Blogger News

Lots of new happenings are going on in design bloggerland:

First - The Washington Post has started a new Blogwatch column. Recently named as blogs to watch: Girl Meets Glamour, The Peak of Chic, Style Court, Mrs. Blandings, and Things That Inspire, among others. Congratulations to you all!

And more kudos go out to Jennifer of the very popular design blog - The Peak of Chic. Peak was recently voted by Atlanta Magazine as Best Design Blog. And to top that off, another magazine,

Romantic Homes, did a feature on Jennifer and things she finds romantic for their Valentine's Day issue. Pick up a copy to see what makes her life romantic, though she confessed to me that her life really doesn't feel too romantic these days. Who's does?

And, Canadian Patricia Gray of the blog Patriciagrayinc was featured in this month's Canadian House and Home magazine. Patricia gives her New Years resolutions - including the promise to buy "fewer things, but better quality." I watched her try to live up to that promise in Dallas last week. Not sure she's following through after almost buying out the shoe department at Nordstrom's. But, she's trying!

Lately, two new bloggers have caught my eye and the attention of a lot of other people too:

Topsy Turvy writes on design from her home in Tampa, Florida. Her blog is bright and interesting, written through the eyes of an interior designer. It is peppered with beautiful photographs on home, fashion and jewelry design. Topsy is busy getting her house ready for a photo shoot and I'm anxious to see the finished pictures.

Topsy wrote this entry on geishas which featured pictures of subtle and exotic beauty.

Another entry featured pictures of all white subject matter. These snow pictures capture the still beauty of a gray, winter day.

Another entry by Topsy featured hand crafted jewelry, including this blue coral necklace. Isn't it stunning? I would love to own it! Be sure to visit Topsy Turvy if you haven't already.

Another new blog is Julie Neill's, Bayou Contessa.



If you love New Orleans, you will love Bayou Contessa. Written with intelligence and joie de vie, Julie takes her reader on a sensuous tour of her home town before and after Katrina. Julie, a designer of gorgeous lighting fixtures (who is pretty gorgeous herself), also has a web site you need to stop by and drool over. I've already sold one of her chandeliers to a client and I'm working on a second. Enjoy these recent photographs from her blog:

The French Quarter of New Orleans with its typical silk curtains and antique furniture.



Another interior shot from The Bayou Contessa. Love the skirted table! ;)

And here is Julie's Elizabeth chandelier, one of my favorites (wonder if the name has anything to do with it?). More wide than long, it makes a great choice for lower ceilinged rooms.

And lastly, ever wonder what Anna Spiro of the luscious blog, Absolutely Beautiful Things, looks like?

Anna recently posted a photo of herself for the first time and wow - she's looking great - all tanned from the Australian summer sun while we suffer with winter! ABT is one of my favorite blogs of all time. It was one of the first ones I ever read and so I have a special affection for all things Anna. Her pictures are always dreamy and truly are absolutely beautiful. Never, ever has she written a word of negativity - it's all positive on ABT and that's refreshing to say the least.

For Anna's 30th birthday, she set the table with white daisies. Isn't this the cutest table ever? Notice how she ties her napkins into bows.


Another tablescape by Anna, this one in her beach house in Australia. I love the shells in a basket. Anna's style is all about bright colors such as hot pink and kelly green.

Dallas Trade Mart

Visiting the Dallas Trade Mart, with over 14 floors of To The Trade Only showrooms filled with everything imaginable for the home can be just a little intimidating and tiring to say the least. This week, Patricia Gray and I attempted to do just that. Suffice it to say, we didn't make it to too many showrooms - you could take a week and still not see it all. We quickly decided to forgo shopping in any showroom that looked gift-y and headed for the floors that specialized in home accessories and furnishings. Still, even though limiting our scope tremendously, we managed to see only a few of the biggest names in the business.

Just as in a real shopping mall, the window displays and outward appearance of the showroom was what caught our eye and drew us in. There were plenty of tired, dull looking showrooms filled with the last decade's faux Italianate and Old World goods. Those showrooms looked so dreary, passe, and empty - totally devoid of any energy at all. Who still buys that stuff, we wondered? Cyan, the first showroom that caught our attention, had a bright turquoise facade (naturally). You actually could find that showroom with your eyes closed, it was so bright. Inside, the merchandise was equally bright, lots of mirrored tables and shiny surfaces.

Mirror from Cyan Showroom that Patricia really liked.

