HGTV Star Galey Alix Describes ‘Jarring’ Renovation Process—as She Proudly Shows Off Her Favorite Dwelling

HGTV icon and social media sensation Galey Alix has lifted the lid on her extensive home makeover process while opening the doors to her favorite home makeover thus far.

The 31-year-old, who hails from Fort Lauderdale, FL, shot to fame while boasting her 72-hour home renovations on her social media page, earning such a large fanbase that she soon garnered the attention of HGTV and landed her own show, “Home in a Heartbeat With Galey Alix.”

Alix has since come a long way from her days of showing off transformations on her social media page, and has been welcomed inside the homes of several A-listers, including San Francisco 49ers pro Kyle Juszczyk and his wife Kristin’s $2.7 million San Jose, CA, home, and “The Bachelor” alum Tyler Cameron‘s Florida abode.

And although the cameras are showing off the stunning before and after of her home makeovers, what they don’t capture is the social media star’s eccentric way of remodeling homes.

Now, Alix has let Realtor.com® in on a “jarring” secret—she refuses to speak with her clients ahead of transforming their home.

In the latest installment of Celebrity Sanctuary, Alix revealed that she has “never” spoken with a client about what she will do to their dwelling, leaving them guessing from the moment she steps inside as she welcomed fans into her favorite project.

My business model is unique because I’m a designer who has never actually consulted with a client about what I’ll be doing in their home.

That might sound jarring to read, but it’s how I’ve operated since my very first project.

If you hire me, it’s not to have your home remodeled, it’s to have an experience.

The experience is that you don’t need to spend hours discussing fabric swatches and layouts, you don’t need to live through breathing in paint fumes and compound dust, and you certainly don’t need to move out of your home for months (or even weeks) at a time.

If you hire me, it means we will meet, walk through your home, you will tell me everything that isn’t working for you on both a functional and visual level, and then we will agree on a budget. That’s it, your participation is done. 

A few months later you will hand me your keys as you embark on your three-to-five-day vacation or business trip.

During that time, my dogs, my team and I will move into your home and work 20 to 24 hour days until you return home to an impossibly clean and fully renovated home.

My favorite part of my business is when the renovation starts because it means I’m living in the home for the next several days, my team and I will be playing ’90s s rap music around the clock, and it means every detail I’ve spent the last few months planning and designing is coming to fruition. 

My favorite renovation took five days from start to finish. My two dogs and six teammates were there with me, and we watched the sunrise four of those five days working through the night.

Because this home was a new construction townhome there wasn’t a tremendous amount of construction to be done, but there was a lot of superficial construction or “add-ons” that took more time than I expected (hence the sleepless nights).

For example, the main floor consists of the kitchen, formal dining and living room in an open concept floor plan. The challenge with these large open floor plans is that it’s difficult to define your “areas” and as a result, it can end up feeling more like a large hotel lobby and less like a cozy home.

To help delineate these spaces from one another and enhance the coziness I added my wood flooring line (which I cut into thirds to make ceiling strips) into the kitchen and living room ceilings.

This helped bifurcate the room into three designated areas, with the dining area in the middle of the two wood clad ceiling rooms.

I also bumped the wall behind the dining area forward a foot so that I could recess a large picture frame inside with soft LED lighting behind it.

Bumping this wall out created a more custom look but also helped separate the dining room wall from blending into the same long wall as the living room.

The last major construction element I installed was a fluted wall behind her bed. I spent 17 hours on a ladder and I did this by hand with 90-minute joint compound.

My nostrils still have PTSD from all that compound dust. I can’t tell you how many bags my team mixed and carried back and forth during those 17 hours, but it was heroic. 

After we completed the construction, we moved into the cleaning phase where we cleaned the entire home top to bottom as if our life depended on it.

I’m talking Q-tips were swabbed along the inside rim of light switch covers on the walls to ensure every bit of dust is removed and all her air vent filters were replaced with fresh ones to protect her AC units and ensure every ounce of dust is removed. 

Then it was time to decorate. This typically happens in the final 24 hours of install before the client returns home for their surprise and we are running on fumes and a prayer, but with a side of euphoric anticipation as we know we’ll get to see her reveal day reaction soon!  

In addition to the wood flooring on the ceilings, I added custom wood framed and glass-faced cabinets above her existing white lacquered kitchen cabinets to create a more custom look.

I also wrapped that wood around the window to keep the entire kitchen feeling elevated and cohesive. Lastly, I also added a herringbone wood detail on the underside of both her stairwells to warm them up.

Truthfully, everything I had planned for this install was executed. Nothing fell short from a design perspective, but where I personally fell short was on time management.

I didn’t account for how long the fluted wall would take me and that set us back almost an entire day, hence some of us working 72 hours straight leading into the final reveal. This is something I’ve struggled with on several of my installs.

Part of it is my perfectionism and spending extra time on every detail to get it right, but the other part is likely naive optimism. It’s like when you order a big meal at a restaurant and then realize your eyes were bigger than your stomach when you can barely finish half of it. That’s me.  

My inspiration always comes from the client themselves. Who are they? How can I make this home better to improve their life? What can I create that is both a reflection of who they are, and will also be something they’re proud to show friends and family?

I was going for elevated and feminine, but still cozy and inviting. 

My favorite part is always reveal day. Seeing my clients’ reaction is why we work so hard to deliver such a unique experience.

On this particular project, my client returned from her five-day business trip abroad and came home to my team and I walked her through every room of her newly renovated home. Let’s just say there were waterworks in every room, and not just from her.

We all cried. I could tell she felt so proud to call this hers. She opened her eyes on reveal day and saw the culmination of years of her hard work and savings in physical form.

When I drove away from that install, I remember feeling like my heart was about to explode out of my chest. That fluted wall was worth it.