How Hillary Musser Designs And Sells Palm Beach Trophy Homes

A luxury home is easy to admire and hard to execute, especially when you are the one signing the checks, choosing every finish, and then standing at the front door as the listing broker. We’re joined by Hillary Musser, a Palm Beach powerhouse who blends development, interior design, and real estate into one high-stakes craft, shaped by equal parts taste, timing, and grit. 

We trace Hillary’s path from early entrepreneurship and bold projects to the moment a Nantucket build went sideways and forced her to take control. From there, the conversation moves into Palm Beach reinvention and the reality of today’s market: thin inventory, soaring prices, and buyers who expect a finished lifestyle, not just “nice finishes.” We also dig into what it takes to create that lifestyle with intention, from starting with one anchor piece to building a cohesive interior with world-class Italian partners like Poltrona Frau, Florim, and Garofoli. 

If you love the details, this one delivers: a million-dollar kitchen, frameless floor-to-ceiling doors with years-long lead times, and the engineering behind a second-floor pool designed as a pool within a pool. Hillary also shares what surprised her about reality TV and why marketing a trophy home is its own kind of design problem. 

Listen, share this with a design-obsessed friend, and subscribe so you do not miss the next conversation. If you enjoy the show, leave a review and tell us what detail you think defines true luxury.

Transcript

Welcome To iDesign Lab

Voice Over 0:00

This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design. Curator of interiors, furnishings, and lifestyles. Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott. iDesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast, where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends. Today on the iDesign Lab, we're stepping inside the world of high-stakes luxury, bold design, and unapologetic ambition with Hillary Mutzer. From closing over $150 million in real estate to building stunning homes from the ground up, and now starring on members-only Palm Beach, Hillary is redefining what it means to design not just spaces, but an entire lifestyle. This is a conversation about vision, risk, and building something extraordinary.

TIffany Woolley 0:58

Welcome to the iDesign Lab Podcast. Today we're joined in studio with Hilary Musser. Welcome. And we're so happy to have you here in Delray Beach. She is all the whole package of design, style, and a powerhouse. So welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, we're so happy to have you here. So tell us where start at the beginning a little bit. Introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Wow, the beginning of time, the beginning of my life, the beginning of my career.

Scott Woolley 1:28

Well, you're doing so much. We're kind of

Three Companies And A Bold Start

Scott Woolley 1:30

this. I know. Is there a place where it all kind of started, you think?

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Yeah, probably. Um, so in my um, this is Hillary Mutzer. I'm uh the CEO of three different companies: Hillary Mutzer Homes, my development company, Hillary Mutzer Interior Design, and Hillary Mutser Real Estate. So I have a brokerage firm. I became a broker when I decided that I wasn't gonna get the first pick of the empty lots or teardowns before they came on the market, you know, unless I was in the mix.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Okay. And then uh I became an interior designer uh in 2000. I used a very famous designer in Philadelphia for my own houses um for a few years. And then I realized I was making all the choices. And you liked you. And I liked my style better. Better, yeah. But he was a great guy. Um, or he's a great guy. And in any event, the house building also came like by happenstance, none of it was planned. Also organic. No, I had a different company at my MBA. I'm an entrepreneur. I was consulting, we consulted to out of about 80 employees, we were consulting to nonprofits in the area of earned revenue, and and we also created products. So I did the first IMAX movie ever on the Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. I went to the IOC, I got the rights, got Frank Marshall and Kathy Kennedy to do the to be the um producers for the movie. And it was really, it was a passion project for me. We got the Home Depot to sponsor. You know, it was not a huge financial success.

TIffany Woolley 3:13

We didn't lose money, but well then that's a you know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

But I had a great

The Nantucket Build That Broke

SPEAKER_02 3:18

time doing it. And I learned a lot. Yeah, I learned a lot. And in during that period of time, so go back to 1995 when I started going to Nantucket with my then boyfriend Pete Musser. We um stayed at the Wa Winna for a year, and then the next we rented, and then the next, and then then we bought some property. So we start building during the winter, and we flew up. Um, you know, we just went up unexpectedly in the middle of winter on his like company plane. We just decided one day to go check on the house and not tell them we were coming.

Scott Woolley 4:02

And what did you find?

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Uh we found the uh top of the cottage, which was on the dune, off the whole roof, and the house itself was filled with sand. I was like exposed. Yeah, so it was like a 3,000 square foot cottage and no roof and like like this high in sand. And then the foundation uh to the actual house uh was supposed to have been poured and it wasn't poured yet. So we called up the guy, I won't say his name because he's maintained still a building company, I believe, on Intacket. Um like what's going on? We had no excuse, and we'd like paid him for the foundation. So we're like, you're fired. And I'm doing it. I looked at Pete and I said, you know those guys who did our like we bought this little house on the lake in the Poconos from a friend of his to help him out. Like we didn't even want it. Um and I said, This place is terrible, and I hired some contractors, gave them plans, and we never went to check. And we showed up and it was perfect.

TIffany Woolley 5:19

Okay. So you knew there was a different way.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

These guys were so good, maybe they would come here. Okay. So bada bing, bada boom. I had a building company, Barkley Find Homes, named after my standard poodle, Barkley. And hence we went forward and we had a wonderful, you know, um working relationship. Yeah, I mean, they were all a team. And I'm sorry for my voice, I have like a strained vocal cord. And they they really worked hard to build that house, and we started to buy other lots in Nissan.

Scott Woolley 5:59

This is the start of you doing development and it's the start.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

We bought a house there for them. We flew them back and forth to see their family. They were all married or whatever, and they, you know, they went back and forth every few days. One would go to the city. All the different trades and the different trades we we use, the island people. There was no way around that on Nantucket. You you can if you wanted to play there, you had to use all the time. Um but my they all loved my crew so much. They were all carpenters. You know, you stick frame up there, not like here. I know totally different ball game, right? So they were all carpenters, they framed the house, but we used local everything else. Everything else. So it and they had a lot, we earned a lot of respect very quickly because of their work ethic. They were seven days a week, they had nothing else to do there.

