What I am working on ...

Color and Design Consultations

All of a sudden I have a lot of decorating projects that I am working on again. This mudroom above, is an after photo in a home that I color consulted on about 5 or 6 years ago. It is an historic home with lots of great architectural details and the homeowner was not afraid of mixing it up a bit by using coordinating trim colors in most of the rooms. I recently went back to choose paint colors for three more spaces. I can’t wait to see how the dining room is going to come out with its new gray and cream color palette. Also on the agenda is choosing accessories for a teenage girl’s room, and a complete overhaul of another client’s pet-friendly living room. 

Brick walkway at the Wenham Musuem

North Shore Design Show at Wenham Museum

It’s official! I am one of the participating designers once again for the Wenham Museum North Shore Design Show in May. This show is a perennial favorite of mine, as I have been involved in it since it first began back in 2009. This will be my fourth “favorite space” and I will be including a really cool item from the Designer Bath showroom. It will not, however, be a bathroom! Below is a sample of the carpet from Company C at Circle Furniture that will be part of my vignette.

Showroom Design Project

Speaking of Designer Bath, we are in the process of changing up some of our Beverly showroom displays. This soaking tub from WetStyle will be moved to another area and be replaced with an amazing new piece from Zucchetti. I won’t give it away just yet, but if you get the New England ASID newsletter, we featured it in our most recent ad (Spring 2012 – just arrived on my desk yesterday!) We recently stopped by to visit Lucy Dearborn at the Lucia Lighting showroom to pick out an amazing lighting fixture to go with our new look. It is going to be stunning! 

A Summer Nursery by Yvonne Blacker

Elizabeth Wertz Photography

Decorator Pop-up Shop

This weekend I am having a retail sale of my own. Visit me at TaggArt Studio in Wakefield on Sunday, March 11th from 10am to 4pm. This will be a One-Day Decorator Pop-up Shop featuring dramatically reduced prices on design inventory that has been seen on the pages of New England Finery Magazine. It will be priced to sell! The magazine is scheduled to undergo a slight makeover of its own (more info later!) so I am making room for the changes to come. I will also have lots of fabric remnants, trims, vintage items and even custom window treatments from some of my past design shows for sale. As a special bonus, a friend of mine who reps a designer clothing line, will be having a sample sale. If you are sick of your winter wardrobe like I am – or if you want to freshen up your interiors – stop by and take home something new!

Are you a magazine junkie? I will be giving away years worth of design magazines (free for the taking) and perfect for ripping out room ideas that you like, pinning them on mood boards, or filing them away for inspiration. I hate to part with them, they are almost like scrapbooks to me, but I need to clear some space in my office for new projects.

Laura Thomson’s window display at the Lynnfield Library for Art in Bloom

Art in Bloom

And then on Monday night, March 12th, you’ll find me relaxing at the Lynnfield Library for the opening night of Art in Bloom. This is one of our favorite events of the year. Check out this post by my friend, Laura Thomson, who has just finished decorating the library window in preparation for next week’s show. I can’t wait to see what she does with fresh flowers!

What else?

Along with trying to keep my families schedules on track while I am completely immersed in creative projects, there are also a few design related events coming up that I am really looking forward to attending. I am sure they will provide me with lots of design content to share, and will hopefully energize me enough to keep up this pace : )

Brimfield: in real life

sytlist/editor Stacy Kunstel, photographer Laura Moss,

Michael J. Lee Photography, and me : )

After featuring the spring tweet-up at the Brimfield Antique Fair in the last issue of New England Finery, I knew I had to check it out for myself this time around. So I headed there last Friday, and with me, I brought a sneak peek of the newest Finery cover (which is scheduled to release late September/early October) and the talented photographer behind the shot, Michael J. Lee. Michael photographed this room by designer Frank D. Hodge at the Old York Decorator Show House with me this summer. There are a lot more great pics from the show that will be featured in the Autumn issue so stay tuned!