Next we made our way to the In-Detail showroom. This is a super sized business that carries lots of labels. One label really caught my attention: Guildmaster - all cream painted furniture, very casual, lots of natural wicker, and an oversized chair that instantly reminded Patricia and me both of that gorgeous red chinoiserie chair by Ruthie Sommers. Was this the same frame of her chair? Couldn't it be taken into a paint shop and lacquered, we wondered? At less than $400, it's a steal compared to the $3,000+ price tag of the famous red chair.

Guildmaster furniture: great wicker items.

More Guildmaster cream painted furniture. Light furniture was hot at this year's market.

Oversized chair - frame is similar to Ruthie Sommers' lacquered red chair.

Ruthie Sommers' famous chair.

Shine Home was next. Lots of bright, contrasting colors - heavy on the Kelly Westler look. We both decided that it suddenly looked a tad dated and the end of the Westler reign seemed very apparent. There wasn't a lot of buzz around the merchandise either, another sure sign of buyer fatigue.

Shine Home, bloggers buzzed about this line all year.

Close up of Shine Home furniture.

Next, Patricia and I both noticed Lacefield Designs, a slipcovered upholstery and softgoods company, whose fabrics were a flagrant knock-off of Raoul Textiles, at a 1/10 of their cost. The color of their window display, chartreuse and brown, was bright again, but toned down in intensity. I particularly loved their gray-brown toned zebra patterned fabric. We both were taken with the line. Chartreuse was a hot color this year at Market and gold was the metallic shown everywhere.

Lacefield Designs window display. Note how similar the front fabric looks to Raoul Fabrics.

More Lacefield Designs. I loved the color of this fabric, muted grayish-brown.

The next showroom we stopped at was Two's Company/Tozai. Tozai is the higher end division of what has to be the most successful accessories company ever. My showroom rep (who happened to be there) told us that the Two's Company showroom space is completely redone with each market. It shows. It was a knockout. At Tozai, the blue and white porcelains caught my eye, of course. Patricia lusted after a set of gray toned botanicals. We both loved just about everything in the space.

Next door, Two's Company was all bright chartreuse and Tiffany's blue and white. Stunningly beautiful. Just wonderful. Each division of Two's Company was showcased separately and the decor matched the merchandise, of course. Their garden room merchandise was delightfully displayed, as was their Paris line - all pastel pinks and mauves and lilacs. But the icing on the cake was the Tiffany Blue Wedding Room. Done up in a Dorothy Draper vintage style with oversized blowzy flowers in blue and greens, it was impossible to not stop and ooh and ahh over merchandise that Two's Company has carried for years. The draw of their display was just that strong.

Two's Company Garden Room in chartreuse.

Two's Company - everything is artfully displayed in this showroom that is completely redesigned with each market, unlike most of the more boring showrooms.

The showstopper: Two's Company Tiffany blue wedding room - A nod to vintage designers like Dorothy Draper.

More Tiffany blue wedding room. All the items displayed in this room is mainstay Two's Company merchandise that they have carried for years and years.

Our final stop was the Global Views showroom, which I dragged Patricia to see. Global Views is a favorite of mine and I've blogged about this company before. They make the most wonderful accent tables and accessories and I think every one of my clients has a piece of theirs somewhere. Their prices are just unbeatable. The front of the showroom was all ready for Valentines Day - red and black and roses. High contrast to the max. As you walked through the showroom, the tone shifted to fit the merchandise. Patricia loved Global Views and was really disappointed they don't ship to Canada. We both decided we'll figure a way around that somehow. I pointed out to her merchandise I had bought for clients or myself and we met my rep who noticed from my huge name tag that I was from Houston. Everyone at the market was overly friendly, as Texans always are.

Hollywood Glam merchandise at Global Views.

The merchandise at Global Views was stacked to the ceiling. This center hanging console is new, supersized from their previous version pictured left and right.

By this time, it was after 4:00 pm and we were both exhausted and in need of coffee and a bite to eat. No big surprise - but I had to order room service that night, I was that tired. This was the first time I had been to the Dallas market in a long, long time. I'm not sure I'll go back again so soon though. With the internet, all companies have their inventory online and ordering in cyberspace is so much easier. It was fun, though, to see the merchandise in person for once, but I think it will hold me for a few more years.

A Meeting of the Blogs

Well, well, well - look at this: who are these two gorgeous looking ladies? ok, ok, well maybe not gorgeous, but for their age (mumble) - they're looking pretty good, if I do say so myself!