TIffany Woolley 6:58

So at this time, were you diving into the interior part as well? That did interior design? That was at the time when I said, you know what, I'm going to all the selections, all the specifications. I'm gonna do this myself. Yeah. And it has a certain aesthetic there too. So were you partial to that aesthetic or were you, you know, totally changing it up a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Um, I was partial to the aesthetic.

TIffany Woolley 7:23

I know I love it theater.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

It's very cottagey. If, you know, I was on the cover of Country Living magazine with um that particular cottage that was filled with sand um many, many years ago. I was in classic American homes, I think, Nantucket magazine. I got published a lot for my work, cottage type work there. Yeah. Um, it was fancy. It was fancy cottage. A lot of entertainment.

Scott Woolley 7:51

So somehow you ended up in Palm Beach, where you're doing these magnificent homes now.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Fast forward, um, we then got married in 2000. I had Cooper in 2003. Okay. 22 now.

TIffany Woolley 8:06

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Um, and I'd say in 2005, at our house in the Poconos, I uh I uh I'm uh discovered um you know a an infidelity. Oh Jesus and I got very upset, pissed, and I and I basically within five months picked myself up and I um decided to move to Nantucket your route. Yeah, that was not the best idea. I loved my house in Nantucket. We had a beautiful house in the ocean, and I was like, I have to get out of this town, Philadelphia. You know, it's like his town, not my town. And very quickly, all of my friends who did the snowbird thing, Nantucket, Palm Beach, said, Oh, all right, you're moving to Palm Beach, Hillary. You're gonna last here till October, maybe mid-October. You live on the ocean on a dirt road with no streetlights, like like you know, like the boogeyman is gonna get you in the middle of the night. Like it's so scary. Yeah, it's like directly on the east looking at London. I mean, you know, it's like nothing out there.

Scott Woolley 9:30

It's empty. Black, just darkness at night.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Everything is dark at night, right? And I'm like, oh yeah. It's gonna be hard to reinvent there, right? Yeah, it was myself, my nanny, and your son. And everyone was like, Are you crazy? Like, that's so not gonna work. So Palm Beach, it was a friend of mine's husband was flying down, so he said, Come join us, get a plane. He said, Come sit, come, you can stay at our house. I have some business to do for two days. And then one day I bought a house.

Reinvention And A Fast Palm Beach Buy

SPEAKER_02 10:04

I bought a house on Woodbridge. Um it's funny. I I saw a house on the lake trail. I almost bought it, it was five million on the lake trail, brand new construction. It was like a Bahamian-style, beautiful house. British West Indies. You know, I don't really like that bike trail there.

TIffany Woolley 10:27

Yeah, it's big.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

I don't like a ranch style house. And I bought this gorgeous, you know, Mediterranean. Mediterranean. Okay. So you did do Mediterranean. Mansion type house that was brand new that the Glazers. Okay. Uh Jill and Avi lived in. And I joke with them, you know, they just opened Glazer Hall and they're so lovely. This was like your starter house. I mean, because this is not the, you know, it's it's it's a nice house, but it's not a Glazer house. You know what I mean? And I was like, well, I was honored to have their paper.

TIffany Woolley 10:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Had good energy probably by Echo Stone. So I was the second owner.

TIffany Woolley 11:04

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Yeah, and it was cool. It was cool. So that's where you put your palm beach roots down. Yeah, my first house there on that street right next to Mar-a-Lago. And the house itself came with a free membership to Mar-a-Lago, which he gave to everybody when he was building the club. Okay. And so I automatically had, you know, some built-in.

Scott Woolley 11:28

It goes back quite a few years.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

I was pretty young. I was 40. And what a fun time. I was like the youngest member there. Yeah, what a fun time. But it was a fun time. There were other young members, and then, you know, Baron came along like the next year or a year after Cooper. So there's some kids for him to play with, and three or four other young boys, and we had a great time. And, you know, candidly, it it was it was not a political place. No. You know, when we mention the word Mar-a-Largo, there's all kinds of political intonations that go with it today. Right. I mean, I think Trump was a Democrat back then.

TIffany Woolley 12:05

Right, right, right. People need to pay attention, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:08

Yeah, you know, it was had nothing to do with politics. Right. And I only say that in sort of a, you know, to tongue in cheek, I guess. To say that it's changed so much, you know, that if you're trying to be apolitical on a show like this, you can't even mention the word.

TIffany Woolley 12:29

I know, but when you think of design and like all the layers of Mar-a-Lago, to me, it's just such an appreciation. And I think it's so awesome that it is open for people to actually enjoy. It's an amazing piece of architectural property. It is. And I think it's just great that it's right here. So obviously, from that time, you've seen Palm Beach go gangbusters.

Why Palm Beach Prices Exploded

TIffany Woolley 12:54

Right. I mean, what a transformation. And I mean, I feel like because I grew up in South Florida, you know, Palm Beach was always just this beautiful oasis, very quiet. You know, you always would wear a skirt or a dress if you went for lunch on Worth Avenue. Like it was proper. Where I feel like now, not that it's not all of those things, but it's it's there and it's more present, more present than ever.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Right. I mean, it a lot has changed, you know, and you you've gone from Worth Avenue to being a hustle bustle to being dead to now being a hustle bustle again, just as an example. Right. I mean, take the real estate prices in the last year.

TIffany Woolley 13:34

I mean, that's what I mean. Like, how can you even wrap our heads around?

SPEAKER_02 13:37

In the last decade, they're up 187%.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

There's 90 homes right now in 33480. So not condos, but homes that are on the market. That's an all-time that's low. 90 homes only. Yeah, there's not a there's no inventory. No inventory. And you know, the same in in the you know, I'll call it the uh the corridor of West Pond Beach from Dixie to the intercoastal. Right. From you know, maybe the hospital south to the end of South Flagler. There's you know, there's only 90 homes there. So inventory is so low, demand is so high, 200 new financial institutions coming in.

