Every great designer needs a support staff

For every great designer, there is a great design staff. I am no different. Allow me to introduce the team that lets my genius shine.

First, there's Damien, my design assistant. Tablescapes are his specialty. He loves to just jump right into a setting and get really hands, I mean, paws on.

He is also tech guy. And, when I get bogged down, I let Damien do a little ghost blogging. Shhhh! It's our little secret.


Next, there's George in the work room. This cat really knows his way around custom window treatments. He's always ready to tear into a new project.

And finally, Ms. Cleopatra Schwartz. Every designer needs a hot secretary/receptionist, and I'm lucky to have one so dedicated. Look at her: so attentive, hanging on every word, taking notes, just incredibly involved in the office. She's also helping me to embrace minimalism. Through her influence, I've discarded rugs, pillows, books, hats, shoes, and socks that really were just cluttering up my life. How did I get so lucky.

Colour me confused? Colour me happy is the solution.

As a decorator, one of my favorite and most challanging tasks is picking paint colors. It's a task that can strike fear into the heart of the boldest designers, both professional and amatuer. Who hasn't made at least a few errors? I know I have. I especially remember the time that halfway through painting my living room (of course I didn't bother to do any test painting: what am I, some know nothing amatuer?), I realized the wonderful chocolate I had chosen:

1. reduced the room to a cave.

2. reduced the room to a cave covered in what appeared to be bat guano.

3. was so dark it required several coats of another color which I quickly came to hate because it was quickly chosen on the spot because I couldn't live with a living room that was 1/2 bat guano brown, not to mention that I had a dinner party scheduled for later that week where I had planned to wow everyone with my dramatic new decor and the paint store was closing for the weekend in less than an hour.

If you or anyone you love every has similiar paint selection issues, I've recently found a wonderful blog here by Maria Killam, a design professional and color specialist, Colour Me Happy Blog. An excellent and informative writer, her articles on color selections are helpful for anyone struggling to choose the right paint color. Image from Flikr via Colour Me Happy Blog.

Island redo

Before: 90's pickeled oak After: A rich, Pottery Barn inspired espresso. The top coat is Sherwin Williams Blackbean over a base of SW Tea Chest and a dark grey primer. The paint finish was satin, but has been buffed with extra fine steel wool to a duller sheen to give a furniture finish look

I believe in more than optimism and white paint. I believe in optimism and blue paint, optimism and beige paint, optimism and orange paint......I think you get the trend. All joking aside, a quick (or sometimes in the case of this project, not so quick) paint job can do wonders to revitalize a room, piece of furniture, or in this case, kitchen cabinets. The clients are giving their kitchen a cosmetic face lift, and I really felt that doing the central island in a different finish, a distressed espresso, would update the kitchen, espcially since they have a lot of cabinets, and the pickled wood was overwhelming the space. Painting kitchen cabinets is easy, but not quick. Since they have to stand up to a lot of wear and tear, for a painted finish to stay looking good, these steps must be followed after removing hardware (it is easier to paint if doors and cabinet fronts are removed, but for small areas it is not crucial):

1. sand--doesn't have to be stripped, just roughed up enough to accept step 2

2. High quality oil based primer- not kilz. I like XIM which is an epoxy primer designed to adhere to glossy surfaces such as factory finished cabinets. Can be tinted (as I did here) to a dark grey for darker colored paint. Let drive overnight.

3. a couple of coats of oil paint with steel wool sanding in between coats. Let each coat drive overnight.

4. For a distressed looked: sanding wear on edges, around knobs, and anywhere natural wear would take place.

5. Finish: buffing with extra fine steel wool, wax, or polyurethane. If waxing or using polyureathane, allow to dry overnight before using the cabinets.

Summertime: when the outdoor living is easy.

Because our dining is so small (12 x14 like everyother room in the house except the bathroom which is even smaller), I can only squeeze 6 in there, and it's a tight fit 4 and 5 fit more comfortably, so I usually serve buffet style to larger groups. However, sometimes I really want everyone to be able to sit around the same table. Since I can't add on to the house, I decided to convert the 60's carport in the backyard to a dining room. The long table is actually two small tables that I can push together or pull apart depending on the situation, and I can seat 8 comfortably.

In Louisiana, I won't be able to use it year round--it's too hot from july to september, but it has already been great to use during the fall, the mild days of winter, and now in the spring.

Thomas requested a caribbean club feel, and I've tried to achieve that my using saturated colors pulled from the lucky find table cloth. Since this outdoor room is off of the kitchen, I also wanted to colors and feel to flow from the dining room (see below), hence the orange accents, and the kitchen (also below) which determined the use of the avacado green. The blue ceiling is a common feature in subtropic and caribbean homes. The sign is a street find from a restaurant that is being renovated in the neighborhood. Woohoo to dumpster diving. Since anyone who knows me knows I have a black thumb, I also planned the vibrant color scheme to distract from the lack of foilage. Once I go forward with my plans to stain the concrete paving the backyard, I'll take more pics.

Music to my eyes

A project that I've been working on. Details and other rooms to follow. I give you: a slightly over the top, library/upscale hotel bar inspired music room with a chandelier by local artist Paul Gruer dba Flambeau lighting and some fabulous retro italian gilded elf wall sculputures. This talented family includes a piano and flute playing wife and a violin and trumpet playing father.

Ooh la la

A french inspired powder room for a client with a metallic bronze ceiling and handpainted details to match a bronze listello tile. The walls are striaed with a pecan stain over robin's egg blue and sealed with polyurethane to make them imperious to her two small boys.

Distracted, but back.

2008, aka, the crappiest year in my recent memory is finally over. Now that a new year is here, I'm recharged and ready to blog again. You have now been warned. Here's a look at my latest project: a large scale art installation commissioned by an old client. It covers a wall in a new condo that he is furnishing as a high-end corporate rental in a great new development in Baton Rouge, LA, Perkins Rowe. Perkins Rowe has been designed as a town center that looks like a converted warehouse district with retail and dining on the ground floor and condos above. It has shopping, the ubiqitous Barnes and Nobles, a gym, a grocery, and a cinema.

Inspired by the legend of El Dorado, I call it Conquistador's Folly: an abstract mixed media in bronze, brown, and of course, gold.