The first twitter friends we ran into were Stacy Kunstel of New England Home Magazine and Dunes and Duchess along with her friend, photographer Laura Moss. We were off to a great start! The weather was perfect - 70’s and sunny - and we were able to find more dry ground to cover than there had been all week at the show as it had rained non-stop for the first few days of the event. Thanks to the advice of some twitter peeps, I left my flip flops in the car and wore sneakers (I just could not bring myself to put on boots in early September!)

When we arrived at the #brimfield VIP tent, we were welcomed with a bright and cheerful space adorned with Company C fabrics on the ceiling and tables, fresh flowers arranged in Benjamin Moore paint cans, plus a well-tended bar. Snacks and drinks were complimentary including a Gimlet-style signature cocktail which was very refreshing even at 1:00 in the afternoon : )

Twitter friends gathered to chat and tweet between shopping excursions. In this photo: designer Gloria Battista-Collins of GBC Style, social media expert marketer Leslie Carothers of The Kaleidoscope Partnership and Deidre Drewes, another social media talent, of Dragon Search Marketing. I loved how the tent “walls” were painted with samples of Benjamin Moore colors. A nice touch!




I finally got to meet #brimfield tweet-up organizer/designer Gretchen Aubuchon and lifestyle designer Kelley L. Moore who were more than happy to pose for me on the luxurious linens displayed by event sponsor Pandora de Balthazar.

Custom monogramming by Pandora de Balthazar

Pandora de Balthazar also had a table with their naturally fragrant lavendar collection of products in the adjoining tent.




Kelsonthehouse (as he is known on twitter) carpenter-extraordinaire Brian Kelsey of Martha Stewart Radio, was there along with graphic designer/art director Stacey of the style blog Quintessence. Stacey recently redesigned the Pandora website so check it out – it is lovely!

photo credit: Stacey of Quintessence Blog

I was happy to meet Brian in person to thank him for providing me with his video clip and quote for the spring issue of New England Finery. He was also kind enough to encourage me via a home decorating chat on twitter that it was easy to change out a door knob (a small project that had been on my to-do-list for too long). My secret strategy to getting the job done was to get all the tools out, start the project and look just confused enough to convince my husband to take over and finish. In the end it got crossed off the list which is all that matters : )

photo credit: Michael J. Lee

Along with socializing, we did do some shopping. This is the great find that I wanted to bring home with me from Brimfield. How cool would this look in our barn? My boys would have loved it, but the price was a bit out of my range by oh, about $1,000 or so.




Instead I brought home this charming pair of wooden shoe forms. I have seen a lot of adult size ones, but this miniature pair reminded me of the little shoes my boys used to wear. They are a bit smaller than the shoes my youngest wears today ...





As I was walking around the grounds, I was collecting ideas for an upcoming design event that I am participating in, The Boston Antiques & Design Show & Sale. It will be held on the weekend of October 15th and 16th at the Shriner’s Auditorium in Wilmington, MA (just off of I-93).




New England Finery Magazine will be hosting a 20 x 20 foot space to promote interior design that incorporates antiques. When the show producer, Marvin Getman, asked me to coordinate this project I was so honored! He loved the coverage that his last show, Elm Bank, got in our summer issue in a feature titled Looking for Antiques so he asked me if New England Finery would like to be a part of his next event. Of course I said yes! I had just watched Million Dollar Decorators on Bravo and loved what LA designer Mary McDonald did with her space at the Los Angeles Antique show (see snapshots of it in this post by Kelley Moore) so I was completely inspired to design a space for this event that will celebrate antiques in a modern way.

So if you missed your chance to shop Brimfield this year, mark your calendar to attend this fabulous INDOOR antique shopping venue (no need to worry about rain, heat or cold and you can wear whatever shoes you’d like ; ) We will even have a special area set up in the New England Finery “room” to take photos of visitors with their favorite finds (similar to what they did at the Brimfield tweet up, which I thought was a great idea!) So please come to shop, and then stop by and show us your acquired treasures. You just may find yourself in an upcoming issue of the magazine!