“What should I do about my pink bathroom? And, it’s not even a nice pink.”

This was the question my sister-in-law, Marie, casually asked me at her son’s high school graduation party last week.  “Let’s go take a quick look at it”, I replied. Being a decorator is sort of like being a doctor, although thankfully I am not asked to look at people’s bunions. When I am at a party people show me all sorts of problem parts of their homes for quick fire suggestions.  So, in this instance, half the party trooped up to her tiny little bathroom to take a look.

The party guests were yelling over each other to add their suggestion to the chorus of what to do about her pink bathroom but I realized it wasn’t about her bathroom at all. It really wasn’t that bad a pink, she was just not a pink person. I knew that a coordinating paint color and a streamlined window treatment would do a quick fix.  Looking around I reminded her that she had decided to sell the house now that her son was leaving for college, so shouldn’t we be talking about how to make the home as attractive as possible for potential home buyers.

My sister-in-law was at one of those crossroads of life, when a dramatic change is about to happen to a family and the needs of a home change with it.  At this moment conflicting thoughts were surfacing for her -- the practical, logical reasons for making the change and the fact that she raised her son in the home and it held so many wonderful memories.  She explained that downsizing felt like a process of shedding one layer of her life – the mother role and trying out some other role – although right now she is not sure what that will be. 

We walked through the house together the next day and discussed the best way to stage the home for the best sale possible. I gave her homework to begin the process of de-cluttering. After that we can paint the dated avocado green kitchen cabinets white and change the hardware – a quick fix that gives a lot of bang for the buck. Then we can rearrange the furniture and maybe paint a room or two.  

At these bittersweet crossroads it is good to acknowledge the mixed feelings and then take practical actions so that your home will fit your needs in the present moment.  Think of it as packing up all of your memories and bringing them along with you into the future. 

A very green solutions to your home - repurposing your own furnishings.

Purse and keys in hand, my sister, Gina, asked if I was ready to go shopping now.  It was early morning in her house in Maryland and as I looked around at the disorder of the family room, I said, “Not so fast, we have work to do here first.”

I was spending the weekend helping her to get ready for an upcoming family occasion and she was prepared to do whatever it took to have her house “company ready.” For my part, I have been dying to get her lovely brick colonial organized for years.  This is called perfect timing in the decorating business --  a captive client and an anxious decorator.

Now to be fair to my sister, she had just spent the better part of a month de-cluttering and made tremendous progress before I came.  I gave her that instruction so we would not move clutter out of the way.  This is a very important first step to any redecorating project.

Since my sister has the largest house of us four kids, she adopted most of my parents furniture when they downsized from their Brooklyn house.  I took a moment to walk through all of the rooms, observing everything with a calculating eye and realized the daunting task ahead of us.  Quick, I needed a piece of paper.  I wrote the following words as my goal for the day.  “Going from Early Immigrant to Old World Charm.”  That’s it. We had a focus and direction that would work with her eclectic collection of furniture from my parents. It also gave her laugh.

She had plenty of furniture but it seemed to be in the wrong places or shoved up against the walls, and the rooms had no balance.  We spent the better part of the morning shuffling furniture around.  She had very large potted plants that were scattered throughout her home, so we moved those into her sunroom.  Sometimes the most obvious solutions elude clients. Collections always look better en masse as opposed to sprinkled throughout a home.  

We moved her tan colored oriental rug from her formal living room into her red dining room.  Somehow that rug looked dull in the living room but rich and warm in the dining room against the red walls.  Simple solution there.

We created a new seating area in her large family room by moving a black leather Bergere chair and ottoman from the lost corner of her formal living room to its own special reading spot; adding a table, good lighting, a throw and pillow to create a cozy ensemble.  Please note that when her husband got home that evening, he made a bee line to that chair and plopped comfortably down.  That is the ultimate test of good room arrangement.

Gina has the most exquisite collection of antique maps that were stacked on the floor of the dining room along with boxes of old books.  We decided to turn the mostly unused dining room into an inviting library.  I styled her two wrought iron Etageres with books and mementos and lined the walls with the framed antique maps.  

