"The Design Room" at the Southern Vermont Art Center

I recently transformed a gallery at the Southern Vermont Art Center located just off West Road in Manchester, Vermont into a Dining Room setting and it will be in place until December 10th. If you visit, you will enjoy strolling the beautiful grounds of the Art Center and wandering through galleries filled with art. There is also a Cafe to have a leisurely lunch. The Southern Vermont Art Center is a very special place in Manchester.

Design Follows Inspiration
Gallery X is known as the Founders’ Room, and in this dining room scene, the table is set for an imagined "Founders' Luncheon" bringing together a few of the artists and patrons whose talent, dedication and foresight were instrumental in creating this special place "on the hill".
Seated at the Table:
EDWIN B. CHILD, WALLACE FAHNESTOCK AND JOHN LILLIE, who were among the original Dorset Painters exhibiting at the Dorset Town Hall on a hot August day in 1922, setting this particular history in motion. ELSA BLEY, pictured at her easel on the cover of "Art and Soul" by Mary Hart Bort. Ms Bley believed passionately in art education and gave classes at the Art Center as part of the SVA's Art Education outreach. LOUISE RYALLS ARKELL, a devoted patron of the arts and SVAC, honored with the naming of the Louise Ryalls Arkell Pavilion. MRS. HAROLD "PETIE" BOSWELL has a seat at the table as the creator of the Boswell Botany Trail. The outdoor elements in this room are in tribute to her. And, at the head and foot of the table, host and hostess and owners of the house - MR. AND MRS. HUGH WEBSTER.

Eye Candy Decorating

I am a Francophile through and through (Definition of Francophile as found in Webster’s Dictionary “A person who is fond of or greatly admires France or the French”.) Yup, Francophile, that’s me. So, when I recently received an email from Laurent of Teo Jasmin, an interior design company located in Paris, the City of Lights, it caught my attention. The company, founded in 2001 by Angéline Bailly, began by digital printing on wall canvas and then expanded on their range of products with cushions and classic furniture, using the same digital process on them to create amazing eye catching decorative items. I think the photos speak for themselves. Any one of these pieces would infuse a spark of life into any interior. Go to TeoJasmin to see their entire line of products.

DOGGY QUEEN CHAIR
UNION JACK SETTEE

Decorating is a Family Affair

One of my favorite activities as a decorator is to visit a client’s home for a design consultation. I call it an activity because it usually turns into a quick and snappy way to share with the homeowner my first impression design ideas as we sprint together room by room. Sometimes it gets quite strenuous, with the client on one end of the sofa and me, the decorator (sometimes in heels) on the other end of the sofa as we tug and pull it into a more pleasing place. And, more times than not we end up laughing about perhaps the absolutely hideous lamp that Aunt so and so gave them years ago that has somehow followed the family from house to house.

As I leave the homeowner with a long To Do list, I sometimes wonder how much of it they actually accomplish once I leave and the door shuts firmly behind me. Well, in the case of one young couple living in Arlington, VT I didn’t have to wonder long. Shortly after our consultation, I receive these cheerful photos in my email box. They took all of my suggestions to heart and it turned into a family affair with their adorable kids helping to strip wallpaper and paint. They were pleased with the results.

Portfolio of Interior Design Projects

An Unexpected Harbinger of Spring - The Laundry Line

As the winter fades from view and the days grow longer, I turn my thoughts to the laundry line that my husband and I installed at our house in Dorset late last summer.  Our main reason was to do our part to save energy in our household and fight global warming but unexpected things happened along the way.

Faded memories and a bit of nostalgia caught me by surprise as I hung my first load.  Don’t all of us of a certain age remember our mother’s laundry line? At that time, it was the 60’s, moms were still doing all of the laundry and our line hung in the backyard of our house in Brooklyn.  My mom would be out there in the bright sunshine hanging her laundry and chatting with the Grandmother next door, who had just arrived from China and didn’t speak a word of English, but somehow they were able to communicate with each other. Also, the memory of helping to fold the dry sheets - me on one end, my brother on the opposite end, making him bend and walk towards me several times since he was the younger one. And, the sound and clean air scent of linens flapping in the breeze brought back a flash of playing hide and seek between psychedelic patterned sheets.

By hanging our clothes outside rather than popping them in the dryer we have saved quite a bit of money on our electric bill.  According to Project Laundry List found at laundrylist.org, an average household can save $25 on their electric bill each month. Besides saving money they list many benefits that make hanging your clothes on a line worth the effort – clothes last longer (think about where lint comes from); sunlight bleaches and disinfects; clothes and bed linens smell better scented with the real fresh outdoors and not a chemical brew resembling it from a dryer sheet; each one of us in their small way is conserving energy and helping to save the planet; and the pleasure of being able to do a usually tedious household chore outside surrounded by singing birds.

