Christmas at The Mans

The 2010 Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles Christmas House opens TOMORROW!!! I went there yesterday do take care of our flowers and fluff a bit and the whole place looks great! I feel like all the designers have done a fantastic job, some with very challenging spaces. The Christmas House will be open Thursday and Friday 10:00-6:00, Saturday 10:00-5:00, and Sunday 10:00-1:00. I will be there this weekend so come and take a look and say hello!!! For more information or if you would like to volunteer at the Christmas House click here!




ALSO, click here to go to CBS Atlanta's website and watch a video or AH&L editor Clinton Smith talking about the Christmas House as well as the Alliance Theatre, and guess where he is doing most of the interview?!?!?!?

Design Wisdom

A brief history lesson: Athena, the Goddess of war, civilization, strength, skill, justice, and most importantly wisdom. He sidekick is an owl, she is almost always pictured with one and many sculptures of her have one included (including the giant 8' sculpture of her in our restaurant, Athens Pizza.) Lately I have noticed owls making a resurgence in the design world, specifically in home accessories and jewelry...YUMMM! I have jumped on this trend and incorporated some owls in our Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Christmas House design (AH&L Christmas House Open November 26th-December 12th--come check it out!) you will have to come see it and try to find where I hid them! Here are some owl accessories that I love right now:



This is a copy of a Greek coin with Athena's owl, I can't count how many I have in some form or fashion, I know I have a pendant or two for sure.



Lovely lamp from West Elm, I really like that the owl is simple and clean and white, can't go wrong with white...ever.



Owl apron from Anthropologie, if I knew how to cook I would wear this...I might just wear it for effect.



Kind of cute in a weird funny way, I do like this owl tea set for some reason. It's from VivaTerra...there is something strange about it that I am drawn to.



Super yummy hardware also from Anthropologie, you can feel smart every time you open a drawer.



Super adorable owl pillows I found on Etsy made by Hilary Cosgrove.



Any my favorite, a great holiday gift (are you listening Sandy?) The "Fantastical Tale" owl bangles from Marc by Marc Jacobs, available at Nordstroms.

Iris is moving in...

It's been a busy busy week full of installations and I am worn out! Aside from a giant client installation on Monday I have been back and forth to the Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Christmas House all week. Today I am resisting the urge to go over there and continue to fluff (and continue to search the hotel for Jason Bateman who I met at Valet yesterday with fellow designer Amy Morris. Ok so we didn't meet him, but we stood next to him and giggled, same thing.) I won't give away too much because I want you to come and visit me, but here are a few snaps of how Iris' digs are shaking out...





You can find me at The Mans beginning Friday November 26th through December 12th. The Christmas House will be open from 10:00-5:00 Thursday through Saturday and from 1:00-5:00 on Sundays, I will be in and out and hope to meet some readers (if there are any!!!)

If you follow the link to the Christmas House...HERE you can purchase tickets online as well as in several locations around town. Hope to see you!!!

Making My List & Checking it Twice

It's that time of year again (honestly it's been that time of year for over a month now, I just haven't had myself totally pulled together!) Mark and I are fortunate enough to have been asked to participate in the 2010 Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Christmas Showhouse. This year the showhouse will take place at the Mansion on Peachtree and will be composed of two units on the 41st floor. I am proud to announce that we are working on the Master Bedroom in the South unit and we are in some fabulous company (including my all time fav--Susan Ferrier--I flip for her jewelry and personality.) We are still pulling it together and so far we are really loving the direction that it's taking and DYING over this year's "client." Last year Mark and I felt like our room was a tribute to Rhoda Morgenstern and we proceeded as if she was our client, naturally we decided this year we needed a new client. This "Rare Bird of Style" is really forcing us to pull out all the stops and we are having a great time with it. Take a look at some snap shots of our space from this week's site visit.








This year's client is a style icon, do you know who she is?

Rhoda moved out

Oh how I will miss flying down West Wesley Road to that big beautiful blue house! I had gotten quite used to going up there once a week to change the flowers, fluff the pillows, see if we had sold anything, etc. I really should be focusing on getting my own house ready for the Holidays, but it just doesn't seem as fun. Anyway, as you should know, the Christmas House is officially closed. It was open for a fabulous 4 weeks, it was so well received with a fantastic turn-out--I am hoping we raised a great amount for the Alliance Children's Theater. Anyway, if you were not able to make it out to see the show house you really missed out, and to make you feel worse, here are the professional photos we had taken of our room by Lauren Rubinstein. She is amazing and so much fun and I am enamoured with these photos that she took of Rhoda's apartment!

More Christmas House!