The story behind the picture goes something like this - after months of endless emails getting to know each other, it seemed impossible to believe that someone from Canada would get together with someone all the way from Texas. Well, impossible things do happen sometimes. The main event took place this week: Patricia Gray, interior designer extraordinaire and author of the Patricia Gray Inc. blog, managed to make her way down to Texas to meet up with me, Cote de Texas. This high-powered blogger rendezvous took place on neutral ground (sort of) in Dallas, not Houston - my hometown.

Personal business at the Dallas Trade Mart drew Patricia from the frozen environs of Vancouver (even though it actually was colder in Dallas than Canada!). Many meals, long talks, laughs (and tears!), screwed up hotel plans, a talkative GPS lady, lots of Starbucks coffee, a broken tooth, crowds of Market shoppers, and confounding traffic detours later -- Patricia and I decided that we:

1. Actually like each other.
2. Get along really well!
3. Have similar temperaments.
4. Don't get on each other's nerves, AT ALL!
5. Have compatible tastes.
6. Possess about the same amount of stamina (not much!)
7. And travel very well together.

We spent a day at the Dallas Trade Mart visiting the showrooms of places that bloggers have buzzed about all year - the Shine showroom in particular! And we spent a day just clothes shopping in Highland Park Village. But I think Patricia will agree with me, that the best time we had was late last night when we discussed our blogs together over the computer. We realized how competitive we were about our stats! A word of advice to bloggers - never, never, EVER look at your readership or Technorati stats with a fellow blogger - your friendship might not survive THAT test! But despite this, it was really great fun to finally share the blogging experience in person after sharing it for months via back and forth emails. This experience is one that I highly recommend. We looked at magazine pictures and web sites of designers we both admire and just talked about blogging in general until late into the night.

So, you might be wondering, (probably not, but I'll tell you anyway), will Patricia and I ever get a chance to meet up again? As I pulled away in my car, Patricia informed me that she was going to force me to go to Paris with her. Ok, so twist my arm, I'm game! Name the date, Patricia!

Power purses on parade! Outside the Tory Burch store in Highland Park Village.

Inside the Tory Burch store.

Ikat print shorts by Tory. Needless to say, we didn't buy these!!

The velvet tented dressing room area.

Inside a wallpapered dressing room.

Patricia's beautiful and charismatic daughter who joined us in Dallas. I thought she looked adorable in Tory's pink T shirt, but apparently she didn't agree - she didn't buy it.

Major shopping purchases!!! That's Charmaine reflected in the mirror to the right.

Patricia Gray buying shirts at Anne Fontaine beneath an antique French gilded mirror.

Skirted Tables

My dining room with its silk skirted table

A few weeks ago, a popular design blogger wrote that she really hated skirted tables. What caused her to write about this hatred? The answer: the skirted table shown in the picture below:

Bedroom by Miles Redd with the offensive skirted table

I'll admit, it's not the best skirted table around. There's a lot wrong with it: the fabric's color for one thing, the shapeless drape, for another. The blog about this offensive skirted table started a very lively debate. Everyone, every single person, who left a comment agreed - this skirted table was just awful. The discussion centered around whether there was a hated of all skirted tables outright, or rather just this particular version alone. Oh, the revulsion! - People worried about what was hiding under the skirt? Why use that awful pea green fabric? The room is too jumbled - what's wrong with the designer Miles Redd?!!?? One person ashamedly admitted to owning a skirted table just to hide his jumbled stereo wires.

There was just one brave person who disagreed with everyone about skirted tables and left a comment defending them. That person? Of course, it was me. You see, I adore skirted tables. I've had one in some shape or another in every place I've lived for the past thirty years. I place them in clients' houses. I've even removed perfectly good dining room tables and replaced them with skirted ones (and yes! most husbands fight me tooth and nail over that one!). So, today, I write this in defense of the skirted table.

You see, a skirted table done CORRECTLY, can be a beautiful asset to a room: dreamy, romantic, and useful. They make wonderful vanity tables in bathrooms. They also make great nightstands in bedrooms and side tables in living rooms. They ARE wonderful to hide stereo wires under and are especially useful to hide the often impossible to disguise subwoofer. I especially like a rectangular skirted table, with a tailored cover and a thick glass top, flanking both sides of a large king bed. Another place I like to put one is in the entry hall as a center table where it provides a place to put books and accessories. Ditto for the library. But, my personal favorite destination for a skirted table is the dining room. A square room is a perfect spot for a round table. The softly draped fabric adds instant warmth to the dining room and can be a wonderful alternative to too much wood in the room. When a dining room is lacking in architectural interest, a skirted table can add something decorative to a plain box.

