designer spotlight #6 :: meet jenna of sweet fine day
Actually before you meet Jenna, first things first. Check out her and her husbands business: whimsy&spice, a Brooklyn confectionery. All of their cookies and sweets are hand rolled, hand cut and hand packaged using only the finest ingredients with no added preservatives or artificial flavorings. Take a look for yourself at these little exquisite works of confection! Pictured are some of the seasonal cookies below. They are absolutely splendid! Forget chocolates in a box this year…send you Valentine something special:
Where did you drink your morning coffee? on the couch with the computer on my lap.
Is that my favorite room? I don’t know, but I’m on the couch a lot.
…well, considering that the couch is where I end up working, I guess the answer, actually, would be yes it’s my favorite room.
How do your balance being a mommy, and your growing design & confectioners bakery, whimsy & spice? I don’t…still not yet. We’re learning, but most days, life is chaotic. [check out Jenna's talent here]
What part of your job is the most enjoyable? I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of cool people through the business.
When did your design/creative obsession begin? I’ve been drawing since I was small. It’s really all I did in high school, and I spent most of my energy my junior year getting scholarships to art school. Oddly, though, once I got to college, my interest waned and took a backseat to just experiencing life and living on my own. I regained my interest and commitment when I switched to another creative medium – studying music.
What’s influencing your design these days? My friends, other designers and artists.
What are your favorite creative trends in the art & web world“? Not a trend follower. I have no idea.
Fresh, bright, and beautiful OR warm, cozy, and rustic? fresh, bright and beautiful
What is the best gift you’ve ever received from anyone? I was a few thousand dollars away from paying off a 60k student loan debt from grad school. My mom cut me a check to pay it off. I felt like I had a new life. I am so grateful.
What is a must-have recipe for ever home? pancakes
Favorite splurge?? bags or shoes.
Best place to getaway? Hawaii or Paris
What thing in your home do you use the most? other than my computer? the coffee maker.
Leave us with one word: breathe…
Thanks Jenna for taking time out of your BUSY schedule! x, julie
*images courtesy of sweet fine day
designer spotlight #5 :: meet doug of tracery interiors
Where did you drink your morning coffee? Is that your favorite room in the house? In my living room. It’s where I sit in the morning to check in on our blog and to read all the others I keep up with. It probably is my favorite, although in my 530 square foot bungalow, there aren’t that many rooms to choose from!
What part of your job is the most enjoyable? I love the time spent really getting to know and understand a client and what they want. You can’t give someone what they are looking for until you do a lot of listening and until you understand how they live.
When did your design obsession begin? I always loved to draw, but in the 5th grade, I was at my aunt and uncle’s house and they were in the process of working with an architect to design a new lake house. I spent the entire weekend looking at the house plan books and magazines. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Who’s influencing your design these days? I’m really liking Steven Gambrel’s work lately–especially that house that was just in Elle Decor. I feel like he and I start from the same place with a lot of things but he takes it further and gets edgier with his designs and it makes me want to do the same. I’m also a big fan of Suzanne Kasler, Victoria Hagan, Windsor Smith and of course John Saladino.
What are your favorite trends in the “design world”? I still really love the bleached wood look, although I’m starting to wonder what finish is coming next. I think mixing industrial elements into a more traditional interior is such a great look and it’s exciting to see that concept is becoming more mainstream.
What should be the clients first BIG investment in a room?You know that “statement maker”. I think every room needs a good quality antique. Even a modern space benefits from the texture and authenticity that an antique adds. It could be anything from a chair to an amoire to a rug, but some antique of value is an investment worth making.
Fresh, bright, and beautiful OR warm, cozy, and rustic? Fresh, bright and beautiful
Go to paint color? Benjamin Moore ‘China White’ — it makes everything in a room look like sculpture.
What is a must-have recipe for every home? Ha, I’ll tell you when I start cooking.
Favorite splurge??Really good wine, you can definetely tell the difference.
What thing in your home do you use the most? Multiroom audio — I don’t know how I lived without speakers in my shower!
If you could be any ONE piece of furniture; what would you be and why? Seriously? [you're thinking the cheesy questions again, right? But we are creative people remember!] I don’t…something cool. Like an old chunk of a building or iron railing that somebody made into a console table or something. Definetely not part of a matching set of anything. [a recipe for design failure...agree!]
Leave us with one word: simplify (you probably have too much stuff and you don’t need all of it!)
*all images courtesy of Tracery Interiors
designer spotlight #4 :: meet meg of LeSueur Interiors
A little history….
I’m originally from Louisiana, but I’ve spent my whole life moving around! I married a guy from New Zealand and I’m now living in Houston. When we moved here a year ago, my plan was to import antiques and artifacts from around the world, but the recession has sort of put those dreams on hold. In the mean time I started my own business doing interior design work, which I had never planned on doing full time, but I’m having so much fun I’m starting to forget about filling containers and shopping third world markets! So…
Where did you drink your morning coffee? Is that your favorite room in the house? I drink my morning coffee wherever the laptop has been left from the night before. Could be left in my office, or on the sofa, or on my bedside table. Morning coffee and design inspiration through reading blogs are my favorite way to start the day!