When we were done with repurposing all of her current belongings, we took a walk from room to room and made a list of items that she needed to purchase.  The list was not long and it will be great fun to find things like a great pair of lamps for the living room, a pair of comfy reading chairs for the library and more wall art.  

She and her husband were amazed at the way it turned out.  Mostly using their own belongings but in new ways.  

My motto - always shop the client’s house first!

Concrete comes inside.

I grew up in the ‘concrete jungle’ of New York City, where my experience with concrete was the bruises it caused on contact with the neighborhood kids’ knees.  Not  an endearing history with the material.  

Fast forward to now, where concrete has made its’ way inside, paving the way (sorry) for a trendy, industrial style interior.  Perhaps this phenomenon started with the renovation of old industrial mills as living spaces.  Homeowners and home decor experts have found innovative ways to use concrete in unexpected items such as lighting, furniture, wall tiles and even wall coverings.  Using the material for flooring and countertops is a natural fit.  

Concrete floors are an affordable flooring option and can mimic more expensive natural stone.  There are unlimited colors, textures and patterns that can be custom designed, but I love the signature gray color of the natural material. I would suggest adding a semi-gloss sealer to give it a refined finish.  Remember you want to be creative with this material so that it does not look like a garage floor.  Layering wood tone furniture and soft furnishings in a room with a concrete floor adds warmth and plays off of its hard edge.  Contrasts of material always create the most interesting interiors.  Another suggestion for us Vermonters is to add radiant heat beneath the floor for a cozy living experience.  Concrete floors are easy to maintain and clean, and a wonderful choice for people with pets or allergies.  And, when you get tired of it, it is easy enough to carpet or tile over it.

Consider concrete countertops as a change from the usual granite choices.  Concrete countertops are handcrafted and give you the option of customization.  They can take on any shape and interesting materials can be embedded in them such as glass, nailheads, you name it.  The choices are unlimited.  But do consider hiring a professional to create your countertops.  There is a steep learning curve for the process, making it a difficult ‘do it yourself’ project.

Concrete is not quite a “Green Building” material yet because of the enormous amount of energy needed to produce Portland cement and the large quantities of CO2 the production of concrete emits. But there are strides being made to find substitute materials to reduce the amount of Portland cement with recyclables such as post-consumer glass.  

If you want to see a fine example of a concrete countertop, visit Seasons Restaurant in Manchester and ask Paul Bogossian to tell you his story about creating the beautiful countertop at the bar.  It was a challenge, but so worth it.

What's hot in the kitchen? New technology in home appliances.

A few of my clients are pondering remodeling their kitchen, so I thought I would take a ride over to Brook Valley to see what’s new in the world of home appliances.  Ken Ax took me for a spin through his showroom, explaining all of the latest in cutting edge technology. I felt like I was viewing a “world of the future” kitchen at Disney, except that it was here and now.

He brought me over to a stove with an induction cooktop surface.  These cooktops generate electromagnetic fields to heat up pots and pans so you must use cookware that has a ferrous material (iron). They are twice as efficient as traditional heating elements, with an instant on and off switch. You can touch it moments later without getting burned, a nice safety feature in a home with small children.  The heating element is below the surface so it is easy to clean.

Convection baking technology has been around for a while but it is worth mentioning for those of you who, like me, still have our old appliances.  Convection ovens use radiant heat to cook food by circulating the hot air, which provides a consistent temperature to all the surfaces.  Ken pointed out that the heat element was also below the surface of the bottom of the oven, leading to easier cleaning. If he could only see the bottom of my oven. Ugh. I can see the appeal.

Wall ovens have also had their makeover.  Now there are touchscreen key pads on the oven door to assist with your baking.  Maybe more than assist.  With their user friendly photos and easy commands, you type in what you are cooking, the type of pan it is in and it shows where to put the oven rack, the perfect temperature and more.  I could see beginner cooks loving this smart oven because it guides you through the steps of cooking without having to put in years of study in the kitchen, pouring over recipes and methods. You can even set up a build in meat thermometer to let you know when your roast reaches the perfect temperature.  It is light years away from my old meat thermometer that isn’t quite accurate anymore.

