workshop

I know that people always wonder where home stagers keep and store the items they use in homes. Storing furniture is one thing, but what about all of the accents, vases, books, lighting, art, fake plants, dishes, glassware, fake tvs…where is that kept?

Many home stagers will tell you these items are kept EVERYWHERE – their living room, garage, basement, guest room…and that is pretty much true. Fortunately for me, I have a back porch, formerly known as a sleeping porch, which quickly turned into fabulous home staging storage space. It is small – only about 7 ft wide by 10 ft deep so I try to maximize the space as best I can. I was elated to gain two industrial storage shelves, donated from local foundation who is remodeling its offices. I have taken my time to re-arrange and review items in this space and make it more functional. Take a peek!

This picture obviously highlights one of the donated bookcases, cleaned up and lined with contact paper and ready for work! already filled to the brim!

Yes, my bike is still in the space – but I found a way to use the empty air space and reduce the amount of floor space that it uses. And the boxes sitting on the table (on the right) are sitting on my working table – where I can table scape, wrap and unwrap items and the like.  This represents about 40% of my inventory – I still have large art in the hallway, linen in an upstairs closet (space bags to the rescue) and a warehouse full of furniture about 5 miles away! whew!

To wrap up the posts of my time at Blogfest 2011, I thought about the things that made me smile on the second day! Here they are – enjoy!

New Friends!

1. Sharing a room with two fabulous design bloggers! Lakeitha Duncan (on the left) of the newly launched Swoon Worthy Boutique and Janell Beals of Isabella and Max Rooms blog. Not only did sharing the room help out my pocket, it also helped my stomach and overall mood!  Hotel had complimentary breakfast every morning which was a true blessing! Anyone who knows me knows that I NEED breakfast each and every day! I am cranky if I don’t eat!  And coffee isn’t breakfast either!

This terrapin is fancy now!

2. Stumbling on the terrapin dressed in Lilly Pulitzer fabric in the Lilly Pulitzer section of the Kravet showroom in the NY Design Center.  The terrapin is the mascot of one of my alma maters, University of Maryland, College Park.  Looks like this one could be a cuter cousin to the one on campus.

3. Admiring the multi-generational family business of Kravets – which I totally didn’t know they are family owned and run!  Below is quick (admittedly blurry, sorry) picture of  Mr and Mrs Kravet, (aren’t they cute) their son Scott (far right) Principal and Creative Director of the company and Barbara Berry, the amazing designer and good friend of the family.

Family businesses can work!

4. Being totally inspired by the passion that Barbara Berry shared with attendees about travel, design, fabric and culture and how SHE was and is inspired by all of those elements. It was refreshing to see and hear passion from a self-made and successful interior and furniture designer with a simple and amazing presentation. Here is she showing her new fabric line and answering questions from fellow design bloggers. She is also introducing a new line of teas after inspiring trip to Asia and India.

5. Creative interior designer vignettes, presented by Kravet and Lee Jofa, in a cool loft space in Long Island City.   There were six designers in attendance and each had designed a small space, inspired by a chosen Lee Jofa fabric. We were able to meet designers and get autographs in this great big and heavy coffee table book, Inspired Styles.  It was a fun event…starting with  Thomas O’Brien signing my book…

Thomas signs on his page…to me!

6….watching Kimberly of Pink Egg Shell work the room! Here she is (in the middle) with staff at the Lee Jofa/Kravet designer event…

… 7…enjoying the smallest but tastiest appetizers ever…!

Cheesburger anyone?

…8…watching Jonathan Legate and Amy (who somehow jumped out of the picture just as I hit the button) jamming to the music at the event!

I really enjoyed my time and bummed I had to miss day 3 due to prior commitment. But I totally enjoyed all of the fab design bloggers/twitter peeps that I met and those I have met since then. Oh and thanks again to the entire Kravet team for planning, developing and executing a great event! Hope I can return next year!

Last week, I had the good fortune to be completely inspired by a few different events and activities. First was a talk at the DC Design Center by Eddie Ross. Eddie is a master at photo styling interiors. He works or has worked with numerous magazines and was really insightful for the designers in attendance during DC’s Capital Design Week. He shared the importance for interior designers to get good photos of their rooms, with carefully thought out furniture placement, accents and accessories, to show how a room COULD be lived in, although it may not be lived in that way in real life. Real Life does NOT equal Photography!   Which is why the rooms in magazines always look so glamorous. It’s done on purpose!

He also stressed the importance of using a talented photographer (with a good camera) and being able to review and edit photos on-site.  Styling rooms may take an entire day to get the right shot!  But the right shot is worth its weight in gold – both for designers websites and portfolios but more importantly, for submitting to regional and national magazines for submission and inclusion in the industry magazines.

Not only did he have a cool vignette set up but then he also changed it up before our eyes. He showed us how to tailor the vignette to be season specific (using colorful accessories) for a spring or fall decorating issue.  Here he is hard at work and talking at the same time, and showing us how to change out the same room and give it a different feel…

Eddie updates the arrangement for new season

I know all the interior designers in attendance were very appreciative of all of the  tips and tricks he shared with us. As a home stager, I have a bit of an advantage because I have many more projects per year than the typical designer, so have more opportunity to use this new knowledge very quickly. I also walked away wishing I could redo the majority of the staging projects on my website and even those that haven’t made it to the site yet.  But since that is impossible, what is possible is to be more cognizant as I am purchasing props for upcoming projects and confident on taking good pictures (and hiring photographers for good projects) on the day after staging.  Eddie spoke about taking the smaller more focused pictures (fireplace shot, bookcase shot,etc) which is great for magazines but contradicts real estate photography, where wide angles are requested from Realtors.  In either case, it is still really good information and I find myself shopping now for staging props and asking myself – would Eddie purchase/use this? I guess it is a good place to start!  Thanks for the inspiration Eddie!

Jaithan, Eddie, Sheryl and me during Capital Design Week

(photo by Desire Greene)

Now the second BIG thing that happened last week (and another wave of inspiration washed on shore) was the launch of TradHome, an on-line design magazine, and collaboration with Lonny magazine and Traditional Home, paper magazine.

Wow – over 300 pages of well styled, amazingly photographed interiors, and great products….all i could say was whoa!  It gave me much more appreciation for traditional furniture and how to use it in modern settings.  So much to take in – it was a designers buffet!  The video with Jonathan Adler and Charlotte Moss was a pleasant surprise. (must peek in yourself to check it out).  And fun to see some of the same rooms that Eddie included in his talk were in the magazine too!! WOW!

Upcoming is the Georgetown House Tour and CB2 opening in Georgetown – another night of inspiration in April!  Can’t wait!