Lunch with Holly Becker of Decor8

In late August, I was invited to attend a book signing at Anthropologie in Boston featuring Holly Becker of the well-known design blog Decor8, where for the past 5+ years she has featured “fresh finds for hip spaces.”

Holly, along with lifestyle writer Joanna Copestick, has taken the design philosophy of her highly followed blog and has turned it into a really fabulous book filled with “1,000 professional design ideas for every room in your home.”

photo Debi Treloar; designer Sania Pell
Decorate is available at local Anthropologie
stores or through Amazon.com.

Peppered throughout with inspiring quotes from talented designers, and image-rich with a wide range of decorative styles, Holly has created an extensive guide that encourages readers to uncover their own personal design aesthetic while providing tips and techniques to decorate with confidence.

Meeting Holly in person was such a treat! Even with her cross-continental fame (she lived in the Boston area for 20 years but now lives in Germany with her husband) she is very approachable and truly values connecting with others. There were lots of people in line who had taken her e-course on how to establish a meaningful and creative blog (Blogging Your Way) and many others who have followed her creative journey throughout the years. She was warm and gracious to all, even after signing books for over 2 hours!




Before sitting down to sign books, Holly shared decorating tips with a group of attendees who had signed up for her mood board presentation. I wasn’t able to make it to this part of the event, but a lot of other bloggers in attendance wrote about it (see list below).




After finishing up at Anthropologie, about 20 of us headed to the Back Bay Social Club which was just a short walk down Boylston Street. We filled two long tables and Holly encouraged each of us to stand up and introduce ourselves to the group and share a little bit about why we blog and what else we do to fulfill our artistic impulses. The room was filled with a creative buzz and there was lots to talk about!

While I did not get a chance to speak with everyone personally, I was really impressed with the accomplishments and goals of these women who had gathered to meet Holly. I was happy to spend some time getting to know Rochelle Greayer, a landscape designer turned editor, who is on the verge of launching Leaf Magazine. Just like when I started New England Finery Magazine, she was full of contagious enthusiasm! Being a gardener myself, I am looking forward to reading their first issue (due out in October) which I am sure will be beautiful and informative.

Photo credit: Amisha Thakkar-Kashyap

I sat next to a handful of Boston bloggers who I have met at other design events (at the Boston Design Center and again in NYC on the set of the Nate Berkus show). I was also introduced to other area bloggers that I have been following online. Here I am chatting about blog writing and life in general with Laura of Journey Chic. Laura’s blog focuses on sharing easy and affordable design style tips. During lunch she told me she used to be roommates with Boston blogger Erin Gates of Elements of Style.


Here are some more photos from our end of the table:

Artist Sarah Ahearn with lifestyle blogger/writer Katy Elliott.
Photo credit: Amisha Thakkar-Kashyap

This was my first time meeting the two Kates who blog:
DomestiKated Life and Katy Elliott

It’s always fun spending time with Boston bloggers!

Julieann (CreateGirl)

Stephanie (Sabbe Interior Design)
Lindsay (EverythingLEB)
Katie (Domestikated)

Thank you, Julieann, for getting us all together. It is always a pleasure to connect with and support other creatives!

Photo credit: Monica Lee

Check out the blog posts below. Most of them share their personal thoughts on gathering to meet Holly Becker, along with providing insights on what it is like to travel a creative path. The first two posts are from Holly : ) Enjoy!


Decor8

HausMaus

CreateGirl

Sabbe Interior Design

Everything LEB

DomestiKated Life

Katy Elliott

Monica Lee Studios

WellerWishes

Studio G

Sarah Ahearn Bellemare

Journey Chic

Gorgeous and Fun Things

Pretty Neat Design

Lolalina

The Desha Show

The Patterned Peacock

Graceful Whimsy

Ellen Crimi-Trent

D.S. Brennan Photography

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!

Meeting and tweeting ...

Recent hosts at a design discussion on how to grow your business with twitter: Stacy Kunstel, homes editor of New England Home Magazine
(and the Duchess of Dunes & Duchess) with designer Julieann Covino of Jace Interiors, author of the design blog CreateGirl

Lately I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of talented people in the design industry. Along with the group of creative vendors at New England Fine Living, I have been joining some very cool designer chats led by design professionals who are quite savvy when it comes to social media. This week I attended a meet-up coordinated by The Design Salon and hosted at Twelve Chairs, a new home furnishings boutique in Boston that showcases eco-friendly merchandise and green design. In this beautifully decorated loft space turned showroom, a large group of talented, entrepreneurial creatives sat in on a between-you-and-me conversation on how to use twitter as a business building tool. Stacy and Julieann, both of whom I have followed online then have recently met IRL (twitter short-hand for “in real life”) shared tips and techniques for utilizing the collective energy of twitter.