There are appliances for the real foodies out there.  The steam wall oven utilizes water vapor in the cooking process for a speedy and healthy dinner.  You fill a container with water and slide it in to the oven and the computer will monitor the appropriate amount of steam.  This is the home version of a restaurant steam table.

Ken’s eyes lit up as he walked me over to his prized possession, a beautiful caramel colored Aga stove looking like the classic British star that it is.  But behind the facade of a traditional stove lies a state-of-the-art wonder with a touch screen panel and remote handset.  He described it as a piece of furniture that cooks.  Indeed.

The Aga is going to be part of his big plans for the future. He is putting in a test kitchen to hold culinary events and maybe someday expanding to a cooking school on the premises.  Sounds like an exciting dream and a wonderful addition to our community.  I am looking forward to the future, or is it here now?

Is it the Mayan Calendar or the ending of one year and start of another? All I know is that change is all around.

Lately, almost all of my clients are rethinking their interiors to make way for a new phase of life.  It could be that most of my clients are of that ‘ahem’ certain age when the kids are grown up and gone and they are left with a quieter house.  It seems like they have a common thread of change: kid’s bedrooms are rethought to accommodate the occasional guest or two, living rooms are reconfigured to be a bit more glamorous for cocktail party entertaining, and rooms are repurposed to suit more lone pursuits such as reading or working in a home office.

Many of my clients in this phase seem to no longer have patience for clutter and disorganization that they may not have even noticed when the kids were around.  There is also a yearning for a simpler interior design plan. I knew I was making progress with one couple when the husband started to declutter his own bookshelves in a room we were turning into his home office/library without his wife and I asking him to.  Once you start the process of removing excess and putting thought into the way spaces are used, the house and everyone in it seems to breath easier.  It really is quite magical. 

The best way to get started is to walk around your house with the eye of a visitor.  Don’t think of the spaces in the way they are used now but try to see their hidden potential.  Next is to really see your belongings for what they are and try to briefly remove the sentimental attachment.  Ask yourself, “If that end table from Aunt so and so was in a consignment shop, would I have bought it?”  This is a very enlightening exercise.

Don’t be afraid to simplify by getting rid of things that you don’t use.  Picture yourself walking around your organized, tidy house where each object or furnishing makes you smile. A well thought out house is a tonic from a complicated world.

My husband and I have recently rethought and simplified our world. I have relocated my Design Studio to our Barn/Workshop on Route 30 in Dorset after much soul searching about ways to simplify our lives.  We will be amicably sharing the upper floor our our workshop to provide our clients with even more decorating options.  I am hoping to have more time now for gardening and day dreaming, which are both important things to do when you design for a living.  Inspiration is always needed.

I wish you luck with rethinking and simplifying your world!

You’ve been framed! Here is a new way to think about art.

My early art education was formed at the age of 10 by playing the board game Masterpiece, with Rembrandt’s face smack in the middle of the board and flip cards of great works of art by famous painters like Cezanne, Monet, and Picasso.  It was one of our favorite games as kids and we played it over and over again. I realize that art historians and teachers might shudder at the thought of learning art through a board game, but this exposure made art very accessible to us neighborhood kids and it became part of our daily life. Subsequently in my life, I have seen almost all of the great works of art pictured in the game in various museums throughout the world and they have felt like familiar old friends.

I think the subject of looking at art, evaluating what you see, and then buying and ultimately collecting art can be intimidating for some of us.  Where do we begin?  How can we trust our judgment?  Do we need a degree in art to truly understand it?  

