A Weekend with Country Living

image via Country Living

This weekend, the colorful pages of Country Living will be coming to life in Rhinebeck, NY at the Country Living Fair and Country Living 2014 House of the Year. This three-day shopping (aka treasure hunting) event opens on Friday, June 6 and closes on Sunday, June 8. From the looks of the attending presenter list, it reads like a celebrity version of Brimfield, coordinated with all kinds of guest appearances from the interior design and DIY/craft world.

Below are just a couple of the highlights ...

{Country Living 2014 HOY info here}

All Rhinebeck Country Living Fair ticket holders are invited to visit the Country Living 2014 House of the Year created by Catskill Farms builders. “This year’s project is a 1,500 square foot ‘new old home’ that captures the charm, beauty, and character of the past.” The interior of this year’s House was a design collaboration between the Country Living editors and guest designers Tilton Fenwick. A complimentary shuttle bus is provided to and from the tour via the fairgrounds.

Suysel dePedro Cunningham and

Anne Maxwell Foster of Tilton Fenwick

photo via TiltonFenwick.com

I recently had the opportunity to see Anne and Suysel of Tilton Fenwick present their new line of Duralee fabrics at the Boston Design Center. Anne is actually a Boston College alum just like myself. The “Fenwick” in their firm’s name references her first dorm on the BC campus. I heard Anne and Suysel chose to feature a piece from friend Stacy Kunstel’s Dunes and Duchess collection in the house, so look for it if you go!

Also at the Fair will be Cari Cucksey from HGTV’s Cash and Cari who will be selling antiques and repurposed goods in Barn 34 all weekend. Check out the fun sneak peek video of the Country Living Fair below (with appearance by another HGTV design-star Emily Henderson) and let me know if you make it there! 

{detailed Fair info here}

{watch the video here}

Do you want to be a Design Star?

photo from HGTV Design Star website

Have you been watching season 6 of Design Star? Do you still follow past winners like Emily, Antonio and David? Do you think, “Hey, that looks like fun! I could totally see myself creating amazing designs, entertaining a mass audience, enjoying hair/makeup/wardrobe, and getting paid for it!” Well if you live in the Boston area, then you are that much closer to achieving this entertaining-others-with-design dream!

I recently found out through the social media grapevine that HGTV will be casting for Design Star Season 7 in Boston at the Lenox Hotel on September 24th! While this is not a position I would consider for myself (although I would certainly enjoy the hair/makeup/wardrobe part) I do know a lot of fabulous designers with larger than life personalities around the Boston area who could pull this off. Are you one of them??

And while we are on the subject, who do you think will win this season’s Design Star? I like to watch the show to see how fast these designers can come up with unique design plans and how well they execute them. Because if you can’t “make it work” then you’re out (or is that another one of my favorite design/reality shows?) Either way, good design is always entertaining : )

I love that the Design Show judges require the contestants to sell their design concepts on camera after each challenge. Being able to sell your work with confidence and enthusiasm is so important, even if you aren’t taping a segment for a design show.

So if you think you have what it takes, then what do you have to do to apply? First of all show up! I think it would be fun to go to the casting call just to see who thinks a network design show could be in their future.

But before you go, there are some required items that you will have to bring along with your designer smile:

1. A COMPLETED application (click here)
2. Two recent photos labeled with your name on the back
3. Portfolio of your work
4. Resume

If you don’t live in the Boston area, they are still casting in other major cities (Austin, Charlotte, Miami, and New York City) so click here to get the open casting call information. And if you can’t make it in person to a casting call, you can submit a video of yourself ... check out this link for more information.

If you have ever wanted to see your name in lights, now is the time to act! How often does an opportunity like this knock in your neighborhood?!

And for research purposes, be sure to watch tonight’s episode at 9pm on HGTV. Nate Berkus is the guest host and they will be showing segments that the remaining four designers taped on his show which just aired this morning. They were challenged to come up with a quick and easy do-it-yourself project and one walked away the winner (I won’t tell you which one – tune in to find out!)

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

Classic styling ...

timeless classics by designvignettes on Polyvore.com

Classic & Timeless by Fashioncoach featuring gold watches

If you are a big HGTV fan (like I am) and just watched the season finale of Design Star on Sunday night, then you are familiar with the winner, Emily Henderson, stylist and author of the blog The Brass Petal. During the last couple of episodes of the season-long challenge, each of the remaining contestants had to share what their future design show concept would be. Emily, who has professional experience styling interiors for numerous publications, proclaimed that her show would celebrate the wardrobe-to-room concept (Domino magazine was famous for this).

While we viewers were all wondering who would win (although I knew from the start it would be her!), Emily was actually busy taping her new show. She has shared on her blog that the final format will be a bit different (since it has been done before by Thom Filicia of Dress My Nest) and will be called “Secrets from a Stylist.” I can’t wait to see what she has to share, especially since I love styling spaces to create visual stories, and I know she will have a lot of great insider info on how to create great looks in
whatever space they throw her way.


Susan Kanoff, Fashion Coach


I still love a good outfit-to-room, however, and for the next few weeks I will be featuring a collaboration between myself and fashion coach, Susan Kanoff, who I met through a mutual friend, Ginny Williams at a recent event. Our first project involves creating a classicly tailored room based on an outfit worn by
a woman who appreciates classic style.

