My recent trip and subsequent blog coverage bumped my monthly Ugallery post back a few days so to make up for it, we’re sponsoring a giveaway! Ugallery has generously offered to give one lucky reader a Ugallery gift card worth $100! Considering that the art starts at $50, you could buy two pieces if you […]

This is my last Hickory Chair related post, I swear! It was actually supposed to be my first but I decided to wait until after my trip to North Carolina to post it. I mentioned previously that I attended a lecture at the D&D Building where Suzanne Kasler spoke about how her new furniture line […]

We visited the Hickory Chair upholstery factory on the second day of our tour. Before we could see them actually upholstering the furniture, we were able to see how they cut the wood frames and turn the legs on which the upholstery will later be applied. The frames at Hickory Chair are made of only […]

The most fun part of visting Hickory Chair were the factory tours which we quickly learned were as much about the people who make the furniture as it was the furniture being made. More than 10 years ago, Hickory Chair switched it’s manufacturing philosophy to lean manufacturing which “calls for a series of adjacent workstations, […]

The original motto of Hickory Chair was “chairs made better than seems necessary” and the motto today could be “furniture made better than seems necessary.” I wasn’t that familiar with Hickory Chair before my visit to their factories and showroom and now I can’t imagine how I designed without them! But what I thought was […]

I’m back from visiting Hickory Chair in North Carolina and I had a great time! If anyone has the opportunity to tour their factories, you should jump at the chance! It was such a great learning experience! I have lots of information and photos to share but my computer is being a little temperamental right […]

I’m off to North Carolina today to visit the Hickory Chair factory and showrooms! After hearing Suzanne Kasler talk about how she designed her new furniture line, I can’t wait to see how it’s made. Cassandra of Coco + Kelly and Franki of Life in a Venti Cup took the tour last time and I […]

If you need something to do Saturday, May 30th, then I suggest you head over to Governors Island for some champagne and divot stomping at the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic. Usually polo is played in more bucolic settings like Bridgehampton or Argentina so a match in Manhattan seems a bit out of place but […]

I was leafing through the March 2008 issue of House Beautiful when I saw a photo of chairs on a stair landing that reminded me of the new Williams-Sonoma Home store in New York. When I looked closer, one of the names of the designers, David DeMattei, sounded familiar. Then I realized that he is […]

I’m a sunny day kind of girl. There is nothing I love more than one of those top 10 weather days that are 75 degrees and without a cloud in the sky but I have a confession to make. I secretly enjoy gray days like the one we had in New York today. It has […]

A few readers and friends have asked me why I haven’t posted any client project updates lately. Since I just spent the day at the bachelorette pad, I thought it would be the perfect time to address them. Interior designers don’t just snap their fingers and make a pretty completed projects appear. A lot of […]

Although the calendar doesn’t mark the beginning of summer until June 21st, Memorial Day always announces the unofficial start of summer. While it may be too cold for a dip in the ocean, there is the anticipation of lazy days spent baking in the sun, boating on the waves and shopping in quaint little villages. […]

I can always count on the latest issue of Vogue to get my lackadaisical diet and exercise regime back on track and the photos of Cameron Diaz posing in Palm Springs in the June 2009 issue are definitely motivating! I also love all the natural colored clothing in the spread including the Phillip Lim dress […]

I first heard the rumor that the luxury stationery firm of Mrs. John L. Strong was closing from Meg of Pigtown Design and today the rumor was confirmed by An Aesthete’s Lament. I bought a beautiful desk calendar and a few note pads for my bachelor pad project and I always thought they were a […]

I love when one of my blog posts leads to an email from a reader who has just the right answer for my design dilemma! Today I received an email from author Cathy Whitlock about her soon to be published book re-de-sign: New Directions For Your Interior Design Career (Fairchild Books, June, 2009) that will […]

First, I want to apologize for not posting yesterday. As you can imagine it’s a little hard at times to juggle my client work with writing the blog and having any semblance of a personal life. That’s why I love talking to other designers about how they started their own business because they all went […]

Who knew a little walk down Madison Avenue Saturday would turn out to be so interesting. First, I saw Fran Lebowitz waiting outside the Carlyle Hotel. Then I noticed presidential interior designer Michael Smith and a friend climbing into a taxi in front of the Ralph Lauren mansion. And while walking by the Stribling Real […]

Kimberly Ayres could have been another casualty of the demise of Domino magazine but since the photos of her home and office were taken by my friend Eric Cahan, I get to introduce you to this Designer to Watch for 2009 instead! Kimberly, like many designers, started out renovating and decorating her own houses while […]

I regularly stalk, I mean check out, Nate Berkus‘s website hoping for new photos of his work and this morning I was rewarded with not only photos but I little back story. Seems everyone is on a budget these days including his clients, one of whom asked Nate and his team to outfit “two properties […]

I considered not attending signing party for Susanna Salk‘s new book Weekend Retreats at David Duncan Antiques Thursday night because I was still feeling a little under the weather but I’m glad I went because it was a great event that brought out the big guns of the design world. Interior designer Harry Heissmann (above) […]