What can I say, I can't get enough. This has really been a fantastic experience that I have thoroughly enjoyed! Friday night was the opening party and it was so much fun and really great to connect with all our fellow designers and appreciate each others work. That being said, here are some good (and some not so good because they are from my phone) pictures of things I really love in the Christmas House.

I think these parrot figurines are fantastic. So cute and whimsical! John Oetgen designed the living room and these live on the cocktail table. I might have jumped over the velvet rope (or satin ribbon) to capture these guys, hopefully Mr. Oetgen would forgive me!

One of the guest bedrooms was designed by Barbara Heath who has a lovely store over in Brookhaven called The Mercantile. This piece that is hanging over her mantel is just beautiful. I believe it is a piece by Julie Jone Boulee (not 100% on that but 98% sure.)

On the way to Beth Webb's space you have to pass through what I like to call Hermes Heaven. There you will meet this life size black plastic horse, I am now naming him Jacques (after my favorite nail polish by OPI "You don't know Jacques") He is super friendly and doesn't bite so be sure to say hello to him!

Beth Webb's Artist Atelier is just beautiful. There are so many details I could do an entire post about that space alone. One thing that I know is that as an artist you like to be surrounded by things that inspire you. It's not about a specific object, but more about what that object says to you as an artist, how it inspires you. I love this particular vignette of the space because I love how these elements feel casual and effortless, meanwhile I know that each piece of this puzzle was placed exactly where it is with purpose and intent.

At one point Friday night there were a bunch of us just hanging out in Susan Ferrier's Master Bedroom. She is one of my favorite people and an amazing designer. Her master bedroom is so elegant and refined, but it feels comfortable. It doesn't make you feel afraid to live in it (probably why we were all lounging around in there!) My favorite thing about that room is the drapery. I couldn't stop petting it, I wanted to just wrap myself in it and stay there.

One space that I haven't seen any other blogger mention yet is Mimi Williams' upstairs hallway. I didn't know Mrs. Williams prior to this Christmas House but Mark has known her for years, and the thing I have learned about Mimi is that she has an incredible eye for art. When Mark and I saw her picking out the pieces she wanted to install I was just in awe of her and her taste. Several of the pieces hanging are from her personal collection, this piece she commissioned from Jeff Jones.

As a designer of a space outside of the main house, I can appreciate the other more remote spaces of this show house that could be easily overlooked. The entire guest house really is lovely and I am not just saying that because that's where our space is. The patio off of Bob Brown's study has some amazing outdoor furniture (which I believe was designed by Lush Life.) The wine cellar designed by Kay Douglas & Dixie Peeples and media room designed by Chip Cheatham downstairs are also really lovely spaces, yes I said downstairs!

This past weekend was the opening weekend and I heard that there was a new record set for attendance, almost 400 people on Saturday alone! Be sure and make your way over there before we all have to go and take it apart! It is a great thing to do on the weekend, and with Cafe Noel downstairs you can also do lunch there too! For more information about tickets and a list of the great special events happening at the house, just click HERE!

"The Funny Uncle" meets Rhoda Morgenstern

I love installations. This show house installation went really smoothly and was pretty much complete and done on the first day--including accessories! There was something about doing this show house that I really like, it's sort of like playing dress up. You can be whatever you want and portray whatever you feel like, this room was like dressing up for me. This time we decided to dress up like Rhoda Morgenstern (meets MWDA)! I have said in the past that I love working with developers, typically you have a lot of creative freedom. Developers just want the project done on time and in budget and they pretty much trust you to execute their objectives in your creative way. I have found that a show house is similar, except you are both the developer and designer. You have to execute your objective on time, on budget and creatively. Mark said that this is the room that the "funny uncle" stays in when he comes to visit, but the further along we got in our design the more we wanted to be the "funny uncle" and we wanted to stay there (in fact, we all agree that we would be beyond content to move into our guest house)! It started to become more Rhoda then Uncle, so we'll stick with that--because let's face it, no one wants to be the "funny" relative but everyone wants to be Rhoda. It really took on this collected and personal feeling, probably because a lot of things came from us personally. I am excited to say that our room is done and lovely, we are so happy with the solution and the feeling. I hope those of you that make it to the Christmas House, please make every effort to walk to the carriage house and check out our room upstairs! The Christmas House opens next week, November 14th and will be open through December 6th. You can get all the details as well as ticket information here!

Installation Day, boxes and bags and lamp shades oh my!

Bubble Wrap is my friend, he keeps things safe!
(like the amazing artwork borrowed from Emily Amy Gallery & accessories borrowed from Stanton Home)

Places places! I actually mapped all of this out on the floor with masking tape to make sure it was going to fit!

