A Website Refresh

It was a long time coming, but I have finally taken the time to update and refresh my business website. Take a look!

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

Where do you look for inspiration?

My jar of inspired objects includes green glass
knobs, paint samples, pretty threads, gold keys,
a silhouette of a little boy on a rocking horse,
and a celebratory cork from a bottle of bubbly
opened in honor of my first design show.

Last week I mentioned that I was chosen as one of the top 100 entries for the Design Sherpa “What Inspires You?”contest based on my submission of a chosen photo accompanied by a 100 word post explaining how the image inspires me. My photo? Glinda the good witch from the Wizard of Oz. What does Glinda have to do with interior decorating and good design? When we base our choices on what we love, and surround ourselves with the people and memories that are important to us, we are being authentic – and good design always comes out of authenticity.

Well this entry qualified me to move on to the second round of judging! Phase Two required a 350 word post “on an interior or architectural design topic that communicates both your unique passion for design and writing style.” And guess what? The judges (who include talented design-industry professionals Diane Carroll, Tobi Fairley, Michael Fink, Elaine Griffin, Marcia Sherrill and Clinton Smith) liked my post enough to qualify me to be one of the top 10 entries! I am not sure if they plan to share the 350-word posts we submitted or not, but I will
let you know if they do. In the meantime, this week
on the Design Sherpa blog, our 3-minute video submissions required for Phase Three are
up for *everyone* to see!



We were asked to provide a video that was “both entertaining and informative about some element of home design.” It is harder than it looks to be both entertaining and informative in a mere 3 minutes (all without the aid of a teleprompter or video crew -- I give those Design Star contestants a lot of credit!)
Plus we were required to condense our .mpeg video to less than 10 MB in size so the end result of the submitted versions appears pretty grainy. When I was “filming” this video, shortly after my trip to see The Nate Berkus Show and just a day before New England Fine Living opened, I had no idea my video would actually make it online. But here it is.

So far, six videos have been shown and the remainder will be aired in the next couple of days (I am guessing). The winner will be announced on or around November 7th so I am thinking it may be as early as this Friday!

{Photo from the Hotel Recamier website}

Did I mention what the winner of this social media driven contest will receive? Just a 10-day trip to PARIS, hotel accommodations at Hotel Recamier, and a 4-day VIP pass to the Maison & Object trade show, PLUS $10,000 (!!!!!) and the opportunity to blog as part of the Design Sherpa site!

(click here for all the fine print)

{Image from the Maison & Objet website}

If you know me at all, you know I am good at keeping a secret. All I am going to say for now is that I would love to put the six years of French that I took to good use, and would love even more to discover the amazing home fashions that will be on display at Maison & Objet. Just to walk the streets of Paris would be a dream! And who couldn’t use an unexpected 10 grand these days? “Hello” unfinished design projects!




And speaking of winners, I would like to properly introduce you to the winning eco-friendly chair from Project UDesign: the Alifair designed by Savannah College of Art and Design student Ryland Quillen. Even though my posts featured the Kona chair by Emily Carpenter, I thought each of the designs had style and merit. The well-tailored Alifair almost
looks a little French to me ...

Congratulations, Ryland, and to everyone who participated in and organized this inspiring competition. A little competition certainly goes
a long way in raising the bar on good design!

I am in Coastal Home!

This past summer at a preview party/press event
for the Danvers Historical Society design show Reflecting on Danvers History through Interior Design, I had a nice conversation with Coastal Home publisher Keith Lemerise. He liked the room I designed and I mentioned how I knew some designers that had recently been featured in his magazine (Nicole Yee was in the summer issue). Upon leaving, he gave me his card, so I began to follow this fairly new magazine on both Facebook and twitter.

One day, CH editor Lynn Felici-Gallant posted on Facebook that they were looking for some inspiring photos and design ideas for the upcoming fall issue.
I sent over a list of content ideas that I knew I had photos to (I always try to use my own photos on my blog) and guess what? Lynn looked over my ideas and then my blog, and chose an image from one of my posts to feature in the current issue!

I took the photo above (top right hand corner) on one of my trips to the Boston Design Center, in one of my favorite showrooms, JANUS et Cie. Read my “Must Do” article in the online version of Coastal Home by clicking here. For my full post with photos from the JANUS et Cie showroom, click here.

And to subscribe to Coastal Home magazine,
click here.

Just another cool example of how easy it is
for social media to connect people with ideas –
and opportunities!

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.