{Images borrowed from Twelve Chairs blog}

Some of their recommendations? Find out who you want to follow. Start with friends, add industry professionals and then follow who they follow.
Twitter really is the ultimate in networking, where anyone can jump in and join the conversation! One of the best parts of twitter is how easy it is to share information quickly with a large audience. Be sure
to tweet about what you are working on, link to other tweets of interest, and always use your best twitter-etiquette and say TY (thank you) when someone gives you a shout-out, answers a question,
or provides a resource.


Here are some interesting design conversations
(or threads) that you can follow on twitter:

#IDzinechat
#intdesignerchat
#ProjectUDesign
#projectPINK
#DesignTV




TY @creategirl + @stacystyle 4 ur inspiring twitter tips!
And TY 2 @twelvechairs 4 hosting this gr8 event!


For more info on The Design Salon
and its members, click here.

The mecca to Nate and back

Thanks to the Moggit Girls (lifelong friends Joy and Janet were behind me in line and are seen in picture above) Boston designer Julieann Covino of the blog CreateGirl (not pictured here but I did get a chance to finally talk to her in person but my camera was all the way across the room!) and the power of twitter, I had the opportunity to be an audience member at a taping of The Nate Berkus Show yesterday. And it wasn’t just any old audience that walked in off the streets of New York to be there. Just about everyone there was invited because we share a love for Nate, inspired design, and a hard-to-put-into-words passion for social media. Big time gratitude goes to everyone behind the scenes at the Nate Show for hosting with stylish grace and
lots of humor (that would be Dena), and for
sharing Nate with us for the day!

Bloggers traveled from both near and far, leaving work/school/families/and their computers behind to be a part of this special Nate Day audience. Having the opportunity to meet so many fun, creative (and well-dressed!) personalities from the same industry *in person* was well up there on the list
of highlights from this trip.

I chose my outfit based on a recent post collaboration with Fashion Coach Susan Kanoff that featured the color purple. The silver rose pin from Stella & Dot is my favorite way to dress up a strand of pearls.

New York native and design blog author of Focus on Design, Rosanne Palazola, was the perfect traveling companion. She kept me entertained on the 4 hour journey with stories about her career in design, her close encounter with Nate this summer, and life in general. We also talked about our joint venture at the new lifestyle boutique New England Fine Living which will open in Middleton on October 1st. She also knew exactly how to get where we had to go in the city in the shortest amount of time, which certainly came in handy with all of the traffic in NY this week!

Friends Sara and Harold were behind us in line at CBS studios where the show is taped. Both were quite charming and appear to have bright futures in design.

Met through the blogs: Marcy of Pine Creek Cottage lives in Connecticut now, but loved my posts and pictures from the historical design show in Danvers
(which happens to be her hometown).

The audience was just as captivating as the host.
So many star sightings for us design bloggers! Our collective stories could probably be a design show series in itself (will send memo to HGTV!) which may explain why Nate could not call attention to all of the creative efforts of those gathered in NY to enjoy this amazing opportunity to meet and greet. Did I mention Emily Henderson was there??? Be sure to watch the show to catch her segment on how to showcase the treasures in your home. Oh, and she blogs, too.

Souvenirs from the trip: my VIP ticket, a gift card to Payless (perfect for budget-conscious fashionistas), a stunning necklace provided by Send the Trend and promoted by Project Runway star Christian Siriano who shared a few of his fashion tips with us. My box of new business cards also came home with me as they were not needed thanks to a new blog friend, Chanee, who went out of her way to create an entire Who’s Who of faces and contact information for each of the bloggers invited to the show, which was extremely helpful in putting names with faces and blogs!

As bloggers, we are a diverse community of many voices, but we all share a passion for design. Almost everyone in this shot lives in the Boston area.

Sabbespot, Everything LEB, Perfectly Put Together,
Deliciously Organized, Haven and Home

The weather was perfect. The city was full of life.
I wish we could have stayed longer. Next time!

Even though “our driver” was picking us up at 7pm, we still managed to enjoy some food and beverage at Affina before making the trek back to Boston. And even though we missed a couple of blogger events (please don’t remind me!) that we just could not squeeze into our quick trip to New York, I was happy to spend the day in a different kind of reality!