A skirted table is not a "cheap" alternative to a wood table. Far from it. Now, it CAN be cheaper if you order it from someplace like Ballard Designs, but I don't do that. I custom make all my skirts. The preferred fabric is a heavy weight linen or silk. The heavier the fabric, the more luxurious the drape, just like with any wonderful curtain. I always line and interline my skirts, with one lining being a blackout one. This adds to the weight, which adds to the richness. Plus, you don't want the sun shining through the skirt like it's missing a petticoat. I puddle my skirts about 3 inches. That way, you can pull the skirt up with your hands and let it fall to the floor in graceful folds. I don't use glass on the dining room table. To protect the fabric when I'm having a dinner party, I put a waterproof liner on top of the skirt and then cover it with a white tablecloth. That way, I don't have to worry about wine spills ruining an expensive Bennison or Kime fabric. Also, I don't like to use particle board tables under the dining table. They're too flimsy and don't have a feeling of permanence. Instead, I prefer to buy heavy duty conference tables.

Despite me being the only commenter who stood up for the skirted table, I'm not alone in my love of them. All the great designers use them to perfection: Saladino, Stefanidis, Easton, Moss, and Buatta to name a few. Personally, that's good enough company for me!

The incomparable John Stefanidis. Here he drapes a center library table, piled high with books. The table is an octagon with tassles hanging in each corner.

The master, John Saladino, with a skirted dining room table. He's layered three different fabrics here in this famous New York apartment.

In Mario Buatta's most famous Kips Bay Showhouse room: a skirted vanity table in orange, constrasts with all the blue and white.

Another Kips Bay Showhouse bedroom: this time Charlotte Moss, in what appears to be an ode to Buatta, contrasts her blue and white bedroom with a chartreuse skirted table, shown at the far right.

A recent cover of House Beautiful featured this Markham Roberts' dining room table with two layers of fabric.

The famous Keith Irvine combines a lacquered library with a dining room.

Popular Houston designer Pam Pierce has her skirts sewn differently, and the result is beautiful.

Markham Roberts, again. This time he uses different toppers to distinguish the two dining room tables.

The debonair Juan Molyneux uses a skirted table in a traditonal way.

Bunny Williams skirts a dining room table in a flowery print - gorgeous celadon painted paneling.

John Stefanidis, again, with a skirted nightstand.

Francophile Diane Burn often uses skirts - here in a previous home, she drapes a scarf over the skirt.

Again, Diane Burns, in her current home. I counted three skirted tables in all.

Suzanis make great table covers.

My antique wine tasting table is covered with a vintage suzani - probably for winter only. I miss seeing the graceful lines of the table.

A center table in the foyer. The six sides are highlighted by the contrasting trim.

I love this French dining room with a mattlesse topper and slipcovered chairs. Love the chandelier too.

A checked fabric lends a casual look to this dining room.

A gorgeous silk fabric dresses up a vanity table.

In Belgium, a simple tablecloth adds quiet elegance to a dining room.

Here, a rectangular table is skirted in a tailored manner and used as a buffet.

Ann Coyle uses creamy linen for her skirt.

Here, cool linen is tied over a bed table to further soften the atmosphere.

A skirted table is used in a combination living room, dining room.

Here, three layers of fabric top a round table.

Dallas designer Cathy Kinkaid uses a fringed skirt in an entry hall.

Kenneth Lane, the jeweler, drapes silk over a table in his large, eclectic living room.

Jeffrey Bilhuber uses checks everywhere in his NYC apartment.

A round, damask fabric covered table softens up a square dining room.

A beautiful fabric is used as a topper over a side table in this living room.

Mismatched chairs add a whimsical touch to a linen covered oval.

Checked topped nightstand used in a classic toile bedroom.

Here a small fringed skirted table is used as an additional place to eat.



Sculpture tops this center table covered with silk taffeta.

In a French styled home, linen covers a breakfast table.

Outside the same home, a skirt covers a rectangular table.



Jose Solis uses two fabrics on this dining table. Contemporary chairs add an unexpected touch.

The ultra hot Belgian Axel Vervoordt often uses skirted tables in his designs.

Again, Axel Vervoordt.

In another blue and white bedroom, another beautiful skirted vanity.

In a French home, a rectangular table is covered in linen.

In Belgium, beautiful antique furniture, chandelier and skirted table.

In Belgium again, here the table is skirted in the same fabric as the chairs giving the room a somewhat contemporary feel.

And last, a skirted table graces a foyer.