Connecting with creatives ...

About once a month, the Boston Design Center hosts lecture series featuring celebrity designers. And yes they are celebrities to us! This past Tuesday, Alexa Hampton presented a retrospective of interior design scenes from her childhood homes to her current residence. This was one of my favorite presentations that I have seen at the BDC for awhile.


{Photo from Mark Hampton, LLC website}

Alexa is intelligent, humorous, warm and so down to earth. She is the kind of person who can easily connect with others and make them feel at ease even though she lives a really big life and has worked on amazing projects, beginning her career as a young teen at the side of her talented architect/designer father, Mark Hampton. In 1998 Alexa took over her father’s interior design firm after his passing. She has made quite a name for herself and has proven that while her talent may be inherited, it can also stand on its own. She has designed interiors all over the globe and her portfolio includes product lines for a number of quality design manufacturers, making her signature style
available to the rest of us.


Alexa Hampton for Hickory Chair



Alexa Hampton for Kravet

Alexa Hampton for Circa Lighting

{Photo from Mark Hampton LLC website}

Side note: Alexa said she prefers wall-to-wall
carpet in bedrooms (she also designs for Stark).
Good to know! Our new master bedroom carpet is
scheduled to be installed within the next 2 weeks!

The Language of Interior Design
by Alexa Hampton


After showcasing dozens of opulent interiors and classic design treatments, with funny side stories of design snafus and their graceful resolutions, Alexa was available to sign her book titled Alexa Hampton, The Language of Interior Design. I regret to say that I did not purchase a copy, but I will put it on my holiday wish list! Alexa offers just as much useful information as she offers pretty pictures and I am sure I would enjoy reading her take on design. Even more I would love to talk with her about her life as a designer and young mom. She shared some entertaining stories that I could definitely relate to! Along with being an incredible designer, Alexa was named one of the top twelve “Fun Fearless Females” by Cosmopolitan magazine and the title suits her : )


Here are some interesting degrees of
separation from Tuesday’s event ...

Designers Melissa Gulley and Alexa Hampton


I finally met interior designer Melissa Gulley at this event. Melissa writes a blog titled Design Track Mind. When I was at the North Shore Design Show this May, the space next to mine was designed by Nanette Chandler who happens to be a good friend of Melissa. I had been following Melissa’s blog for some time and Nanette confirmed that Melissa was as nice as she was talented. After meeting her in person, I agree!




Recently Melissa was recruited by non-other than
This Old House to be the interior designer for a local renovation project in Auburndale, Massachusetts. This new series will air this Saturday (check your local listings). Kevin O’Connor was actually the honorary chair of the North Shore Design Show: Favorite Spaces and I had a chance to meet him last May. By coincidence, Alexa Hampton has also been a senior design consultant for This Old House and was the first woman who was a regular on the show.
Small world getting smaller!

Also enjoying the event was one of my favorite online design friends, Julieann Covino of Jace Interiors and the design blog Create Girl. When you work mostly on your own or one-on-one with clients, it is nice to connect with others in the design field at these types of professional gatherings (even when the meeting is a tweet-up online ... still valuable!) Whenever I see Julieann we have these great conversations about social media and how it has enhanced our creative careers. I wish our paths crossed more often because
I always enjoy running into her. She is extremely
smart, super energetic, and very positive.




We talked about her upcoming series of design seminars which she will be kicking off this Sunday with a presentation on how to make choices when decorating a nursery. If you are in the area and have a “baby bump” that you are designing for, I would highly recommend registering for what I am sure
will be a fun and informative discussion.
Click here for event details.

{Photo from ABCDdesign blog}


{Photo from Dunes & Duchess website}

Also at the BDC on Tuesday was the talented stylist, writer, and editor Stacy Kunstel of New England Home Magazine. I haven’t had a chance to feature the beautiful new collection of candelabras
from her Dunes and Duchess product
line yet, so today is the day!

One was recently featured in the Shippan Showhouse in Connecticut and another was just raffled off to a lucky attendee at a Living with What You Love event at The New Traditionalists showroom in NYC hosted by a couple of designer/bloggers who I met at the taping of the Nate Berkus Show: Jonathan Legate and Amy Dragoo. Can you just imagine how beautiful this piece would look on a Thanksgiving or holiday table?!
Click here for retail locations.








Final shout out for the week ...

This Saturday at New England Fine Living my friend (and in-real-life next door neighbor) Jenny Scala, will be hosting a Style PIC trunk show from 10am to 2pm. She will have all kinds of fashion accessories, bags and on-trend wardrobe choices that she has selected from her designer sources. She will be offering some special discounts on in-store merchandise and will be taking custom orders as well. Jenny’s items always go fast, so come early and don’t miss out on this one-day event!



There will also be red tag sale items
throughout New England Fine Living
including one-of-a-kind pieces from
Antiques Displayed at incredible prices!


Have a great weekend, get out there, and connect!