I will post the air time of this show when I know the details, and will link to more photos that Rosanne took from her point of view. She may have caught me talking with a few women involved in ProjectUDesign like social-media extraordinaire Leslie Carothers, Maybelline Te of Snug Furniture, and Nicole Nachazel from BiOH. I hope she caught me in deep conversation with both CreateGirl and Jonathan Legate (a rising star in Canadian design) as we amazed at the fact that it took about 140 characters to make
this dream our reality.

And thank you, Nate, for bringing us all together. Some people have the ability to draw a crowd and shine a light on others at the same time. You have that gift along with a generous spirit and big heart! Best of luck with your new show (insert virtual hug here!)

xoxo
yvonne

Showing some love for Nate Berkus

Nate’s Oprah Show Farewell

When my boys were all little (and before I had DVR ; ) I spent many an afternoon from 4pm to 5pm, tuned in to the Oprah show. Like many other stay-at-home moms, a really good day would involve a guest appearance by “cutie-pie decorator” (as Oprah calls him) Nate Berkus. If Nate was on, I would telephone other friends who were home (we did not talk via email or text back then) and I would snuggle on the couch (usually with a baby in my arms), put my feet up (without a bit of guilt!) and dream of Nate
knocking on my own door some day!


{Image From Nate’s book: Home Rules}
Photograph by John Bessler

Nate’s first makeover for the Oprah show, in which he gives a tiny Boston apartment star treatment, is still one of my all-time favorites. His philosophy of appreciating what you have to work with – and making it work for how you live – is what made me fall in love.

Home Rules by Nate Berkus
Photograph by Fernando Bengoechea

While Nate has only been a “virtual” guest in my home, I actually have seen him in person at Oprah’s “Live Your Best Life” tour when it came to Boston. I wasn’t blogging back then, but if I was, I surely would have made every effort to get a snapshot with one of my favorite design stars! Instead, my sister and I listened to him share his decorating tips and techniques, and when it came time for the audience to ask him questions I was TOO SHY to raise my hand
(what would you have done????)


Nate’s book was a part of my designed space at the
North Shore Design Show: Favorite Spaces


I do have a copy of Nate’s book, however, and here are a few photos of my favorite Nate-designed spaces ...

{Image From Nate’s book: Home Rules}
Photograph by John Bessler

Even Trading Spaces host, Paige Davis, knew Nate could help her live beautifully. He combined her love of modern and rustic in a big way when he made over her small space apartment. Using organic items to decorate a space is a common feature in Nate’s work.



{Image From Nate’s book: Home Rules}
Photograph by Fernando Bengoechea

This makeover incorporated sacred moments
to celebrate the passed life of a loved one.


Let the sun shine in featured on Oprah.com
Photograph by Fernando Bengoechea


Recently Nate announced on Oprah that he will be launching his own talk show on September 13th.
The Nate Berkus Show “will apply his approach to decorating to every part of life.” Sign me up! What I have always loved the most about Nate is that his style is always about people and not things. Objects are cherished for the memories that they represent. Every space is more about the unique presence of individuals than it is about following trends or having
the latest and the greatest.



{Image From Nate’s book: Home Rules}
Photograph by John Bessler

I love that this child’s room is super sophisticated,
yet visually playful at the same time.


Go inside Nate’s home as featured on Oprah.com

Nate’s own home appears thoughtful and subdued. I am beginning to appreciate his desire for white walls!

{Image From Nate’s book: Home Rules}
Photograph by John Bessler

Nate is an avid collector and loves to shop the antique markets. For his new venture, I hope that he plans
to take us along for the ride on his shopping
- and life - journeys.

In my own home: a pretty, yet functional, Nate Berkus item
from a collection that he designed for Linens-N-Things

Herringbone Throw from Nate’s collection

for the Home Shopping Network. Love it!


Nate has certainly been very busy over the past eight years, taking on over-the-top decorating makeovers to small space challenges to creating products for us at home to hosting a talk-radio program and even a charitable reality show (remember Oprah’s Big Give?) I am sure that whatever Nate takes on next will be guided by his warm and caring nature and his “big ole heart” (another Oprah quote!) Best of luck and heartfelt wishes to you, Nate! Your devoted audience awaits and is so ready to cheer you on : )

To keep up with Nate, follow him
on twitter by clicking here.




For a list of design bloggers who are sharing their love for Nate today, click here. The list is being posted by Joy and Janet of the Moggit girls, who strongly suggested that the audience at Nate’s first show should be completely filled with design bloggers ... nice!



And be sure to follow Boston-based design blogger CreateGirl, designer Julieann Covino of Jace Interiors by clicking here. She was the one with the bright idea to designate today as #NateDay on twitter. Smart!


And to follow me on
Twitter, click here : )