my desk chair...

so i have had my desk chair for 3 yrs now and it still remains how i bought it- with ugly white (well dingy white) damask fabric on it and around the arms the fabric is actually unattached from where i had my upholster look at it so the horsehair is exposed. i am not a damask kind of girl...well maybe funky damask but definitely not traditional. i love my chair...the lines on it are amazing...i call it a lady's chair b/c it hugs your body when you sit in it. it is an antique that i purchased at a flea market with all intentions of reupholstering it and placing it in my LR. however, once i started my own design company it became my desk chair (no staples roller chair would do). i have always known that it would be recovered and look fabulous one day. it has just had to sit here b/c upholstery is expensive, especially in c'town b/c everyone seems to jack up their prices.

i am so excied about the fabric that i have chosen to use on my chair. i have been in love with geometrics since i received the very first domino magazine. i just drooled over the camel back sofa that ruthie sommers had in her house (now i think its in her amazing store). i contemplated using that fabulous lee jofa fabric but with all of the wonderful geometrics out there i decided on china seas aga. it gives me the amazing geometric pattern that i am in love with. and to throw a twist into the chair (and to save some cash), i am going to pipe the double cording and back in either a pink, kelly green, or tourquise linen fabric. i cannot wait to see the results. i went with the brown and cream colorway b/c it will easily go with the rest of my house if i ever want to pull it out when company arrives. now all i have to do is save for the small fortune it will cost me to have this done....but xmas is only a month away...maybe santa will surprise me....

Chloe Warner takes time out for Pink Wallpaper....

i am so excited that i have my first interview to share with y'all!! this month's Domino featured chloe warner's house and i emailed her on monday and asked if she would do a Q & A for me and she said yes! she was so super sweet about the whole thing (i love down-to-earth designers, sometimes i feel like this business can go to people's heads). so here it is, pinkwallpaper's first designer interview.....a huge thanks to chloe for taking the time to do this :)

Q: How does it feel to be called “a breakout designer” by Domino, a publication that I feel like has totally dominated the design world for the 20/30 yr olds?
A: Honestly, I can't imagine the thrill wearing off. It was a big goal, and to have achieved it feels amazing.

Q: So many people think that being an interior designer is so glamorous! I often find that funny when I think of all of the non-glamorous things that go along with the job…can you describe your typical day?
A: I usually make coffee for my husband and myself, and start the day catching up with my huge stack of magazines. By 9:00 I am on the computer checking emails and returning calls, and lately I have gotten to spend a lot of time designing, playing fabrics, and sourcing furniture, which has been great. On a bad day I spend a lot of time following-up with contractors and delivery-people, double, triple, and quadruple checking things. My least favorite days are when I have to be an enforcer. My most favorite are when I can have lunch with Valerie and Tyler in my office, and the phone rings the right amount.

Q: What is one trend you wish would go away??
A: Coral - but only so I can start using it again in a few years.

Q: When looking at your bedroom, it looks so well put together! I had no idea that was an Urban Outfitter headboard until I read the side notes…often people our age cannot afford the services of interior designers; do you have favorite “budget friendly” tips for people who would like the look of a designer inspired room?
A: Anthropologie.com and UrbanOutfitters.com both have furniture sections that can be unique and attractive, and the turnover is high so I don't worry too much about the looks being everywhere, like I do with an IKEA piece. That said, one of my favorite tricks is to apply beveled-mirror tiles to plain pieces - the dresser in my bedroom is actually from IKEA but now that it is mirrored it looks very glam and not IKEA at all. Unfortunately, I still had to put it together. For people with more patience than money, this is a great solution. Our firm (redmondaldrich.com) offers a room-in-a-binder service, where for a flat-fee we design a room including palate, finishes, furniture, accessories and everything, and include the retail sources where everything is available. Execution is left up to the client to complete as they are ready. It is still pricier than not decorating, but it keeps prices out of the stratosphere! (that's crazy that Chloe mentioned this b/c i am about to start this service with my design firm)

Q: Lastly Chloe, what would you say was the one aspect of design you could not live without?
A: My books! I am a junkie at the bookstore, and use them for everything; for inspiration, guidance, decoration, and to make me look smarter than I am.

can't get enough of chloe, check out domino for a virtual tour of her house...

can i get a light...

while there are so many things that make me happy, the andrew reflector is up at the top. i was lucky enough to use them in the downtown house i featured two days ago. they looked amazing against the old charleston brick. urban electric is a to-the-trade lighting company that started here in charleston. the showroom use to be located on historic King Street and i loved going in there and being captivated by the creative window displays and beautifully designed lighting. i just received their new catalog and as i was flipping through it, i saw that Tom Scheerer was one of the lighting designers....as you can see to your right, he is one of my new design heroes. chloe warner told me about him on monday when we were exchanging emails. if you haven't taken a look at urban electric, i think its time. the lights speak for themselves... they are gorgeous, current, and classic in their appearances. here are some others to drool over if you have a second: gunston, hightower, paraply, the quarter, and sheridan...as always, beauty does not come without a stiff price tag but these are really worth it.