TIffany Woolley 14:25

I know. And they're all coming to West Palm.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

No, there's 200 coming, yeah. Or on the way here. Or already start started here. So you 200 new ones.

TIffany Woolley 14:35

You really watched this explosion, basically, in your market and in your place.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

Yeah, that I mean, we're the working people were kind of few and far between. In the beginning, uh I knew them because I I I was in my kid was in school. But there was like nobody really at Mar-a-Lago who actually was really, you know, um, the older crowd that was really down there working, you know, it was not a working community. No. Um, so it was almost hard to find things in common with people for me. You know, I would go to parties, people would be like, Aren't you staying for cards? And I'm like, um, you know, if I had a lunch birthday or something. And I was like, yeah, no, sorry. I have somewhere to go. That had to be a shock for them in a way. I also had started a venture capital firm with my my ex-husband, who's now deceased, called the Muster Group. And so when I came here, I was recruited by uh Sean Heininger and John Scully to work with them in Boca. Yeah. On their um South Ocean growth equity uh fund, um, capital, whatever. And I did that for a few years.

Scott Woolley 15:58

Did you work you work there?

TIffany Woolley 15:59

Yeah. So they really respected your input and what you brought to the table. Well, I was raising money for the companies.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

That's always respected.

Scott Woolley 16:08

So how did you get the money? Anyone who brings in the money is respected. What made you decide that you're gonna start building and decorating and selling 40 million dollar homes? I did it in Nantucket.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

That's a busy I did it in Nantucket for many years.

Scott Woolley 16:28

Um at that scale, that size, and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

I mean, I think my first house I sold for 10 million, the next one for almost 13 or 14 million back then. In the 90s, it was a lot of money. Correct. Uh-huh. Yep. Right. Those houses are now 50 million, probably. I don't know about that, but close. Yeah. Um so uh the scale was always the same. The design intent was always the same, except the design changed, but high-end design, not spec quality. Right. A house I would live in if I had to at all times. Uh maybe I built a couple off of the water uh behind Moore Zen Farm there that were that were more speculative, beautifully done, but you know, um upper end furniture, but not the top of the top.

TIffany Woolley 17:26

So where do you go to find your inspiration for these homes? Like, do you trap the markets? Do you I mean obviously travel is a big inspiration, I'm sure. But where do you find your inspiration?

Designing From One Anchor Piece

SPEAKER_02 17:39

So I start with one item. You know, one style. Okay. So while the home I live in, I decided that I really liked the style in that season of furniture from Sonota. Okay. There were many pieces that they have the right to reproduce from famous furniture architects from the 1920s. Amazing. Uh beautiful pieces from all kinds of art. And in fact, um, you know, many of those pieces are in in original form are the most expensive pieces of furniture in the world. So I would buy the reproductions of them, but they're not reproductions like copies of them.

TIffany Woolley 18:27

Oh, I understand.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

They're certified by the family. They're licensed, yeah. You know, for uh licensed and everything like that. So then I I went with all Zenota. In other words, I thought that it was more cohesive, and then I would sprinkle in things like Fornicetti. I'm all Italian now. Everything I do is Italian.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

I I won't put anything in the house that's not made in Italy. I think they do the best quality work of anybody in terms of furniture, kitchen, porcelain tile is always fluorine. Yes. Um, doors I'm using Gara Foli now in my current house. So this next house, um, I picked Patrona Frau.

TIffany Woolley 19:14

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

I absolutely loved their Archibald chair. I I went from there to expand on the whole collection. And I also, it's relationships, right? So the guy from Zenoto went to Patrona Frau. So I may not have walked in the door of, but if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have gone with it, you know. Yeah, we were drawn. Uh although, you know, Francesco, don't listen to this. You know, it wasn't only him that brought me there. It was the style of the furniture that I fell in love with. So we we have, you know, the ability to make the house look, each room be a different experience, but still cohesive.

TIffany Woolley 19:56

So when you're obviously being influenced by all these beautiful furniture legacy brands in Italy, where did the architecture component fall in? Was that before or after the furniture?

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Well, the architecture, you know, would be um directed by me through an architect. Right. Okay. So in Nantucket, it was the cottage. Well, you're No, we had there were four buildings on that first property. There were three cottages that existed, and then I added a new house. The cottages you wanted to keep because you can't replace them. They were sitting on the dune. That was a unique property with multiple outbuildings on it. Okay. One of them literally in right on the dune. You could never build there again. Again, right, okay. Um, Nantucket being very highly controlled by the Historical Association. Everything is the same.

TIffany Woolley 20:52

Isn't Palm Beach kind of like that too?

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Maybe no. When you go to Nantucket, everything is shingled. Yes, true. It's very rare to see a house, and it would have to have been that way that's not shingled on the side, um mostly white. If you go another color, it's like under severe scrutiny. But, you know, there is some precedent for other colored trims in certain places. Like the Nantucket Golf Club is is a dark green trim. I have a friend's house that's like a sky blue trim. Yeah, the blue. But that was there. Yeah, it was exceptional. Color was there. Um, you know, there's no there's no building, you know, a different kind of house on Nantecket. You have to love that house kind of style house. Right. You can do whatever you want inside. Yeah. So it has so many different types of architecture. You know, you have Wyeth, you have Meisner, you have Maurice Falcio, you have you, you know, you have British colonial architecture. Architecture, you have um you have um some contemporary, very little, but

Historic Rules And Modern Resistance

SPEAKER_02 22:10

uh there's a few hard to get past, but they've done it. Yep. Um same in West Bond Beach, I built the first contemporary house in 2017 that that was in the historical district of Prospect Park. Wow.