Well, I have to go now bring in the sheets before dark, make the bed, fluff the pillows and jump in – surrounded by the fresh air smell of the outdoors. Heaven.

 

I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT - It's a compact fluorescent bulb.

I have a confession to make. The environment is one of my top priorities and I am actively involved in helping my friends, family and community to become more aware of the problems of global warming. I am also an interior decorator who works really hard to make sure the interiors I design are color coordinated in every way. I tried compact fluorescent bulbs a few years ago and was put off by the blue light it cast in my interiors and the slow start time after flicking the switch. I secretly never used them in my own home nor would I recommend them to my clients.

Well, folks, I should not have discounted American ingenuity because compact fluorescent bulbs have come a long way since 1980 when they were first introduced. There has been a gradual replacement from magnetic ballasts to electronic ballasts, which has removed the flickering and slow start problems of the earlier bulbs. CFL’s now come in a variety of color options – Warm white or soft white is nearest in traditional light to incandescent bulbs and the ones that I choose now for all my interiors; white or bright white is whiter than incandescent but still on the warm side; cool white is a pure white tone; and daylight is slightly bluish white. Choose a bulb that has the same lumen rating, for example, a 60 watt incandescent bulb = 800 lumens.

This is a simple way for all of us to do our part in combating global warming and it begins at home. Here is a quote from the Energy Star website, “If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a “compact fluorescent” we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.”

If each and every one of us rethinks our lifestyle choices in small ways, we could become part of the solution. Check out Environmental Defense Fund website (Environmentaldefense.org) where you can join the “Make the Switch” campaign called “The One Million Bulb Swap Out” and encourage your friends to do the same.

Now, I have to get back to switching the rest of my bulbs. I must find the tall ladder for that ceiling fixture.

The transformative POWER of color -

This is for all of you out there who, when faced with a decision on what to paint your walls, default to that old standby, Benjamin Moore’s Navajo White, a bland but safe off-white color. You know who you are. As it turns out, this is not actually the safe choice anymore, thanks to all of the fun and fast paced HGTV shows, homeowners are realizing that color on the walls can transform a room like no other decorating element. I call it a bit of magic in a can.

Now, your next question will be, “Then what color should I choose?” Here is one method that is simple and foolproof. I have used it many times when decorating my client’s homes. I want you to select something from the room that will be your “inspiration”. This can be a patterned fabric, oriental carpet, oil painting or even a torn out page of a particularly pleasing room from a home shelter magazine. From this “inspiration”, I want you to select paint chips that match colors from the object you selected. Invariably, you will have a neutral color for walls in an open area, a rich color for the dining room, a contrasting color for another room, and so on. Essentially, what you are taking advantage of by doing this is that some artist somewhere designed that fabric or carpet, belaboring the color choices to create a thing of beauty. Half of the work is already done for you. With this exercise you have created a color story for your home and a reference point to come back to time and again. It’s simple and a great way to select pleasing colors for your home. I know you are going to have fun doing this.

Why you should choose a neutral fabric for your sofa, AND NO, that is not the boring choice!

The choice you make in a sofa is a crucial one because it is usually the piece of furniture that a living room is built around. Taking the time to contemplate a few key aspects in the selection process is well worth your while.

You can express the style of the room, whether it is traditional, country/cottage, contemporary, transitional or eclectic by carefully choosing a shape that reflects that particular style. The next important decision will be the fabric choice. After many years of designing rooms for couples and families, I strongly suggest choosing a neutral fabric, usually solid with some texture so it has a nice feel, as the basic fabric. Then, you can build out from there in any direction stylewise with pillows that add color and pattern. Here is where you want to spend time getting personal and creative in your coordinating fabric choices. Add a colorful throw for another shot of color and texture. It is simple and fun and takes the doubt out of the decision making process.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. Confession time. I once selected a fabric, it still pains me to admit this, in a fruit pattern on a black background. Sounds scary. Well it was. It actually turned out to be a bit of a family inside joke with many family members clocking how many hours they spent on “The Fruit Couch” as it was affectionately called, as it was a sleeper sofa. Hopefully this illustrates the problem with not selecting a neutral fabric - I had to live with that choice for many years before finally coming up with a good enough excuse to bring it to the local thrift – my husband and I were purchasing a pellet stove and needed the room.

Usually a sofa lives with you for at least 10 years or more so your neutral sofa can be the base around which you can change the look of the room with the seasons or the changing style of a decade by simply replacing your patterned pillows and even wall color in the living room as the spirit moves you. It widens the choices and the possibilities are endless.

If I have saved just one homeowner from making a big mistake I will have done my job. Happy decorating!

