How is that #OneRoomChallenge going?

I managed to move a bunch of stuff out of my office, but now the hallway is an obstacle course of to-be-sorted boxes filled with magazines, paperwork, design supplies, swag bags, and oh so much more. I am going to need a small miracle just to get fresh paint on these four walls!! Please check in with a few of my friends who are actually making progress with their Calling it Home six week makeover #OneRoomChallenge:

Linda Holt Interiors

Kelly Rogers Interiors

Meredith Bohn Interiors

And follow the other participants here.

And here.

Jonathan Adler Studio #Blogfest2013 part 2

Our first night of Blogfest 2013 in New York started with a cocktail party at the Jonathan Adler retail location on Madison Avenue. I have always been a fan of Jonathan Adler designs. Graphic patterns, happy colors, and spirited style with a sense of humour. Surrounded by a showroom of his artistic expression was a real treat, and a fab way to kick off our “we love to blog about pretty things” field trip.

photo credit: Linda Holt

As I mentioned in my last post, Linda and I dressed in JA-inspired cocktail attire. Traveling with a former portrait photographer has its advantages (Linda’s specialty was head shots for models and celebs in the Boston area). 

Jonathan Adler cozy throws in my

favorite patterns and colorways.

Pops of color combine effortlessly with black and brass accents. 

Smiles all around. A happy place.

Tobi Fairley Design Campers meet again at Blogfest 2013:

Leslie Hassler, Linda Holt, Ann McDonald

Brass lovelies from the hard glamour collection.

With Mindy Miles Greenberg, Colleen Carney, Linda Holt and Lisa Ehrlich

(I met Lisa at the International Gift Fair a couple years ago)

Simply mahvelous: white porcelain Muse vessels.

Southern charm: Kevin Wild, Brandy Scott and Shay Geyer

(I met Shay in the Nate Day blogger audience in 2010)

Adoring these agate coasters!

Boston bloggers: with Linda Holt and Laurie Gorelick

Our cocktail party surroundings were quite distracting what with all the shiny objects and bright baubles (including furnishings AND blogger fashions!) Being the first evening of our three-day design adventure, we were all excited about our Blogfest agenda. Meeting up with aquaintances from past design related events and twitter chats made the evening feel oddly familiar.

A couple of designers in the crowd were also from the Boston area, and a large number of the attending bloggers were Brizo alum like myself, so we will be seeing each other again in Memphis come July for the Brizo Blogger 19 Reunion. Woo hoo! I think I am finally starting to enjoy traveling (okay, I admit it’s a little easier to unwind when I’m not responsible for the packing and entertaining of an energetic family of six, with myself the only girl!)

Pick-a-card networking: Jeffrey Johnson chooses his favorite color

from Linda’s selection of newly printed business cards.

The Leo in me loves this guy.

Thank you, Jonathan, for welcoming us! After the Adler team closed up shop, a group of us headed out to enjoy a late dinner.  

Laurie Gorelick, Courtney Price, Linda Holt, Vicki Bolick

With Manvi Hildago Drona and Mindy Miles Greenberg

photo credit: Courtney Price

Sharing a meal together is the best way to really get to know each other. We found out who has pets, who has children, who has a daughter living in the city, who loves photography, and who used to be a regular on HGTV (that would be Mindy!) While we were enjoying our girl talk, there was a long table next to us seated with New York pre-teens enjoying the birthday celebration of one of their girlfriends. They were adorable! One of them said she liked my dress as I walked by. I hope it was a sincere compliment – too many episodes of Gossip Girl makes me wonder : )  

Quick cab ride back to Yotel for one more drink before calling it a night.

Next up: Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse!

NY Hotel Design: Yotel // #Blogfest2013 part 1

For our first evening in New York, Linda Holt and I put on our most colorful outfits from our suitcases to attend the #Blogfest2013 kick-off party at the Jonathan Adler showroom on Madison Avenue. We asked a lobby attendant at our lodging, Yotel on 10th, to snap our photo before we went back out into the rain (we had just trekked from our Manhattan bus stop to our hotel in a not-so-welcoming downpour). We weren’t sure why the guy taking our photo insisted on standing so far away from us when recording the moment on my iPhone, but after seeing his framed point of view we realized the bike hanging over our heads certainly deserved to be part of our scenery shot.

The bathroom in our hotel room, or pod as we called it, with a large Electric Mirror

(we sell them at Designer Bath) that lights up around the bordered edge.

I am fascinated with hotel design lately. Since I rarely travel, just staying away from home is an experience in itself. A trip to a concept hotel, however, is a valuable lesson in public and private space planning. Yotel was designed to be uber-efficient, making the most of every inch of space. There are no extras at Yotel, like room service and mini-bars, but it is clean and neat, and if we had watched the 2-minute video on their website we may have had more of a clue on what to expect from our hotel stay. As it was, we didn’t even realize that we had drawers for our clothing in our room, as they were tucked away near the cabin door, which we noticed as we wheeled our luggage out on the last day.