TIffany Woolley 22:29

Under much opposition. So you did have opposition that you went against when you were I only had a hundred neighbors sign a petition that they didn't want it.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

And when I saw my neighborhood, my my friend Sean Heiniger, who was my partner at South Ocean on the list, boy, did he get it. I go, are you kidding me? He goes, it was a lot of peer pressure. But you persevered. I convinced the board that if you have, you know, a historical section of town and you're trying to preserve architecture from each decade, how is it that your last you know piece of architecture is something that was built in the 70s? Right? Don't you want to see the architecture of all day?

TIffany Woolley 23:23

Yes, true.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

30, 50 years from now? Right. Is anybody gonna remember this decade?

TIffany Woolley 23:29

That's actually a great point.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

How few from this decade? Yes. Now, of course, they don't want them everywhere, but they allowed it. And then after me, they allowed another one that was very modern on the water, but not two right next to each other. So my next one that I built was um, you know, very British West Indies.

TIffany Woolley 23:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

Um it's a house I live in. Okay, but very contemporary on the inside.

TIffany Woolley 23:56

I understand. I love that. So in and I'm I actually love it too. So I love the eclectic mix of yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

You just and and that w woman, Frederick Mitner, who happened to run, you know, the historical commission in West Palm, now runs the one in Palm Beach, and prior to that came from Nantucket.

TIffany Woolley 24:18

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

So I know her very well. And I I understood what her goals were. Right. And so I worked with her. So she said, Sally, hey, if you're gonna build the first modern house and you've got two roof lines, can you make one pitched?

TIffany Woolley 24:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

And one flat. I don't want to see a complete flat roof.

TIffany Woolley 24:38

That's so cool. We're doing a pitched roof. I like the that's really chic with modern. It's a little mid-century. Right. And that's what I did.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

And it was great. It was it was it was no detriment to the house and gave that area of the house an attic. So it was fine. Very, very cool. Yeah.

Scott Woolley 24:55

So you do a lot of houses, or you've done a lot of houses. Typically, are you doing multiple at one time, or do you normally focus on a project and then when that sells, start the next? Or yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

I mean, since I'm financing them myself, uh, you know, without any partners. Um yeah, one at a time is all that this one man band here focus on, right?

Scott Woolley 25:22

Along with do you have a team? Because you're I mean, the magnificent houses that you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

I am cute.

Scott Woolley 25:28

I mean, just every little bit.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

I have an assistant now, Marjorie, who's right over here. She um helps. I mean, typically I bring in people to do certain things. I don't have an in-house team. I am the team. That's amazing.

Scott Woolley 25:46

So you're doing all the selections. Are you laying it out?

SPEAKER_02 25:51

I have a draftsman. Okay. So every bathroom you'll receive an elevation that will have um exactly where every tile goes, right, how to cut it, where to put the niche, where to do where to put the the you know, toilet and whatever. On which tile, on which grout line. Very, very detailed. He's very good. And you're involved in all those little details. I have to meet with him a hundred times to to to get a deck done for a 13-bathroom house.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

After I pick the tile, and he's given the specs for that tile, then he and I give him the samples, then he goes to work. Yeah. So it's it's quite a process. Um, and it in the case of the first two houses that I built, I was the owner-builder, general contractor.

How She Manages Every Detail

SPEAKER_02 26:47

So I was buying the nails, the studs, the drywall. Um, I do have a general contractor, Seagate Capital Construction. They're doing a great job. They're we're we're uh we're just getting our CO. Oh, like as in we might have one. We might have it today or on a new project? On this house, our certificate of occupancy. On the house, 6315 South Flagler Drive. Modern contemporary wonder. Um, it really is beautiful.

TIffany Woolley 27:19

That must be so exciting to now see it come together. So, will you be installing all your furniture? I should send you a clip. I would love. Did you see the clip?

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Yeah. Sent sent you some um that was recent drone footage that was that was done um last week, last Monday. Uh, so we brought over a really sleek Italian boat for the hundred-foot dog. I saw that's gorgeous, beautiful. I'd like to have kept that boat, you know. Another four mil, and you can have the boat too. Um, it does include all of the Paterna Frau furniture. Okay, it does. And it it does not include the art because, you know, I've a Provident Gallery in Jorge, Louis Santos from Miami have um, and you know, a couple of other galleries have, you know, given me art to put on the wall that's available but not included.

TIffany Woolley 28:15

And so it's a whole experience then when you're showing these this magnificent home. I mean, you're very connected to every detail. Right, right. And you are like the owner operator, I mean builder, interior designer, and marketing.

Scott Woolley 28:32

How involved are you in the actual sort?

SPEAKER_02 28:35

And well, I do sell it. I am you are the broker. So you're the broker. I'm the broker. Um yeah, I'm the listing agent, I'm the broker. Um, yeah.

Scott Woolley 28:47

So I So you're you're you're very, very unique in terms of houses that are being sold, but you're in every aspect of it, and it's your baby. I mean, most people are who are doing those homes and then turning it over to a real estate agency that's handling that. I mean, I think of one other person that we know, I don't know if you're familiar with Frank McKenney.

TIffany Woolley 29:10

Oh, he was no.

Scott Woolley 29:12

Frank was doing homes along in Manalapan in that area on the ocean.

TIffany Woolley 29:16

There were 20, 30 million 2000s. Yeah, but he 20 or 30 million back then. Yeah.

Scott Woolley 29:23

Yeah, yeah. But he would on the ocean, though.

TIffany Woolley 29:26

So now they're 100%. But he wouldn't, you know.

Scott Woolley 29:28

He would hand it over to a real estate company, but they would do a big opening and a show. But he always did some sort of event. Like he would come from the ocean on a boat, like James Bond in a tuxedo on a jet ski, and then jump off. And you know, there'd be a hundred or fifty real estate agents from all over there, and then he'd run up the sand, and then he'd grab onto some rope that would was on a crane that would pull him up to the roof, and then he'd be on the roof like like James Bond, and like fought a villain or some person.