Banish Clutter

The first step to your soon to be beautiful interior is to deal with CLUTTER. We all have it. It is the stuff of life that doesn’t have a place and a way to defer a task for later – “I’ll deal with that pile on Saturday." Each person has their own personal litmus test of how much clutter they are willing to stand. My own personal level is quite low – it makes me nervous and itchy to see too much stuff in a room. But that is me. I totally understand that there are people in this world that perhaps think clutter is kinda cozy and charming. Only you can decide how much you can stand, but if you want to do something about it, I have some sure fire ways to deal with this subject once and for all.

Clutter is an outward manifestation of the absence of a conscious organization system in place in your home. I hope I haven’t lost you yet. This is just fancy language for not giving it a second thought before now. What you need to deal with clutter is a system that can be used again and again whenever and wherever clutter strikes.

Treat this upcoming approach in a business like manner as if you are “The House Manager”. This might take some of the sentimental stumbling blocks out of the way for you. All items can fit into one of 4 categories so I want you to collect 4 boxes and label them as follows:

TOSS – This is the most obvious category – any item that is broken, yesterday’s newspaper, old dated material - you get the idea.

PUT AWAY – Items that you have use of and want to keep. They may not have a place in your home yet but they will soon.

GIVE AWAY – Stuff that can be given away to your local Thrift Store for the ultimate Green Solutions of getting still useful stuff back into circulation again. You will feel good at getting rid of it and having contributed to a local charity. A double whammy!

SELL – Items that are maybe too good to give to the thrift and something that you may make some money on in a yard sale. This will only work if you are the type to actually have a yard sale. Otherwise, pack these items into the Give Away box. I suggest finding a corner of a garage or basement to store these items, pricing them as you go along.

Okay, there is a fifth box but only use this if you absolutely need to. It is the MAYBE box – something that doesn’t fit into any one of the categories above. You know, like the ugly teapot that Aunt Betty who visits once a year gave you. Date this box for 6 months and then review it again. I guarantee you will be able to cull it further the next time around.

Now you are probably saying to yourself this sounds workable but to do a whole house will take forever. That is the beauty of this particular system – you can apply it to a drawer, a corner of the room, the kitchen table, one bookshelf -- so that you are doing this in small bursts of energy, building confidence as you go along. Believe me when I say once you use this method, you are going to be hooked on the incredibly powerful feeling of control you will gain over clutter.

Now, I want to go into a bit more detail about the PUT AWAY stuff because this will involve other areas of the house. Ultimately, everything in your home should have a designated spot – one that every household member knows about and so can return the item to when they are done with it. This involves some thought on your part in regards to the most logical places for things. For example, dishes and glasses should be stored in the cupboard near the dishwasher. Telephone books should be near the telephone. Toiletries should actually be stored in the bathroom rather than randomly piled in a heap in the bedroom on one of your trips upstairs. You get the idea. For now, as you are taking the baby steps to a more organized life, put the items in the area of the room that they will ultimately live in. Don’t worry that they are not going to fit into the overstuffed drawers or closets because they will someday soon as you continue the purging and sorting procedure. You will be freeing up lots of space as you go along.

Here is where you can apply another time-tested approach to organization – it is THE KINDERGARTEN METHOD. Like goes with like – all the pens and pencils should be stored together, same for extension cords and paint brushes. Make sense and seems rather obvious doesn’t it? I think it is something that most people never really give much thought to, but if they apply this method they will never have to ask their spouse where the ‘thingy that goes to the vacuum cleaner is’ again. If you are planning on purchasing storage bins please choose clear ones that you can see through. This will make it so much easier to find things in closets, drawers and basements.

Quick fun tips
Stopping clutter at its source – have you ever noticed the neat and tidy person in the post office very calmly flipping through their mail and wondered what they are doing? They are separating out the junk mail, right there in the post office, and throwing it away immediately. The stuff never even enters their house. This is brilliant in its simplicity.

Everyone house needs a command center whether it is a desk, or a small home office. This is where the business of life can be dealt with – writing out checks, signing your kid’s permission slips, filing important papers away. Keeping all of this activity in one place makes the most sense.

Consider finding a spot to be designated as a Creative Center where you will find markers, paper, ribbons and art items. This can be set up in a closet and can be quite coloruful and fun – again using the kindergarten method of placing like items together in clear plastic bins.

Sometimes we have too much of a good thing such as too many sets of sheets or towels. When you think about it, each bed in your home really only needs two sets of sheets. Again, this can be a personal preference but consider keeping the best quality linens and parting with the mismatched ones, creating more room in the linen closet.

I want to leave you with this thought – don’t try for perfection but instead focus on creating a more livable environment for you and your family. You will find that your life feels easier and less stressed and that everything seems to run smoother. Then, you will have more time and energy for the fun activities of life – time with your kids, spouse and friends and the good feeling of knowing that you are returning at the end of the day to a neater, more organized and comfortable home.