If not, what is your favorite place to be? My favorite room in our house is our front porch, on the weekends I like to read magazines and relax on the swing. I try to take advantage of living in the south this way!
What part of your job is the most enjoyable? The most enjoyable part of my job is the freedom to express myself creatively. There are so many different looks, fabrics, styles in design; the sky is truly the limit! Every day for me is different, every client is different, every project is different. I really enjoy working closely with people to create something beautiful.
When did your design obsession begin? My design obsession began at an early age. When I was about 7, I remember being bored with my sister at my grandparents one summer. My mother’s solution was teaching us how to “play house” outside, creating floor plans out of pine needles and dirt. When I was 10 I was allowed to design my own room; yellow walls, blue, green and pink plaid draperies, a floral bed skirt and duvet. Complete with a mustard yellow rotary phone I found at a garage sale for .50, oh, and an aquarium! When I was in high school and college my mom and I spent hours on end shopping for antiques and Persian carpets when we lived in Singapore and during travels throughout Asia. Design has always been something I was passionate about, it just took me a few years to wake up and realize that was what I was going to do for a living.
What’s influencing your design these days? Travel has always been my biggest inspiration and all of my most recent trips have been right here in my backyard. A year ago I moved back to the south after living in Singapore, Colorado and New Zealand over the past 13 years. My husband and I have been taking little trips visiting family and friends in Louisiana for weddings, holidays and long weekends. I’ve been inspired by the architecture of Hays Town and Ken Tate from Louisiana. High ceilings, French antiques, old brick, gigantic oak trees, Spanish moss and the lifestyle of spending a sleepy afternoon on a front porch. I’m using all of this inspiration on my own project, our little 100+ year old bungalow in Houston!
What are your favorite trends in the “design world”? My favorite trends in the design world right now are graphic prints, any and every wallpaper, ethnic textiles like ikat, and rustic furniture. I recently recovered some mid century chairs I rescued from a dumpster in a great colorful Ikat cotton print. In between them sits a big chunky wooden stump used as a side table.
What should be the clients’ first BIG investment in a room? You know that “statement maker”. I think the two most important things a client should invest in to make the largest impact are rugs and lighting. They are not necessarily focal points or dramatic pieces, but they create ambiance, warmth and a feeling of comfort in a room. Ambiance simply is properly placed lighting. Lamps are very important, particularly at night where they can create the most perfect soft glow. Rugs define space, and eliminate echoing. Acoustics is not something people think about very much when designing a room, but in my opinion should be considered as much as lighting. Rugs make a home feel and sound ‘homey’.
Fresh, bright, and beautiful OR warm, cozy, and rustic? Fresh, bright and beautiful is probably where I’m heading with my own house right now, but I certainly have an appreciation for warm, cozy and rustic in the appropriate house. Which leads me to my…
Go to paint color? …go to paint color: Benjamin Moore White Dove, I’m painting my whole house that color right now. I just like the fresh, bright, clean feel of a white space. My house is pretty teeny, so I’m trying to make it feel bigger by using only one wall color throughout.
What is the best gift you’ve ever received from anyone? The best gift I’ve ever received would probably be my education from my parents. They gave us a chance to live overseas, the gift of travel, the opportunity to go to college. I wouldn’t be where I am now without those experiences.
What is a must-have recipe for ever home? I think a must have recipe for every home is a good biscuit recipe. My grandmother’s buttermilk biscuits taste like home. They are nothing fancy, easy to make and on a Sunday morning, nothing tastes better for breakfast. She always bakes them in a beat up old tin pan that she received as a wedding gift 57 years ago. For my wedding she gave me a similar dish, and wrote that she hoped Tim and I used it to make biscuits our whole marriage!
Favorite splurge?? A favorite splurge of mine would be on nice sheets. When you spend 1/3 of your life in your bed, you might as well be sleeping on beautiful linens!
Best place to getaway? My favorite getaway is to Queenstown, New Zealand. My in laws have a holiday home there; it is one of the quietest and peaceful places I’ve ever been. Their home has such a clean aesthetic. It is spacious, uncluttered and the ultimate place to relax with 360 degrees of mountain views. We go on long hikes, tour vineyards, taste wine, play golf, drink copious amounts of cappuccinos and laugh a lot.
What thing in your home do you use the most? One thing in my home I use the most is our electric kettle! Every night Tim and I drink multiple cups of tea; mint, chamomile and sleepy time are among our faves!
If you could be any ONE piece of furniture; what would you be and why? If I could be one piece of furniture I’d be a Persian rug, Heritz style. I love the culture and tradition that hand-woven rugs represent, they are truly art. They are the perfect heirloom to be passed down through generations. I’d want to be a rug because in my family everyone always hangs out in the family room around one, you wouldn’t miss a lick!
Leave us with one word: GIVE. I feel so blessed to have good health, a happy marriage, a loving family, a fulfilling job, clean water, food and a rooftop over my head. I think it’s so important to give back and help others in suffering and in need. Right now I think we can all help the Haitians by giving to the Red Cross or UNICEF in this terrible time of need.
*all images courtesy of LeSeaur Interiors