TIffany Woolley 30:02

Always like an actor. Oh, it was a big show.

Scott Woolley 30:05

He would put on this big show that was like It was a production.

TIffany Woolley 30:08

Yeah. And when you would arrive at the house, like he wouldn't, you never knew where he was going to eventually come. Oh, so people came just to see his show.

Scott Woolley 30:24

We went to a few of them over the years, and it was always like a wild party that he put on to present his house. Here's my new home.

TIffany Woolley 30:31

Which isn't far from what you're have done. I mean, now with the reality show.

Scott Woolley 30:36

Yeah, you're doing it from a social media standpoint.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

And well, right. I did a big launch party uh during the Netflix show. It um for some reason they cut it. Oh wow which I was uh really unhappy about because it was fabulous. We had we had filled basically a house with studs in it um and no drywall with furniture and overflowing with seafood and champagne everywhere. We had brought in the um big grand piano, and we had a the conductor of the Israeli Philharmonic playing the piano. Like a real theatrical presentation. And but apparently there wasn't enough drama between the girls that that night. And you know, I really learned my lesson because I was playing hostess. Right. You were on you know, I would have liked because it was really a big reason I did the show. Right, to promote it.

Scott Woolley 31:32

And they didn't put that in the show.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

We had a red carpet, I had the most outstanding porta potties you've ever seen. They were just like something to see at the same time. They were worth filming. And at the end, uh the EP thought it was in the show, and um somehow it was replaced. And I guess that's show business.

Scott Woolley 31:55

It is so tell us how you got involved in that.

Reality TV Meets Real Estate

SPEAKER_02 32:00

You know, a friend of mine uh who I didn't really know that well said, Hey.

Scott Woolley 32:06

So we're talking about members only.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Members only at a tennis party to raise money for, you know, I think it was Israeli tennis kids or whatever. And she goes, You know, I'm I'm probably gonna be on the show, they're casting right now. I think you'd be great. Can I give your phone number to this woman, Danny? Okay, and I said, sure, why not? You know, and the next thing you know, I'm uh in being interviewed on Zoom, I meet the executive producer Johnny. And I don't know, like three months later. You're filming. We're we're filming a pilot, and after we filmed the pilot, he shopped it, but he already pretty much had a pre-sold to Netflix.

TIffany Woolley 32:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

He really loved the idea of a Palm Beach.

TIffany Woolley 33:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Yeah. Everybody's kind of been trying to film here for a long time. For a long time, and now all of a sudden there's like three shows being filmed here.

TIffany Woolley 33:10

So, what was that experience like for you? Like a positive experience. I mean, I'm sure there was always positives about it, but what was the most surprising? Did you enjoy it?

SPEAKER_02 33:22

I had a great time. I really did. I had a great time. Uh, you know, I didn't really love the drama part of it. Right. That's what everybody kind of says, right? I didn't sign up for that. Um, it was sold as an elevated, you know, Palm Beach lifestyle country club show. But the reality is that you can't get into the country clubs. So you have to recreate or be just talking about those experiences.

TIffany Woolley 33:52

Yes. Um, and you really realize that um that the trajectory of what you wanna talk about and what you want to show might not be in line with what the producers so did you guys have meetings ahead of each filming, or like we're gonna take it down this way? Because it's not scripted. Correct.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Never seven, but six. They get a day off. And sometimes you're filming different scenes at the same time. There's multiple camera crews. You know, when I did events at my house, there were 50 people in the garage, you know, uh, four camera crews, and then all the people in the back. And it was quite a production. Um, I did the first party of the season, um, and I did multiple other events too. To showcase the house and the property and what you do. Yeah, I mean, I that was just my storyline, you know. I had a yacht wedding. I I did the launch party, it was a big party that, you know, I'm still waiting for them to give me the footage because I would love to show it. I mean, the house wasn't done, and candidly, you know, there was no uh none of the architecture on the outside. The fins, you know, were put on. There was no furniture, certainly. There was no kitchen, there was nothing, but it was a great, it was great. What a fabulous experience. It was such a cool party. Um, but that isn't a real lunch party. I then did a real lunch party in January. No, February, February, February. Um, I did a real lunch party for the brokers, but now that I'm hearing this story, I wish I had rented a boat, flown in on the boat, jumped off. You could still relaunch, right?

Scott Woolley 35:45

And then maybe I would you'll probably be you'll be doing another house.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

So I don't know if I would rope myself up to the roof, but you know a little cirque de sole somewhere in there.

TIffany Woolley 35:56

I don't know. You know, maybe uh swing from the chandelier or you know.

Scott Woolley 36:02

No, Frank Frank did a lot of really interesting. Like wild that sounds where you left that evening going, that guy's nuts, and that was entertaining.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

And he sold them fairly quickly. Yes.

Scott Woolley 36:17

Yes, yeah. So and you know, I'll tell you, interesting is that in every house that he did, like it'd be a glass elevator, two, three stories. You'd get in the elevator, and as you rode up, the mural on one wall was him. Like it was because on the ocean, so at the bottom was like you were at the bottom of the ocean, then you were at top of the sea, then you're in the sky. But at the in the ocean, it was him painted as like like King Neptune. And then as you get up in the air, it was like him in a hot air balloon. And I would say to Tiffany, like, who's gonna buy this house with him like on the walls? So I went to him and I thought his mind. I go, Frank, how are you gonna sell this house with the with your cell phone? They'll just paint it over it. I'll paint it over when we sell it.

TIffany Woolley 37:06

It was always like a little gimmick. Yeah. I honestly had never heard that.

Scott Woolley 37:11

But what's interesting is it is it made people talk. People talked about it. So people went to the house just to see what he was gonna do. Yeah, but I think that he got a lot of probably people that weren't real buyers.

TIffany Woolley 37:25

Sure. Yeah, more about the display.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

But but getting the top brokers there is the key.

Scott Woolley 37:31

Yeah, correct.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Yep, that's the key.