The trench coat above is a stylish solution for dealing with the past few days of cold and wet weather that we have been experiencing here in the Boston area. I used its camel color to define my room in the form of the antique mohair sofa. I used the quilted pattern from the vintage Chanel bag as inspiration for the patterns in the room (lampshade uses cream and tan while the Moroccan table with mother-of-pearl inlay has some of the brown from the leather belt). A black lacquered coffee table with great legs and a stylish silhouette speaks to both the Louboutin shoes and my fashion favorite, the pencil skirt. While the Anthropologie light fixture is on the pricey-side, it is certainly a show stopper, much like the way a great piece of jewelry will often get all of the “where did you get this?” attention.

Next week I will show a room based on Susan’s picks for the back-to-college crowd, followed by some visual advice for decorating with fall fashion colors in mind. Let me know if there is something that you would like to see from Susan, and definitely consider giving her a call directly if you would like expert advice on re-styling your own wardrobe. If you would like your home to look its stylish best, I would be more than happy to help! You know where to reach me ...

We have a winner!

Antonio’s eclectic living room gets my vote
Photo from HGTV Design Star website

As any artist knows, design is a subjective matter. But in the case of HGTV Design Star, the winner has to be far more than a thoughtful designer who can get the job done. He (in this case) has to be able to entertain and give viewers a reason to tune in. Who isn’t just a little curious about what Antonio is going to come up with over the course of his own show? I admit I favored Antonio because he is a firm believer in setting a stage, just like I am. Everyone has a unique story to tell – create some star-quality drama and have fun doing it. I find Antonio’s renegade sense of humor refreshing, and love the fact that he looks capable of handling any design challenge from start to finish. While he could use a little help pulling together the small details (need an interior stylist on your crew??) I am looking forward to tuning-in to HGTV to see more of his entertaining take on design.

Who will be the next HGTV Design Star?

Image from the HGTV Design Star Blog

Antonio or Dan ... who would you choose?

I have to admit, I love a good design competition. The HGTV Design Star finale airs tonight at 10pm and I am obsessing over who is going to win. Will it be Dan Vickery, the you-must-stop-giggling 27-year old who has made-for-tv-good-looks along with some really cool design ideas? Or will we get to see more of the surprisingly creative fresh-voiced (I-can-get-it-done-just-don’t-get-in-my-way) talent of edgy and experienced 40-year old set-designer Antonio Ballatore? And of the canceled finalists (9 total) who would you like to see host an online show? Post your picks and get your snacks ready for tonight’s showdown. I know who my design star favorite is ...


An HGTV design favorite
Knappa Pendant Lamp from IKEA

HGTV Design Star kitchen reminds me of ...

This week’s episode of HGTV Design Star opened with the four remaining contestants meeting in the kitchen of their stylish home base. Lots of bright colors and modern elements fill their living quarters. In this shot (taken while I was watching the show on DVR) I took note of the rich purple wall with the proclamation
EAT.

Flash back almost ten years ago to one of my very first design clients
who happened to be very modern with a fondness for bright colors ...

Good design is timeless!

This almost all white kitchen with soaring ceilings (sorry, I don’t have a full picture to show) gets a jolt of color with this bright eggplant backsplash. The word YUM! was a final touch that my client added above the cooktop.

I had a lot of fun helping out this particular client. She called me after seeing an ad I placed in the local paper when I was just starting out. At our initial meeting, I didn’t even own a color fan deck of my own. We used Pantone color chips from my graphic design past to get the ball rolling. At our next get together, I showed up with a huge Color Preview kit from Benjamin Moore. Soon after, we were able to transform her mostly white walls with some really fun color combinations. (And she later referred my name to a number of her friends who then became clients and so on). I will always be fond of this project. It was fun to work with someone who did not hesitate to go bold.

Here are a few more pictures from her home which was a confident mix of contemporary, modern, and traditional with a touch of whimsy. My role in this project was choosing colors to energize and unite her spaces, while providing decorating ideas for her to complete on her own.

The artwork in this entry way was the starting point for our color story. Benjamin Moore Crushed Velvet was a bold choice for the walls, and a real “wow” factor. This lucite bench was recovered in a bright red and purple stripe to coordinate with the art above. The homeowner discovered a perfect match in a striped pillow while a teal vase adds a pop of contrasting color, which is visually repeated in the painting. Even the recessed light seems to coordinate with the full moon.

Opposite the bench, a utility cabinet almost disappears by being “painted-in” with the same vibrant hue as the walls. A collection of silver items is the first hint at the silver painted walls found on the lower level. Before our mini-makeover, the large expanse of mirrored closet doors was the first thing anyone saw upon entering. Now, they seem to recede into the background while the saturated mix of bold colors sets the tone for this home full of unique and lively character.

In the living room, a dark gray wall (Benjamin Moore Eclipse) adds drama while allowing the natural grays of the stone hearth to really shine. Moving furniture to create areas of interest, created this stylish corner. A new pillow on a classic wing chair is a modern update. I think I love the fabric on the chair even more so today. The oranges and blues are such a great color combination, and the pattern is fluid perfection!


My client has since relocated to a warmer climate. I am sure that she has transported her fearless decorating, modern style, and love for color to her new surroundings.