Interior Decorating, Home Design, Room Ideas

Well, the big day finally arrived. The sofa, pictured above, that I picked out months ago was delivered this week. It's an old cliche, but very true: A designer can decide in a nanosecond what her client needs, but when it comes to the designer's own home? Forget it! The hold up was I couldn't decide what chairs would look good with the sofa because it has dramatic lines, with a high curved back, great depth, low - almost nonexistent - arms, and gorgeous, dark wood mouton legs. The truth is, I have waited my whole life for a George Smith sofa and arm chairs and I guess I'll be waiting for another life time. It's just not going to happen this time. As hard as I tried to make a pair of Smith's club chairs work, they just didn't look good next to the French styled sofa. So, after a few months of turmoil and indecision, back and forth, I finally decided on French wing chairs with mouton legs. The lines of the chair are very similar to the sofa. Decision finally made, chairs built, voila - it's here. As big of a change that it is to me, if you walk into my family room today, you may not even notice there is any new furniture at all, unless, of course, you're a design freak. Both my old and new sofa and chairs are slipcovered in white linen. The old wicker arm chair, my former perch, is now gone, replaced by the wing chair. But still, the overall effect is the same: white slipcovers contrasted with dark wood furniture. While the new furniture is not from George Smith, it is custom made, with all down cushions and it is tres comfy. Here's what my family room looks like with the new couch and chairs:





The only decision left concerns the pillows. This is what I'm thinking about - it's new from F. Schumacher, thick linen, gray and white - birds, of course, with the Quadrille negative-color toile feel. The fabric pops on the white sofa and repeats the high contrast of the white against the dark wood. What do you think? Should I use this fabric, or perhaps zebra, or even, dare I say, kwid or lulu?

Below, is another F. Schumacher fabric that seems to coordinate with my first choice. Or would a solid in deep raspberry or dark charcoal be better? What is your opinion? Do you have another suggestion?

AND.... One last design note. On my coffee table (which I would like to replace with a zinc one!!!) is a large blue & white Oriental bowl. It's huge and it's from Tozai Home, the upper-end division of Two's Company. Inside the bowl, I keep tons of loose photographs and old Christmas cards. I suggest this to all of my clients, especially the ones with myriad tacky picture frames cluttering every table and shelf. I've discovered that loose photos placed in a bowl invites conversation. At family gatherings, inevitably, one or two people will sit by the bowl and go through the whole thing, picture by picture. When was the last time anyone really looked at all your pictures in their frames? Toss those frames, put the photos in a big bowl, and watch your friends actually look at your photos for the first time.

This is a bedroom I worked on this year. The walls are covered in a Farrow and Ball wallpaper and Chelsea Editions fabrics figure prominently. Yes, I know - those are English companies! But, the furniture is mostly French antique with a few French reproductions pieces added to the mix. The curtains are a gorgeous Nancy Corzine taffeta with a scalloped trim on the lead edges. It's hard to see here, but the carpet is a wool cream and aqua pattern. The nightstand comes from Chelsea Editions furniture and the coffee table comes from Joyce Horn Antiques. If you click on the pictures, they will enlarge to see everything better.

These period bergeres, originally stained dark, are from Tara Shaw. The fabric is an aqua linen from Rogers and Goffigon, who make the best fabrics out there as far as I'm concerned and, believe it or not, they do not have a web site. The mirror is an antique from Area. Thanks Daniel!

This buffet a deux corps was our inspiration/starting point. It was the first item purchased and I designed the room around it. Isn't it beautiful.? It was bought at Watkins Culver, owned by Babs Watkins, one of Houston's premier designers. Again, no web site, sorry to say.

I designed the sofa and had it fabricated by Custom Creations, who have a wonderful line of furniture that they produce. Again, this is covered in a Rogers and Goffigon fabric. And speaking of Custom Creations, all my soft goods (drapery, bedding, pillows, etc.) are fashioned by Monica Hancock of Custom Creations by Monica. It's led to a few mishaps having two vendors with almost the same name! Sorry about the shape of that pathetic orchid. I should have pulled it out before taking the picture. Ne faites pas vous aimez juste le design français?