no pink pumps here....at least not this AM

you know, i'm not going to lie...sometimes i have nothing to write about. so i decided to scroll through my inspiration book and i ran across this page which i have loved for the past year and a half...i decided to look at the picture closely and i started relating it to my life....

first i will touch on the obvious- the room is wonderful. great use of the popular lulu dk "chant" fabric on the DR chairs. and as y'all should know, monogramming makes it better, so i love the wing chair with the table! the floors are a beautiful ebony and i love the detailing down the leading edge of the draperies.

but this AM as i looked at this picture, i decided that it makes me mad b/c when i relate it to me and my house, it couldn't be further! so i pictured myself sitting on the floor like this "model" looking mom and this is what i saw...me in my grey velour sweat pants and an orange hoodie (that i wore when we painted our porch so it has white paint splattered all over it) sitting on our light oak floor (which is covered in our golden's hair)...my hair, nothing close to graceful...piled up in a messy ponytail desperately needing highlights (i am suppose to be blond)...oh and those beautiful sex in the city looking shoes- those should be replaced by pink jcrew bedroom slippers. than i see my cutie 5 month old, she isn't wearing a starched, white boutique dress but rather an old navy onesie (and underneath it she has one sock on b/c we decided her feet were freezing at night and that's the best we could come up with- you ask why one sock, b/c when my husband changed her diaper this AM, one fell off and he didn't put it back on). lastly, i move on to my room...we do have somethings in common...a seagrass rug- hers is missing the stain from my golden. we do have a table with chairs but mine is an antique set that belonged to my great aunt- it squeaks if you bump into it...and the fabric on the chairs are a horizontal stripe that is a silk (why??) lastly, the one common thing i can smile and proudly say i have is lulu dk. i splurged and had draperies made with moondance and have a leading edge detail....

so maybe my life isn't too far from this picture...minus the fact that she has showered and her kid has hair....happy tuesday!

my own work...

laura from the scoop asked if i had any of my own work to share so i thought i would show this house i did in the downtown historic district. it was an amazing house with an equally amazing client (don't you just love it when that happens). unfortunately, the house was never finished b/c the owners decided to sell it before moving in. here are two shots of the project...

the main area was all one room w/ tall ceilings and i love the exposed old charleston brick wall w/ the earthquake beams running through it. we renovated the kitchen (you can see part of it on the right of the pic); it was really a dark room with black cabinets and stainless steel counter tops. we repainted the cabinets, added the frosted glass, replaced counter tops w/ granite, added the mosaic tile around the bar surround, and did all new appliances (the refrigerator was just divine, a sub zero with the glass front). the floors were brick (not old, but were new brick) and my client felt like it was always dirty so we replaced it with travertine.

my client was a young, business woman who had amazing style so deciding on the furniture was a fun task. she was always very polished and so it was nice to see that the furniture reflected her image. she wasn't afraid to be adventurous so the powder room was wonderful. we used the metallic cole and son's woods wallpaper in the small space. it was a great project that i was super sad to see end.

"fran's letters" are taking over my life....

so i have been telling you about this diy project that i am working on and here is the inspiration. on tues i sat down to read my cottage living and fell in love w/ "fran's letters". thinking the project would be a piece of cake, i decided i would do my baby's name on this one tiny wall that has been white since the nursery was completed (i was waiting for something to inspire me).

well, kudos to fran b/c her letters rock....mine, not so much. i cannot tell you how many hours i have spent for 6 measly letters that i am trying to get to look anything remotely like fran's....

right now, fran is not my friend (although if we lived in the same town i think we might be). my husband walks into the baby's room everyday when he gets home from work...looks at the progress of the letters and says things like "they look good" (with a high voice which means he is lying) or he suggest ways he would have done them so the lines of the letters would have been straight...i think "thanks a lot, where were you 7 hours ago?!" so, i am off to work on those stupid letters that my baby will not even care about when she is finally old enough to even realize that i spelled her name...i am sure by that point she will want to repaint the entire room with barbie or something......

the bubble chair

does this chair not turn heads? it was on the cover of the august Charleston magazine and ever time i see it, i love it. (i ran across it again when i was doing my magazine clean up a couple of days ago!) i have this obsession with acrylic and lucite and the bubble chair just makes my heart putter (so does the price tag). originating in 1968 by designer Eero Aarnio, this chair is still just as amazing nearly 40 years later!

*the color is off in the cushion and garden stool; its actually this great chartreuse green that really pops not that mucky green it scanned in as.