Amenities like towel warmers were a nice touch,

although ours was not heated for some reason.

For me, I prefer a warmer environment, with more textures and personality, plus design that is a little more intuitive. When you only have a short amount of time to get to know a space, the last thing you want to do is spend 15 minutes at the end of the night trying to figure out how to make the head of the bed go down flat (one of our Blogfest friends actually slept sitting up!)

Linda’s pashmina was about the size of the room.

Automated luggage storage in the lobby.

An orchid that I saw on our visit to the ICFF (I liked the lucite rods)

vaguely reminded me of our Yotel lobby luggage bot. 

I sent this photo home to my lego-loving boys. 

No concierge in our lobby. Just touch screens. Although a couple of

actual humans were on-hand for those of us who looked bewildered.

Saint Germaine with muddled cucumber and vodka at the lounge

The Yotel terrace is the largest outdoor hotel space in New York

photo credit: Yotel website

I can’t show you one of the most interesting design elements that we discovered at Yotel. On the first night we heard a lot of noise coming from the lounge area. It sounded like we were in a market place or staying at a youth hostel! We were tired after our first night out meeting the other design bloggers (more on that later) and didn’t want to deal with hotel crowds, so we skipped the lounge and went to our room. The next morning we woke up and we heard chirping when we entered the lobby. No birds in sight. In the afternoon, we heard relaxing caribbean-like music. They were piping in ambient music at different times of day to set the mood! Genius!

photo credit: Yotel website

For more on the Yotel experience click here.



More from #Blogfest2013 to come ...

Back from Blogfest!

A warm welcome from Kravet

After spending three days this week in New York as a #Blogfest2013 attendee, I have hundreds of colorful photos to sort through and SO MUCH design related info to share! My friend Linda Holt and I returned to Boston just before midnight last night. I did manage to get up and make it to my day job at Designer Bath this morning, but I haven’t been very creatively productive after leaving the office, plus my attendance was required at a High School concert after dinner and prep work had to be done for tomorrow’s 3rd grade “Breakfast of Champions” invitation which I had forgotten all about. My unpacked bags are calling me and I have tons of emails to sort through, but I think I will just park myself on the couch for an hour, watch my DVR’d episode of Mad Men, and call it a night. I will be back with some great photos from inside Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse, our HGTV sponsored luncheon, meet and greets with Jonathan Adler + Alexa Hampton + Thom Filicia + Aerin Lauder, a tour of Kravet Design Studios, my picks from the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and more design goodness from the city that never sleeps ...

Bamboo hedged terrace at Yotel in NY

Designers and social media ...

Photo credit: Yvonne Blacker

A couple weeks ago I stopped by a friend’s house (Linda Hentschel) to help set her set up a facebook page for her interior design business (Renaissance Interiors). We were going to start with a blog, but figured facebook would be a good place to try out the whole “online sharing” experience.

While we were sitting in her lovely dining room, the black painted sideboard above caught my eye. There was something vaguely familiar about it. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I knew I had seen it somewhere before.

Linda told me she had found this piece at a vintage store and had to have it, even though at the time of purchase it was your standard dated-looking wood finish sideboard. But she could tell it would be the perfect piece on which to set up a buffet station and to store large serving ware until needed for entertaining (which Linda does a lot!)

Turns out, I had been following the transformation of this piece on facebook (and not on my friends page, because she wasn’t even on facebook at the time)! We both follow the work of Linda Holt, a designer in Boxford (she had a decorated space in the Boxford Holiday Homes Tour). She is part of a new business called Chalk It Up established with her friend, artist Susan Siefer (of MadPatter ArtDesign). The piece above was taken from ordinary (but with pretty lines) to one-of-a-kind fabulous with a special chalk-based paint plus hand applied wax finish. See the before – and during – photos below ...

Pretty cool, huh? On February 11th, Chalk It Up will be hosting a hands-on workshop in North Andover featuring how to use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Did I mention there is no stripping or priming needed??? Like Chalk It Up on facebook to get the details on this workshop and follow them to see more furniture transformations.

Congrats to Linda Holt and Susan Siefer on their new business, and also to Linda Hentschel for dipping her toe in the social media pool! You will be blogging in no time : )

Maybe you can start by sharing the story of how this peacock from New England Fine Living ended up in your family room??? Or reminisce about our days working together at The Stevens Estate in North Andover? Or share with us some behind-the-scenes at the Steampunk room you are designing with the ModVic team at Audio Concepts?

We always share a lot of laughs and designer secrets when we get together – I can’t wait to read your stories online (and please throw in a couple family recipes, too, while you are at it!)

Nancy Faye Glass, Linda Hentschel and Yvonne Blacker

The Stevens Estate, North Andover, February 2011