I had seen this picture in a magazine, it was of Atlanta's Suzanne Kasler's dining room and the lovely pink draperies struck me as such a daring choice, and yet, they were so beautiful. Several weeks later I had an appointment with a client whom I profiled earlier and I mentioned that I wanted to bring pink into her room. The walls of her living room were already painted in a light celadon, darker celadon stripe (or maybe they are more of an aqua) and she wanted to keep the stripes. Pink would go nicely with them, but the hue had to be deeper than Kasler's pink. The next time I came over I brought several taffeta samples from cerise to fuchsia and the design took off from there. We chose a large Chelsea Editions cherry check and a gorgeous Lee Jofa classic chintz to bring the deep pink in. A celadon Nancy Corzine silk grounded the custom sofa and another Chelsea Textiles seabreeze small check graced the Swedish sofa.


The crowning fabric, though, was a complete afterthought to fix a huge mistake. Originally a pale Bennison linen was to go on the skirted table. Once it arrived, it just died where it lain and at a great personal expense I added this gorgeous damask, in, of course, a berry color. The adjoining walk-in bar was repapered in a deep pink Cowtan and Tout oriental toile.



To look at the finished room it bears no resemblance in any way to the original inspiration picture, which is strange. What I do know, is, that if I hadn't originally brought this picture of Kasler's dining room to my client, her room would look completely different today.

This beautiful living room is located in a client's house that has undergone a total design transformation. Originally I was called to this house to finish up details my client's previous designer had left undone. She and her husband had recently "downsized" to this townhome and tried to use all their furnishings from their previous, much larger, home. They wanted an area rug - that was their first request. At that time, this room was gray and contained a large, gray velvet sectional - I kid you not!! As I listened to the wife and husband bicker back and forth, I realized the wife was toying with the thought of changing directions from soft contemporary to French design with an emphasis on antiques. She knew that in order to realize her dream, all the previous designer's work would have to be changed and everything else would have to be replaced, all at a considerable expense. To her it seemed an insurmountable task.



At the second meeting I was honest how I felt about their current decor. This honesty gave the wife the courage to change it. She convinced her husband to let me redo the house once again. We spent the next two years hand selecting every antique, fabric, wall color, accessory, and vibe necessary to achieve the total French design that she truly wanted.




Today, the room is a mellow yellow, with French gray trim. The curtains are a flowing pinstripe silk. The upholstery fabrics are linens and silks. The furniture is antique. It's been a long strange trip, but wow - it was worth it!

This is a bedroom I just completed for a client who was recently separated after many years of marriage. Her friend talked her into redoing her bedroom and I tried to make it cosy and romantic for her to start her new life in it, hopefully, with a new man one day. She was wary of decorating while newly single, so I told her we could do it "on the cheap."

The budget was small, so I found her this toile bedding from Pottery Barn - Martine. The color is a soothing, calm, aqua with a hint of gray in it. From PB, we bought the slipcovered headboard, the duvet, shams, and sheets, plus a painted end table just visible off to the side. I used a skirted table to save more money and filled in with inexpensive silk fabrics from Calico Corner.

The sconces come from Blanc d'Ivoire - a fabulous and very reasonable French company with a branch in NYC. The lamps are theirs also. The french chair and ottoman came nude from Savoia, another reasonable company from Canada. The painted bookshelf is from GJ Styles, and yes, it too is a very reasonable company! The mirrors are from a local lighting company and the carpet was ordered from Home Depot. While very nice, the carpet is one element of the room that I am not enthralled with. It was my wish that we run seagrass wall to wall, but my client disagreed, and so we chose a deep aqua sculpted piece. It works, but I'm a seagrass girl to the core. Plus, the seagrass would have cost less!! The drapes were custom made with matching material ordered from Pottery Barn and the shades are from Target.

I had fun working on this room. It was a challenge to keep costs down on everything and I don't think I splurged on any one item. My client was overcome and actually cried when I finally let her see the finished space.