Scott Woolley 37:33

And getting them engaged, getting them to sell. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

And that's what you need.

TIffany Woolley 37:40

Yeah, yeah.

Features That Make Homes Sell

TIffany Woolley 37:41

So do you um when you're doing these spectacular major homes, is there one element that you think is gonna be like your selling tool each time that you add or change? Like, I know no, like golf simulators are like a thing. And like there's all these little, you know, on these big, big homes that people are like, what's different and unique? Like a hair salon, all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Yeah, so I always put a hair salon in that happens to be fantastic. Closets is is unique to all of my designs. And really unbelievable kitchens. I mean, the kitchen that I put in this house is so off it is off the floor.

Scott Woolley 38:22

Well, one of them we watched that you the kitchen's magnificent, but then there's a kitchen off of that kitchen. So in this house, so you're building houses, which I think is really fantastic, is you're not just building beautiful, magnificent homes for a person to live in, but they're also homes that are really livable. Meaning that like everything that you need to be comfortable living in it, right you're thinking about.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

Right. So there's there's which we see and appreciate often.

Scott Woolley 38:50

Yeah, because like Tiffany does these homes and like and I I'll see them before. Like, why would a person build a house like like just little stupid things? Like there's no garbage, like a there's no cabinet in the kitchen to put garbage. Like, they're just not well thought out.

TIffany Woolley 39:05

No, and I feel like that's what happens when you just work with an architect. I always kind of say that. Like, that's that interior architectural component.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Yeah, I just take over the inside. I don't let them design the inside.

Scott Woolley 39:17

That's the same with Tiffany.

SPEAKER_02 39:19

Um, you know. They lay out the rooms. I always redo them and tear that, tear that apart. Their closets are too small, their bathrooms are too small. It's always the same. In this particular house, I said, look, whoever buys this house is is going to have a staff. Yes. So likely a shot.

Scott Woolley 39:39

What's the size of the house that you're doing?

SPEAKER_02 39:40

It's 13 and a half thousand, say eleven and a half thousand under air, roughly. Um, it's it's got everything you want. You have a movie theater,

Engineering A Second Floor Pool

SPEAKER_02 39:50

which I always do. Right. Theater. What made you put the pool on the second floor? That's the one. I lived five streets down when I first moved to West Palm Beach on the corner of Potter and Flagler. My pool was in the backyard. And it was a where everybody hung out. I had a bar and a covered seating and uncovered seating, whatever. And I used to say, you know, I could be anywhere. And I paid a lot of money to be on the water, and I can't see the water.

Scott Woolley 40:19

So for anyone listening and watching, you have to go look at our house because it's putting a pool on the second floor, and it's exactly when I saw her. What a magnificent view. And you how you talk about it as well.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

It's it it was the only way to do it. Then there's another house on the street that has that pool in the front yard. It's hard to sell because people feel like maybe a little invaded, you know. Who would think that? They can, you know, if they drive by and oh, you know, you can kind of see somebody in the pool. On the second floor, you can't see them. It's far enough back. So I feel like the second story pool was where it was at, and and the way we built this house was just so um outstanding. I had this pool engineer, he was amazing. It was hard to find somebody to do to do a second story pool because of the liability of it. So he designed it to also to protect himself, right? A pool within the pool. So you have one pool that you build, you put four or five drains in it, those drains go through the concrete engineer and down the concrete wall and then out into the ground. Every gunite pool will sweat. Think about the temperature changes. Correct. Yeah, especially here. Okay, so it's concrete. Uh I don't care how well you waterproof it, they sweat. So the pool will never leak, even though it's also above only the garage. It's it's double insurance to have the pool within a pool. So there was no expense spared on the quality of the building. Things that you don't see, you don't see a drain, a scupper, nothing. They're all hidden in the walls of the entire house. Unbelievable. Um, you know, we used um, you know, not 5,000, but like 6,000. I don't know. We used the best concrete, we used the best, you know, thickest metal studs, the thicker drywall. We used everything for the higher quality. The kitchen itself is a million dollars from Petrona Frau. It's just unbelievable.

TIffany Woolley 42:38

Magnificent.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

With Ferrari leather everywhere. They make all the seats and dashboards for Ferrari. People have heard me talk about Petrona Frau so much. Yeah. People think I'm married to the company somehow to someone there. Even my builder teases, what about us? We built the house.

TIffany Woolley 42:56

Here we are.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

You're like having a relationship with Petrona Frau. The reason is is because a lot of people have never heard of Petrona Frau.

TIffany Woolley 43:07

I've always appreciated their details. That's from you know, reading magazines for so many years. Well, if you're an expert, but the average person is a very good thing. No, it does not. And they probably love that you're bringing them to this market too.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

Well, right. I mean, they have a store in the Miami Design District, and I think they'll probably end up opening something. In Palm Beach for sure. Yeah, they'll open something here, but still, it's a name that not everybody's familiar with. And so that's why I why you want it. Why I want it. And and it's the first kitchen they did in the United States. It's the first wine cellar they've done. Um, wine room. Very unique. And everything is perfect. Like the wine room was supposed to have little pockets for each bottle of wine. Um, and when it arrived, it didn't. So they're Remaking them. Right? Yeah. You know, everything. They care. They care. They do. And that's priceless, really. Right. They want everything with their name on it perfect. So it works out really well. The relationship is good.

TIffany Woolley 44:14

So

Italy Sourcing And Brand Relationships

TIffany Woolley 44:15

you know, since you've been in Palm Beach now, too, for the last almost 20 years, aren't aren't you amazed at how Palm Beach has evolved as becoming a little design destination? Uh yes.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

I mean, it used to be very annoying that you'd have to go down to the Dakota design building. Dakota you can roll the bowling bathroom now. Isn't that so sad? Around the corner.

TIffany Woolley 44:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

Yeah, the Dakota's beautiful building.

TIffany Woolley 44:41

Building. Beautiful. I know. And it was such a nice time, too. Like we park once.