A few years back, the Northshire Bookstore hosted Thomas Hoving, the director at the Metropolitan Museum and author of the book, “Making the Mummies Dance”, an audacious behind-the-scenes memoir about his years at the Met. I was lucky enough to be in the audience that night as he gave a fully charged talk about his years as curator, apparently a wild and wooly job where he outmaneuvered the Smithsonian for the Temple of Dendur; saved an entire Prairie house by Frank Lloyd Wright now in the American Wing; and scored a 2,500 year old Greek vase that turned out to have been stolen from an Etruscan tomb near Rome which he fondly referred to as the “Hot Pot”. For me, he did two things that night – he made the art world an exciting place filled with piracy and forgeries and he gave us advice on how to evaluate art. His words have stuck with me every since.  He said that a great work of art will “punch you in the gut”. You will actually feel it as well as see it.

Recently, my husband and I visited the Louvre museum in Paris. Bill, armed with the museum map with me trailing closely behind, did what everyone else was doing that day in the Louvre, taking off at break neck speed to visit all of the must see, great works of art.  Taking a quick twirl around the Venus De Milo, bolting past Winged Victory on our way to the Mona Lisa we passed gallery after stuffed gallery in a gluttonous ode to the art world.  We followed the largest crowd and got on line to shuffle past the postage size Mona Lisa placed on its own enormous wall behind a wall of glass. Exhausted, we were deposited in the Grande Gallerie of Italy. Slowing our pace, we were able to stroll the large gallery and just take in the surroundings. Then, there it was, a painting that “punched me in the gut” and drew me towards it.  I did not even need to look at the tag that read “Painted by Leonardo da Vinci” to know I was looking at something incredible, I felt it. 

So give this a try next time you are gallery hopping or pondering whether or not to buy a painting that catches your eye.  When you see it, do you feel it?  Trust your gut.

Notes from our Breezy Point home.

“That sofa brings back such memories”, my neighbor said to me as she passed the sidewalk, her arms encircling and steadying her Mom.  Our friendly smiles to one another turned grim as we realized we were talking about my parents’ upended, soaking wet rattan sofa at the top of the makeshift garbage heap outside of our Breezy Point cottage. It was a week after Hurricane Sandy did her damage, a hurricane with such a sweet name for something so furious.

My husband, Bill,  and I made the trip in from Vermont to help my siblings clear out my 84 year old Dad’s flooded home.  He evacuated with a small suitcase and a box of important papers, but not much else.  We were there to follow FEMA’s orders and clear out the home before further water damage and mold set in.  The clean out crew consisted of my hydro-geologist brother, Joe, who brought every tool he owned and plunked it in heaps on the porch; my Upper East Side sister Joanne and her Indian born husband, Jitu who are both better at making reservations than performing any act of physical exertion; myself and my husband.  Bill kept muttering, not unkindly, “you go to war with the army you have,” as he looked around at his unlikely team of day laborers.

The swollen door stuck as we pried it open and it bore the 3‘ water mark as a reminder of the challenges we faced.  After getting over the initial shock of the damage inside, we got to work.  The goal was to remove all of the wet and damaged furniture, which turned out to be everything on the first floor, so that we could get at the wet carpet.  My sister and I were debating whether to keep or throw away certain items and realized that we were slowing everyone down, so we set up a staging table on the porch to sort later.  Things started to move quickly after that as we grabbed belongings to toss on the growing pile at the sidewalk.  After removing the soaking wet carpet and pad (yes it was as disgusting as it sounds since the water was a mixture of ocean, sewage, oil and who knows what else) we were able to attack the walls.  FEMA was clear - you must remove the wallboard and wet insulation to arrest mold growth. Bill and Joe worked as a team to cut away the panelling and wall board beneath it, remove the insulation and toss it all on the floor as the rest of the team dragged it outside.  Realizing that the heating system was in the way, a quick conference was held to make the hard decision to cut the pipes.  This was turning into heavy demolition as we worked to save the shell of our house.

At certain times of challenge in my life, I have felt my deceased Mom nearby and always ask for a sign to know she is there.  When my girls were little, she always told them not to put “pennies in their mouth”. I know, that sounds a bit crazy, but she had a weird fear of them choking.  It seems like I do find pennies in odd places whenever I ask her for a sign.  It was the end of the longest, most exhausting day of our lives and we were getting ready to shut the door when I noticed it.  There it was, one lone penny standing upright against the wall by the door.  It was the only thing left in the room that day.