details

of something that you would see in an English cottage

or an English Tudor home,

but it's still balanced.

Yeah, it is.

[Tom] And it still works.

[Tan] It sure is.

It's perfect. [Tan laughs]

I could stare at this house forever.

Same.

I hope I get to stare at this house forever.

I never want to leave.

Same.

I quit my job in show business.

I'm never leaving this house again.

[Cara and Tan chuckle]

Thank you. That's literally all I can say.

Thank you so much.

You gave us,

[Cara] Aw. We're so grateful.

[Tom] Welcome home. Thank you so much.

Welcome home.

You gave us exactly what we wanted and more.

Like truly, you did tell us that was gonna happen.

I know. You were like,

Yeah, the red rings are pretty,

but wait till you actually see the fact.

It's incredible.

Right. Should we go in and get warm?

Let's do it.

Come on.

[lively music]

At the end of the day, it fits them

and it's home for them.

And that gives us probably the most satisfaction.

Being able to create something for somebody

where they're gonna have memories,

where they're gonna have traditions,

where they're gonna spend time with friends and family.

It doesn't get better than that for us.

And hopefully they enjoy it so much.

Knowing that they're happy, makes us happy.

My kids, my eldest in particular,

is an outdoor child.

Finally, we have a space that he can enjoy

where he can play outdoors.

And it doesn't feel like it's just for the kids.

It feels like a kid space, and an adult space.

So the fact that my family

can spend a heck of a lot of time outside

enjoying every one of these spaces, feels incredible.

It is not just a home, it's so much more than that.

[gentle sanguine music]

The exterior of this home

is now exactly what we had hoped for and more.

The home itself is gorgeous, it's a Tudor.

The landscaping is English landscaping.

We have managed to create

what feels like an old English estate

in the heart of Salt Lake City.

I have no words for that.

[gentle music continues]

[gentle music fades out]

[lively music]

[lively music continues]

[bright cheerful music]

[cheerful music continues]