Scott Woolley 44:46

Well, someone did something really wrong there to let all that just kind of go away from what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

It must have been overcharging, was what they were doing. Yeah. And they weren't getting people there. They weren't doing that kind of events or whatever they needed to do to get people there.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 45:01

I mean, I hope it reinvents itself at some point.

TIffany Woolley 45:04

I hope so too. But it's amazing to me because I feel like since then, you know, obviously the design district popped up in Miami, but now I'm seeing Palm Beach have such an influx of showrooms and becoming destinations there.

SPEAKER_02 45:17

Right, right. So a lot of showrooms are opening in Palm Beach. I mean, a lot of people don't want to, they don't want to slap down to the design district.

TIffany Woolley 45:24

No.

SPEAKER_02 45:25

It's the traffic is so untenable that you know the bigger brands really need to move to West Palm Beach.

Scott Woolley 45:35

Yep. They seem to be starting.

TIffany Woolley 45:38

They really are.

Scott Woolley 45:39

Yeah.

TIffany Woolley 45:39

Yeah. It's like a wild thing for Do you go to market? Do you go to High Point for She's, I think, more Paris. I've been listening to the Paris.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

I went for the first. Right. It just happened last month. Um, but you know, I work um out of the New York Showroom for Patrona Frau and for Florim. I work directly with the presidents of both of those companies. Um I'm working at a different level. We're designing unique things from the factory. I mean, not in tile, obviously. I'm not designing my own unique tile, but we're doing unique designs together and collaborating together, especially with the show and everything, and them knowing how much visibility they're going to get. You know, extra special care was taken with this house. And I think that shows in the final result. We have um, you know, 45 doors from Garrafold. The doors are unbelievable. I mean, they are truly works of art. Yeah, they're 12 feet tall. Um, most of them are oak. The white ones I did for the air conditioning unit so that people weren't opening those doors, so that they disappeared into the wall and they did them exactly in the white color that I picked on the walls, which was an

Custom Doors And Two Year Timelines

SPEAKER_02 47:10

RAL 9010 color. That's European coating. Amazing.

Scott Woolley 47:15

So when you were first thinking about this house, did you have in your mind I'm gonna put 12-foot doors? Or did that just somewhere?

SPEAKER_02 47:22

I did actually. I I said I want frameless floor-to-ceiling doors. I can't even imagine just how much one of those doors costs. That's true. They're they're all custom, they took two years. Really, from the time I went to the factory, so that's uh because that was my wedding, right?

Scott Woolley 47:42

Where was this factory?

SPEAKER_02 47:43

It was in Italy, uh north of Tuscany a couple of hours. So we drove up there first, and right before we got married in Tuscany, and that would have been almost um well, two years ago, May, May. Yeah, two years ago this month. Oh my god, my anniversary's coming up. Oh, it's coming up. Um so two years ago I was married, and those doors arrived about two months ago. That's unbelievable.

Scott Woolley 48:18

I would think it's gonna be that is unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

Almost two years. Well, that is incredibly frustrating. Like because I was like, we need the doors, we need the frames, we need the frames.

TIffany Woolley 48:29

They can't move on to another scope, yeah. The drywall step, you know, there's it's a whole frames were like so.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

We had to hold off on that, and then we got the frames, and then we got the slabs, and at the end of it, I called up Dario, and I said, All right, it was worth it. I know I did a lot of barking recently, but they are worth it.

TIffany Woolley 48:54

Oh, they are spectacular.

Scott Woolley 48:56

So when you're putting together so much that's so unique and so different, is there much pressure? You know, stress and all the pieces coming together and something doesn't come together. I know I we deal with it in in a number of things.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

And yeah, I mean, I think the stress, not so much in anything having to do with Patrona Frau. So they had added teams, sorry, of you know, people from Italy come and install their product, put together their product. No stress there, because I trusted them.

Scott Woolley 49:36

Well, yeah, I mean, and well, stress more so on timelines and deadlines, and you want to get this done and stress on timelines, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

That the house is delivered late. I mean, I'm just getting my CO this week and it's May, so yeah. Um, but it is what it is. Yeah, right. It's the best product ever delivered in West Palm Beach. It's better than my last two houses, one of which I live in, that I love, but it's better. It's just better. Every time I'm able to improve based on what I've learned. Of course. And based on living in both of the houses I built. Now I won't live in this one, but but when you live in them, you learn, oh, gosh, I it would have been a lot better if I made that laundry room bigger. That's tight in my house. Yeah. I'm not gonna do that again. Okay, like things like this. Right. So, you know, because I don't do laundry, I wasn't so focused on the size of the laundry room. Um it sounds rather bratty, but it's true. And then I think, well, what do I have to lose to get a bigger laundry room in my house? And I would have to lose my assistant's office. So that doesn't make sense. That doesn't work exactly. Um so in this house, there's two laundry rooms.

Building Better By Living The Lessons

SPEAKER_02 50:52

The upstairs laundry room is bigger than my own laundry room in my house. So, like just to give you an idea, but everything in this house is bigger, except for, of course, her closet, because there's nothing bigger than my current closet that I've ever done in my entire life than in my current house. Which is a work of art, too. Yeah, but I I realize it doesn't sell, right? In my last house, um, the people that bought it were like, What were you thinking? Like we like we're here like half the year. Like this is all this space dedicated to the closet. So in a house you know you're gonna sell, you know, you can't deliver a 1,500 square foot closet.

TIffany Woolley 51:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:32

Because people think I I don't, I just it's like a weight. I'm not, what am I gonna do with it? So I'm gonna have a party in my closet.