Some of my books take from my Library.

Mark and I found this old camera when we were out shopping one day, and my dad brought me this sketchbook of Paris after one of his trips...we like them together.

All sorts of fun things...

My favorite thing, this beautiful Hermes bicycle. I can't believe they let me borrow it!


Another shopping trip find, really cool vintage luggage.

Just a few more finishing touches.

Toasting to the completion of our first show house! Hooray!!!

To see more you are going to have to come check out the Christmas House!!!!!
Open November 14th through December 6th
Details here!!!

Craftsmanship

Craftsmanship is something that I think is lost on today's society and it really bothers me. So often people are just looking for a quick fix to "make it work" and things end up looking sloppy and messy. This is one instance of fantastic craftsmanship. One of the rooms at the Christmas House has fully upholstered walls. When I looked up and saw the detail and care that the installers put into their work I was thrilled. Take a look at the way the welting hugs the crown moulding. Fabulous! You'll have to come check it out for yourself!

Bedroom by Jim Howard of James Michael Howard Inc. Come see the whole thing at the Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Christmas House. This room is fully upholstered and it's just beautiful!

I heart paint!

Like I said previously, I had every intention of documenting our design process from start to finish for the Christmas House. Unfortunately it just didn't work out the way I planned, life got in the way. But it's not like I can't tell you about it now! This year's Christmas House is truly lovely, this week I plan on doing another post about some special things in our room and the installation process. Anyway, back to why I heart paint. This was really my first painting experience and I think I might love it! I can't pretend like I was thrilled about painting in the beginning. Let's face it, typically I hire someone to do this for us, but I was low on budget and really low on time. So it was up to MWDA to just work it out. I (and every other designer) have always said, painting is the easiest and quickest way to change a room and it's so true. If you look back at my previous post about the Christmas House you can see we started with just plain white walls, a perfect bare canvas. All I have to say is I love our walls, they remind me of a luxurious cashmere color, something you just want to wrap yourself in. I also must rave about our paint, we used Porter Paints for the first time and it was fantastic. We could have done 1 coat and it would have been sufficient, it covered really well and just worked out beautifully, see for yourself!

At least by the time I got there, Mark had already "cut" around the trim. Supposedly that is a technical term, again, I'm a beginner.

Our paint from porters! We were careful not to get any on our lovely floors. But I got plenty on myself. Did you know that a little hand sanitizer gets paint off of just about anything!

I was excited that when I rolled the top of the paint cans it produced perfect polka-dots.

I was in charge of painting the closet.

I know it looks like Mark is doing the majority of the work, but I painted as far as I could reach, he had to do the rest!

Finished just in time, they were about to lock us in! Isn't the color yummy!?!?

Experiment gone wrong...

So I had fully planned to document our first show house experience and it just got away from me. I had really good intentions and filling you in along the way but it just didn't happen like I had planned--and neither did our room--all I will say is thank goodness I looked at the November issue of AH&L. But now it is X-Mas House time and I am in the throws of stress, paint, and a $4,000 bicycle. I am literally leaving the office to go paint, that's right, Mark and I are painting our own room...this should make for an interesting afternoon. I am fully committed to our design and I really am excited about it, I am hoping it will turn out as lovely in person as it is in my head, you'll have to let me know. Anyway, here is a teaser of what's going on in our space, and check the Yummy Scrumptious Facebook page and my profile for mobile uploads, I'll try to get in another couple of posts this week so you can see the insanity!

I love myself a sequin!

If I had a bicycle, I would want it to be this one from Hermes.

Christmas in July (or August--tomato/tomaato)

So Mark and I are excited to announce that we are doing our first Show House! We are so excited to be participating in the Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles (love them) Annual Christmas House benefiting the Alliance Children's Theater! It is an amazing house designed by architect William T. Baker and it is located on West Wesley Road. We are working on a guest bedroom in the guest house off of the main house and just so thrilled to be invited to participate! The room does present it's challenges, it is small-ish and has a few quirky elements that we will have to get creative with but overall I am just so excited! We have been so lucky to have help from some amazing showrooms all over Atlanta and I am so ready to get cracking on this design, it's a nice distraction from work that pays the bills and studying for the NCIDQ. Anyways, you can get more information at the official Christmas House Website and stay tuned, I am sure I will have some more blog posts about this, in fact, I might make it my Yummy project for the next couple of months, we'll see!

The Show House...Sooooo Beautiful.
It has a very Northeastern feeling to me, very Main.

Our Room!

I need to think of something fun to do with this windown seat

Must love akward ceiling conditions!

Must come down. Immediatly.