SPEAKER_03 51:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:40

Um, so I don't do that in a house I know I'm selling, but I did everything else, right? I I gave a beautiful office, a gym, a potential guest house, um, multiple bedrooms, some of which can be converted to other things if they want um a spa that could be converted to a bedroom if you wanted. Right, giving a little option. The gym could be converted to a mother-in-law's separate building if you want it, separated from the house. Um you know, every room has shade pockets, so you can seamless flack them out or you know all electric and everything, yeah. Everything is um, you know, for privacy or whatever. Everything in the house is meant to be seamless, right? And I think it is the best layout I've ever done. It's definitely the best kitchen, it's really a spectacular kitchen. Um so I'm I'm super proud of that. It's definitely an amazing master bedroom. You come around the corner and bam, you're looking right at the best you in West Pound Beach, better than mine. So if I'm looking at Mar-a-Largo like this way, I'm here, the houses in front of me, they're beautiful, but they're not the mansions south of Sloan's Curve where this house sits and looks at. No, no, no, it's north of Sloane's curve, way north of Sloan's Curve. I'm sorry. So there's this group of mansions, you know, where Rod Stewart lived. And you got Steve Wynne down there, but in between, right? Um, there's a bunch of billionaires there. Billionaires Row, huh? It's Billionaire's Row, right? There are people, I don't know, the guy, you know, I'm not sure who owns which house. I get confused, but you know, they're all like either, you know, whatever.

TIffany Woolley 53:39

They're all somebody.

SPEAKER_02 53:40

They're all somebody. Um, and it changes. Yes. Beautiful lawns, right? Right. Beautiful, manicured, manicured estates that this house looks at, that no other house looks at. It's just perfect place. And on the third floor of the house, you can see the ocean over the houses.

TIffany Woolley 54:00

That's like wild to me.

SPEAKER_02 54:02

And it's panoramic because I built it forward of the neighbor just enough. And because detail road goes like this, South Flagger goes like this, and this house is right here, and then it goes back around like this.

Scott Woolley 54:19

Right.

SPEAKER_02 54:20

And you know, special place. It's it's furnished with over a million dollars worth of furniture, is still 3,700 a square foot. You can't even get into any of these new condos for under $5,000. Isn't that cool? I mean, I just I know so you know, so there's value in this house, even at this price point, um, over and above, you know, I walk into South Flagler House and I go to the opening party and I look at the finishes. Yes, they're nice. But this but there's nothing is compared to this house. So I think it's meant for the most discerning buyer um who's really gonna appreciate it, and they're gonna come knocking on my door day now. I know, or not any day

What Comes Next At 60

SPEAKER_02 55:11

now.

TIffany Woolley 55:11

Well, that's a great way to wrap up because I know. One last question.

Scott Woolley 55:14

What's what's next for you? I was gonna what's next? Are you gonna stick with television? You're gonna you got a site on another piece of property.

TIffany Woolley 55:23

Another land piece of land, exactly. Your eyes.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

I do get, I I did get yesterday a couple of leads, leads on land. I have to really think about that. You know, I'm uh I turned 60, and you know, this is when you say, oh my god, you don't look like that. I know I'm I'm always seeking that compliment. And then and and and the thing is, but I am 60. And so the you know, you the road ahead to how many more summers I have, right to travel, to enjoy my husband, to spend more time with my kid. Yeah, um, you know, that gets smaller. So you really have to think about your priorities. And it is for me as the triple A type personality that I am unrealistic to think I could do another one in anything less than say three years. And I'm not sure I want to be nearing 65 and then just starting the completion process. I want to start to enjoy my life.

Scott Woolley 56:40

So I have outlook.

SPEAKER_02 56:43

Enjoyed the television, plan to continue doing television, have you know, the whole team together now, the lawyer, the entertainment lawyer, the manager, the operators. I got my team, yeah, and they're working on stuff for me. And Marjorie and I are working on a lot of merchandising opportunities jewelry, betting, home goods.

TIffany Woolley 57:07

I love that you're into that space. We'll have to talk about that again someday because we're kind of doing it.

SPEAKER_02 57:13

So when you design your houses, then you'll be calling me to do your betting. Yeah, I love that.

TIffany Woolley 57:19

What a great way to evolve. I think that's really amazing.

SPEAKER_02 57:23

Yeah. We'll be selling them at a very moderate price point. That's, you know, I mean, I'm not looking to be the next Matouke. You know, I want to look like Matuch and be available at HomeGoods. Yeah, I don't blame you. Right.

TIffany Woolley 57:35

Cheers to that.

Scott Woolley 57:36

Yeah, we just had Eastern accents.

TIffany Woolley 57:38

Yeah, Eastern accents.

Scott Woolley 57:40

Oh, great conversation.

TIffany Woolley 57:41

Betting and great factory, family-owned American company. Oh, I'll have to look into them. I know you'll have to look into them. Well, Hilary, thank you so much for joining us on the iDesign Lab podcast. Oh, we'll see you being here. It's my pleasure. I know. And you know, your project is exceptional. And we, you know, listen and hope our audience check it out because it definitely won't be on the market long.

SPEAKER_02 58:08

Yes, just go to my website, um, Hillary with one L Musserhomes, and you can see some videos and or my Instagram site. Also, fabulous has a million every day. We're posting. I love your Instagram.

Scott Woolley 58:21

Oh, your Instagram account. I'm not an Instagram follower, but Tiffany shows me because she follows me. It's a great account. You have a lot of great videos. And your clothes alone are you're fun to listen to and to watch.

SPEAKER_02 58:33

Thank you.

Scott Woolley 58:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:34

Well, I have a great, I have a great um content person. She's been over there editing those videos right as we speak. And uh, she's doing a great job. Oh, I love that. Yeah, it's a team effort.

TIffany Woolley 58:47

Well, congratulations on all your success. And thank you. We look forward to furthering the conversation one day.

SPEAKER_02 58:53

Yes, I'd love to do that.

TIffany Woolley 58:55

Okay.

Where To Follow And Final Thanks

TIffany Woolley 58:56

Thank you for listening to the i Design Lab Podcast.

Voice Over 59:02

iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW Group production in association with the five star and TW interiors. To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit TWinteriors.com.